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I'm not an expert on the ins and outs of what's been occurring, but speaking from that somewhat outside perspective, this entire conundrum seems farcical. I understand that there may be annoyance about why such a popular mod as TSLRCM needed to be removed over something seemingly so minor. Indeed, since I think rules against porting are something of an antiquated defense against anti-modder thinking which has by-and-large passed with the years (certainly so for games so old as these), I might even be counted among those annoyed that this rule is being applied at all. Yet the rule against porting is still just that: a rule. Unless one wishes to forego all modding conventions and standards of behavior, it should be followed unless and until it's removed; no modder here would appreciate me uploading their mods elsewhere without permission or authorial attribution, and it's the rules and standards of the community which offer such protections. You take the good with the bad. But the complete lack of dialogue and progress since the removal occurred is both striking and, in my view, unjustifiable. Although the mod is available on ModDB and the Workshop, not all users are aware of the former archive and not all users have access to (or the desire to use) the latter. Moreover, there's been incredible confusion among the broader community about whether or not the new version will be just the audio fix or include other minor changes which might need to be tested for. I've had to put the testing of the new mod builds off for months in the hopes that the new version would be released in time for testing--but it hasn't been. No word, no progress, no indication of anything about the new version. And, worse still, no indication of whether this is a matter of intransigence or simple slow progress. People rely on TSLRCM, and I, at least, rely on transparency to do the work which I do, to know if I have to account for mod updates. This fix, by all rights, should be minor. The work of splicing necessary audio, so far as I've seen, has already been done. That leads me to the conclusion that intransigence is the problem, not slow work. To which I must ask: why? If the concern is one of porting, a real stance that it should be allowed, then a discussion on the matter should have begun over a month ago. But if it's simple bull-headedness over TSLRCM itself having the rules enforced against it, I can't see a way to conscience such a stance. I would love to have it explained to me.

If you're wondering about this, I just wanted to let you know that I'm wondering about it too! Why haven't they been updated so these mods can come back to this site?

Administrators are the online equivalent of the Police. The Police are supposed to prevent crime and punish people who have broken the law, same things apply here. The Administrator is to prevent online chaos and punish people who have broken the site rules. In this case, TSLRCM is a car that has driven at 100 in a 60 zone and the driver Zybl2 and his passenger Hassat Hunter are really famous Hollywood celebrities. In real life, the Police should give the person driving a ticket and possibly inflict a punishment related to the driver's license. If Sith Holocron didn't remove TSLRCM it would be the equivalent of the Police Officer betraying his duty as a Police Officer and pretending it didn't happen because Zybl2 and Hassat Hunter are famous celebrities. But because Sith Holocron is a good Administrator he has taken TSLRCM down like he is supposed to do regardless of his feelings towards it. (I apologize if that made no sense. Law enforcement when it comes to speeding is different in other countries so I reduced it to being very simple) When M4-78 updates it will include new features which are currently being beta tested but TSLRCM has no real excuse as to why it's delayed is taking so long since all the new stuff going into 1.8.6 is the new credits and possibly a VO correction. One can assume Zybl2 and Hassat Hunter want to release both mods at the same time.

Hey guys! So, I have been away from the community for a while, and I feel kinda guilty about it. But, at the risk of going a little bit into my personal life (and sorry there has not been any modding in it at all lately,) I would like to share some of what happened in probably what has been a world changing time for me. First, a little bit of background information. Most of my family are very conservative, fanatical Christians, they are Jehovah's Witnesses. As a JW, you are not supposed to associate with non-JW's, and you completely shun former JW's. Since I was 14, I lived with my father, and was a devout JW. for about 5 years I was very active in the church (cult.) So, as the story goes, you'll see why this has made my life extremely tumultuous of late. about one year ago, I met my best friend, also a witness, we would spend all day talking to each other, until the wee hours of the morning. We had so many things in common, goals, dreams, interests. we just had so much fun together. Eventually we fell in love. I remember how the feeling changed me, I couldn't focus, it was like I was drunk 24/7. all I could think about was us. Normally, it's a good thing to fall in love, for us, it was a curse. Because, I loved him, and he loved me, and well, we were gay. This is something that was extremely forbidden. If we were found out, it would mean losing our family, friends, and our entire social system. I remember being suicidal so many times growing up, because I tried to be someone I wasn't. I tried to be straight. But there is no decision involved. When I met him, my view of life changed, it was worth while. I had someone who knew me, the real me. And, instead of hating me, he loved me just the way I was. We had been in a relationship for about one month, when our friends started to suspect that we were more then good friends. My friend dated me to hide my real relationship, ( she knew what was really going on, and she offered to help.) Eventually, my boyfriend proposed to me. It had been so hard, because when you meet someone who makes you so happy, so proud to be alive and you just want to share them with the world. I wanted to tell my parents. So, I told my step mom, I came out to her. she was horrified and cried for a long time. She had said she would let me tell my father, but she couldn't hold it in. My father cried, and cried, and cried. he eventually called the church elders, they tried to "pray away the gay." I was so stressed, because I wouldn't give my boyfriends name away, but they were threatening to excommunicate me ( remember what I said about how JW's treat ex-JW's...) I never gave his name up. But my step mother called all of my friends to see if they could figure out who it was, eventually they found him. And then, he left me, he told me that he didn't want to make god sad anymore, he felt guilty about loving me, he said he wanted to live forever in god's kingdom, (think of it like a JW heaven.) I have never been so low in my life, the church was going to expel me, I was going to lose everything, my family, my friends. everything. and then i had lost the most important person I had ever met. I was hospitalized for two weeks for suicide. the next week after i was out of the hospital, they kicked me out. My parents packed my room and told me to find somewhere to sleep. I had no money, no job, no friends, nothing. my dad said I wasn't welcome in his house. my grandmother said she doesn't know who I am anymore. I wasn't allowed to say goodbye to my little brother. They are all so brainwashed in their cult. I lost my boyfriend to the indoctrination too. Although it is tough, like everyone you know acting like you don't exist. I have never been so alone. I saw my dad the other day, and he didn't even look at me, he walked right by like i was a stranger. Eventually I reconnected with an exJW I knew from when I was young, and she took me in, and my boyfriend woke up from his indoctrination, we are back together now, and he should be moving in shortly. I started making new friends, I celebrated my first birthday, my first Halloween, my first pride, I have a lovely job. I now live on my own, and I am completely independent, I have a Huge interest in doing drag, and I love drag queens. Hopefully I can find the time to do some more modding now, but my life is still settling, so we'll see if I can manage it. Anyways, I guess that's an extremely condensed version of the last 6 months of my life.

What I Did For The Community Last Year Have you wondered . . . what does Sith Holocron do as an administrator on this site? Wonder no longer! I’ve summed up what I’ve done this year so you can have an overview. Keep in mind some entries might just list a start date for an ongoing event – or it might take up from an event that took place from last year. There are also other things that I can’t freely talk about such as advice, staff chats, and secret projects that I am not at liberty to discuss. Do you have some time? You’re going to need some to read through all of this as I've working on this document for most of the year. I originally was going to release this on New Year's Eve but I thought to myself: Why Wait? Please note that some of these entries may come off like I have a chip on my shoulder. That may or may not be a figment of your imagination. January 02, 2017 Received voice lines from voice actor for the characters I1-02 (in M4-78 Enhancement Project.) Paid for actor’s services. (Yeah, some of those lines in the latest version of M4-78 EP that I paid actual real world money for. You know, the mod that isn't on this site?) Provided splicing for Leilukin's "Handmaiden and Female Exile - Disciple and Male Exile Romance" mod. January 04, 2017 Arranged for voice actor re-record lines to Zbyl’s specifications. January 05, 2017 (and beyond) Continuing the saga from last year, dealing with myriad issues with having the end credit trailers for both the TSLRCM and the M4-78 Enhancement Project redone. Paid for the project out of my funds. January 11, 2017 Provided splicing for Leilukin's "Darth Sion and Male Exile Mod" January 14, 2017 Taking a cue from Varsity Puppet’s replacement legal screens, created a new legal screen in TGA format for the M4-78 Enhancement Project. January 20, 2017 Posted "Blog #43 - Miguel Ferrer passes away" January 27, 2017 Posted "Blog #44 - RIP John Hurt" January 31, 2017 Continued to moderate between Hassat Hunter and Ndix UR on fixing one of the droid’s eye-lights. (M4-78 EP related) February 3, 2017 Received more lines from the voice actor for CS-36 (in M4-78 Enhancement Project) – again, I hired this guy. February 5, 2017 (an ongoing debate) Indicated the read-me for M4-78 Enhancement Project needed to emphasize that the intentional vagueness of the journal entries was supposed to represent “old school” RPG playing. (IMHO: If HH wants to continue to claim that’s intentional, he should claim so in the read-me file.) February 7, 2017 Created new video to (eventually) announce that the updated M4-78 Enhancement Project is available for download. Utilized lines from voice-actor for CS-36 specifically for this announcement. (Still waiting on this release.) Posted "Blog #45 - Hangar versus Hanger" as part of my on-going grammar series. February 14, 2017 Posted "Blog #46 - I Present a SWTOR Question!" February 15, 2017 Provided new splicing for Leilukin's "Atton Rand and Male Exile Romance" February 19, 2017 Released “TSL Animated Galaxy Map Texture in Canon Positions” mod. Posted "Blog #47 - Preparing for the Stoney Chapter soon" . . . for use in the M4-78 Documentary. February 20, 2017 Corrected “TSL Animated Galaxy Map Texture in Canon Positions” mod February 22, 2017 Sent questions from the general public to Stoney regarding his version of M4-78 for the documentary I’ve been doing with Xuul. February 23, 2017 Released “KOTOR1 "Canon" Animated Galaxy Map” mod March 1, 2017 Posted "Blog #48 - Design my next computer" March 16, 2017 Provided new splicing for Leilukin's "Handmaiden and Female Exile - Disciple and Male Exile Romance" mod. Posted "Blog #49 - I need a WAV file from MOTS" March 24, 2017 Collaborated with bead-v on the “TSL Galaxy Map Fix Pack” mod March 31, 2017 Posted "Blog #50 - Meet ‘Holocron’" – finally officially ending my drought without a functioning home computer by posting the process of putting it together. April 3, 2017 Updated “KOTOR1 "Canon" Animated Galaxy Map” mod April 4, 2017 Posted "Blog #51 - Who wants to make HD versions of the trailers?" – inspired by folks complaining on Reddit about the old low resolution trailers for KOTOR1 and 2, I decided to see if I could inspire the community to remedy that need. April 14, 2017 Collaborated with Kexikus on the “K1 Galaxy Map Fix Pack” mod April 19, 2017 Posted "Blog #52 - Stormtrooper Tutorial" – modernized and amended an old tutorial from another site. May 19th, 2017 Posted "Blog #53 - Help me name my next SWTOR Character” June 8, 2017 Posted "Blog #54 - Possible Expansion to K1 Portrait Pack?” Jun 25, 2017 After working on it since April, I finally received some additional sound files from the voice actress for the next version of M4-78 EP that Zbyl2 and Hassat Hunter requested. Of this effort, I received no thanks from either of the aforementioned persons. June 28, 2017 Posted " Blog #55 - Retro Action Figure Space Station” July 1, 2017 Posted " Blog #56 - The K1 and TSL Heads” July 2, 2017 Posted “Blog #57 - The Steam Workshop” July 5, 2017 Posted “Blog #58 - Let's Plays” July 18, 2017 Released “Animated Cantina Sign for KotOR 1” to public. July 25, 2017 Attempted a behind the scenes initiative to have modders and/or machinima makers remake some - if not all - of the KotOR1 pre-rendered movies for the game. July and August Offered sound files of KOTOR voice actors for machinima directors to use in the future videos. Dealt with questions that came up from the M4-78 EP Beta Team. (Yes, there was actually a beta team!) August 1, 2017 Posted “Blog #59 - "Name that Gun" Challenge!” Deleted pictures from Screen of the Day section by request of the original poster. August 2, 2017 Released “Animated Manaan Cantina Sign for KotOR 1” to public. August 12, 2017 Posted “Blog #61 - "I Need a tutorial for a G0-To voice filter” both on Deadly Stream and on the KOTOR subreddit. August 13, 2017 Posted “Blog #62 - "Mod Ideas that Never Came to Pass” September 2, 2017 Posted “Blog #63 - "Got an interesting message on Facebook Messenger” September 3, 2017 Posted “Blog #64 - "Not Star Wars Related” Attempted (and failed) to resolve a conflict between two mod makers. September 14, 2017 Posted “Blog #65 - " A Celebration of Life Day! A blog seeking participation for a Holiday themed video. September 20, 2017 N-DReW-25 requested changing the gender in the “601saedhe045” line in KOTOR2. First released to him and then to general public on October 2nd. September 23, 2017 Posted “Blog #66 - "New Landing and Take Off Videos for M4-78?” A blog requesting folks to redo the Landing/Takeoff videos using Quanon’s skyboxes from Stoney’s original M4-78. Superseded shortly afterwards by my thread in the Request section here. (include link) October 1, 2017 Posted “Blog #67 - "Font Discussion” A blog discussing typefaces for the Star Wars games and the Star Wars universe in general. October 2, 2017 LucyTheAlien requested adding a filter to Mandalore’s “503xaart024” line in KOTOR2. Released in the “Bugs and minor inconveniences with TSLRCM 1.8.5” thread. October 4, 2017 Deleted multiple threads by ALPHA000102 on his requests. and so on . . . I’ve done other stuff after October 4th, of course. However, I think you might have the idea by now, right? Throughout the year . . . · Run spelling and grammar checks on your posts. (And you thought my blogs on grammar were just for show.) Of note: “Nar Shaddaa” is misspelled the most. Count out how many “a’s” and “d’s” you see in those two words and try to remember it. · Received numerous insults. (In addition to the above!) · Applied infractions and bans where necessary - Possibly but not necessarily related to above. ???? I inquired with other staff members when applying infractions. (It's not done in a vacuum.) · Worked on acquiring files for Ndix UR’s “Major Audio Classification” initiative. (You’ll have to ask him about that if you want more details.) · Sent numerous birthday messages to Members. (I’m picky about doing this. If I don’t recognize the name because they’re new or because I don’t see that person post (anymore), I often don’t bother.) · Provided input on various mods both in the threads or through Private Messages. · Work on unannounced projects which I am unable to discuss at the moment. · Other things of a personal nature but those involved know of what I speak. · Forwarded message traffic to the appropriate staff member. · Approved loads of mods. (However, I try to leave a majority of this to the Moderators.) · Ensured mod up-loaders have acquired permissions for materials used in their mods if they didn’t make a part of it themselves. · So. Many. Avatars. I really should cut down on that this year. (Nah.) · So many questions about when M4-78 Enhancement Project will be back on the site. I don’t know and you should stop asking me about it. Ask Zbyl2. Don’t bother asking Hassat Hunter about as I think he’s signed off doing anything with the mod ages ago. So . . . what did you do this year? Speaking of which . . . What You Could Do For The Community in 2018 (and Beyond) These suggestions are specifically directed at those that don’t mod. When you make a request – whether it’s for some new or altered content or a bug fix – remember that the folks answering you aren’t being paid. They’re giving up their time and energy with no financial compensation. So please make sure to do the following: 1) Provide Relevant Information: So . . . you have a bug. You want folks to help you. Then you must provide the information the modders need by utilizing the Read Me First threads for Knights of the Old Republic 1 or Knights of the Old Republic II [add links]. You’re most likely using K1R or TSLRCM but even if you’re not, providing the information specifically asked for those threads in vital before any can proceed. Plus . . . it’s in the site rules, ya know? {add links] Have you made more than one request? You still have to provide the information in those threads. For each request you make, you have to update the information provided. By the way, if you're mod configuration is so complicated that you have to have a Google Drive document in order to explain how you’ve put it together, you are the likely cause of your issue. That’s because you have too many mods and you have over-complicated your situation. (I wonder if I have someone specific in mind when I say this?) 2) Provide Feedback: If you like what you see, let them know what you’ve liked in the modder’s presentation. If you didn’t like what you saw, provide constructive feedback. Modders aren’t mind readers and seeing as you’re already made a request, don’t waste the modder’s time by only providing a two word comment. Provide detail! Consider this your initial down payment for a request - to provide the information that a modder needs. 3) Utilize that Like button: Let’s say you weren’t the original requester, but you liked what you saw. A simple way of letting of the mod author/s know he or she is on the right track (in your opinion) is to use that “Like” button. 4) Giving Thanks: One of my personal pet peeves is when someone makes a request, is provided with exactly what they asked for, and never makes a comment in the thread again. (I could point out numerous examples of folks not doing this but let’s keep things mostly civil for this blog.) The very least you could do is thank the person that helped you. Assuming you’re better than a person doing “the very least”, you should state how the mod or fix helped you. Yes, that means providing feedback. And like I previously mentioned, hit that Like button!

Read it all Fair Strides. I get the feeling that all the things that happened with your family, is catching up. You say you supress the feelings and emotions. This takes a ton of energy. I'm not blaming you, what I get from your story is you had to grow up FAST. Decide major things that have a serious impact on your life. It's far from odd you have these on and off periods. Feeling tired by it all. And not sure what to do about it. I think writing this out in a blog is a good step. You can let it out, doesn't matter if it's a bit cluttered or rambling on. At least you let it out and it can give you some insight on what's going on in your head. I admire it, it's brave to start digging in yourself. Though it does take time and you should take your time. Take time, but also take good care for yourself, keep eating and drinking at the right times, you can feel very tired and worn out, by not eating enough and not drinking, causes headaches... ect, hold on to some structure. Could write a whole lot more, but I got the feeling I would be talking to much about myself here; I've gone through difficult periods myself, about myself. Still fighting with it at times. But I don't want to take away your "thunder". Feel free to PM me anytime; I don't think I can help much, but you got my ear

Viewer: Is this legal? Apeiron: [Persuade/Lie]Yes...it's legal...because it's free. Viewer: It's free? Apeiron: [Persuade/Lie]Yes...it's free. But please give us your credits. Viewer: I just thought you said this was free? Does free necessarily mean legal? Are you just trying to take my money? HK-47: Observation: Master, these meatbags aren't taking the bait. We'll have to get their credits the "old-fashioned" way. Charging blasters.

Remember the last KOTOR Reboot project to come along called Project Black Light? (I'll use my version of their logo because their logo has a really bad Star Wars logo slapped on it.) No? Here's a refresher if you truly want it. (It isn't necessary to view the video to understand the conversation below.) However, some new folks have decided to reboot Knights of the Old Republic. These folks are starting with the first game! Oh boy - let's pick this one apart. I will be setting up a check list for you so you can see the flaws more clearly. No, I'm not including the link for the site. I'll let you do a web search for this. "Apeiron"? Really!?! Bad font for the "Star Wars" logo? Check. (Especially note the "W". The "R" is a bit off too.) OK, let's move on . . . First nitpick. Why ask the same question twice? (Don't worry, folks. You'll see that the same question will appear the very next picture.) Apeiron, this should properly be called the "Frequently Asked Questions" section. Repeat of initial question? Check. Not using capitalization of the game's title? Check. Not using a standardization of the game's title? Check. Incorrect spelling of "companions"? Check. Use of a Kickstarter ready buzzword? Check. (That buzzword is "Indie", if you're playing along at home.) Mention of a studio that we've never heard of? Check. Not including a link to this unheard of studio? Check. Begging for assistance from the public? Check. Claims of being "professional people" without backing those claims up? Check. Claiming the project is "legal"? Check. Answering that question with a badly spelled word? Check. (It's "absolutely", Apeiron. Invest in a spell checking program.) Not spelling "successful" right? Check. (I guess they aren't successful.) For my gentle readers, this is the meat of their faulty argument? I'm hungry for new KOTOR stuff and you're likely to be too as you've read this far. Is this meat OK to eat? Let's delve further. They ask "Can you make a Star Wars game?" They don't mention if you can legally make one. They then cite examples of other fan created reboots that aren't Star Wars games to back up their case. This appears to be a case of a sweeping generalization. I will explain through an example that I found at logicalfallacies,info. Let's look at one of the cases cited here: Black Mesa. What did Black Mesa have on their side? Black Mesa is a complete ground-up remake of Half-Life using the Source engine, everything is made from scratch, there is not a single asset that came from Valve. That is: They used their own voice actors, their own soundtrack, their own props and remodels, and their own engine. Valve offered the Black Mesa team their own contract. However, Valve isn't Disney who owns the copyrights to all Star Wars items. Valve also isn't Electronic Arts who handles all of the Star Wars games as licensed by Disney. As Apreiron isn't . . . - dealing with Valve - dealing with Electronic Arts or Disney - has made no statement that they plan to create their own soundtrack, their own voice actors, their own props, and their own engine . . . then Apeiron has offered a false equivalent. Soldiering on . . . Spelling "intellectual" wrong? Check. A game could be "under the banner of intellectual property" but it's not "under intellectual property." Use your legal terms correctly. 100% Free! Until we beg for donations. And there's the extended hat... Do we accept donations? No! But we can and we will at some point down the road. Even though the mod will be 100% free.

I agree with both comments here. I get that choosing and cutting the new credits music takes some time especially if one is busy with real life etc. But it really shouldn't take TWO MONTHS. So the only logical reason why these mods haven't been brought back is that the authors are working on a bigger update with some new fixes/content and don't want to release a minor version for the music fixes. That'd be completely understandable but from Hassat Hunter's posts it seems pretty clear that no such update is in the works. Which leaves only one implication for me: The authors are sulky that someone removed their mod and that they have to obey the rules, so they "punish" us by not bringing the mod back. I'm NOT saying that this is what's actually going on but it's the impression I get and since we aren't told what's actually going on, that's all I have. And even though I know that it's only an impression, it sadly still lessens my opinion of the mod authors :/ So I really hope that this all gets resolved soon with the mods being re-uploaded to this site and ideally a short statement on what went on during their down time.

Might I suggest starting with a smaller project first? That way you can develop the requisite skills in order to bring larger projects to life. Most larger modding projects end up never getting finished (or are finished in a sub optimal state). By taking the time to work on a few smaller projects (adding items, NPCs, ect...) you will have a better understanding of what is needed to successfully pursue your larger scope projects. Obviously, I do not want to dissuade you from trying, but I have seen a great deal of modding projects remain incomplete due to the lack of cohesive fundamentals.

I think he's gonna look just fine

I don't know if these blogs have any sort of length limit, but I guess I'll find out, huh? *Warning: This might look organized at first, but I jump around and just drop a whole lot of info on you. If you are able to make sense of what I'm trying to say, then good on you.* I would welcome you to my blog and ask that you enjoy the first post I've ever made, but I'm just not in the mood for all that "happy and friendly" stuff at the moment. The truth is, I always thought my first blog post would be about my Toolset and all the things I have planned for it, with successive posts being about progress or polls for features or design and all that cool stuff. I even thought I'd be doing some cool blog posts about college near the beginning, but that at least is still a possibility. Right now I'm writing this just to clear my head, though I really have no clue how many people are even going to see this. This just isn't the kind of thing I normally do, okay? Normally I don't make small talk or chit-chat, don't get long-winded about myself or god forbid I talk about my feelings. It's just not my usual style, but I'm in a mood that I can only describe as "very weird" twice now and I don't even know why. Usually I'm a fanatic for self-control and self-awareness, prizing those two things right up there at the top of my priority list; come to think of it, they're right next to dignity. I'm sitting here typing all of this out and I just don't feel anything besides the normal mild headache (we'll get to that), a little empty from hunger because I haven't eaten all day (should probably do something about that, but I'm almost out of money, so it has to wait until I get home in around two hours), and too warm because I'm still sitting with the blanket on me. I don't know how this will be received by all of you. And it's usually one of those many things I think about doing and then end up not doing, but right now I'm in a major "I don't care, I'm doing it" attitude and who knows if I'll look back and think "I shouldn't have posted that." *sigh* I guess I'll get to the point now that I've already lost half of you that clicked the link. *later bit here: I go on a bit of a tangent, so if you want to get to the current stuff, use Control-F and search for "And here I am, still working away at doing nothing."* I started modding back around November 7th, 2011. I knew nothing about computers besides how to type and click stuff (and play games, of course). Fast forward two or three months; In January, I've moved to Missouri to live with dad and I've gotten a D in my math class (my fault for not contacting the teacher; this was an online class) and really starting to figure out that my dad is an asshole. Oh, and I was banging my head against the keyboard trying to figure out scripting. And dad was practicing the usual "how to put down a woman and make yourself superior" routine because he's a real man and can walk the walk (please tell me you can hear the sarcasm...). Another five months and I've gotten more experience with modding and can navigate KotOR Tool pretty well. I've also been playing the games and enjoying the mods. I'm starting to actually have conversations with the other modders and feel like I'm fitting in. Come August and my brother shows up to visit (he moved in with Mom around September or October 2011). Everything's going great until dad goes off the deep end again with the vodka and my brother and I are in the bedroom playing videogames to ignore the belligerent jackass raging up and down the hall. *sigh* Then my brother went back to Oregon and I went back to my routine. I was usually spending eight or more hours a day engrossed in something KotOR, whether it was the forums, the tutorials, playing the games, or modding itself. Then I beta-tested the pre-beta version of the beta of the public beta of The Jedi Masters 2.0 for Trex and lost my internet for about two weeks. I was cut off and forced to learn a lot about modding in a real quick hurry to be able to finish TJM when things broke. This was actually a good experience for me, as it helped give me a lot of the basis for what I know today. And then in November I started spending a few days learning the programming language Perl and was working with KotOR Save Editor (what most probably know as "KSE"). Things had been heating up between me and dad this whole time. I yelled at him in the kitchen while he was drunk (I was actually yelling that I was on his side), he took one step in my direction, and then I was running (I honestly believe quite literally for my life) away for a few hours before I got sent back home by a friend (no, I don't blame the friend; he was just doing what he honestly believed was right). And before this incident I came home and found them drunk (they had been out of alcohol when I had left a few hours previously) and I got mad. I called a different friend to come get me for the night and then threw a note toward my dad as I went out the door. I should add that I was 16 and not exactly the brightest at forward thinking. Next day I got taken from school by dad, brought out to the backyard, and shoved up against a building while dad looked my right in the eye and said we were either going to duke it out (fight) or he was going to thrash me in the pool behind us. In the end, I didn't fight and I didn't go for a possibly-fatal dip in the pool. But after that I made firm steps to get my ass out of there and I left over Thanksgiving. I also was out of modding and mostly away from the community for the next... 8 or 9 months until I got a laptop from Mom. Then I helped LDR with a few projects and enjoyed some nice chats. He was helping ZM90 with some stuff for K1R and ZM90 was in need of a scripter. So my name was submitted and I agreed because I was bored. Oh boy, what a ride that started. Mom's boyfriend was just as bad as dad, except in a few different ways and he was most of the time sober. So while I worked on K1R and made some cool tool or other that is broken half a dozen ways, I also had to put up with him and graduating from high school. I eventually did and was making steady progress on K1R until the summer hit. Then I went into a slump and didn't do a whole lot of modding until around August. I was also fighting trying to get stuff from Fallen Guardian and ZM90 was trying but not really helping a whole lot. I had found out later that LDR was only a temporary helper and not a full-time guy. We finally got K1R 0.9 released and we got rushed with a lot of reports and bugs. I dealt with it okay and did the work to get K1R up to 1.0. And I've done the same with 1.1 and 1.2. Almost all of the work was me, Fair Strides the work-horse (self-admitted), with the exception of testing fixes, bugs, and compiling lists of stuff, which was done by ZM90. But I'm the big workhorse; always have been. Part of it's just my nature, my diligence, but a lot of it's been my conditioning. Conditioned by dad that playing video games means I'm lazy. Conditioned by Mom's boyfriend that doing nothing but laying around and watching TV means I'm lazy. Conditioning that reinforced my nature, my diligence and sense of perfection in my work, and makes it so I work my ass off on the task at hand, no matter if it's modding, programming, cleaning the house that my "aunt" leaves in a constant mess, or working outside on lifting, carrying, cleaning, and helping my uncle and grandpa out. And here I am, still working away at doing nothing. I haven't programmed in months, my modding is taking a nose-dive, I was absent from DS for a week and for the most part didn't notice, even though I hated not replying to the PMs. I know more about the KotOR engine than almost anybody else in this community, have helped out an astounding number of people (I never did count how many times people have mentioned me in read-mes, but there's also my post count), and yet I can't even string a dialog together and have tried several times to write tutorials. I've been here five years (almost), have risen to be one of the best around, and in a metaphorical sense I'm now feeling old and tired, spent. I can still help and I still do small tasks, but you won't see me crusading a project. I can't write my own tutorials even though I know so much, and I'm on the computer way too much. Almost daily I deal with headaches. Most of the time they are mild ones that stick in one spot, but they last for so long. There's a general blanket over my mind and I don't feel like doing much. I also have really bad motivation issues. I don't know what this means for me in the long run, but I know that I feel tired and that I'm almost useless at the moment. I don't plan on running out on anything I'm currently working on if I can avoid it, but I might end up taking a back seat on a lot of it. I know I need to be on the computer less and get out more. I hope I can get out more when the FAFSA comes in for school, but that just leads to a whole swarm of issues, all of which involve socializing. How do you people do it? Most of the time I'm not really in touch with most of my emotions and I've gotten good at suppressing stuff. But how do you people just walk up to a stranger and talk to them? Does it matter to you if you're talking to a guy or a girl, because it absolutely makes a difference for me. I like people, really I do, but I don't like trying to get to know them, that initial time where you're both just strangers. And when I do get to know someone, things go much better if they're a guy. If it's a girl, I know jack nothing about anything. A friend of mine once said I was kind, considerate, and caring enough that if I just tried, I could probably get a girl. But nowadays, if you try to act like that, you get labelled a creep or a stalker because it's not natural for a guy to be so nice to a stranger... I really should stop rambling. I'm rambling so much I don't even care that I've said things I probably should have kept to myself. :| To anyone who has read this far, thanks for taking the time. I don't blame you if you can't make sense of what I've written, so I'll try to sum it up below: 1. I'm moody and have issues. 2. I'm tired... 3. It's not you guys, it's me that's the problem. 4. I won't give up the projects I'm already on, but I won't be as big a presence around here for a whie.

So I made this rendering of Arren Kae, and from that came the idea of doing a version of the model that you could actually use inside the game. Now as I happen to be particular about game modifications being seamless, I decided that Arren’s apparel should for the most part resemble the Handmaiden’s robe, which is why the white robe on this model has no Jedi librarian patterns. Thought I’d still put those on the garments underneath the robe, but it’s not quite the same. Obviously I used Kreia’s model, the changes I did to the geometry are limited to the hood and the eyelids, which coupled with the work I did on the textures, result in the looks of a woman about the age Arren probably was at the time of the Mandalorian Wars. We don’t know if she was Echani or not, but I left the hair color unchanged. Her lips and eyes are as close to the Handmaiden’s as I could make them, because supposedly Brianna “bears the face of her mother.” The blue stone and necklace is there because her Darth Traya look includes an ornament with a red stone. All in all it’s not terrible, maybe I’ll work on it some more in the future

I've turned most of the major characters' lines for K1 and TSL into Mp3. I'm weird that way. I'm also anal retentive which means I have to track tag those MP3s. And I have to have decent album art for the track tag. Why not turn that obsessive nature into a positive? Hence me working on my own little portrait package. HairlessWookiee over at Reddit has been kind enough to provide some high quality shots of the TSL NPCs for me. A few at time right now. I thought I'd show off what I've done in the form of animated GIFs. Handmaiden (Hood Up) Handmaiden (Hood Down) Visas Marr Mira Now obviously it's only three frames with transitions I made to fade between them, but they aren't that hideous!

This original version of this tutorial I found ages ago on the Massassi Temple site. It was written by Tobbi Dala and the original version of the tutorial can be found through this link. What I've done here is to do some minor spelling corrections, add new pictures that show the tutorial using the most current version of Goldwave (the main program used in this tutorial) as of 20APR2017, and to provide new permanent links to 2 audio files needed for the tutorial. After the large tutorial quote, I'll be showing examples in this tutorial in action. I asked Zhaboka to record some lines that would be used to illustrate the tutorial in action and he was kind enough to assist. (Zhaboka's line replaces the line that the original tutorial grabbed from Mysteries of the Sith.) Now here's what the sound files sound like - so you can hear it for yourself! The lines will first appear without the filter and then with the filter. Special Thanks to: Tobbi Dala (of Massassi Temple), the original creator of the tutorial. Zhaboka: For recording new lines. HK-47: To extracting the line as it appeared on the original tutorial. Though it wasn't used here - as I used Zhaboka's new lines instead - the effort was and is most appreciated.