I know I've been cheating on my WIP thread with Discord and random status updates, but I hadn't realized I'd been neglecting it so badly.
Anyway, I recently ported the K2 robes to K1 and I'm currently working on the actually-for-K2 version of the mod. I didn't just port the robes before; I fixed various things on the model and made new textures specifically for the K1 items. I'm applying the same process to the original K2 textures now. For most of them, I'm simply updating them to fit my new model. For others, though, I've decided to make new textures to fit them better. That's where things get complicated. I've run into a few oddities.
First, one of the textures is never used in the game. There isn't any item with texture variant #5. I figured it may have been designed for an item that never made it into the game, so I went digging through the game files. I found this in dialog.tlk:
I find that very interesting, but it just raises more questions. There's already an item a_robe_10 - the Norris robe.
Time for a little show and tell:
Above are all the fishy textures. Texture #5 is unused. Textures 7-10 use what I'm going to call the Baran Do template. They have a distinctive rectangular bit than the random bath robe folds of the other texture variants. I suspect that three of these were originally intended for the three-tiered Baran Do robes (novice, advisor, and sage). Given that Ossus was a Jedi library, I also suspect that the unused #5 could've been for the Ossus Keeper robe. If so, texture #8 presumably would then be the missing Baran Do link. Or maybe the Norris robe texture is the one that's wrong.
The point of all this speculation is that I don't want to reproduce this weirdness with my mod. I'd like to straighten things out.
I've already decided I don't like the Ossus Keeper and Norris robes looking like Baran Do robes, so I'm going to come up with new designs for them. I already have ideas in mind, so we can put those aside. I'm not entirely sure what to do with the Baran Do robes, though.
For one, we now have a pick of four different textures rather than two. Also, we might be dealing with not two but three Baran Do robes, if we include the unused advisor tier. I could use some input on both matters.
To implement the third Baran Do robe would require placing the new item somewhere in the game. I've already checked the random loot scripts and they won't support any new robe items. So it' would have to be placed manually. I have no idea where.
As for the textures, I actually like the Ossus Keeper and Norris variants rather than the actual Baran Do ones, so I might be inclined to use those designs instead. But I'm open to suggestions, particularly if a third texture has to be made too.