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Showing content with the highest reputation on 01/18/2021 in Posts

  1. 1 point
    Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords is a fun game to play, at least as far as character leveling and battling your way through the game is concerned (so many of the sidequests being broken as all get-out, not so much). Which is good, because if the story as-is was the main draw of the game? I might have donated or pawned my Xbox copy and never looked back. Because... hot take: The majority of KotOR II's writing is crap, especially in regards to the Jedi Order and the Sith Triumvirate. Now, there are some things and concepts I like, but there's a lot (especially to do with the areas just mentioned) that has grated on me more and more with every subsequent playthrough. So, I'm going to cover the things I have problems with and pitch fixes for them (marked with underlines). Now, I realized a lot of these fixes cause contradictions with Legends storylines that referenced this game, but you know what? Serves Legends right for having mindlessly rubber-stamped practically every non-Lego game that came out after SotE as canon (especially The Force Unleashed). And for the NJO novels. * Letting the player decide whether Revan embraced redemption or reverted to evil. Letting the player have it either way as far as Revan's gender is concerned? That's all fine and dandy (that is, aside from the sloppy coding not checking this properly especially wrt the stupid Jedi Masters). But KotOR II also tries to let you choose whether the first game had the Light Side or Dark Side endings (hence why the galaxy is so jacked-up) but that. Doesn't. Actually. Work. Because except in the situational alternate Dark Side ending, THE STAR FORGE DOESN'T GET DESTROYED on the Dark Side path. The Dark Side ending of KotOR 1 is: "Revan kills Malak, reclaims the Sith empire and the Star Forge, is poised to conquer the galaxy." With something like the Star Forge in play... trying to have it both ways like KotOR II does just doesn't work. I'm sorry, but no. Revan needs to be locked in as Light Side. * Most of the attempts to tie the Sith Triumvirate and their crap, and the Trayus Academy, to the first game need to be excised. 1. Revan already had a secret ancient Dark Side MacGuffin facility that was part of what factored into their going Dark: it was called the Star Forge. 2. I'm sorry, but I think if Revan and Malak's empire used the Trayus Academy to convert Jedi then Malak would have taken her there rather than Lehon, no? 3. If Revan was sending suitable captured Jedi to Trayus as well as "disappearing" Force-sensitives from the ranks to send them to Trayus (and this seems too big a thing to keep secret from Malak), then somehow I don't think the Dreshdae Academy on Korriban would have been so blindly welcoming to defector Jedi and supposed defector Jedi. And would have been screening students in need of "correction". 4. Subtext in the first game seems to strongly indicate that Revan was Vrook Lamar's Padawan. Chris Avellone's Mouthpiece Kreia doesn't get to usurp that. Chuck it all, work in a nonconflicting setup for the Trayus Academy. * Speaking of Kreia... Ugh. Just... Ugh. I think the game would almost be better off without her, but she's a little too enmeshed to be chucked so some rewriting will have to suffice. Chris Avellone has said: "When it came to the narrative, a lot of thrust for the storyline came from an examination of some interpretations of the Force that were coming out of Episode I, II, and III, mostly the fact that the Force seemed to have a will of its own and it had a plan for everybody in the universe but that plan didn't seem beneficial for a whole bunch of people, result in a lot of death and destruction, and then lastly the idea that we didn't really have any choices over our actions; it was a lot of predestination. As a role-playing game designer, all of those things kind of bothered me" (quote found on Kreia's Wookieepedia page, but it's not the original source). Hence Kreia's extreme bitterness towards the Force and its will, to the point that she's trying to kill the Force. But there are some major problems with that thrust. 1. The timeline proves that Avellone is either fibbing or mis-speaking in that interview, because TSL predates RotS and so RotS (and interpretations of the Force based thereupon, including a more competent examination of "the will of the Force" from Matt Stover's novelization) can't have actually been much of a factor. 2. Speaking as a prequel fan I don't seem to recall people talking that much about "the will of the Force" in the films. 3a. While those interpretations may have been present in Expanded Universe novels and whatnot of the time, they don't really match up with what the movies themselves (OT or PT) show (indeed, the movies themselves would seem to portray predestination as false - "Always in motion, is the future," remember? Avellone referencing that makes this writing even more painful- and actions that assume predestination as dangerous and self-destructive), or George Lucas' conception of the midi-chlorians and the Whills (which is more along the lines of destiny-as-choice, same for George Lucas' personal beliefs). 3b. George said in 2003 that what he was exploring with the prequels was how someone would fall into evil ways, and that his conclusion was the inability to let go and move on in the face of change and loss - which is exactly what we see with Anakin in the prequels; "will of the Force" has nothing to do with it, nor is it said to (at least in the movies). 4. All of that being said, Chris Avellone's counter-interpretation of the Force as mouthpieced through Kreia comes off as more than a little shallow and knee-jerk. It's made worse by the fact that the narrative doesn't offer much in the way of counterarguments to the interpretation given through Kreia, so it feels like the game is shoving that interpretation down your throat. For me at least, this is amplified by the fact that you're rarely if ever allowed to actually counterargue any of Kreia's philosophical attitudes. Rebuff? Yes. Counterargue? No. Something else Avellone said is that the lesson he hoped players took away from KOTOR II was "it's okay to question the franchise." Well, as far as I'm concerned he couldn't have blown that one harder if he'd tried. Because what I took away from this game was "It's not okay to question my super-negative intepretation of the Force and I'm gonna viciously staple it to your forehead." Rebalance the narrative to present good counterarguments to her interpretation in-story (both spelled out in dialogue and implied through actions in scenes) and also maybe tone Kreia the f*** down in places. Or, in lieu of toning her down, maybe change the story so that the Jedi Masters are overtly trying to draw her out (only to get more than they bargained for)? Just rewrite things around her hard enough that the game as a whole isn't cramming her view of the Force down your gullet (even if Kreia herself still is) * Kreia's prophesy re: Mandalore is dumb for various reasons even in the context of Legends (I'm sure Karen Traviss in particular probably had a few things to say to Avellone about that one). Rewrite it for accuracy or just chuck it outright and never look back. * The Jedi Masters' verdict on Dantooine feels very forced and abrupt, especially given Kavar and Zez Kai-Ell's individual reactions to a Light Side player. The first couple times I played through the game, I actually thought both Light Side and Dark Side players got this scene and it didn't properly take Light Side players into account (because, well, it honestly doesn't). As it stands, this is an unacceptable mess. Fix 1: Insert sufficient buildup to actually justify the verdict Fix 2: Change their reasoning for why they're doing what they're doing (maybe along the lines of "Under better circumstances, we would be content to let this be, but there are dangers"?) Fix 3: Change what they're doing and the setup for Kreia's intervention entirely * This game's presentation of the Battle of Malachor V doesn't seem to quite jibe with what the first game told of the last battle of the Mandalorian Wars. Not sure of a fix here, admittedly. But... It does feel worth commenting on. * It feels like there's a bit too much information critical to plot logic walled off behind Influence with party members. * The game tries to pull the same "trying to toughen the galaxy up for an outside threat" retcon on Revan that was elsewhere attempted in Legends re: Thrawn. It doesn't really work with Revan (it was semi-plausible with Thrawn, at least as an original, pre-corruption-by-Palpatine motive), although I'll admit that trying it with Revan still isn't nearly as bullcrap as people using it to try and excuse Palpatine and the Galactic Empire's sins. Regardless, it should probably be chucked. * Rewrite the timing and wording of HK-50's drugging of the Exile and sabotage of the Harbinger to better fit with the established info about picking up the Ebon Hawk and investigating the Sith warship I realize this is a huge undertaking, and not everyone will feel the same way I do about the narrative... But I feel it would be worth doing.
  2. 1 point
    -> calls something crap -> doesn't give any productive suggestions themselves Enough internet for the day
  3. 1 point
    The implication of the dark side ending is that the Republic is destroyed. Obviously there had to be some semblance of a status quo for a sequel to happen and for the Republic to exist in the films. Revan's disappearance allows for that while also at least giving some recognition of players' choice in the first game. Even if Malak had access to the Trayus Academy, it was not his center of power. The Star Forge was. On the other hand, and I know you take issue with this, the Sith of KOTOR 2 did not have the Star Forge. In the wake of their civil war, their center of power moved. I don't understand what this means. The Sith in KOTOR 2 would not exist without Revan. Of course the Trayus Academy was connected to him or her. The Sith governor you meet was still being trained. Presumably, there, but that is beside the point. There were multiple training facilities. Korriban was not unique. Again, the idea that Revan had multiple masters was established in the first game. Zhar says that Revan had a master other than himself, and we are never told who this is. KOTOR 2, as a sequel, introduces us to a character that must have existed, but that we had never met before. You are given every opportunity to disagree with Kreia in dialogue, and the very nature of the game, with you as the player and Kreia as the final boss, forces you to oppose her ideologically. Kreia herself admits to her hypocrisy and that she has to be stopped: Nobody is forcing you to believe her point of view is correct. Chris Avellone has said that he wrote Kreia to raise questions that he had about Star Wars, but I think you are putting words into his mouth as much as he put into Kreia's. I'm not familiar with other Expanded Universe material relating to the Mandalorians from that time, so I can't comment, but this is a minor reference that players familiar with the films would understand and is irrelevant to the story of the game. I don't know how you inferred so much from a few sentences that say little more than "a battle happened." The Battle of Malachor V is a minor plot point that is barely mentioned in the original and elaborated upon in the sequel.
  4. 1 point
    Yeah, it's the fade out effect that causes this problem with certain hardware. I think I've had this problem on destroying NPCs that have bump maps. It's probably a memory leak or some similar issue.
  5. 1 point
    View File Better Twi'lek Male Heads for K1EP (Modder's Resource) This is a modder's resource containing Twi'lek textures from SpaceAlex's K1 Enhancement Pack that have been modified for compatibility with Better Twi'lek Male Heads. Textures are included in both TGA/TXI and TPC formats (the latter is recommended). Models for both the slim neck and original neck variants are included in ASCII format, so you can edit the model name and/or texture then convert to binary for either game. If BTMH is updated in the future with changes to the model, so will this. (Current model version: 1.3.X) Usage If you want to use these files as part of an external work, contact me first to receive my permission. Permission to use the K1 or TSL versions of BTMH automatically extends to this resource. Both SpaceAlex and I should be credited accordingly. This modder's resource should only be found on Deadly Stream, no user may upload it to another modding site. This restriction does not apply to any external works using these files. It should be noted that some of SpaceAlex's Twi'lek textures are upscaled variants from the base game. See readme.txt for more details. Credits Fred Tetra, Kotor Tool bead-v, KOTORmax & MDLedit ndix UR, tga2tpc Autodesk, 3ds Max The GIMP Team, GIMP Darth Parametric, Upper teeth no-clip fix (K1) SpaceAlex, K1 Enhancement Pack's male Twi'lek textures NDrew-25, prompting the creation of these textures for K1 Gameplay Improvement Disclaimer This modder's resource is not supported by LucasArts, BioWare, Obsidian Entertainment, or Electronic Arts. It is intended to be used by other members of the KOTOR modding community and intends no copyright infringement. Contact me on DeadlyStream or via Discord (listed on my DS profile) if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or the like. Submitter Ashton Scorpius Submitted 01/17/2021 Category Modder's Resources  
  6. 1 point
    It is explained that after Revan disappeared, nobody was powerful enough to control the Star Forge: The existence of one academy does not preclude the existence of other academies for other purposes. The Sith have multiple training facilities in the first game: Korriban, Lehon, Manaan, Taris. There is no reason they couldn't have had another on Malachor, assuming it was even active after Malak took over. Chronicles of the Old Republic implies that it was abandoned at some point and reestablished by Kreia after the events of the first game: Although that source is riddled with continuity errors. I don't know where you got this from. The only character in the first game who explicitly mentions having trained Revan is Zhar: And that implies that Zhar was not Revan's primary master, just as in the second game, it is said that Revan had many masters: You disagree with the villain of the story's point of view. And this is a problem how? I thought this was an explicit reference to Jango Fett's death in Attack of the Clones. The only mentions of Malachor in the first game are: This seems consistent with the second game's depiction of the events to me, in as much as it can be consistent with so little existing information.
  7. 1 point
    I am not sure I would call all of TSL's writing crap, but it's definitely lacking here and there. Honestly I would say if you wish to go through 130,000 lines of dialog and improve them, rewriting them as well as finding a way to fix the Audio around them, crack on. Or otherwise good luck finding a team do so, I myself have had thoughts of changing all sorts of things, though I cannot say that the writing was heavily one of them, other than perhaps typos or out of place lines. There is also one huge thing to consider, which is compatibility and interest, compatibility for something like this will be practically non-existent and I suspect interest would be lacking also, though I can also say that on the other hand if done right interest would be huge, so all in all good idea, huge undertaking, I would say make a start on it, or form a team and make a start on it, or start by heavily improving the writing of just a single area in the game to showcase your suggested improvements.
  8. 1 point
    View File KillSaber Code KillSaber Code by 90SK Same idea as the killstick or killblaster cheat, except this code gives a saber. It's "giveitem killsaber" Install: Copy killsaber.uti into your Override folder Pick what type and color you want the KillSaber to be, Then copy the "killsaber.uti" file into Override. If you want another color, copy another "killsaber.uti" into override and click Ok to replace. Should have all correct colors now. Permissions: Please do not reupload this mod. Do not upload this on Steam workshop. Special Thanks: DeadlyStream.com, LucasForums.com LucasArts – Obsidian Entertainment – Bioware THIS MODIFICATION IS PROVIDED AS-IS AND IS NOT SUPPORTED BY BIOWARE/OBSIDIAN ENTERTAINMENT OR LUCASARTS OR ANY LICENSERS/SPONSORS OF THE MENTIONED COMPANIES. USE OF THIS FILE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK AND THE ABOVE MENTIONED COMPANIES OR THE AUTHOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE CAUSED TO YOUR COMPUTER FOR THE USAGE OF THIS FILE. Submitter 90SK Submitted 01/14/2021 Category Mods TSLRCM Compatible Yes  
  9. 1 point
    Is it just me or could you not just set the refresh rate of your monitor in windows before playing the game?
  10. 1 point
    As far as I recall, no, that is not a local issue, but there's a reason for it. Most of Carth's dialogue has to be advanced before the Leviathan because he repeatedly broods about getting revenge on Saul. The Dustil quest is triggered when the global K_SWG_CARTH is set to 8, but the value must be at 14 after the Leviathan in order for the romance to continue along the romance branch "I think it's time we talked about me being Revan, don't you?" instead of the non-romance branch "We need to talk. About me being Darth Revan." And as you noticed, it is not possible to advance Carth's dialogue tree while the Dustil quest is active. I don't believe that editing k_plev_throwdown alone would solve the problem, however. It looks like the reason they set the global to 99 there is to make it impossible to advance the Saul-centric dialogue after Saul is dead, as the conditional scripts don't check for that: They only seem to check if the value of K_STAR_MAP is greater than whatever is relevant, so this would still be true. I'm also not sure whether it's feasible to allow you to continue advancing Carth's dialogue while the Dustil quest is active. It depends on the dialogue, I suppose. If I recall correctly, there is another potential issue in that you can't trigger the Dustil if you have already visited and completed Korriban. I'm not sure how this affects the romance.
  11. 1 point
    I haven't been on in weeks, and by coincidence I log on and my assistance is required. I must have felt a disturbance in the Force... I ran into this issue with Carth, as well. I had always assumed it was deliberate or an oversight. I'll take a look at the scripts and see what I can find.
  12. 1 point
    Yes, I am really curious about it. It may be that the game is forced to kill the romance because after the Leviathan and the revelation some of the missing steps left in the romance would no longer make sense, dialogue-wise. If that is the case, then I guess there is nothing that can be done from that angle. But I'm not so sure about blocking the romance while the Finding Dustil quest is on. k_swg_carth18.ncs and k_swg_carth19.ncs are the conditional scripts in k_hcar_dialog.dlg responsible for it. They both check the KOR_DANEL global and if it's 2 or 3, Carth won't talk about anything but Dustil, the Gizka on the Ebon Hawk, the stowaway or the place you currently are at. I do believe that all this is original intended behavior though and perhaps it'd be best left alone.
  13. 1 point
    From what I can read of this, I will explain what you are asking for and why you can't have it. It is not because we wouldn't want these cool features but because these features are impossible to implement via a mod. New resolutions such as 1080p are already a thing, for both Kotor 1 and 2 you require a hack shown in this video (It is voiced in English so it may not be useful for someone who isn't fluent in the language😞 The reason Kotor 2 has 1080p is because you own the Steam version of Kotor 2, Aspyr updated Kotor 2 on Steam so it has controller support and these new resolutions such as 1080p and 4K. While you can get resolutions you cannot get Controller Support for K1, if you play Kotor 1 on an Android phone, tablet or iOS phone or tablet those versions do have controller support because Aspyr, the guys who updated K2 for Steam, made the port. The Kotor 1 port to these devices is exactly the same as on PC, you can even mod it with PC mods, and the best part is is that you can play it anywhere since you are technically playing it on your phone. But if you are playing on PC, there is nothing we modders can do to give you controller support unless you yourself use a third party software of some kind.
  14. 1 point
    Interesting place to install the game. Can you tell me if there's anything inside the game's Override folder? Also can you attach the installlog.rtf file so I can see it myself?
  15. 1 point
    This looks really good, looking forward to trying it (will probably wait for 1.2, gives me time to figure out why KOTOR doesn't like my PC ). Too bad about the Sand People Messiah...any chance of a separate mod restoring it with unvoiced lines? Also, out of curiosity, do you have any idea what the swoop upgrades would have been?
  16. 1 point
    Just thought of something... Would it be possible to fix the bugged security spikes? Since they were obviously intended to work, I think that would fall under the spirit of a restoration project.
  17. 1 point
    You Can also use WinRar if You Want.
  18. 1 point
    Question: Could there be a hypothetical side mod to replace the Impossible difficulty with the removed Very Easy difficulty? Sometimes I get very lazy.
  19. 1 point
    No, I've gotten that save from the other PM. Sorry about that... The Gamorrean Axe is in the game's files, but not usually obtainable, it seems. As to the Glow Rod, I need to edit it for the 1.1, but it is available in the sewers (pretty sure it was in the 0.9 as well). The Trash Compactor puzzle was not restored, and I do not know if that was due to lack of content or a design choice by ZM90 and Fallen Guardian (since Taris was way before I joined the team). The Gamorrean HQ was not restored, due mostly to lack of content. VOs aren't the issue; it's more to do with "no idea what was supposed to be there"...
  20. 1 point
    Sorry I was too late to be of any help. You mean the guy in the room with the dancers and Bith? Try talking to him on a female playthrough. (Sorry my quoting was messed up there, I didn't want to double-post, had already posted my first comment, and couldn't figure anything else out.)
  21. 1 point
    At present, no, but those aren't exactly a priority at this time...
  22. 1 point
    The NR stuff... NR stands for "Not Restored". Just like with TSLRCM, that means we aren't restoring it.
  23. 1 point
    You cheated, the game did what it was supposed to do, and the game bugged? The game takes all of them because in normal gameplay, you could only ever obtain one. The devs thus just took the entire stack (of one) instead of just one pearl... There's no reason to "fix" this, as it was how the game devs had intended and designed it... That being said, it's more suited for a small mod.
  24. 1 point
    Why not do Xbox stuff in a separate thread so no one else gets confused?
  25. 1 point
    Hassat Hunter has released a beta for a TSLRCM 1.8 compatible version of the "Handmaiden for Females mod." For all of those interested in having either Handmaiden in a female Exile's party of Disciple in a male Exile's party - I direct them to try out Hassat Hunter's beta and offer input through bug testing it. By the way, it should go without saying that his beta is designed for TSLRCM 1.8 compatibility only so use this only with that mod and at your own risk.
  26. 0 points
    I don't think that's a thing. On the Steam version(s) there's almost every day a new post about "I can't move after combat" that's caused by those greater refresh rates.