Time to expose myself, I played the orange mod.
Had a blast. It was fun.
If you play the mod like a parody of kotor, it feels rather satisfying. There is a bunch of hilariously strange dialogue. There were a few characters, that just made me laugh. It was like if a kid had written dialogue of what he imagined adult conversation/conflict would be like. There were strange objects outside, the sky was orange. Part of modding is taking creative license to recreate a part of your perspective of the game into the game, whether that answers a what if all this? Or a why didn't it have this? These questions and their answers, the mods themselves, are rather interesting to explore. When I played Cathalan, the orange shade was like the modder's orange pair of sunglasses for viewing kotor.
There is not another mod like Cathalan, for dozens of reasons, but in terms of originality nothing quite like it.
I had a good laugh, not as a mocker, but as someone who finds a ball, throws it against a wall causing the ball to bounce back at me and knock me down. It was surprising, unexpected, and overall different than other mods, especially of it's size and nature.
I wouldn't recommend the mod to people who want an authentic kotor experience, but if you can get past the hubris of the modding "elitism," and you have a sense of humor for random things on the internet, even if they are a far cry from their point of origin, then you might just find Cathalan to be quite entertaining. All this to say, there are very good reasons why most people do not recommend this mod. Despite the many years from its creation, its infamy lives on.
The wax-philosophical question is.....
What tint are your sunglasses?
*Note* The term modding "elitism" is not intended to criticize or advocate censorship of modders' criticism/critiques/comments or other (within reason) rationality. Nor does it disregard the valid critiques and claims brought against the mod and its author. The sole purpose of this term is to recognize bias and the arrogance behind that bias that may or may not have been previously or continually held. Used within this context, though there may be "elitism," take care to not let that bias be the sole factor of judgement.