Markus Ramikin

Being asked "What do you hate about TSLRCM" on the TSLRCM forum feels kinda like being asked "What are your weaknesses" on a job interview - one feels wary of answering too honestly or in too much detail But I'll do so anyway. 1. The changed outcome of Mira's and PC's imprisonment by Visquis. In vanilla Kotor 2 the PC is freed from Visquis' trapped tunnels by Mira. In TSLRCM this is removed, and Visquis makes the decision to open the tunnels himself. This is stupid. It used to be the player's own efforts freed the PC, which felt good. But in TSLRCM the only reason you don't just die there is that the antagonist is an idiot, which feels unsatisfying, especially since it's not just a "restoration" but a CHANGE to existing story elements. (Disclaimer: this is based on my memories of, I think, TSLRCM 1.6. I'm only starting a playthrough of 1.8.3 but after skimming changelogs I assume this comment still applies.) 2. Saedhe's head on Dantooine. Of all the decisions to change something in TSLRCM that baffle me, this one does so the most, because it's a simple change and yet obviously wrong, and in no way necessary. As someone earlier said, "He has the voice of an old black man and had a head that matched. Now he has the head of a middle-aged white man." 3. The dialogue added to T3 in the Prologue. The whole genius of the character of T3 in vanilla Kotor 2 is that he never says a word you can understand, and yet he's got more personality than most npcs in Kotor 1. You infer it all from the tone, context, the reactions of others. I believe this effect doesn't work as well as it used to, if the player is initially spoiled by getting real dialogue from him, and then that is inexplicably taken away for the rest of the game. Besides, the dialogue is incomplete and makes no sense. The other droid's advise is always "fix the problem outside the ship" or "the hyperdrive needs work" - and this depends only on how much he likes you! This makes no sense if you've already been outside the ship and collected parts/mines, and especially if you've already fixed the hyperdrive and just need to travel to Peragus. Of course this could be improved by making the dialogue depend on the tasks you've completed, instead, and making the option to ask his advice disappear completely if the hyperdrive is fixed. Or add a "use the galaxy map" advice line. Still, the line about "fixing the problem outside the ship" makes no sense, period, because you don't fix anything outside the ship, you just collect parts. Besides, if this is a tutorial level, preparing you for the rest of the game, then the player should be learning to use the journal to keep track of what needs doing, not rely on an NPC mechanic that won't be there for the rest of the game. This isn't PS:T and we won't have Morte telling us what to do the whole game. Lastly, it feels vaguely wrong to get personality choices for T3 (be nice to the other droid or call him an idiot). T3 is not the PC; his character is set (we know from elsewhere he doesn't approve of being unpleasant to other droids), and there's no need to give him choices like you were going to develop his personality or alignment. So yeah, this is a minor issue, but the addition just doesn't feel like it fits the game.

In Kotor 1, to get +1 skill points per level you need +4 intelligence. For instance, a scout with 10 int will gain his base of 3 points, and with 14 int he'll gain 4 points. In Kotor 2, you only need +2 intelligence to get +1 skill point, so a class starting with 3 will get 4 at 12 int and 5 at 14 int. Is there a way to change this, if I wanted to go back to the Kotor 1 restriction? Or is it hardcoded? Been looking through Kotor Tool, with no luck so far, but I've been known to miss obvious things. The reason I'm asking is that, borrowing ideas from the old Aurora's rebalance mod, I changed all skills to class skills (because I don't like the somewhat arbitrary distribution, nor do I like being unable to get Repair). To compensate for that, I'd prefer to get fewer skill points to distribute.

We have it here, too. http://deadlystream.com/forum/files/file/10-kill-the-ithorian/

Oh yeah. The Dantooine Council theme (whatever it's officially called) running in the freakin' character login screen after I left it alone for a few minutes was a wtf to me. That music is special, and needs to be used appropriately, dammit. Not just stuck in anywhere.

ooops delete please.

Save Ashley or Kaidan? Depends on what character I'm playing. Council lives or dies? Generally dies, even if I'm otherwise Paragon. From my character's non-omniscient POV, risking the fate of the entire battle to save an incompetent group of VIPs is stupid. Udina or Anderson for council? Anderson, of course. Why reward being wrong? I'll just throw in that I liked Pinnacle Station. Probably because the first time I tried it, I was lucky and went there with what seems like precisely the levels and equipment to make it /barely/ beatable, so I had a fun time with the challenge. Later on, when I knew better what I was doing, it was easier and less fun, though I still enjoyed going there on subsequent playthroughs.

Frequent saving in different slots is a goooood habit.

First question: don't ask that here. Second: no.

If you don't mind that that one dialogue line Hassat mentioned becomes nonsensical, unzip the attached file and put it in Override. (This is only for 1.8.2, though, not future releases) I love problems that take 20 seconds to solve. kreia.zip

I'm happy to see my suggestion was found worthwhile. Well done, too.

I've been insanely busy lately, but now that I have time again, I'm going to go back to trying to help out with things. With that in mind, I took a glance at the main page http://deadlystream.com/ ...and tried to put myself in the mindset of a complete newcomer. A hypothetical someone who, in some discussion of how incomplete Kotor 2 was, was told "google Deadly Stream". Now, the main attraction of this site, no matter how much we style it as "home of Star Wars gaming" in general, is, was, and always will be TSLRCM. I think it should be more prominently exposed. A mention on the main page is probably worth considering. Ideally, an actual link, because the mod dropped off the first page of TSL mods listing, and unless someone specifically knows what exactly they are looking for, a user unfamiliar with the site will be statistically less likely to find it. Just a thought/suggestion, does this make sense to the rest of you guys?

That's well put. Another thing I noticed in my last playthrough of K1 is that I do enjoy the finer shades of morality between different NPCs. You have, for instance, Bastila, Carth, Jolee, Zalbaar, Mission as essentially positive characters, but each one has a slightly different morality. Carth is mostly a good guy, but primarily he's loyal to the Republic and that takes precedence over other considerations. He has no problem with you rigging the Sunry trial for instance, as long as it benefits the Republic. He has no problem with you Force Persuading the Cherka officer to give you more credits (and says so), something that would draw a disapproving comment from Bastila. Bastila is kind of Lawful Good with strong Lawful elements - her focal point is the Jedi teachings, and obedience to the Masters. She will try to uphold the Jedi Code in her life very seriously, and will bitch you out if you do things contrary to it. Zalbaar doesn't get much exposition, but the Life Debt thing strikes me as a Lawful trait (well I personally think it's Lawful Stupid ). And we know Wookies are big on the honor thing. Mission is simply good, obviously not very big on the lawful thing. Her sacrifice as she attempts to sway you back if you're Darkside is very moving - this is a person who will lay her life on the line to accomplish a good thing, if it's important enough. She doesn't do it for the Republic or for the Jedi Code, it's just her. Jolee is ostensibly neutral, but really a good guy - his neutrality is more like non-interventionism. I don't remember the exact dialog, but he thinks the Wookies could have thrown off the Czerka if they'd been up to it as a community; just becasue they didn't choose to get their act together doesn't mean they need rescuing by a Jedi. Kreia would have approved, I think. I also see strong paralels between his views on Jedi and love, and Kreia's more general views on how the pre-Exile Jedi teachings were flawed. Okay, I wrote more than I intended, just wanted to bring this stuff up as an example that Bioware writing wasn't exactly bad, even if it had traditional SW themes to it.

Thaaat's better.

Hm, now something else is weird. When I click on Downloads here, I get to this page: http://deadlystream.com/forum/files/ And there, the Knights of the Old Republic section is visible, but The Sith Lords is not. It exists, I can get there indirectly by clicking on the "The latest file submitted was Ithorian Cantina" and then going up one level, but not in the normal way.

VLC actually has problems with this, at least for me and a friend of mine as well. Which came as a surprise as generally VLC can do anything. I rename the files to .mp3 and then listen to them in Winamp. The ones I want to permanently keep or use/send to someone, I rerecord with Audacity.

Haha, point taken .

File Name: Workbench Crystal Attunement File Submitter: Markus Ramikin File Submitted: 28 Dec 2010 File Category: Mods TSLRCM Compatible: Yes This mod allows you to upgrade the personal crystal independently of Kreia. That way you can do that even after Kreia becomes unavailable. The idea behind this mod is that if this crystal you get on Dantooine is so unusually responsive to you, why do you need someone else to keep it attuned? As I see it, the reason is Kreia's being the manipulator and control freak that she is. Most likely she wanted to seem even more indispensable to the Exile. Each time he runs to her with the crystal, it's a subtle reminder that he gains power, but through her. However, what if our Exile was perceptive enough to pick up on the procedure himself? Therefore, with this mod, you can attune the crystal at a workbench, without Kreia's help. However, you must have enough Wisdom (16 or more). That stands for the Exile having sufficient understanding of the Force and of his own connection to the crystal. Hint: if you're playing a combat-oriented character with low Wisdom, you can still meet the Wisdom check with some Wisdom-increasing items and/or Force Valor. Click here to download this file

*awed whisper* nice...

Hm, could this be made to work in K1? Sithspectre's is interesting but it has a minor thing that nevertheless annoys me, namely that if wearing his robe, and drawing my lightsabers while running, I somehow get no sound...

I take it we're not running a family-friendly board

I'll just add that I strongly disagree with this. Boring generic planet with things like the Promised Land plot? Meh, it'll do, but get me to my Jedi levels soon pls. A horror survival level/puzzle with apocalyptic logs in every terminal, a mastermind assassin droid who himself is an inferior copy of our favorite badass droid, taking out a few dozen people without anyone suspecting, and yet almost cackling with glee as he talks to you about it? Hell yeah. Sure, it -looks- a bit drab and is fairly empty of characters (except a lot of dead ones on the holos), but thematically I loved it a great deal more. Taris vs Telos Citadel Station on the other hand...