Logan23

Developer?s Blog 4.0 In this developer?s blog we will look at the struggles in building a large mod like Revenge of Revan. When taking on a project which not only adds a new story but also involves new planets can be a bit over whelming at first. To build something like this you first have to understand the game?s mechanics and understand what the limitations are for the game engine. I can not over stress this since many times we get caught up with non game mechanic details. The end goal is to make the Mod work with little to no bugs. When I started to build this mod I had to learn how to connect modules, skin them so you can reuse the same module again if you wish to and get my head around the world of scripting. My brother is a programmer so I had a academic understanding of code but writing it is something totally different since one little mistake can cause you to spend 10 minutes trying to figure out why the script will not fire like you wanted. There is a learning curve. This is something you always think will be a few weeks but it ends up longer. I discovered that it took me about 8 months get past mine. Those were 8 hard months of making mistakes and breaking down how the game is put together in the mechanics. After awhile you will get the hang of it. What I did to limit bugs and issues was to not re-invent the wheel. I focus on simple basic scripts which help out a lot. I say unless you are a natural at scripting, keep it simple. Examples from my RoR?s production?. Everyone knows that Malachor V is in RoR and when building the planet and placing the quests into the planet I had a major issue. I had two slight versions of Malachor V since you can choose if kotor2 ended with light side or dark side endings. I first tried to script the planet so I can have it fire spawns of certain NPCs depending of the ending of kotor2 but then there were some bugs plus if I wanted to try to push both versions to be a bit more different from each other that created more scripting issues. The conclusion was to create 2 versions of certain modules. One version was for light side kotor2 ending and the other was dark side kotor2 ending. This may have added more modules to the size of the mod but it also removed any issues of bugs related to this problem. Be flexible in your production of the Mod. There will be cut content just because of the limited resources. Have a core plot and allow planets to develop as you build them, don?t lock yourself in a corner due to your writing. As a former construction manager and a back ground in graphic design I knew that when building a project this size you have to have a project schedule. This is not a schedule in the form of a dead line but a schedule to know that certain things will hold up the production of other areas like VOs. Now I will go into how you can build most of the mod all at the same time without waiting for one area to be done before another. This is all part of production meaning you already decided on which modules will represent which planets and the core plot is done even if the script/dialogues are not finalized. You can start NPC placement by taking the module which you are going to use even if it?s not re-skinned and get the location of the core NPCs. These would be merchants, quest givers, and any other important characters or place able. You can even place dummy dlg in them stating if they are selling something or they want to give you a quest or even play pazzak. One thing I have learned it means a lot to have moving NPCs. You can select a few to either have random walking and random re-walking after you talk to them or you can have the waypoints setup. While you?re doing this you can be connecting and building the actual real in-game modules. You change the waypoints and transitions to match the way you want the planet to be connected. I do agree when building the game to build from the first module when it comes to content but you can jump around to another planet for things like NPC placement and skinning. This is good to do in case you get bogged down or feel like you need a fresh new area to play with to increase your drive in the project. Take a lot of notes! I have notepads filled with notes and the XYZ locations of just about every NPC or place able there is that was new. Note pads are also great to plan out quests and you can then make a list of waypoints needed as well as script to use to make the quest active. Again don?t worry about final dialogue or lip-sync. You can place in dlg with the scripts that will fire when the PC decides on a choice in the dlg. By doing this you can test it and see if it fires correctly. Later you can place in the final dialogue and then the lips. After all this is done you can then merge them into the in-game module to test where you can play the module and check for early balance issues. This is also where you can place in the proper dialogue. Once all of this is working?..then comes what I call pre-beta. Pre-beta is where you have someone play through the modules and give feed back. Now remember there is still more NPC fillers need to be put into the modules as well as any re-skinning of the module if you have not done it already. Once the pre-beta of that section is done and tested you can then finalize dialogue and move to placing lip syncs and get VOs created. This is also where you might tweak scenes and quests. Plus the feed back can be great in having them suggest ideas for quests or NPCs that would be fun to see in the module. Then after this comes Polishing and then Beta testing of all the sections of the Pre-betas as a whole game. After looking at the feedback for the testers you can do the proper tweaking plus game balancing?..which leads you can move to final polishing. Game assets like new skinned armors, light saber hilts, and weapons can be introduced as late as Beta testing as well as Final Polishing. Tweaking the module?s skins can also be done late since they will not affect the game?s mechanics. As for Bink movies these can even be done during the final Polish or after since all you need is a dummy movie to run when you want one to play just to make sure the game runs proper. Once the Bink movie is ready it can easily be slipped into the game causing no issues since you had a marker placed in the scripting till the proper asset is finished. One last note on scripting, create a word document in place any scripting that was using in your mod so you can always jump back to the word document to find the script that you wish to tweak and re-use. Also search Lucas forums for scripting issues and when you come across a script that you know you will be using or will need for reference, copy and paste it into your word document so you have a library of scripts to look at to help you build the script you will need for your quest building, cut scene. Etc. If you have any questions on this Blog or wish to hear more detail on a certain part of it feel free to ask in the Forum and I will see if I can help answer or clear anything up. MORE TO COME..... Logan

The Lightsaber creations system/Progressive system Here is the Modcast link for download and youtube: The youtube was just added so the image of the video will get better once its done processing the video I will not just go into how the system works but I will also touch on how it will be implemented into the mod which will allow the game to be balanced. During the game there will be points where you will find damaged lightsaber hilts which will come from enemies who use a saber or found hidden within the game. This will allow me to control the number of lightsabers you can build and keep your items list from being clogged. Once you have a damaged saber hilt you can then go to the workbench and select to create a new lightsaber. You will then create a general blue color lightsaber from the damaged hilt piece. After you are done with this the workbench screen will ask you to choose a progression style. Each style will also have its own lightsaber hilt name. The player will have a few styles to select from which are based on lightsaber fighting forms like Makashi and Shii-Cho. Once you choose the style you will then choose the color of the crystal you will use to make this Style/Form Crystal. You will only be able to have one blue Makashi style crystal since if you have 2 and you go to change styles it will destroy all with the blue Makashi style tag. You can have a green, yellow and blue Makashi style crystals just not 2 of the same color for that style. You then can go in and upgrade your basic lightsaber with the new color/style crystal which will then change the hilt and add the bonuses to the saber. Each style will have its own personality and bonuses which reflect that type of fighting style. Many of these saber styles will add bonuses to areas which other upgrades don?t. As you progress in your PC?s levels you will be able to go back and update the style crystal to the next level. I plan to have the style crystals increase levels every three levels the PC gains. You will be able to jump from one style to another by simply removing the crystal from the saber and then go into the workbench and select that style crystal which gives you choices in the styles you can change them to. If you do not like the style then simply change it back there are not penalties. This system is meant to be user friendly and bug free. Going back to the selection of crystals colors; Revenge of Revan will be doing something different because of the way the lightsaber creation operates. In the game you will start off with the option of blue, yellow and green for the colors of your style crystals. In the game you will find out that a friend of Kaila has just stolen some crystals which they thought were very expensive but instead they ended up stealing a shipment of crystals which are used by the Jedi for their lightsabers. Kaila will strike a deal and the stolen blue, green, and yellow lightsaber crystals will be sent to your ship the Raptor. During you adventure you can pay for this smuggler to hand over other lightsaber crystal colors or you can try to find stashes of these during your adventure which might include buying from merchants. Once you have the new crystal color then you will be able to use that crystal color in creating your new style crystal. When changing styles the crystal will transfer to that same color. Later in the game there will be an option to transfer then to different color crystals. Balancing the System with existing upgrades for your lightsaber: To balance the system so you don?t end up with over powered lightsabers I have decided that the two extra crystal upgrades will be items which are hard to find and will sometimes be involved with side quests and other side missions. There might be a few that can be bought but I plan to keep many of them as rare. This means while conducting a side quest you might want to look around since you might only get one shot to get the crystal without paying. More details on these upgrade crystals will come later as we balance the game. As for the Lenses, Cells, and Emitters; they are 90-95 percent crafted items. This will give a player a purpose to do some crafting for their sabers. I will be looking over the present crafting system in the game to see if the itemcreate.2da needs to be tweak for these three lightsaber upgrades. I have not disclosed the double sided lightsaber but I have an idea how it will work. There will be not building of short sabers since there are few skins and in most cases players rather use two lightsabers verse a short saber with the other lightsaber. The number of how many lightsaber styles there will be is still not decided but you will come across more styles by unlocking them from holocrons, party members, or even some NPCs. I would like to say thanks to DarthParametric and Trigger for allowing me to use their amazing saber hilts for the demo video/modcast and also to allow me to use some of their saber hilt for the Revenge of Revan Mod. If you have any feedback or questions feel free to ask in this thread. MORE TO COME........ Logan

Developer Blog 5.0 Game play/Quests and Pacing the Game: This blog go over some of the game?s pacing. One of the things I wanted to keep was the basic pacing of the other two kotor games. In Revenge of Revan the quests are broken into a few types. There is the main game quest which is the main quests for each planet and the over all quest of the game. I?m working on making each of these quests end up with issues that will get in the way and keep the quests from going being so strait forward. These are the largest of the quests. There will also be side quests which start due to an event in the main quest and will jump in and out as you play the game. These quests run parallel to the main quest in the game. An example of this is the tension between the Exchange and the Hutts and also a few others which I can?t talk about right now. Then there the optional side quests which are Bounty hunter quests, smuggler quests as well as other threads that can be taken but will be used as tools to gain experience, hidden items and to allow the player to gain and lose trust with party members. These are meant to not affect the main quest but are tools to help define your PC more as well as your bond with your party members. Then I have instant quest/events which are the type of quest where you come across a NPC who is being threatened and you can either do something or just ignore it. This is great since these optional side quests and instant quests/events can easily be added to new versions of the game without worry about throwing off the main quest?s pacing or story. With pacing of Revenge of Revan I am trying to make sure that new events are happening as you jump in and out of modules as the game progresses. An Example of this is when you re enter a module with a NPC that asked for help earlier wither you said yes or no,..or even you didn?t talk to the npc..at a certain point you will see a group threaten the npc about the situation they have with him. The player then will be able to jump in or let the npc face their fate. The npc will react due to your interaction or lack of one with him earlier. This will break up the feeling of running from already visited module to module and feel empty or everything is done. I will be adding new npcs or quests as the game progresses and you return to this module you already visited. Revenge of Revan will follow the same kotor model of exploring and then events of combat but I want to make the game about the PC?s journey as you define your PC?s past and present. I will remind everyone that Demo 1.0 will not have all the quests but the quests in the Demo will give you an idea where the game is going. the missing quests and content will be in Demo 2.0 which will be half the game. MORE TO COME..... Logan

Developer?s Blog 2.0 In my last Blog I mentioned one on story. Before I start I want to talk about kotor1 and kotor2. Both games had a great story but both also had flaws. In kotor1 you got the traditional star wars story with a nice twist. In kotor2 you got a deeper personal story but you never really feel like you connect to the Exile like you did with Revan. In both of these games they brought something great to the table. When I started RoR I didn?t want to make it as if I just drop the idea of what happen to Revan and the Exile since they are corner stones in the kotor universe. I also didn?t want the Mod to be about all the former party members since it would lack originality. What I have learned is you start with something familiar when building a story. You can have cameos of past characters and talk about past events in kotor1/2 but then you must build your own chapter. Once you bring in the audience into your world then you can shift the story to new directions like kotor2 did. The story?s execution and dialogues are constantly being tweaked in pre-beta to make the game better and flow with more ease. To create a compelling story you need party members and other characters to help bring them to life and to help the player to connect with the PC so they care about what they do in this world of kotor. I will expand on this topic on my next Developer?s Blog?? MORE TO COME...... Logan

I will be updating this thread very soon with all the material and more. logan