Ebony Moon

On 4/14/2020 at 11:46 AM, Talyn82 said:

I've had this mod since RedHawke first released it on their site.  Is this mod compatible with TSLRCM?

Yes. I've been using this mod for some time with TSLRCM.

Beware of strange Sith Holocrons....

1 minute ago, SovereignXII said:

Yeah, to be honest, while I don't have the CP installed anymore I'm, quite happy with my current setup. The only issues I wish I could get a standalone fix for would be Deadeye Duncan not leaving after speaking to him on Manaan, the restoration mod I use to bring him back is pretty old so I imagine that's the issue with him not leaving. The Bastila thing of course, and also the Sound Dampening issue with the Assassin Droid on Korriban.

If I could get fixes for those 3 things my KOTOR setup would be perfection. 👌

I've played KOTOR on console for so long there are certain things that I will miss if any of the all in one packs change them. Plus some of the mods I use are not compatible with K1r - and probably not with the other one, too.

I think there are a couple of mods that put Deadeye Duncan on Manaan. I use the deadeye_man.zip by Darth333. There is a line you can say that dismisses him, it's along the lines of saying goodbye,  so long, which makes him walk away and fade out.

I try to find some of the individual fixit mods. Like that glow rod one you posted about before. I use mods, also, that restore things to what they were like on console, like Xor being human, not that purple twi'lek. Fortunately there's an individual mod for that.

It would be nice to have a Bastila Vision fix standalone. I would do it myself but my expertise is very limited.

12 hours ago, Oaks said:

I will send to you in the next days ok?

Could I have a copy of the pike mod, too, please?

And the The spinning lightsaber of the inquisitor from rebels?

TIA.

On 2/20/2020 at 2:40 PM, Haveayap said:

http://www.jumpstationz.com/ModsArchive/ it is the biggest archive of old mods on the net sadly, I downloaded all of the ones i still use time to time. Thanks for letting us know BTW!

It's well worth picking through these old mods. One I recommend is Veridical/deesra_expanded.zip. It gives the Twi'lek Jedi in the entrance of the Jedi Enclave (K1) more lines to explain the Jedi Code more in depth, the way Yuthura Ban does with the Sith Code . It's well written, with no grammatical or spelling errors. And it works with K1R.

There's a ModsArchive.zip there to download all of the mods at once, at 526M. Everyone should download that so these mods will not disappear.  There is a lot of Furio mods in there, too.

I use/have used most of Redhawke's mods in both K1 and TSL, really recommend downloading all of those. They do tend to be overpowered as they were meant to be used with the highest difficulty. But I recommend them for those who aren't so great at video games like myself. 

22 hours ago, Alvar007 said:

That's good to know Salk, thanks! I have now learned how to use TSLPatcher and it's going to be useful for the Selkath mod.

Also, for anyone interested, as per @Liserg's request I managed to fix the animations for Darth Malak so that he can now use all the animations from the humanoid supermodels including the cutscene ones while maintaining his original ones as you can see here:

I added a custom portrait for him as well, and made him selectable in the character creation menu.

I also ported both Nihilus and Malak (the latter having all the additional animations from K2) to K1 and K2 respectively:

Anyway, I could make a mod release for Malak at least if someone is interested.

Both Sith Lords selectable in both games would be awesome. Would love to see the Malak one. Thank you for your work.

5 hours ago, Mellowtron11 said:

I think the Exile moved around the outer rim going from job to job. At least that's what the player gathers in talking to Bao Dur about what he did post Mandolorian War. 

 

That's the impression I get. The Exile must have remained distant from heavy civilization or from where Jedi or any Force users would be. Maybe trying to forget, or perhaps enjoying the freedom, depending on the individual take.

3 hours ago, Drago-Morph said:

In the hex editor I used (HxD) there's an option to search and/or replace, and a further option to specify whether you want to search/replace text strings or hex strings. I also know exactly zero about hex editing, I just assumed that a 0-value would function as a placeholder so the file wouldn't crash my game. So I used this text-to-hex converter to translate "w_lsabregren01" into hex, then translated "w_lsabrered01" into hex and added "00" to the end. Then I just search and replaced the original hex string with the new one.

Thank you!

It works!

53 minutes ago, Drago-Morph said:

so I just had to edit the hex string directly and voila, red sabers!

How did you do this? I'm completely new to hex editing and want to learn.

I didn't have the the time to test it, but I looked at the sabers in a hex editor. It seems they have 3 or 4 lines with the lightsaber color that needs to be changed. The hex value seems to be 77 if you use the search. Or search for w_lsabre. That's all I can think of.

You'll need a hex editor to edit the .mdl files.

Someone posted some instructions at the bottom of the first posts page here: https://www.nexusmods.com/kotor/mods/14

3 hours ago, Canderis said:

I mean, they did a great job with the homicidal droid turned pacifist companion in the Mandalorian.

I thought the same,  but we really didn't get to know that droid too well before it was reprogrammed. HK-47 is too established. Besides, like Talyn's signature says, it's already been done, if briefly.

4 hours ago, bead-v said:

Stumbled upon this by chance:

https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/a-star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic-sequel-is-reportedly-in-the-works-at-ea/

I have a bad feeling about this...

They can't leave it alone. Too much a cash flow. 

Disney makes the crappiest villains and they will not understand Revan or Malak.

Haven't they screwed over Revan enough?

"integrate elements from the first two games in order to bring certain things into the current Star Wars canon."

They will completely trash Tales of the Jedi lore just as this Sith Empire business did.

Found it

https://www.gamefront.com/games/knights-of-the-old-republic/file/glow-rod-restoration

for anyone else looking for this.

1 hour ago, Talyn82 said:

It's just in history he will always be considered the lesser of the two for his lack of finesse

This is true. Some people take that as a sign that Malak was simply incompetent, or something, without understanding what was really said.

1 hour ago, Talyn82 said:

That's why I prefer K1 Revan over K2 Revan.

I do too. The difference is subtle yet profound. They give Revan all this credit and glorify him, yet they don't realize that Revan had accomplished some degree of what the Exile is known for. Mastering something outside the Force. Revan became adept at strategy and warfare. And there was some 7, 8, 9 levels on Taris with no reliance on the Force at all? Something like that cannot be simply programmed into someone's mind. The Exile is still unique by knowingly and willingly turning away from the Force, but I find it odd that with all of the glorifying of Revan there is no mention  of what he accomplished outside the Force. Then there was that underwater adventure on Manaan. No Force, no skills, just reaction time and thinking without reliance on anyone or anything else. We don't get something like that in K2. People who think K1 is too much a trope or doesn't challenge concepts like K2 forget how Manaan turns everything upside down. Yeah, Revan was retconned beginning with K2 and changed into someone having visions and relying entirely on the Force by SWOTOR lore.

1 hour ago, Talyn82 said:

Cause either in K1 or K2 Canderous says that before the war the Mandalorians had never seen Jedi in battle

Canderous isn't always completely clear in K1, but it's kind of a given that he was referring to the Exar Kun war where the Mandalorians were first brought into contact with the Jedi. So by the time of Mandalore Ultimate, they had experienced battle with Jedi and expected Kavar. Canderous did say that he had been fighting for 40 years or so, so he must of been a fresh kid on the battle field in the Exar Kun War.

1 hour ago, Talyn82 said:

HK himself says when he regains his full memory that Malak was the first organic he ever called meatbag.  He says it made Malak furious and that Revan made it apart of his programming

That was pretty funny. HK said it was extreme lengths of frustration. I get the impression that Malak was more a of level headed sort, but serious, so something like that would have aggravated him.

1 hour ago, Talyn82 said:

I agree Malak was smart in the vision Revan and Bastila have when they first land on Dantooine.  It seemed like Malak was the cautious one of the two, and warned Revan if they entered the ruins they can never go back to the Council. 

I think the character of Malak in this scene tends to be ignored because it wasn't presented in rich dialogue directly at the player. So Malak and K1 gets dismissed as bland and tropish. I don't know how many times I've seen Malak described as bland, 1 dimensional villain, and Sion is so much better. Not that Sion is bad, he's been presented in dialogue which tends to be noticed by most players it seems.

This scene gave a lot of depth to Malak and it is one of my favorite in the game because of that, because we get to see what Malak was like before and what character he had. Definitely serious, thoughtful, didn't do anything rashly. Revan was probably more forward, more of a hothead... Revan was described as headstrong and willful by one of the Jedi on the Council. I think Zhar.

It's interesting how much can be conveyed in those cut-scenes. How attached to Dantooine Kreia must really be but never lets on. And the presentation of Malak that gets so overlooked.

Maybe the Exile could have been writing anonymously for a gossip rag like National Enquirer of what Revan and Malak were really like behind the scenes and what they wer like as obnoxious padawans.

1 hour ago, Talyn82 said:

But even in K1 they made Malak seem the dumber of the two.

I don't think they did in K1. All humor aside, it was emphasized that Malak was dangerous and was growing stronger. He was a real threat to the Republic. Before the days of Palpatine, I consider Darth Malak to be the most successful Sith Lord because he came so close to conquering the Republic.

Master Dorak commented that Malak wasn't the strategic genius that Revan was. Master Zhar said that of the two Malak was the follower. None of this means that Malak was stupid. Malkak was smart and competent enough to command Admrial Karath's allegiance, Admiral Karath lending his strategic know how to the Sith Fleet as Admiral Thrawn did for Palpatine. No one has ever criticized  Palpatine for not being a genius at strategy. As for Ulic Qel Droma and Exar Kun being masters of strategy, that's debatable. Ulic insisted on doing his own thing against Exar's warnings., and Exar himself was rather unstable.

One might cite the destruction of Taris as a sign of Malak's stupidity, or lack of finesse, but was it really a strategic blunder? In the face of what Malak was dealing with at the time, it was a matter of expedition. A necessary sacrifice.  As for the infamous destruction of Telos, even K2 says that it was Revan who initially wanted Telos destroyed because that was where the Jedi were going to hide.

There was the humor of HK-47 first calling Malak a meatbag, but HK admitted that he rather liked Malak because Malak was brutal and efficient. 

Malak was the one who learned of the real powers of the Star Forge. He calls you stupid for seeing the Star Forge as only a means of producing more ships. And think of the groundwork Malak had laid in turning most of the fleet against Revan so when the opportunity came to betray Revan, Malak effortlessly stepped in and executed it. That was a stroke of genius. I see my dark side Revan, in that final duel, telling Malak that he was impressed with how Malak had accomplished that.

Bastila warns you, not in so many words but in effect, to not be too confident or cocky about facing Malak.

About that scene in K2 where Kreia confronts the Jedi Masters, if you are playing a female Exile, she tells the Jedi that "You will not harm her." That was awesome. Yeah, that was a good scene. Another part that really stood out to me was when Kreia first walks in, and touches the tree planter before she sits down. In that simple gesture all the weight and weariness she is carrying and what Dantooine really meant for her comes through. It makes her so human.

Kreia says that at Dantooine, after the Exile and Kreia meet/confront the Jedi. That's when he Exile is still on the ground after the Jedi Council attempted to Force Block the Exile. Kreia kneels by the Exile and says something to the effect of, "Now I understand your choice at Malachor. You left because you were afraid." Don't remember the exact words.

2 hours ago, Talyn82 said:

I always saw Revan as the manipulator and Malak the muscle.

Excellent comparison. An aside, I get tired of the whole "Malak was an idiot. Revan was sooo much better." K2 is very much guilty of this, the writers seem to have been oblivious to the unspoken nuances of K1. Don't even get me started on the Miller comics on how they treated Malak. Revan and Malak were very complimentary to each other. If Malak was such a moron, why did Revan have him as his closest friend? Malak represents direct action and direct thinking, which is preferable in many situations.

Sometimes people are aware of you using Dominate Mind even if it works. Try it on Komad Fortuna in the hunting club and he gives you this look.

2 hours ago, SovereignXII said:

I'm actually curious, because I can't find an answer online. Is there ever a (lightside) time where Persuade will never work but Dominate Mind does?

It depends on the situation. The game may not give light side/dark side points for some Dominate Mind choices, but for the element of rp, if you are into that, it can matter. If you are using it to take advantage of someone it could be dark, but to get past an obstacle the way Obi-Wan had with storm troopers for a end means of a greater good, it wouldn't be dark.

Force Persuading a Czerka official out of paying docking fees might be all right because you refuse to give credits to a corrupt and evil organization. However using Force Persuade to not have to pay Manaan their fees is a form of theft, so it should not be used there by a conscientious Jedi, though regular persuasion is fine.

One situation is where you can Force persuade Sharina Fizark on Tatooine to give the wraid plate to sell to Fasa, but that's kind of skeevy, imo, even if you were to give her the max of 700 credits after selling it. The better to normal persuade her into trusting you. Even my darksider prefers regular persuasion, unless it is to terrorize people with Dominate Mind. He a complete jerk anyways, lol.

Persuasion skill  is generally fair game because the other person's free will remains intact, and if you don't have the intention of exploiting them. A light sided Jedi should focus on persuasion, since Jedi are supposedly peace keepers and diplomatic anyways. Force persuasion should be used as a last resort, although you should always pick the two Force persuade powers because you never know what you are going to run into, like Obi Wan with the storm troopers.

Persuade is the most important skill in KOTOR, imo. And you can't neglect the two mind powers

It seems to imply that the Exile cut away from the Force voluntarily at that point. And Kreia says it was out of fear. "Because you were afraid."

Atton's views may be a little colored by his experience. He had gotten to see the Jedi as defenseless because he had gotten adept at killing them. Or at least killing Jedi who had grown up sheltered in the Temple or Enclave. And it's compounded by his desire to atone somehow for killing so many. Plus the Exile is seemingly still cut off from the Force, something that Atton had to be wary of when assassinating Jedi- Force powers. Still, it was an odd question to ask Kreia about someone who had proven quite adept at fighting through a bunch of droids and Sith on Peragus.

22 minutes ago, Talyn82 said:

That's the beauty of not knowing what the Exile had been doing for the past five years.  You can make up whatever you want.  I like the idea of an evil aligned Exile working as an enforcer for a Hutt, and who wouldn't hire an ex-Jedi they are known to be tough, and even though Kreia says that when a Jedi is stripped from the Force they are left vulnerable.  The Exile learned how to live without it.  That's what makes him unique, and why Kreia sought him out.

I find the part about any Jedi without the Force to be vulnerable to be somewhat an exaggeration, thought it is most likely the case in more inexperienced or the more run of the mill Jedi trained by the Council. A seasoned Jedi who has worked any time outside the Enclave, Temple, or the archives, is likely to have some skills to fall back on. some have had to do that working undercover. I think it is more the case that they adhere so much to the belief that the Force is end all be all and many rely too much on it. It's the decision to turn away from the Force and have nothing more to do with it is what makes the Exile unique. Although I don't really see in my Exile that it was fear that made him turn away. He was just tired of Revan and all of the control stuff. Though I don't go with this thing about Revan using Force techniques to make others loyal to him. It's too gimicky. K2 was rather taking license with Revan in a lot of ways, imo, changing what Revan really was, or, what I saw Revan as in K1. But that's another story.

Yeah, that whole thing with Aleema and Ulic never really telling Mandalore about Exar Kun before Exar Kun showed up by holo and bossing everyone around made me feel that the Mandalorians would never trust the Jedi or the Sith ever again, no matter the reason or situation. Just being in an expansionist phase of bringing the clans back after the ruin of the Exar Kun war and having a taste of warring against the Republic, and revenge as well is more than enough for the Mandalorians to rise again, first testing the Republic by invading worlds just outside Republic territories as Canderous said. In the comics, they had Rohan, the Mandalorian who left the clans, say that the numbers don't add up, the purpose of this character was that Mandalore was taking orders, or at least intel from the supposed Sith Empire. No, no, no. SMH. A warrior culture on the rise is expansionist by nature, and to test the target by taking territory just outside the Republic bit by bit is a standard strategy., also giving them a chance to slowly build up for a massive offensive. The Jedi Council was absolutely wrong in not doing anything about it.

Yeah, a Hutt enforcer, a smuggler, or, for a light sided Exile, another option could be working for a medical corps. Volunteer work wherever it was needed among refugees of the past war. Maybe making up in small ways for the destruction of Malachor V.

The fanatics miss the point of the game being fun.

I had read the Tales of the Jedi shortly before playing KOTOR and recognized a lot of it in the game.

Actually it is technically correct that the Mandalorians were in allegiance with Exar Kun because Ulic was supposed to answer to Exar. Even if Mandalore didn't know at first who Exar Kun was. Because of the deception practiced by the three- Droma, Kun, and Aleema Keto, and how the war against the Republic was conducted, and the Mandalorians themselves being nearly destroyed, I can't see how the Mandalorians would have allowed themselves later to be tricked again or used by the Sith. They aren't stupid. According to clasical warfare there was plenty of reasons for the Mandalorians to attack the Republic again, which is where Revan comes in decades later. At that point the Mandalorians would see the Sith and Jedi as being two sides of the same faction and to get entangled with them meant destruction of their clans. Why they attacked the Republic later would be out of revenge, to make the Clans stronger, and simple expansionism as the new clans grew under the new Mandalore.

Well, anyways, not to derail this thread completely, can you imagine the Exile being a Hutt enforcer during those years of wandering? Hanging around places like Tatooine and being a smuggler? 
 

1 hour ago, Talyn82 said:

Yep, don't know why "fans" today want everything written out for them, instead of using their own imagination and filling in the blanks. 

.....

After reading Tales of the Jedi I really liked Ulic's story, and how after he was cut off from the Force he exiled himself to an uninhabited planet, to reflect on his war crimes.  I imagine the Exile could have followed a similar path.  Or not he could have made independent porn lol.  But I like your idea.  That's why I prefer characters to be non canonized like in K2.  Revan could be lightside or darkside, male or female.  It was up to the player.  That's how it should be.

 

There's a certain set of fans who tend to want to keep the lore like a museum piece, not to be sullied by independent imagination. They want the story to be kept perfect and in complete continuity. You see that a lot in today's Morrowind fandom. I have seen it here and in some forums. They want to keep the Tribunal in sacred awe in a museum. Lore isn't supposed to be like that, it's supposed to be dynamic and living. Vibrant. Like everyone had impressions of those old great myth makers the Greeks. Everyone assumed their classic statues were pure, pristine, and serene and unmovable in time. Research revealed that the Greeks painted those statues in brilliant colors and the Greeks were a dynamic people, not ivory towered scholars. The devs are god, their words, whether those words make it into the game, or is fourth walled in later on, are divine decree. Unless they had left the team. Like Michael Kirkbride. He later said that Morrowind, the Elder Scrolls, was supposed to be open ended, the player's experience. i.e. the Coda. The so called purists derided him.

I came across a bit that had been posted on 4chan. One of Morrowind's writers left the project because he was opposed to how Bethesda wanted to make Morrowind with a strict continuity. That was when corporate thinking started in video gaming, I suspect. They wanted a linear plot to continue a series.

Yeah, the original writers of some of these games took a turn or two at table top rpg. In fact, the guy on the KOTOR team named Revan took the name from one of his villains in his old Dungeons and Dragons world. Which is absolutely awesome. Because that's how I named my first character in KOTOR, after one of my old anti-paladins in my game world tthat I DM'd. Dark sider. Played him like he was going to become a Sith Lord. Because why not? I always wanted to play a Sith Lord but no GM would let me. I had absolutely no idea what this game was about, I was completely un spoilered. And did it deliver.

I wonder, exactly why was it declined that KOTOR could use Nomi and the other characters? One would thnk Dark Horse, or the writers would be thrilled, as well as welcome the income. But, I wonder, if the writers of The Tales of the Jedi saw what was proposed- this "dev's intentions" of a Sith Empire that would have survived Naga Sadow and Ludo Kressh?

I bet Kevin James Anderson said no. Because that would have made the characters Ulic Qel Droma and Exar Kun pointless if some Sith near gods, or some grotty old Sith Emperor was in the dark and Exar Kun not THE Dark Lord of the Sith. The theme of the Golden Age of the Sith is that empires cannot last under the divisive rule of dark siders, but the dark flame was passed on to fallen Jedi of the modern galaxy. The retcon goes against that.

On 1/2/2020 at 9:53 PM, Talyn82 said:

But after the revelation you are a given a predefined backstory.  That's why I hate when video game companies canonize our favorite characters.  They are never what we envisioned. 

 

Had these games been written in the 80s or 90s this would have never happened. The spirit was different then. More open ended because that was when what I called the golden age of role playing and infinite variations was the rule.  One of the writers of the Dragonlance series stated that he didn't care that if some of the stories that spun out of the original Dragon Lance books conflicted, because that is what mythology and classic lore has always been like, some accounts don't line up with others.

Dungeons and Dragons and other table top rpgs focused on the player's experience and their stories.

Today you have people who want to be told what the characters are, the characters and their backgrounds written out for them. People who wanted Revan written for them actually used the word "closure" in wanting to know what happened to Revan. So the corporate powers that be indulged them. 

Kevin James Anderson, one of the authors of Tales of the Jedi, even had a suggestion through one of the characters of the Jedi Academy that the time after the Golden Age of the Sith be left largely unknown, or be just legends- funny how Disney is doing that, however, I do not like the idea of these movies they are making of the Old Republic. What else are they going to ruin? What's worse you got those who dogmatically cling to lore like it is linear, not a  rich tapestry,  are going to love the movies and argue that mods and viewpoints must align with the lore, etc.

Remember the Dragon Broke that came out of Morrowind? That was the old guard who respected variations of lore going out while the new guard of linear continuity stepped in. That's why there's hints that Morrowind was supposed to be have at least two different paths, siding with the Tribunal, or with Dagoth Ur. You were supposed to be able to speak with the Heartwights - and they were telling you it wasn't too late to change your mind and join them instead. That's how Mad God was able to write his mod and work so well.

And today we have Revan who, I heard, was made to go dark side again in the MMO and so he could be killed, and the Exile, his number one fangirl getting stabbed in the back so she could be a ghost cheer leader for poor Revan carrying on a mental battle with the so called emperor of the retconned(yes) Sith Empire. (KJA meant for the new Sith Empire be the one re-established by Exar Kun, not something lurking in the background somewhere.) K1 and K2 borrowed heavily from the Tales of the Jedi.  K1 was supposed to be a sequel. "Dev's intentions" of a Sith Empire that survived Marka Ragnos is retcon to the Tales of the Jedi.

That's why I am cautious of asking what did the character do during this time, someone will be all to glad to fill that in for everyone.

My Exile would laugh at the "canon" version. Right, like Revan would be stupid enough to go off by himself deep into no where. And I'll just tag alone and be his cheering squad. What spice are you chewing? Yeah, he's a smart ass, too. He keeps Visas Mar around. 

I much prefer the non-restored ending of K2, and the purpose of rebuilding the Jedi Order. Or Sith. It has a greater purpose, imo, than just sending the Exile off to Revan to fight some Sith Empire. There's scarier stuff out there. And Kreia's sacrifice would better serve the more noble purpose of restrarting a new Force wielding order.

I say have fun with what the Exile was doing during those years of wandering, with only the guidelines that it didn't involve the Force, and ending up on the Harbinger on the way to Telos for the Argricultural Corps.