Sithspecter

Some behind-the-scenes sort of work going on right now. Somehow I've managed (with lots of help from Darth Parametric) to get Sleheyron all set up on the galaxy map again, complete with filler takeoff/landing videos, filler Star Map vision sequences, and a conversation with Bastila about the Sleheyron Star Map. With Fair Strides MIA for the moment, I am having to take on the scripting, which is something I've never been well versed with. With quite a bit of help from the friendly folks on Discord, I've been able to at least start editing some scripts with positive results. I have always been very intimidated by scripting, so this is a big step for me. Thanks to all who have contributed their knowledge so far, it's been extremely helpful and informative.

I cheated a bit with the sun angle. The skybox actually has an unimpeded sun, albeit fairly low on the horizon. You can see it when you are at the far edges of the bay: The sun angle was really too low to make shadows appear in an aesthetic manner, and not too stretched. I altered the UVs on the Skybox to bring it a bit higher but ultimately raised my main "sunlight" so everything wasn't shadowed or stretched. Thanks for the feedback everyone, I'm glad this has been well-received.

Here's the old:

I've been working on getting lots of things back in-game that I haven't touched in a while due to a new PC that I purchased back in April. I'm currently away from home with my new PC, and some things slipped through the cracks and I don't have access to them. However, I am using this as an opportunity to try and improve a few things. The first big thing is that I re-did the lightmaps on the landing bay. Since the advent of KotORMax and MDLEdit, my workflow has changed a lot and it's taken me a while to get adjusted to the new tools, as welcome as they are. The landing bay was completed during this transition, and since then I've learned a lot about my render settings and lighting, which has turned out very nicely in the arenas. The landing bay was a bit of a contrast to the newer lighting when I went back and looked at it again. I decided to use the new techniques for the landing bay and see how it turned out. I think it's turned out very nice and looks a lot more naturally lit than it did before. Another thing I did is revisit the doors. I was actually very happy with the doors before but apparently I didn't transfer the files over to my new PC. So I made a few adjustments and added a little extra animation flair, and now they're back in the game. Enough of the improvements for now, I'm going to try to focus on more stuff that I haven't gotten into the game yet.

Thank you sir, I'm glad you are looking forward to it. The latest pics of the arena are truly restored content, I've re-created the original ones left in the game files to the proper scale. They were the only models of Sleheyron still left in the files.

There are three different layers, and it is quite tall. I moved as far away from it as I could for the screenshot, in fact I was in one of the little elevators when I took the shot. I'm not sure if you'll be able to knock people down between the tiers. The way the walkmeshes work I don't think it's possible, but it would be really neat.

Here's a screenshot of the "king-of-the-hill" arena. The mound really dominates the center.

The mechanic that I really had in mind was that essentially the NPCs would be scripted to run to a container or placeable, and then equip a pre-determined weapon. The PC/Party would only have one or two containers close by with maybe a longsword or a blaster. Essentially the idea being to make you fight with weapons that aren't necessarily your forte. I didn't think a large scale NPC weapon search mechanic would work very well. Nor do I have the knowledge to execute that idea, as neat as it could potentially be. In other news, I have successfully implemented paths for the first time in my areas! This is a big step toward the content-friendliness of my areas, and possibly the last new area related issue I needed to solve. Now NPCs can find their way about my areas with ease, which is going to go a long way when the content is rolling in heavy.

Here's a screenshot of the "Maze" style arena. It's really not that much of a maze, just a few walls to break up the place, but it does take a while to get around them all. This was definitely the most complicated of the arenas.

I recall that maybe this issue occurred for me when I had geometry with 0 polies exported with the model? Or maybe models in the layout file which don't actually exist?

Here is a screenshot now that the crowd has been added: I wasn't sure if the crowd would scale well but it has. This one is in-game, the previous one was a render, hence the loss of some of the nice lighting.

I'm not familiar with the Sith Marauder Gear, is that something that's in default KotOR or are you proposing new items? I'm planning that Sleheyron will be visit-able pre-Leviathan so that players don't have to play through almost the entire game before being able to do Sleheyron. I like the idea of a series of duels with you and your companions. That would be an interesting way of mixing things up, especially if the duels are in a series of three. I also like mixing things up with weapon restrictions. Variety seems to be a good thing here. The main combat for my proposed idea would be around the two switches with the ability to knockback the players on the "hill". However, your idea is probably better as it seems to balance things since it takes one player on the winning side out of action in order to progress. That's really a lot better of a concept. These are good points. Death matches seem like a bad idea for the entirety, and solo death matches would make the most sense with the given limitations. I am thinking maybe the best course would be to have a sidequest of sorts where the PC can square off in two or three death matches for extreme Darkside points. It would be optional and independent of the main gladiator quest, so people can choose whether or not to take that route. I'm interested to hear more thoughts on the subject, and ways I could include one or two deathmatches without ruining things. A battle royale might be very interesting as well, especially for a qualifier round. I think a combat round in which all the weapons are in crates or something could be neat. You have to grab whatever weapons you can get and work with what you find. I am interested in thoughts further exploring this concept.

The past couple days I have been working on the arena. The original one in the game's files, m31aa_00a.mdl/mdx is a bit of a mess, and also seems to be scaled differently than the rest of the game. Some of you may know that at one point in time during development, the environments in KotOR were scaled larger. About 33% larger than the current scale. I can't remember precisely how the change came about, but they ended up liking the smaller scale that everything ended up at. I believe the arena is leftover from this phase of development. It seemed a little bit large during testing, so I re-created it from scratch in 75% scale of the original. The original had a few minor issues that I've adjusted as well. I think this is turning out rather nicely, and I like the new scale and lighting: Also, I have made the floor modular to add in other obstacles or such for variations in the arena. The other two areas still included in the files have what seems to be a "maze" style arena and a "king-of-the-hill" style arena. The maze is little more than a few walls, but it breaks up the place. The "king-of-the-hill" is an elevated platform with ramps on the sides. I am open for suggestions on how to make these different "game-modes" work. One idea for the "king-of-the-hill" arena is to have two switches on either side of the arena, either of which will knockback all PCs/NPCs off the center when triggered. On the center platform there would be a trigger that activates a counter when members of either team are on it. First team to a certain count wins. I am thinking there will be 10-15 different matches over the course of the game, with escalating difficulty. Sort of like a Taris Dueling Ring for the entire game. It would keep the player coming back to Sleheyron and allow for higher level enemies. I also had an idea that after a certain point in the matches (maybe about halfway through the 10-15 matches), you have to side with one of two Hutts as your sponsor. This would affect which teams of gladiators you would encounter. Another question I've been pondering, should these matches be death matches or just knock-out matches like Taris? Death matches for the entireity seem a bit macabre, and potentially darker than the lighter tone of KotOR. They are also problematic for light-siders to participate in. But why would the Hutts restrict the matches to knockout only? Perhaps a steady supply of good fighters is hard to come by. Maybe by restricting the matches to KO only, they retain their fighters and the losers get a chance to learn and improve, leading to more competitive matches and larger betting pools. Let me know what you think! I am open for suggestions and discussion as to how these concepts would work, and other ideas anyone may have to keep things interesting.

I am still working on it! I haven't posted much because there isn't much that's extremely pretty to show. Lately I have been overhauling the street with updates to the doorways and a few other minor improvements. Other existing areas are in progress with small improvements, and I still need to model one additional area. Ironically, one of my major holdups this year was my mouse. My 3DSMax workflow is dependent on the center mouse button (or wheel) clicking properly. My mouse had deteriorated to where the center button wasn't clicking anymore. I procrastinated for several months before getting a new one. I have a new one now and progress is much improved. Haven't planned much as far as high level enemies go just yet. Will try to have some more difficult fights in there. Once again, thanks all for continued interest in the project. I will continue to work on it and post updates when available.

Glad to have you aboard.

Thanks for the information. I think earlier we had decided to mostly leave it to be pretty ambiguous (as you won't encounter any real terrain on Sleheyron) as to not upset the original intent nor anything established since then. So expect a vague description that could either be barren or volcanic.

There's actually no evidence that I've found that suggests that Sleheyron is the Volcanic planet. Actually, there's more evidence to suggest that it's the barren planet. In fact, KotOR lists Korriban's terrain as "Volcanic Mountain Ranges" in the galaxy map: So as far as I have found, there's no evidence present that the Star Map should be in a volcano or that Sleheyron is even a volcanic planet. I believe that stems from the inaccurate assumption that Korriban is the barren planet, and evidence says otherwise. If you can point me to a legitimate original source that says otherwise I will be happy to reconsider. In regards to music, I am planning on re-using the originals that were intended for Sleheyron. I think they fit very well and I like them. I am also somewhat skeptical that you will be able to create a similar track in both style and quality, but I would be happy to be proven wrong. Do you have any similar samples that I could listen to?

There were probably originally intended to be 4 arenas. Three are still left in the game files, with suffixes of A, B and D. They all have a little bit different ground floor plan, but the overall coliseum is the same. They will probably probably mostly be just death matches or matches where you get knocked unconscious like the Taris duel ring, with possibly a king-of-the-hill style match. I also have plans that half of the matches will be "Beast Battles" where you fight various creatures, leading up to and including Rancors/Terentateks. I'm trying to figure out how it should work exactly, as the lightside implications of participating in death matches isn't great. But, they are also supposed to be gladiator matches. Maybe you would have the option to choose a King of the Hill style match versus the deathmatches when challenging the next team. I'm glad you enjoy the signage.

Sure, why not.

Probably not. There's not really any animated stuff like that in the default game so I think static images will work just fine.

Working on the Cantina, I have decided to create a few neon signs, inspired by some of my original attempts as well as Darth Parametric's signs for Tatooine. This is the first one I have come up with: Let me know what you think and if you have suggestions or ideas for others. Also, just for clarification, these will only be on the inside of the building. And for further viewing enjoyment, check out my old original buildings with garish neon signs: Must have been 10 years ago by now.

I realize it has been quite some time since I have posted a proper update. Unfortunately, right now I have nothing major to share that looks pretty. But, I have been dusting off the old tools and getting back to work on this. I've also been looking for ways to simplify and reduce some things, and I've sort of had a "Eureka!" moment that's going to allow me to combine two quests, eliminate multiple areas that I have yet to model, and just keep things simpler. I don't want to spoil all the details, but it's taken a burden off my mind at least. Some of you may be disappointed to hear about the reduction, but I don't want there to be bloated or unused space, which is what I am effectively eliminating here. I am really more interested in the quality of the mod, and an actual release. So in this case, less is more. On the modeling front, a number of things are getting an overhaul. The cantina is getting a face lift, and the street is going to be restructured. Most don't know this, but I actually had a second street module. I am combining both into a more condensed street area. The two-module version was too expansive and had too much wasted space. It was fun doing the outside areas, but it just ended up being a lot of empty space. I got a bit too ambitious wanting a Taris-plus sized planet. After the cantina and streets are re-configured, I am looking at only one more area to model from scratch before the area models are complete. This will be an indoor area that houses the gladiator teams as well as various vendors that would go along with such an event. After this area is complete, essentially the whole planet will be built. I still need to do some work on the gladiator arenas themselves, but luckily this will be fairly easy. Immediate goals are: Finalize Cantina Model Gladiator Row Finalize Street Area Connect all areas Work on Gladiator Arenas Longer term goals for this year: Simplify some quests Get quests implemented Alpha testing Thank you all for your continued support of this project. I know development is often spotty from my end, but I knew this was likely to be the case going into it. But if I keep on plugging, things will get finished.

Does anyone know if doorhook dummies within the model and layout files actually do anything? If so, what do they do? Also has anyone been able to successfully implement a new path file in KotOR 1? I am trying but so far it seems that I am unable to get them to work correctly.

They certainly got the attention they wanted, along with the exact attention they didn't want. I think everyone can agree that it was a bad move to try to go viral with this thing. I think it was probably their intention to build up a fan base, but obviously it got the attention of the big dogs too. Some people are out there to get their ego stroked. Was this the case? Maybe so, but they did come up with quite a few decent looking levels. I agree, I know the swoop racing was nowhere near a finished state, but it was one of the livelier features that they showcased. It was one of the few things that I legitimately thought was a huge improvement over KotOR. Anyone with half a brain can see that it's a new game. You can interpret that as you will in regards to YouTube comments.