JCarter426

Here's my proof of concept:

There were mods that attempted it in the past, but it was never really feasible as you suspected. However, that may have changed thanks to recent tool updates. The main problem before was that it was difficult to compile a lightsaber model - it could only be done in a specific, limited way or else the blending mode of the blade would break, making the game render it behind things instead of on top of things. So we were mostly limited to changing the hilt and nothing else. But that has changed. I've actually been thinking about making one. I haven't attempted it yet because I'm not a very good modeler and would need some practice before taking a shot at the hilt (the geometry isn't too complicated, but the texture mapping is a bit). But I do have a pretty good idea of how to make the blade. The way I'd do it is I'd keep the existing saber blades, using a silver texture, and I'd add another mesh that would be solid black (illumination values set to 0). The trick is getting that to animate properly, but I believe that is doable with the new tools.

No, because then they'd need at least 10 model slots... so we'd run real quick. I was thinking they would be like Freedon Nadd's lightsaber, comes as is. Well, there's nothing stopping Bastila's lightsaber from being one of the few that can have any color, but there is a limit and some definitely couldn't. With 10 colors, there can be 24 hilts of any color, plus 15 hilts that are limited to one color (I'm assuming we will need more than 5 of these, so 15 slots are reserved rather than using that extra 10 for another hilt). With an extra variation for each color, for either unstable or Force attuned, we have 20 "colors" so those numbers drop to 12 hilts of any color and again 15 slots reserved for one-color models. With an extra variation for them all, that's 30 "colors", 8 hilts of any color, still 15 reserved. There's a bit of wiggle room, but that's the gist of it. 30 feels excessive to me, so I'm leaning towards the middle option. If you just want Bastila's in any color, but don't care about the different variations of that color, that's more doable. I suppose the question is whether it's important to be able to change her and other party members' saber colors. Well, how would you go about including Revan's saber? Would the first saber you make have a specific hilt, or would you have options? Would it be upgradeable? I think it would have to be, considering Zhar says as much... Would it have any bonus stats, or would it only be an aesthetic thing? Oh, it would just be like Malak's. Long blade, regular hilt though. Not like a lightsaber pike or something. Although I did think of having a lightsaber pike. There's another option with the longsaber I forgot to mention. It would be possible to add the longsaber without getting rid of the shortsaber, so long as the longsaber can't be upgraded. I've heard that new sabers also can't be used with Force Jump. Even if that's the case, I might prefer this option as the longsaber has a more exotic feel to it, and the lack of upgrades would probably help balance out its advantages over the standard saber. Well, I'll definitely put it in somehow, since we have two tentative votes for the longsaber. Also I remember a longsaber mod that did replace short sabers being fairly popular back in the olden days. That author was just bolder than I am. Heh, yeah, and it's certainly something I've grown out of wanting as a player. And as a modder too, even with what little modeling I've done in that area. It didn't take me long to realize that more detail in a texture could actually make it look worse. I've done textures with nicely detailed brushed metal and then I've done textures that are seriously just a grey gradient.

View File JC's Sound Effects for K1 Summary This mod adds unique sound effects for ion blasters, disruptor pistols, heavy blaster pistols, bowcasters, and blaster rifles. Installation Extract files from the downloaded archive. Run Sound_Effects_K1.exe. Click "Install Mod" and select your game directory (default name SWKOTOR). Uninstallation Remove the installed files. Replace ammunitiontypes.2da and baseitems.2da with backups if necessary. Compatibility This mod is not compatible with any mods that alter the sound effects for ion blasters, heavy blaster pistols, bowcasters, or blaster rifles. Credits KOTOR Tool – Fred Tetra TSL Patcher – stoffe Sound Effects – Ben Burtt, courtesy of StarWars.com Permissions I hereby grant nobody except myself permission to upload some or all of this mod anywhere for any reason. If you would like to include any part of this mod in anything, then please contact me for permission. Disclaimers PEW PEW PEW EXPLOSION BIOWARE BANG BANG LUCASARTS BIG BADA BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Donations If you enjoy my mods and would like to show your support in a monetary manner, you may do so via PayPal with this donation link. For various legal and ethical reasons, this is entirely optional and is not a requirement to downloading or using any of my mods. I also do not create specific mods for hire. I make mods as a hobby and will most likely do so regardless of any donations or lack thereof, but modding does take up a lot of my time and every bit helps. Submitter JCarter426 Submitted 03/13/2018 Category Mods K1R Compatible No  

I'd be fine with that myself - personally, I would prefer: Custom hilts for notable sabers (e.g. Bastila's, Jolee's, Juhani's, the Korriban tomb ones... I think there was a thread dedicated to this topic a while back). These needn't be upgradeable, so they wouldn't be taking up dozens of model slots. Stylized sabers like the rancor tooth example, maybe an electrum one, stuff like that. Just a little variety. And with context - like this hilt style is good for this thing or you found this unique crafting material and made a hilt from it. There's a little story for where it came from in the game. A new hilt for each distinct type of lightsaber (double, short, long, curved, crossguard, whatever). That's just what I would look for as a player. Coincidentally, since I'm not a very good modeler then reducing the amount of required models sounds like a good idea. But historically, what people have expected in lightsaber mods is for every conceivable lightsaber hilt that has ever existed. And I can say right now that not only will my mod not deliver that, but it'll likely be incompatible with any mod that does. That's why I'm trying to figure out what, if anything, I could deliver that would be able to compete with that. It's good to hear at least two of you seem to think some of this is a good idea so far, anyway. You put a saber into a placeable and then use a computer terminal to disassemble it. It destroys any sabers in the placeable's inventory and then spawns in the corresponding part items, and adds them to your inventory. One script does all that automatically. To make a saber, you trigger the same computer terminal dialogue and you can choose what saber type to make and the color, based on what crystals you have in your inventory. I don't think it's too convenient, but one major downside is you have to take any upgrade items out of the saber before disassembling it, or else they'll be irrevocably destroyed. Unfortunately that can't be helped. In general, it plays the same as the initial saber creation in K2. That's with the current version of the K2 mod, anyway. The new content would require some additional steps for the new hilt and crystal types, but nothing too elaborate. Create a saber -> saber type -> hilt type -> crystal type -> color No more than 5 steps, by my estimate. Less if some of those steps can be consolidated for the standard types (i.e. there would be a "more..." option for the special builds, with the non-special builds reduced to the current three steps). I haven't gone over it in depth yet as I've been putting that off until all the components are finalized. Well... I don't see the point of short lightsabers. There's a bit more to it than just that, though. It's a bit technical, but I'll try to keep it in English. Every weapon type in the game has set of characteristics, such as the weapon size (whether you hold it with one or two hands, what penalties there are for the off hand), damage amount (in dice, naturally), damage type, critical threat range, and the critical threat multiplier. This is like a template that every weapon of that type has. The individual items can add additional stats, but for the most part you cannot change any of what I just listed unless you make a new item type. We are limited to three lightsaber types. Short lightsabers are of a different size (no penalties in the off hand) and they deal less damage (d6s instead of d8s in K1, d8s instead of d10s in K2). That's it. The rest is all the same. They aren't all that different from standard sabers, and you're meant to use it alongside one. What I've described for the longsaber certainly requires a new item type - the size is different (more so than short from standard), the damage amount is different, the critical stuff is different. It's certainly its own thing, a distinct style. One blade, but you have to use both hands. Different stats to reflect that. So if I were the BioWare design team circa 2002 and I was given these two options, I would say the longsaber has more of a point to it. The short saber doesn't offer a different type of gameplay. You get nothing from using it on its own. You can still dual wield with two standard lightsabers, and depending on your build you might be better off doing that. So what does it give you that makes it worth using up one of only three possible saber types? The longsaber definitely offers a different style - more raw damage, but less finesse and versatility. Add to that, we could still have short lightsabers in the game, in some form. On the other hand, this still isn't how I'd really like it. If I could design it from scratch, it would all be very different, but I'm limited by the game and its three weapon types. And I'm resistant to to changing one of them, even if it's one I don't like. So I keep going back and forth. But the idea only crossed my mind because of the three type limitation. I was trying to think of how to add lightsabers that would offer a different sort of gameplay, like the curved and dual-phase ones. So I came up with the longsaber (and the crossguard would also count as a longsaber, for the record) and realized that what I wanted would require a specific item type (if nothing else, to change the weapon size). Which would mean getting rid of one, short being the obvious choice. But I still don't know if I want to do it. Now, I did have an alternative idea. I had thought of changing the stats of the standard lightsaber to more closely resemble the longsaber idea - you have to use both hands, at least. And then changing the short lightsaber to more closely resemble the standard lightsaber, but maintaining the size of the short lightsaber (no off hand penalties). But that comes with other issues, for which I ended up rejecting it.

It's time to dust off something from the old lapsed mods bin. Some of you might know of my Saber Workshop mod for K2. It adds a saber workshop to the Ebon Hawk and lets you mess about with lightsabers so you aren't stuck with unwanted randomly-generated ones. A while back - almost two years ago, according to my records - I was working on a version for K1. I let it lapse because couldn't make up my mind about some things. I'm making this topic so I can ramble on about that and so anyone who wants can tell me what to do, either for that or for an update to the K2 version. For the K1 version, here's what I know it should do: You can choose your lightsaber color when you first make your lightsaber. You don't have to pick the one that goes with your class. You can choose your lightsaber type when you first make your lightsaber, just as you can in K2. Five new lightsaber colors: cyan, orange, silver, viridian, and pink. In other words, all the colors available in K2. Plus pink. Because pink is rad. You can modify the color of the Heart of the Guardian and Mantle of the Force crystals, so you aren't stuck with a certain color because it has better stats. I haven't decided whether this would mean getting rid of the unique colors (they would respectively be replaced by orange and cyan) or if there would be a new version for each color. That's because each new color requires a new model and there's a limit of 255 total models. More on that problem later. You can change the lightsaber type, as you can in the K2 version of the saber workshop. Saber workshops can be found on Dantooine, Korriban, and on the Ebon Hawk. Most of this is already implemented. I was also thinking of adding new crystal types. Since K1 lacks the other upgrade types (energy cell, emitter matrix, lens) I was hoping to add more options through new crystals. These would be color crystals, like Heart of the Guardian and Mantle of the Force, that alter the saber's stats while still allowing for the placement of two power crystals. Although they would function as color crystals, they would be available in all the standard colors. I was working on four varieties: Unstable Crystal +1d6 electricity, -2 attack, -1 defense Glitchy blade effect like Kylo Ren's. I believe The Force Unleashed had them in a bunch of colors. This would add damage, but also have a penalty to attack and defense, as the blade is more difficult to control. I added it in red and I was considering the other colors - but again, the model limit comes into play. Still more on that later. Compressed Energy Crystal -1 damage, +2 attack, +1 defense, keen If I recall correctly, this one was also in The Force Unleashed. It gives the saber a narrower beam, which I intended to translate to a penalty to damage but a bonus to attack and defense, as well as the "keen" property that increases the critical threat range. However, I could find no way to reduce a weapon's damage without affecting all other weapons of the same type. There are ways around that, but I didn't like any of them. So I wasn't sure what to do. I could do it with one of the messier ways, or I could change the stats to something else. But there needed to be some negative to offset the bonus. Crystal Lens +1 energy, -2 attack, +2 blaster deflection This one was inspired by some of the lens upgrades in K2. This crystal gives the saber a wider beam but less wieldy beam, which makes it hurt more and helps with deflecting blasters, but comes with a penalty to attack. I was also thinking of adding more Force-attuned crystals like Heart of the Guardian and Mantle of the Force, though I never had any specific plans. I also toyed with changing the lightsaber types a bit. This was the key area where I kept going back and forth on what I wanted to do... I wanted to add the longsaber - like Malak's. This would function as a two-handed weapon, like a greatsword in RPGs. In order to do this, however, I would have to replace the short lightsaber. That's due to the way the upgrade system works; you can only have three types in there. The base stats would be: 3d8 energy, critical 20-20 x3. It would receive the same bonus from the Dueling feats as standard lightsabers. And it could receive all the usual crystal upgrades, and the new ones. I considered retaining the short lightsaber, while losing the ability to upgrade it. That means no upgrades of any kind - none of the usual ones from the game, none of the new ones either. To offset this shortcoming, the short lightsaber would grant the Master Two-Weapon Fighting feat. However, you would only be able to use it in your off hand. Because if that weren't the case the game would let you use the small one in your main hand and the big one in your off hand and give you the same bonus, and that wouldn't make sense. I was also working on adding some other types, such as the dual-phase lightsaber. Any new types would not be upgradeable, however. I also had more elaborate ideas for the long term and this is where that model limit I keep talking about comes into play. I'm not very good at 3D modeling, but I've been trying to learn, and I've thought about adding new hilts if I ever managed to make any decent ones. Maybe some modelers would be willing to donate models as well. I came up with a system for how I would implement them, given the limitations of the game's upgrade system. A lightsaber would be composed of five parts: crystal, hilt, energy cell, emitter matrix, and lens. Mechanically, in the standard game the crystal performs the role of both the crystal and the hilt in my system - in that whatever crystal you put into the saber determines what model it gets. That's the crux of the problem. The mod would add new hilt items. The workshop would let you put crystals into the hilts, or take them out, or whatever. In other words, you can change the hilt type and then proceed to upgrade it in the usual manner. Hilts could be found or made. For example, if you find a rancor tooth, perhaps you could make a rancor tooth hilt. The emitter matrix would determine the lightsaber type. There would be the standard type, which goes into all three upgradeable varieties. Then there would also be exotic ones such as dual-phase, crossguard, and curved. Depending on the models available, of course. Sabers made with exotic emitters could not be upgraded, due to the game limitations. This would possibly include the short lightsaber, if it were to be replaced by the longsaber in the upgrade system. The big issue here is that with 10 colors and up to 3 variations of those colors, 30 total, there can only be about 8 hilts per saber type. 12 hilts if one style is dropped, 24 if two. There's a little wiggle room but not much. I don't know what if any hilt models will be added with this mod, so I could just use all the space I want for colors, but then it wouldn't be compatible with any hilt mods. So the point of all this is I don't know what's the best idea, what someone using the mod would actually want. I'm looking for any general input, but more specifically: Do people feel strongly about the short lightsaber? Either way - retaining it or replacing it with something else? Is the longsaber worth adding? Even if it means getting rid of something else? Are the new color options worth having at the expense of hilt options, or should extra room for hilts be prioritized?

Huh, that's strange. The date modified on that file was 2005. Unfortunately, that's the only one I have. I don't even know how I got it. It wasn't in the folder where I usually keep mod installers.

Was this the one that was released as a single file called nih.mod? If so, I probably have it.

Still untested because I haven't had a chance to play through the whole game again yet. I meant to do it pretty soon after my initial post, but I ended up putting it off because I wanted to test another mod at the same time, but then I couldn't decide what I wanted to do with that, and the both ended up slipping. I'm debating what to do with both of them now. I'll make a new thread for the other one, but with regards to Bastila the beta was actually a bare-bones release of what I had planned. I don't like how the romance advances and I was looking into programming a new system for it. For example, with Carth, you're locked out of the romance if you go to Korriban last. When I last played I hadn't forgotten that, and so even though I was advancing the romance through three quarters of the game, I finally hit a dead end. There's also how it depends on your level progression, and with the level cap at 20 you have to make sure you talk to them whenever you can or you run out of chances to. That and the bugs in the Bastila romance mod I was using spurred me to address the issue myself. I had intended to do a quick run-through to make sure my own version wasn't buggy, while taking notes on how the romance flags work for when I start programming my new system. Although, I could probably figure it out by looking through the game files, so I'm not sure if I want to do a full run of the game just to test the beta now, since it's been so long. But as with my other mod, I'm not sure how to proceed. I have some ideas, but I don't know how complicated I should make it. Even if the current system bothers me a bit, it's still playable. I don't want to make it worse. I guess I'll just list my ideas, and you people can tell me what you think. First, I'd like to get rid of the XP element or make it less of a thing. The game already locks some of the progression until certain story points, so I think I could rejigger it doesn't have to keep track of when you level up (and neither do you). I have to look through the variables to see what can be done, but my guess is that there are points where the game could be told "hey, it's been a while, forget the level mechanics, this is a good time for a new conversation" using variables it already tracks. If there are enough of those points then we could do away with the level checks entirely. Now, you might have to remember to talk to Bastila after key story points, but I think that's much more intuitive. Next, I'd like the game to stop assuming the romance is always active. There are a few lines that can shut it down for good, but in most cases, no matter what you say, it advances the romance. It's probably like that to make it easier, but I think after 15 years we're ready for a little more challenge. Plus it'll give you more options; if you want to pursue a romance with only Bastila or only Carth, it'll be easier for you to do that. As it it is now, the safest way to avoid a romance is to never talk to them. It's very true to life that way. But if you do talk to them, the game assumes it's on just based on your player's gender. This is the main part I'm not sure how to program yet. It most likely requires new variables. First, we need a variable to keep track of whether the romance is active. I believe, with the current system, if you do choose one of the few anti-romance dialogue options, it sets the progression state to 0 and never moves from that ever again. That's not what I want. I want it to start at 0 and if you say romantic things it goes up and then you get more romantic dialogue, but if you say anti-romantic things then it goes down, while not necessarily shutting you out forever. This would allow me to insert some of the dialogue I had to cut back into the game. In the standard game, several conversations have a male version and a female version - I would be changing those to a "romance is active" version and a default one. It might require separate variables for whether Bastila is interested in you and whether you are interested in Bastila. I'd have to check the dialogues to see how I feel about that. I've also long thought about adding an influence system to K1. Nothing as complicated as K2's, but such a system could affect things such as how difficult it is to redeem Bastila (rather than requiring a specific set of dialogue options at the last minute) and allow for changes to the party member's alignments based on specific plot choices such as whether Juhani kills Xor. It could also come into play with the romance system, possibly as some sort of modifier - like low influence with Bastila for a light-sided player makes the romance more difficult, but easier for a dark-sided player. Again, I don't know how complicated it should get. Finally, I don't think you should have to hit every conversation in order to complete the romance. I'd like that to be possible, of course, but not all the conversations are relevant to the romance, and there are a lot of them. I also remember being not very keen on the order of some of them. So I'm thinking of restructuring them. I'll have to look at them to decide, but based on what I recall, I think there are only a few key conversations needed for the romance to make sense, which could be unlocked after perhaps each planet. The other conversations would be unlocked in between based on other story points, the new romance/influence system, maybe even the original XP system, or some combination - but they wouldn't be required. You'd be able to maintain a high romance rating just by going through the key conversations. The others would just make it easier, and it would be ok if you miss one. Again, I'll have to take a closer look to see what's there to work with, but I believe I can streamline it in this way. So, those are my random ideas. I don't know if they're good ones, so let me know what you think.

Perhaps this will help: The file name for the diffuse map, yes.

Yeah, unfortunately if you want to multiclass into a non-Jedi prestige class, that's not going to work. I've done that and can confirm it results in a bizarre, almost unplayable experience. Going from Jedi to non-Jedi won't work, but it should be possible to add non-Jedi prestige classes for non-Jedi characters. That's actually an idea I've toyed with before - to make keeping some of your party members as non-Jedi a viable option by letting them multiclass into something else. Anyway, it's possible to add something. But keep in mind that - to my knowledge - after 14 years, there hasn't been a single mod that adds a new character class. There aren't a lot of people who have thought about it and could tell you what to do. I did look into it but my memory is a little fuzzy. I believe you're stuck with copying part of the level system from an existing class, but I don't entirely remember which. My impression is that you can't really change that much at all - it would be a new class in name only. That's why I stopped looking into it.

File Name: JC's Citadel Station Backdrop File Submitter: JCarter426 File Submitted: 04 Mar 2018 File Category: Mods TSLRCM Compatible: Yes This mod replaces the Citadel Station backdrop. I've made a new one using high resolution renders of the Citadel models with 3ds Max. New texture resolution is 4096x4096. Click here to download this file

File Name: JC's RAD Video Fix: TELMov03 File Submitter: JCarter426 File Submitted: 04 Mar 2018 File Category: Mods TSLRCM Compatible: Yes I've fixed an animation error in the Telos shuttle departure video. The Duros in the background would just walk in place once he got to the door previously. Click here to download this file

View File JC's Minor Fixes for K2 This is a collection of various things that I found annoying enough to alter. It started with that crazy window on Nar Shaddaa, by the landing pad, that would mysteriously render anything that was behind it invisible. It turned out to be as simple as a missing TXI. But it was at this point that I decided to start collecting little things like that into a single mod, to be released to the general public when it became more substantial. Due to the nature of this mod, I haven't bothered to make a proper installer with the TSL Patcher. Just install whatever you want to install. Don't install what you don't want to install. Some of these fixes are included in TSLRCM, while others are not. Either way, it's compatible. Other mods may not be compatible; contact me if you have any questions. Submitter JCarter426 Submitted 03/04/2018 Category Mods TSLRCM Compatible  

I'm adding it to my minor fixes and when that's updated I'll put in an official statement on that matter.

Specifically, there's no way to add any Force-using class. It's a hard limit due to how the system was coded. I suppose if you wanted a prestige class that couldn't use the Force, you could do that, but then it would break your build because you have to start as a Jedi. If you do that then you do retain everything you had in the old class, but the GUI stops showing that you have any Force points, so you can't even tell when you run out.

If it happens with all vines, grass, etc then it's a graphics problem. If it's just those vines, it's probably a missing TXI file. I'll take a look when I have a chance to track down which texture you're talking about. Edit: Looks like TXI to me. Files attached. They'll have to be renamed to .txi. DAN_ivy01.txt DAN_ivy02.txt

Once you place the placeable, you can use GetLocation to get its location in the second script.

Interesting. I checked the NWN Lexicon to see how that function works. Looks like it stores info as a variable with the data type location (as opposed to the usual boolean, integer, or string). Yeah, there's no such function in KOTOR, and as far as I'm aware there's no support for that sort of variable either. You could theoretically do the same thing in KOTOR with four different integer variables for the X, Y, Z, and angle values, or with string and convert it to a location... but it would be a total waste of time. All you really need is CreateObject(OBJECT_TYPE_PLACEABLE, "invisible_placeable_here_with_a_much_shorter_template_name", GetLocation(GetFirstPC(), 0); and have some system for managing the placeables' tags and delete them as necessary, of course.

Right - one channel is flat, one raised, one lowered (or something like that). But the point is it does need a second texture for that. 7 channels, 2 files. Sadly there's no mystical 7-channel file.