Mod Build Request Thread - KOTOR

[Rictus 5]

Make T3 An Actual Character

I was actually thinking of doing something like this after my next K2 playthrough, to make sure it's (his?) character remains consistent.

My full idea would include a potential retcon for T3, to help develop a backstory their character in a KotOR-like manor. In KotOR T3 is supposed to be a brand new droid, and this could easily be used to explain it's non-existent personality, since it hasn't developed a distinct personality yet. The retcon would change that somewhat.

It is explicitly stated in the game that Davik commissioned T3 so this opens up some options. In my idea T3's memory core was a stolen Republic code breaking droids core that was partitioned, rather than memory-wiped, to preserve it's high level code breaking capabilities, while suppressing any undesirable memories or loyalties. Revan could use Computer Use to unlock new memories and abilities in much the same way as using Repair on HK. This would also be a good excuse to give T3 it's quirky personality rather than a fresh-off-the-production-line default.

Like many characters T3's backstory would involve the Mandalorian Wars and tangentially Revan, to help create a connection between the two, rather than just "I own you, do what I say".

Of course that would all be optional dialogue. Just giving T3 some more dialogue and interactions independent of that would also be part of the mod, assuming I can wrap my head around the scripting necessary. Since the level-up unlocking of dialogue is used for the other characters I think I could basically just copy-paste simple scripts like that, and adding T3 interjections to dialogue based on whether they are in the party or not is mostly just finding the right dialogues in the first place. Inter-party dialogue is a different matter, as it would largely necessitate unused or forgettable dialogue from the other party members to avoid repetition. But there isn't a lot of this in the first place, and if I remember correctly I think it only takes place on Taris. Although it was years ago, I have worked on building dialogue trees before, so I am sure I can do that.

If you have any specific requests or concerns let me know, and I'll keep them in mind while working on this.

[Snigaroo 156]

23 minutes ago, Rictus said:

It is explicitly stated in the game that Davik commissioned T3 so this opens up some options. In my idea T3's memory core was a stolen Republic code breaking droids core that was partitioned, rather than memory-wiped, to preserve it's high level code breaking capabilities, while suppressing any undesirable memories or loyalties.

Interesting--I don't have anything against this, except it seems like something that Janice Nall wouldn't do if she knew what was going on. Getting on the whole Republic's bad side seems like a bit too much for a cautious shopkeeper, after all. If her dialogue were edited to indicate that she received the memory core from Davik's people and didn't know where it was from but the rest of the droid was built custom by her, I think that would work fine. I'd also want the player to not be able to discover that there was a partition until after they arrive on Dantooine (and there should probably be some event or interjection made by T3 that causes players who are used to him being useless realize that something new is happening with him and they should speak to him). Finally, it would need to be compatible with Recruit T3-M4 Early. Aside from that I don't have any specific things that I would be on the lookout for, aside from the general: well-written dialogue that has reasonably good player choice in terms of how they react to the revelations, and T3's changing personality.

[Rictus 5]

3 hours ago, Snigaroo said:

Interesting--I don't have anything against this, except it seems like something that Janice Nall wouldn't do if she knew what was going on. Getting on the whole Republic's bad side seems like a bit too much for a cautious shopkeeper, after all. If her dialogue were edited to indicate that she received the memory core from Davik's people and didn't know where it was from but the rest of the droid was built custom by her, I think that would work fine.

That would be the general idea. Her dialogue will reflect that Davik provided some necessary parts which is why she is releuctant to sell T3 to anyone else.

3 hours ago, Snigaroo said:

I'd also want the player to not be able to discover that there was a partition until after they arrive on Dantooine (and there should probably be some event or interjection made by T3 that causes players who are used to him being useless realize that something new is happening with him and they should speak to him).

I was thinking of level-gating it to lvl 12, and initiating a cutscene the first time you return to the Ebon Hawk afterwards. This isn't something I have really looked into yet, and I have a vague recollection that scripting on the Ebon Hawk can be tricky, so we'll see how it goes. Since all of HK's can be unlocked as soon as you reach the necessary skill points I would probably to the same for T3.

3 hours ago, Snigaroo said:

Finally, it would need to be compatible with Recruit T3-M4 Early.

I haven't used the mod but making it compatible should be straightforward.

3 hours ago, Snigaroo said:

Aside from that I don't have any specific things that I would be on the lookout for, aside from the general: well-written dialogue that has reasonably good player choice in terms of how they react to the revelations, and T3's changing personality.

Technically T3 doesn't really have any dialogue, it is all the players reaction to T3, and since there is no VO for the PC adding a variety of responses is basically just a bit of extra typing. T3's personality won't really change over the course of the game. Early dialogue with T3 will remark on the fact that T3 has more personality than the PC expected from a brand new droid, helping to set up the partition later on, rather than coming completely out of the blue. Some of this will be triggered just before entering the Sith base, a sort of mandatory introduction to the mod and T3 as a character, not a plot device.

[Snigaroo 156]

Sure, all that sounds good to me. I look forward to playing the mod!

[N-DReW25 1,497]

On 5/11/2023 at 9:05 AM, Snigaroo said:

Dynamic Player Head Use

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Currently there are many player heads which are situationally used to replace NPC heads to add to the game's variety, but there are also many player heads which aren't used at all, and many, many NPCs which could benefit from more unique appearances. It'd be nice to see a mod make full use of all the alternate player heads on existing NPCs, to make more of the NPCs you interact with over the course of the game visually distinct.

 

Something akin to this was added in an update to my NPC Diversity Pack mod, once you installed the main mod you can install a "Player Head Commoners" option that replaces many of the generic commoner heads with Player heads who use the commoner body model. This makes them compatible with clothing mods, whether it be new clothing or reskins, player head reskins, and they are dynamic in that an NPC's head will be swapped for another one if you were also using that head.

[Snigaroo 156]

1 hour ago, N-DReW25 said:

Something akin to this was added in an update to my NPC Diversity Pack mod...

Oh good, that's very helpful. Just let me know when it reaches rough content-completion as we've talked about previously, since there would be difficulties integrating such a large mod with regular content updates. In the meantime I will put down that the NPC Diversity Pack fulfills the request but is untested with the builds as yet.

[Snigaroo 156]

One new request has been put up in the Patches & Submods section (JC's Czerka: Business Attire & Dark Hope's HD Ithorians).

EDIT: Fulfilled by SH & integrated (easy to do without waiting for a revision, since it's a single texture).

[Snigaroo 156]

This is just a courtesy alert to everyone interested in fulfilling these requests that I am now intending to move up my testing schedule slightly. I now am hoping to complete a KOTOR test in August, and a KOTOR 2 test in September. That would see me pulling mods from this list for live testing likely within the first two weeks of August, so anyone who wants to have their content tested for the next build revision can treat mid-August as the rough "deadline" for testing inclusion for K1. Thanks all!

EDIT: I've also included a new request to fix some Rodians with invisible Pazaak decks and an Aqualish drinking nothing, courtesy to @Salk for catching the problem!

[PoopaPapaPalpatine 28]

I don't even know if this is possible with the Kotor engine of the first game, but is it at all possible to do some of the cutscenes involving the characters in-game? Things like the visions of Bastila fighting Revan or Revan and Malak first entering the catacombs on Dantooine, or even the full Revan reveal. Whilst I appreciate the upscaled cg cutscenes, doing these scenes in-game (like in Kotor2 with Kreia's betrayal) would be a whole lot more immersive.

[DarthParametric 3,873]

1 hour ago, PoopaPapaPalpatine said:

is it at all possible to do some of the cutscenes involving the characters in-game?

Possible, yes. Entirely practical in some cases where stunt animations exist (e.g. Malak/Revan Dantooine star map cutscene, Kreia/Sion/Nihilus betrayal cutscene, etc.). Not particularly feasible in cases with custom animations where no equivalent stunt animations exist in the game files and/or scenes featuring certain types of impractical/impossible to replicate VFX (e.g. Bastila vs Revan fight dream sequences on both counts).

[Snigaroo 156]

The KOTOR test for Revision 12 has just been completed. With one exception which will need to be re-tested next Revision, every submitted mod was accepted--thank you to all the modders who fulfilled these requests! I have now removed the fulfilled requests from the OP, so now only active requests are present there.

As always, I have thought of some more things I'd like in the course of this playthrough, and we have some new requests too. They are, in order of appearance:

• Swoop Overhaul
• CHA Items for DS Players
• Buffed Dueling
• Twitch is Hard
• Sentinels With Skills
• I'm Within Milliseconds of Winning Screw You
• Sith Armor Allows Force Abilities
• Party at Davik's
• Carth and the Player Both Require Sith Uniforms
• Tusken Aren't Blind
• Yuthura Opens Up
• Zaalbar and Chuundar
• Geometry Problems
• Enemy Diversity
• No, I Don't Want to Gather My Party Before Venturing Forth

Altogether, not an insignificant amount of new requests! I hope they inspire some of you.

As with the last Revision cycle, any of these requests fulfilled will not be tested until the next Revision. It's impossible to predict when that will be with accuracy, but I would estimate at least a year from this post, as two Revisions have come in quick succession and I would like to give users a breather without another big update for a while.

Thanks all!

[DarthParametric 3,873]

On 5/11/2023 at 9:05 AM, Snigaroo said:

Carth and the Player Both Require Sith Uniforms

[....]

Parametric made a mod for this a while back, though it was never uploaded on Deadlystream.

Is that relevant? It's on Github.

On 5/11/2023 at 9:05 AM, Snigaroo said:

you can simply walk past him and interact with the elevator anyway

That shouldn't be the case from what I recall, since the door should be locked and signal the trooper to initiate a conversation if you try to open it. If it is broken then nobody bothered to tell me about it. But there's nothing stopping someone from using that mod as a basis to make a "proper" version if it's required.

On 5/11/2023 at 9:05 AM, Snigaroo said:

There's a gap in door geometry leading into the Manaan Sith embassy at the top of the door (you can see into the interior of the elevator while the door is closed). Also a small gap to the bottom left and right side of the door at the base of the walls where you can see water moving beneath, if standing at the embassy desk.

It would be useful if people would create an issue for this type of thing on the K1CP repo.

On 5/11/2023 at 9:05 AM, Snigaroo said:

Comprehensive Melee Model/Texture Improvement

Soon™.

On 5/11/2023 at 9:05 AM, Snigaroo said:

Swoop Racing GUI Fix

I did a basic fix of that ages ago that just duplicated the vanilla GUI image. Functional, but not particularly pretty.

However, now that Tyvokka has declared open season on porting, we can just steal the texture Aspyr made for the Switch version and use that instead:

On 5/11/2023 at 9:05 AM, Snigaroo said:

In its most recent release, the K1CP altered the star map animation on each world to be a static ingame cutscene which the player cannot move around during.

Because you idiots insist on breaking things. Stop breaking things and you won't need to be protected from yourselves.

On 5/11/2023 at 9:05 AM, Snigaroo said:

No, I Don't Want to Gather My Party Before Venturing Forth

Pretty sure this is hardcoded.

.text:0058C31A
.text:0058C31A loc_58C31A:                             ; CODE XREF: sub_58B850+9DA↑j
.text:0058C31A                 push    offset aKTrgTransfail ; "k_trg_transfail"
.text:0058C31F                 lea     ecx, [esp+54h+var_40]
.text:0058C323                 call    sub_5E5A90
.text:0058C328                 mov     ebp, [ebp+4]
.text:0058C32B                 mov     ecx, dword_7A3A00
.text:0058C331                 push    1
.text:0058C333                 push    ebp
.text:0058C334                 lea     edx, [esp+58h+var_40]
.text:0058C338                 push    edx
.text:0058C339                 mov     [esp+5Ch+var_4], 7
.text:0058C341                 call    sub_5D0FC0
.text:0058C346                 lea     ecx, [esp+50h+var_40] ; void *
.text:0058C34A                 mov     [esp+50h+var_4], 0FFFFFFFFh
.text:0058C352                 call    sub_5E5C20
.text:0058C357                 jmp     def_58BBAC      ; jumptable 0058BBAC default case, cases 1,3,5,6,8,9,12-23,25,27,31-33

https://github.com/KOTORCommunityPatches/Vanilla_KOTOR_Script_Source/blob/master/K1/Data/scripts.bif/k_trg_transfail.nss

So I don't think you can stop the check. What you could do though is edit the fail script to jump the party members to you. I have an armband that does the same thing, so you could just use that code.

On 5/11/2023 at 9:05 AM, Snigaroo said:

Malak Knows What's Coming

Malak wants you pursuing the maps. He's after Bastila, so it's to his benefit that you keep doing what you're doing relatively unhindered. He has dismissed you as a threat because he doesn't think regaining your memories will do anything. He tells you as much on the Star Forge. You're a shell of your former self, he's risen above you, blah, blah, blah. Even though by that point after you've plowed through a station full of his mooks he should probably be starting to think "Wait a minute....". And to be fair, it does pretty much go exactly to plan up to the point of the Leviathan.

On 5/11/2023 at 9:05 AM, Snigaroo said:

Ajuur Medical Supplies Respawn

The vanilla functionality is to spawn a medpac if you lose and the container is empty:

void AddMedPac() {
	object oMeds = GetObjectByTag("tar02_firstaid", 0);
	if (!GetIsObjectValid(GetItemPossessedBy(oMeds, "g_i_medeqpmnt01")) && GetGlobalBoolean("Tar_DuelLost"))
		{
			CreateItemOnObject("g_i_medeqpmnt01", oMeds, 1);
		}
}

https://github.com/KOTORCommunityPatches/Vanilla_KOTOR_Script_Source/blob/master/K1/Modules/M02AE_Taris_Upper_City_Cantina_tar_m02ae/k_ptar_duelend.nss#L81

You could just remove the global check for having lost if you want it to always spawn. K1CP doesn't edit that script, but my duel ring mod does, so that would need a compatibility patch. Or it could be added as a standalone script elsewhere to sidestep that.

[Snigaroo 156]

15 minutes ago, DarthParametric said:

Is that relevant? It's on Github.

In the sense that other users here might not be aware of it, yes.

16 minutes ago, DarthParametric said:

That shouldn't be the case from what I recall, since the door should be locked and signal the trooper to initiate a conversation if you try to open it. If it is broken then nobody bothered to tell me about it. But there's nothing stopping someone from using that mod as a basis to make a "proper" version if it's required.

I just confirmed the issue myself during my test, although I can't be 100% positive it's not build interference with something. Still, I use vanishingly little that impacts Taris so I think it is likely a legitimate bug.

17 minutes ago, DarthParametric said:

It would be useful if people would create an issue for this type of thing on the K1CP repo.

I wasn't aware that K1CP was addressing geometry issues first-party. I've mostly seen Wildkarrde handling those in isolated releases, although I know some of their work was integrated into the K1CP.

18 minutes ago, DarthParametric said:

Soon™.

That looks very encouraging.

19 minutes ago, DarthParametric said:

Pretty sure this is hardcoded. So I don't think you can stop the check

Not as such, no, but I'm wondering if there might be a workaround. I know LDR uses interactable transitions to switch between modules in Crashed Republic Cruiser. I was wondering if it might be possible to attach the same behavior to conventional module transitions so that the player can switch modules just by interacting with the transit area regardless of the party's location on the map. I'm just not sure how that would play with onenter scripts and the like, which is why I mentioned compatibility. If that's not possible, then a function to warp the party to the player would be the next-best thing, but not ideal from the perspective of the builds.

22 minutes ago, DarthParametric said:

Malak wants you pursuing the maps. He's after Bastila, so it's to his benefit that you keep doing what you're doing relatively unhindered.

That doesn't preclude him from having forces guarding the Star Maps. Hell, regardless of whether he considers you a threat or not, he sets multiple ambushes for you on the way to the maps as it is, with instructions to kill you but take Bastila. Forces guarding the maps would be complimentary to what he's already doing, not interfering with it. You can tell a garrison to spare Bastila just as easily as Calo or Bandon.

26 minutes ago, DarthParametric said:

The vanilla functionality is to spawn a medpac if you lose and the container is empty

Huh, so it's not entirely a false memory.

[DarthParametric 3,873]

36 minutes ago, Snigaroo said:

I'm just not sure how that would play with onenter scripts and the like, which is why I mentioned compatibility.

It would have no effect on an OnEnter or other module entry behaviour. The reason it exists is possibly a holdover from NWN, not sure. But in principle there's no real danger in initiating a module transition with the party scattered across the map. Although you'd probably want a safety CancelCombat on the party first just in case one of them is off somewhere fighting mooks by themselves.

36 minutes ago, Snigaroo said:

I know LDR uses interactable transitions to switch between modules in Crashed Republic Cruiser.

Well that's an entirely different kettle of fish. That's a manually initiated scripted transition, not a specialised trigger that has a hardcoded distance check. If someone wants to add elevator buttons in modules where that's appropriate then you could use that approach, but it's not going to work for cases where you are supposedly just walking through a door or along a pathway, like say most of Manaan or the Dantooine plains. I suppose you could replace all the existing transition zones with regular triggers with a simple scripted transition, but you'd be editing multiple structs in every GIT in the game. Talk to JC, maybe he can come up with a way to automate that sort of hackery with a custom program.

Just a note though that going that route may have wonky behaviour. I know when I used such a trick in K1CP to handle preventing transition to the Hawk during fights with Xor that the usual transition fadeout broke and needed a dummy DLG with a scripted fadeout to mask it.

36 minutes ago, Snigaroo said:

I wasn't aware that K1CP was addressing geometry issues first-party.

If I find it interesting enough. Usually it goes hand-in-hand with lightmap adjustments.

36 minutes ago, Snigaroo said:

I just confirmed the issue myself during my test

The door should have a key added by K1CP I believe (vanilla behaviour is locked with a DC100 check). The issue is that the vanilla OnFailToOpen script only checks for at least one instance of the Sith armour. It just needs an update to check for two/droids like the edited guard script.

[Vanguard2023 6]

On 5/10/2023 at 7:05 PM, Snigaroo said:

Mod Build-Aligned Comprehensive AI Upscale - PARTIALLY fulfilled by @redrob41's Character Textures and Model Fixes, though there are plenty more textures to address

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I should start out on this one by saying I would, of course, prefer handmade textures. But the reality is that that's a ton of work, and even for a game of KOTOR's size it's unrealistic to get that. AI makes upscaling the games environments feasible, but there are problems with this--principally that almost all AI upscales out there today are either poor quality, completely butcher textures' alpha channels, are far larger than they need to be to the extent that it exacerbates the game's memory leak, or an unholy combination of all three.

I would desperately like to work with someone who could coordinate with me on making an AI upscale for the basegame which is aligned with the mod builds--that is to say one which values the vanilla design; is double-checked by hand to ensure that alpha channels on each texture are handled properly after the upscale; and which specifically includes compatibility patches for several of the texture/model mods which the mod builds already include. This is naturally going to be a large amount of work, as each time the builds undergo a Revision new compatches would need to be made, but the most significant time and labor investment would be for the first version, and after that only a few texture mods would need to be taken into account for each new Revision.

Which textures from redrob41's Character Textures and Model Fixes should I use in conjunction with the mod build?

[Snigaroo 156]

10 minutes ago, Vanguard2023 said:

Which textures from redrob41's Character Textures and Model Fixes should I use in conjunction with the mod build?

If you're asking how to use it alongside the mod build, that information will be in the next Revision. And if that is what you're asking, no offense but please keep similar requests off of this thread. This thread is specifically for requests, not troubleshooting or support.

[Vanguard2023 6]

2 minutes ago, Snigaroo said:

If you're asking how to use it alongside the mod build, that information will be in the next Revision. And if that is what you're asking, no offense but please keep similar requests off of this thread. This thread is specifically for requests, not troubleshooting or support.

Understood. And no offense taken.