The Untold Story - The Story

[Darth_Sapiens 90]

hey guys, ill be updating this post as i write more chapters, spread the word, please comment.

 

The story will be told.

 

Table of contents

 

Preface

prologue (1/2 done, 1st draft // written waaay too late in the evening imho)

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

A completion mod sounds great, as though I think restoration mods like TSLRCM are great and all, I do think they kind of miss the point. There is a reason why this content was cut from the game and there is little point of simply making it available if you do not intend to add what is missing from it in order to complete it. Unfortunately, adding that additional and make the right changes in way of content is harder than it looks, and not just from a technical point of view -- KOTOR / TSL modding is more hacking than modding in my opinion. Take items, most mod items are way over powered and therefore unbalanced. Not to mention that their description is clearly written by someone without a lot of experience with writing.

 

Having done some script and fiction writing and such before, may I suggest that you lay off the fiction writing and just plan out the plot, places, events and characters. Do something more high-level and then worry about the finer details of things like dialogue, which is harder to write than most people think. In this way you have a solid framework that can give you an overview so that you can spot weaknesses in the plot, and more importantly, identify various mission / quest types you can add.

 

And that last point is very important, as I've played some KOTOR mods in the past and most have a tendency to focus on writing self-indulgent monologues of dialogue in the form of interactive cut-scenes and flashbacks within flashbacks. What amounts to gameplay is usually the boss battles that never seem to end, that last for 20+ rounds and degenerate into running around in circles just out of range of attack, so as to build up your health and force points to attack back with. That is NOT a really brilliant idea . 

 

These mods were a nice novelty to experience once but not something I would want to experience again, to be frank.

 

BTW: It would be good if you had links and such to things you've referenced. Like GenoHaradan which I had to look up to recall who and what they were, as well as, find a link to the mod(s) mentioned for it -- which in turn don't bother give much explanatory detail either.

[Darth_Sapiens 90]

thank you for your input, the high-level stuff is mostly ironed out in my head, there might be a few flashbacks, but i hope to add more to the game than just overpowered boss battles , anyways the 1st half of the prologue is up, i have to edit it but it is a first draft only. (lol thats what you get when you write at 3am XD)

[JK JA's Jaden Korr 30]

I think it need some capitalization editing (SH will be so proud of me) in the dialog.

[Sith Holocron 2,478]

I don't edit text that is not on the site. (LOL)

[Darth_Sapiens 90]

lol thus the words draft, 1/2 done, and 3am were used XD

[JK JA's Jaden Korr 30]

LOL! This site is so funny! No matter how bad my day is going I can log on and have a laugh! I feel like we're a family here.

[Darth_Sapiens 90]

lol yes, we all have our quirks and sibling rivalries but all in all, we are an extremely tight-knit community 

[Deathtoheaven 7]

I'm a little unclear as to what the actual mod will be. Are you going to change the scripting of the game to create the scene in what you added? If so, how will you get the voice acting for Atris (I presume this is Atris), and how will it make sense for female Exile?

[Darth_Sapiens 90]

this is just a hypothetical playthrough and yes this well be a mod, atris will have new vo's, if i can splice them great, if not ill pay for a professional. the scene will be similar for a female exile, except they will be close friends instead of lovers. and it well add a bit more before the ebonhawk repair sequence.

[Deathtoheaven 7]

I see. Ambitious, which is both needed for a large mod and can endanger such a project. But you're obviously familiar with the many incidents of vaporware that have plagued our community. My only suggestion is to release this incrementally in the same way TSLRCM was released.

With all due respect, I had some free time so I took your prologue and made some grammar corrections. Grammar is everything when it comes to rhetoric (I'm finishing a Reason and Rhetoric minor this term at my university).

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hW36O3p0snYFSQS0px9GEi6QGl8o8XzmtEa46aB7DK8/edit?usp=sharing

[Darth_Sapiens 90]

that is what i was planning, ill probably keep all my wip files, or at least versions of them, online and open source, lol for sure thanks for the corrrections, if you want ill let you modify my document as you wish (i know some people are quite imperial with their grammar, *cough*SH*cough*) i did plan on fixing it once i was done writing the prologue's first draft.

[InSidious 237]

One idea you might like to consider is editing the current content so that it branches a bit more, specifically re: Atris and Nihilus. In the cut content,

 

 

there were references to Kreia asking Visas to take her to Nihilus, not Handmaiden to take her to Atris, after you meet the Council.

 

 

What I was toying with a while back was the idea of using this to split the plot even further, so that you either have the Handmaiden and issues with Atris, or Visas, and issues with Nihilus, but not both. It presents some problems with the plot for Telos, but not as many for the end-game as it might, funnily enough.

 

Just an idea I thought was interesting, and might be of use.

[Deathtoheaven 7]

That is an accurate assessment, InSidious. 5% of the cut content (Darth Atris, Visas takes Kreia to Nihilus) fleshes out Malachor V, but conflicts with the established plot.

 

Having just finished Malachor V with TSLRCM 1.8.2, I can say that the ending is remarkably restored since the last full version I played of TSLRCM (which was 1.6). Full review coming tomorrow (maybe).

 

I am curious though: Are there any VO lines for the "Vistas takes Kreia to Nihilus" scene?

[Darth_Sapiens 90]

I too am curious about that, if there are vows I think it would be a good idea to include, I can see how either way could work, typing on phone ATM XD, just fixed my netbook today, I'll see if I can find any lines.

[Darth Hayze 19]

There are VO's for Kreia asking to see Nihilus, but any lines for Kreia in the actual confrontation would have to be written up and spliced. 

[Darth_Sapiens 90]

so i have decided to discontinue the fan fic.

to focus more on the overall story.

[Logan23 205]

I agree with the idea of setting up the over all story line. (quests, planets/or locations)

 

Answer the question - What are you aiming for the player to get from playing the Mod.

 

1-Write in a Word Doc- your over all themes and Main Quest Arc.

 

2-Look at what modules would be needed for these locations/scenes

 

3-Get Final Draft (Demo) - This will be your program to create Dlg trees and Dlg scenes. (I know said you were interested in Articy:Draft- ProTip- You can import Final Draft format documents into the Notes section of the program and then simply drag it to the Flow chart's Grid and ..instant Dialogue Tree in Articy:Draft ) 

 

The final Draft will allow you to pace scenes and get to the meat of the scene -Dlg. Also 1 page in screenplay format is about 1 minute on film. So if you have a dlg scene that's 3-4 pages long- your looking at 3-4 minutes which in games is a tad to long for a cut scene. I know this from personal experience- Anyone remember the really , really long first Dialogue scene with the Chancellor (4mins long)- Yeah, I went back and alter it and cut out a character from it and shorten the scene to about 1 min to 1 1/2 mins - if i remember right. 

 

And last- lots of Folders marked with many folders inside folder (folder-inception). This will allow things to stay clean.

 

And the truly final suggestion- Get a free Cloud service- Surgarsync or DropBox so if anything ever happen to your computer- you can always retrieve the files and at worse lose a few items which didn't get updated. (you will sleep easier at night..trust me lol)

 

 

Keep Modding!

 

Logan 

[Darth_Sapiens 90]

thanks for the advice, truly. lol i have already had my computer crash twice, not fun when you are working on something, i do have google drive and i use it often now.

[Darth_Sapiens 90]

locked, continue discussion here