I'm new to all of this, and could use some help/guidance, please

[chaosstorm88 0]

Like the title states, I am new to KotOR, in addition to computer gaming in general, and my skills with computers are not particularly great. After finishing KotOR 2 (physical disc, KotOR Collection) I found the ending lacking. I looked around online and discovered this Restored Content Mod. 

Could anyone help me with explaining what this is? I see a bunch of topics on bugs and mods and things I don't really understand, but very little on what this mod actually is/contains. Also, assuming I want to try using it, I could use some help setting everything up, as I have never modded a game before. 

Sorry for being such a pain, I just don't have the knowledge to do this on my own, and I don't want to screw things up...

Thank you in advance for any help/advice/guidance you can provide.

[milestails 264]

Basically it's a must-have mod for KotOR 2. Your experience will be vastly improved from the vanilla game if you have TSLRCM 1.8.3 and M4-78EP installed.

 

Here is a good place to start to find out about the types of content it contains:

 

http://deadlystream.com/forum/topic/139-whats-restored-in-tslrcm/

 

And here is some backstory as to why this mod is so pivotal in the grand scheme of things:

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Cut_content_from_Star_Wars:_Knights_of_the_Old_Republic_II:_The_Sith_Lords

 

As far as setup is concerned, just download and run the .exe files from the downloads section to install the mods. Then, play a new game and witness night and day.

[Damned 20]

I thought you also had to disable the read only protection on the KOTOR 1/2 directories as well to use mods. Am I wrong?

[Fair Strides 510]

For KSE you do...

 

And if you don't want your saves to end up in some Virtual Store folder in your appdata, you run the game in Administrator Mode.

[Xuul 224]

My guide is very detailed and has some walkthrough videos if you are still uncomfortable modding. That being said installing TSLRCM is easy. If you need any help just shoot me a PM, i would be happy to help.

 

My guide-  http://deadlystream.com/forum/topic/3142-guide-xuuls-ultimate-guide-for-kotor-2/

[PlacidSaint 1]

I'm a subscriber to Xuul's youtube channel and his video's are where I got the best instructions on how and where to install mods. His videos also provide links to the mod he is showcasing and the videos are very well done if your new to installing mods for the Kotor games.

[chaosstorm88 0]

Alrighty. gonna give it shot shortly. Wish me luck! and thank you all for your advice!

[Sith Holocron 2,480]

Good luck!

[chaosstorm88 0]

oh, forgot to ask, is there anything that needs to be done differently since I play off an actual disc?

[PlacidSaint 1]

Xuul's video's usually have both pathways to the Kotors override folder where your mods will go in his video's for both retail and steam versions, once you install the first few mods you'll have it the process down.

[chaosstorm88 0]

Okay! looks like everything is working (so far, at least). Thank you all again, especially Xuul. Your video walkthrough is excellent! now I just need to decide on character stuff, (LS/DS, male/female, classes, etc.) 

[Xuul 224]

I'm a subscriber to Xuul's youtube channel and his video's are where I got the best instructions on how and where to install mods. His videos also provide links to the mod he is showcasing and the videos are very well done if your new to installing mods for the Kotor games.

 

Okay! looks like everything is working (so far, at least). Thank you all again, especially Xuul. Your video walkthrough is excellent! now I just need to decide on character stuff, (LS/DS, male/female, classes, etc.)

 

Thank you both for your kind words. I truly appreciate it.

[Fins 0]

Like the title states, I am new to KotOR, in addition to computer gaming in general, and my skills with computers are not particularly great. After finishing KotOR 2 (physical disc, KotOR Collection) I found the ending lacking. I looked around online and discovered this Restored Content Mod. 

...

Seeing you are relatively new to KOTOR 2, it may be that you will find the following information useful.

 

 

In 'em internets, there are numerous discussions about KOTOR 2 classes, and sadly, vast majority i find lacking truth. Here is my take on the subject.

 

1. Best lightsaber fighter class = Jedi Guardian + Jedi Watchman / Sith Assasin. 

 

Surprised? Here's why.

 

Guardian class gives force jump to cover distances quickly. They also have more feats than other Jedi classes (there are enough feats affecting lightsaber combat for this to matter). Plus, Guardians have Demolitions as a class skill - while Jedi Watchmans and Sith Assasins do not (and those prestige classes are the key to most potent lightsaber combat possible), and this particular skill is very helpful early and throughout the game. Last but not least, Guardians have high vitality points progression, which is useful for a lightsaber fighter in general and early in the game specifically. 

 

Jedi Watchman / Sith Assasin - are by far the most powerful lightsaber combat possible in the game. They have the same Attack/Defense progression as Jedi Weapon Masters, less "weapon feats" - yep, you won't get "improved two-weapon fighting" with those, - but they automatically get (with levels) much more powerful line of feats: Sneak Attack line. Don't be fooled by the name: you don't have to be in stealth for this to work (though of course it works for 1st attack - like flurry - out of stealth, of course). Yet, it also work when the attacked enemy is simply facing away, and it also works - best of all - when the enemy is in any way disabled. Choke, stun, insanity, whirlwind, etc etc - whenever you have an enemy disabled, Sneak Attack adds extra damage to your lightsaber hits. To _each_ lightsaber hit, that is. 1-6 extra damage per each stage of Sneak Attack. 

 

So for example, when my (total level 31+ right now) Jedi Watchman hits some stunned (by Kreia) enemy with flurry (and under Knight Speed), this Sneak Attack VI feat (6-36 extra damage) adds 5 times that to the total flurry's damage - i.e. 30...180 damage, some ~105 damage on average. This is by far much better than any Jedi Weapon Master feature could give! And with Kreia in your party for most of the game (experience boost, you know?), you have massive source of stuns and disables from her, if you set her up for that. 

 

Furthermore, Jedi Watchmans get all those neat class skills to add upon Guardian's skills; immunities to stun, fear, etc; best saves in the game; ability to use stealth without stealth field generator; and of course, they do keep Force Jump if evolved from Guardian class.

 

 

2. Best Force user class = Jedi Consular + Jedi Watchman / Sith Assasin.

 

Surprised again? ^) Here's why:

 

Jedi Consulars get very good +4 modifier to all offensive powers - i.e. enemies need 4 more points in their saves to resist Jedi Consular force powers. Amazingly, Jedi Masters (and their Sith counter-parts) do not get any bonus of this kind! 

 

Jedi Watchman / Sith Assasin - picking one of those is superior to being a Jedi Master kind, since potency of Force Powers (how difficult it is to save against them) will be the same, force points are more than enough in both cases, yet defenses of Jedi Watchman / Sith Assasin are better - faster defense progression, more feats, higher saves. Can't Force Lightning 'em to death if you yourself are dead, can you?

 

 

It is rather sad that the reality in KOTOR 2 is so - out of three Prestige classes, one and only one is best in both "Jedi" roles (lightsaber and Force using). But it is so, and knowing this certainly helps to realize what class you want and why. That said, i am not proposing to "always be Jedi Watchman / Sith Assasin". If you want harder times - and it's ok to face a challenge, i say, - then other prestige classes are certainly useful to you. 

 

 

Good luck in the game!

 

 

[milestails 264]

Great information Fins!

 

Always wondered about this sort of thing myself.

[Fins 0]

Thank you.

 

Few more boring mumblings, then. Who knows, may be someone will find 'em of use.

 

 

To be precise, it is Sith Assasin who is the best lightsiber fighter - his Sneak Attack progression is faster than Jedi Watchman's. At level 19 of their prestige class, Sith Assasins get Sneak Attack X - means, 10-60 extra damage to each lightsaber hit whenever Sneak Attack is applicabe. Basically, it's as if each hit becomes a crit, and each crit becomes 1,5 times more damaging - Sneak Attack damage does not get increased by crit multipliers, but frankly, it doesn't need to. Jedi Watchmen, though, only get Sneak Attack VII by the time they get level 19 of their prestige class. It's still quite massive 7-42 extra damage per hit, - still much better than whatever extra few points of +attack and +damage Jedi Weapon Masters could squeeze in by their feats.

 

Above mentioned Sneak Attack line is even useful against some "bosses", no matter how high their saves are - if you know "how", of course. Here's how. You still can Sneak Attack them again and again even if you can't disable them by any force power from yourself, Kreia or any other party member - cool huh? This is possible with droids' 100% "paralize" item - forgot its name, sorry. I mean one droid side weapon kind (10 charges per item, iirc), which paralizes the target for 15 seconds (5 combat rounds) normally, or for 9 seconds (3 combat rounds) if the target saves. So whenever you can bring a droid with this thing to any boss fight - you automatically win no matter how tough that boss is, except if he's completely immune to paralizis.

 

Some bosses are possibly immune to the effect, though. Plus, last few maps of the game, you are all alone - and there are quite a few bosses to beat there. This is where built-in Stealth ability gets handy, as well as Demolitions skill. There are Devastating Poison mines in the game, with their DC = 100 and powerful effects, those are very useful. So if you have any problem with any boss, having those mines, and also Devastating Plasma ones (both kinds, you can make yourself with high enough Demolitions skill yourself) - is tremendous help. Basically, you run away from the boss using Knight Speed until the boss has no line of sight to you, after a few seconds without LoS to any enemy, you'll be able to enter Stealth. Which gets boosted by simply being Watchman/Assasin, via passive power, by the way. Still, it's good to have Stealth maxed. Then you go in Stealth back to the boss and lay those mines behind him/her - few meters away. Mix of Devastating Plasmas and few Devastating Poison ones is cool, all nearly on the same spot. Then you go behind some corner to break line of sight once again, renew your energy resistance and Speed powers, go Stealth again, and hit the boss from behind with a massive Sneak Attack - after which you step back few meters. Boss comes to ya and BOOM, quite possibly he's dead already - depends on how many mines you layed down for him. If not, he's poisoned much and will die in a few extra attacks and poison clicks, anyway.

 

Much more classy, though, is the Consular + Watchman/Assasin developed specifically for offensive force powers' usage. Obviously, heavy +wisdom from equipment is desirable for this one, and of course, being male is very beneficial in terms of defense here (Handmaiden's buff for +def from wisdom, unless you use the mod to allow it for female PC as well, of course). Basically, end-game, buffed up, you can have some +30 or so to the potency of your offensive powers from Wisdom and Charisma, and another +30 or even more (end-game) from main character level. Add 5 or 10 from the powers' base, and extra +4 from being Jedi Consular - and your powers get VERY hard to resist. Still, having several offensive powers designed to disable enemies, based of different saving throws, means that for most, if not all, bosses you can find a power which will disable them reliably - every time you use it. And then Sneak Attack comes right in dealing those extra hundreds of damage! Disabled bosses can't defend themselves any well, - you won't need sky high Attack to hit them reliably while they are disabled.

 

And about starting stats. Once again, all sorts of advice are present in the internet, and most of them, i find harmful.

 

Basic rule of thumb for starting stats in KOTOR2: never, ever get any stat higher than 14 - doing so will in fact weaken your character, because of extra stat point cost for 15+ stat levels at the start of the game.

 

And then, if you intend to play either Jedi Watchman or Sith Assasin, then the following applies:

 

a) if you are about to play the Force User character, or any hybrid Lightsaber + Force User, - then you are best with 8 Stregnth and all other stats being 14, at the start of the game. Here's why:

 - you need 'em skills, so 14 Int is quite the minimum. In fact, most of the time i insrease that to 16 or even 18 ASAP using +stat points during the game - even with Jedi Watchman / Sith Assasin +3 skill points per level. Even if not, having maxed Demolitions, Stealth, Persuade and Security - is already 4 points / level, and you'll definitely want "some few" in other skills as well, sooner or later. In fast, you'll want at least 11 effective Awareness (probably much higher), some 10+ in "hard point" repair and computer use, and even few (1...3) points in Treat Injury (if not much more). All that is helpful exactly for main character in certain moments of the game, when noone else would do skill-wise (like repairing T3, talking with Mira, healing sick refugee on Nar Shaddaa, etc);

 - as you're a "caster", you need potency for your powers. So 14 in both Wisdom and Charisma at the start is very needed;

 - 14 endurance - you wants always. This gets increased to 18 during in-game level-ups (after you're done boosting Int, that is). Reason is simple: best implants in the game which give +3 to all stats (_all_ 6 stats, or to 3 "physical" or "mental" stats) - all those implants require hard-point endurance = 18, and the math is quite simple in case of the best implant: you spend 4 points to boost Endurance from 14 to 18, and this allows you to use +18 stat points (+3x6) implant instead of 2+ times weaker ones, stat-wise. And, of course, 18 hard-point endurance (plus possibly more from that implant, if it's not the "mental stats +3" one), - makes your character very durable;

 - out of two remaining stats, Strength and Dexterity, it's best to max one and "forget" another. Strength gives few points of extra damage to lightsabers, while Dexterity gives few extra points of Defense. Attack is pretty much the same for both, assuming you take Finesse: Lightsaber feat if you go Dex way. Why to go Dex, you ask? Because being a Watchman/Assasin caster, you disable any strong enemies easily, and then you get more than enough damage from Sneak Attack, - what good extra few points of damage to you there? And against large groups, you can disable them and then force lightning them down quick. What good is Defense then, you ask? First, to be able to Force Lightning large groups without disabling them - their futile attempts to hit ya is nice thing to see and it saves a combat round, you know. Plus, "just in case", - higher defense may come in handy sometimes when you don't expect it.

 

 

b.) you are about to play only self-buff + lightsaber kind.

 

Then the only difference from the above is that you are best setting both Strength and Dexterity to 14, and reduce Wisdom to 12 and Charisma to 10. Wisdom affects some skills and you still want some force points to have good reserve for self-buffs and heals, that's why 12 in there. Charisma affects Persuade - and only main character has any high Persuade skill. And, frankly, who wants to be most ugly sort? But if you're very hardcore and completely sure you won't be using any offensive powers, - then break that rule of thumb above and go something like 14 str, 14 dex, 15 end, 16 int, 8 wis, 8 cha. 16 Int for an extra skill per level from very start of the game, 15 endurance to get bonus vitality points faster (if you're going to boost it to 18 by character level 12, as i believe it's best to do in this case, - that's quite a bunch of extra vitality points taken), and then starting character level 16, buff either Dex or Str - whichever fighter style you'll decide to make (again, Dex (with Finesse feat for +attack) = extra defense for the character, while Str = some extra damage dealt by lightsabers; and most people including myself believe that Dex is better).

 

 

This is all i have to share. Apologies for length, and for typos... Quite tired today. May the force be with... Errr... You know.

 

 

[milestails 264]

I never knew any of this stuff either!

 

Will reference in the future if I come out of retirement for a playthrough.

[chaosstorm88 0]

Finished my first playthrough with TSLRCM! Went with Male, LS(mostly), Sentinel/Watchman, and loved it so much more than my playthrough without TSLRCM. It still left a few questions and concerns. I don't know how to do that spoiler window thing that Fins did, so old school:

 

**SPOILERS**

 

 

 

1) What happened to Bao-dur? I got to the return to Telos bit, and he just up and disappears. and the only thing that's said is "Yeah, where did he go? him and HK-47?" HK had, of course, gone to the Factory. Bao-dur, well... I got nothing. 

 

2) Why did the game insist that my character had a relationship with Visas? It shoved into a relationship with her on my first playthrough, and I decided to run with it that time, but this time around I tried to foster a relationship with the Handmaiden. I treated Visas with indifference at best, and at the end the game still went on as if I had a relationship with her.

 

3) During the Malachor sequence, there is a bunch of talk about whether or not the General will order the use of the Shadow Mass Generator. Or is it the Mass Shadow Generator? I forget. which is kind of the point. There is no choice given, no actual mention of the Weapon prior to the sequence. There is some innuendo that "something" happened at Malachor, but no specifics until the end, and then it is glossed over.

 

4) On M4-78, why does Vash's apprentice get killed? I understand the death of Vash (though I hate it, she had potential, and I liked her more than any of the other Masters). But after you fix M4-78, there is no way to justify the death of her apprentice, story-wise.

 

That covers the stuff i can think of for the moment (kind of exhausted right now). Again, overall, I loved it, just a couple of things nagging at my OCD-addled brain. 

[Sith Holocron 2,480]

I would ask your M4-78 question in that section as it and TSLRCM are separate mods.