In your opinion: Coruscant Expansion Discussion

[Sith Holocron 2,480]

Everything here is theoretical.

[Mephiles550 227]

Thanks to Sith Holocron for reminding me of this thread! I had fun writing all of this.

The Coruscant expansion went through several revisions and add-ons to make the mod better, and while I did have fun playing the mod itself, I do have some recommendations for future versions. Some of these may be too hard to implement, but I figured I'd just throw these out there. While new modules would be impressive (the in-progress work shown on custom Coruscant modules here sure does impress me), that can wait for a later time. Seeing the entrance to the Jedi Temple being a ghetto landing pad is pretty funny, but understandable given what the community had to work with at the time.

What I'm recommending here isn't necessarily an expansion of the mod, but a (large) patch to fix some of the problems I noticed.

1. Seeing characters "speak" without actually having any voice-lines needs to stop. Are they speaking to me telepathically? (One mod actually did use this excuse for not having spoken dialogue, nice try guy). Modders should easily be able to remedy this by making the characters aliens, like Twi'leks, or by having the humans say lines already recorded in the game files.

• For the Republic soldiers, have only one address you in front of the entrance and make him a Twi'lek in republic uniform so he can speak like a Twi'lek and either get rid of the second door guard or have him speak lines already in the game. I'd recommend the dialogue used by the Republic soldier in the Telos cantina. His dialogue can be applied anywhere.
• That's the glory of Kotor's Twi'leks, they can be fitted in any armor. Putting a Twi'lek in a Republic uniform shouldn't be a problem.
• The two guards in the temple killed by the Sith don't speak, so no issue here. They can just be regular soldiers. Maybe make one soldier female for variety.
• The random guard patrolling the temple interior can be a patrol droid that speaks droid babble.
• For the Sith master in the council chamber, have him speak the Sith gibberish language spoken occasionally by other Sith assassins.
• The droid next to the fountain that provides the module map should speak like any other droid without prerecorded lines. Same for the giant worker droid next to the boxes.
• Does Kreia even need to be referenced for the library terminal? Just let the terminal work without her needing to mention an override bug for it.

2. Add a map for the council room. Yes, the module contains only a hallway and a single room, but the lack of a map and the white void placeholder pulls me away from my immersion, not to mention hurts my eyes. It doesn't help knowing that the all-white map was a common issue I experienced modding the game that basically implied that I screwed up major with a mod and had to go on a scavenger hunt throughout the files to find the problem. I'd rather not be reminded.

3. The skybox is garbage. It tries to use Nar Shaddaa's multi-layered skybox as a template and the result is somewhat ugly.

• There is a Coruscant skybox mod, but it applies only to the council chamber module's skybox and the mod itself was intended to be used only for the Jedi Master cutscene there after Telos. When you're actually in the module, the skybox is incomplete and looks weird.

4. Limit the force powers the library's training terminal offers to teach to only one or two powers. I understand some powers require being a higher level already, but regardless, this broken feature takes away the satisfaction of leveling up and earning force powers the intended way. I shouldn't be able to go from not even knowing force spark to having force storm in mere seconds.

• Maybe after having one or two force powers, the terminal will shut down due to irreparable damage after not having been maintained for such a long time.
• By the way, when I say force powers, I mean individual force powers, not fully upgraded force powers. For example, you can learn either force push or force shock, or force shock and force lightning, but that's all you get.
• I don't have a problem with learning two or three feats either, or maybe even an attribute or skill level increase. Just please, limit yourselves.

5. The Loot obtainable from the mod really needs reducing. I actually felt guilty after having finished the planet, having gone from a relatively weak character who just left Telos into a Übermensch after only 10-15 minutes of exploration. Do you still need parts to build your first lightsaber? No worries, you'll find around ten or so scattered throughout the mod, along with several of the game's best crystals, robes, and some really powerful custom items along with it.

• Get rid of the majority of these items, although keep the majority of what's in the Sith room minus the lightsabers.
• There can still be a couple of really powerful components, just not eight or nine in a single container.
• Feel free to add in the droid room, oh, I don't know, some droid parts.
• NO LIGHTSABERS. Make the player work for that lightsaber. Instead of getting a lightsaber from the Sith Master, have him provide a lightsaber part on death.
• The really powerful crystals, like the Kaiburr crystal, should be included in the Sith room in the main monument.
• Do not include the Quixoni crystal. Keep that exclusive to the shady dealer on Onderon. (Sorry the late edit. I originally wrote Kaiburr crystal here before. That obviously makes no sense considering the above)
• I'm fine with including Revan and Malak's items, although an explanation of how they got to Coruscant would be nice, especially for those who made Revan rejoin the Sith in the game instead of the Jedi.

6. Fix the remains on the Jedi training NPC. It's really weird to see a hologram drop a small pouch containing a heavy repeating carbine or Gamorrean war gloves.

• Also consider making holograms of Sith, Dark Jedi, and beasts available to fight as holograms.

7. The Sith holocron should not be able to teach you Force Crush. It's easily one of the most broken powers in the game - a good exclusive reward for having progressed on the Dark Side path. Maybe you can learn another new mod power instead. There are a plethora of possible options to choose from. This video shows a bunch of possible options:

• Please, let's limit us to only one power. My personal favorite is the one that lets you summon a beast.
• The confrontation with the republic soldier that enters the room should be modified. He can still be killed, but you should be able to talk to him and persuade him to ignore you.
• The previous recommendation would probably require him becoming an alien to accommodate for dialogue.
• If a new power cannot be added, then at least replace learning force crush with gains to the PC's attributes, strength and constitution being the likely choices for Dark Side gains.

8. Add additional puzzles into the game. A math problem, fill in the blank, a riddle contest, I'll let the reader get creative with this, but the fact of the matter is that the rooms with the majority of the interesting goodies require little to no effort to enter. The council chamber and droid assembly room require little to no skill to enter. Simply get T3 or Bao-Dur and either one of them can slice through the lock no problem. If a puzzle is incorporated, use it to open the council chamber. Raise the skill requirement to slice into the droid room, and raise it a good amount. If it's too hard to slice though, place a keycard somewhere for it.

9. Add an additional compatibility option for those using the Sith assassins with lightsabers mod. This mod shows several of the Sith assassins with wooden staffs and it can be annoying for people who prefer them with lightsabers.

• I'm not sure if it's just my character's wisdom being too high, but I swear that the assassins in this mod have no force resistance at all. Maybe buff their resistance slightly as well.

10 Have a surprise attack on your party after having completed the mod right before you enter the Hawk to leave. Not even Coruscant should be safe for the Exile, even with the republic maintaining the area.

• One idea is that a group of alien bounty hunters, or a single strong alien bounty hunter, bribes/convinces some Republic soldiers to help kill the Exile and collect the bounty together. Even though the assassin posing as Batu Rem wasn't actually a part of the TSF, seeing what looked like a TSF officer fight you had me wonder why the game didn't use similar ideas with other Republic soldiers who want to capitalize on the bounty.
• With Coruscant being the Republic capital and filled with its soldiers, there should at least be a couple traitorous ones who wouldn't think twice about siding against you. They don't even need dialogue, they just have to be there and start attacking you as soon as the group leader gives the order to attack.
• If G0-T0 is present in your party, have him mention how the bounty on the Jedi has been rescinded. Since there isn't exactly somewhere for the enemies to leave, have them think that the droid is just bluffing and make them attack you regardless.
• Make the group leader a strong Gran. They don't get enough love. Obsidian goes through all of the trouble of improving that god awful Kotor 1 Gran model and they barely use their new model for anything. Shameful, really! Feel free to give him a custom skin to make him stand out.
• Why not include some HK-50 droids at the start of the planet? Right when you exit the Ebon Hawk, away from the eyes of the republic guards, the HK-50 units will be waiting for you.

The bulk of my issues pertains towards the mod spoiling players like greedy children on Christmas morning. The last one may be asking for too much, but I figured I'd just throw the idea in any way. Of course, all dialogue recommendations can be changed with custom voice acting, but I'm not holding my breath on that anytime soon.

TL;DR - Cut down on all of the overpowered items, use alien dialogue.

[Sith Holocron 2,480]

Remember this thread, old timers?  @HarIIImight have something to say soon.

[HarIII 19]

Hey guys. I've been playing around in the modding community for years now and seen a lot come a long way. For a while now, I've been modeling out my own Coruscant expansion. It's not near completion but I have done a significant amount of work. Out of 33 planned modules, I have 27 that are considered completed (not taking ambient models into consideration). Textures aren't acquired yet nor lightmaps applied but just thought I would go ahead and show off what I have done far.

[LiliArch 115]

33 modules! What are you going to do with all of them?

[HarIII 19]

I was originally going to use them for another project I have going on that's still under lock and key, however, at the very least I am planning on releasing them for the community to use as a modder's resource upon completion.

[Spectrometer 16]

This has the potential to be a new big project and revitalize a bit the community. Good job.

However, as LiliArch said, perhaps 33 modules more for a planet is a little bit too much, KOTOR II is already a long game. My suggestions  to you (or a modder taking your modules for expanding Coruscant):

• Remodel the entire Jedi Temple, with the same places, placeables and plot but with different modules.
• Use three-four modules to explore urban zones close to the Jedi Temple. It would be interesting to see the most public and political side of the falling Republic, which seems to be absent in the rest of the plot (save maybe for Grenn and Chodo Habat).
• (This one will be the most cotroversial) perhaps (IF we can contact Trex and he gives permission) remodel Coruscant from The Jedi Masters Mod?

[Sith Holocron 2,480]

58 minutes ago, Spectrometer said:

This has the potential to be a new big project and revitalize a bit the community. Good job.

However, as LiliArch said, perhaps 33 modules more for a planet is a little bit too much, KOTOR II is already a long game. My suggestions  to you (or a modder taking your modules for expanding Coruscant):

You might be missing an important part of HarIII's statement.  I'll highlight it.

1 hour ago, HarIII said:

I was originally going to use them for another project I have going on that's still under lock and key, however, at the very least I am planning on releasing them for the community to use as a modder's resource upon completion.

I think you're probably gonna have to wait for his other project to be done first.  You probably have a long wait ahead of you. 

[Spectrometer 16]

Oh great, so this is just another bump about models for a totally unrelated project, that may be donated in the far future to the actual project in this thread...

EDIT: And you might be missing another important part of HarIII's statement.  I'll highlight it.

Quote

I was originally going to use them for another project I have going on that's still under lock and key, however, at the very least I am planning on releasing them for the community to use as a modder's resource upon completion.

 

Quote

Hey guys. I've been playing around in the modding community for years now and seen a lot come a long way. For a while now, I've been modeling out my own Coruscant expansion. It's not near completion but I have done a significant amount of work. Out of 33 planned modules, I have 27 that are considered completed (not taking ambient models into consideration). Textures aren't acquired yet nor lightmaps applied but just thought I would go ahead and show off what I have done far.

 

[JCarter426 1,220]

They're for Coruscant, or at least they may be for Coruscant. I don't want to put anything on record yet, but I've been in contact with various individuals and we've discussed ideas for the planet and how to integrate it into the game. I didn't exactly plan it that way, but I was asked and then Har was already working on Coruscant areas anyway, so things just fell into place. But we're waiting on the completion of the area models to do anything more than planning, and that may still take some time. Well, they don't have to be completed exactly, but there is little practical work that can be done with the design before the areas are serviceable - enough to wander around in them, decide which areas the player will have to visit for the main quest, which will be optional side areas to explore, what to fill them with. There's only so much that can be done on paper. So, we've been waiting on the areas to be modeled, which understandably takes a very long time because it's a lot of work. Some adjustments will likely be required as well, even additional areas, as they've been primarily designed for Har's other project. But we've also been in communication throughout the process, so there is a lot of overlap too.

Anyway, I don't want to get anybody's hopes up because even if the models were done today, any real progress would still be in the distant future. But it's not nothing that's being done either.

[Sith Holocron 2,480]

On 2/25/2019 at 8:03 PM, HarIII said:

Hey guys. I've been playing around in the modding community for years now and seen a lot come a long way. For a while now, I've been modeling out my own Coruscant expansion. It's not near completion but I have done a significant amount of work. Out of 33 planned modules, I have 27 that are considered completed (not taking ambient models into consideration). Textures aren't acquired yet nor lightmaps applied but just thought I would go ahead and show off what I have done far.

Pssst...  @90SK released @HarIII's stuff for him.  It's right here.  Don't tell anyone. 

[LoneWanderer 103]

Wow! So potential Coruscant revamp is now one step closer to reality?

Edited May 31, 2020 by LoneWanderer

[Sith Holocron 2,480]

4 hours ago, LoneWanderer said:

Wow! So potential Coruscant revamp is now one step closer to reality?

That depends on who is willing to work on such a thing and the level of skill of those involved.  I am merely an interested, but unattached party just like everyone else at this point so who knows things might (or might not) proceed?

[LoneWanderer 103]

While there is no news about potential Coruscant Expansion, I decided to make an addon for the original The Jedi Temple mod. My thoughts on updating the mod are mostly the same as what Mephiles550 wrote a few posts above, though not everything will be implemented, because the main goal of this project is to add and fix things without changing gameplay or deathdisco’s original vision.

What is included in The Jedi Temple Addon:

•  AI-generated and alien VO for NPCs.
•  Map for the Council Chambers module.
•  Fixed broken walls in the Jedi Temple module (cleaned up models were originally created by Hunter’s Run for the "Enclave Sublevel as a Functioning Jedi Academy" mod) and replaced glitchy blocks hiding them with new crates (not final).
• Training Jedi-hologram no longer drops items after combat.
• Party members will not disappear during training battles with holograms. Instead, they will stand on the side of the room and rejoin active party after the fight.

Some ideas are currently not implemented because they may or may not affect the original vision of the mod:

• Since VO are AI-generated, NPC dialogue can be expanded to add lore and explain why the area is closed and why the Temple and surrounding area are in poor condition.
• More lore-expanding texts and holograms.
• Few more NPCs (like researchers or scientists) and maybe a side-quest.
• Additional types of training holograms.

And 3 additions that I want to add (probably as optional content):

• A keycard that will allow players with low ‘Computer’ skill to open the door to the Council Chambers (the skill required to slice through the lock will be increased). Currently, players without Bao-Dur or T3 and with low ‘Computer’ skill can spend dozen of minutes running around before realizing that there is no alternative way to open the door.
• Alien bounty hunters on the landing pad (hope to find a place for Kel Dor alien that’s available in Modder’s Resources). It’s also surprising how much my idea about adding a corrupt republic soldier matches Mephiles550’s.
• Coruscant music from TOR in some places.

Screenshots:

Spoiler

AI voice samples:

Spoiler

Kreia's AI VO (created by HappyPenguin)

kreia002.wav

Kreia's telepathic talk:

kreia004 v2.mp3

Protocol droid:

protocol_droid_5 v1.wav

Republic soldier:

repsol2_002.mp3

The mod doesn’t contain files from The Jedi Temple mod and should be installed after it.

[DarthParametric 3,794]

21 minutes ago, LoneWanderer said:

hope to find a place for Kel Dor alien that’s available in Modder’s Resources

Ehhhhh, don't do that, it's garbage. I ported the TOR Kel Dor as part of another mod for K1. The head and hands could be grafted onto one or more of the regular body models (currently it's using JC's TSL-ported knight robes body) if you wanted bounty hunters.