Download:Consular Sentinel Class Skill Swap

[darthbdaman 71]

 

File Name: Consular Sentinel Class Skill Swap

File Submitter: darthbdaman

File Submitted: 30 Apr 2016

File Category: Mods

K1R Compatible: Yes

 

 

This is a mirror. The main file can be found on Nexusmods. Updates will be found, and feedback should be directed, there.

 

Summary

 

This mod swaps the class skills for the Jedi Sentinel and Jedi Consular, giving the Sentinel the Computer Use, Demolitions and Repair Class skills, and removing them from the Consular.

 

It always bothered me that the Jedi Consular had 6 class skills, more than the Scoundrel or the Scout, while the Jedi Sentinel had 3, the same number as the Jedi Guardian. It was also highly inconsistent with the other design decisions made towards the Jedi classes, and inconsistent with KotOR 2. It always felt like a mistake.

 

Every other progression decision is based around the idea that the Guardian is the melee class, the Consular is the Force class, and the Sentinel is the Skill class. Feat gain, Skill gain, and Power Gain are all based around this. Guardians get more feats, while Consulars and Sentinels get the same number. Consulars get more powers, while Guardians and Sentinels get the same number. Sentinels get more skills, while Consulars and Guardians get the same number.

 

While I wouldn't classify this mod as a bugfix, it does fix an inconsistency within the game, that left the Sentinel as the least viable Jedi class, considering that skill progression is substantially less useful, especially in KotOR 1, than base attack, force saves, feat gain, and power gain, all of which it lags behind both other classes in. This makes the Sentinel somewhat more viable as a class, especially for skill focused runs, and makes the Jedi Consular slightly less effective, considering it already has a lot going for it, due to the increased number of force power and better saving throws.

 

Features

• Swaps the Class Skills of the Jedi Consular and Sentinel
  

Requirements & Compatibility

• To install, run the Installer.exe file. It will automatically install the mod for you
  

Recommended Mods

• Jedi from the Start
  

Other Links

 

If you would like to know what else I am working on, you can follow me on my Twitter. If you want to see more of my mods, you can view all of them on my Nexus profile.

 

If you would like to see more, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel, or follow me on Twitch, where I play a variety of games and showcase a variety of mods.

 

If you want to discuss any of my work, or just want to hang out, you can join my Discord. If you want to directly contact me, my email address is darth@darthbdaman.com.

 

Thank you for reading, enjoy!

 

 

Click here to download this file

[Mellowtron11 180]

 

This mod swaps the class skills for the Jedi Sentinel and Jedi Consular, giving the Sentinel the Computer Use, Demolitions and Repair Class skills, and removing them from the Consular.

 

It always bothered me that the Jedi Consular had 6 class skills, more than the Scoundrel or the Scout, while the Jedi Sentinel had 3, the same number as the Jedi Guardian. It was also highly inconsistent with the other design decisions made towards the Jedi classes, and inconsistent with KotOR 2. It always felt like a mistake.

 

Every other progression decision is based around the idea that the Guardian is the melee class, the Consular is the Force class, and the Sentinel is the Skill class. Feat gain, Skill gain, and Power Gain are all based around this. Guardians get more feats, while Consulars and Sentinels get the same number. Consulars get more powers, while Guardians and Sentinels get the same number. Sentinels get more skills, while Consulars and Guardians get the same number.

 

While I wouldn't classify this mod as a bugfix, it does fix an inconsistency within the game, that left the Sentinel as the least viable Jedi class, considering that skill progression is substantially less useful, especially in KotOR 1, than base attack, force saves, feat gain, and power gain, all of which it lags behind both other classes in. This makes the Sentinel somewhat more viable as a class, especially for skill focused runs, and makes the Jedi Consular slightly less effective, considering it already has a lot going for it, due to the increased number of force power and better saving throws.

 

I like this! It always bugged me how the vanilla version of the K1 sentinel lacked these skills. A quick questions-How did you change the skills for the classes? I'm curious how you made the switch. I'm thinking of doing a similar kind of mod for the sentinel and Consular classes in Kotor 2. 

[darthbdaman 71]

The skills.2da has all the settings that control this stuff. I didn't do KotOR 2 as it isn't outright broken.

 

I am working on a much larger overhaul based around making the class balance make sense.

[Mellowtron11 180]

The skills.2da has all the settings that control this stuff. I didn't do KotOR 2 as it isn't outright broken.

 

I am working on a much larger overhaul based around making the class balance make sense.

Yeah K2's Jedi Classes weren't broken like some of  the Jedi class features were in K1. All I wanted to do was give the Computer Use skill to the Consular (similar to the WOTC's Power of the Jedi Sourcebook where one of the Consular's main skills and its corresponding prestige classes was Computer Use) and give the Repair skill to the Sentinel. Or maybe give both repair and computer use to the Sentinel only. 

 

Looking at the skills 2da files, there's two columns for each class- xx_class and xx_reco. Which one(s) do I need to edit in order to keep the changes? And did you need to use TSL patcher? Thanks!

[darthbdaman 71]

xx_class is a 1 for class skills, 0 for non.

 

xx_reco is the order that skills are added for auto level up (starting at 1, ending at 8)

[Mellowtron11 180]

xx_class is a 1 for class skills, 0 for non.

 

xx_reco is the order that skills are added for auto level up (starting at 1, ending at 8)

Thanks! Then what do you have to do- put the changes into a folder and drop the contents into the override folder? Or do you have to run it with the TSL patcher?

[darthbdaman 71]

You would have to edit the changes.ini for it to work with the patcher. If you just copy the file you edited into the override it should work

[HK-47 84]

YES! Thank you! The class skill thing made no sense at all. It was nice, but didn't make sense. Probably one of those small things that didn't get rectified before launch due to it being rushed.

[Mellowtron11 180]

YES! Thank you! The class skill thing made no sense at all. It was nice, but didn't make sense. Probably one of those small things that didn't get rectified before launch due to it being rushed.

Exactly, plus they didn't highlight the class skills with yellow text like they did in KOTOR2. 

[darthbdaman 71]

There are a few possible reasons for this mistake basically. If you look at how the classes are usually laid out in the files, it is Soldier, Scout, Scoundrel, Guardian, Consular, Sentinel. It's entirely possible that someone assumed that the middle entry would be the Sentinel, because it is the compromise option in the final game, without seeing that it was actually the Consular.

 

If I had to take a guess though, I would say that the consular and sentinel originally filled different roles. If you think about it, it makes no sense that Bastila is Sentinel and Jolee is Consular. Bastila has now practical skills, and her entire shtick is how powerful she is. Jolee on the other hand, was a smuggler at one point, and clearly isn't a super force user. The descriptions in game for the classes are also bizarre. The consular refers to mental disciplines and augmenting the force all the time, while the Sentinel is dedicated to rooting out evil and striking balance. If I had to guess, I would say that the consular originally got 3 skill points (compared to the guardians 1 and sentinels 2) and used lots of skills but sucked at combat (using skills to augment the force). This is entirely speculation, but I think it makes a lot sense. At some point they realized this was stupid probably, and took away the consulars skills because no one wanted to play a sentinel under those conditions. This meant that the sentinel was originally a literal hybrid like the scout, instead of the more bard-like class in the game now.

[Mellowtron11 180]

If I had to take a guess though, I would say that the consular and sentinel originally filled different roles. If you think about it, it makes no sense that Bastila is Sentinel and Jolee is Consular. Bastila has no practical skills, and her entire shtick is how powerful she is. Jolee on the other hand, was a smuggler at one point, and clearly isn't a super force user. The descriptions in game for the classes are also bizarre. The consular refers to mental disciplines and augmenting the force all the time, while the Sentinel is dedicated to rooting out evil and striking balance.

I think both of the those class descriptions might have come from the Star Wars Roleplaying Game from Wizards of the Coast. The Jedi class has three talent trees-Consular, Sentinel, and Guardian. The Consular had talents/feats that only applied to persuasion and negotiating and the Sentinel had spy-like talents focused on rooting out dark side users.  While I read this passage from the 2007 version, the original copy was published in 2002. So maybe Bioware gleaned some info from that book. The Soldier, scout and scoundrel classes also exist in that book too.

 

Regarding Jolee and Bastila, that would make for an interesting mod if their classes were flipped around. It would make some more sense now that you point out the inconsistencies. I will admit though, that it seems that the Scoundrel was meant to be analogous to the Consular for trying to fit with the smooth talking negotiator archetype (especially with the persuade skill as a class skill).

[Mellowtron11 180]

One other random question- did you edit the autolevel for the skills' xx_reco for this mod? Or did you just leave it as is?

[darthbdaman 71]

I didn't change it

[Guest]

Would you consider making another version of this for my personal use?

 

I've never liked the balance in K1 compared to K2, so. 

[darthbdaman 71]

It's pretty easy to change yourself. Just look at the skills.2da

[Mellowtron11 180]

Would you consider making another version of this for my personal use?

 

I've never liked the balance in K1 compared to K2, so. 

For K1?

 

It's pretty easy to change yourself. Just look at the skills.2da

He's right, it's pretty simple. You just need KOTOR TOOL. All you have to do is go to your 2da array and then open up your skills.2da file. Cross class skills are marked with a 0, class skills are marked with a 1. The classes are marked in shorthand as follows.  bead-v's character guide is below, and is pretty helpful.

http://deadlystream.com/forum/topic/5540-character-stat-guide/

 

Non-Jedi

- soldier – SLD

- scout – SCT

- scoundrel – SND

- tech specialist – TEC

- minion – MIN, not available for players

 

Droid

- expert droid – XPD

- combat droid – CBD

 

Jedi

- jedi guardian – JGD

- jedi sentinel – JSN

- jedi consular – JCS

- jedi weapon master – JWM

- jedi watchman – JWA

- jedi master – JMA

 

Sith

- sith marauder – SMA

- sith assassin – SAS

- sith lord – SLD

[Guest]

Nah K2 is on the ball, K1 just feels unnecessarily restrictive.

Thanks anyway.

[JCarter426 1,220]

FYI, the source file from skills.2da should be taken from patch.erf and not global.rim or 2da.bif. @ebmar noticed the patch archive and we explored its contents a bit. It contains a minor description fix for the awareness skill. That gets undone by this mod since it's using the unpatched version of skills.2da as the source in tslpatchdata.