Still seeking questions for the on-going M4-78 Documentary . . .

[Sith Holocron 2,480]

Howdy folks!

 

As the release of the next chapter of DarthStoney's version of M4-78 is now released, I have to start planning for the next chapter -  and that chapter is on the M4-78 Enhancement Project.  As with my previous chapters, I have to acquire questions from you out there.  This tends to give you all a chance to get feedback and straight answers from the mod makers and I usually place it right before or after Xuul's encapsulated review.

 

Near the bottom are the questions I have received so far and that Zbyl2 is sending me the text and audio response to tomorrow.  Please don't skip ahead yet. 

 

Here's the thing though . . . I haven't written any of the EP chapter yet.  Sometimes the questions I received from all of you helps drive how I approach the material.  The EP has had several versions (spread across different sites) and isn't even available here at the moment.  That causes interesting challenges but not any that can't be overcome. 

 

If you haven't played M4-78 Enhancement Project yet and/or you want to take some notes for questions, here's where to get it . . .

• If you wish to play the last non-Steam version of M4-78 EP, you can pick it up at this MODDB link. 
• If you have Steam, you might wish to try out the 1.3 version which is only available in the Steam Workshop.

 

I will send these questions directly to Zbyl2 and Hassat Hunter.  Hopefully, Zbyl2 and Hassat Hunter will share their answers/audio with each other as well - as that will likely increase the quality of the answers. Plus - honestly - I'd like to hear both of them responding in this.  By the way, if you have questions for me regarding any aspect of M4-78 EP, you can include those as well. 

 

If you're still reading this, you'll probably want to know what questions have already been asked .  Here's what Zbyl2 has already answered and will be sending me his repsonses tomorrow mornong.  (One of the questions apparently will need a follow up from the original questioner for clarification purposes.)

 

The Questions (So Far)

 

The questions go up in intensity as they go on.

 

1) In M4-78 EP, who are hinted to be the real colonists? (I am well aware of the thread discussing this but perhaps your video could explain the behind the scenes of how and why the L'xing and whatever from HK-47's backstory became a part of the mod?

 

2) If Kaah never had VO in the original TSL files? Why did you decide to waste time by giving him VO when he could have had a Twi'lek VO instead?

 

3) Why does Vash refer to M4-78's chamber as a "tomb"? (Show a clip of Vash saying "Thank you for saving me from this tomb?")

 

4) What were the motivations of M4-78 and ES-05 and what where the consequences of having her mind erased by M4-78 and M4-78 being reprogrammed by Kaah? I never really understood that

 

5) Could you give us more detail on the cut Sith survivor Saruv and the Selkath cameo and other early M4-78 ideas that never made it in?

 

6) Why did you guys decide to make a custom skybox instead of using the original one? (Shows an image of the original M4-78 skybox)

 

7) Did you guys notice the lag problem when you first were developing M4-78 and what was your reaction to it?

 

8) What do you guys think went really well and really bad in the final versions of M4-78?

 

9) On the new terminals in the industrial zone near IS-24's chamber, why are there English letters on them and not the Star Wars Aurebesh? And why do some of them have maps of the M4-78 modules exactly how they appear on the Mini-Map?

 

10) What happened to M4-78 after the events of TSL?

 

11) How much significance was placed on making the mod as true to the original intent (or what's known of it) as possible? (M4 isn't and obviously never was going to be a true restoration in the sense of not having custom content to glue what remained in the files together - but even so, surely there was some thought process of "Would the developers have done it this way". Or perhaps that wasn't even a factor so much as just making the mod the best it can be.)

 

12) M4-78 is often associated intimately with TSLRCM due to both projects sharing core team members. I can't count the number of times when new players have chosen to play with M4-78 automatically because word-of-mouth puts it in the same breath as TSLRCM. Before and now - that is, at the mod's 1.0 release and now with the much-improved 1.3 released - what do you think of this association? Do you think it's justified, or a type of unwarranted association which might provide a mistaken impression on what M4-78 can achieve when compared to how seamless TSLRCM is? Has there ever been any talk of attempting to formally distance M4-78 from TSLRCM, at least in terms of direct comparisons?

 

13) Who was behind the decision that the player could not leave M4-78 after landing, and why was that decision retained? De facto M4-78 is an optional planet, and to prevent the player from leaving even if they don't like the content or execution is akin to a punishment, in my mind. What was this decision meant to accomplish, or do you feel it was necessitated by the design? (Ed: This is the question that Zbyl2 will need clarification on.)

 

14) Why was M4-78 released as a 1.0 (and indeed a 1.2) when such a major issue as the industrial zone lag wasn't fixed until 1.3? 

 

15) Was the 1.0 release, to your mind, released before it was ready? If so, do you lay this at the feet of fans who continued pressing for a release, or failures of design or implementation on the part of the development team?

 

16) Many of the quests in M4-78 are seemingly designed to maximize the amount of modules you need to backtrack into to complete them, or at least to force the player to explore every module if they hadn't already. I think the majority of M4-78's side-quests could be referred to as fetch-quests, barring parts of the main quest. Vanilla KOTOR 2 has these as well, to be sure, but M4-78's quests seem to truly delight in making the player run as far as humanly possible before they can complete them. This may seem like a joking question, but I'm serious when I ask if this was actually taken into account. Even with the improved fast-travel droids, did anyone ever stop and say "this is way too much running around, let's trim this down"?

 

17) Another question that may seem like a joke but which I'm perfectly serious about: do you find M4-78 fun? For the team, is the project primarily about creating a mod which others will enjoy playing, or about the content which the team could restore, and remaining faithful to what little else is known aside from that? In other words: with this final product, do you actually have fun (and foresee others having fun!) with your creation?

 

Do you have any questions that you would like to add to the list?  If you can't think of any questions right now, could you leave comments on any version of M4-78 Enhancement Project? I'm taking the good, bad, and the ugly here.  (If you've seen the series so far, you know that Xuul and I don't hold back negative opinions.)

 

Reply today!

 

(PS: I'm the one that just locked the last thread seeking questions. Just so you know.)

[Arson Hole 29]

Was it Obsidian's idea to recycle Peragus's plot of every living person on the planet dying or was it the mod team's idea? If it was the latter, what changes would you make to have the M4-78 plot stand out a bit more?

[jc2 581]

Who came up with the power generators puzzle? 

[zbyl2 811]

I just sent audio recordings to SH and won't be able to record anything else for next couple weeks at least, so gonna reply to these two here.

 

Was it Obsidian's idea to recycle Peragus's plot of every living person on the planet dying or was it the mod team's idea? If it was the latter, what changes would you make to have the M4-78 plot stand out a bit more?

 

Dead colonists/droid planet was Obsidian's idea. I don't think it was recycled on Peragus, I believe Peragus was done before M4-78 was created - though both would obviously be sort of similar.

 

Some puzzles that were created for M4-78 were later moved to other areas, like Goto's Yacht, so that they could have been implemented faster. It was after M4-78 was officialy cut out of the game.

 

 

Who came up with the power generators puzzle? 

It was in the first design doc I got for the planet so probably Sharen Thrawn.

[134340Goat 116]

Another basic question and then a bit of a complicated question that's come to mind since the first thread -

 

What were some aspects of M4-78EP as it currently is that sparked  internal debate? Something like "Should we really make this thing go like this" or "Does this bit really belong here?" And of those things that were debated, what are some notable bits that ultimately failed to make the cut?

 

Hypothetically, what is something, no matter how realistic or feasible to implement it might or might not be, that any members of the team wish they could put in the mod?

[N-DReW25 1,341]

I just want to clarify with some of my questions, such as number 3 for example, the parts in brackets are directions for the documentary to show footage of said scene and they are not to be read out loud.

 

3) Why does Vash refer to M4-78's chamber as a "tomb"? (Show a clip of Vash saying "Thank you for saving me from this tomb?")

 

Just for a laugh: Was Mark Zuckerburg built on M4-78?

[Sith Holocron 2,480]

He didn't say those words. I have my own softball questions so I will unlikely use yours.  LOL

Update 30NOV2018: I am unlikely to continue working on this documentary project. That is all.