M4-78EP 1.5 Released

[phenex 3]

Just installed 1.5 and noticed a bunch of lines were cut from the intro sequence. 

Atton: "there are signs of life on the surface..."

Kreia: "an adequate job pilot...", "an entire planet wiped clean of life" "although I think that the pilots devices are mechanically accurate..."

Visas: "it orbits dead in space..."

Kreia doesn't even talk, and G0-T0's line of questioning was traded to hk?

Is this how the new intro sequence is supposed to play out?

[N-DReW25 1,338]

13 hours ago, phenex said:

Just installed 1.5 and noticed a bunch of lines were cut from the intro sequence. 

Atton: "there are signs of life on the surface..."

Kreia: "an adequate job pilot...", "an entire planet wiped clean of life" "although I think that the pilots devices are mechanically accurate..."

Visas: "it orbits dead in space..."

Kreia doesn't even talk, and G0-T0's line of questioning was traded to hk?

Is this how the new intro sequence is supposed to play out?

The main dev, Zbyl2, thought that most of the cut lines sounded like they were obviously spliced such as Kreia's line "Droids gather while we wait here" for example hence is why they're cut.

 

So yes, this was intentional.

[phenex 3]

9 hours ago, N-DReW25 said:

The main dev, Zbyl2, thought that most of the cut lines sounded like they were obviously spliced such as Kreia's line "Droids gather while we wait here" for example hence is why they're cut.

 

So yes, this was intentional.

Ok cool, was just checking because I remembered it a bit differently. I know in the mod change log it states the intro sequence was changed, just wanted to be sure none of my mods were messing with it. Although it does somewhat feel a little odd as how everyone is standing there with you and the only camera angles you get are basically just with atton and hk since nobody else talks(aside from the 4 or so characters who sound off during the beginning). Just a little critique but I can understand why it was changed. Looking forward to how the modules are split up and the "new" ending. I think the last version i played was from 1.2 so there looks to be quite the few changes to check out!

[Hassat Hunter 571]

Funny seeing the "Hunt for Hassat Hunter" play out here... a half year later (yeah not much on Deadlystream).

On Steam the Russian is 1.5, EN is still 1.3 both seperate and the TSLRCM+M4 combo.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman 40]

Well, this was... something. It seemed like it would be a good something, but now I just don't know..

I'm going to start off by saying that, contrary to zbyl2's assumptions, I find walking immensely preferable to being abruptly teleported around without warning. That was so jarring and disruptive that I was tempted to report it as a bug. It actually took me til the second instance to realize it wasn't one. Was that change playtested by anyone at all before release? That did NOT make for a good gaming experience... Also, given the existence of the Escort Droids for controlled fast-travel, it's completely and totally unnecessary. It was fundamentally a bad idea, in my opinion - throw it out the window and never look back.

Second, I played the "You have to use a droid" portion as T3-M4 and I have to say that under these circumstances the dialogue choices being unintelligible to the player ends up feeling rather awkward. It's one thing in Vogga's warehouse, where the choices don't actually matter much at all; in that context it's funny. But here, where they actually have significance, it made me feel like I was flailing around completely blindly. I think that either you need to ditch the concept for that portion of this world, or publish a translation sheet.

Third, I think the number of currently-active droids needs to get added to your journal. Because you can only ask the droid once, and it's all too easy for it to get scrolled out of the Messages log (and I'm guessing the Messages log being so short in TSL is backend idiocy that modding can't fix). I mean yeah, you can write it down, but it feels like the in-game handling should be better.

And then there's the bugs.. I was super-excited to play M4-78 and finally be able to experience a more complete TSL story that actually gave Lonna Vash her due. And, after getting past the janky introductory segment, I was having a good time with the place. Then I set foot in the R&D zone and had "Deadly Upgrade" suddenly inject itself back into my Active Quests list (and the entry didn't even match how I'd actually done it). I came here to report that... and discovered just how broken version 1.5 is and continues to be. That was disheartening to learn. I implore you to either return to the project, or at least make an installer for the more-stable previous version (1.3) so that that can be hosted here.

[Guest Qui-Gon Glenn]

^^^ It is the worst iteration of any mod made by the original team, and is the worst of the editions zbyl2 has been involved with.

In short, get an older version. I'll share mine if you need it. The "final" version of this mod was a zbyl middle finger to fans of the planet.

I call him balor anyway. Pretty sure that's because that's who he is.

[Albertson 0]

At its current stage, this mod has some serious bugs tied to it.  One: the quest 'Deadly Upgrade' re-inserts itself into the quest log whenever you set foot in the R&D section of the Industrial Zone regardless of whether or not you finished it via any means.  Two: there is a missing quest item needed to fix the droid by the Industrial Zone entrance in the quest 'Fixing Droids'.  Three: There was supposed to be a dialogie option with Kaah upon completion of the Environmental Zone where he gives you data regarding a quest granted by the rogue industrial droid from the maintenance shack that I forgot the name of.  This is missing, rendering the quest unfinishable.  Fourth: two of the assassins that show up in the new ending do not aggro after they dispatch Vash.

What is most disturbing out of all of this is that all the chatter I've seen regarding these bugs is that the authors have no inclination to go back and fix them.  I get it, they're probably burned out, but to leave such bugs as these in the mod is just irresponsible.  I've tried using Pa3pyx's (or whatever he's called) 1.3 version, but there is no installer and that user has provided no instructions on how to successfully integrate his version in.  Unless there is a concerted effort to fix these issues, I'd say give this a miss.

[PoopaPapaPalpatine 21]

I've always had problems with M4-78 just as a playable world to begin with, and have always run into compatibility issues in the past that made it a headache to work around, and after finally being able to get to M4-78 (and complete it) after so long...I don't think it's as bad as some folks have made it out to be.

The immediate fast travel when you first start as, face it - it should be played with him first, HK-47 to clear the area of radiation, I found really convenient. The whole planet is just a single walk path divided into three areas, like Kashyyk was in K1, and like Kashyyk in K1; it's a real bore to walk back and forth that same path multiple times to do fetch quests. Just cutting to the action is so much more convenient and just speeds up playing the area. As completionists, this world is mainly installed and played to get a "full experience" of what the original game was supposed to be but, let's be frank, M4-78 is not a fun world and was cut after the dev team ran out of time, and realized that it was likely a fun idea at first but not in practice. The sooner it's over the better. The fact it's playable, even at this state, is a miracle in of itself.

Yes, there's been tweaks to previous versions of the mod, some I think better, but some also for the worse. "Fixing Droids" used to be playable, now it's not for the aforementioned bugs; same with "Deadly Upgrade" and "Bonus Mission" as it has a really awkward spawning rate and system. There's also that bug of after rebuilding K1-O2(?) and having him sent to diagnostics, he will reappear each time you enter diagnostics and you can cheese reward XP. 

There's many little other bugs that others have mentioned but I don't think it's any more egregious and immersion-breaking as it's been in previous versions. Though, having said all of that, this mod should've definitely had the more obvious bugs fixed before it was released.

[Pa3PyX 11]

On 4/21/2022 at 9:19 PM, Albertson said:

I've tried using Pa3pyx's (or whatever he's called) 1.3 version, but there is no installer and that user has provided no instructions on how to successfully integrate his version in.

Instructions! Unpacking an archive into the game directory needs instructions? 🙄 What is the world coming to...
Oh yes, one still needs to find that game directory! 😁 One might not do that immediately with the Steam version, I admit. But Steam users don't have to do that in the first place -- they can just download version 1.3 via Steam.
The archive is meant for GOG and CD/DVD versions only; with these, the game directory location should be obvious. Hint: it contains the directories named "override", "lips", "modules", "movies", "StreamMusic", "StreamSounds", etc.
The usual prerequisites apply, of course: the game must be fully patched and have TSLRCM installed first.
One non-trivial instruction (already given in https://deadlystream.com/topic/4979-bugs-errors-reporting-with-m4-78ep/?tab=comments#comment-70797 ) : the files opengl32.dll and shaders_override directory should be deleted for GOG and CD/DVD versions, these are useful for Steam versions only and may cause problems with other versions. I have kept them in the archive nonetheless, because some users will have GOG and CD/DVD versions unofficially patched to Steam versions. For them, the shaders override is still relevant.