Bao-Dur's Armor Fix Idea

[N-DReW25 1,336]

I wrote this very early in the morning, if certain sections might not make sense or are incoherent or any reason that is the reason why. I encourage the readers, modders or no, to share their thoughts and ideas on my idea. Just to clarify this isn't so much of a 'Mod Request' as this is simply my ideas for a mod which I could probably do myself if I had the necessary files on me, I'm just putting this idea out here so the general public and leave feedback and criticize my idea in-case it isn't as straight forward as I would hope.

 

As we may know, Bao-Dur cannot wear Heavy Armor, Jedi Robes, Zal Shey Armor or Flight Suit items and as such lacks any models to support him wearing them.

 

While it is possible with the power of modding to create a new set of models to fill out Bao-Dur's missing armor slots as shown down below, the issue still remains where both Jedi Robes models, Zal Shey Armor and Flight Suit all still have the annoying "Cannot Equipt: Bao-Dur" tag on every single applicable item.

 

 

My Theory as to why Obsidian did this:

My theory as to why Bao-Dur has a "Cannot Equipt" restriction tag on Robes, Zhal Shey Armor and Flight Suits and not Heavy Armor is because if Bao-Dur is locked out of the Heavy Armor Feat then it'd be impossible to ever wear a Heavy Armor (Which is precisely what happens in vanilla). Whereas, if the restriction tag isn't set on Flight Suits then Bao-Dur could wear Flight Suits alongside Zal Shey Armor as they require a Light Armor Feat to wear which is a Feat Bao-Dur has, if the player trains Bao-Dur as a Jedi then Dur would also recieve "Jedi Defence" thus allowing Bao-Dur to wear Jedi Robes if he didn't have a restriction tag.

As Bao-Dur lacks an underwear model in vanilla K2 (His underwear model is a copy n paste of his clothes) I shall assume that Obsidian lacked the time to create Bao-Dur's underwear and other body models and as such just thought it'd be easier to simply lock Bao-Dur from ever equipping a Heavy Armor, Jedi Robe, Zal Shey Armor or Flight Suit for that reason.

 

My solution:
Clearly, the modded models for Bao-Dur to wear the unavailable Armor and robe items which were made by @DarthParametric do exist which lay the possibility of some sort of mod to be made but obviously as long as that restriction tag remains any mod would be impossible. The Underwear and the Heavy Armor can easily be restored simply by adding a Heavy Armor Feat to Bao's utc file, but for the robes, here is my "fix" to that issue:

 

In the TLK file and in audio form, Bao-Dur has these very suggestive unused audio files:

"It's always been tough for me to find proper equipment. Working as a technician, I didn't have much need for anything out of the ordinary."
"But if we're going to keep running into fights, some armor would be useful."

"I can wear some types of armor with slight modifications. If you find any of it, bring it to me, and I can fix it up."

"Let me take a look at what you've got."

"Nope, I don't think I can use any of that."
"I can wear a few types of armor with modifications."
"Yeah, this should work. If you let me have it, I can make some changes so it'll fit me. Of course, after I'm through with it, no one else will be able to use it either."

"That's all right. I should be able to get by without it."

"This won't take long.{Fade out}"
"{Fade in}There, it's all set. Thanks, General, this will be helpful."

 

Eagle eyed Deadlystreamers may have recognized those VO lines from @Kaidon Jorn's old "Bao-Dur's Electromesh Armor" which added in a quest where, similar to your Lightsaber, the player needed to find a special Electromesh Armor frame and an additional part to which Bao-Dur could use them to build up his Electromesh Armor which would allow Bao-Dur to use his Force Powers along with decent protections to counteract his poorly buffed character.

https://deadlystream.com/files/file/667-bao-durs-electromesh-armor/

 

As evidenced by Shem L's old "Bao-Dur wears Jedi Robes" mod, the old Revan J slot doesn't have a restriction tag for Bao-Dur, therefore, we can use it.

https://deadlystream.com/files/file/741-bao-dur-wears-jedi-robes/

 

The Slave Outfit slot is obviously an exclusive use for female characters and doesn't have a restriction tag for Bao-Dur, therefore, we can use it.

 

Why am I bringing up Revan Robes and Slave Outfits? Well, since Bao-Dur cannot wear either of those items it would then be possible to replace those two slots with Jedi Padawan and Jedi Master Robe models (I am omitting Flight Suits and Zal Shey Armor because in vanilla there are only 2 Flight Suit textures  and 1 unused texture so why waste a perfect slot on that and for the Zal Shey Armor unless another slot was found then we couldn't use it unfortunately as I would value Master and Padawan Robes as more important).

 

Similar to Kaidon Jorn's mod, once the player talks to Bao-Dur they'll need the actual item and a part of some sort in order to convert said item into an item Bao-Dur can wear. So Korn's mod goes "Electromesh Frame and part" whereas the fix would go "Any vanilla Jedi Robe item and part". While it would be simple to allow the player to ask Bao-Dur about his Armor as soon as you recruit him I feel that'd be best saved for once the player leaves Telos IV as Bao's line "But if we're going to keep running into fights" would make much more sense that way.

 

Once you give Bao-Dur the Jedi Robe plus a part of some sort (I'm thinking this part could be a component or a new item which can be crafted at a workbench maybe), the finished product shall be a brand new item which 'mimics' vanilla items. What I mean by this is that, for example, vanilla Dark Jedi Master Robes and Bao-Dur's Dark Jedi Master Robes would be two seperate uti files Bao's uit having a restriction tag to make sure only Bao-Dur can wear it, plus, the Baseitem would be referring to either the Revan Robe or Slave Outfit slot and (should the appearance.2da file be set correctly) work well when only Bao-Dur wears the Jedi Robes with his visible arm. 

 

Another idea which I was thinking of implementing is that when Bao-Dur says "Let me take a look at what you've got." despite having both the Robe you want to convert and its required part what happens is that success of items being converted into Bao-Dur robes is dependent on whether or not Bao-Dur has the 'Craft' feat. I do not know what the cut Craft feat does as its description in the TLK at number "48164" simply says "Craft Description" which indicates Obsidian never finished it, so I'll through my two cents on how I can restore it here.

 

In addition to Craft,  there is also "Mastercraft: Weapons 1, 2 and 3' and "Mastercraft: Armor 1, 2 and 3". Craft could be given to Bao-Dur in his utc file and a description could be written to pretty much say that through his technician skills Bao-Dur is really skillful and can craft energy shields. Mastercraft Armor 1, 2 and 3 would be the requirements for certain Robe items so for example Mastercraft Armor 1 makes Jedi Padawan Robe model items, Mastercraft Armor 2 makes basic Jedi Master Robe model items and Mastercraft Armor 3 makes the high quality Jedi Master Robe model items.

 

Mastercraft Weapons could also be integrated alongside Mastercraft Armor, maybe if Bao-Dur has Mastercraft Weapons 1 he gives out Energy Shields, Arkanian Shields and Mandalorian Melee Shields, Mastercraft Weapons 2 he gives Echani Shields and Mandalorian Power Shields and Mastercraft Weapons 3 he gives Verpine Prototype Shields. Interestingly, it appears that the three tiers of Armor/Weapons Craft uses the exact same Feat Icon (I got a good feeling that "if_finesse02" could be used as one of the replacement Weapons Craft Feat Icon).

[LoneWanderer 103]

14 hours ago, N-DReW25 said:

Another idea which I was thinking of implementing is that when Bao-Dur says "Let me take a look at what you've got." despite having both the Robe you want to convert and its required part what happens is that success of items being converted into Bao-Dur robes is dependent on whether or not Bao-Dur has the 'Craft' feat. I do not know what the cut Craft feat does as its description in the TLK at number "48164" simply says "Craft Description" which indicates Obsidian never finished it, so I'll through my two cents on how I can restore it here.

Success? Can conversion of robe into Bao-Dur’s robe fail? Will the player loose the robe or ‘component’ in this case? if there is luck involved, then players just abuse save/load out of fear of losing rare jedi robes.

Was the cut “Craft” feat exclusive to Bao-Dur? Maybe, characters with this feat could craft additional types of weapons, armors at the workbench, since the base selection of creatable items is limited.

 

14 hours ago, N-DReW25 said:

Mastercraft Armor 1, 2 and 3 would be the requirements for certain Robe items so for example Mastercraft Armor 1 makes Jedi Padawan Robe model items, Mastercraft Armor 2 makes basic Jedi Master Robe model items and Mastercraft Armor 3 makes the high quality Jedi Master Robe model items.

So, Bao-Dur will get 6 or 7 new selectable feats. Keep in mind that Tech Specialist does not gain many feats on level ups: 8 by level 20. Jedi Guardian class partially compensate for this with 11 feats by level 20 (but Bao-Dur, probably won't be much higher than level 30 overall the last time he is available). Also, Bao-Dur isn’t a powerful character to begin with, thus limiting his access to robes (which are available to other jedi without prerequisites) behind a 3-tier feat still puts him at a disadvantage compared with other party members.

Perhaps, Mastercraft Armor 1 should be granted to Bao-Dur automatically after he becomes a Jedi. In addition, Mastercraft Armor tree can be reduced to two levels: one that Bao-Dur gains automatically and one selectable that is for top tier robes.

Of course, these are small details that can be thought about later in development. Overall your idea is interesting.

[Kaidon Jorn 195]

There's definitely a lot more that could be done for Bao-Dur. Gonna ponder these ideas for a bit.

[N-DReW25 1,336]

16 hours ago, LoneWanderer said:

Success? Can conversion of robe into Bao-Dur’s robe fail? Will the player loose the robe or ‘component’ in this case? if there is luck involved, then players just abuse save/load out of fear of losing rare jedi robes.

Here is an example of where I forgot to be coherent, when I refer to 'success' here is what I mean:

 

Let's say Bao-Dur has the Craft Feat, he can craft Jedi Padawan Robes and other very basic Robes stat wise. This would be considered a success which I imagine would go something like this.

Bao-Dur: 

Bao-Dur: "Let me take a look at what you've got."

Player: "[Give Bao-Dur 1 Jedi Robe and Component]"

Bao-Dur: "[Success] Yeah, this should work. If you let me have it, I can make some changes so it'll fit me. Of course, after I'm through with it, no one else will be able to use it either.""

 

Now let's say if you gave him a Jedi Master Robe when Bao-Dur has craft.

Bao-Dur: "Let me take a look at what you've got."

Player: "[Give Bao-Dur 1 Jedi Master Robe and Component]"

Bao-Dur: "[Failure] I can't use that."

Player: "Ok, I will return when your craftsmanship improves."

 

So, in order for the player to be able to 'fix up' every single robe, including rare robes, the player would need to get all the Mastercraft Armor feats. This can be done by player choice at level up, similar to how HK-47 has "Droid Interface" which is an optional feat which helps HK-47 translate a droid in M4-78EP, in Bao-Dur's case, the player can chose to waste a precious feat at level up on Mastercraft Armor which would unlock more capabilities of Bao-Dur fixing up robes for himself. If the feat is given to Bao-Dur via levels then perhaps this restriction would be given via levels, if it is possible, it would be better if Bao-Dur recieved Mastercraft Armor when he becomes a Jedi so that way the player doesn't just hold off talking to Bao-Dur to allow the player to auto-level Bao-Dur to Mastercraft 3.

Keep in mind, once these robes are 'fixed up' by Bao-Dur they get a restriction tag making Bao-Dur the only one who can wear it. When I say 'component' this is merely a restriction to the process which prevents the player from converting every single robe in their inventory into Bao-Dur robes at once, in theory, this component alongside the robe shall be permanently deleted after a 'success' and the player shall be given a Bao-Dur robe in place of the vanilla robe.

 

Quote

Was the cut “Craft” feat exclusive to Bao-Dur? Maybe, characters with this feat could craft additional types of weapons, armors at the workbench, since the base selection of creatable items is limited.

No, literally nothing is known about that feat as even its description wasn't written. When I was pondering for ideas for TSL Gameplay Improvement I was thinking maybe add the Craft Feat as an option feat which is required to allow the craft and break down dialogue option to appear at a workbench, in theory that can still be added in a mod. Maybe the player character receives Craft while most of the party doesn't, let's say HK-47 doesn't have the craft feat and tries to access a workbench in the HK Factory, the result would be the craft and break down dialogue not appearing and the tutorial simply mentioning how the player requires the craft feat to access the craft and break down function.

 

I am highly sceptical that one could modify the actual crafting system so that certain upgrades cannot be crafted without a feat, so Mastercraft Armor and Weapons for Bao-Dur exclusively was simply a smart way for me to restore the feats as realistically Bao-Dur is the only one who'd craft armor.

 

Quote

So, Bao-Dur will get 6 or 7 new selectable feats. Keep in mind that Tech Specialist does not gain many feats on level ups: 8 by level 20. Jedi Guardian class partially compensate for this with 11 feats by level 20 (but Bao-Dur, probably won't be much higher than level 30 overall the last time he is available). Also, Bao-Dur isn’t a powerful character to begin with, thus limiting his access to robes (which are available to other jedi without prerequisites) behind a 3-tier feat still puts him at a disadvantage compared with other party members.

Perhaps, Mastercraft Armor 1 should be granted to Bao-Dur automatically after he becomes a Jedi. In addition, Mastercraft Armor tree can be reduced to two levels: one that Bao-Dur gains automatically and one selectable that is for top tier robes.

Of course, these are small details that can be thought about later in development. Overall your idea is interesting.

By this logic, auto granting Bao-Dur the feats via level-up once he becomes a Jedi would be the best choice then. Maybe grant Master Craft Weapons to Bao-Dur as a tech specialist at a much lower rate, maybe like every 5 levels as in my idea these feats would change what type of energy shield Bao-Dur gives you and Mastercraft weapons 3 gives Verpine Prototype Shields.

 

15 hours ago, Kaidon Jorn said:

There's definitely a lot more that could be done for Bao-Dur. Gonna ponder these ideas for a bit.

I am glad you like my idea, if I may ask how did you discover the audio files and did you ever mention these audio files to the TSLRCM team or anyone by any chance? 

[Kaidon Jorn 195]

No I didn't mention them to anyone, I just figured that everybody probably already knew about them.

I literally just went poking around Bao-Dur's GBL folder and started listening to every single sound clip.

I came across those and realized they weren't used and started coming up with how I was going to use them.

[N-DReW25 1,336]

On 1/31/2021 at 7:48 AM, Kaidon Jorn said:

No I didn't mention them to anyone, I just figured that everybody probably already knew about them.

I literally just went poking around Bao-Dur's GBL folder and started listening to every single sound clip.

I came across those and realized they weren't used and started coming up with how I was going to use them.

Very interesting to hear!

Perhaps if he wanted to, @DarthParametric could hypothetically publish the Bao-Dur Armor types as a Modder's Resource like he had done with the "Kel Dor" and the "Thigh High Boots" Modder's Resources so that a mod could be made from the assets he has created.

Then again, DP would probably need to find the files and organize them which is understandably a feat he probably wouldn't want to do 🤷‍♂️.

[Kaidon Jorn 195]

I am actually switching Bao-Dur’s ElectroMesh Armor to be a reskin of Jamoah Hogras armor which will just be Bao-Dur’s Liberator/Oppressors armor...i lost the template for the electromesh armor reskin from back then. Haven’t gotten to it yet but it’d match (well, lightside anyway) his SLM Liberator lightsaber 😜

Dont know how any of that will fit in with your idea but just to let you know😉

SLM is going to take up all my time for a bit
 

[DarthParametric 3,783]

Don't say I never did anything for you:

DP_Bao-Dur_Armour_and_Robes.7z

I haven't even looked at it for about 3 1/2 years though, so you're on your own as far as doing anything with it. The adjusted head to match was already released as a modder's resource.

Edit: To clarify for people arriving here in the future, the attached file is a modder's resource. You can use it in your own work with the usual constraints - don't redistribute it by itself, and provide credit in any released work.

[Kaidon Jorn 195]

Well then...