I was just looking at getting into KoToR modding.

[BobRichter]

So, yes, I'm a complete n00b. Worse, I have no artistic talent to speak of.

 

The problem is that looking through a forum like this to find out what I need to know is a very time-consuming excersise.

 

So, here's my first question: What can we (as a community) actually do as far as mangling KoToR?

 

Also, what can't we do (aside of introducing new models. I get that.)

 

Ideas I've had for "cool" (to me) mods so far include:

 

1) New scripts for idiots(party-members) to make them take advantage of their combat capabilities without the need for me to micro-manage them.

 

EX) A "machine-gunner" script which makes the character prefer Rapid Shot rather than normal attack or Power Blast.

 

2) A(n anti-stupid) story mod that involves TRASK not getting his fool self killed for nothing, BASTILLA not running off and getting captured, etc. Also adding dialog options here and there to make your character look a little less stupid at times.

 

3) A mini-games mod that allows you to optionally automatically win at pazaak (sure, pazaak is fun, but really...) or swoop-racing (this is just too chunky on some systems to get acceptable times, which disables at least one side-quest and can cost you a lot of money.)

Would also allow you to skip the turret game. "I have a headache. Canderous, you go shoot down the Sith fighters."

 

Not that I have a problem with the turret game. As a veteran of the Kilrathi war, ace X-Wing pilot, and Shivan-slayer, I'm pretty well qualified to toast a handful of poorly-build sith snubfighters.

 

There are others, however, who are not endowed with my l33t r0x0rness and therefore find the turret sections of the game extremely annoying.

 

4) A Selkath Jedi companion, slime, sidequests, and all. I just like the way Selkath look.

 

5) Ah, hell, at some point I'll probably want to toy with uber-items for my own sick and twisted amusement.

[Prime]

Have a look in the Do you Want to mod SW-KotOR? Then Start here thread. Lots of stuff there to get you started. Also, if you have requests, please put them in the sticky thread near the top of the board.

 

Welcome to Lucasforums.

[Achilles]

Welcome to the forum

 

Wow, that's quite a list that you have there. Most of the ideas that you've listed are big ones. You'll be happy to note that we pretty much have #3 taken care of...well kinda. We have a "skip the miniturrets" mod and an "easy swoop race" mod, but no "easy pazaak" mod

 

#4 would be a nice little recruit mod that you might be able to do yourself with the help of Darth333's recruit mod tutorial. It can be found in the stickies.

 

...and of course #5 can be addressed using any of the multiple "make my own items" tutorials that can be found here.

 

1 & 2 are pretty involved

 

Anyway, once again welcome to the board. I hope that you decided to take on a few of these and share your progess with us

[Darth333]

Welcome to the forums:) You could also read the Guide for the Newbie to get some tools.

 

And just ot infrom you that some of your mod ideas have already been taken:

 

Originally posted by BobRichter

So, here's my first question: What can we (as a community) actually do as far as mangling KoToR?

You'll soon notice that lots of stuff is still hardcoded.

 

These have already been taken care of

3) swoop-racing (this is just too chunky on some systems to get acceptable times, which disables at least one side-quest and can cost you a lot of money.)

Would also allow you to skip the turret game.

4) A Selkath Jedi companion, slime, sidequests, and all. I just like the way Selkath look.

You could use KSE: http://www.pcgamemods.com/6692 to change your parties appearance as you wish or make a recruitable mod (check the sticky to that Prime pointed out) - not sure however if it has already been made. In any event, no one recruited a rancor or a krayt dragon yet, so that could be an idea

[BobRichter]

Originally posted by Achilles

Welcome to the forum

 

Wow, that's quite a list that you have there. Most of the ideas that you've listed are big ones. You'll be happy to note that we pretty much have #3 taken care of...well kinda. We have a "skip the miniturrets" mod and an "easy swoop race" mod, but no "easy pazaak" mod

 

#4 would be a nice little recruit mod that you might be able to do yourself with the help of Darth333's recruit mod tutorial. It can be found in the stickies.

 

...and of course #5 can be addressed using any of the multiple "make my own items" tutorials that can be found here.

 

1 & 2 are pretty involved

 

Anyway, once again welcome to the board. I hope that you decided to take on a few of these and share your progess with us

 

Thanks for the welcome. I really appreciate it. Usually when I do this sort of thing, I get "STFU n00b, read teh forum!"

 

As I mentioned, I have neither the patience, time, nor special talents to read through an unfamiliar forum, sort and process it, and come up with anything useful. I find forum conversations make a lot more sense when you're involved in them.

 

As to my ideas being involved, I don't usually think in small ways when it comes to modding. Minor changes just don't do it for me. I like to produce high-quality modifications that can work with the existing story (or be a story all their own) and be well-edited, useful, and internally consistent.

 

I expected that 1 & 2 would be pretty involved if they were possible at all. It sounds like you're saying they're possible tho -- that's good news. Any suggestions on just how to get started?

 

#3 has already been done...sorta. Good. Questions here are: "How was it done?" "Can something similar be done for pazaak?" and "Can I do better?"

 

Meaning no disrespect, of course. I'm sure the original modder(s) did a fine job, but I might want something that suits my own style a little better.

 

My personal preference, if possible, would be to insert a conversation path that lets you skip the minigame in question and reports a positive result as if you'd played the game and won.

 

#4 would start out as a fairly simple recruit mod, and I think I'll tackle it first, but it'll ballon into something "fairly involved" as I learn how to do scripting and such. (I did mention something about side-quests, right?)

 

#5 is something I'll want to know how to do eventually, but it's not a priority. I'm sure inserting the "godslayer of hitpoints" into Revan's locker in on the Endar Spire would be amusing and all, but it's not really my first thought as far as improving my game experience.

[BobRichter]

Originally posted by Darth333

Welcome to the forums:) You could also read the Guide for the Newbie to get some tools.

 

And just ot infrom you that some of your mod ideas have already been taken:

 

You'll soon notice that lots of stuff is still hardcoded.

 

As I expected and feared. Hopefully not too much but I'll see what can and can't be done as I go along I imagine.

 

As to my mod ideas being taken...good.

 

Links?

 

Hopefully, if I like what's already been done I can just use it, or maybe even build on it.

 

Otherwise, I can see if I have an unique approach that some might prefer.

 

Competition is always a good thing, and just because the wheel's already been invented isn't a solid reason not to re-invent it.

 

I'll get started on reading guides and such.

[Achilles]

Originally posted by BobRichter

Thanks for the welcome. I really appreciate it. Usually when I do this sort of thing, I get "STFU n00b, read teh forum!"

 

Well, the first set of questions are free We certainly want everyone to feel welcome and to share their questions as they arise, however there comes a certain point at which "teh n00b" should be able to find answers to most of his or her own questions.

 

The moderators here are committed to linking pertinent information to the stuck threads, so hopefully you will find most of what you are looking for there.

 

Based on your message it sounds as though you have a lot of experience modding. I have no doubt that your learning curve in this forum shall be small. I'm looking forward to seeing what you can produce (especially those side quests )

 

Thanks,

 

Achilles

[DarkBladeZZ]

I tried to mod for KOTOR but I really couldn't figure anything out...what makes that so bad is I have tons of free time.

 

----

 

GOOD HELP IS SO HARD TO FIND THESE DAYS!

[Achilles]

Originally posted by DarkBlade2Z

I tried to mod for KOTOR but I really couldn't figure anything out...what makes that so bad is I have tons of free time.

 

----

 

GOOD HELP IS SO HARD TO FIND THESE DAYS!

 

Most people get stuck because they fail to sit down with the tools and the tutorials right in front of them. If this is the case for you, I'd recommend starting small with all your resources right there. Good luck to you

[jedi_5002]

There is a mod that makes Pazaak have bets of as much as you want, up to 500,000 credits. This won't make it easier, but when you win you get more for your troubles. It took a little to find it again, but here it is.

 

 

There is a 2da file (BIFS -> 2da.bif -> 2D Array -> pazaakdecks.2da) that might let you change the NPC decks. I tried changing the initial player deck (give me an advantage), but I don't remember if it worked or not, because it was a while ago.

 

There are three other deck types TestAverage, TestNightmare, SuperDeck. You could try making them wuss decks, or make yours (what I think is yours) stronger, that way you have an advantage. Or you could do both to give yourself an extreme advantage. There are three signs for the different types of cards. '+' is a plus card, '-' is a minus card and '*' is a switchable card.

 

You'll need KotOR Tool. If you don't have it you can find the link to it in the "list of downloads - Tools and Mods" stuck thread at the Holowan Labs.

 

I hope this helps.

 

[shosey]

yes you want to get the pazaak mod from http://kotor.hosey.org

 

its good for you

[BobRichter]

Based on your message it sounds as though you have a lot of experience modding. I have no doubt that your learning curve in this forum shall be small. I'm looking forward to seeing what you can produce (especially those side quests )

 

Thanks,

 

Achilles [/b]

 

I would say I have _some_ (but not a lot of) experience, and in my experience, good tools are the keys to good modding. From what I've looked at already, it seems I have some excellent tools and some good tutorials to work with. This will make it a lot easier than trying to get in on the ground floor, no doubt.

 

It'll be a while before I really produce anything worth looking at, but I do hope you'll enjoy it when I do.

[Jackel]

Originally posted by BobRichter

I would say I have _some_ (but not a lot of) experience, and in my experience, good tools are the keys to good modding. From what I've looked at already, it seems I have some excellent tools and some good tutorials to work with. This will make it a lot easier than trying to get in on the ground floor, no doubt.

 

It'll be a while before I really produce anything worth looking at, but I do hope you'll enjoy it when I do.

You dont have to worry to much about how much experience you have or havent got. The only ever type of modding i had done was mixing a few mods together for Freelancer which was basically just cut and paste in txt files. I came here with no clue and have been modding since. Hell i even have done texturing and I suck at photoshop.

[Cerasumat]

Originally posted by Jackel

Hell i even have done texturing and I suck at photoshop.

 

Ditto, even i can draw a few strait lines....when im not drunk

 

Just start with something small, check out the sticky threads for how-to's, search for solutions if you encounter problems, and post a question if you cant find it.

 

"5) Ah, hell, at some point I'll probably want to toy with uber-items for my own sick and twisted amusement."

 

Start with that one, as its probably the easiest lol

[Jackel]

Originally posted by Cerasumat

Ditto, even i can draw a few strait lines....when im not drunk

 

Just start with something small, check out the sticky threads for how-to's, search for solutions if you encounter problems, and post a question if you cant find it.

 

"5) Ah, hell, at some point I'll probably want to toy with uber-items for my own sick and twisted amusement."

 

Start with that one, as its probably the easiest lol

 

And i would suggest for your first item make it with the gffeditor so you get a feel for it. And thn you can be glad for when you work with Fred's KOTOR Tool and how far simpler it is

[BobRichter]

speaking of items and the gffeditor, now that I've created the Godslayer of Hitpoints, how do I go about putting it in Revan's footlocker on the Endar Spire?

 

Real basic n00b stuff here, I know, but my pathetic attempts at searching the forums yielded nothing.

[RedHawke]

That Endar Spire footlocker is not editable directly, meaning if you edit the footlocker001.utp file for it and drop it into override it will mess up a lot of the other Footlockers in the game, but it can be done with scripting, using one like this;

 

void main()
{
CreateItemOnObject("my_item1", GetObjectByTag("end_locker01"));
CreateItemOnObject("my_item1", GetObjectByTag("end_locker01"));
}

 

Replace my_item1 with whatever the tag for your item is. The CreateItemOnObject line you can copy and paste as many as you want.

 

Paste that into notepad, edit to taste, and save the script as something like BR_script.nss, then compile with HazardX compiler. Attach the script to one of the ResRefScript fields in an entry in Trasks Dialogue, and if you choose the right line as he wakes you up and talks to you your script will put the items in the footlocker with your other beginning items.

 

Most of this stuff, though slightly scary at first, is in the Do you Want to mod SW-KotOR? Then Start here. Stuck Thread, you might miss it or mess up a few times but the answers are there.

 

I hope this helps!

[Darth333]

Again, check the stickies!

 

there is a long thread about how to do this in the Do you want to mod SW-kotor? then start here sticky:

 

you'll see tutorials about how to plant items in the game. This is where you should always start when making a mod

 

http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=123433

 

http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=123554

 

BTW, I did the swoop racing mod and Kitty Kitty the turret removal mod (check my sig - not my website but pcgamemods - as well as the tools and mods sticky for Kitty Kitty's mod) - and before remaking a mod, you need the author's permission.

[BobRichter]

Hey, thanks. See? I knew it was a stupid question.

[BobRichter]

I looked around to see what I could figure out and I remain baffled.

 

Something, somewhere is going wrong. Either the dialog isn't triggering the script properly or the script isn't doing what it's supposed to.

 

Either Way -- no Godslayer of Hitpoints. Very disappointing.

 

I think I did learn some valulable stuff today though. Think I'll give it another shot tomarrow.

[Darth333]

You could have a look at tk102's darkside choker to see an example. It's an armband that gives the power to force choke anyone. There is a script attached to Zaalbars dialogue that places the armband into a container in the Ebon Hawk.

 

Tk also included the source code (for placing the item and for the darkside choker). You can download it here: http://www.pcgamemods.com/5271/

 

And if you make a mod, plsrelease your source code ! It helps people make better mods and answers lots of questions. If I have time I will make a list of commonly used scripts.

[BobRichter]

Oh, no worries there. I'm a strong believer in the benefits of open-source, and my mods (if/when I get around to releasing any) will include full source code for scripts and maybe an explanation of how I did everything else....

 

...not that I'm there yet.

 

Yesterday, I made devices so potent that a level 1 anything can handily defeat Malak. Today I'm going to figure out how to put them in Revan's footlocker on the Endar Spire.

 

Once I've got that all figured out, I might try something more serious.

[Darth333]

Glad to have you at the forum BobRichter

I'm sure you'll release your mod soon.

If you run into some problems or if there is something you don't understand in the tutorials, just post your questions: there are many people around ready to help.

[BobRichter]

Ha! Done!

 

Okay, so that was stupidly simple and easy, but I found out some really useful stuff that will help me in later mods.

 

In case you want to see what I've been wasting time on, here's My first mod (woohoo!)

[Darth333]

Just donwloaded, Congratulations Let's hope you become an active meber here by continuing to participate to the forums.

 

And it is always a good idea to start with something small in order to familiarize with the tools and various files of Kotor.

 

Well done