[WIP] Paired Lightsabers

[MadVulcan]

Well, I've been mooching off you guys for quite awhile now, and it's time I tried to contribute something. (Whether I actually manage to complete it however... well, we'll see.)

 

Here's the idea:

 

I really like the idea of a fighting style w/ a regular lightsaber and a short lightsaber (kind of like a daito and a wakazashi). But it's just so impractical in kotor when you can just use a double-bladed lightsaber, which is both easier to upgrade and, well, better.

 

So, I'd like to create a pair of lightsabers--regular and short--attuned to each other through the Force. Together, they will have stats similar to some of the custom upgradable doublesabers I've seen. Separately, however they'll be below par.

 

The regular lightsaber--"Slash"

It will be red , to symbolize the strength of the larger blade. The base damage will be only slightly above average (if at all) and it won't have any other perks. But it will be fully upgradable. And you'll need to have it to use the second saber.

 

The short lightsaber--"Flash"

It will be green, to emphasize it's contrast with the Slash and be reminiscent of yin and yang. Also, it will require the Slash to be wielded in the main hand to be wielded. It will have a base damage of maybe 5-10 more than a regular lightsaber, but it will not be upgradable. I'd also like to add the following feats/boosts:

+2 str, dex, wis

+4 attack

+4 to blaster def.

flurry tree

2-wep fighting tree

finesse lightsaber

and possibly a couple adv. lightsaber feats (the wm/marauder ones)

 

With those stats, it may or may not be necessary to use the hardcore mod.

 

So, basically I need to figure out how to create the items w/ their base stats, fix the color crystals, set the first as a requirement for the second, and add the bonuses. (I'm not even going to try working up custom hilts at this point.)

 

edit: oh yeah, and then there's the matter of scripting them into the game somewhere.

[Damar Stiehl]

Matched sets are always nice.

[Shadow Blaze]

Actually this mod will be fairly simple (except for scripting). But the scripting part can have a little shortcut by putting it to a placeable (unfortunately finding a "unique" one is hard in TSL). This is similar to what I did with my saber pack although I changed colors, textures, and icons for everything included.

 

First doing the items and base stats are easy. All you have to do is use Kotor Tool to extract the uti files you want. For the Green Short Saber the file you want is in bifs>templates>Blueprints, Items>g_w_shortsbr03 and the red normal size one is in the same directory with the name g_w_lghtsbr02. From there you can use KT's own Gffeditor or get another one. Here you can just edit it to your liking. MAKE SURE you change the Tag and templateresref! You can also change the description and name here as well.

 

One other thing you can add feats to them through the property "Bonus Feats" in KT and the requirements to use it as well (save the files under a different name with same # of characters). Next you can also find the color crystals for them in the same area with the names u_l_colo_02(green) and u_l_colo_04(red). Edit those to your liking, change the tag and templateresref too. Save under a different name.

 

Bring up KT's 2da editor by clicking on the 2da button. Now if you have a upcrystals.2da in your override you may not want to use the original one that is listed in KT under the 2da files you will probably want to use the one you have in override. Next click on the bottom empty area on that upcrystals.2da file type in the next number that comes in the sequence ie. if it is 13 on the last row than you would type 14 on the next one. In the next column put the names of your crystal like if you made the name Vader's Saber Crystal you would put that there. The next column is what refers to the actual name of the file/templateresref/tag name. So if you changed that to something like u_l_colo_50 you would enter that there.

 

Also there are 3 other columns shortmdlvar, longmdlvar, and doublemdlvar. Short refers to shortsabers so you would enter your shortsaber template name here ie. something like g_w_shortsbr50 if you named it that. MAKE sure you entered that in the same column as your crystal for the shortsaber. The other columns refer to long or normal sized sabers and double refers to doublebladed sabers. If you don't want to use those for your lightsabers just enter in "****" without the quotes into those columns. Repeat the process with your long/normal lightsaber but put the template name (like g_w_lghtsbr51) into the longmdlvar and put **** in the other columns. Click on another column afterwards (not yours) and then save the file. Now the sabers are upgradeable.

 

Scripting I still haven't done yet but really you don't have to do that you can just take a fie from placeables in KT like deadmerc_cont.ncs and a gffeditor(not the one in KT) and add your items to it by going to the inventory node and creating new user defined structures or you can just copy a different node then replace the field data for the items to point to your items but don't overwrite the existing items there! Once you ad your items to it save it. Then dump all the files into override test them a bit then put them in a zip/rar file and upload it to a site! Happy modding!(yeah I know I took that from ChAiNz.2da it fit anyways)

[MadVulcan]

Shadow Blaze, that was incredibly helpful. Thank you.

So far, I've created all 4 files (2 for each saber and each color crystal) and added 2 lines to upcrystals.2da. And I've added a bunch of bonuses to the short saber. Though I'm wondering if there's a difference between adding bonuses to the saber vs. adding them to the crystal.

 

Also, how do I make the short saber nonupgradable? (Since the bonuses will be very good by themselves.)

 

And, as for placement, it it possible to put the sabers in one of those extra lockers in Telos where your stuff gets stored?

[DarthVaxis]

Dual Saber wielding can be much better than using a double saber. Why? Because if you upgrade both, the bonuses for each stack. Using a double saber you only get 1 bonus. I like using 2 lightsabers with Jenraux crystals, the normal lightsaber using my crystal in it, along with a improved beam gem (for keen), expert deflection emitter, and ultimate diatium power cell. That's a +9 to blaster deflection. The short saber uses the same cell, emitter, and jenraux crystal, but there's a choice to be made.. you could make the second crystal be a velomrite crystal, which would give it keen and +1 dex, which would then allow you to have an ossus dueling lens in it.. that's a whopping +12 to blaster deflection. Add that to form III or V, as a high level weapon master with master jedi defense, and just stand in a room with blaster wielding opponents and watch them kill themselves.

 

That's one example anyway.

[Shadow Blaze]

Originally posted by MadVulcan

Shadow Blaze, that was incredibly helpful. Thank you.

So far, I've created all 4 files (2 for each saber and each color crystal) and added 2 lines to upcrystals.2da. And I've added a bunch of bonuses to the short saber. Though I'm wondering if there's a difference between adding bonuses to the saber vs. adding them to the crystal.

 

I believe the only difference would be that the crystal would carry those bonuses with it but then again you made the crystals to basically create that lightsaber so I suppose that it wouldn't really matter.

 

Also, how do I make the short saber nonupgradable? (Since the bonuses will be very good by themselves.)

 

Just delete the column you made for the short saber in upcrystals.2da. But if you did that the crystal uti file you made wouldn't really be worth much since you can't take it out nor place it back in the saber. My suggestion would be to leave it as upgradeable because others like to have the freedom to upgrade it. But here is a little rule ChAiNz told me "mod for yourself then others." If other people really want they could take the crystal uti file you made (or create their own) and use that to make it upgradeable.

 

And, as for placement, it it possible to put the sabers in one of those extra lockers in Telos where your stuff gets stored?

 

Yes it is but I forgot what file it is(sorry I looked at the file a long while ago while trying to place my sabers but forgot the name since then). Just look through placeables until you find one with the inventory.