[tsl] Combat Simulation Arena v4

[Theylas]

I'm starting to suspect something like that too. I've pulled the mod apart and checked everything and I can't seem to find anything wrong with it. I even made a small utility that scanned all the Resrefs in all files and compared them against the Override content in case I missed something, but still nothing showed up.

 

Unless someone has any ideas of what's going on I'm going to leave it at this for now. I can't fix a problem I can't reproduce or find any trace of.

 

I guess there will always be problems, no matter what precautions you take.

 

The biggest problem I run into on a regular basis is that if I duel a character with a certain character, for example, carth vs. HK-47, if I lose when I try to do the duel again from the computer, the game freezes. Also, now it has gotten to the point where I can't even access it without the game crashing. Weird... Happens on both of my computers, which are up to date.

[stoffe]

The biggest problem I run into on a regular basis is that if I duel a character with a certain character, for example, carth vs. HK-47, if I lose when I try to do the duel again from the computer, the game freezes. Also, now it has gotten to the point where I can't even access it without the game crashing. Weird... Happens on both of my computers, which are up to date.

 

Are you using the Exile/Main character to access the terminal? I've noticed that some things get messed up if you use other characters to access the arena controller terminal. I've fixed it in my own version so the main character is always the user no matter who clicks it, but it felt like overkill to upload a new version with just such a minor change.

 

If that's not the problem, you could try to remove the Arena area from the Savegame and then re-enter and see if the escalating crashes stop. If they do, then something probably gets set improperly under some circumstances, and it'd be something concrete I could try to look into.

 

To remove the Arena area from the savegame, first make sure you have no items stored in that area that you wish to keep, and make sure your party is not presently in that area. Then open the SAVEGAME.SAV file with an ERF editor and delete the st_arena.sav file inside it, and save the changes.

 

The next time you re-enter the Arena area a new instance of it will be spawned, rather than re-using the one from the savegame, which should reset any settings stored in that area module.

 

Seems like I'm the only one who doesn't experience any problems with this Mod. Makes it kind of hard to do any debugging.

[Darth Manus]

Incidentally, Darth Traya is even tougher in the arena than in the Trayus Core. I've seen her knock the Handmaiden out with a single Force Crush. Definitely a challenge. I'm glad I took the time to install the high-level powers mod.

 

Well, crashes aside, it seems the armband is displaying the correct destination modules after I've put that debug file in the override folder... but now I have to install that mod again, because I thought it was another fix, and I forgot to backup the original file.

[stoffe]

Incidentally, Darth Traya is even tougher in the arena than in the Trayus Core. I've seen her knock the Handmaiden out with a single Force Crush. Definitely a challenge. I'm glad I took the time to install the high-level powers mod.

 

This is more or less intended, depending on the level of your party and what gear your group has. I tried to make some of the harder fights a lot harder than those available in the standard game, so you'll actually have to use all buff/defense force powers, grenades, shields, stims etc at your disposal. The Resurrection force powers are pretty much useless in the standard game, but quite useful during some of the harder non-duel fights in the Arena to keep your party going.

 

Well, crashes aside, it seems the armband is displaying the correct destination modules after I've put that debug file in the override folder... but now I have to install that mod again, because I thought it was another fix, and I forgot to backup the original file.

 

If you only replaced the st_arenaband.ncs script with another (and not the st_arenaband.UTI or spells.2da) you shouldn't have to reinstall the whole mod. It should be enough to copy that file from the tslpatchdata folder of the installer to your override folder. The impact script isn't modified by the installer so it should work fine to do so.

[Lit Ridl]

ONE OF THE BEST MODS FOR TSL ! ! !

VERY, VERY COOL MOD STOFFE ! ! ! WE ALL LOVE YOUR MODS ! ! !

Sorry me, but I have to turn down creatures AI. They are too powerful. I think it is problem with 50 sith, that they appearsby one, it'll be easier to kill them all (force storm=drain life). Do you agree with changing you mod? Those droids have killed me from 5-7 seconds (I was level 7 jedi comsular with lightsaber). All enemies are strong, eah. But when I meetes dark clones of myself and my party members I was shocked!!! (I was level 50 jedi master, all party members were jedis). If I haven't equiped on me Mrdefenders wrist console and good NI (Natural Intellect) (I hided in the corner where enemies are going from and revive my party after every two hits of my dark clone (He has 350-430 damage!)). In other mod is cool, very good work Stoffe! Your High Level Force Powers are very good balanced with your combat arena 3. I think it will be good idea to combine them. May be to make glass (where spectators are) transparent? It is difficult to watch through Force vision and red screen. aND ONE BUG: sometimes, when I am tring to teleport back in module I have played in game crashes.

[stoffe]

I have to turn down creatures AI. They are too powerful. I think it is problem with 50 Sith, that they appears by one, it'll be easier to kill them all (force storm=drain life).

 

The Gauntlet matches are meant to be endurance fights where the opponents try to wear you down by coming at you in waves. It is probably one of the hardest game forms unless your party members are built and equipped to hold their own, and you don't have any of the "resurrection" force powers. But if you use shields, stims and grenades, conveniently provided by the Trandoshan trader in one of the side rooms, you should be able to make it through.

 

Those droids have killed me from 5-7 seconds (I was level 7 jedi comsular with lightsaber). All enemies are strong, eah. But when I meetes dark clones of myself and my party members I was shocked!!! (I was level 50 jedi master, all party members were jedis).

 

Due to the base setup of most opponents level 7 might be a bit too low to have a fair chance in most matches. Not impossible, but the odds won't be in your favor. While the enemies scale in level and power with your character, their force powers, weapons and feats do not. Level 15-30 is probably the optimal range for arena fights, after which enemies may start to become more difficult again due to how the game's Autobalancer works (since their weapon damage, attack and defense and saves go up with your level).

 

The Evil Twin party can be quite tricky depending on how your main character is made, since the Mirror Exile has the same set of feats and force powers as your Exile has, and has the same equipment as you have (within the limits of the scripting language). If you feel like cheating you can exploit this fact by unequipping all weapons and armor on the Exile before starting a match against the Evil Twin party, as this would leave you fighting against a naked clone of your Exile.

 

AND ONE BUG: sometimes, when I am tring to teleport back in module I have played in game crashes.

 

Yes, the elusive crash bug that everyone but me seems to get on occasion. Very hard to do something about since the mod works fine and never crashes on my own computer, so I don't know where to start looking for that problem. I suspect it's a conflict with some other Mod that I don't have installed but many other people have, but that's just conjecture on my part.

[Dirtnose]

Im Speachless

[Lit Ridl]

The Gauntlet matches are meant to be endurance fights where the opponents try to wear you down by coming at you in waves. It is probably one of the hardest game forms unless your party members are built and equipped to hold their own, and you don't have any of the "resurrection" force powers. But if you use shields, stims and grenades, conveniently provided by the Trandoshan trader in one of the side rooms, you should be able to make it through.

Ok, my force greanade looks really effective, even overpowered, but that is easy now!!!:)

 

The Evil Twin party can be quite tricky depending on how your main character is made, since the Mirror Exile has the same set of feats and force powers as your Exile has, and has the same equipment as you have (within the limits of the scripting language). If you feel like cheating you can exploit this fact by unequipping all weapons and armor on the Exile before starting a match against the Evil Twin party, as this would leave you fighting against a naked clone of your Exile.

Ok, may I use your cloning script, please?

And thanks for the best mods for KII:TSL (High Level Force Powers, Combat Sim Arena)!!:)!

 

 

Will there be any update of YOUR mod, STOFFE?

[stoffe]

I have now uploaded version 4 of the Combat Simulation Arena mod. It contains a couple of new game variants, some new enemies and various improvements. The download link is in the first post in this thread.

 

If you have version 3 installed already you should be able to install version 4 on top of it without problem. Version 4 uses a new arena module to make it compatible with savegames where you have already been inside the arena area previously. So, if you've stored any items in the containers in the arena area, pick them up before installing version 4.

 

Quick installation instruction:

1. Unzip the content of CSArena4.zip somewhere on your harddrive (NOT inside the override folder!)
   
2. Run the CSArena4.exe 7zip self-extractor to unpack the mod somewhere on your harddrive (still NOT inside the override folder!)
   
3. In the CSArena4 folder created by the self-extractor, locate and run the Install Arena.exe mod installer and run it.
   
4. Read the installation instructions, then press the Install Mod button and wait while the installer works.
   
5. Keep an eye on the installation summary to make sure no errors or warnings were encountered.
   

 

After you have installed, make sure there is no file named st_pitdooropen.ncs in your override folder. There shouldn't be one; the installer should have renamed it old_st_pitdooropen.ncs if it existed, but check just in case. I've had an odd report where the file still remained with the old name.

 

If you had CSArena3 installed, you can delete the file st_arena.mod from your Modules folder if you want. It is no longer used. (Do not delete any of the st_arena2.rim or st_arena2_s.rim files however, nor any of the st_turret1.mod or st_turret2.mod files. Those are still used by version 4.)

 

What's new in version 4?

• New game type: Staged Pit Fight. It works like a normal pit fight, with the exception that you may compose your opponent force from all available arena combatants by picking them one at a time. Be warned that if you spawn too many enemies to fight at one time the game might slow down considerably.
   
   
  
• New game type: Tournament Ladder. A variant of duel matches where your selected character will fight 1 on 1 against a series of opponents in sequence with no pause in between each, starting out with weak enemies and them getting progressively more powerful. The Ladders are arranged after opponent categories, where you can fight against Jedi, Sith, Mercenaries, Droids or Beasts. If for example you pick the Sith ladder you start out fighting Assassins and work your way up to face the Dark Lord.
   
   
  
• Some new arena combatants to fight against, some with unique special abilities, most notably Revan and Malak.
   
   
  
• Tweaked the abilities and power of some combatants, and modified the group composition of some combatant groups.
   
   
  
• Added one more NPC match to bet on with the Hutt.
   
   
  
• Added an option to the arena control console to deactivate the force field in regular spectator matches if you'd rather see the action up-close than from the spectator galleries. This option will not be available on Betting matches arranged by the Hutt though to prevent you from interfering with the fight to tilt the odds in your favor.
   
   
  
• Some further tweaks and improvements to the NPC combat AI.
   
   
  
• Various tweaks and bugfixes to the Arena and AI, too numerous and too minor to mention.
   
   
  
• Added 10 seconds of invulnerability at the start of turret games to avoid being ganged up on before gaining your bearings.
   
   
  
• NPC combatants with high dexterity, awareness and not using a rifle may attempt an evasive roll move to dodge grenades being lobbed at or near them by other NPCs. (Due to game engine limitations they won't be able to "see" if the player controlled character throws grenades at them though.)
  

[yohan]

~

Great update! Got to love those Sith Lords

 

• Added an option to the arena control console to deactivate the force field in regular spectator matches if you'd rather see the action up-close than from the spectator galleries. This option will not be available on Betting matches arranged by the Hutt though to prevent you from interfering with the fight to tilt the odds in your favor.
  

 

Aww...too bad about the betting matches, although this means I can stop using Darth333's armband to open the forcefield.

~

[Niftyeye]

Looks like a great mod stoffe, I loved the previous versions, but I got a problem: Error: unhandled exception cannot creat file "C:\program files\Lucasarts\SWkotOR2\dialog.tlk". Acess is denied (o)

I had to write this out manually, cause it wudent let me copy and paste, I dont know how to get by this problem, I had your version 2 (I think it was number 2) installed, then I unistalled KOTOR then reinstalled a few months later, the mods I had installed: Skip Peragus, Simulator, HAK pad were still on the game I think, should I do a clean wipe and then reinstall it altogether? any help would be appriciated.

 

EDIT: Actually nevermind, it seems to install fine now i dont know why or how, anyway sorry for wasting 2 minutes of ur life by reading the post above

[Niftyeye]

Added an option to the arena control console to deactivate the force field in regular spectator matches if you'd rather see the action up-close than from the spectator galleries. This option will not be available on Betting matches arranged by the Hutt though to prevent you from interfering with the fight to tilt the odds in your favor.

 

 

What do you mean by 'Tilt the odds in your favour'? is it possible to attack the enemies while they busily duke it out with the other side? I had a blast watching the fights up close , AWESOME MOD stoffe, it is incredible! did you just mean tilt the odds in favour by obstructing the enemies?

 

I loved the new game modes, mainly because it offered something you could work for, I was glade i could customize the side i was fighting, like 5 sith with a master and a couple of assasins worked well for me, something which would make me the happiest person alive would be able to give yourself allies so when u select staged pit battle after you have selected enemies, theres a allies section that appears on the arena pad as soon as you enter, that would be great, but apart from that, awesome mod, keep up the great work

[stoffe]

^^^ Yes, getting in the way of combatants was pretty much what I meant by that. If you actively prevent a melee brawler from reaching their ranged attacker target then you've rather significantly tipped the balance in that battle. Doesn't matter for normal spectator matches since you don't gain anything from those aside from entertainment, but when you are betting credits on the match the arena area is off-limits to prevent such cheating.

 

As for the dialog.tlk problem make sure you don't have the game or any modding tools running. If another application already has the dialog.tlk file open the installer probably won't be given write access to the file.

 

Regarding allies in pit fights it's on the todo-list. The arena scripting system already has had support for it from the beginning, it just has to be added to the control console dialog file so you can pick them (which is a bit of dreary work, and why it hasn't been done yet).

[Niftyeye]

^^^ Yes, getting in the way of combatants was pretty much what I meant by that. If you actively prevent a melee brawler from reaching their ranged attacker target then you've rather significantly tipped the balance in that battle. Doesn't matter for normal spectator matches since you don't gain anything from those aside from entertainment, but when you are betting credits on the match the arena area is off-limits to prevent such cheating.

 

As for the dialog.tlk problem make sure you don't have the game or any modding tools running. If another application already has the dialog.tlk file open the installer probably won't be given write access to the file.

 

Regarding allies in pit fights it's on the todo-list. The arena scripting system already has had support for it from the beginning, it just has to be added to the control console dialog file so you can pick them (which is a bit of dreary work, and why it hasn't been done yet).

 

 

Yea thats fine lol, Im just saying what I think would be a thing that would make me vote it the best mod ever, even though i already have lol, as for the other problem, thats sorted now, this really is the best mod iv ever seen, and im saying that from the top to bottom of my heart, brilliant job!

[Q]

THE. BEST. TSL MOD. EVER.

 

Enough said!

[Hans Maulwurf]

Do you have to have the English version of TSL for this mod or would it also work with the german version?

[stoffe]

Do you have to have the English version of TSL for this mod or would it also work with the german version?

 

You'll have to either have the English version, or change the language setting of your game to English. Otherwise the dialogs and computer consoles will seemingly be blank, as will the names of most of the arena combatants.

 

The language setting is found in the dialog.tlk file, you can change it with TalkEd if you choose to go that route (File menu --> Set language). Note that this should not affect any text in the standard parts of the game, it should only affect mods to make your game read the English strings mods tend to use.

[Hans Maulwurf]

Thanks for the quick reply.

[Arátoeldar]

Thanks stoffe for the update to a great mod.

[Krony]

Thanks. Was this the first version of the mod you installed, or had you installed any of the test versions previously?

 

* * *

 

This is a very strange problem. I've checked through all the files and nothing appears to be missing from the module, and I've made sure I don't have anything in the override folder than the Arena area uses. I've downloaded and reinstalled the file from PCGM and everything works fine, but still at least 3 people experience crashes when the area loads. Gaah...

 

(Initially I suspected that I might have forgotten to remove an USM saber from one of the arena NPCs when I made the public version, but I've checked through all the templates and they only use standard game resources.)

 

 

Hey stoffe a little help plz i tried downloading it into my files just like the readme said but it says access denied when it tries to get into the dialog can u help me with this?

 

PS: i haven't loaded any other mods for tsl so far

[Dark_Ansem]

it is possible to alter the musics in order to have custom music for some of the harder battles?

[Ghost Down]

Sweet mod!

 

- Ghost Down

[Ijtzoi]

Installation log - 13th attempt.

 

• Installation started 1/24/2007 7:29:55 PM...

• Appending strings to TLK file "E:\Games\LucasArts\SWKotORII\dialog.tlk"

• dialog.tlk file not updated, all 2 entries were already present.

• Installing unmodified files...

• Replacing file st_arenabeacon.utw in the override folder...

• Replacing file st_sp1_generic.ncs in the override folder...

• Replacing file k_sup_grenade.ncs in the override folder...

• Replacing file k_sup_droid.ncs in the override folder...

• Replacing file C_drex01.tga in the override folder...

• Replacing file st_arena2.rim in the Modules folder...

• Replacing file st_arena2_s.rim in the Modules folder...

• Replacing file st_turret1.mod in the Modules folder...

• Replacing file st_turret2.mod in the Modules folder...

• Replacing file CSA-Readme4.txt in the Game folder...

• Modifying file "globalcat.2da" found in Override folder...

• Updated 2DA file E:\Games\LucasArts\SWKotORII\override\globalcat.2da.

• Modifying file "itemcreate.2da" found in Override folder...

• Updated 2DA file E:\Games\LucasArts\SWKotORII\override\itemcreate.2da.

• Modifying file "itemcreatemira.2da" found in Override folder...

• Updated 2DA file E:\Games\LucasArts\SWKotORII\override\itemcreatemira.2da.

• Modifying file "spells.2da" found in Override folder...

• Updated 2DA file E:\Games\LucasArts\SWKotORII\override\spells.2da.

• Modifying file "appearance.2da" found in Override folder...

• Error: Specified file was a 2DA file but not in binary format. That format is unhandled at this time. Unable to load. (2DA-1)

 

I've changed PlaintextLog, moved it to the top of the drive, read through the "How do I install it?" and the text from just before it tries to install. Nothin'. Is there a way to fix this, or could this work without the new appearance.2da? Your mod looks great, but I'm unable to install it.

[stoffe]

Installation log

• Modifying file "appearance.2da" found in Override folder...

• Error: Specified file was a 2DA file but not in binary format. That format is unhandled at this time. Unable to load. (2DA-1)

Is there a way to fix this, or could this work without the new appearance.2da? Your mod looks great, but I'm unable to install it.

 

This is most likely caused by you having installed a mod that comes with an appearance.2da file that is in the old V2.0 plaintext format, rather than the V2.b binary format that the KotOR games use. The games can still read the old format, but it's much less efficient. The mod installer only supports the KotOR 2DA format however, not the old NWN format.

 

You should have this problem with any mod that comes with a TSLPatcher mod installer that needs to modify this file, nor would you be able to edit this old 2DA file with KotorTool.

 

You can check if this is the case by finding the file appearance.2da in your game's override folder and either check if it's significantly larger in size than about 150K, or open it with notepad (don't modify the file with notepad though) to check its content. If the first five characters in the file are 2DA V2.0 rather than 2DA V2.b, this is the problem.

 

There are three ways you could solve this, two easy ways and one hard way.

 

Easy way 1: Remove the appearance.2da file in your override folder before running the Arena mod installer. This will cause the mod that placed it here to stop working.

 

Easy way 2: Don't install the Arena mod, if you'd rather keep the other mod instead.

 

Hard way: Move the appearance.2da file out of your override folder and then run the Arena mod installer. When it's done open the appearance.2da file it has placed in the override folder with KotorTool and manually apply any changes (changed cell values or new rows) that the other mod had made with the old format 2DA file. Without knowing which mod it is you have I can't say exactly what you'd need to change.

 

The arena mod will not work properly without the updated version of this file. The game will crash when certain combatants spawn if it's not present.

[MetalMark]

I can't install. This is what I get when using the patcher:

Error: Unhandled exeption: Cannot create file "C:\Program Files\LucasArts\SWKotor2\Dialog.tlk" . Toegang Geweigerd (0)

 

 

Toegang Geweigerd = Acces Denied