Old men forget...

[machievelli]

Back in July I think it was when I first posted part of my KOTOR novel, someone asked me if i was going to do a KOTORII novel. When I told them I did not have a copy of the game they asked if I wanted a copy of the KOTORII strategy guide. Unfortunately, I said no because I didn't have a copy of the game.

 

Well I got one last week for my birthday, and after finally reaching telot, the germ of an idea has been formed.

 

Now is when I need the damn guide.

 

Can anyone help me?

[JediKnight707]

I've got the official stragtegy guide thingy if you want some help If my friend asks, I don't have it...

[JediMaster12]

I have Prima's Official Strategy Guide. It even includes all the LS and DS responses for the NPCs. Achilles has the influence guide posted here too. Ask a question and I'll find it.

[JediKnight707]

I have Prima's Official Strategy Guide. It even includes all the LS and DS responses for the NPCs. Achilles has the influence guide posted here too. Ask a question and I'll find it.

 

That's what I meant. The official Prima thingy

[Jae Onasi]

GameBanshee has a walkthrough here.

 

Achilles' Influence walkthrough is here

 

Have fun!

[machievelli]

Question about Atris. In the prima guide for KOTOR, they give you an age for Carth. Did they do the same for Atris? The reason I am asking, is I am assuming Marai was 22 or three years older than my version of Revan. That would make her 31 or two in Sith Lords.

[machievelli]

Another question: Does anyone have the entire dialogue chain for the first meeting between the exile and Atris? I am not sure what is said and may need to look at it for my dialogue

[JediMaster12]

Dialogue Chain as in options? I can get that to show up using the dialogue editor. Mostly it is Atris expressing her contempt for the Exile and the fact the the destruction of Peragus set about a chain reaction that would cause an echo to cross over twenty worlds. She argues a bit with the Exile. After that you have the option of convincing Atris that you want to help find the Lost Jedi.

 

I read the guide and their really is no mention of an age to Atris. I assumed that maybe the Exile and Revan are roughy the same age but maybe 2-3 years difference. The Exile is definitely younger as is referred to when Vash says the war has affected the youngest of the Order.

[Jae Onasi]

The Exile was a general during the Mandalorian Wars, so she can't be too young.

But that's one of my pet peeves in SW--generals aren't 18 year old Jedi who lead small strike teams all over the place. There are some things that you can only learn through time and experience, and managing thousands of troops, materiel, war strategy, and tactics are some of those things that you can't learn from a book or through the Force.

[JediAthos]

The Exile was a general during the Mandalorian Wars, so she can't be too young.

But that's one of my pet peeves in SW--generals aren't 18 year old Jedi who lead small strike teams all over the place. There are some things that you can only learn through time and experience, and managing thousands of troops, materiel, war strategy, and tactics are some of those things that you can't learn from a book or through the Force.

 

 

I've always thought that the Jedi that led troops were older Jedi as far as the movies went i.e Obi-Wan, Ayala Secura, Yoda, Mace Windu, etc....

[machievelli]

Dialogue Chain as in options? I can get that to show up using the dialogue editor. Mostly it is Atris expressing her contempt for the Exile and the fact the the destruction of Peragus set about a chain reaction that would cause an echo to cross over twenty worlds. She argues a bit with the Exile. After that you have the option of convincing Atris that you want to help find the Lost Jedi.

 

I read the guide and their really is no mention of an age to Atris. I assumed that maybe the Exile and Revan are roughy the same age but maybe 2-3 years difference. The Exile is definitely younger as is referred to when Vash says the war has affected the youngest of the Order.

 

 

Now if you tell the old fart how to use the dialogue editor, it might help... Oh, and BTW, I figure the eldest of the Knights that went were between 16 and 30. When you figure that Obi Wan was in his late to mid 20s, and didn't become a master therefore until he was almost 40, it makes sense to classify them as the young.

[machievelli]

The Exile was a general during the Mandalorian Wars, so she can't be too young.

But that's one of my pet peeves in SW--generals aren't 18 year old Jedi who lead small strike teams all over the place. There are some things that you can only learn through time and experience, and managing thousands of troops, materiel, war strategy, and tactics are some of those things that you can't learn from a book or through the Force.

 

 

I think what happened was to find a way to slip them into the chain of command. Luke was considered a valid war leader, and that is what a general is. But a wise man would ask advise if it is outside his purview.

 

In my version of the Mandalorian wars, there were only about three dozen that were called Genral. The rest were commander and lieutenant.

[machievelli]

I've always thought that the Jedi that led troops were older Jedi as far as the movies went i.e Obi-Wan, Ayala Secura, Yoda, Mace Windu, etc....

 

 

But you forget that Anakin was only 22.

 

With the clones it is different. If you read my clone war short 'why we die" you will notice that the military of their time didn;t like the idea that a 19 year old was considered a general.

[JediMaster12]

Ok mach. As to the dialogue editor, you need to download it and install it first. Then you go to File or something like that and click Open. Then you click on the dialogue files for TSL and it should show you. First things first, download and install the editor.

[machievelli]

is it on the site where I get mods?

[Jae Onasi]

It's located at the Holowan Laboratories section here in the Kotor forums. Click here to enter the fabulous and addictive world of modding.

[machievelli]

All right, downloaded dlgeditor, and now I'm hopelessly lost. Of course, It took me 3 weeks to use HTML for my reviews. I still don't know how or why it works.

 

Every one repeat after me 'Mach is an idiot'

 

'Mach is an idiot'

 

'Mach is an idiot'

 

'Mach is an idiot'

[Darth333]

Or to make it simple, grab KotOR tool and tk102's DLGeditor from this page: http://www.starwarsknights.com/tools.php . You have to install Microsoft.net framework first or Kotor tool won't run.

 

Note instead of using Kotor tool, that you can also extract all the .dlg files with findrefs (findrefs doesn't require Microsoft .net framework). Findrefs is also useful if you are searching for a specific file or even specific text.

 

The dialogues in KotOR 2 are located in BIFs->dialog.bif (mostly general banter) and ERFs-->modules (module specific conversation). This may sound a bit esoteric here but it will be obvious once you have Kotor tool.

 

The best way to do this is to extract the .dlg files with KT and open them with tk102's dlgeditor. You can also open the .dlg files with KT but if you fall to the temptation of modifying even a single word in the file and try it in game, it will corrupt your K2 .dlg file (however, don't be afraid to play with .dlg files as you are not changing the original files. You are only working with copies )

 

Here'S a sample screenshot of what a dlg file looks like in DLGeditor (don't mind the green boxes - that was for a pazaak tutorial): http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/Darth333/pazaak.jpg

[machievelli]

how do I get the dlgeditor to accept that I even have dialogue? I was able to find them with find refs but with something like 7,000 dialogue points coming up when I use Atris as a keyword. it is a little un-nerving.

 

Oh, BTW, I need to do the same with the movie of Visa and her boss.

[Darth333]

You have to extract the .dlg files with findrefs somewhere on your hard drive first: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v144/Darth333/findrefs2.jpg (note that on the pic, you only have to extract the file once as the four search results all lead to the same file, which is sioncut.dlg. The "entry x" on the right indicate at which lines in the file I can find what I was searching for. )

 

 

and then you fire up dlgeditor and browse to the file you extracted.

 

For movies, you'll need the RAD video tools. Check the movie section in this thread: http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=143421

[machievelli]

I finally just decided to wing it. You guys do not understand the depths of my incompetence

[machievelli]

All right, what do I do with a NCC (Os ir it NSS) file? I want the minutes of the council meeting, and I am about to just get batteries for my flipping antique tape recorder.

[Darth333]

The .nss files are the Nwn Source Scripts that are in plain text and use the nwscript language. They contain the instructions that tell the game what to do, works more or less like a recipe (ex. make the pc walk from point A to point B, add a npc to your party, spell effects, spawn Mr. X when the pc has done something, etc). You can open them with notepad but I doubt you will find them useful unless you want to make mods. However, .nss files do not have any effect on the game unless they are compiled. When you compile them, you get a .ncs file which is what the game uses (more or less like the cake you get after following a recipe ).

 

If you want the dialogues, what you need is the .dlg files. Here a short tutorial I<ve put together for you:

 

1. Extracting files with findrefs:

 

Let's say you want all the *.dlg files that mention Coruscant. In order to search them with findrefs, you have to check the "Include TLK file references", select your game and search only .dlg file (you can search all the files but it will be useless if all you want is to access the ingame dialogue.

 

If you look at the screenie below, the .dlg files are listed in the middle column. The left column indicates the module (ingame location) where they are to be found and the right column indicates the Entries (what npc say) and Replies (what the pc says) lines numbers where the word Coruscant is mentioned. As you can see there are about 20 results but only 11 different .dlg files (003atton.dlg, bardroid.dlg, etc).

 

Screenshot

 

 

BTW, the name of the .dlg file with the council scene is holorec.dlg. Just type holorec (don't put the extension) in the findrefs searchbox, select "search filenames only" and select .dlg as "file types to search".

 

2. In order to extract a .dlg file, simply click on it to select it (you can use shift click to select more than one file) and hit the "Extract Selected files" button and finally select the folder to which you want to extract the file:

 

Screenshot

 

3. Fire up DLGeditor by double clicking its icon and open the .dlg file you just extracted (File menu->Open) and you should see something like this:

 

 

If you mouse over the line where I added a green circle and an x on my screenshot, you can expand the treeview (left click). If you go to the View menu, and select "show Indices in Tree" you will see the Entries and Replies numbers. The numbers in the right column when you search with Findrefs, correspond to those same numbers.

 

Screenshot

 

For movies, you need Bink from that page: http://www.radgametools.com/. Movies are installed by default in your C:\Program Files\LucasArts\SWKotOR2\Movies folder. If you have the RAD video tools installed, just select a movie in your folder and open it with the Rad Video tools.

 

Option b : Extracting .dlg files with Kotor tool instead of findrefs:

 

General banter:

select your game and go to BIFs->dialogs.bif, select your file and hit "Extract file"

 

Screenshot

 

 

Module specific dialogue:

Go to Kotor 2->ERFs->Modules, select the module (game location) where your .dlg file is and click on Extract file.

 

Screenshot

 

And then, follow step 3 above

 

Hope this helps!