[WIP] Telos Expansion

[JCarter426]

Hello there.

 

Some time ago I got to thinking (again) about how much I despise Telos.

 

Over the past few days I've been debating with some of you out there over the quality of the planets of KOTOR 2. I never really liked Dantooine or Korriban in either game, but it's Telos that really bothers me, because it actually had some promise. It was supposed to be the planet of the game, as a good portion of the opening and final acts take place there. But, as we all know, KOTOR 2 was rushed by LucasArts, and Obsidian was forced to cut a lot of things, and Telos was hurt pretty bad.

 

Anyway, long story short, I decided to combine a bunch of small, unrelated mods that I was working on into one big mod to expand Telos. My goal is to add new areas and side quests, as well as to alter the main quest a bit. But I'm going to need help (you saw that one coming, didn't you ).

 

But first, what I've got so far...

 

I'm currently working on a small mod to act as a demo for the Telos Expansion. For the demo, I'm focusing on Residential Module 082 West, where the Medical Unit and Ithorian Compound are. Whether you're playing light or dark, you have to visit that area at some point, though there's not much there.

 

The medical unit is painfully empty, with an uninhabited room of vacant hospital beds, and an Onderonian diplomat who does absolutely nothing. What's worse is that it's clear that Obsidian had more planned for that area, as there are two completely (and I mean completely) empty rooms that are sealed off and unaccessible through normal gameplay. There's also a set of empty rooms behind Chodo's office, but I'm not going to touch those just yet.

 

Anyway, back to the medical unit. So far I've opened up the doors to those empty rooms and filled them up with all sorts of shiny things. One room contains a dozen kolto tanks (pictures below), while the other is a storage area (still working on that one). In the kolto room is a computer terminal with which the player can request medical treatment (picture below). The storage area will be part of a new side quest which I won't go into detail about now. And there will be a few new NPCs who you can talk to.

 

Now, as for the Ithorian compound, I plan to include a new lounge area behind Chodo's office in the final mod, but for now that area will remain sealed off. However, there will be an additional NPC in the Ithorian compound, an Ithorian, of course , who you can play pazaak with, and who sells cards as well (all of them, except the double and the tiebraker).

 

Anyway, that's about it for the demo. Now, back to the full expansion...

 

Why did I pick Telos? Well, as I mentioned above, Telos was the planet of KOTOR 2. K1 was really spread out evenly over many planets, but K2 had a lot of focus on Telos. Now, first I should mention that I actually like Peragus, but I do not like Telos. A lot of players complain that Peragus was empty, and that you don't really get to do any of the fun stuff--pazaak, swoop racing, side quests--until you reach Telos. And I think that was supposed to be the point. Peragus was designed purely to set up the story, and Obsidian didn't care about side quests or fun stuff. And that's fine with me, because Peragus had an interesting plot. However, this put the pressure on Telos to deliver us all that fun stuff we were promised, and unfortunately Telos did not do that (at least not for me).

 

I can count on one hand the number of side quests there were. Telos' K1 counterpart, Taris, had a grand total of eleven side quests (I'm excluding the Rapid Transit System here ). What's worse is that all five (that's right, five) of Telos' side quests take place on Citadel Station, which is really only half of the planet. For the second half, you're on the surface of the planet, where it's all one linear main quest. The one side quest that actually continues on the surface is the Escaped Criminals quest, which isn't much of a side quest, and it suffers from bugs. Another quest (False Batu) was cut almost completely, and most of it took place outside of Telos. So that leaves three fully functional side quests for an entire planet, followed by one lengthy main quest. And my objective is to change all that.

 

I'm definitely going to need help with this, I have no doubt about it. I'm new at modding myself, but I'm well aware that--new or no--a mod of this scale is no easy task. So, everything I'm about to list are goals, and just that, because odds are that not everything will be doable. Anyway, my goals for this mod:

 

Four new areas (new as in reused)

*A new Entertainment Module

*A pazaak den (to take the place of the new EM's cantina)

*A new Residential Module (really two modules)

*And of course Extended Residential Module, as I mentioned before

 

New side quests

Current ideas:

*A series of bounty quests similar to the ones on Taris in K1

*A large smuggling operation quest to serve as an extension to the one already in the game

*A pazaak tournament similar to the one on Nar Shaddaa.

More will come in the future.

 

Altered main quest

My main goal is to cut out the underground Czerka base. Yes, you heard that right. Initially, the underground base did not appear at that point of the game; Obsidian planned for Bao-dur to take the player back to Citadel Station, and from there he would work his mojo with the shield network and find the Ebon Hawk. So--you guessed it--I'd like to restore that.

 

Why? Well, first let me lay out the current main quest for you: there's all the stuff you have to do for Czerka or the Ithorians on Citadel Station, the fight to the landing pad in the Restoration Zone, the battle with all those droids in the underground base ,and then there's Atris' ice hole in the polar regions. Currently, you're forced to do all four in a row, and that's a little tiring. By cutting out the Czerka base and having the player return to Citadel Station after the Restoration Zone, we split the main quest up into three small parts. This is crucial because, as I said before, all the side quests are on Citadel Station. If the player doesn't have access to Citadel Station, they can't do any of the side quests, now can they?

 

With this revised main quest, the player isn't forced to do the whole main quest at once; instead, they can do the first part (helping Czerka or the Ithorians), play a couple rounds of pazaak, then go fight some mercs in the Restoration Zone, play bounty hunter for a bit, and then go get their ship back from that pretentious schutta.

 

Anyway, I've already rambled on too much. I'll just close by saying that if you're interested in helping out in any way--with ideas, voice acting, module editing, scripts, anything--just post here.

 

And expect the demo sometime in the near future.

__________

 

Oh, I almost forgot--those pictures I promised you way back when.

 

Here are some shots of the extended medical unit:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff140/JCarter426/Telos%20Expansion/medunit1.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff140/JCarter426/Telos%20Expansion/medunit2.jpg

 

And here's a shot the screen of the computer terminal I talked about:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff140/JCarter426/Telos%20Expansion/medunit3.jpg

 

More info about the terminal: When you hack into the system, you can "adjust" the cost of treatment (free healing for everyone! ), as well as get some chemicals (if you didn't pass the Treat Injury check).

[TriggerGod]

Sounds cool, but I can't do anything at this point in the art of Beta (If you even needed one >_>) as I have another Telos Expansion Beta, and I can't/don't/won't get rid of that. I still need to give the screenies to the mod maker.

So if you still need a Beta after the Slums of Telos goes public, I'd be glad to help.

[Mikekatarn]

Looks really cool, but would this interfer with the Kotor 2 Restoration Project?

[Darth Payne]

Excellent idea.

 

I wouldnt touch the area behind Chodos office if i where you though. There is already a mod that uses that area, and if you decide to use it as well this mod and the Itorian Cantina mod would be incompatible.

 

Other than that, this looks perfect so far. Definite Download for me when your finished.

[Eefluxx]

I like this idea as well, I always thouhgt Telos was kinda short lived.

 

Can I make a suggestion tho? There is one sealed module door when you first get to the entertainment section off to the right. If you open this door with the whereami armband there is a whole new area there but there is no walkmesh I believe since I still couldn't go thru the door. If you could get some help with walkmeshes this might be a cool place to explore

 

Just a thought

 

Eefluxx

[Princess Artemis]

There's nothing I can offer at the moment except encouragement--it really would be nice to be able to cut up that very trying hack 'n slash from the crashed shuttle to finding the Hawk as it stands by being able to travel back and forth between Telos and Citadel to an extent.

 

The only thing I can say plot-wise about having Bao take Exile back to Citadel to find the Hawk is it's really openly suspicious behavior to be hacking into the shield network while on Citadel. Otherwise it sounds like a pretty good idea and a lot of fun.

[JCarter426]

Thanks for the support, everyone.

 

Sounds cool, but I can't do anything at this point in the art of Beta (If you even needed one >_>) as I have another Telos Expansion Beta, and I can't/don't/won't get rid of that. I still need to give the screenies to the mod maker.

So if you still need a Beta after the Slums of Telos goes public, I'd be glad to help.

 

Oh, I probably will. Thanks!

 

Looks really cool, but would this interfer with the Kotor 2 Restoration Project?

 

As far as I know they aren't touching Telos, except to restore the Genoharadan quests (Luxa's arms dealers and Batu Rem). So it should be compatible. That's actually another reason why I chose Telos.

 

I wouldnt touch the area behind Chodos office if i where you though. There is already a mod that uses that area, and if you decide to use it as well this mod and the Itorian Cantina mod would be incompatible.

 

Yeah, I thought about that, which is why I'm not touching it for the demo. And unless there's some compelling reason, then I'll leave that area alone. The Ithorian Compound is probably big enough for the both of us.

 

Can I make a suggestion tho? There is one sealed module door when you first get to the entertainment section off to the right. If you open this door with the whereami armband there is a whole new area there but there is no walkmesh I believe since I still couldn't go thru the door. If you could get some help with walkmeshes this might be a cool place to explore

 

This was my thought as well, but it's beyond my means. However, I'd definitely like to do this.

 

The only thing I can say plot-wise about having Bao take Exile back to Citadel to find the Hawk is it's really openly suspicious behavior to be hacking into the shield network while on Citadel.

 

Yeah, I know what you mean. I was thinking that in addition to hacking into the shield network, the player would have to make sure that the TSF wasn't watching (black out the security cameras or some such).

 

And I forgot to mention another side quest I had in mind--selling out Corrun Falt to Lorso. The quest is practically finished, with all the dialogue recorded and even some of the scripting done, so it wouldn't be that difficult to restore it, and Team Gizka isn't, so there's no problem there either.

 

Anyway, that's it for now.

[correllian_thug]

this'll definitely convince me to fire up K2 again Telos is my favourite area, but like you said, too short but your mod would really change this, i wish you all the best in this and consider this on my watch list

[shatterpoint14]

although I am not a modder, I will be happy to help with writing quests and stuff. I actually posted a mod request/outline about this a long time ago.

 

Here are my ideas from before (er what I wrote):

 

Anyone else notice how there are a ton of unused doors on citadel station?

 

I think it would be cool if someone took a few of those and linked them to new areas. They can just duplicate existing Citadel Station Moduels (after all it is kind of suposed to look the same) and then fill the places up with people, sidequests, vendors etc.

 

Why not make a residential module 17 or something. And Have a republic embasy office (same structure as Ithorian office)

 

Transport module 7 has another smuggling opperation and it is up to the exile to root it out. (s)he was tipped off by a Duros in residentual module 1138. (make a prison block 1138 lol)

 

There are tons of possibilities. And pretty much oppertunity for endless expansion. If you want to add another Citadel station area, just add a link to one of the unused doors in a new custom module if you run out of space.

 

ok I have decided I am going to learn how to mod and make this (starting when I become a second semester senior lol) Atleast that is my plan now, I will probably discover modding is impossible and give up.

 

Anyway thought of new idea for this:

 

Driod processing area

 

Main plot outline: the droid mechanic's brother who you get the credentials from works in the driod prossessing officefor the republic. A place like citadel stations needs a lot of droids anyway right?

 

At the moment he is a bit shorthanded so you can do some jobs for him. One is programing in the activation codes for a series of B4 droids (Czerka snatched one out of the line to the mechanic's dismay). They way the programing will work is if you have a high enough computer skill you can offer to help. Then he will give you a datapad with the activation codes for each driod. You then have to enter them and a primary sequence (math problem thing) for each droid. (this will be in a console format thing like the computer interface window, whatever that is called). After you finish activating all the droids you go back to the mechanic and he gives you 1000 credits and you gain a bonus to your computer skill (is that possible?).

 

The other option is if you have a high enough repair skill. If you do you can help assemble a newly imported series of utility driods. This will function much the same way and you will be given a set of instructions on the data pad and then have to carry them out. You will then need to connect the droids to the central computer though correct asseble of a transmitter which will be a geometry thingy (or I might cut that out) When you finish this you get 1000 credits and a permenant bonus to repair skill

 

Next are the medical droids. They are perfectly assembled and their computers are all ok, but the chemical mainframe is not correct yet. The droids need to have a base of chemicals inside them to run and the mechanic has no ideas how to do this, and unfortunately the main medical office is too swamped to send someone over. So if you hav a high enough medical skill you can help create the correct chemical ballance of the droids. You only will have to do this once to create a main stock. It will work like the chemical tank for the kolto unit in kotor 1, if you mix to much it explodes and starts over. Once you create a stock source you install them in the droids. head back to the mechanic and he gives you 1000 credits and you get a bonus to treat injury skill.

 

 

There can also I guess be security driods (which give security and awareness) and demolitions driods (for blowing up debree idk). Not sure how to get a persuade and stealth driod to make sense though.

 

That's the most fleshed out idea I have so far. But I also have some ideas of making another smuggling thing in a new transport module. Making a main medical office and Republic embasy.

 

Also there could be a wookie slaver who is illegally selling wookies to Czerka under the republics nose and you bust him (or blackmail him and let him continue)

 

Anyway the expansion could really be endless, I mean the place is suposed to be huge.

 

We could really start a huge project adding new sidequests to Citadel sation.

 

 

The best thing would be is some awesome modder could pick this up in which case I would be happy to help. I am going to try to lean moding, and if I am really unsucessful i would be happy to help write dialog and quests and puzzels for good modders (or whatever I can do).

 

The modules only have to be copies of the existing Citadel station modules so that’s easy right? The ‘skeleton part’ is easy right? B/c I will need to learn that too lol. Will look it up in a tutorial.

 

Anyway for the cantina how about an illegal high stakes pazzak competition which you can either help the TSF bust or join/manipulate so you win something. The place can be under surveilance by the TSF and it has an automated password door thing (like Jaba's palace). You find out the password form someone and get in. The stakes for the game is the oppertunity the set up/ control the criminal sphere on the new telos. All the different exchange bosses have paid for their own pazzak player and none of them want to loose (although some care more than others).

 

You will be able to go here after you kill the Telos exchange boss so the spot is up for grabs. Maybe you get the password in teh pazzak den on Nar Shadaa?

 

thought about this more today.

 

 

the way it could work is after you beat the pazzak champ on nar shadaa, he says you should replace him as the representative of a wealthy investor in a secret game of Pazzak (he doesn't quite understand whats going on, he only speaks pazzak basically)

 

When you arive on Telos the TSF and a republic guard approach you and explain that what is really going on is a power struggle over the exchange opperation on Telos. They ask if you could do a bit of scouting for them and find out whats going on and flush out the exchange boss who is sponsoring you as they have enough stuff on him to actually convict (where as other bosses are more elusive)

 

You go towards the cantina and are shortly thereafter contacted by your sponsor who says that you must win at all costs, or he will make sure you don't live to leave the planet, but if you win he will give you a stake in the telos opperations making you set for life. You have no choice to accept and go into the cantina.

 

You are now playing both sides (like casino royal kind of)

 

If you loose a pazzak game you actually die (if that is possible) so save between games.

 

Dark side path:

When you finally win your sponsor will appear in the cantina to congradulate you and take the exchange deed from the organizer (who is employed by some unknown really high up exchange dude). Then the TSF raids the cantina and a battle breaks out. You kill the TSF and your sponsor escapes the planet. You get a bunch of DS points and a large chunch of change.

 

Light side:

you win the tournament, sponsor appears and TSF raid the place. Battle breaks out and you assist TSF and arrest your sponsor, who then pulls a blaster out on a TSF captain and you are forced to kill him. You have saved Telos from the reestablishment of the exchange and get lightside points. you also get a datapad from the corpse of your sponsor which leads to a box with a huge chunch of change.

[JCarter426]

Interesting ideas there. The droid quest is definitely doable, and I like the idea of the TSF doing surveillance on the pazaak den, though I'm not sure if everything you mentioned is possible (well, anything's possible...but still ).

 

I also like the idea of having a Republic embassy. I was thinking of having the shield network computer in the Ithorian compound, but this actually works better.

 

And before I forget (since I forgot before ) I already finished one side quests. Well, it's almost finished. Anyway, the object of the quest is to gain access to the armory in the local Aratech office. The player has to first find an Aratech I.D. card (which turns out to be broken), and then answer a series of questions to "confirm" with the computer that they're actually an Aratech employee (the player can find out most of the answers by asking around the area). Finally, the player has to enter an access code to open the armory (this is a trick question...I won't say how ).

 

That part is all done. What I haven't finished is the ending, in which the player is caught by an Aratech employee, and has the option to kill him/her (worst case scenario), or trick/blackmail/bribe them into looking the other way (options available depending on skills--for instance, if the player has a high Security, they can say that the lock malfunctioned; if they have a high awareness, they notice that the employee has been stealing money from Aratech, etc.).

 

Anyway, moving on...I've just finished the storage area in the medical unit for the demo. Still on the to-do list: Add NPCs, write up and record dialogues, create the merchant files, and make up the side quest.

 

Instead of making a new quest, I've decided to just replace one that's already in the game, because the two are just too similar. The part I'm replacing is the part of the current smuggling operation, in which Samhan Dobo tells you to get medical supplies from the medical unit. So, I'll just move everything to the new storage area. Shouldn't be too much of a problem.

 

Now, back to the full expansion...I'll go into more detail about the four new areas:

 

Entertainment Module 044

Obviously a copy of EM 081. The bounty office will definitely go here (probaby take the place of the TSF office). And of course there are exits to the Pazaak Den (where the cantina is), as well as shuttles to other modules. I'm not sure what to put in place of the Dobo shops, though. Could be a secondary Czerka office, I guess (that's not very "entertaining", though ).

 

Pazaak Den

What it says on the can.

 

Residential Module 038 East

Not sure what to put here, really, but I know that it's needed. A couple of the people with bounties could go in some of the apartments, as could the droid quest.

 

Residential Module 038 West

This one I have planned out. The Republic Embassy will take the place of the Ithorian compound, while the Medical Unit will be a Merchant Quarter, where there will be a few different merchants--an Aratech Office, a droid kiosk, and a Mandalorian who sells a few good Mandie items, and probably one or two more (there's a lot of space to work with).

 

 

Anyway, that's all for now.

 

 

EDIT: Finished moving the quest, and it works perfectly.

 

All that's left is to populate the area with some NPCs, and make and record their dialogue.

[Lord2]

JCarter.. Trying to hide are you? Haha, found you.. LOL.

 

Well, this is an interesting idea, mostly because Telos is a huge city and deserves more areas. Good luck!

[JCarter426]

Thanks! I'm almost done with the demo. No, strike that--I am done with the demo. There are just a few things I want to add that aren't really necessary. But I could release it now.

 

*runs away and hides*

[HdVaderII]

Well why won't you then! Is your mod going to use the tsl patcher, because I'm trying to release a Telos Slums, and I was wondering what 2da's your mod will be using, so I could make them compatable.

[JCarter426]

I plan to use the patcher, yes. the Demo doesn't use any .2das yet, but is it possible to make a large mod that doesn't use one? I'll let you know which ones I end up using.

[Sith Holocron]

I still would love for someone to somehow utilize the unused areas on Citadel Station

 

http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=180947

 

Of course the walkmeshes need work but there's untapped potential here.

[JCarter426]

I would like to use those areas, but as I said it's way beyond me; I don't even know what a walkmesh is, let alone how to edit one. It also looks like the models need a bit of work as well, and I can't do that either. But if anyone can...

 

And here are a couple of new images. These ones are of the storage area:

 

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff140/JCarter426/Telos%20Expansion/medunit4.jpg

 

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff140/JCarter426/Telos%20Expansion/medunit5.jpg

 

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff140/JCarter426/Telos%20Expansion/medunit6.jpg

 

The storage area was a pain to make. Anyway, that computer panel you see in picture one is the medical supply terminal, which I've moved for the demo into the storage area (obviously ).

 

And this picture shows the new medical officer, Lieutenant Darran:

 

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff140/JCarter426/Telos%20Expansion/medunit7.jpg

 

I'm going to be voicing his dialgoue. So far he doesn't do much except complain and point you to the various locations (the kolto tanks, the lab station, etc), and he has a shop as well (I thought Telos was severely lacking of a Doc Forn type). I'm having a bit of a problem with his dialogue (as in, it won't work), but I probably just made a typing error somewhere. I just have to find out where...

 

Right now I can't decide whether I should include the Ithorian pazaak player in the demo. Eh...I'll figure it out later.

[Eefluxx]

Just a note since you haven't mentioned it. There is also an extra room in the Exchange module where the Ithorian is kept in a force cage. The door opens up to another room. Secret Pazaak den perhaps? Or maybe an exchange armory with a workbench since I found it odd they had a lab station but no workbench.

 

Just mentioning it

 

Eefluxx

[Robespierre]

With the medical bay thing are you going to add another side-quest about it? Because there are always those citizens claiming that "medical supplies are in short supply and high demand". Perhaps you could add an inter-planetary quest? Perhaps even something to do with that diplomat from Onderon...

 

Just a suggestion.

[JCarter426]

Just a note since you haven't mentioned it. There is also an extra room in the Exchange module where the Ithorian is kept in a force cage. The door opens up to another room. Secret Pazaak den perhaps? Or maybe an exchange armory with a workbench since I found it odd they had a lab station but no workbench.

 

Well, the pazaak den is going to be somewhere else, but I could add a few things in there. Makes sense to have a workbench there, and a few weapons.

 

With the medical bay thing are you going to add another side-quest about it? Because there are always those citizens claiming that "medical supplies are in short supply and high demand". Perhaps you could add an inter-planetary quest? Perhaps even something to do with that diplomat from Onderon...

 

I was going to add a new side quest, but my idea was too similar to the one already in the game, so I just combined them. I am thinking about making the diplomat actually do something, though. I'm pretty sure I can pull off an accent to pass as him (and if I can't, I could just revoice the whole thing, I guess--no offense to the original VA, of course ).

[Robespierre]

I suspect re-voicing the Onderon diplomat would be easier since he doesn't actually do anything.

[JCarter426]

Well, I was thinking of keeping his original lines in addition to any lines I add.

[Sith Holocron]

Altered main quest

My main goal is to cut out the underground Czerka base. Yes, you heard that right. Initially, the underground base did not appear at that point of the game; Obsidian planned for Bao-dur to take the player back to Citadel Station, and from there he would work his mojo with the shield network and find the Ebon Hawk. So--you guessed it--I'd like to restore that.

 

If memory serves, the Czerka underground military base is where the HK Factory is in TSLRP's mod. I don't think most people will want to skip that . . .

[JCarter426]

You can't get into the HK factory at that point in the game, though.

 

I've looked into the cut areas in EM082, and I don't think they're useable. Even if we manage to solve the walkmesh problem, there's still a couple of other problems--mainly, the cut areas aren't all connected.

[Darth Payne]

Isn't there already a mod out that infact lets you access the droid factory?

 

If memory serves it was made by a german, since i seem to remember quite a few things were still not translated when i played it.

 

It even lets you recruite a droid that takes G0t0 place, i think he was called HK-49.

 

Ah, found it on Kotorfiles.

http://knightsoftheoldrepublic.filefront.com/file/HK_Factory_Reconstructed;75971

[blade12444]

hay mate i whould love to help but well my moding skills are not as i expected them to be