[wip] [K1] Level Cap Modification

[dholm]

I've long been annoyed at the level cap in Knights of the Old Republic. I have had several ideas on how to by-pass it (since I've been told the cap itself is hard-coded), and I presented some of them a week or so ago in the Request forum. I got little response, however, and so I decided to try out one of them for myself. This is the first time I've tried anything other than very simple reskins, so I'm a little apprehensive.

 

The idea is basically to make each single level in KotOR count as two levels, thus effectively raising the level cap to 40. There are some problems with this, of course. During your first level, you're going to run around as if you're level 2, but for all subsequent levels, you're basically at least a level behind. When you finally get enough XP for the actual level 2 (which is what you'd normally need for level 4), you've basically passed through level 3 without getting the benefits. I don't see this as enough of an issue to deter me from making the mod, however, and I hope that at least some people will enjoy it.

 

Now, this isn't going to be a 'power up' thing. The idea is that if you play the game with no additional content, you should reach the Star Forge and be roughly as powerful as if you did not change anything at all. Thus, you should be level 10, and have access to the same number of Force powers, feats, Vitality Points, and Force Points as a level 20 character in an unmodded game. Why, then, am I doing it?

 

Because it opens up other options for new mods and for additional content. Currently, if you add in content which gives significant XP bonuses, all that you're getting out of it is that you'll hit the level cap that much sooner.

 

I have run into significant problems, however, and I was hoping the talented modders here could help me out. So far, all I have done is edit 2da-files, very simple stuff.

 

The very first problem I hit is on the Endar Spire. Normally, in order to progress beyond the door on the bridge, you have to level up. However, in my mod, you would obviously not be able to do that! You require far too much XP. I am scratching my head as to how to by-pass this. Currently I'm using the Super Skip Taris mod to simply move beyond the Endar Spire, and that works fine -- but I have no idea on how to accomplish something similar by myself.

 

The second problem is with skills. I cannot remove or change the cap on skill points (which is level+3), so the only real "solution" that I can think of is to lower Difficulty Classes for skill checks across the board (which would make the skill points more valuable, balancing it out) -- however, I have no idea where these are, or if they can even be modified. I guess they must be somewhere in the dialogue options? There is of course also the option of giving manual skill increases, but I have no idea how to do that (other than by cheating).

 

Another problem is attribute points. Apparently the normal attribute increases are hard-coded (at the very least, I have not been able to find any files which dictate when they are to occur), so I need some other way to give attribute points at the correct levels -- i.e. 2, 6, 10, 14, and 18 (which will effectively be levels 4, 12, 20, 28, and 36).

 

The final problem I've run into so far is constitution bonuses. In order to give the classes the correct vitality points, I simply doubled the hit die. The problem is, it still counts only as a single die -- thus, you would not get the bonus to your vitality points -- making Constitution basically half as powerful as it is normally. Not a pleasant change.

 

Any assistance with these issues will be greatly welcomed.

[Darth Kalverys]

Ok, as for the problem with the Endar Spire, don't have the mod go into effect until you reach level two... that's a simple fix, however the "cap modification" will only be raised to "level 39".

 

I can't help you with the other problems, sorry.

[ForeverNight]

I believe that there's a trigger with a script there... so maybe it would be possible to look into that and see what script is attached and Decompile it into a source script...

 

If it is a script than its just a simple matter of module editing. You'd extract the files into a folder in your My Documents or whatnot, delete the Trigger file, the .ncs script attached, and edit the .git file to reflect this change. Use Stoffe's ERF/RIM/MOD/SAV/HAK builder to create a .MOD file and you'll be done with that.

 

Then do the .2da editing and you'll be done.

 

If of course it is just a trigger and script...