Star Wars Kotor II:Companions dark side bug

[Oasis1218]

Hey everbody I have a problem that's annoying me; ever since I got off from Nar Shaada as my 3rd planet heading to Korriban all of my companions are full dark side while I'm full light side and have been ever since I got my prestige class.

 

I've resorted to using cheats to try and fix this, but trying bring them back to the light side through cheats won't work and going through google the only answer is either load your last saved game which by the time I get to the part where they get bugged it happens again, or making yourself neutral making all of my companions full light side again but it took me forever to be full light and I just didn't bother continuing using this

 

I've used KSE editor to fix this making everyone full light side again but they'll constantly turn back to the dark side again during cutscenes or while I'm switching companions. Can anyone help me? It's annoying constantly quitting the game just to make them back to full light.

[pico]

Got exactly the same problem, its really annoying ...

 

ive lost the fun to play :\

[ShinDangaioh]

Over at Filerfront there is an Influence Bug Fix mod that takes care of this very issue.

 

http://knightsoftheoldrepublic.filefront.com/file/Influence_Bug_Fix;68122

[Q]

You know, I've played TSL all of the way through literally dozens of times and I have never encountered this infamous bug. Weird.

 

Thanks for posting the link.

[vanir]

I only had this bug the first couple of times I played...until I found an Influence Walkthrough and realised what was happening.

 

You've got to raise your influence score with your companions or they randomise alignment (go dark side spontaneously), or worse, if you actually manage to degrade your influence (starting influence is 50 and neutral toward you unless you dialogue well during recruitment), at low influence your companions actually take opposite alignment to you. If dark side they turn light side and vice versa.

 

The fact companions repeatedly shift dark side to your light side even after you use KSE to change them suggests a script and not the "random alignment bug" I've heard about (but never actually seen in countless playthroughs). It tells me your influence is low enough to trigger the opposite alignment script, you've been selecting all the funny one-liners in dialogue options, haven't you? Many of these won't affect your alignment, but they may very well affect companion influence.

 

Check your influence with the Companion whose alignment changed next time. I'm betting it'll be low.

 

There is a problem with that "influence bug" fix I found. It ties alignments more closely to influence, so that prior to and immediately upon recruitment all companions start off opposite alignment. If you're halfway to becoming a lightsider when you arrive at Citadel station for example, the Handmaiden NPC cutscene will be a black robed DS Handmaiden.

When you first meet Atton Rand at Peragus he is on the first stage DS transition. You have to dialogue and get your influence up to get them neutral in alignment, which isn't much help for watching the Handmaiden run around the Telos Academy with evil face and black robes before she joins your party.

 

There's another problem if you combine the "influence bug" fix with its optional "XP bug" fix, which is supposed to hang onto any lost XP for new Jedi-recruits who haven't left the Ebon Hawk yet whilst you've been running around advancing levels. When recruiting new companions in the first place it gives them all the XP you made before meeting them, so whilst you're still say 11th level when you recruit Handmaiden, she's got enough experience to take her to 18th level just after boarding the ship!

 

And the XP bug is another thing which isn't really a bug. Firstly after freshly recruiting someone into the party you should take them out on the next excursion to level them up and equip them anyway, so at least they're ready for action. Secondly I've only recruited Jedi in the field, Bao Dur at Dantooine, Atton at Nar Shadaa, Brianna sure she usually gets recruited on the Ebon Hawk, I think I did Mira at Dxun. The point is you don't go off trapseing around the planet leaving newly recruited anythings just laying around on the Ebon Hawk, you at least take them down the entrance ramp to level them up and equip them.

 

 

Point is I don't actually think either of these issues are genuine game bugs at all. I think they're player nuances, since I've never seen them in game except when I messed up and found out it was me messing up, and especially after installing the bugfixes mentioned in action, which put in bugs, not remove them.

 

My suggestion is looking over the influence walkthrough. Your issue sounds to me like you're not very well exercised in getting your companions influence up and keeping it high. This is easy done unless you carefully choose dialogue options for those characters you want high influence with, remember each one has a different personality and you can't please all your companions (I never get a high influence with Mandalore for example, because I usually play a lightsider and he's a real neutral-head, I'd have to get the occasional dark side point to make him happy and that would lose influence with people like Mira who responds only to 100 good alignment).

[kotorman]

I got the same problem but on the Xbox, I can get my allies to light side and keep them, but when I get them to dark side, they go back to neutral when I save or go to a different location. It's strange.

[HouseOfAmon]

There is a problem with that "influence bug" fix I found. It ties alignments more closely to influence, so that prior to and immediately upon recruitment all companions start off opposite alignment. If you're halfway to becoming a lightsider when you arrive at Citadel station for example, the Handmaiden NPC cutscene will be a black robed DS Handmaiden.

When you first meet Atton Rand at Peragus he is on the first stage DS transition. You have to dialogue and get your influence up to get them neutral in alignment, which isn't much help for watching the Handmaiden run around the Telos Academy with evil face and black robes before she joins your party.

 

You're misreading what's happening.

 

Those aren't bugs, they are by design, I would have added more code to make it a bit more gradual(robust), but, the game simply can't use large scripts, so I had to cut out a bunch of code, which does cause a few off moments, etc,. (ie, instead of having code for each number(1, 2, 3, etc,.), I did something like, 1,5,10, etc,.)

 

I had to make cutbacks in order to keep the script from hanging, since the game will stop any script that takes longer than x seconds to execute, believing it hung.

 

As for the behavior you are talking about...

 

Atton, will gravitate towards the DS due to his past without any influence, he will follow the player with influence.

 

Handmaiden, goes the opposite of the player until you gain influence over her. (Because she doesn't trust you yet, she is driven away from you because she's been taught you were wrong, etc,.)

 

Each characters code was based on their stories, and personalities.

 

(Talking about my code, not the original game code, just to be clear.)

 

There are no bugs, just, scripting limitations, which means the system can't be perfect, which is to be expected when you are fixing an .exe bug, via a limited scripting language. (Especially when it's a system as complex as the alignment\influence system in this game.)

 

A quick example.

 

if (Atton->GetPCInfluence == 1) // Pseudo code..

{

// Do stuff

}

 

There are what, 8-9 characters, I forget, just the if blocks alone will make for nearly 1,000 lines of code if you account for 0-100 influence. Then, add in the actual code to make it account for personalities, etc, and it quickly rockets up to thousands of lines of code. (Like I said, I was forced to use a simpler system than I had wanted.)

 

(That's still not accounting for various factors, like Sith Corruption, etc,.)

 

There's another problem if you combine the "influence bug" fix with its optional "XP bug" fix..

 

I included this mod for compatibility, ie, it conflicts with my mod, it's only included for those who want to fix that issue, and the influence bug. (ie, it's a patch to make the mods work together.)

 

You can see it however you like, some ppl think it's a bug, some don't, but that's common, hence the term "bug or feature", which is where a bug can be seen as feature. (And reverse)

 

Point is I don't actually think either of these issues are genuine game bugs at all. I think they're player nuances, since I've never seen them in game except when I messed up and found out it was me messing up, and especially after installing the bugfixes mentioned in action, which put in bugs, not remove them.

 

I can't speak on the XP bug, but the influence bug, is indeed a game bug. It's caused by various factors, and hard to nail down without source code.

 

Choose to believe whatever you want, but the fact of matter is this.

 

When your stats hit a certain level(I forget what all contributes), characters that are supposed to be 100% evil, will change alignment upon area transitioning becoming 100% good, and characters that are 100% good, will become pure evil, etc,. (Npc's changing alignment on area transition, and drastically, is obviously a bug, nothing players are doing wrong, despite your claims.)

 

You've never seen it, because you've never had the right character setup. (This game is very, very complex, I would wager that most of you, still haven't seen all it's content yet, it's not just light\dark, it's based on influence\alignment\choices, etc,. I still see new content when playing this game, because I work the dialog system, etc, try new things, and experiment rather than doing the same things every time I play.)

 

You admittedly play the game the same way every time, with occasional changes, and that's why you haven't experienced this issue. I've beaten this game over 30+ times, and only had the bug with maybe 10 or so of those playthroughs, but, it was annoying enough to warrant a fix.

 

Mainly because it unequips alignment restricted items every single time you area transition. ie, I got sick of having to redress my characters every time I changed screens. (Not to mention going through the normal method to fix the issue, which is saving\loading the game, before redressing them.)

 

Meh, btw, whats up Holowan, I'm not back yet, just popping in, been getting my Kotor mod collection back together after an HD failure.