Massive TSL Expansion Project

[DuckfromPortal]

So disclaimer: I have never modded or made any stories for a game before. So I don't even know if this is possible or how massive of an undertaking this would be. I have several things I'd like to try over time, and I wanted to know if it was possible, or if anyone has done this already, or if someone would be interested in helping or getting a group together to do this. Here are my notes, hopefully my 'expansion' idea makes sense:

 

Dantooine –

Khoonda is small, seems more like an outpost only, no farms, no military presence other than the militia, there are salvagers, mercenaries, and the Khoonda area, feels like no farmland to speak or any reason to defend it.

 

local changes ideas:

1) I propose changing the modules to separate the mercenary camp is where the other structure (the matales i think) was in Kotor 1 and making it so that the area is accessible through the inaccessible pillar by the Crystal cave (more on that later)

2) With the first idea, we could possibly make it so the salvagers have the original mercenary camp as another camp plus you might be able to have more major salvagers like a leader between the two camps (which we could have voice actors do or have as a wookie or something to make it so we can reuse other lines) or a few buildings (worn down tents or something) to make them look like they actually stay at their camps most of the time, almost mimicking the feeling of desperation (maybe better done) on Nar Shadaa when in the refugee camp.

3) Add an area between the entrance closer to the salvager camp and/or on the other side of the ruined Jedi enclave as a small farming area, maybe Suulru’s farm which he would return to after you help him get his stuff back.

4) Another possible expansion into Dantooine is having the blocked off area near the crystal cave opened up (as suggested earlier), you could have farmland here or a close tiny village with another vender or some people and missions to get some semblance of what you need to protect on Dantooine as well as have the area partially under the control of the mercenaries (and harassed by them) and partially under the militia’s protection (we could still block off the way to the star forge thing or have that as a completely refurbished building without the star-forge map),

5) Maybe an area branching off that where juhuana was(the cathor lady) where a small homestead stands for the padawann after she is found in the ruins of the enclave (which might need a voice over to make work or it could be for someone else, this could also be where Suulru’s house is, but would make a lot less sense when it came to him losing his parts in the first place).

 

If you can imagine how I changed the map, I feel it makes a bit more sense; the mercenaries have a base of operations (and then possibly a camp near there or something as an outpost) as well as their reach would include areas of the Khoonda plains, so that ‘accident’ would make a bit more sense since it’s on the edge of the mercenaries influence area (which then there’s not like only five mercenaries, in the camp making them look stronger), the salvagers wouldn’t be deterred by the established murderous mercenaries since they would be safer from them anyways (I always felt they would have been murdered by the mercenaries because of their proximity to them). The ‘village’ would be under constant threats and would make for some cool defend against mercenaries or ebb away militia influence missions as well as you could have people to recruit there. This would also add to the exploration factor of Dantooine which I felt was lacking.

 

Note: Possible thought of keeping the small camp as an outpost for the mercenaries so their reach is bigger and so they attack from both sides of Khoonda still in a more strategic way (Using their small camp as a outpost or touch down spot before heading to the Eastern Khoonda plains battle).

Certain story changes:

Dantooine had a lackluster story, which is depressing seeing as it’s extremely important in the first game. It is the only place with the joining of Jedi’s in the game, I don’t think much can be done with the story unless the map is changed. I suggest changes in the locations of dantooine to drive home what you are defending. The most defenceable position in Khoonda is that bridge to the west of Khoonda, but then again the other side is problematic when it comes to the defense since it is a large open area, this is a list to change the final battle based on the changes on the top part for location, since story can be slightly changed by doing this.

1) Add a captain (I’m going to call him Captain Holdin) for the outer defense, who is stationed at the small village to the south of Khoonda plains and the crystal caves. (those pillars that are broken that would lead to the star map and the other compound would have to be taken out)

2) Add a person under the Mercenaries (I’ll call him Berry) who is in the command center of the mercenaries, he harasses the villagers while Captain Holdin defends them setting up a sort of back and forth rivalry i feel could be stronger than Zherron and Azkul's since theirs was basically he i'm stronger, no I'm stronger. anyways, Berry and Holdin could have a love/hate relationship where they love to be in conflict with each other. These two characters are together and work to be the ‘other side’ of the battle’s commander since Zherron is the military leader of Khoonda and sending him into battle is not a smart plan.

3) Battle for Khoonda

a. Khoonda militia: Have it so you start farther out from Khoonda for the battle, say at the far east plains and at the far west plains, you set up for a better conflict, fighting waves of enemies and, at first, cutting off reinforcements to the other side (if you are on the east side) once you kill enough waves or what not Captain Holdin calls by comlink and tells you he and his line are crumbling because Dopak and the main leader (I forget his name) are fighting on that side and are better tacticians, he tells you he is retreating and, because of this you are forced to retreat as well, (which now reinforcements can get to him crumbling his line even more) so you have vrook’s line when he says he is going to delay the mercenaries at their camp play over comlink making it seem like he’s helping Holdin and cutting off their reinforcements, Berry and a lot of men are pushing on your side (berry isn’t able to die yet) and after you kill enough, Holdin goes on the comlink again and says Vrooks gone up to their base of operations, but hasn’t slow n the enemy advance enough and that he’s retreating to beyond the bridge to try and bottle neck the enemy and he suggests you get to Khoonda with your men to make sure if he falls back any further that you can get to Khoonda before it’s too late. He maybe states Zherron has taken over command and reinforced his me or something and the Restored content mod battle for Khoonda starts here, so two more battles then you finish the major battle.

b. Mercenary camp, a lot more cut and dry you take the proposed village protected partially by Khoonda militia then you choose the side you want to take and run and get to Khoonda through hordes of enemies, and assault Khoonda and kill those leader people. Adare, Vrook and Zherron would still be in the 'last-stand' part of the battle, maybe have captain Holdin, Vrook, Zherron and Berrun show up in the battle defending the enemy.

4) For the village, add several people, including a shop keep, a few farmers, and several mission people. For the mercenary base do the same thing, except without the farmers, so add a sort of quarter master and some mission soldier people.

5) The Mandalorian Esok should not die or should be able to be spared, (maybe Give a new voice by voice overing, he's the only red mandalorian who was going to be gathered), so have him fall and say he is defeated and have exile step in and say spare him, Mandalores line of I wish not to spill anymore Mandalorian blood would still make sense because he made Esok bleed. Esok could then be in the camp on Dxun with a mission or two.

 

Dxun:

Local changes:

1) Make the jungle a bit bigger so you can explore more, possibly by making another module or two either on the opposite side of the Mandalorian base (which then would have missions triggered for it after you’ve proven yourself to Mandalore) or just added in somewhere

2) More caches and explosives in these new areas, maybe have Mandalorian fighters discovered in a makeshift hanger cache or have a damage mandalorian capital ship (got this idea by browsing through mod ideas I think it was Maltron66's idea initially).

Story changes:

1) Make it so more Mandalorians show up on Dxun after you've gathered the clans.

2) Make some unique Mandalorians with names and special armor similar to Boba and Jenga Fett’s as well as just different in general to the general Mandalorian armor, since three colors and the same suit make the Mandalorians a generic soldier race, which saddens me.

3) Esok showing up and challenging you to a duel after you’ve recruited him for the camp multiple times to toughen himself up.

 

Korriban:

No real complaints other than you can’t save vash no matter what, maybe have it so you ferry someone (or someone shows up after the mission is done) who can set up a small shop afterwards or you are able to land in Dresdae and they have an outpost there or something after the mission (so you can go through that abandoned sith academy later and do the cave, plus shop)

 

Nar Shadaa:

Nar Shadaa is the strongest place in my opinion it’s got plot, it’s got characters being recruited, it’s got droids, it’s got Hk droids, and refugees and more. I feel Nar Shadaa should be the selling point of the game (or this mod at least, I like Dantooine, but Nar Shadaa can be expansive), the biggest level, the most talking characters, the most missions (and assassination missions!)

Local changes

1) Refugee overhaul, they look way too well off for living in desperation, I never felt like they had it tough, maybe take a few of those compartment things out, add more refugees make a certain level of background noise of people talking to each other and some pleas in the background. Have Hussef sitting on the ground as an old man worrying about his people. Have characters have lost or robotic limbs (since these are mostly war-vets or people adversely effected by the war),

2) have the Serrocco controlled areas have cover areas (Like places to duck behind when under fire) and some turrets since they were vets from a battle that’s referenced a lot in the game, have the common tunic-ed soldiers have either broken armor with chinks and dents and wear and tear of everyday life (and that battle), have the armored troops have scars and look more worn themselves but with better equipment, have their leader look different than his men (most annoying thing on Nar Shadaa).

3) For the exchange controlled areas, make them organized, have some trandosians (I think that’s their name) as mock captains with Gommoreans as the common foot soldier (since they are stupid and are manipulated easily by the exchange)have the squishy guy guarded by more than two turrets and two guards, have an alarm go off or something, have the bulk of the exchange going to the main area and have him have guards who can halt you until everything gets there and have squishy boss guy be stronger than his men so he can withhold death until his men get there to make it a more difficult fight. so just make them seem more organized than the Serrocco gang or the refugees.

4) The airspeeder should be able to take you to other areas that are not connected to the main mass of areas, (so have a couple people in the docks apartments who you can talk too or kills to gain access to three or four more areas with assassination missions and a cantina type area or something in one, an area to recruit people for battles ahead (so mercenaries you can have reinforce you on Dantooine, Onderon, Telos or wherever else), an area with another group of mandalorians (since two groups is just not unifying enough for me), and a battle area like the battle circle on Dxun or the arena on Taris.

Story changes:

1) Have the exchange and the huts conflict a bit more or something, since Go-to makes them out as parasites and vogga makes the exchange sound evil, maybe have Voggas me storm the ship with the bounty hunters or something.

 

Onderon:

Onderon is good since it’s a two time visit world, I don’t know, add some soldiers to the battle to make it harder.

 

Peragus/harbinger:

Local changes:

1) Make Harbinger visitable again, abandoned by Sion and broken by the explosions, make it so you have a steady quest ark to repair it and give it back to the republic or use it with the ebon hawk and shuttles in the hanger bay instead of the ebon hawk, Bao-Dur would then be understandably busy and you could gain Npc’s and stuff then. Plus the battle on telos would make more sense on how hk could get to the factory, how you could get to the academy and then back again while your crew held off the sith or whatever

2) Have peragus slightly visitable in attempts to repair it,

Story changes:

1) Ideas?

 

Telos:

Local changes:

1) Make the droid factory bigger and start it at the landing pad to make it so Hk-47 must go through more stuff to shut them down.

Story"

1) Maybe give him a crew member (either his pilot droid, which would have to be someone separate from your team and someone with hk signitures, I suggest the reprogrammed Hk-50 Hk-47 interrogated who would gain a slight voice change and be designated Hk-50b) kreia’s spot

 

2) Hk-47 missions here to pinpoint the factory, make it so hk-47 doesn’t do it during the final conflict unless you force him to by not doing the missions, also to gain a pilot and a shuttle and maybe assassination missions like on Nar Shadaa, no major story changes though

 

That’s all the planets other than the ending planet, which I feel is good. Except the fact that it should allow you to play after the credits, now onto extra planets!

 

Broken Taris: A broken remnant version of the one seen in the first game, reduced to rubble, an under-world and rakghoul outbreaks, the republic has a minimal presence.

Manaan: Some cool stuff could be done that I don’t care about I just want exploration and a less decisive planet selection (since only story planets exist apparently!)

Kysyyk: a couple of follow up missions could be added to either free or enslave wookies fighting or helping cserka all the way.

Tattoine: Exploration, have the areas in the first game open in the second game

Unknown: Have a shuttle ride to an unknown planet where you get to ride in that shuttle module and explore it, maybe any ideas?

 

So just make other planets so it's a larger game and add to the current levels a bit. I think from research on this I would need to learn how to mae modules, reskin characters, implement new characters and VO's as well as possibly adding planets to the galaxy-map I would like to know if all of this would be possible, i feel i have a clear enough outline for what I want to do. If it seems too much for me, (Which it is and I can tell) than tell me and if you the great fans and modders of KOTOR could help form a group, or help with this project with advice at least, that would be extremely helpful.

 

Edit: My computer is broken and I'm in the process of fixing it, this could take up to a month depending on how severe the problem is (I don't know yet what the problem is, it's not initializing properly). Until then, I can't even learn how to mod or start this project, I will keep you guys posted if i fix the problem and/or if this project won't come to fruition in any way shape or form because i can't figure out modding. Thank you for any patience you have towards me and any helpful comments so far you have lent. Hopefully i can find my tool kit and fix it, also using my dad's computer to write this.

Update: My computer will not work, as its a dell i've been expecting it to break down for sometime, i've narrowed it down to the motherboard, but since i need a new one anyways, i'm going to wait until i have money to buy a better tower and build, this may take a while. While this is happening i may update occassionally with ideas and concepts for different things, thank you for any advice given i appreciate it. I'll be back sometime

 

 

UPDATE 2: My mother board is broken, so my brother is setting me up with a new computer soon, maybe within the week. If this happens i probably will start trying to create captain Holdin and captain Berry as npcs on Dantooine, not voiced or anything just placing the two characters

[Canderis]

Taking this all on is a bit of a big bite to chew. More like trying to swallow an orange whole. While possible it would probably kill you to try. Start small is the best advice I can give you. Try and make a single module and see how that goes. Work your way up. Porting is illegal so if you wish to use areas from k1 you'd have to remake them entirely from scratch. Your ideas aren't bad and i am sure it would be a hit if completed but honestly nobody is going to do any real heavy lifting for you, you'd have to do most of it your self. Good luck with your modding endeavors, try cutting up your orange instead of swallowing it whole.

[DuckfromPortal]

Thank you for your kind words, I was intending to start with certain characters such as the captain and Berry and see how that goes, do you know what tools I could use, I hear Kotor tool tossed around a lot, but not much else, or what files i would have to mend?

 

or maybe I could start with stuff like the ebon hawk or something

 

also the kotor tool link doesn't seem to work

 

I found a link to the KOTOR tool but don't know what else I'll need. I now have a rough outline of what I want to start on, I want to start by making:

1) Captain Holdin and Berry with maybe a line each, in their proper areas of Khoonda and the merc camp.

2) Switching the locations of maybe one or two characters on the Ebon Hawk, Mandalore, Mira or G0-T0 are my Ideas for that,

3) Adding something to character models such as just editing a character model or something.

What do you guys suggest for programs to use on this? Are there any others other than Kotor tool and Gimp I'll need? Like I have audacity, but I' don't know if audacity is good for adio if i wanted to add my own audio

[Canderis]

Go through the tutorial section. You'll find what you need and much more.

[DuckfromPortal]

I was sifting through Them and copied down several to try, i'm going to start trying to do modeling stuff first

[Canderis]

http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=157396 is the tutorial I learned to mod from really.

[DuckfromPortal]

thanks i'll read and try to do that one

[Fair Strides 2]

thanks i'll read and try to do that one

 

Also, when using the forums, it's generally a nice idea to keep the threads clean. If you need to add a post and you already did a recent one in that thread, then it's often best to just edit that recent post. You can do so by going to your post and looking in the lower right corner. You'll see a link for "edit".

[maltron66]

Sorry to keep you down, but this mod is literally colossal. It'd take at least a year of constant work and you'd have to get a team to help you out. Not even an experienced modder can achieve that much by himself only.

However, I must admit that your ideas are most interesting.

 

Dantooine:

I like the plot and the way you decided to separate the modules. Here's a suggestion about the mercenaries camp: What if you used elements from modules 232TEL and 403DXN (the mercenary camp outside the old military base in Telos and the Mandalorian camp on Dxun)?

 

Dxun:

Same thing here. I rerally like the ideas of finding the clans you united throughout the game and Esok challenging you.

 

Korriban:

OK now, I must admit, the idea of setting up a shop in that place is a little... weird. Who would want to start business in a place with only Hssis and no intelligent beings? But the idea of the outpost is great.

 

Nar Shadaa:

All those ideas are awesome, but about the prosthetic limbs for the refugees... I think that's a tough model to make.

 

Onderon:

What if the planet was accessible after you face the Jedi Council on Dantooine? Like, someone (Exchange? Bounty Hunters?) has kidnapped a couple of party members and you have to go to a little village outside Iziz, investigate, find and kill the captor(s) and free your missing party members.

 

Peragus:

Fixing the Harbringer? Nice idea, but where and when would all that take place?

 

All in all, some great ideas, but I'll say again that this is very hard to become real...

[DuckfromPortal]

Sorry to keep you down, but this mod is literally colossal. It'd take at least a year of constant work and you'd have to get a team to help you out. Not even an experienced modder can achieve that much by himself only.

However, I must admit that your ideas are most interesting.

 

Dantooine:

I like the plot and the way you decided to separate the modules. Here's a suggestion about the mercenaries camp: What if you used elements from modules 232TEL and 403DXN (the mercenary camp outside the old military base in Telos and the Mandalorian camp on Dxun)?

Edit: So I'm also going to edit this onto my first post as an update: since my computer has died, I can't go further on this, once again I'm using my fathers computer to post this. For now, I will be conceptualizing and updating this as I wait to be able to buy a new pc(that will take a very long time, no money at all right now). I hope that as I spout out new ideas you guys can help out by suggestions, advice on the ideas (since they'll mostly be story ideas), and stuff like that, thank you for your support so far, hopefully i can do something soon

 

Dxun:

Same thing here. I rerally like the ideas of finding the clans you united throughout the game and Esok challenging you.

 

Korriban:

OK now, I must admit, the idea of setting up a shop in that place is a little... weird. Who would want to start business in a place with only Hssis and no intelligent beings? But the idea of the outpost is great.

 

Nar Shadaa:

All those ideas are awesome, but about the prosthetic limbs for the refugees... I think that's a tough model to make.

 

Onderon:

What if the planet was accessible after you face the Jedi Council on Dantooine? Like, someone (Exchange? Bounty Hunters?) has kidnapped a couple of party members and you have to go to a little village outside Iziz, investigate, find and kill the captor(s) and free your missing party members.

 

Peragus:

Fixing the Harbringer? Nice idea, but where and when would all that take place?

 

All in all, some great ideas, but I'll say again that this is very hard to become real...

 

I know its a colossal project, the point of it would be to practice some skills and do it in layers, start with adding a few characters, to learn how to do things then go to bigger things like the adding and subtracting of assets around and then start to building a team showing off the stuff i have.

 

With your comments, thank you, I feel Nar shadaa would be difficult to do and would be saved for last, harbinger would be triggered somehow. probably after you finished your first planet, someone messages you on the middle console in the ebon hawk asking you to investigate it

[DuckfromPortal]

One post

[Christos K]

These are some great ideas but this isn't even something experienced modders undertake.

[Sith Holocron]

I know it's a colossal project, the point of it would be to practice some skills

 

You could practice your skills on smaller projects too but it's your time being spent, not ours. Consult those tutorial threads and best of luck!

[DuckfromPortal]

UPDATE: My mother board is broken, but my brother set me up with a new computer. I will probably start trying to create captain Holdin and captain Berry as npcs on Dantooine, not voiced or anything just placing the two characters, by the end of this month.

 

My plan right now is to do a bit and bob on each planet, maybe a character on each planet. Something like this:

 

Peragus: a survivor in the mines who temporarily joins your party (last thing on my early list, he'll join you until Telos where he'll leave after you are released from house arrest)

 

Harbinger: Add a person in your roommate who is basically a frat guy who temporarily joins your party he either dies before T4 is even gotten or becomes a guy on the ebon hawk, but not a crew member, mentions the Hk droid if so.

 

Telos: add a few tourists who have one liners, make it so batu rem just let you out of your cell for a harder fight,

 

Dantooine: add an early version of Captain's Holdin and Berry with one or two lines of dialogue

 

Nar Shadaa: Add a refugee who yells random things out such as, 'you sorry excuse for a soldier, get off my ship' as if he's a crazy guy

 

Dxun: Add a Mandalorian named dave who stands by the battle circle and talks to you about battle

 

Onderan: Make a person who sells things and calls out things that are going to happen

 

 

Korriban: add two chests and a person who sells things

[DuckfromPortal]

Now that I have a working computer, I was wondering, what planet should i start with for my earliest goals (above) to have the best experience? Either that or would anyone suggest a starting point for me.

[DuckfromPortal]

I booted my computer to make sure i had the game still and it was corrupted, I'm going to re-install it tonight, I had a question after that though, how do you place people? I was briefly looking at that yesterday, but i couldn't figure it out before kotor 2 glitched and broke

[DuckfromPortal]

alright so, i have a hex editor, kotor tool, save game editor and i was wondering once more how to place people, is it something to do with extracting folders such as assassindroid001.bif and then setting it in a new folder in the file area i want it (such as a character on telos or like tel012.bif[i don't think that is a file just an example]) I am just trying to place a dull assassin droid somewhere to see if i can get it there, but i can't seem to figure it out. I've read some totorials, but are there any specifically for placing something/someone somplace or could someone give me advice on how?

 

Also am i missing any of the programs i would need to place something somewhere or any modding programs i need for this in general? i also have gimp,

[Marius Fett]

You should find what you're looking for in either one of these threads, depending on the method you choose to follow:

 

http://lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=185199

 

or

 

http://lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=143536

[DuckfromPortal]

thank you Marius, was the site down yesterday or was that just me?

[DuckfromPortal]

Ok so, I have a none related project I'm doing that's taking up a huge portion of my time, It's my first game and I've got a small team of friends on it, that being said, i probably won't be able to get to this for a long while, If ever I do, I'll post here progress and hopefully screen shots. I'm sorry about this, I want to try this, but my project is something I created out of my head, 100%, not off of some other person universe, so I have to make it to completion, Maybe if it's good I'll post a link

 

Edit: My time is freed up and i have a decent computer, i'll try now to make holdin, hopefully in a few weeks, he'll be done

[DuckfromPortal]

Sorry for no holdin or anything

So, I'm going to soon voice two characters and try (key word try) to find out how to get those files into the game, I don't know if I'll be successful, if so though, I'll update on progress, I am also trying to figure out how to 3d model with blender, since i haven't had any success, i asked my brother to help teach me 3d modeling.

The characters I am hoping to voice are holdin and barry

the simple lines I will be doing are as follows:

 

Holdin

Hello,

Khoonda's nice, Isn't it

I wish dantooine wasn't a part of any disagreement, but then again, mercinaries always cause problems.

I don't like that Barry he doesn't want peace

 

Barry

Hello

I don't like Khoonda, it's so dull

I wish we mercs could get rid of the militia or something, they are a major thorn in our side.

Holdin is a peaceloving coward, I don't like him.

 

Edit, sorry but i realized i should ask what format i should export the audacity files to is it mp3 or wav or what? [iChose Wav]

Edit, Edit: I recorded the line as a Wave file, I'm now going to look through the tutorial to see if i can't find out how to have the lines in the game

[ryanita]

thanks/..... NIce share man....

[DuckfromPortal]

Ok, so I'm trying this again, but specifying and even task to get myself a foot in the door, ( long trims no mention of this for nothing sorry guys) what I want to do is :

1) add a character to the inside of Khonsu, either a normal npc or one I decided to put in there from one of the other planets, I e a refugee from nar shada a

2) figure out how to move them Around, first from point a to b then to a to be to c

3) figure out how to change their name,

 

If anyone would be interested in helping me either message me on this forum or pm me, I have no talent towards this yet and still am trying to wrap my head around t, but I do want to learn to mid this particular game so I can make this mod aimu free time for fun

 

Edit by interested in helping me I mean helping teach me, at least for now not helping with the overall project, that will be my burden