I've been thinking about replacing the default armor Republic soldiers wear in KotOR with a heavy suit of armor (one that's in the game already - texture changes come later). They've always seemed fairly wimpy, if you will, in the puzzlingly light protective gear they wear. I'm assuming this is easy to do? Extracting stuff from somewhere and altering its details with KotOR Tool, according to a guy I asked.
If it is, what must I do?
There are really two ways you can go about doing this.
#1: You can change the Republic Soldiers information in their respective slots in the "appearance.2da" file. You'll see there are a few columns that begin with "N_Repsold" (NPC Republic Soldier). Change the "Model" cells to the armor model you want. Then, change the "Texture" cells to the texture that you want. The names you put into the cells correspond to the names of the files in your override.
#2. You can extract the heavy armor files and skins and re-name them whatever the Republic soldier's files are named. The model should be "N_Repsold" and the texture "N_Repsold01".
I would choose option #2 to avoid incompatibilities with other .2da files from different mods though. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Thanks, Dak. I'm very much a lore guy, so changing what armor Republic soldiers wear is a much harder decision than it would seem, since it pretty much mutilates what they wear according to canon. Damn BioWare and their weird uniforms. :( Minor changes, like placing the Emblem of the Republic onto the armor plate, I justify by telling myself thousands of years is a long time, and small alterations never hurt - maybe they just weren't documented. :P
1) What about arming all the soldiers that aren't alreading armed in parts of the game? Would I have to check each module's character list and individually add weapons to them?
2) More importantly, if I do change the armor, will all the Republic soldiers still wear their helmets? I'm assuming it's a separate item, so they will, but I'm just making sure.
Now to find the Republic officers' uniform. Lol.
If you want to stick with the Republic color scheme, you could ask RedRob41 for permission to use his Combat Suit Uniforms (
http://knightsoftheoldrepublic.filefront.com/file/Combat_Suit_Uniforms;99376).
The Combat Suit is a nice notch up from the default uniform, and RedRob's skins are some of the best on the web.
Just be sure to get his permission before you do anything. ;)
1) What about arming all the soldiers that aren't alreading armed in parts of the game? Would I have to check each module's character list and individually add weapons to them?
Yes sir, that should be exactly what you do, though I've never tried myself.
2) More importantly, if I do change the armor, will all the Republic soldiers still wear their helmets? I'm assuming it's a separate item, so they will, but I'm just making sure.
Right, but the helmet isn't an item, it's actually part of the head. So if you don't want the helmet, you would have to change the heads of the soldiers.
Now to find the Republic officers' uniform. Lol.
Try "N_RepOff" ;) - the Republic is my favorite too, so I mess around with them a lot. I'm going to make some Republic armors for a mod I'm making that's coming up, so if you want to use them that'd be fine. Or I would be happy to include yours in my mod if you want.
But I definitely second JB above, RedRob's work is always top-notch!
Yes sir, that should be exactly what you do, though I've never tried myself.
Their armor looks too light and bare - maybe a sizable blaster for each one of them will push them up the manliness scale. :P
Right, but the helmet isn't an item, it's actually part of the head. So if you don't want the helmet, you would have to change the heads of the soldiers.
Yeah, I just extracted the textures and saw. I wonder why BioWare chose to do it that way.
Try "N_RepOff" ;) - the Republic is my favorite too, so I mess around with them a lot. I'm going to make some Republic armors for a mod I'm making that's coming up, so if you want to use them that'd be fine. Or I would be happy to include yours in my mod if you want.
But I definitely second JB above, RedRob's work is always top-notch!
I've spent the last three days hyperactively downloading every single Photoshop and 3D modeling basics tutorial I can find - hundreds of them. I draw, but I've never actually dabbled in even the most basic of, for example, texturing. You're an experienced modder, so it'll be great to see the gear you make. Until I get better at this, I won't be releasing anytihing - death by humiliation isn't what I had in mind for the summer. :P
And yeah, I think it was RedRob that made Bendak Starkiller's armor, right? That suit was just awesome.