Currently, I'm working on a mod that replaces almost all the members of your party with new and different people.

As you play through the game, you will encounter various characters who will give you the option to replace one party member with another. Since most of your party members are necessary for one thing (such as Mission and T3M4 on Taris), these replacements come after they've fulfilled their necessary function.

What I have so far:

You only really need T3M4 to get you into the Sith base on Taris. After that, you don't actually need him. So, on Dantooine, you can trade him in for a combat droid called 53-XY. (A note on 53-XY: the droid comes in two different models, a male version and a female version. You get to decide which one you want. I'm still working out some bugs with its appearance, though.)

You only need Mission for one point on Taris, and after that I've found her to be completely and utterly useless. Likewise, you only need Zaalbar for the events on Kashyyyk. And me, I feel that GL and Co. really missed the mark with Big Z, so after you complete the quest on Kashyyyk, you can replace Zaalbar and Mission with a wookie named Guraff and a Twi'lek named Tyrelinn. It doesn't matter whether you support Chundar or Zaalbar's father, the option comes either way.

Let's say you replaced T3-M4 with 53-XY and now you realize that having a droid expert is very useful. And now, you're on Tattooine and you've got yourself HK-47 and realize that you don't need two combat droids. Solution? After rescuing the Jawas from the Sand People, go talk to Iziz. If you give him HK-47 (to protect the Jawas), he'll give youthe droid expert you're looking for, a spider droid named H1-N1. By replacing HK-47 at this time and in this manner, it virtually ensures that you'll already have the Chieftain's Gaffi stick (at least, provided you do it in any logical order) and, thus, no longer need HK-47 when you replace him.


All of these replacements are optional. Meaning that just because you have this stuff in your override folder doesn't mean you're going to have these characters in your party. You can pick and choose which ones you want.
Now, once you've recruited someone, you've got them for the duration of the game, but presumably you wouldn't have recruited them if you weren't okay with that.

Still Working On:
* I still need to create replacements for Jolee, Juhani, and Canderous I don't think I can replace Carth or Bastila without altering things beyond the point where they're recognizable.

* Since I'm removing everyone but Carh and Bastila, I'm going to need to find some way of editing cutscenes, especially near the end of the game. I don't know how to do this, though.....

* I need to finish writing dialog for the replacements. I'm only having one issue with that, and that is removing previously selected options from the conversation. After you ask about, say, Guraff's training once, you don't have to do it again. I can't figure out how to remove that option once it's been selected, though.

*Make the official models instead of the hack-job I was doing earlier.

Anyone who can help me out with the second two points (such as pointing me towards the proper tutorial or something) is more than welcomed to do so.

Uhm, I can see some issues with the Leviathan... as for party-replacement, why not make it so that you can swap them in and out as many times as possible? As opposed to simply making it a one shot deal.

OH well, I think you're going to meet some resistance to swapping HK though. :xp:

Yeah, the Leviathan's going to be tricky, as are most plot-related events in the game (see asterisk number 2).

Adding in a way to undo the swaps (and subsequently redo them) might be a good idea. Shouldn't be too difficult to do.

I know what you mean about HK. I swapped him for H1-N1 and started missing him immediately. It's just not really the same without a psychotic killer robot calling everyone a meatbag and urging you to kill.

I was thinking to make it easier, why don't you just redo the character's appearance's.

Keep the names and VOs, but lets say you made T3-M4 into a prob droid.
Carth you can use another NPC look and tweak by reskining.

Ex. What if Carth was Arkanian or another humoid species.

What if Bastila was a Cather and Juhini was human or something else....etc

Logan

H1-N1 must be one sick droid ;) :P

logan23: The reason I don't do that is because I don't want the same party members with a different appearance. That isn't the goal of this mod. The goal is completely new party members. Although it would be easier to give the current party members new appearances, that wouldn't meet my goal.

And DAWUSS: Yes. Yes he is.

Woah, woah, woah, slow down there skippy.
Replace HK-47?
I don't think people'd sit well with that.

Well, that's one of the things about this mod. The option will be offered to you to replace him. You can just refuse to replace him and just carry on as normal while still replacing any of the other party members you want.

Well, that's one of the things about this mod. The option will be offered to you to replace him. You can just refuse to replace him and just carry on as normal while still replacing any of the other party members you want.

True, I guess.

But anyway, I'd like to suggest better endings for the party members that I'll talk about below, also in this WoT I included a possible backstory for the new Wookiee and Twi'lek, seeing as you didn't really mention any, so I just thought I'd give you an idea (SPOILERS AHEAD, GENTLEMEN):
before you leave Taris, T3 could be shot by one of the blasts from the bombardment in the hangar of Davik's Estate, or be sent out onto the hull to make repairs and ends up being blasted, at the end of Kashyyyk, a large amount of Czerka troops could be seen ambushing you just before you board the Ebon Hawk to leave Kashyyyk, you could reuse a sound of Jolee saying "D**n it!" angrily, and have him charge out at the Czerka employees with the three(?) wookiees that were on the pad, providing a distraction, must like Trask's death. You could also have Zaalbar tell you after the fight for Chieftain that he feels the need to go help the fight, followed by a reuse of the sound clip of Mission saying "Where Big Z goes, I go." she then follows him out of the room, and once you board the Hawk, the new wookiee Guraff is aboard, and explains that he saw Zaalbar and his Twi'lek friend on a walkway, going towards a battle after finishing off a fight with Czerka employees, but the Walkway they were on had been bombed by a fleeing Czerka ship, and he had came to the Ebon Hawk, as he felt the need to help the man/woman that had freed them, afterwards, he joins the party.
Also on Kashyyyk would be Tyrelinn, as a Czerka employee, when you first talk to her (She is a female, right?) , she tries to be as rude as the other employees, and does a poor job of it, she gives it up and explains that she just can't be mean, and after gaining her friendship, she explains she had used to live in a small settlement on Corellia, which had been found to have a large amount of Cortosis Ore in a nearby cave, and what followed was of course, a Czerka establishment in the small town, in an attempt to gather it to make more Cortosis Vibroblades, and the excavation teams sent there found a pack of datapads, reading the datapads, they found out that her family members had been part of a gang that had been terrorizing the town, while wearing masks to conceal who they were, the gang had been thinning down from due to the town installing new defenses and hiring Mercs to deal with them, and the gang ended up having to disband, partly because of their now small numbers, as well as realizing from the deaths of their fellow gang members that what they had been doing was wrong, how badly it had hurt peoples friends and families when they killed people, however, in the earlier pads, it was explained they couldn't let Tyrelinn know about it because she wouldn't have the guts to do crime, and would end up reporting who they were out of her morals, so Czerka used all this info to blackmail her and her family into working for them, or else they would give the info to the officials, most likely getting them all to be jailed, kicked out from the settlement, or executed, so due to having no choice, she accepted.
However, she ended up being terrible at gathering the Cortosis, and was transferred to Kashyyyk, and she couldn't quit there and walk away, because Czerka would just tell the now bustling settlement of her family, which would cause them to send the mercs hunting for her and her family.
After you finish Kashyyk and go to another planet, you find her stowing away in the cargo hold, she explains, scared for her life, that she never wanted to do the things Czerka made her do, and didn't want to die because of it, nor could she fight against the wookiees.
Guraff then walks into the hold, and in a suprised anger, nearly chokes Tyrelinn to death, you quickly explain she isn't against you or him, he lets her go, you explain shortly why she's there, and Guraff agrees not to harm her, grudgingly, then leaves the room, and in the end, Tyrelinn is broke, homeless, and has nowhere to go, and, out of options, decides to join you on your quest to stop the Sith.
For a while Guraff is wary of her, distrusts her, and puts down her opinions on matters, however, she later explains in full detail to Guraff why she worked for Czerka, and the blackmailing, of course this isn't shown to you, but Guraff confronts you about this and tells you he is sorry for being such a nuisance, and that he now understands that Tyrelinn was just as he: a Slave.
After this point they become friends and react positively towards each other.
Later you encounter one of the residents from the very settlement on any of the planets, they remark that last they'd heard of her family was them being brought to Tatooine to work in with the miners there.
Afterwards Tyrelinn begs you to take her there and help free her family from Czerka's clutches, once you get there, you learn they have info about them in their computer logs by an overheard conversation from two of the escaped Czerka officers from Kashyyyk talking about the battle that happened there, and off-hand mentions that they'll probably end up being the ones assigned to editing mention of her out of the system with all the luck they've had recently. This of course means you must delete the systems memory of them to keep the word from getting out, but you can't just waltz in there and delete info without being blasted to death. So you have no choice but to go about things normally in the game to get the Hunting License, and after you do, you find a few dead Czerka and the live Czerka by the sandcrawler in the desert like normally and can pick the ID Cards and outfits from their bodies. You go can then walk through the Czerka building without getting caught up until you reach the system, which has a guard behind a desk, who says he needs your ID, you hand him this, and he scans it in, notices you and your companion look nothing like the ones in the pictures, asks who you are, and quickly calls for guards.
You kill him and head into the room, and delete the info, but you also notice that they've all been imprisoned for snapping and trying to kill Czerka officers. You fight your way to the jail cells, and free them. Tyrelinn then confronts them about the gang they were in, and after a short argument, you all head out of the room, but guess who's there? The very man who blackmailed Tyrelinn with a group of Czerka employees. After a quick conversation between them he states that he'll enjoy gutting you, Tyrelinn, and her family, and the fight begins, with Tyrelinn's family helping. After you presumably defeat them you all escape, afterwords you have the choice of letting the family just go on their own, or you can give them 100 credits to start over, they thank you for what you've done and ask Tyrelinn if she wants to go with them, she refuses, saying that without you in her life, she'd still be living on Kashyyyk, working for Czerka, and for all that, she owes you her help, you ask her if she is sure, to which she says she's positive, then you go off to the rest of the game with her assistance.

That's just a suggestion though, and I have an idea for a replacement for Jolee, but I'm gonna put that in later, because I'm done with story telling right now.

Wow.....that's very nicely detailed. I almost regret to tell you that I have some through backstory for all these characters; especially for Tyrelinn (who, actually, is male. It is a rather feminine name, I'll admit. I usually just call him Ty or Tyrel in my head, so I'll give some thought to changing his full name in the game) and Guraff. Right now, I'm just worried about the mechanics of the mod. I was planning on posting more specific information about the individual stories of the characters later, but if you're eager for that info, I can put it up now.

An update on this, I've figured out replacements for the remaining party members.

Juhani Replacement: On Korriban, you will have the option to recruit Samrus, a Dark Jedi (Guardian) who wants to kill Malak and take his place. The recruitment offer comes from Adrenas, who will introduce Samrus to you as a full Sith who he thinks you could learn much from. There aren't any problems if Juhani is dead. If she is alive, she will refuse to remain with you after you have recruited Samrus for fear that having a Sith around all the time will drag her to the Dark Side again.

Canderous Replacement: On Manaan, Hulas will offer to send a Genoharradan assassin with you to more directly monitor you. This is a woman named Jayla who is a member of the guild and one of their elite assassins. Not only will she monitor your activities for Hulas (the reason he gives is just because he wants to see how you perform but the real reason is that he wants to have someone to make sure you don't discover what he's really up to), she will help you in your fight against Malak. In exchange for this aid, though, Hulas wants to 'borrow' Canderous, who he also thinks might be a useful recruit into the guild. (And seeing as Canderous becomes Mandalore in TSL, he's definitely got the skills). Since Canderous would need to be tested and trained separately from you, he will leave your party at this point and be replaced by Jayla.

Jolee Replacement: On Manaan, after you prove that the Sith are corrupting Selkath youths, talk to the head judge. He will tell you that there is a Selkath Jedi (Consular) named Nilsha who is interested in joining up with you. Jolee will decide three things. 1.) He's not quite so physically prepared to run around the galaxy as he thought he was. 2.) The Manaan situation is interesting, and the fact that they're neutral in the war appeals to him, since he is also pretty neutral. And 3.) It's not a bad place to retire, so he's decided to hang around there for a while, though if you miss him, you're free to look him up and he'll join your party again. In the mean time, Nilsha will take his place.


Also, I've added in a bit where you aren't required to get rid of HK-47, since I've been told repeatedly that people just can't live without him. Now, you can trade HK-47 to Iziz to get H1-N1 (who I'm trying to equip with some sort of droid weapon that will have the same effect as the Contagion force power) or you can trade T3-M4; assuming you still have T3-M4. Likewise, you can trade HK-47 or T3-M4 to the merchant on Dantooine to get 53-XY. If you want both of the new droids, you'll have to say goodbye to HK-47. I also am in the process of writing in a clause where you can trade back. By talking to the people who gave you the new party members in the first place (the merchant whose name escapes me, Iziz the Jawa, and the others), you can switch back to your previous party member.

I'm just wondering, will you give a romance option for any of the characters? KOTOR just isn't KOTOR without a bit of romance. ;)

Edit: Also, I forgot to mention, I'd personally make Tyrelinn a girl. Not only does the name sound like a feminine name, but it would also keep the guy-girl ratio balanced in the party. Besides, Twi'lek girls seem more likely to be slaves than Twi'lek guys.

That sounds great but then I have a question but: Do you want the newly set to voice or anything, they remain without a voice?

That sounds great but then I have a question but: Do you want the newly set to voice or anything, they remain without a voice?

Ditto, though you can get by with just alien vo's for everyone but Samrus and Jayla, unless they're aliens also.

JuniorModder

Jolee Replacement: On Manaan, after you prove that the Sith are corrupting Selkath youths, talk to the head judge. He will tell you that there is a Selkath Jedi (Consular) named Nilsha who is interested in joining up with you. Jolee will decide three things. 1.) He's not quite so physically prepared to run around the galaxy as he thought he was. 2.) The Manaan situation is interesting, and the fact that they're neutral in the war appeals to him, since he is also pretty neutral. And 3.) It's not a bad place to retire, so he's decided to hang around there for a while, though if you miss him, you're free to look him up and he'll join your party again. In the mean time, Nilsha will take his place.


The thing with Selkaths are that they don't have any combat animations, at least none for melee weapons. So unless you plan to make this selkath unable to use any melee weaponry, you won't be able to do it.

I don't even think Selkath have the "cast" animation, for any force powers...

The thing with Selkaths are that they don't have any combat animations, at least none for melee weapons. So unless you plan to make this selkath unable to use any melee weaponry, you won't be able to do it.

I don't even think Selkath have the "cast" animation, for any force powers...

You might be able to give the Selkath specialty with melee weapons, or unarmed.

HandoKinral at kotorfiles made a recruitable Selkath here. (http://sites.google.com/site/thenewjediordermod/) Maybe you can look at some of the things that he did to help your mod.

JuniorModder

this is a good idea in theory i hope it holds up when you make it

Ditto, though you can get by with just alien vo's for everyone but Samrus and Jayla, unless they're aliens also.

JuniorModder

Personally, I have a whole lot of trouble getting excited about people without voices, so all of the new party members will have voices and, as JuniorModder suggested, I'm going with alien voices. Samrus is, for the moment, a Twi'kek, but I don't want to be too heavy on that species, so I might change him. Jayla is a human, but she only speaks Rodian (she was adopted and raised by Hulas. She understands Basic but doesn't speak it very well. All of this she will explain to you during the game). If that seems a bit too far fetched, though, I can always swap her for some other type of alien.

I'm planning to put in a romance option. Wookies are just too sexy to resist.

I didn't know the Selkath didn't have the necessary combat animations (I haven't tested out Nilsha yet). Thanks for the heads up. I'll check out HandoKinral's mod, though it's likely I'll just end up swapping Nilsha for a different race, and probably changing how and where he's recruited.

Personally, I have a whole lot of trouble getting excited about people without voices, so all of the new party members will have voices and, as JuniorModder suggested, I'm going with alien voices. Samrus is, for the moment, a Twi'kek, but I don't want to be too heavy on that species, so I might change him. Jayla is a human, but she only speaks Rodian (she was adopted and raised by Hulas. She understands Basic but doesn't speak it very well. All of this she will explain to you during the game). If that seems a bit too far fetched, though, I can always swap her for some other type of alien.

I'm planning to put in a romance option. Wookies are just too sexy to resist.

I didn't know the Selkath didn't have the necessary combat animations (I haven't tested out Nilsha yet). Thanks for the heads up. I'll check out HandoKinral's mod, though it's likely I'll just end up swapping Nilsha for a different race, and probably changing how and where he's recruited.

Might I suggest Devaronian (though I' not sure if he's in kotor 1), Duros, or Bith? I think they have the proper animations for combat. ;)

JuniorModder

Might I suggest Devaronian (though I' not sure if he's in kotor 1), Duros, or Bith? I think they have the proper animations for combat. ;)

JuniorModder

Fairly certain KOTOR I doesn't have a Devaronian. I can see a Bith as a Jedi Consular; what, with the giant head and all.

Haven't checked in a while, but I doubt that the Bith has combat animations either.

If you don't see the model you want to use use a specific animation (fighting, using force powers...), its unlikely that they animated that model for that. I don't recall seeing a Bith using a lightsaber, casting, or doing anything other than talk or play their little instruments, so I doubt they have the right animations.

A duros might have the right animations for the job, but I'm not sure. I don't usually work with them.

^ I once made a Bith disguise and it had most if not all of the animations. Don't most of the humanoid models have the animations needed?

I would like the idea of using a Bith for a Jedi Councilor.

Just took the Bith for a test run and it does, in fact, seem to have the necessary animations.

Unfortunately, I'm encountering far more difficulty than I should be in altering the Bith's appearance. It seems that no matter what I do to Appearance.2da, I can't get him to wear anything other than the Bith clothes. If I can't find a way to fix that problem, I'm going to have to scrap the Bith idea and go with something else entirely.

Personally, I have a whole lot of trouble getting excited about people without voices, so all of the new party members will have voices and, as JuniorModder suggested, I'm going with alien voices. Samrus is, for the moment, a Twi'kek, but I don't want to be too heavy on that species, so I might change him. Jayla is a human, but she only speaks Rodian (she was adopted and raised by Hulas. She understands Basic but doesn't speak it very well. All of this she will explain to you during the game). If that seems a bit too far fetched, though, I can always swap her for some other type of alien.
Well, if you have one of Zero G's Vocaloid programs, you might be able to create voices for this mod.(Zero G is a software company that creates sound creation software packages)

If you are on Korriban to get a new character, how about Massasi or Kissai? The Sith species. Red skinned humanoids with glowing yellow eyes, pointed teeth, and so on.

Just took the Bith for a test run and it does, in fact, seem to have the necessary animations.

Unfortunately, I'm encountering far more difficulty than I should be in altering the Bith's appearance. It seems that no matter what I do to Appearance.2da, I can't get him to wear anything other than the Bith clothes. If I can't find a way to fix that problem, I'm going to have to scrap the Bith idea and go with something else entirely.

The Bith model is just one model. The PC and party models use head and body models. When you change clothes you swap body models. Since the Bith is one model, its only got one appearance. You can reskin it, but anything more would be complicated.

The Bith model is just one model. The PC and party models use head and body models. When you change clothes you swap body models. Since the Bith is one model, its only got one appearance. You can reskin it, but anything more would be complicated.

Anyone other than Humans (excluding low-res and children), Twi'leks, and Devaronians are full body models.

Thanks for the info on the Bith et. al. Reskinning wouldn't really serve my purpose all that well, so I suppose I'll just have to think of something else.

I'll fiddle around with the Massasi and Kissai and let you know how that goes.

If you do go with Massasi and Kissai: The soldier body would be best for Massasi, since they were the soldiers and shocktroopers of the Sith species and were fairly large. The Kissai were the preists and ruling class and were smaller than the Massasi.

I've been toying around with making Masssasi and Kissai.

Also, I'm flirting with the idea of reskinning Malak into a Massassi, though I'm not sure quite how that'd look. Gammorrean is probably closer to the actual build, but I'm sure they're full-body models.

It's easy enough to make simple humanoid aliens (Mirialan, Zeltron, Rattataki, Chiss, Wroonian, etc) by changing the skin colour of a head texture. That way, you'd still be able to use all the standard body models.

If you decide to use a single body alien, there are several that have decent value as playable characters. Bith, Duro, Rodian, Trandoshan, Aqualish, Nikto, and Sand People (male & female) have most (if not all) of the required animations. Yoda species is missing some attack anims, but for the most part it is workable. I can't remember if the spaceman model (called an Iridonian in-game) has all of them, but it didn't crash when I used it as a playable character.

The downfall of using a single body model, as others have pointed out, is that they only have one change of clothes. However, it is possible to make a new tga file for every armour and robe in the game (about 52), specifically for that one character. It is a LONG process though, so not many people try it. I only did it once (male Sand Person), and it took way too long for me to want to try it again.

The ones that aren't very good for playable aliens are Gamorrean, Ithorian, Jawa, Rakata, Selkath, Quarren, Chadra-fan & Gran.

If you wanna see the possiblities, check out my completed mods (http://www.lucasforums.com/showpost.php?p=2390043&postcount=1).

Good Luck :)

Thanks for the tips, redrob. I'm going to steer clear of full body models. Those simple humanoids you mentioned offer a lot of possibilities.

I also really liked the look of your lizards. I've always been a fan of the Falleen (Prince Xizor FTW), and although yours aren't the same thing, it's about as close as I've ever seen.

I'm considering changing Samrus into a Massassi (since we've already got a Twi'lek in Tyrelinn), but I think that might lead to a continuity error: were there Massassi floating around at the time of the first KOTOR game? I was under the (possibly mistaken) impression that they were gone from known space by that time.

I'm toying around with changing Nilsha into a Cathar and possibly changing the gender to female. And Jayla is getting remodeled into a Chiss.

You could have one be a Massassi who kept himself hidden and survived any conflicts that arose. I would like the idea of a Massassi in-game.

IF, and a big if, the Emperor from the MMO The Old Republic is in fact Ludo Kressh, there is that Kissai. Ludo is or was Kissai. IIRC some of the Massassi and Kissai who followed Exar Kun broke and headed off to Ziost before the torching of Yavin IV. The Sith species didn't die off until later.

I think Revan pretty much put an end to the Taung species(better known as the Mandalorian species) when he killed Mandalore at the end of the Mandalorian Wars. There might be a few left, but not many.

What about a small group of Massassi who have lived hidden on Korriban as an honor guard, watching over the resting place of King Adas? Said tomb was recently discovered by Malak, who raided it of anything interesting and killed most of the Massassi guards, Samrus (might need to change his name) being the only survivor. Now, he wants to kill Malak in vengeance.

Well, some of the Massassi had turned against the Sith Lords and want to wipe out the Sith Lords/Sith for using/enslaving their species AND the Jedi for banishing the Sith Lords in the first place instead of dealing with them.

Okay all, here's the official lineup for your new party:

Bastila (Human) - Jedi Sentinel
Carth (Human) - Soldier
Jayla (Female Chiss) - GenoHaradan Assassin (Scoundrel) - Replaces Canderous
Samrus (Male Massassi) - Jedi Guardian - Replaces Juhani
H1-N1 (Spider droid) - Expert/Technician Droid - Replaces HK-47 or T3-M4
Guraff (Male Wookie) - Soldier - Replaces Zaalbar
Tyrelinn (Male Twi'lek) - Scout - Replaces Mission
Nilsha (Female Lorridian) - Jedi Consular - Replaces Jolee
*53-XY (Droid) - Combat Droid - Replaces T3-M4

*53-XY is also available in a much more feminine looking form called 53-XX

I still need to do some fine-tuning on Samrus' head (he doesn't have the necessary tentacle/beard thing), but aside from that I've got the skinning and modeling done. Dialog writing is going fine, but I still don't know how I'd go about removing options from the conversation if you've already selected them (I believe it would involve adding/changing local booleans on/in the dialog nodes, but I know nothing about doing that). I need to take care of some stray dialog. And I need to learn how to edit cutscenes, which I have no idea how to do.

So, as always, if anyone has any suggestions or information on how to solve my current problems, you're encouraged to speak up.

EDIT: Here's a nice little image for you:
http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/9243/party.png)

Top row from left to right: Samrus, Guraff, 53-XY, 53-XX
Bottom Row from left to right: Nilsha, H1-N1, Jayla, Tyrelinn