Greetings! I've just booted up a new copy of KOTOR, but I've very quickly run across a problem. None of the faces look decent. I got to thinking and figured it'd be a good idea to add some variety not just to that, but to other things. However, I'm not sure which mods do what exactly - many of the preview pics provided are broken now, and many descriptions weren't too specific.

Currently what I'm looking for is:
--a much wider selection of face types/portraits for both male and female
--wide selection of additional armor/clothing types/styles (just for show, really. I don't expect any items that'd make it easier or harder, just the same stuff with a wider variety of models for them would be nice)
--Wider selection of weapons and/or weapon styles.
--Some way to change the annoying level cap. I've played this on a friend's Xbox before and remember hitting the cap before beating the game. That is NOT something I want to have happen without a ton of grinding, to be honest. If there's a way to separate the Jedi and base classes, that'd be great! By five or ten would be enough, I think, just enough to not hit the cap by endgame. Postgame mods I'll get later are a different story...

Now, I'm not asking for the best of whatever year, just whatever y'all personally think would give the widest variety for play. No point in donning that new armor if it clashes with the rest of the outfit IMO... Any suggestions as to which mod threads I should check out for which category?

http://knightsoftheoldrepublic.filefront.com/)

Try that site. Just have a browse. There is some awesome stuff on there.

http://knightsoftheoldrepublic.filefront.com/file/Customized_Mandalorian_Armor_Pack;117387)

That's one of mine. Just adds a couple of new Mandalorian Armour.

Hmm... most of those seem to be single additions, though... Are there any collections you know of? I know when I got some mods for Neverwinter Nights they had packs that added quite a bit of flavor, in addition to the ones that just added one or two things.

Edit: Oh wow, found some more stuff, but... it looks like it's usually an overwrite or something. Is there something about KOTOR that prevents large packs of new faces and stuff?

Most mods that you will come across for KotOR and KotOR II will use the Override folder, which, to my understanding, is a folder in directories of those games (in TSL's case, you sometimes need to create it yourself) whose purpose is just that: to contain files that are meant to override the usual, vanilla ones. It's convenient, in a way, since it allows mods to be installed most of the time without the need to outright replace the original files. So, if you have a mod installed that you don't want in there anymore, all that you have to do is remove its files from the Override folder.

That said, rest assured that nothing is really overwritten...just superseded or modified.

Regarding your requests, for KotOR, you won't find many head or armour packs. Not on KotorFiles, anyway. But I am more the type that leans toward story mods, so I haven't looked very hard.

Nevertheless, there are still plenty of mods for additional heads and/or armours; you just need to get them individually.

Weapons, on the other hand, might be a different story. There is Weapons of the Old Republic, which makes a lot of the weapons in the game unique.

As for the level cap, that is a question that I, myself, asked Holowan a long time ago, and, to my understanding, such is one element of the game that is impossible to modify. I can't remember exactly why that is...a modder could tell you more. Sorry. :(

redrob41 made some impressive playable alien-pc's for kotor1:
http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=198756)
there are lot's more for k1 and k2 at filefront.

as far as I understand, a lot of kotor-modders are fairly strict with their rights of their mods, so this might be a reason, why there aren't big mod-packs.
also, there is a tremendous amount of all kinds of mods. a package would pretty certainly inlude some unwanted stuff for everybody as well als leave out some wanted stuff.

sadly you might run into the problem of finding multiple mods that conflict with each other, check that in andvance in any way (it's just a drag when you find out in the middle of your game, that it's broken because of some conflicting mods).

now, I'm really not sure but I thought having read on multiple spots, that there are mods (maybe just planned ones) that raise the level-cap, but as Gatherum said you'd have to get a professional modder's opinion on that.
I never reached the level-cap in kotor, but lot's of mods that add content make you level up more (because there are mor quests, enemies, ect.).

@Gathy: Oh, I'm well aware of the Override folder. Like I said, I've gotten mods for other games too. Neverwinter nights, for example, has quite a few nice mods which wind up ADDING things as well, such as Kaedrin's Class Pack. What it does is expand on other files, rather than just replacing them.

I've noticed that there's more story mods than cosmetic mods, which to me is really unfortunate. One thing wRPG makers are known for is making really fugly models and portraits. This usually results in modders making faces that don't suck from what I've seen -- both my Morrowind and Neverwinter Nights games have mods like that, so I figured that Kotor would have it as well, especially given how old it is. In fact, I expected there to be TONS more then what I've seen... maybe the game is difficult to mod?

@Bob: The whole problem I have with single mods is exactly what you said - they often wind up overlapping and causing problems. As such, I prefer 'mod packs' rather than just single mods, where the kinks are fixed. They're usually done by one or two people, and are more like collections of their single releases. I'd expected to see something like that, but the most of what I've seen is five or six or so, in what looks like a single release, not an author's collection or something.

As such, this led me to suspect that the way kotor handles certain files may be different - instead of hosting the data in one file, it could just look up several files. Thus, forcing overwrites and disabling expansions for certain things... I hope I'm wrong about that, though.

Raising the level cap is something I'm really looking forward to if I can get it, ESPECIALLY for post game mods. It's no fun just doing quests if there's little to no reward anymore. Of course, by then, I do hope to get new content for the game as well, so maybe new equipment in the story mods can make it worth it.

Edit: Good lord, why are female head skins so hard to find? Not only that, I can't find a single blond, either. While that's fine for my scientist, my smuggler is a blond. Loving the male heads, though, will work well for my sentinel.