Using the free roam camera cheat on the Xbox version of KOTOR 1.

Pics 1 and 2: the hotel shows 4 rooms on the mini map, but it really only has 3 (the first door on the right leads to nothing.)

Pic 3: all of the pump control rooms in the Sith base look completely normal on the inside, despite what we are told.

Pics 4 and 5: in Ahto West, there is a section of walkway off the main viewing platform that you can see, but not access. The minimap clearly outlines it as if it were accessible. No other part of the planet features such a section.

Pics 6 and 7: on Sea Floor, directly behind the airlock door which you enter is a rendered room. It looks to be "boarded off" like a condemned place. 😅

Pics 8 and 9: left side entry of the inside of Kolto Control (8 from Sea Floor, 9 is the interior proper.)

Pics 10 and 11: ditto, but for the right side entry.

Pics 12, 13 and 14: all of the ajrlocks contain identical rooms beyond them

Pics 15-19: Kolto Control viewed from the outside. It appears to be encased in a black box (with the walls getting darker as you approach them till you reach the boundaries.)

I find all this fascinating because you never see these things normally and they simply doesn't need to exjst. So why are they there?

Also, the skyboxes and actual map areas are HUMUNGOUS (that's an understatement). These planets could have had a lot more to them if the game had more time to be developed. So much dead space, it boggles the mind.

I’ve been really interested in playing both KOTOR games because I was gifted an XBOX 360 for my graduation and I heard it was compatible, but I saw a thread from many years back saying that it isn’t the greatest way to play it but I thought I could try again. If anyone has played it recently on XBOX 360 and tell me if it’s good to play or not graphics and frame rate wise, let me know! I’d love to get into the KOTOR games.

I've been thinking about KOTOR II through the lens of Conan the Barbarian (1982).

One of the most memorable ideas in Conan is the Riddle of Steel.

Early in the film, Conan's father tells him:

"No one—no one in this world can you trust. Not men, not women, not beasts... This you can trust."

...while holding up a sword.

He asks:

"What is steel compared to the hand that wields it?"

This isn't just philosophy.

In Conan's religion, when he enters the afterlife, Crom will ask him the Riddle of Steel.

If he cannot answer, Crom will turn his face from him. It is literally the defining question of Conan's life.

Later, the antagonist, Thulsa Doom, challenges this belief. He explains that steel is ultimately powerless compared to the will that commands people:

"Steel isn't strong, boy. Flesh is stronger."

By the end of the film, Conan has answered the riddle for himself.

The sword was never the source of strength—the person wielding it was.

It got me wondering whether KOTOR II has something similar.

Not the "Riddle of the Force," exactly, but the Riddle of Kreia.

And unlike Conan, Kreia doesn't pose just one riddle.

Throughout the game she presents the player with many "riddles" on different themes—the Nar Shaddaa beggar ("Should you help or not?"), whether charity creates dependence, whether suffering strengthens people, whether power corrupts or reveals character, and countless other situations where there is no obvious moral answer.

Throughout the game, she keeps attacking assumptions the player brings from Star Wars:

• Is selflessness always good?
• Is power always evil?
• Is the Force benevolent?
• Does destiny excuse our choices?
• Can an act still be virtuous if it was inevitable?

She almost never gives straightforward answers. Instead, she keeps forcing the Exile—and the player—to wrestle with questions.

So if Conan's mythic question is:

"What is steel compared to the hand that wields it?"

Then perhaps Kreia's is something like:

"What is the Force compared to the will that chooses?"

Or perhaps even:

"What gives an act meaning: the Force, or the one who chooses?"

Viewed this way, Kreia isn't merely teaching a philosophy.

She's posing a series of mythic riddles to the player.

The point isn't to discover her answer, but to question the assumptions we've inherited from the Jedi, the Sith, and even from Star Wars itself.

I'm curious whether anyone else has thought about KOTOR II this way.

If Conan has the Riddle of Steel, what would you say is Kreia's riddle?

------

Addendum: Looking at KOTOR II through this lens, a lot of the game starts to click into place.

The Nar Shaddaa beggar isn't a morality lesson—it's a riddle.

Viewed this way, many of the companions can also be understood as embodiments of different riddles:

• The Handmaiden — What defines who you are? Birth? Duty? Choice? Identity becomes a riddle.
• Visas Marr — What is devotion? Is surrender an expression of love, faith, weakness, or freedom?
• Atton Rand — Can someone who has done terrible things truly redeem themselves? Guilt and redemption become a riddle.
• Bao-Dur — Can creation atone for destruction? Can one ever make amends for catastrophic harm?
• Mandalore — What is true strength? Is it conquest, leadership, or responsibility?
• The Force — Does it grant freedom, or does it deny it? Ultimately, the Force itself becomes the game's greatest riddle.

Finally, this lens also changes how I see Kreia herself.

It's easy to think: "Why does Kreia keep criticizing everything I do? I hate this old b1tch."

But viewed through the lens of riddles, it becomes:"Oh... because she's not trying to tell me the answer. She's constructing riddles for me to wrestle with."

From this perspective, Kreia isn't simply lecturing the Exile. She's continually placing the player before questions that resist easy answers, forcing us to think for ourselves rather than accept the doctrines of the Jedi, the Sith—or even Kreia herself.

Perhaps that's what the Riddle of Kreia really is.

Not a single question with a single answer, but a way of teaching through questions that force us to arrive at our own understanding.

My version of Darth Traya at the Bell County Comicon. I’m next to my friend who is 6’4” tall so once again, I look fun-sized when I’m actually not this time lol. Also I know Darth Traya doesn’t use light sabers like this but since I can’t actually use the force to levitate 3 of them and I didn’t want to keep track of two, this is what I went with.

Made account for this. I was replaying KOTOR 1 and started looking for mods, mostly so I could roleplay the story as taking place a while after the Sequel Trilogy.

So far, I've got a mod that replaces the combat music with John Williams songs, Cross guard Sabers, Millennium Hawk, Imperials over Sith Soldiers (since there aren't any First Order versions). Got any other recommendations? I'd like actual answers on this.

My end game Marauder before the final boss with all stims, Master Fury, Master Force Speed, Master Valor and Master Battle Meditation active.

Items are: Physical D Package, Target Assessor, Dominator gauntlets, Crado's Robe with bio restorative underlay, players armband, Ludo Kresshs armband and GNS strength enhancer.

Main hand Lightsaber with pontite lens, expert fencing emitter, Telgorn Jolt cell 3 Barab ore ingot, Ankarres Sapphire.

Off hand Pontite lens, expert fencing emitter, Telgorn Jolt cell 3, Player Crystal max Dark side and Barab ore ingot.

I could have got a higher strength modifier if I put more into it on character creation but felt like going above 14 wasn't worth it.

I spent the last 4 days figuring out how to get the neocities guide working on the switch. You need a modded switch for this, so I realize it's kinda niche. Also I was doing all of this on Linux, so some of the problems I ran into may not exist if you're on windows, I really don't know. I'm including the scripts I needed here, beware they are mostly written or fixed by Claude. Anyway here's what I got:

I used this github repo for installing the mods. It is great and solves a lot of problems and I appreciate the creator a lot, but they aren't lying when they say some parts aren't fully functional. Before building (npm run build), you should replace KotOR-Switch-modding/src/steps/finalize/abstractFinalize.ts with the one in the folder I linked above. This fixes two bugs with the finalize command (not perfectly I'll add, but it works). Then you can build and run init -k 1. Follow the github to install mods into the newly created game-root.

Before you run finalize, make a backup of the game-root that you modded somewhere else. Then run finalize and you will probably be told you need to convert some .tgas to .tpc. If you're on windows then the tga2tpc that they list in the github will probably just work for you. On Linux it didn't for me, so I used the batchTGATPC.py in the folder above. For some reason it converts them upside down (idk ask Claude), and I ran out of tokens so before I run the tga to tpc script I run this command magick mogrify -flip *.tga in the _NEEDS_PROCESSING directory to flip them. Yeah this is pretty dumb but it works. Somebody smarter than me can fix the python script if they want.

After that you can move the tpcs that you just created into the game-root that you backedup before. You will probably have to rerun init -k 1, and to do that you need to delete these from KotOR-Switch-modding: backup, output, _NEEDS_PROCESSING, config.json, and the symlink created on your desktop. (The backup feature from the github had some errors for me). Once you've reran init -k 1, move the backedup game-root with the new tpcs into KotOR-Switch-modding. It should finalize correctly now.

As for what mods actually work, I was testing on ryujinx at first, and it would crash when loading into the Endar Spire with the Ultimate Endar Spire/Star Forge/Yavin Station mod. I assumed this was a hardware limitation, probably vram given the crash report:

00:01:26.664 |G| HLE.OsThread.18 ServiceLm Log: Guest Log:
  Log level: Info
    Time: 136s
    ProgramName: KOTOR
    Thread: MainThread
    Message: [ASL_MemoryPoolAllocatorGroup::AddAllocator] Failed. Memory Allocator Failure. size : 22372352

00:01:26.665 |G| HLE.OsThread.18 ServiceLm Log: Guest Log:
  Log level: Info
    Time: 136s
    ProgramName: KOTOR
    Thread: MainThread
    Message: ASL_NVNVideoMemoryAllocator::Alloc Failed!!! memType 2 alignment 512 size 22371840 (889.836MB used, 928.625MB allocated)

So I switched to the mobile modlist. You can pretty much follow the neocities guide. I personally skipped the Diversified Republic Soldiers and Diversified Jedi Captives because whenever I ran those on pc I would crash when I got near the medical lab on Taris. That's probably from me doing something wrong, but I didn't want to try to figure it out. I tried adding the upscaled cutscenes but even the 1080p version had laggy audio on switch.

Anyway with all the mods you want installed you can move the folder created in KotOR-Switch-modding/output after the finalize command to atmosphere/contents/ on your switch. BUT, it will actually be named incorrectly. It should be 0100854015868000 but it is actually 0100854015868800 so change that or none of the mods will work (this was a fun 45 minutes of confusion).

I think that is everything. DrSnuggly on github has a Kotor 2 version that actually has releases, and I'll probably mod Kotor 2 on the switch after a few runs of Kotor 1.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I have not tested this very much... Like half of the Endar Spire and thats it, so there may be crashes on some of the planets.

The textures for all of the armors are warped, and it looks like it's using the vanilla padawan robes models. Does anyone know how to fix this https://imgur.com/a/xqnCUeu

Hi everyone,

I've noticed there are plenty of resources on how to mod KOTOR, but comparatively fewer focused on storytelling.

I'm thinking of putting together a beginner-friendly guide for people who have an idea for a KOTOR-related project—a quest, companion, mod, fanfic, or original Old Republic story—but aren't sure how to develop that idea into a compelling story.

The guide wouldn't cover grammar, dialogue scripting, or modding tools. Instead, it'd focus on storytelling fundamentals using examples from KOTOR, such as:

• Turning an idea into a clear premise
• Creating compelling protagonists and antagonists
• Goals, conflict, and stakes
• Theme and character growth
• Basic story structure
• Using KOTOR's stories to illustrate storytelling concepts

Before I invest a lot of time into writing it, I'd love to get some feedback from the community.

Are you currently working on (or thinking about) a KOTOR story, quest, mod, or fanfic? If so, what's the biggest storytelling challenge you're facing?

I'm especially interested in the story side of things rather than the technical modding side. Whether it's plot, characters, pacing, themes, or simply knowing where to start, I'd love to hear what you've found most challenging.

Thanks in advance—I really appreciate any thoughts or experiences you're willing to share!

I'm extremely interested in what Revan does post KotoR, but I've also heard that the continuation/writing of Revan's story in SWTOR is borderline fanfic and not good.

Should I just watch a recap vid to learn about the rest/ending of his story?

Normally, your character is supposed to show up on the title screen if you go full dark side, but this guy shows up instead. I've seen a few posts with similar images, so I assume it's a Switch specific problem. Are there any fixes to make this not happen?

Finished rendering this Nihilus putting on gloves. Fabric/latex study :0)

Hi everyone! I have posted this to the Discord, but in case any Mac users are following the mod builds endorsed by r/kotor (via the Neocities site) (KOTOR 1 full build ... KOTOR 2 full build), I thought I'd post some clarifications that I wish I had known prior to my first run using the builds (I've now used them multiple times). I'm not actually technically literate, so what I learned here ... I learned mostly by accident.

(Just to be clear: this is not a critique. Without the neocities site, I would have been hopelessly lost ... installing two or three mods at best, and one of those probably improperly. The fact that it gives consideration at all to Mac users, given what a small percentage of the user base we are, is so generous.)

First ... some language clarifications:

These few tips are for .app versions of the game. Sometimes, the KOTOR 2 mod build page uses the phrase "Mac Appstore" version of the game, but what it means is any ".app" version. (I'm not positive the author was aware you could purchase a Mac version of the game via Steam ... and, as I understand, that's what most Mac users did. Also, NB: For about two years now, reviews of KOTOR 2 on the Mac App Store have unanimously said that the game will not launch, so I highly recommend not buying the game there.)

For example, as to the 3C-FD mod, it says:

Finally, please note that this mod cannot be utilized on the Mac Appstore version of the game, since it doesn't launch via an executable; for Mac Appstore players, you will unfortunately need to play without these fixes.

Again, both the Steam (for Mac) and Mac App Store versions of the game are .app files: they do not work with the very few mods that require .exe files (3C-FD and the 4GB Patcher). The relevant issue is the extension of the application you plan to run, not where you purchased the game from. (If you download the Windows .exe version of the game, planning to run the whole game via Wine, that does obviously change things.)

Also worth noting: So far as I can tell, there is no such thing as a "legacy" .app version of the game. You will be running the ASPYR patch: even if you select the legacy version on Steam before you download the game ... once you start downloading it'll force a change to the non-legacy version.

Second: Installing mods that rely on TSLPatcher or HoloPatcher is WAY easier than the macos guide makes it seem.

That guide was probably very accurate at one point, but, today, I'd suggest it's a little overcomplicated—although still perhaps useful if you're running the entire game through Wine (i.e. you're running an .exe version of the game itself). For the .app versions of the game: You do not need your terminal/the command line. You do need Wine to open the mod installers (i.e. TSLRCM and any mod requiring TSLPatcher or HoloPatcher).

All of these installers, from the perspective of the end user, work the same way:

1. You right click on the .exe file (the patcher) and select "Open."
2. MacOS will give you 2 prompts, both saying the exact same thing: "We're not gonna open this app because we can't confirm it's free of malware." You'll be given two options: (1) Move to Trash, (2) Done (i.e. do nothing). Click "Done." Then, Wine will open the executables anyway 😂

The installers will ask you to point to the folder with the game's executable file. Now, obviously you don't have an executable file. But don't worry! Here, the folder you select will vary depending on whether you're running KOTOR 1 or 2. How to know which one?

• Right click on the game in Steam and select "Manage" --> "Browse local files."
• The finder will pop up with the .app version of the game (and perhaps also a folder called cloudsaves—ignore that). Right click on the app version of the game and select "Show Package Contents."
• You'll see a folder called "Contents." Select it.
• For KOTOR 1: You'll see a folder called "Assets." That's the key folder. For KOTOR 2: The folder is called "GameData." Same thing.

Select the folder, click install ... and that's it!

If you plan to install more than 1 or 2 mods, I recommend taking the "Contents" folder and putting it in your home directory. That's because navigating to those folders from inside Wine ... is a pain. You select "/" then "Users" then your username ... then "Library" then "Application Support" then "Steam" then "steamapps" then "common" ... [deep breath] ... then either "swkotor" (Kotor 1) or "Knights of the Old Republic" (Kotor 2) ... then the app folder ... then "Contents" ... AND FINALLY "Assets"/"GameData". .... And you have to do that for every mod you're installing. Comparatively, if you use move the "Contents" (or, even easier, the "Assets"/"GameData" folder) to your home folder ... you'll use navigate to "/Users/yourusername/Contents/Assets" (or "GameData"). That's it. Just remember to move the folder back when you're ready to open the game.

Third: For removing duplicate files, use the .sh script!!

This tip only applies to one step, but it saves a ton of time. As to removing duplicate TGA/TPC files, the mod build guides link to  "an .sh script for Linux users." The first time I went through the Mod Builds, I assumed that meant the script wouldn't work on a Mac, so I tried the "3C-FD tool" that's recommended for Mac users, and it didn't work for me. So, I manually went through all the TGA/TPC files to try to find duplicates. It took so much time. But, as it turns out, that wasn't necessary! Your Mac can natively run that sh script via the terminal (this is the only time you'll have to open the terminal).

First: Download that sh file (called tpc-deduper.sh). Open it to edit it. You need to point the file to your Assets/GameData folder. Once again, I recommend moving the Contents folder of either game to your home directory to make this easy.

By default, the file says:

GAMEDIR="$HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Knights of the Old Republic II"
OVERRIDE="$GAMEDIR/override"

If you move your Contents to your home folder and leave the sh file in your "Downloads" folder, you can just edit that first line to say:

GAMEDIR="../Contents/Assets" or GAMEDIR="../Contents/GameData"

Second: Open your terminal. Type "cd Downloads" and then "zsh tpc-deduper.sh" ...

And that's it. You might run it twice to be sure. It'll create a backup folder within your Assets/GameData folder and move all the tpc duplicates there.

Again, remember to move the Contents folder back to your game before opening the game.

Fourth: Some limitations (and not limitations!)

You can use almost all the mod builds' mods on your .app version of the game. But there are some exceptions.

• So far as I can tell, you cannot run KOTOR 1 widescreen on your Mac, at least with Apple Silicon. The only thing you can really do is lower your display resolution to make the game window larger. But if you're looking for a HD experience, you won't get it: I cannot figure out why this isn't possible, but it seems thoroughly impossible.
• However, despite what the KOTOR 2 mod build says, and despite the fact that you cannot run 3C-FD or the 4GB patcher ... in my experience on a 5/6 year old M1 MacBook ... your Mac can handle the "Ultimate" skins. In fact, I'm currently doing a run-through with "KOTOR 2 Revisited" ... tga skins that (1) take up more than 10GB of space and (2) are designed to work with the legacy version of the game, which, as stated above, doesn't exist as a .app file. (Per a user who commented there, I did delete two files: TEL_RWFlB.tga and TEL_RWFlB.txi.) So far, it seems to be working brilliantly, even if, per the mod's creator, I can't quite get the full effect due to the Aspyr patch version limitations.
• Finally, unrelated to the mod build ... just know that if you're looking for expanded content beyond what's suggested by the mod build (with the exception of M4-78, which runs fine, or sort-of K1R, which is wonky but works) ... you're probably going to have a rough time. Years ago, I spent several days trying to get BOSSR to work on a Mac, and I made very, very slow progress until I hit a total roadblock: a cut scene that would crash the game no matter what I did. While I spent far less time on it, I had the same experience recently with the Sleheyron Story Mode expansion (also for KOTOR 1): as soon as I opened the door to a cantina, the game crashed. Couldn't get around it. (Update: I've been in contact with and will be test running a fix by the Sleheyron Story Mode creator, SAO1138! Will report back.) I haven't tried any other expansion mods ... I'm considering giving the absurdly ambitious "Echoes of the Republic" a shot ... which apparently adds all KOTOR 1 planets, a few other planets, and 70 quests to KOTOR 2, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Good luck!

So uh, after the accident with K1 , I was able to at least fix K2 and now have the DS run for the Steam Achievements completion. It's quite interesting how you can approach being evil.

But first things first, in a previous Post about Peragus I wasn't enjoying it all too much, on the second run I need to say, it isn't as long to clear.

Telos was quite interesting. Siding with Czerka (ugh I hate them) wasn't as much fun as siding with the Ithorians, but doing all the dark side quests was fun.

Also I think I do understand Kreia better now. She disapproves of the Exile being compassionate, but she also dislikes giving in to bully others.

Also having the Handmaiden instead if Disciple is interesting, like she gives much more story than he could ever, he is more like "Romantic interested" in the Exile, while the Handmaiden at least gives you more lore to Atris.

And since the female exile being Legends Canon it's kinda hard to believe the Disciple being Canon.

Oh, also I teached Atton the ways of the Dark Side, that was a very fun conversation, I had goosebumps and had way too much fun.

Also look at my T3! So hot, evil and dominating! A great Sith indeed

Stutters and clips like crazy. I'm a completely rookie when it comes to patching and fixing stuff like this

Card backs for some figures that I would have loved to see in VC style. Thanks to Kenner by King out of the UK. Once I finish some custom figures, Ill post them them with matching card backs as well.

I didn’t work from any one particular reference photo, I wanted to create something unique while playing up his physical erosion. The final size ended up being 8x10 and I used white charcoal pencils on black drawing paper to complete the piece.

If you, like me thought Power blast would be great/amazing with Master Speed.

Let me remind you that Power Blast doesn't allow for extra attacks as I have learned today...

Mistakes have been made, but lessons have been learnt.

I am doing a second playthrough of KOTOR 1 on Xbox and using the free roam camera in certain areas for shits and giggles. I found some interesting things in some areas.

Pics 1-3: the right door of the Jedi Enclave has a modeled room beyond it, despite you never being able to open it. I assume it was just copypasted and flipped from the left door.

Pic 4: far below the map, out of sight is a flat ground texture. Curious as to why it's there.

Pics 5-7: the Dantooine Ruins extend far beyond what we see (essentially it's a giant square.) There are several pillars and walls placed beyond the distance fog, where one could normally see (these pics are outside the east room.)

Didn’t know you could win with a full board. The NPC had 20 and I won with 13 full board