Tags: Obsidian Entertainment; Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords; The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod
Yesterday, the team behind The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod (TSLRCM) for Knights of the Old Republic II released the 1.8 version of the mod that restores numerous plot elements and dialogue to this famously rushed CRPG. 1.8 is supposed to be the final version, with any future updates aimed exclusively at bug fixing, so that means the project is now essentially complete.
To celebrate this momentous occasion, PC Gamer offers an interview with Zbigniew "zbyl2" Staniewicz, the project's co-leader. Have a snippet:
You can download Version 1.8 from ModDB, or visit the modders' forum for a full list of restored content.
Yesterday, the team behind The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod (TSLRCM) for Knights of the Old Republic II released the 1.8 version of the mod that restores numerous plot elements and dialogue to this famously rushed CRPG. 1.8 is supposed to be the final version, with any future updates aimed exclusively at bug fixing, so that means the project is now essentially complete.
To celebrate this momentous occasion, PC Gamer offers an interview with Zbigniew "zbyl2" Staniewicz, the project's co-leader. Have a snippet:
Did you ever find anything that surprised you? Anything that was intentionally cut?
There were certainly some things that were cut intentionally, often probably because of plot changes during the development. Major examples would include Atris instead of Kreia on Malachor V, which doesn’t make much sense with current storyline. Another would be GenoHaradan plot on Nar Shaddaa which was replaced with the Exchange. Smaller example could be Kreia’s recorded lines in Tomb of Freedon Nadd on Dxun, while she has to be on Onderon at a time so it never plays. We didn’t restore any of these, of course. We kept to things that fit with the game, and most of those were cut due to time constraints.
Was any content especially buried?
I wouldn’t say anything was “buried” but some things were definietly easier accessible than others; say, in lots of cases cut dialog lines were present in actual dialog files but were removed from main conversation branch, so it was relatively easy to find. Other times, we had to look trough game voice files in order to find cut content, which was more work.
Fact that Team Gizka attempted restoration project before us helped, too, as we could use their cut content list for reference; therere were a lot of things missing from their list, but most major cut content were on it.
The mod’s description states that the goal is to make KOTOR II as close as possible to Obsidian’s original intentions. Do you feel that TSLRCM 1.8 represents the game Obsidian wanted to release?
Yes, I think TSLRCM makes it pretty close to Obsidian’s vision. I’m sure people at Obsidian working on a game would be much happier if they got time to finish HK Factory and, especially, the endings — and we restored that.
There were certainly some things that were cut intentionally, often probably because of plot changes during the development. Major examples would include Atris instead of Kreia on Malachor V, which doesn’t make much sense with current storyline. Another would be GenoHaradan plot on Nar Shaddaa which was replaced with the Exchange. Smaller example could be Kreia’s recorded lines in Tomb of Freedon Nadd on Dxun, while she has to be on Onderon at a time so it never plays. We didn’t restore any of these, of course. We kept to things that fit with the game, and most of those were cut due to time constraints.
Was any content especially buried?
I wouldn’t say anything was “buried” but some things were definietly easier accessible than others; say, in lots of cases cut dialog lines were present in actual dialog files but were removed from main conversation branch, so it was relatively easy to find. Other times, we had to look trough game voice files in order to find cut content, which was more work.
Fact that Team Gizka attempted restoration project before us helped, too, as we could use their cut content list for reference; therere were a lot of things missing from their list, but most major cut content were on it.
The mod’s description states that the goal is to make KOTOR II as close as possible to Obsidian’s original intentions. Do you feel that TSLRCM 1.8 represents the game Obsidian wanted to release?
Yes, I think TSLRCM makes it pretty close to Obsidian’s vision. I’m sure people at Obsidian working on a game would be much happier if they got time to finish HK Factory and, especially, the endings — and we restored that.
You can download Version 1.8 from ModDB, or visit the modders' forum for a full list of restored content.
Might give this a try soon...
Tried everything 
