StarDestroyer.Net BBS

While it is debatable as to whether this will actually be successful, it looks awesome at this point. They look to be doing a complete graphics overhaul and update as well as updating the game engine. One big issue I wonder is whether it would be voiced in the style of more recent games, though I can't see them getting a truly good voice actor to work on something like this for free.

I'm looking forward to this because KOTOR has not aged well and I never could get into Mass Effect, so a remade KOTOR would scratch that sci-fi RPG itch.

I know though that most fan mods never make it. Too many great ones like the remake of Dark Forces in the JA engine, the remake of Deus Ex, Opposing Force 2, the STALKER remake with the Crysis engine and probably countless others. They aim too high or get in too deep and the mod never gets finished.

But still, with crowd funding and bigger and bigger mods being done it might be possible. Crowd funding helps people do the mod and be able to eat while they do it. The fact the modding community had grown means there is plenty of talent out there, some mods dev teams wind up looking like an actual game dev team when they get big enough. Being able to toss them some money or to hire semi-professional (or even professional, look at machinima lore maker ShoddyCast who's got several people with IMDB pages and everything to guest star on their series) voice actors.

I just hope Lucasfilms or Bioware doesn't clamp down on this before it can happen. I'd make the joke that a KOTOR remake would be better then any games Bioware or Lucasfilms has put out recently but that isn't a joke, its a fact, and its not a stretch to think they might want to stop any non-profit competition. And competition it would be, certainly blow out of the water EA Battlefront that somehow looks completely fucking amazing but sucks so goddamn bad and the upcoming Mass Effect Andromeda which will attempt to salvage the fanbase after the red green blue fiasco.

I'll believe it when I see it done. Until than this isn't even something to keep track off. I've seen enough good mods die to know that.

the Endar Spire seems a bit too busy, but Tatooine and Taris look nice though I like the sunny upper city from the orginal more then the rainy version that's here (rainy or they need to tone down those reflections big time) that said the lowercity of taris now looks like a city rather then a single building.

Joun_Lord wrote:I'm looking forward to this because KOTOR has not aged well and I never could get into Mass Effect, so a remade KOTOR would scratch that sci-fi RPG itch.

Honestly, with some texture mods: the game looks only a little bit worse than SWTOR. And that's likely due to lower poly models. You'd be amazed what just jacking the resolution up on old games can do. At least KOTOR got real lightsabers. And, can't believe I'm saying this about Bioware, but the animations, while not perfect, were scores better than a lot of shit we get today. Characters actually "dueled" with melee weapons even if the D20 combat system didn't factor it in.

I know though that most fan mods never make it. Too many great ones like the remake of Dark Forces in the JA engine, the remake of Deus Ex, Opposing Force 2, the STALKER remake with the Crysis engine and probably countless others. They aim too high or get in too deep and the mod never gets finished.

Pretty sure the Dark Forces remake was shutdown by Lucasarts, just like this one will be shut down by Disney and/or EA if it gains enough traction.

But still, with crowd funding and bigger and bigger mods being done it might be possible.

This isn't modding in the traditional sense. The new Unreal development shop setup makes gaining full access to a working engine, it's development tools, and publishing your work a Hell of a lot easier than hacking away with modding devs tools like the DF remake guys were working with. Yes, Raven provided numerous tools to mod Jedi-Outcast/Academy, but they were tools designed to mod, not create whole-sale.

I just hope Lucasfilms or Bioware doesn't clamp down on this before it can happen. I'd make the joke that a KOTOR remake would be better then any games Bioware or Lucasfilms has put out recently but that isn't a joke, its a fact, and its not a stretch to think they might want to stop any non-profit competition. And competition it would be, certainly blow out of the water EA Battlefront that somehow looks completely fucking amazing but sucks so goddamn bad and the upcoming Mass Effect Andromeda which will attempt to salvage the fanbase after the red green blue fiasco.

I like KOTOR. A Lot, loading screens aside. But there's nothing all that interesting about the plot or the characters. But they released a DnD game with Star Wars assets and cliches and I thank them for that. That's really what Bioware does best. You don't want them doing anything original.

Mass Effect 1 cribbed a lot from earlier Sci-Fi and it was great. Then they pulled a Wackowski Bros and tried to hack another few games together. ME2 felt like a long side-quest and ME3 was.... well, The Matrix Revolutions of video games. A lot of fans bitched about Obsidian muddying up Star Wars with KOTOR2 and I do agree it goes against Lucas's vision of the Jedi a lot, but at least they tried something even a little original. Then Bioware shat on them a decade later with SWTOR.

This is doomed to failure.

I fully expect them to get slapped down if this even makes a little bit of traction when some corporate flunky slaps them with copyright etc.
EA / Bioware could easily react really poorly to this given it is A) Messing around in their IP backyard and B) Can potentially screw things up for their on-going KOTOR MMO.

That said, I do not really see much point in trying to 're-master' KOTOR just to make it visually better. The whole point of KOTOR was the RPG story aspect and making it look better will not change the story. If it DOES change things due to engine limitations etc. then that is where Bioware / EA could come in like a steamroller.

The way the gameplay is going this looks more like it is going to be an FPS - Something which the first Dark Forces / Jedi Knight tried to do and would be better suited. I would happily see a real remake of the Jedi Knight series which made a fairly good attempt at getting lightsaber duels.

Joun_Lord wrote:But still, with crowd funding and bigger and bigger mods being done it might be possible. Crowd funding helps people do the mod and be able to eat while they do it. The fact the modding community had grown means there is plenty of talent out there, some mods dev teams wind up looking like an actual game dev team when they get big enough. Being able to toss them some money or to hire semi-professional (or even professional, look at machinima lore maker ShoddyCast who's got several people with IMDB pages and everything to guest star on their series) voice actors.

Crowd funding can be a double-edged sword though, as the Star Trek: Axanar people are finding out the hard way. Because when you start blurring the lines between "totally free fan work down for the love of the game" into "is this making money now?" that makes the IP holders sit up and take notice.

Arguably they were already toeing the line with the 'optional donations' thing, but actual funding going directly toward the project (and its team members) is another kettle of fish entirely.