New Hybrid Saber Crystals Help Please

[bigdarthbobo]

I am interested in modding a new set of Saber crystals, I know crystals have been done before but so far I have not seen them done like this. I recall reading in the star wars universe that the crystals were actually formed in a type of kiln. I know in the game we just collect them from cave formations and such but I want to keep it more to the Universe. With this in mind I want to create some crystals that are actually hybrids of two to three crystals to make one crystal.

Now I am just getting back into modding mostly of it I did more than 4 years ago on a limited basis for just myself. I want to make these crystals available to the community so I need some help. I have been following various tutorials for custom lightsaber creation and changing item properties and... well I am lost.

the crystals I want to use are:
Sigil, Upari, Solari, Luxum, Firkrann, Nextor, Opila, Bondar, Jenruax, Krayt Dragon Pearl, Sapith, Mantle of the Force, Heart of the Guardian, Rough-cut Upari Amulet.

Reading the descriptions it is possible that some of these items can be bonded together. For instance the MOTF and a Dragon Pearl are both crystaline lattice constructs, so it is plausable that they can be joined.

If you can point me to a better tutorial or think you would like to mentor on this project please let me know. I have not reah my 5 post limit yet so I cannot respond to pm's.

[JCarter426]

Depends on which game you want it for. The crystals in K2 have properties unique to the crystal UTI files; the crystals in K1 don't. It could still be done in K1, but it would be seven times the work and wouldn't be compatible with other saber mods.

Heart of the Guardian and Mantle of the Force already alter the other crystals' properties, also.

[bigdarthbobo]

Thanks for the Information!! I guess I was thinking more of K1 and I would want it compatible with other mods so sounds like k1 is kind of a bust but mostly more labor intensive. Doing the work is not a concern as long as I know and understand what I am doing and where I am heading. IT could be useful for K2.

Kind of comes down to finding someone who is willing to help me learn and not do it for me. I will keep working on the saber tutorials and watch this thread.

Thanks again JC I appreciate it.

[JCarter426]

No problem. Perhaps I should clarify, though, on the difference. It has to do with the way upgrades function in each game.

In K1, the upgrade items are just for show, they basically do nothing. But when they're added to an item, they activate special properties for that item - the item only has these properties if the upgrade part is present. This means that different items can have different properties from the same upgrade parts. It also means that in order to create new upgrade parts, you would have to modify every item to give it the properties you want, to be activated when it's upgraded with your new part. Every type of lightsaber has its own UTI file that would have to be edited. I said it would be seven times the work because there are seven lightsaber colors, but I forgot about the short and double-bladed lightsabers; so actually you'd have to modify 21 items in addition to the crystal. It's not really more difficult work, just more tedious; even if you take some shortcuts, you'd still be generating 21 more files than you would be in K2. The main problem is that it wouldn't be compatible with any other lightsaber mod, because even with all that work you're only modifying the lightsabers that come with the game. Any lightsabers that another mod adds would be completely unaffected; your crystals would do nothing for them.

K2, of course, is completely different. Every upgrade part has properties. When it gets added to an item, the item gets those properties. There's no variation in what each upgrade gives to an item, to make it more intuitive. So it's a simple matter of creating the parts and adding them to the upgrade 2DA. You don't have to modify the ligthsaber UTIs at all, and it should be compatible with other lightsaber mods so long as you use the TSL Patcher.

Now, as far as your idea of "bonding" them... I'd say the easiest way to do this would be to add a container and a console somewhere. You put the crystals you want to combine into the container. You use the console. A script checks for what lightsaber crystals are in the container, if any. The console dialogue gives you options to merge the crystals, if you have the right kind. You select what you want. Another script deletes the original crystals and generates a new one in the container.

I was going to do something along these lines - not involving crystals, but it had to do with lightsabers and merging parts - but I got caught up on the scripting. I could probably do it now, though. And there are others over at the Script Shack who could help out as well.

[bigdarthbobo]

Originally Posted by JCarter426

K2, of course, is completely different. Every upgrade part has properties. When it gets added to an item, the item gets those properties. There's no variation in what each upgrade gives to an item, to make it more intuitive. So it's a simple matter of creating the parts and adding them to the upgrade 2DA. You don't have to modify the ligthsaber UTIs at all, and it should be compatible with other lightsaber mods so long as you use the TSL Patcher.

Now, as far as your idea of "bonding" them... I'd say the easiest way to do this would be to add a container and a console somewhere. You put the crystals you want to combine into the container. You use the console. A script checks for what lightsaber crystals are in the container, if any. The console dialogue gives you options to merge the crystals, if you have the right kind. You select what you want. Another script deletes the original crystals and generates a new one in the container.

I was going to do something along these lines - not involving crystals, but it had to do with lightsabers and merging parts - but I got caught up on the scripting. I could probably do it now, though. And there are others over at the Script Shack who could help out as well.

Very interested in learning more about what you mean in bonding and I am wondering that I may not have been clear. In case I was not let me explain further.

What I would like to do is (follow me here with a little imagination) (background from star wars facts)"Luke Skywalker used a special furnace he found in Obi-Wan Kenobi's home to prepare his crystal.[1] In both Skywalker and Maul's cases, the creator channeled their Force energies into the crystals as it was formed, making it unique in every way, including in color."

With that in mind we envision a hybrid creation where different crystals a cut in half or thirds.

say we wanted a crystal with the attributes and properties of a dragon pearl, sapith, and we wanted another hybrid crystal of nextor and opila, combining these crystals and using the two hybrids on a blade with MOTF would give us:

Opila - Damage +3, Attack +2, +2-12dmg on critical hit
Nextor - Attack +1 (no Critical Threat Range multiplier)
Krayt Dragon Pearl - Attack +4, Blaster Deflection +3
Sapith - Damage +4, Attack +3

CRITICAL HIT thanks to Telenu

Crystals Used: Nextor, Opila

Upgrade(s): Damage +3
Attack +1
Critical Threat Range x2
Massive Criticals +2-12dmg on critical hit

Benefits: This combination is a must have for all players who utilize the any
Critical Strike feat. With Master Critical Strike (4x critical threat range)
the chance for a critical hit is 50% (11-20 range, 10/20 chance) with a
single-bladed lightsaber and 25% with a double-bladed lightsaber (16-20 range,
5/20 chance). This all comes with a hefty bonus to critical damage.

GUARANTEED DAMAGE thanks to Jason Chrisjohn

Crystals Used: Krayt Dragon Pearl, Sapith

Upgrade(s): Damage +5
Attack +5

Benefits: Unlike the wide bonus damage range of the Power combination, this
crystal combination gives a guaranteed damage bonus to you lightsaber. The +5
attack bonus is also nice as well, providing an increased chance to hit. This
combination works well as a main lightsaber or an off-hand lightsaber paired
with the Power combination to make an unstoppable duo.

So we see the intent here is to create a new crystal that has the properties of two crystals. We could assume the full value of power attributes would be retained in the new crystal or we could halve those values whichever seems more realistic and reasonable. Me I like to imagine that with a bit of special technology (kiln oven) and the force there is no reason we cannot retain full crystal properties.

I know this is a bit geeked out and imaginative, I just hate that we have so few crystal combinations and have to sacrifice so much in deciding what combinations to use. The game continues to retain it playability and fresh content that is worth of the star wars saga universe while adhering to the established facts would to me seem to add more value.

Hopefully this makes more sense and gives you a better idea of what I wanted to achieve. Basically it is taking 2-3 crystals combining them into one crystal. So in theory in game using your three crystal slots you can be playing with 6-9 crystal combinations and the power attributes instead of just 3.

Admittedly this will produce a very effective and powerful weapon

would it even be possible in K1 to add the upgrade parts from melee weapons to a lightsaber using a script? IT would seem that the only upgrade that could realistically be used would be The Energy Projector to add an energy field to the weapon, increasing the bonus damage dealt.

[JCarter426]

Originally Posted by bigdarthbobo

Very interested in learning more about what you mean in bonding and I am wondering that I may not have been clear.

Originally Posted by bigdarthbobo

Reading the descriptions it is possible that some of these items can be bonded together.

Your words. I got what you meant.

As far as I understand it, though, the cases you mentioned are describing the focusing crystal, the color crystals in the game. If you went that route it would still be a lot of work, but it wouldn't be more difficult in either game and it wouldn't take much work to convert it for the other game, as the color crystals work the same way in both games.

Although I don't believe those are created from natural crystals; they're completely synthesized. Supposedly the Sith used red lightsabers a lot because they used synthetic crystals because they were more powerful than natural ones, and the process they used always produced red ones. Luke must have used a different process, or maybe the Force is color coded for your convenience. In any case, perhaps you could do something different for the color crystals, like simply having a single synthetic crystal variation for each color.

Originally Posted by bigdarthbobo

would it even be possible in K1 to add the upgrade parts from melee weapons to a lightsaber using a script? IT would seem that the only upgrade that could realistically be used would be The Energy Projector to add an energy field to the weapon, increasing the bonus damage dealt.

No, altering the upgrade system isn't possible, as far as I know.

[bigdarthbobo]

Still working on this, building a custom saber seems to work so far, but two issues tried doing as a tut said and now my guy cannot use it no matte what even when I use the cheat to make him force sensitive. that is bug one, in the description of the saber properties it says bad stringRf of something like that. So I am trying to see where I went wrong with those two, and also building from scratch.

question, why not use crstal.2da and the individual crystals so give the dragon pearl its normal attribute/properties and that of say two other crystals, I have not had time to try it but just wondering if that would work, be easier or what.

[JCarter426]

Originally Posted by bigdarthbobo

Still working on this, building a custom saber seems to work so far, but two issues tried doing as a tut said and now my guy cannot use it no matte what even when I use the cheat to make him force sensitive.

Erm... not sure what the problem is there. Can you be more specific?

in the description of the saber properties it says bad stringRf of something like that.

When you enter a description yourself, you have to make sure the string reference is set to -1.

question, why not use crstal.2da and the individual crystals so give the dragon pearl its normal attribute/properties and that of say two other crystals, I have not had time to try it but just wondering if that would work, be easier or what.

I'm not sure what you're talking about. There's no such file.