Apr 02, 2005 Btw, The fanfic is great! It's great to read some expansion on the Atton/Exile story-the game was great, but it needed more Atton and Exile story development. I've been meaning to post a fic about KOTOR II myself, just haven't had the time. Anyway, keep up the great work, I'm lookng forward to chapter 6. There were romances in Kotor 2? In actuality I really enjoyed the not-romance the Male exile and the Handmaiden had, plus she was a notably useful and interesting party member in a game full of interesting and useful party members.

1. Kotor 2 Female Romance Characters

Released on December 6, 2004, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords (KOTOR2) was the first game from the then newly formed Obsidian Entertainment. At that time, the new studio was a shoestring operation with just seven veteran developers who had made the move from the recently shuttered Black Isle Studios, all holed up in CEO Feargus Urquhart’s attic. But publisher LucasArts, wanting to capitalize on the success of the original KOTOR from the year before, reportedly gave that threadbare new team just 14 to 16 months to create a sequel.

It’s no surprise that the finished product had some issues.

The most noticeable of these issues at launch might have been the conclusion to the HK-50 factory side quest. Specifically, that conclusion is just nowhere to be found in the final game.

That means players never get to discover the origins of KOTOR2’s most recurring threat. Several files buried in the game’s code reveal content Obsidian made for KOTOR2’s final planet—including dialogue and action set pieces—that the developers just couldn’t get working before launch.

And that’s where 15 years of collective modder obsession comes in...

Putting the pieces back together

When he first started modding KOTOR2 over ten years ago, Zbigniew 'zbyl2' Staniewicz had previously been working with the mod toolset for Neverwinter Nights. That meant he already had experience navigating KOTOR2’s engine.

His initial focus was finishing a mod to bring cut planet M4-78 back into the main game. That’s the droid planet where players were supposed to originally find Jedi Master Lonna Vash hiding from the Sith threat stalking Jedi across the galaxy.

Progress on restoring the M4-78 file was halted while Staniewicz was waiting for a writer to return scripts. So he moved on to begin work on what would become the Restored Content Mod.

“Another group that was making a restoration mod was taking years to release anything, and I knew I could have done what they were trying to do much faster,” he recalled. “I met this other guy in the modding community [DarthStoney] that shared my sentiments and we just went for it.”

Originally, Staniewicz and his team planned to fix one planet at a time and release them accordingly as they were completed. Once the team finished working on Nar Shaddaa, however, they decided to keep going and release their work as one large mod encompassing all the cut content.

As development went on, Staniewicz started looking for more people to help get the project across the finish line. A modder named Hassat Hunter was brought in to perform beta testing and eventually began assisting with development. And another modder named VarsityPuppet was brought in to troubleshoot issues with that incomplete HK-50 Factory, putting together the unfinished second half of the mission.

This kind of modding was far from a direct process. Even something as simple as changing the location of an NPC required going into the game, finding the character, writing down the coordinates, then leaving the game and inputting and modifying the coordinates in a modding tool, as Staniewicz described it. But that mod tool gives no indication if the process worked, so the modders had to start the game back up and find the NPC’s new location to see if they had succeeded.

“With what was left in the game files, the dialogue worked, but there was no ending,” Staniewicz explained. So they put the final sequences of the factory mission together to fit the available dialogue from the factory and Malachor V.

After releasing a few versions of the RCM, Staniewicz stepped away from the project while the team was fixing problems with the game’s random loot system, saying he believed he no longer had substantial feedback to offer during the process. The involvement of the other team members meant progress never ground to a halt, though. “If it was just me and Stoney… we probably would have stopped way sooner,” Staniewicz said.

The Restored Content Mod entered open beta in 2009. It has more than 400,000 subscribers on the Steam Workshop.

Putting on a disguise

Not all KOTOR2 mods are so intricate. Effix, who has posted more than 60 mods on Steam since 2010, focuses instead on more cosmetic changes. That can mean everything from changing a companion’s hair color to turning Hanharr, a darkside specific Wookiee companion, into a pink “Care Bear.”

“There was someone who suggested it, and a few others were also on board with the idea or daring me to [make the Care Bear mod],” Effix said. “I don't think they expected me to make work of it, but to me that was extra funny to turn that idea into an actual mod.”

Other work by Effix includes mods allowing the player to replace their standard human head with alien variants like the ancient Rakatan or dark Darth Malak. “The technical term [for these mods] is ‘disguise’ because that's the name of the [in-game] item property that lets you take on another appearance,” Effix said. “A lot of things from KOTOR [like disguises] were left in KOTOR2's files, even though they might not make an appearance in the game.”

The bulk of Effix’s work, he said, is done through Fred Tetra’s “KOTOR Tool,” a simple utility for editing modules, images, wire models, character appearances, dialogue, and items in the game. Focusing on these elements has helped Effix to retain his enthusiasm for modding the game, he said, as has concentrating on projects that are “fairly bite-sized” when compared to others. “I like doing retextures because I like giving something a new look, and for me it's pretty straightforward. I'm not that into more complex things like scripts, adding new areas, new 3D models and animations.”

“Making mods for a game that you really enjoy is great fun, so that's my motivation,” he added. “It's also satisfying to get positive feedback from people who use your mods and also are passionate about the same game. For me it's a fun and relaxing hobby. It's cool to create things and see your creation in a Star Wars game, and I get a lot of positive feedback from the community.”

Because all companion characters have personal speaking missions that appear after certain points in a character's story, there is sometimes the potential for some of them to become attracted to the character. If the player makes the decision to encourage those feelings, the companion will become a little more open to the player, and the potential for marriage becomes greater as the player levels up and gets closer to level 50.

All classes have at least one male and one female companion that has the potential to become attracted to the player of the opposite sex. Some classes (such as the Smuggler and the Imperial Agent) have one or two other companions that could also have the same feelings, which leads to jealousy with some companions, and more exciting story lines.

All of the original romance options are limited to opposite-gendered characters, but same-gender romance options were released in Rise of the Hutt Cartel and all-gender romance options were added in Forged Alliances and Shadow of Revan, as well as Knights of the Fallen Empire, some of which can be continued.

• 1Galactic Republic
• 2Sith Empire
• 5Knights of the Fallen Empire

Galactic Republic[edit | edit source]

Jedi Knight[edit | edit source]

Jedi Consular[edit | edit source]

Smuggler[edit | edit source]

Trooper[edit | edit source]

Sith Empire[edit | edit source]

Sith Warrior[edit | edit source]

Sith Inquisitor[edit | edit source]

Bounty Hunter[edit | edit source]

Imperial Agent[edit | edit source]

Rise of the Hutt Cartel[edit | edit source]

Note: Cytharat's romance is treated as an on-going flirtation dialogue thus does not trigger notifications that you are about to enter a romance. It is only possible to kiss Cytharat if light side options are taken at critical moments involving him.

Forged Alliances/Shadow of Revan[edit | edit source]

Players of either faction and gender may pursue a relationship with either Theron or Lana during the 'Forged Alliances' and 'Shadow of Revan' storylines. Note that both relationships are treated as long flirtation dialogues and thus do not trigger notifications that you are about to enter a romance.

Knights of the Fallen Empire[edit | edit source]

Players can flirt with Lana, Koth and Theron regardless of their prior relationship status with Lana or Theron (although it may be mentioned). If flirtations have been successful, then a chance to trigger a romance with one of the three will become available in Chapter X. There are no gender, class or faction restrictions on the romance options in this expansion, but the characters will only be receptive to the player's advances if certain actions have or have not been taken. Romances with class-specific companions after reuniting with them is possible, but only if the player romanced that character before Knights of the Fallen Empire.

KotFE Former Companions[edit | edit source]

Knights of the Eternal Throne[edit | edit source]

Players of either gender are given the opportunity to flirt with and kiss Arcann at the conclusion of the KotET arc.

Jedi Under Siege[edit | edit source]

Onslaught[edit | edit source]

Kotor 2 Female Romance Characters