don't call it "content patch",

[Cerebus]

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was joking, of course.

Although it could be possible: They might add some Ewoks.

[Cerebus]

that awful EP II scene.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You wouldn't be referring to a certain Jedi Master being reduced to a bouncing clown by any chance?

[Cerebus]

And who is to say it actually wasn't a calculated move? 

Would you care to elaborate that idea?

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

You wouldn't be referring to a certain Jedi Master being reduced to a bouncing clown by any chance?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

No, that one just made me laugh. Short of giving him telekinetic combat that wasnt so bad.

 

I meant the awful "love" scenes.

[213374U]

Would you care to elaborate that idea? 

Well, leaving all the content there for the fans to find (it's not like they didn't know what the KotOR modding community is capable of), would have allowed them to leave the door for the ending they had originally planned open. Be it via a "content patch", GOTY edition, unofficial fixes, or in a worst case scenario, a fan-made mod.

 

SP thinks that could put some jobs in jeopardy, but I'm not so sure. After all, the cut content wasn't included in the game, as LA demanded. OE can't really be held responsible for the fanbase skills at reverse engineering. And they could argue too that with the tight release deadlines, they didn't have time to clean up the whole mess of unused files.

 

But all of that is just me speculating. It could be they just didn't care if anyone found all the cut content, and couldn't be bothered to clean it up because they had more important stuff to do once they got the show on the road (such as NWN2).

[Yst]

I really must agree with 213374U regarding the probable reasons for the retention of unused content in RPG releases. I absolutely refuse to believe that it's mere accident. While the data structures of KotOR and TSL are not transparent to me, I have to assume they are fully transparent to the dev team, and that only intentionally could unused data have made it into the release. It just wouldn't make sense that they somehow didn't notice it. To take the example of a game whose data structure is indeed transparent to me (and a thousand other Infinity Engine modders and tinkerers) through use of the appropriate utilities, Planescape: Torment has similarly large quantities of unimplemented data retained in its release, and the presence of unused image and quest content within the game's data files is so incredibly self-evident that it never even occurred to me it could have been unintentional, at least in that case. Fans later implemented unused content (and even an entire unimplemented quest) in the game using that data. I have to assume that the same that was true of PS:T is true of KotOR II.

 

Incidentally, my avatar is an unimplemented file, CA_lop.bif, found in, but not used in, the release version of Planescape: Torment.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Well there is that problem with the international Xbox version so it's possible that it slipped through. What I meant really, was if it was done with Feargus' blessing or if it was just slipped in. Assuming that it wasnt an oversight or accident.

 

Because I cant see any benifit to leaving it in, and if it was done as favour to the mod community it's really ended up biting them in the butt wouldnt you say?

[Yst]

Well there is that problem with the international Xbox version so it's possible that it slipped through. What I meant really, was if it was done with Feargus' blessing or if it was just slipped in. Assuming that it wasnt an oversight or accident.

 

Because I cant see any benifit to leaving it in, and if it was done as favour to the mod community it's really ended up biting them in the butt wouldnt you say?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I have to think the logic is something closer to there being no perceived necessity for a purge of unused content, and that the mere fact of leaving stray files in the install posing no problems is a greater influence than those files serving a potential benefit (i.e., to modders). They're neat little easter eggs, if nothing else, so why get rid of them?

 

As for it "biting them in the butt," angry reprisals regarding the ending have been just as common among people who had not heard of alternative ending content as among those who had, so I don't think it's made things worse. The only major effects of alternative ending content being found that I can see is 1) angry protest regarding the ending has been slightly modified, to angry requests for revised ending content and 2) there has been a redirection of spite towards Lucasarts away from Obsidian, based on the supposition that content was omitted in order to meet a too-soon Lucasarts release date.