[Mod][Total Conversion] Legacy of the Old Republic

[Renegades Modding Group]

We're proud to finally announce Star Wars: Legacy of the Old Republic, a Stellaris mod.
With roughly a year of development, this autumn you can dive into the time of the Old Republic, an era full of mysteries, stories and conflict.
This will be a total conversion mod aligned closely to Stellaris Gameplay.

Former members of SW: Fallen Republic and fresh faces joined together within the Renegade Modding Group to create this new experience in a fresh era.
Since the Old Republic covers a large time period (roughly 25,000 years), we have condensed the timeline and taken creative liberties in gameplay and lore to give you the best possible experience.

The initial release will focus on the Galaxy at large and the story around the Foundation of the Republic up to the Mandalorian Crusade.
With roughly 40 playable Empires, including a few surprises, you can choose to follow the original History of the Republic or create your own.
What Legacy will you leave behind?

Check out the little teaser that we made just for you and keep an eye out for our biweekly dev diaries. For more information join our Discord server and select the Incubator role.

Teaser:

 

[WolfBlitz128]

Looks amazing, can't wait!

 

[Renegades Modding Group]

LotOR Dev Diary #1 - Timeline & State Of The Galaxy​

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Storified TL;DR:​

The Galaxy is unexplored and vast. After venturing too far into the unknown parts, two humans from the core discovered the Sith Empire in the Outer Rim. A war between a coalition of aligned worlds in the Core and the invading Sith Empire led to galactic isolation, unease, and fear of the unknown. Yet, a new generation of explorers and colonists is ready to leave the boundaries of their homeworld and create an Age of Prosperity and Exploration.

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Long version:​

Introduction​

Hello there! We are so happy to finally put out our first Dev Diary for Legacy of the Old Republic (LotOR). We hope that we'll be able to give you an introduction to the mod we are building, answer some of your questions and receive your feedback (we love it). If you want to be part of the LotOR community, leave feedback and be one of the firsts that see new leaks and info about the mod, then make sure you join the RMG Discord server and choose the Incubator role in the #roles channel.

The Galaxy​

LotOR's main map is derived from the large map available in our other mod, Star Wars Galaxy 2, made by chriskar. We made small changes to it to better fit the narrative of the Old Republic reaching a system count of 1336.
The map built by chriskar is completely new, and he manually created it from sources like the "Star Wars: The Essential Atlas" book and the SWGALAXYMAP website. All systems were handpicked based on their importance and placed according to both canon and legends info. SWG2 is a good mod, check it out .

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The Settings​

An important thing to note here is that, on release, not all systems will have lore-accurate planets but we plan to add more with every update. But for release, most of the important systems - and their neighbouring ones - will have lore-accurate planets and asteroids.
To try and please as many people as possible we added two settings that can be used to tailor your experience. These settings will let you decide how lore-accurate you want your game to be. Do you want to experience the story of the Old Republic? Do you want to also use huge ships like Juggernauts?

As you will probably notice in the below screenshot, we kept the vanilla starting year. We've found that changing the starting year leads to things like economic plans breaking or not working as expected, so we decided to leave it to default until we get better moddability features in this area.

A Note On The Lore​

Truth be told, the Old Republic timeline is a mess, 20000 years of nothing followed by a decade full with half of the major events (hyperspace must be fast), so it's impossible to represent in Stellaris as it is. We decided to first: compress the timeline; and second: create our custom start scenario.

Since the timeline is compressed in some places more than in others, you can't have a simple way of finding a lore date based on the in-game date, and that's why we think that the in-game starting year of 2200 won't bother many people.
Our custom start was necessary to sustain the gameplay that we wanted, as close to vanilla as possible. The storified TL;DR explains the start scenario pretty well, but I'll try to make it more clear:

The Great Hyperspace War made citizens afraid that a resurgent Sith Empire was lurking in unexplored systems.This fear led to the loss of any diplomatic communications between any empires and the adoption of isolationist policies.The coalition disbanded and major hyperlanes became empty. But now you come along, a new generation of explorers and colonists, will you have the courage to venture into the unknown, meet old and new friends and maybe even enemies?

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The Gameplay​

As previously mentioned, we are aiming to create a gameplay that feels like vanilla, this way you won't have to re-learn the entire game and the mod will feel accessible even for new players of the game.

You will start as you would in vanilla - with one planet in a system. Your objectives are to explore and expand, reconnecting with the other isolated empires in the galaxy. If you are one of the Core World empires, perhaps you would want to form the Galactic Republic (more on that in its own Dev Diary).

We've kept most of the core elements of vanilla Stellaris while adding Star Wars flavor to them. Some examples would be keeping the same vanilla ship sizes but adding new auxiliary components or adapting vanilla resources and adding a few of our own. We also added new anomalies and powerful relics but we need a dev diary just for them.

The first era that we are delivering on release is the Foundation of the Republic Era. In this era, which will be around 80 years long, you are meant to explore the Galaxy and form the Republic. Maybe you won't like the Republic, maybe you will be one of its founding members or even one of the elected Supreme Chancellors, you choose your path, but don’t forget to prepare for the crisis!

Of course, there are other changes and new mechanics about which I can't tell you in this Dev Diary, so look forward to the next ones. And make sure to join our Discord, ask questions and leave feedback, we love well-argued and constructive feedback

 

[Renegades Modding Group]

LotOR Dev Diary #2 - Empires​

Introduction​

Greetings Exalted ones, after the resounding success of our first dev diary (our secret sources tell us that not only two but actually three people read them!) It's finally time to delve into Star Wars Legacy of the Old Republic again. This Dev Diary will be focused on the Empires inside the galaxy.

DISCLAIMER: The following images have been taken from a Work In Progress version of the mod and don't represent the final product.

Important Empires​

The galaxy can be split into multiple sectors, like for example the Deep Core, the Galactic Core, the Inner Rim & the Outer Rim. Inside the Inner Rim & Deep Core you can find the core members of the future Galactic Republic.

Obviously a couple of other empires inhabit this region of space such as the Kuat Aristocracy or the Ahto High Council. Both of them are a bit special but more on that in later diaries. If we expand into the Inner Rim a handful of empires like for example the isolationist Covenant of Togruta or the downright criminal Czerka Corporation. Furthermore we have the primal Hsskor Dominion, the old Empire of the Trandoshan species as well as others like the Theocracy of Onderon, an old Sith sect.

If we move further towards the edge of the galaxy we find harsher environments, occupied by empires that are more ruthless and are less diplomatically oriented. This region of the galaxy is inhabited by the glorious Hutt Empire and the clans of Mandalore.

On the very edge of the galaxy you can find some of the most dangerous empires. This part of the galaxy is home to the remnants of Xim’s empire in the form of the Tionese Hegemony. The Sith, after having fled Korriban, have started quietly rebuilding on Dromund Kaas, under their new leader.

Besides those empires there exist a bubble of the unknown, a chaos so to speak of different species and unstable hyperlanes. On the very west of the galaxy is the Chaos otherwise known as the Unknown Regions. Since not many empires inside this secluded area of the galaxy are known we took a bit of creative liberty and some aspects from the recent Thrawn Ascendancy Trilogy to fill out this area.

Obviously that's not every Empire between Coruscant and Dromund Kaas, many species reside inside the Star Wars galaxy and with roughly 36 playable Empires we have most of the important ones.

Yet not every Empire grew out of the fall of the Rakatan Civilization. Ancient species & primal evils are rooted into this galaxy, ready to consume whomever approaches them.

 

[qer]

Shouldn't humans share the same traits as species and their differences be only ethic wise? AFAIK species traits in stellaris are mean to represent genetic traits rather than differences in cultural behavior.

 

[Daedwartin]

So here's a question...Will there be a whole event chain about trying to get either High Galactic or Aurebesh to be the official language of the Republic?

After all, cant have an early days SW without a few dozen spats of all kinds between Alsakan and Coruscant!

 

[bauty99999]

Simply amazing i am looking foward to this excellent mod. I am a huge fan of the work with the fallen republic and i play it everyday.
perhaps it will be of great help to use the sith/jedi training of the fallen republic, but more important i am looking for the old republic sith empire ships, perhaps events where important jedi fight high sith officials like grand moffs and sith masters or even the emperor, i think this will be very fun to add the mod.
Also different campaigns where the republic and the sith empire invade worlds simultainously with sith and jedi generals.
Most of all i want to thank you in advance with all this great work that you are doing, i hope the mod will be coming soon but please take your time.
I will be waiting.
Best regards and good luck with the hard work

 

[Renegades Modding Group]

Shouldn't humans share the same traits as species and their differences be only ethic wise? AFAIK species traits in stellaris are mean to represent genetic traits rather than differences in cultural behavior.

Thanks for the question and sorry for the super late response!
You are right about that, however there's no way to represent cultural behavior without them. Ethics are applied on empires but that doesn't mean that all pops of that empire will follow those ethics. We might revisit this in the future if we come up with new ideas or if we get a better moddability support.

 

[Renegades Modding Group]

So here's a question...Will there be a whole event chain about trying to get either High Galactic or Aurebesh to be the official language of the Republic?

After all, cant have an early days SW without a few dozen spats of all kinds between Alsakan and Coruscant!

Thanks for the question and sorry for the super late response!
There will be a conflict between Alsakan and Coruscant. This is all I can say.

 

[Renegades Modding Group]

 

[Renegades Modding Group]

LotOR Dev Diary #4 - Storytelling​

DISCLAIMER: The following images have been taken from a Work In Progress version of the mod and don't represent the final product.

Introduction

Today’s dev diary will be looking at storytelling in the mod. LOTOR is covering a period of galactic history where the only “skywalkers” are in the Chiss Ascendency. This timeframe is incredibly dense with several wars, crises, and events on both a galactic and empire level. This mod will by no means try to tackle every single event/moment from the numerous books and comics, as well as quests from KOTOR and SWTOR. Instead, we’ve focused on major events, major flashpoints, and major wars while sprinkling a bit of extra flavor from these periods throughout. We’ve also approached storytelling and immersion through other means as well: visuals and audio.

In short, this won’t be a 1:1 retelling of events from the end of the Great Hyperspace War through the High Republic. Some events will happen as they did in lore, others can occur differently. Others will be omitted but will be explored as if they happened within other quests.

Types of events and quests

In LOTOR, there are a few different types of quests and events that mirror vanilla gameplay in some respects: anomalies and dig sites, galactic events, country events, and generic events. Some quests and events will help introduce the eras to new players or ones who aren’t familiar with galactic affairs prior to the Clone Wars. Additionally, some galactic and country events also act as story events for that era.

Anomalies and Dig Sites

These events are more in-line with vanilla game play and need barely any explanation when it comes to people familiar with the game; however, for new players, these events can be described rather briefly. Anomalies and dig sites are found while science ships are surveying new systems and can be studied by scientists. The rewards may vary, ranging from scientists gaining more experience to uncovering an ancient artifact of immense power.

Generic events

Generic events in LOTOR are very similar to ones you’d find in New Civilizations, New Dawn, and vanilla. They can happen to any empire at any point in time and can yield benefits such as gaining unity or unique resources to some less positive benefits such as a dianoga infestation or increased crime due to illegal swoop bike races.

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Country events

Country events are the ones that will occur only for specific empires. Some of these events will allow the player to improve various aspects of their empire. This can range from new ship architecture to powerful new leaders or schematics, and in some cases, the creation of new empires and threats. Some of these include the Duros colonization of Neimoidia and the Alsakan attempts to usurp Coruscant. These events can also snowball into the last type of events, Galactic events.

Galactic events

Galactic events are the major story events for LOTOR that happen to the galaxy as a whole as opposed to a singular empire and can have far reaching effects such as the rakghoul plague and the Cold War between the Republic and Sith. Some galactic events begin at a country level and as the quest chain is followed, it builds toward a larger event. Other galactic events act as crises such as Mandalore the Ultimate’s crusade and in later releases, the return of the Sith Empire.
In some cases, galactic events will result in new leaders appearing for planet states and in some cases, player-controlled empires.

Other types of immersion

Quests and events make up the bulk of the storytelling in LOTOR but at the same time, we try to visually and audibly capture the essence of the period and galaxy as well. Most major empires and planet states will have their own unique rooms that reflect the culture of the founding species. For example, the Trandoshans of the Hsskor Dominion have a room that is adorned with hunting trophies and the Mon Calamari have a room set in the watery depths of the planet . In the same vein, some of the rooms intend to capture the distinct look of their homeworld in this early period in galactic history, such as the Coruscanti Union (See Dev Diary 2 for examples of both.)

Another way we’re approaching immersion is through event pictures and clothing. Although a relatively minor aspect of the mod, the team is making sure that all of our new events, as well as a few vanilla ones, have event pictures that fit with this broad period of galactic history. These event images are sourced from a variety of places ranging from the “Galactic Timeline” video series made to promote SWTOR to images from RPG and reference books and concept art from other Star Wars related material. We’ve also decided to use clothes and uniforms that best reflect appearances around the KOTOR/SWTOR eras. Some empires like the Chiss Ascendency and the Sith will have unique outfits while others will have fairly generic but still era appropriate clothes.

Music is another area we’ve addressed as well. We wanted to avoid using music that largely represented anything outside of this era and for that reason we opted toward using music from KOTOR and SWTOR with some additional tracks from Republic Commando, Samuel Kim’s renditions of Revan, Malak, and Bastilla’s themes, and a singular track from Rogue One. We’re also adding additional tracks with major content updates as well while maintaining this philosophy. If it gets too out of hand, expect a music add-on.

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And with that we wrap up this dev diary. Next week we will be looking at the new mechanic of planet states and discuss their role in our mod.

 

[Heretic-Slayer]

Could we get an option to play without AI? In multiplayer of course.

 

[Renegades Modding Group]

Could we get an option to play without AI? In multiplayer of course.

We might consider it in the future

 

[Renegades Modding Group]

LotOR Dev Diary #5 - Planet States​

DISCLAIMER: The following images have been taken from a Work In Progress version of the mod and don't represent the final product.

Introduction

We’ve chosen to integrate the “Planet States” mod into LotOR to be more in line with the lore. However, these planet states are not as advanced as the one from the original mod. The planet states in LotOR start with the same number of pops as you do and aside from helping us deliver a narrative, are also a way to fill the galaxy on low-end machines because they don’t have an internal economy.

Types

There are two big types of planet states: generic and special.

Generic planet states are AI empires that lost the slider lottery and have been changed to a planet state. Any AI empire, besides the ones that we always spawn, can spawn as a generic planet state if the AI Empires slider is not maxed out.

As a generic planet state they offer you different types of trades from resources to slaves. Some of the more important states, like Kuat, also have a ship architecture option that you can buy and use to build ships in a specific way (more on that in future dev diaries).

Special planet states are states that have major importance on galactic scale and that we intend to change to feel unique from the others. The only one that we currently have is the Jedi Order. Another planet state that we are looking to change into a special one is Kuat.

 

[Renegades Modding Group]

LotOR Dev Diary #6 - The Galactic Republic​

Introduction
Greetings fellow senators and Old Republic enthusiasts, this time we will talk about how the Galactic Republic is presented and a couple other things. But first, a reminder about the lore surrounding Legacy of the Old Republic:

The galaxy is unexplored and vast. After venturing too far into parts unknown, two spacers from the Core discovered the Sith Empire in the Outer Rim. A war between a coalition of aligned worlds in the Core and the invading Sith Empire led to galactic isolation, unease, and fear of the unknown. Yet, a new generation of explorers and colonists is ready to leave the boundaries of their homeworld and create an age of prosperity and exploration.

While technically the Galactic Republic existed for roughly 25.000 years, adapting that system goes against our design goal for the mod which is to be similar to vanilla. Legacy of the Old Republic will start without a Galactic Republic directly at gamestart and the four core founders will get the option to form it in the early game. This system is similar to creating the United Federation of Planets in “Star Trek: New Civilizations.”

DISCLAIMER: The following images have been taken from a Work In Progress version of the mod and don't represent the final product.

The Galactic Republic - How to form it?
The Galactic Republic uses the Galactic Community system from Stellaris with a couple of important changes. For example the addition of a Supreme Chancellor which can be voted by the current members of the Republic as well as a new joining mechanism.



Almost every empire can join the Galactic Republic with a couple of logical exceptions like the Sith Empire or the Mandalorians.

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To join the cool people club, you need to have good relations with at least one current member of the Galactic Republic and have a common border with them. The shared border is to prevent empires from across the galaxy (such as those in the Unknown Regions) to join the Republic, thus allowing for a more natural expansion.

Fulfilling both requirements allows you to click on the “Apply” button. Afterwards a unique resolution is created to let the current members vote on if they want to have you as a member.

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Planet States are the only exception from this, they have a random chance of joining the Republic if they border at least one of the members and have good relations with them.

The AI will do this automatically and there are a couple of things influencing it for example:
Even chances (random_list 10) to apply or not apply, modified by (to join)

• factor = 1.5 if plentiful influence
• factor = 1.5 if Xenophile

and (NOT to join)

• factor = 2 if Xenophobe
• factor = 2 if Militarist
• factor = 5 if bad relations with ANY member
• factor = 10 if rivaling ANY member

This way every new Galactic Republic should form slightly different and provide a different approach to the player.

The Galactic Republic - What does it do?

The Galactic Republic provides all the benefits of the normal Galactic Community as well as a couple of more unique things.
As usual you can vote on regulations and try to get more political power on the galaxy map, but you can also aspire to lead the republic towards its next golden age.

At the moment the Galactic Republic provides you a unique Tradition focused around diplomacy, improved leaders and stylish new uniforms for your people! (note: these don't work with every alien race yet)

Be careful of the orange blob of expansion​

The Galactic Republic - Supreme Chancellor

A Supreme Chancellor is the de facto Leader of the Galactic Republic. They can make use of some special resolutions to provide stability or change to a more permanent chancellorship.

(not adjusted yet)​

Most of these features are not touched yet beside some smaller things like the Galactic Defense Force using Republic Ships. We will most likely leave it for a future Republic themed update.

But how do you become the Supreme Chancellor?

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With a lot of hard work and dozens of hours of overtime, you too can essentially bribe your way to the top. Even if our Galactic Republic isn't as corrupt as the future version, favors and deals will always make up most of the diplomatic decisions.

There is a rather complex system behind the nomination process but to break it down, you nominate yourself (your current ruler) which factors in favors owed to you, your diplomatic strength and some other things.

After the initial round, the top 3 countries with the most Nominations will be put to a direct vote.

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The AI will always vote for itself if nominated, will prefer voting for countries with good/excellent relations and will never vote on countries rivalling or at war with it.
and with some luck, you too can be the next Supreme Chancellor!

This is all for now, the next dev diary will be about Release Content, Beta and what to expect for later on.

 

[Zarket]

Hmm, this is amazing! Could we have more information about the mechanics of Jedi and Sith? This will have other traditions of the Force like the Guardians of the Whills?

 

[Renegades Modding Group]

Hmm, this is amazing! Could we have more information about the mechanics of Jedi and Sith? This will have other traditions of the Force like the Guardians of the Whills?

sometimes devs leak info in discord

 

[Renegades Modding Group]

LotOR Dev Diary #7 - Beta and the road ahead​

DISCLAIMER: The following images have been taken from a Work In Progress version of the mod and don't represent the final product.

Greetings and welcome to Developer Diary 7 for Legacy of the Old Republic! Today we will be discussing the current state of the mod, what to expect upon public release, and beta testing.

State of the Mod



Work on Legacy of the Old Republic has been going on for roughly 14 months now. We managed a lot in that time and had a lot of concept changes. As usual these mostly manifested in additional things we wanted to include in the mod as well as a few scrapped ideas.These range from mechanics to events to other features.

One example of a scrapped Idea is the way how the manpower resource is produced. We planned for it to come from pops directly which seemed to work fine but in the end the game's AI was too confused by this process despite it being nearly identical to the Lithoid traits. This meant that we needed to switch it to being produced by military and administrative buildings.

It is a bit hard to evaluate the progress of a rather complex mod like a total conversion but for the past three to four months, our mod has been in stable and playable state. All that remains now is weapon balance as it isn’t easy to gather data from watching the AI fight each other. Another area that will need some work is the Outer Rim ships which need their locators and engine particles added.
Additionally, we are currently adding flavor, events, and new ways to use certain resources as well as revising smaller 2D assets to help enhance the experience.

What To Expect On Release

We plan to release the mod with version 0.9 which means that most of the planned features are implemented. Upon release of our initial version, you should expect a completely playable version of our mod that has the following features:

• A vanilla-like gameplay set in the Old Republic era of galactic history
• a vanilla like economy with a few new era appropriate resources
• Revamped visuals for tradition trees, districts, buildings
• Revamped but vanilla like technologies
• A new galaxy map
• Roughly 30ish Star Wars empires with their own portraits, rooms, civics, etc.
• Shipsets for the Sith Empire, Republic, Hutts, Kuat, Outer Rim, Mandalorians, and generic empires.
• Era appropriate music i.e. none of John Williams score from the prequel/original/sequel trilogies
• New traditions for specific empires or paths (Jedi/Sith)
• A variety of generic events to make the galaxy more immersive
• Planet State system for smaller empires such as Manaan and Kuat
• an adaption of the Dark UI - OrangeGold
• and more.

With that being said, it's important to remember that version 0.9 is not our complete vision for the project, acting merely as the foundation and only covers the period from the end of the Great Hyperspace War through the Mandalorian Wars. This means that on release, there will be no events or scenarios related to the Jedi Civil War, the Great Galactic War, Zakuul, or the Nihil. These periods will be addressed in themed updates post-release.


Example of a story event


Example of a new tradition

Beta Application

To avoid having the mod leaked, we decided on a rather small closed beta (roughly 5 people). If you wish to participate, join the Renegade Modding Community Discord and search for the #lotor_talk channel under the incubator section.
Based on feedback from our testers, we will determine if everything is on track for a December 2021 release of 0.9 or if it will be delayed until early 2022.
This is everything for now, the next dev diary is not planned yet but will most likely focus on our findings from the beta as well as an announcement of a release date or delay.

 

[Daedwartin]

On the elections for Chancellor, I think it look better if it had the name of the actual leader of that nation in question and next to that name in parenthesis the nation in question. That way, it feels more like we are electing a person.

Also, The Senate is too big. It has a size of Not Palpatine

 

[Emperor12345]

Sorry, but the jedi only started to recuit only childs on the 4000 BBY. It was an innovation of Atris (the one from KotOR2) which was petrified in the structure of the order after that. In this mod is before that... Well...