Kotor 2 Skipping Dialogue Bug
Stephanie Dejoode
Anyone have this problem on the Switch version? This is a heavily story driven game so having huge chunks of dialogue automatically skip is game breaking for me. I am playing on the Switch lite if that matters.
I've been working on KLE and some mods, and I've come across an interesting discovery: I think that the infamous dialog skipping issue in TSL is due to an issue with the "Delay" field in entries in the DLG file.
It's well known that TSL sometimes skips through dialogs - this problem is historically fixed by restarting the game. Some examples of people reporting this issue include:
-star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic-ii-the-sith-lords/answers/21030-how-do-you-fix-the-dialogue-skipping (originally I thought this issue was related to the Steam version of TSL, but this report is from 11 years ago so clearly it was a problem in the base game too).
Plenty of Reddit posts, but I don't want to embed them.
I'm pretty sure there's even a lot of legitimate entries that have delay 0 that should be skipped: ones with only developer commentary. TSL has commentary in basically all of its dialogue files, mostly talking about how the camera is moved, the mental state of a character, etc. I think that's meant for the animators and voice actors? The commentary is enclosed in curly brackets and the game filters those out. Likewise, there's entries that exist solely for camera movement.
It's absolutely a fault in the base game, since it also sometimes happens to the Xbox version. Had it happen to me in my current playthrough actually, cheating me of a chance to garner influence with Visas Marr (when you give the fleeing mother on Onderon a starport visa, she reacts to it in a dialogue scene where the right response bolsters influence; the scene started but cut off before Visas' lips even had a chance to move). One thing I'm not sure of is if it happens more often when playing on the 360 (which I was) compared to an original Xbox.
I've just arrived on Telos, and have been let out of the apartment. I see a cutscene, where the ravager appears - there's a movie, which I can see. Then there is a cutscene, with in-game graphics. There is no sound, and it skips over the dialogue - I don't have time to read what happened.
The infamous dialog skipping of KotOR2, which has plagued the game since it's release is quite the immersion breaker and can certainly ruin a playthrough if you end up losing hours or more of gameplay in order to see whatever dialog was skipped over when it occurred.
It is my hope that after having properly ordered every line of dialog in the port, it will shed some light or at the least prove one way or the other if the dialog skipping issue truly is a memory leak in the executable or if it is as I suspect, a memory leak caused by the dialog files themselves, which of course would still manifest itself inside the executable.
Keep an eye out for dialog skipping as of the next patch ( 1.0.8 ) which I will be releasing in the next week or two, this is only for the Port at the moment as I chose to use it as a testing ground to diagnose the problem before tweaking every dialog in KotOR 2.
Namely, I've been experiencing this fast-forward dialogue bug. Every now and then, the dialogue is simply skipped - e.g., I choose a dialogue option, then the screen blinks and next thing I know, I'm presented with a new choice of dialogue options. I've had it happen to me at least twice - once in the cutscene where I talk about my accommodation on the Harbinger, and then SPOILER WARNING when the half-rotten Sith Lord has a go at me and Atton in the engine room, shortly after his battle with Kreia.
It's not bantha poodoo. More likely it's a bug. Did someone report it in the bug section of this forum already? That's surely a better place than posting this in a thread from 2011 about skipping cutscenes.
Submitted by UnfortunatelyHuman: I was on Manaan when I discovered that Jolee had the "I am broken; so very very broken glitch. I thought it would go away and kept playing. It didn't. When I got to the temple entrance chanting cutscene on the unknown planet, only Juhani showed up, and the cutscene ended with her still standing there. I tried again and the same thing happened, but the original Juhani wasn't replaced, it was copied. I did this ten times, and it worked every time. The clones don't go away. I tried adding the real Juhani to my party, leaving the area, and transiting to the Ebon Hawk, but they don't leave. I also still can't progress because the dialogue won't finish and the Rakatans won't finish chanting. I have no idea why this is happening. Any ideas? This is on the Amazon Underground download for Kindle Fire. Does that matter?
'"Submitted by Jakeedgell: '"This glich happened on the Xbox original and 360 but only on Taris. Your followers (and eventually everyone around you) would start speaking quickly and with high voices as though the audio files had been crudely sped up. Loading a previous save fixed this but it would happen periodically on Taris, usually triggered by dialogue between Mission and Carth.
Just to clarify: In this thread we are talking about READING and UNDERSTANDING the subtitle but SKIPPING the voice acting by clicking before the line has finished being spoken. It is not like skipping lines in a book.
Setup is important, you want to make a directory dedicated to your mod and all the files that will be included. This will prevent you from having files floating around in your kotor directory and losing them. Another problem is when it comes time to pack up your mod into a .rar file it will be a GREAT advantage if you know where all your files are. Not having this could cause you to forget some things, as I have done many times in the past. And In hosting sites such as pcgamemods.com, you cant overwrite your previous submission. Here is what you want to do: In your SWKotOR/TSL Directory you will want to create a folder(If you dont know how to create a folder then right click in an open space and select new, then new folder).
Normally I wouldn't lead with an example beyond PC gaming, but Capcom are monsters so I have no choice. The best interrupts are in Asura's Wrath, a 2012 console game about jackass demigods, where you can cut short the monologue cutscenes of several bosses by telling them to shut up and punching them in the face. It is perfect. Mass Effect has lesser punches, too. Oxenfree's interruptions give a lively flow to conversation. And while Fallout 4 isn't my bag, I was delighted to discover that skipping through dialogue is reflected in-world by our character hurrying people along with uh huhs and quips, complete with special lines for when you're drunk. Interrupts are exciting steps to make video game dialogue feel more natural but reader dear, you should've shouted SHUT UP and hit me by now.
Note: if you can't find your 'swkotor.ini' file by following the steps above, try following this path instead: Library > Application Support > Knights of the Old Republic. Your 'swkotor.ini' file might be hiding in there if you're playing on Mac via Steam. Once you've found it, pick up with the bullet point in the list above that starts with the words 'Right click'.
The battle stimulants wear off in real time, so the longer you spend talking to Malak, the less time the battle stimulants last in battle. Listen to the conversation the first time through, just to hear it all. Then load your save and talk to Malak again. Quickly skip through the dialogue and get to the fight to preserve your stimulants.
The Knights of the Fallen Empire (KOTFE) expansion can be started from the glowing blue terminal on your ship at level 60. You can technically skip ahead and start Knights of the Fallen Empire without completing the other storylines, but be aware the skipping forward will auto-complete your class story, companion conversations, the Shadow of Revan expansion.
The story is slightly different Republic and Imperial side, and there is some interesting small dialogue differences for the Sith Inquisitor, Jedi Knight, Imperial Agent and if you romanced Theron Shan, and some differences depending on whether or not you sent Arcann out or not.
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