Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2 Tweak Guide

[Page 4] Patches, Maps & Mods



Official Patch


Knights of the Old Republic 2 has had two official patches released for it after much anticipation and months of waiting. The first patch was only a minor fix, while the second official patch brings the game up to Version 1.0b. It corrects a wide range of game glitches and problems. I strongly recommend that all KOTOR 2 players install this patch otherwise you will run into a range of problems during the game.


LucasArts have also recently released the high quality Media Update Patches for KOTOR 2. There is a Movie Patch made up of 6 parts (1.1GB in total) and a Music Patch (148MB), and these patches update the music and movies of the game to full high quality video/audio. Note, you don't have to install any of these patches for KOTOR 2 to run without any problems, they are only provided due to complaints about the low quality of audio and in-game movies


To check for updates for your existing version of KOTOR 2 at any time, open the KOTOR 2 Launcher and click on the Update button, or go to your \Program Files\LucasArts\SWKotOR2\ directory and run the swupdate.exe file, or visit the LucasArts Support Site.


Click to enlarge

No-CD Patch


Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2 requires a disc to be kept in the drive at all times. Long-time readers of TweakGuides.com would know that I believe the CD check for modern games is just plain silly and annoying, and should be removed by manufacturers. It only punishes legitimate users, since pirated versions already include a No-CD patch. While you can download a No-CD patch to remove this CD check, as with all my recent tweak guides I cannot include any information on where to find, or how to install No-CD patches for games. This is only due to legal concerns, and not any moral considerations on using such software.


I can only stress that if you wish to use a No-CD patch, be very careful where you source it from. Some of these patches and cracks are actually trojans, designed to steal your legitimate CD key. Keeping the CD in the drive while playing does not reduce your performance noticeably, so if in doubt don't install a suspicious No-CD patch. Ignore people who claim that using a No-CD doubled their performance and solved all their problems – this is simply not true. Hopefully Lucasarts will release a patch which has a built-in No-CD, but this is unlikley as the original KOTOR never received one.


Note that as of the 1.0b patch, you are unlikely to find a KOTOR2 No-CD given the complex protection system it uses (SecuROM 7) which is extremely difficult to crack. You will simply have to play with the game CD in the drive.



Maps, Mods and Missing Pieces


It is highly unlikely that Knights of the Old Republic 2 will ever receive any official new maps or mods. This is simply because official maps and mods are more commonly released for games which have a multiplayer component. Word is that Knights of the Old Republic 3 is already in development, so any further add-ons for KOTOR 2 from LucasArts are even more unlikely.


However as usual, the resourceful fans have come up with various ways of modifying Knights of the Old Republic, and Knights of the Old Republic 2. One way of doing this is by using the KOTOR Tool editing tool. If you want more details of other modding tools, and procedures for actually undertaking a mod, read this thread on the LucasForums. As any major mods are released for KOTOR 2 I will update this section to include more of them.


Finally, since Obsidian rushed to release Knights of the Old Republic 2, there are missing components of KOTOR 2 which have surfaced. These portions of the game were cut from the final version simply because they were incomplete. You can read more about these by going through this thread on the Obsidian forums. There's even an extracted portion of HK dialogue you can listen to here (from that thread). Clearly these may spoil the plot for those of you who haven't finished the game, so I recommend you read/listen to these missing pieces after completing KOTOR 2.


It's unfortunate that LucasArts forced Obsidian's completion of KOTOR 2 before all the plot elements could be tied together more neatly and the game fleshed out more fully - including the resolution of some fairly annoying programming bugs. Another official patch for the game may resolve these issues, and of course when released you can read all about it right here.



The next section of the guide covers all the In-Game Settings for Star Wars KOTOR 2.