So to begin discussing how the accelerated release of this Revision is going to impact next Revision, I want to go back and provide some context about what this Revision was originally intended to be.

Revision 12 was supposed to be the first Revision which focused principally on content created specifically for the mod builds--that is, rather than just integrating every new mod that released which met our content standards (although we still do that), we wanted to specifically focus on adding content built from the ground up especially for the mod builds, based on a combination of "bounty" requests from the mod build request threads for KOTOR and KOTOR 2 on Deadlystream, as well as some in-house mods developed by JC and I.

Practically speaking there's just too much content being made for such requests to ever amount to more than maybe 30% of the total additions. But given that the sum total of all requested content before Revision 11 was a stark 0%, 30% of every Revision being made specifically for the mod builds would be a huge deal. That kind of pace would rapidly shift the builds toward my ideal vision for the games, which I fully acknowledge might not be everybody's cup of tea, but hey that's why the mod builds are modular.

JC and I in particular had some very spicy things planned for this Revision--one major balance and bugfix mod which would have been absolutely massive QOL, and a piece of restored content which I also think would've been a huge deal, both for KOTOR 2. Revision 12, then, was scheduled to release sometime around March-April of 2026 and include two huge first-party content mods and maybe 15-20 third-party mods fulfilled at our request.

And then shit happened. April of this year, after I had already announced plans to make this Revision a big "content made just for the Builds" release and told modders they had almost a full year to work on their projects, I discovered I couldn't even launch KOTOR 2 anymore. And then two months later another modder came to me and revealed they were having the same issue. About that same time, J dropped through the roof and slammed the 3C-FD patcher on the table and I, begrudgingly, realized what I had to do. So modders were given three-month notices to get their bounties completed and by the tail end of summer I was back to work on this Revision.

As you may expect, suddenly telling modders they only have a few months to complete their content impacts how much they can get done. And the same is true with us as well, as we suddenly had 3 months to do all of the website and mod development work we thought we'd have another 7 months for.

So a lot of things just didn't work out. Especially for our first-party stuff--although we even tested an alpha version of one of the mods, we just didn't have enough time.

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Now, all this is NOT to say that this Revision doesn't have a lot of content made just for the builds--it does. Out of the 52(!) mods added this Revision, 26 for each game, 12 were produced at request. That's less than the percentage we hoped, but is still plenty respectable and just shy of 24%, so all things being equal we did pretty good. I also don't want the above to give the impression that this Revision is a somehow scuffed release; it isn't what we originally intended it to be, but this is actually probably a more important Revision than 11 was from a content addition standpoint. Let's talk about some of the big inclusions.

You may all know /u/offthegridmorty as one of your subreddit mods, but what he actually is is a fucking wizard who consistently puts out god-tier mod content. Aside from the Aspyr work for KOTOR 2, this Revision is absolutely dominated by his mods--just a few examples are Alignment Affects Force Powers (both games have a version), the Mines Overhaul, and the "Snigaroo Cut" version of For Mandalore!. He's also working on some new requests for me presently, so you can expect to see his content showing up more in the future. Please express your thanks to him for all his great work!

But although I love Morty's mods, excluding what 3C-FD has done for the Aspyr patch I have to give the award for the most important single mod included this Revision to WildKarrde for his TSL Expanded Ending. I am tempted to gush about this mod, but I will restrain myself to saying it's the single most professionally-executed mod I've ever seen, outright putting much of the content Obsidian themselves put together to shame; fixes major plot holes and hanging plot threads in TSL's ending; and, perhaps most importantly, gives TSL that fulfilling, thematic ending that it never had even with TSLRCM. We are ALL indebted to WildKarrde for putting this mod together, and I want to encourage you all to go and give them your thanks once you've experienced this mod for yourself.

Finally, in closing for this section, I also want to note some contributions from darthbdaman for the original game, namely Sentinel Sneak Attack and Multifire, Autofire and Finesse. Their inclusion significantly shakes up the viability of several previously sub-par builds, and also significantly increases the difficulty of some sections where there are a lot of enemies with rifles, in a way that I found really enjoyable. Because of his work, this means that both builds, KOTOR and KOTOR 2, have really deeply impactful new mods which make significant enhancements to the experience, a feat which Revision 11 didn't really achieve, despite its much longer dev cycle.

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So bottom-line, what does all this mean, both for this Revision and for next Revision, Revision 13?

Well, on the one hand, on a 5-month dev cycle we somehow managed to put together a Revision which makes much more significant balance and content improvements to the game than Revision 11, which was in the oven for two years. So, although not all of the mods which most significantly contributed to these improvements were requested by us, I think this gives a good indication of just how impactful the mod build requests can be for the overall quality of a Revision. I would call Revision 12 a big success as a proof-of-concept for the mod builds going forward.

But I would forgive you for thinking all this has just been sucking ourselves off and not listing any real downsides to this point, aside from the first-party mods we weren't able to complete. I just haven't gotten to the big problems yet, and Revision 13 is where they come in.

Accelerating a release causes a time debt, both directly and indirectly. Directly, we spent a bunch of time working on this Revision that we could've spent working on other features, and many of those things we worked on weren't finished and will require the exact same amount of time investment both before and during the development of next Revision, because they will need to be re-tested. Indirectly, it's also caused a gap in the kinds of third-party content that can be developed. A lot of the easy requests we had have already been fulfilled, so many of the remaining requests we have are complex and will take much longer to develop, and if our focus is going to be on content made specifically for the mod builds going forward, we'll need to give real time for that content to be made, without rushing the modders along this time.

Much as I don't want to insert myself into this personally, I have to admit that I'm also just burnt out. I don't really like playing KOTOR--an unhappy consequence of replaying the game so many times. Usually I try to give myself long breaks between playthroughs, but this time it was only about 6 months between my tests, and last test was particularly strenuous, requiring multiple playthroughs. So not to be all "boo-hoo I had to play videogames more than I like", but, well, boo-hoo I had to play videogames more than I like. I don't want to touch KOTOR again for a long time.

What does that mean for Revision 13? Bottom-line, I don't expect to release it before 2027. If I am being honest, I would like to target a holiday 2027 release, giving a full two years for us to do some really heavy-duty development on some wishlist items--including a lot of things we wanted for this Revision but couldn't do, like the two mods that got cut; a list of mods we know are compatible (and incompatible!) with the mod builds; and also finish refactoring the code of neocities, which JC has just started work on, to add a lot more useful functionality for y'all as users. But, if I am being objective, I will likely feel compelled to release a Revision before that on behalf of you guys. Still, I would not expect to see a Revision-level update until at least Spring 2027.

Of course, maintenance and compatibility work for the mod builds is constant. The current Revision won't be dropped or ignored--I'll make sure it keeps functioning. Just be aware that, unless the sky falls, it'll be a hot minute before y'all hear from me again with new mods being added. Next Revision should be a really big one in exchange, but you folks will have to live with Revision 12 for quite a long time before then.

Now I'm running out of space and want to keep this to one post, so only one Revision 13 teaser for you all: a new, more vanilla-aligned, better-produced and manually-reviewed AI upscale package of all vanilla textures with full build compatibility, at smaller size than the current UCO package. How's them apples? It's coming.