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SP SDK petition (I know, I know...)


Master_Keralys

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Originally posted by Jedi_Vogel

This is probably true.

 

But also, to make good SP levels (it seems) you don't need an SP SDK, with the ability to make maps, models (if you have the software) and cut scenes you have almost everything you need. Of course, use your imagination in the EU, but everyone who made an SP level wouldn't necessarily have "gone roughshod" over the SW universe.

 

Isn't the aim of level building to create a darned good level and have fun doing and playing it, to share that fun with others? Yes. Not necessarily to rewrite SW...

 

In terms of the SDK, i don't want to use it in terms of map making but to include new features in the game that aren't already there. Perhaps developing a new way for the saber to be used as to make it more realistic. Or in JA's case, adding a 1st person viewpoint and tweaking it so you could have more peripheral vision as opposed to the default view. Maybe some new customability options complete with a new menu. I have other things in mind but this is coding work that requires the SDK. Other than that, making maps is pretty easy. I have about 20 unreleased maps for JO and a few experimentals for JA.

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Originally posted by Tyler_Durden

Or in JA's case, adding a 1st person viewpoint and tweaking it so you could have more peripheral vision as opposed to the default view. Maybe some new customability options complete with a new menu.

You can do all these things without the SDK right now...
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Originally posted by Prime

It doesn't really sound like something a company with a decent business model would do, does it? ;)

 

I think hoping that all of a sudden companies are going to start releasing their assets for free is a pipe dream. :)

Not when you realize we live in a time when the teens and twenty-ish kids fail to see the cognitive dissonance when they want to download everything for free, justifying it because it doesn't mean anything to the too-rich artists and companies, yet at the same time hope to strike it rich by being an IPO millionaire or something ...

 

... and they called the 70's the 'me' decade ... so far the new millenium has it beat - now the aspiration to wealth is admiable but attaining it is dispicable.

 

Mike

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Wow Mike, I totally agree. I hate the uneven argument whereby its OK to get anything for free on the net - music, games, films, and never paying for anything at all because its 'my way of fighting against the capatalist monster'. Seems like a lot of people don't value the creative arts anymore because they can just download them for absolutely nothing. I wish people would at least own up, stop talking all this nonsense about 'file sharing' and admit they just don't feel they should pay for anything for some reason.

 

Bloody students...

 

I'm done :)

 

EDIT: Oh, as I don't want to take this completely off topic...

 

Tyler, any chance we might see the release of some of these levels? You've been around the editing forums for a while now and I'm sure you've come up with some good stuff, we could badly do with some new SP levels.

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The biggest thing I'd like to see is some actual modification of SP code: implementation of things like the OJP team's RGB sabers; things like that. I'd take a lot of work, sure, burt I knkow there's people who'd do it, and do it well.

 

True, for maps you don't need it, but there's a lot of things the modding community would like to do with SP but can't.

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Originally posted by Master_Keralys

True, for maps you don't need it, but there's a lot of things the modding community would like to do with SP but can't.

Maybe so, but Raven and Lucasarts have gone out of their way to make this game moddable and have provided support to do so. Really, they have really gone beyond the call of duty in that regard. In fairness, I don't think it is right to demand and expect that they release company assets for free.
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I don't pretend to know the absolute logic behind LucasFilm/LucasArt's decisions about the SDK for JK2/JA.

 

 

However I do know that in the past (statements from developers working for them) that they are very, shall we say "anal" about the Star Wars liscense.

 

It probably has something to do with certain "minimum safeguards" against letting fans create their own Star Wars scenarios and storylines that could possibly (in some way, shape or form) make unauthorized changes to the OFFICIAL CONTINUITY or possibly fool people into thinking they are "official" products when they are not.

 

Of course it might seem hypocritical if this is their aim when they allow stuff like say the "Fan Films" on TheForce.net, etc.

 

Though I've never seen a fan film that has say Luke and Han doing something totally against the films, rather they use "made up" characters and storylines that might be similar to the movies but they're not "rip offs."

 

There's always the "Fox" mentality as well that says you can't let somebody make an amateur mod that is too good based on a concept you might want to make into a commercial game someday (because you don't want to risk having them try to sue or their mod taking sales away from the game you plan to make).

 

Even with LA's newfound respect for mods like UT2k3 Troopers, you have to remember that they have some new leadership over at LA now, so perhaps these policies are under review, and we don't know all the politics that go on over there.

 

 

We can't realistically expect Star Wars games to give us more than non-Star Wars games do in terms of modability, but on the other hand, since it IS Star Wars, they are very protective of it, and whatever their reasoning, they are afraid we'll tamper "too much" so they don't want to make it any easier for us to do that.

 

It's sort of like how you can't stop people from hacking into something if they are really smart and determined, but at least you can stop the majority of people by putting in certain minimum safeguards and perhaps hidding the information (a controversial strategy, but many companies believe in it).

 

 

Raven really wants to help us and they do every chance they get, but they always have to cowtow to what LucasArts/LucasFilm ultimately says about the liscense and properties. Not to mention the other complications like having to deal with ID for engines, and Activision for publishing/distribution rights.

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I don't think it's right to demand the SDK either. But what i think the goal of this topic is, is to request luca$art$ and raven to release the sp source. Even though it is a long shot, it doesn't hurt to try. And even if they don't release the code, id will eventually release theirs which encompasses what the jedi games are based on, it's all just a matter of time and patience.

 

Actually now i'd like to see what engine the next games release will be on so i can learn the intracasies of that engine. Although it's gonna be a few years i'm sure but we got battlefront (for which many people, myself included, will build tons of scenarios for) and commando coming out this year to tide people over.

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I'm pretty sure no company is allowed to release sp code before id does it since JK2/JKA's or any other Q3 based game is not that different to the original Q3 code. (modified but not incredibly, only HL1's engine was really modified from the original and that was Q1...)

 

Isn't co-op multiplayer based?

It is single-player played with a team mate in multiplayer...

 

heard somewhere that the devs for half life 2 are releasing the code upon the game's release. I guess they aren't afraid of losing money and the engine is light years ahead of q3's. It seems they are more in tune with their mod comunity. It'll be interesting to see what happens there and hopefully other companies see the advantages such as more people joining the community thus more players, more money, etc. and follow suit.

Mmmmm, that makes no sense, they would lose money, it would bring no more players (buying anyway and it's very likely they would just download the easy unprotected version because of source code. Also makes them lose money) and no companies would ever buy the engine to use meaning there would be hardly any improvement in the gaming community at all (use same old engines like q3.... :p)

 

Although it's gonna be a few years i'm sure but we got battlefront (for which many people, myself included, will build tons of scenarios for) and commando coming out this year to tide people over.
Why are you campaigning for the SDK if you're not gonna be around to see it's release because of bf and commando??? :rolleyes:

 

I think it would be a good idea for that proper petition thing to be created... More will see it and I'd sign it like a few more would (I'm sure)...

 

Agen_Terminator

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Kal El actually set up a Co-op game in JA SP for me to have a go at with him. Although its damn cool to have two guys working together and making their way through levels, you had the MP hit registry instead of SP - ie you put your saber right through a stormtroopers chest and it doesn't even hit them sometimes. Also the 200 ping didn't help :)

 

So although co-op is a damn cool idea that I'd love to see introduced, I don't think patching it into a game like JA works very well - it would need to be deliberately implemented from the start.

 

Like you and Prime said - the worst they can do is say no, so its worth a shot. However, you may have a hard time dragging people away from signing the 'Bring back Sam and Max 2' petitions that are snowballing all over...

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Agen, i'm not complaining, i'm simply saying that myself and a lot of people will mod commando and battlefront between the time if and when an sdk is released or until the next jedi game release. I have no complaints if they don't release the sdk. Am i for it? sure, why not? I think it would enable a lot of people to create some awesome scenarios and gameplay attributes that aren't otherwise possible right now. You don't need the sdk to create great maps as evidenced by some great JO SP authors, but to include gameplay changes and the like you do need the sp code. This thread is about people requesting the sdk to make those changes. i don't demand they release it, as well you shouldn't, simply a request. If the companies say no then that's something we'll have to live with and move on or go to a better game, hey that's life. I think some of you guys need to lighten up.

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Somebody else is gonna have to set up the petition over at the site; I'd do it but I can't access it here at the school (apparently they think they should block it so that we can't petition for the school to shut down or something silly like that). I'll put my name on it as soon as it goes up. I'd do it at home, but I don't have internet access right now...

 

I can totally see where Raven stands on this, and respect them for it. It'd be nice if ID would realize that especially with the release of the new engines, it's rather pointless to hang on to Q3. Perhaps they'll release the source when they bring out Q4, who knows.

 

As far as LA goes, hopefully their new leadership will be more accepting of the mod community and realize that it's the very people that support their work the most that they have the highest alienation rate of. I don't really think that the company as a whole under GL is as anal as the games section is; the reason that TF.N gets to do the fan films (even a mock trailer for Ep 2, if you recall) is that it wasn't under LA. If it ever does fall under LA, it'll be knocked out, the way their current policy is. No one modding these things wants to change the continuity, just make the game better. I also fail to see how being able to change the code will affect the continuity more than creating new maps and/or mods that totally change gameplay and/or storyline... could be just me, though.

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You're right Master, it's kind of silly of Luca$art$ to think that someone would try to change the continuity. But really if someone were to try, Luca$film would be all over them like flys on sh!t. So in that sense i could understand their reasoning but for the most part i believe that most people don't have evil intentions. We just want to take the game to a new level. Hmm maybe that's what they're afraid of, i don't know. I expect to be debunked.....

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