A COMPREHENSIVE review of OJP E, Feb. '06

[Tapela]

I have none of these problems you're experiancing Kyle. Probably because I did not bother with the JA+ PK3 files because I did not have JA+ nor was I interested in it at the moment. I just put the Newblades4.pk3 and ONLY that in the base folder and it works fine with everything, including rbg (which is the same except for maybe the core of the blade when swung). If you put the JA+ stuff in I could see how it is conflicting with OJP. You may wanna try only using NewBlades4.pk3.

 

So as far as I know thats the only thing it could be unless its something else you might have in your base conflicting with them. For me the effects mod works fine and has zero problems.

[Lathain Valtiel]

NewBladesV4 is incompatible with OJP in the first place unless I'm not being told something... It has its own client DLL.

[Tapela]

Installation: - Put the file: "NewBladesV4.pk3" in your base directory. If you want to have the Episode 2 blue blade, put the file: "V3 Blue.pk3" in your base folder.

 

JA+ Installation: - Put the files: "V4Blades for JA+&ForceMod3.pk3" and "cgamex86.dll" located in the folder "for JA+" in your JA+ folder. If you want to have the Episode 2 blue blade, put the file: "V3 Blue for JA+.pk3" in your JA+ folder.

 

 

Its OPTIONAL. You do not mess with the .dll or anything in the JA+ Installation folder, that is for JA+. Use the base JKA pk3 and it works fine. Guys how is this a problem? I don't understand how this could get by anyone or how it would be difficult to understand.. In any case the mod works fine for me because I only put the NewBladesV4.pk3 into my base folder.

[Lathain Valtiel]

...Open the NewBladesV4.pk3.

 

You'll notice that, surprise, inside of it is a dll file labeled cgamex86.dll!

 

Clearly your dll is getting overwritten and you have around half the mod.

[Tapela]

I see, well maybe OJP is overwriting it when I run the .bat, otherwise I really don't have anything else that would change anything. When I used Newbladesv4.pk3 the only thing I noticed different was the saber blade effects, and even so RBG sabers werent really effected at all.

 

 

*Edit* Actually I'm wrong it changes alot of sounds, and I think the clash effects too. Still so far no animation differences or weird problems like kyle had.

[Lathain Valtiel]

Correct, base is loaded first, then OJP basic.

 

If you want NewBlades to work properly in OJP, you have to ask Razor to put it SFX Effects into his code. Which I don't really like myself...

[JRHockney*]

JRHockney,

 

I'm happy that you're enjoying the "Relatively Perfect Sabers" mod that I linked to. I think the glows look very appealing, however I do have some issues with them:

 

1. It has a rather prominent "ghost center line". Other saber mods have been able to reduce this very thin feathery center line that runs out of the center of the saber's tip.

 

2. In my opinion, its saber trails are too short. They need to be lengthened by 25-35%.

 

1. I didn't even notice it, but what I do like is the overall brightness of this mod. I actually modified the glow on one of my sabers so that it is even brighter. Over all I do like the episode 3 v4 mod brightness too.

 

2. This I don't agree with at all. Watch episode 3 an you'll se that there are there are hardly any saber trails at all except for when they swing fast. In fact, I modified the saber trails on this so that they are EVEN SHORTER! lol. This way, the saber trails are movie accurate for the normal swings and have a longer trail for the power fakes (as it should be), thus making it more movie accurate over all. The only downside is the fact that the individual animations can be seen more now. I made the glow trail a little longer to hide this more, but they are still a little visible (which is fine by me). It does kind of suffer at lower FPS though. I just wish there were more animation frames to begin with.

[Tapela]

So I tried the Saberbladesv4 without OJP Enhanced and there are differences, I guess I didn't have the full mod running like Lathain said. Most noticable I guess is the actual saber itself, the glow is different than it is in OJP Enhanced also the swing trail is completely different and looks exactly like the movies in length (not short at all). The feature I liked the most is that it applies the yellow "Clash" flare thats also in OJP Enhanced for body hits, which I pretty much thought was an OJP feature :X.

 

Well I feel pretty stupid now but I think I'm going to keep using the pk3 because of the sounds and other stuff. Though notably Razoraces effects for the saber clashes/blocks are better and brighter but the sound and graphic effect when the saber actually hits someone in base JKA is so ugly and annoying so I prefer the prequel sounds in this mod. It also changed the force push, speed, and i think grip sounds. Push being from episode 1. So I'm sorry for suggesting the mod while not knowing much about it at all .

[razorace]

Kyle, I played around with powerduel a bit today and I noticed that you were on the money about the players not rotating correctly. I spent a decent amount of time debugging it and fixed the problem I honestly have no idea if the TABBots broke it or if it was a basejka bug, but I got it done.

[Kyle Kelasheski]

Razorace,

 

I'm happy that my observation regarding the "single player not rotating into the match" bug was accurate. For that matter, I hope that all of my observations are accurate!

 

Another potential bug: I noticed that about half the time the Force Pull sound effect is not played when a lightsaber is called back to the player's hand. This has been tricky for me to nail down, as I sometimes switch between different Force Powers setups. It seems like when this bug occurs is when I have no points invested in the Force Pull power. The saber still returns to me because that feature is built into saber throw, it just won't play the Force Pull sound effect when it returns. If points have been invested into Force Pull, then said sound effect will play when the saber is called back to me. Again, sometimes this happens, and sometimes it doesn't. I'll keep an eye on it to see if I can figure out what exactly is causing the bug.

 

I'm VERY sorry to hear that my observation/educated guess as to why the electrostaffs weren't working was correct. Razorace, or anyone else for that matter; is there a quick solution to this scenario? Can I use a text editor to alter a file in the electrostaff's .pk3 that will make it behave and use the values that a typical saberstaff does? I'm eager to try and correct this file myself for later release if someone's willing to give me some guidance regarding what it is I need to do.

 

 

 

 

 

JRHockney,

 

I'm impressed that you're playing around with the saber effects, and I'm looking forward to trying out whatever it is you come up with. I recently watched RotS again, and my assessment of the lengths of the average lightsaber swing is different from yours. As an example of what I mean, take a look at the scene where Obi-Wan very casually severs off the Magna Droid's head that's partially trapped underneath the heavy piece of machinery that Obi-Wan has dropped on its body (this is the scene shortly after he drops down from the ceiling strut to confront Grievous). That very "lazy" and slow swing's trail is significantly longer than the ones found in the "Relatively Perfect Sabers" mod. Indeed, in my opinion, the majority of swings, including the slow ones, are to one degree or another longer than what is found in the RPS mod.

 

I still feel that the NewBladesV4's effects are just about as perfect as one can get, barring the stance/no 1st person view/no RGB blade bugs it has when the mod is installed in the ojpenhanced directory. After reading the last several replies, I decided to try this mod out by installing it into the "base" directory, and lo and behold all of these problems went away for me. So, I now have a basic question regarding the "bugs disappear if in the 'base' directory" scenario: is it truly bug/error free if the mod is installed in the base folder? I guess that I'm just concerned that it can still mess up the things we can't see clearly on screen, such as altering values that are othewise set by OJP E's coding. If so, then I'll continue using it, if not, well I'm off to trying once again to find the perfect lightsaber graphics.

 

If values are being messed with, are there certain files within its .pk3 that I can delete/alter to make it so there aren't any conflicts?

 

Another point regarding the RPS mod is that its trails are SO short that it's usually only the ends of the sabers that actually produce a saber trail. It's pretty common to see to see "hooked" saber trails rather than trails that are as wide as the blade is long.

 

 

Before I go, I hope that all of you give my now updated sound effects mod a try. It can be found at: http://www.lucasforums.com/showpost.php?p=2027976&postcount=3 .

 

 

Until next time...

 

Yours!

 

Kyle

Feb. 22, 2006

 

 

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[Lathain Valtiel]

The bot's electrostaff actually does 50% more damage than a normal saber, can chain up to 9 times, gets bonuses to locking, parrying, and disarming, it can't be knocked out of the user's hand... etc etc etc. Its animations are also 10% faster. Jesus Christ.

 

I'm so disgusted I question the wisdom of fixing this.

 

Second: NO to model scaling. If you ever played ForceMod II, you would see why it was THE most unbalanced thing EVER next to spawning with a rocket launcher. Especially if you picked a small fry.

[JRHockney*]

Does any one have any idea how to make the sabers have the massive glow that the MB2 sabers have and make it work with OJP Enhanced? No matter what I do, I can get the glow that big.

[razorace]

I'm eager to try and correct this file myself for later release if someone's willing to give me some guidance regarding what it is I need to do.

Go ahead and give that a shot. It's a engine bug so it could be a variety of things that are causing the crash. However, since the crash occurs on player death it's probably something that happens when you kill someone. Maybe the body hit effect?

 

As for the Force Pull noise when pulling back the saber, it shouldn't be possible to not hear the sound since it's always played. The only way I can see it not working if something is preventing the sound from playing on the body sound channel of that player.

[Tapela]

As far as I know, installing the NewBlades v4 mod in base directory hasnt conflicted with OJP in anyway. It is however altered when OJP runs and overwrites a few things like saber trail sizes, and how the glow is rendered. Regardless of this the blades still look very nice, if not better (I prefer the way OJP made them when i use the mod in base).

 

As far as I can tell from listening to the sounds and comparing them to base jka sounds/ojp sounds the NewBladesv4 pk3 edited push, almost all saber sounds, pull, speed, jumping (i guess it changed it to a cloth or boots thud). One thing that I really liked is that it changed the saberhit graphics to the yellow clash and it changed the sounds so its more of a "pop" if that makes any sense. Its more like in the newer movies were it made a flash and had a pop sound, i love the effect and its what probably makes me keep the mod most.

[JRHockney*]

As far as I know, installing the NewBlades v4 mod in base directory hasnt conflicted with OJP in anyway. It is however altered when OJP runs and overwrites a few things like saber trail sizes, and how the glow is rendered. Regardless of this the blades still look very nice, if not better (I prefer the way OJP made them when i use the mod in base).

 

As far as I can tell from listening to the sounds and comparing them to base jka sounds/ojp sounds the NewBladesv4 pk3 edited push, almost all saber sounds, pull, speed, jumping (i guess it changed it to a cloth or boots thud). One thing that I really liked is that it changed the saberhit graphics to the yellow clash and it changed the sounds so its more of a "pop" if that makes any sense. Its more like in the newer movies were it made a flash and had a pop sound, i love the effect and its what probably makes me keep the mod most.

 

Those sounds are from the saberclashmod. Their Ok, but their are better saber sound mods available in my opinion, like the sounds with moviestances2.0 and clouds sounds. I forget which sound it is, but there was one sound in the saberclashmod that was really annoying to me. Once I deleted that sound, it made playing with it alot better.

[Kyle Kelasheski]

Three bugs to report:

 

1.I have finally pinned down one event that's part of the whole "thrown saber turns red" bug. You'll need TWO .pk3s to replicate exactly what happened for me. Both links to the downloads can be found here: http://pcgamemods.com/mod/16158.html On this map, whenever I throw my saber and it hits the underside of a bridge, my saber sticks there and turns red.

 

2. In FFA, whenever I exit a match the player/bot count automatically goes up by one. I wonder if this is related in any way to the "kill limit goes up by 1" bug I reported earlier.

 

3. Maps do not automatically rotate between matches. Is this because I frequently have Kill Limits set to 0 for most of the game types I play?

 

 

Yours,

 

Kyle

Feb. 24, 2006

 

 

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[Lathain Valtiel]

It probably has sometghing to do with shaders... Or at least I wouldn't be surprised.

[razorace]

1. Um, yeah. I can't fix bugs caused by the crazy @$$ stuff that other moders dump in their asset files. Baring an actual problem with the code in reference to said mod, I can't be responsible for PPP in other mods. If you want to fix it on your own, just dig around in those .pk3s and look for stuff that might conflict with OJP.

 

2. Nope, it's just that spectating humans don't count towards the bot limit. As per requested by Kurgan.

 

3. Set the g_autoMapCycle to 1.

[Kyle Kelasheski]

Razorace and Lathain,

 

Thank you for your replies concerning the above "3 bugs" report.

 

 

 

Here’s my assessment of v. 8 of OJP E:

 

1. The bot matches are lasting significantly longer, and that's a good thing. It means that they're more formidable than before.

 

2. For some reason, a number of the saber trails are looking much longer than they did in the last build. I don't know if I'm seeing things or not, but I certainly can't recall seeing swings that looked like these: They almost look like portions of animations taken from katas. Please note that in my Base directory I have installed the "NewBladesV4" saber mod, and it is in use in the above images. Thanks to JRHockney*’s GREAT introductory manual (found here: http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=161367 ) I now know that these super long saber trails are intentional. Please shorten these greatly extended and jagged-arced saber trails, as they look very different from anything else we've seen in any of the films. Perhaps a solid balance could be achieved with conveying information to the players by universally shortening ALL of the saber trails by 65-70%, or at the very least 50%. This way, the length of the saber trails are still conveying important data to the players, while also simultaneously looking much more like the films. See point 10 for me details.

 

3. I liked how my saber was batted out of my hand when I was knocked back. That's a very nice and believable touch. What I also liked is that I had to make a conscious decision to reactivate my saber blade after it had returned from my hand. I feel that this design decision should be used every time the saber is called back to the player. Right now, if the saber is Force thrown, it will automatically turn back on once it returns to the player's hands. If possible, disable the automatic turn ons when the saber returns to the player's hands at the end of saber throw. To me, this extra step makes the event more immersive. After all, why would the blade be turned on automatically for this one Force power? Isn't it enough for this power to send the saber great distances towards a target and then to call it back? This could also add an extra level of tactics to the game. Someone who's badly wounded, hiding in the shadows, could try to get some sneak attacks in by using saber throw, and at the same time maintain some secrecy when the blade returns to his/her hand, and then does NOT ignite. Nothing gives one's position away more quickly than a loudly igniting and glowing object! This tactic would also be more successful if the strange yellow glow was disabled for the returning saber hilt. Why does it glow yellow anyway?

 

4. Exhaustion Effects on the Speed of Staggers and the Length of Saber Trails: Why do staggers take place so slowly? Shouldn't the staggering player get knocked into this position quickly and then slowly try to recover his wits and sense of gravity from the powerful blow? Also, another potentially great indicator of exhaustion could be achieved by linking together the length of one's saber trail to how tired the swinger is. The more tired they are, the slower they swing, and the slower the swing, the shorter the trail. So, if we were to have a fresh duelist standing beside a tired one, and they both executed the same swing, they'd still look different. The tired duelist would have a slower saber swing and thus his/her saber would produce a shorter trail. This would be a great tool for assessing the state of an opponent or ally.

 

5. Several times I couldn't easily leap feet first into my opponent after he/she knocked me down to the ground. Why is this feature so different from the last release? What makes this so glaring to me is that it seems that the bots are still operating without seemingly having to endure the same limitations. Time and again, I’ve seen them leap up at me from the ground within what seems like a 60 degree arc, while I’m lucky to respond in kind within a much more limited 15 degree arc.

 

6. If the player’s view is 3rd. person and a saberlock occurs, automatically engage a “4th. person view” ala the Lord of the Rings games. This way we get a clear and exciting view of the struggle instead of having our head/shoulders blocking everything. Check out this mod to more clearly understand what I’m mentioning here: http://pcgamemods.com/mod/15863.html Also take a look at this saberlock screenshot here: The saberlock image is on an exciting angle that emulates what I mean by the “4th person view.” We can clearly see what’s going on in such a view.

 

7. Are saber lockups influenced by the number that is entered for its cvar? Should I simply enter 0 for off or 1 for on? Does entering a number higher than 1 influence how saberlocks work in OJP E?

 

8. The animations look like they could use some speeding up, especially for Attack Fakes.

 

9. Reduce the time that is necessary to reset stances. This may be linked to point #8. Too often characters walk around with their saber temporarily “frozen” in an awkward looking position, as can be seen in this screenshot of Dooku’s arthritic shoulder suddenly seizing up:

 

10. Attack Fakes produce saber trails that are far too long, and look completely uncinematic. In fact, they’re so long that instead of us seeing a smooth circular arc we see a rather sharply angled one. If the lengths of the saber trails were reduced by at least 50% (and I feel that 65% would be an even better figure to try) then we wouldn’t have to see the “angled arcs,” the lightsabers would look a lot more like the ones we’ve seen in the films. In fact I strongly advocate the reduction of ALL the saber trail lengths. If the trail lengths were all reduced by the same percentage, then we’d still have the valuable visual cue that an Attack Fake was being performed, because it would STILL be the longest trail that we’d see. I also highly advocate making the cores of the sabers an opaque white/near white hue, and I also advise that the amount of feathering being produced by the saber’s trails be greatly reduced, if not altogether eliminated as I can’t ever recall seeing a lightsaber arc in the film who’s glowing halo had a feathery appearance to it. As it stands right now, the saber trails are REALLY pulling me out of a sense of immersion, as they’re just visually very foreign to what we’ve seen in the films. The following collage of two screenshots illustrates my points:

 

 

11. Bots should start walking within at least 4 m. of any potential lightsaber wielding opponent. I seem to remember a much earlier build of OJP E that had the bots walking almost all the time, which was excessive because it took forever to close with them. However, if they could be adjusted to start walking at 4-6 m., that would create a much more believable scenario, and would also serve them from wearing themselves out too quickly.

 

12. Bots should quickly charge unbalanced/knocked down opponents so that they take advantage of their opponents’ drop in defenses.

 

13. Bots should use the new saber stances.

 

14. Bots should use the fullest range of their Force powers possible in matches where Force powers are allowed.

 

15. Force Push should work more like what we’ve seen in the films. Most of the time when it’s effective it solely pushes the target back, hopefully off of a ledge. However, Force Push in the films is a pretty debilitating attack. The target actually gets blown back and is knocked down to the ground, suffering what looks to be like some damage, or at least a nominal degree of being stunned.

 

16. I like how saber throw operates mechanically, but I’m not convinced by its visuals. In my mind, if a lightsaber hits you then it should almost always result in a limb decapitation, a feature that would terribly unbalance saber throw. A more convincing illusion would be to ALWAYS have the target at least partially “dodge” the thrown lightsaber that hits them. This way visually it looks like, and sensibly registers in the viewer’s mind as a thrown saber that only partially strikes its target and thus we have the justification as to why the struck area isn’t lopped off. When the target has truly depleted all of its defensive energies, then a thrown saber WOULD automatically decapitate the area that is struck.

 

17. Mind Trick and Force Sense could be adjusted to be much more valuable in acquiring information, rather than being a means to be “stealthy” when attacking. For example, if all Force power visual effects were deactivated, then it would become VERY valuable to perform Force Sense on the opponent to collect information on what powers he/she is currently running. The more powerful this ability is, the greater range at which one can collect this data, and at its maximum setting, we’d actually be privy to seeing a small countdown clock that indicates precisely when each power is going to shut off, and what the target’s Force power meter is at. This could be linked to seeing other attributes as well, such as how much physical energy the target still has left for defensive purposes.

 

Mind Trick would at the very least make its user invisible and a range of false attribute readings would be broadcast. The readings would be totally random, and would either broadcast that the user has little resources left, or that the user was fully charged for battle. At medium strength it would also produce an invisible doppelganger neighbor of its user that would replicate all of its user behaviors. The doppelganger would produce noises appropriate to its actions, so that one could hear it running and harmlessly swinging its illusionary lightsaber (this emulates Ben’s use of the Force on the Death Star to produce a false sound that coaxed the storm troopers to abandon their posts), and it too would broadcast false attribute readings that may be different from the readings its master is broadcasting. Creating confusion is the name of the game with this power. At its most powerful setting, two doppelgangers would be generated, with their positioning around the real Force User being randomly generated, and they could be given very simple orders to perform, such as “Wait here, Attack target, Return to formation,” etc., etc. The only way to completely defeat Mind Trick is to have a more powerful Force Sense rating. A rating of equal value would only reveal HALF of the misinformation that is being broadcast by the Mind Trick user.

 

 

18. After a lot of reflection, I am now convinced that stances should be linked to one’s ability to use the Force and/or melee attacks. Here’s what I mean:

 

A. In all of the films, when the Jedi really try to open up a can of Force whoopass, they SHUTOFF their lightsabers, and use BOTH hands so that they can better manipulate the Force. Obviously this leaves them at a great disadvantage to lightsaber attacks, but that’s the drawback to trying to open up a can of Force Whoopass.

 

B. Whenever the Force is used while a lightsaber is on, the Force manipulator is holding his lightsaber with only ONE hand. The freed up hand is used for Force conjuring, such as when Dooku chokes Obi-Wan and tosses him across the observation deck in Ep. 3.

 

C. A duelist holding his/her saber with one hand also has access to performing grappling moves with his/her free hand. This is extensively seen in Ep. 3, especially when Anakin grabs Dooku’s wrists and sets them up for the big decapitation.

 

D. A duelist having both hands on the lightsaber is able to evoke special protections against Force attacks, such as Obi-Wan’s and Mace’s absorbing/deflection of Dooku’s/Sidious’ attacks. They are not, however, able to use the Force in an offensive manner.

 

 

Considering points A.-D., the one handed styles that are available could be made to be actually valuable. Being completely unarmed also has its advantages/disadvantages, and all such points neatly fall in line with what we’ve seen in the films.

 

 

And I have one more question: how are Attack Fakes "fakes?" From what I've been able to determine, the saber's movement is not misleading. It's going precisely where the player wants it to go, and it's a very powerful means at directly engaging the enemy. I can usually drop a bot using just Attack Fakes within 3-5 swings.

 

 

That’s it for now. Time for bed. Good night!

 

Yours,

Kyle

Feb. 28, 2006

 

: )

 

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[Tapela]

I'm surprised you've not asked Razorace to make the hilts appear on the waists of the player models when deactivated :X. Actually now that I think about it I wonder if they appear on the model when you go to fists like the guns do.

[Lathain Valtiel]

They do.

 

They're just strapped to the front of the legs unless you use staff, which is strapped to the back.

[razorace]

Oh, they do. It's just hard to see them from the thirdperson view.

 

Replies to kyle's lastest list:

 

2. Mmmm, I might shrink the saber trail in the future. I currently like it but it might need to be tweaked if it's an issue for more users.

 

3. That's an interesting idea. I'll put that on my to-do list. As for the yellow glow, only the saber's owner sees the yellow glow. It's so that you can locate your saber quickly.

 

4. Well, the reason why it takes so long because I needed to make the vulnerability last long enough for people to be able to take advantage of it. The saber trail->fatigue is interesting but I'm not sure that I'd want that change to be gradual. I'd probably make it just be based on their fatigue status.

 

5. I rewrote the knockdown system to allow for forward knockdowns like in SP. The way the ported code works, it appears to require you to "move it or lose it" in terms of quick getups. If you don't, it makes you get up the slow way.

 

6. Good idea, but it's purely cosmetic. I might do that later.

 

7. Saber lock mechanics are the same as in basejka. Just check the cvar docs for details.

 

8. hmmm, for a particular stance or just the animations in general? If it's just the animations in general use the g_saberanimspeed cvar and let me know which setting you like.

 

9. It looks like you're referring to the slow bounces. That's intentional. Your player gets temp stunned instead of suffering a mishap at high DP/FP levels. I also noticed that there was a bug in the slow bounce code that was causing slow returns/bounces in the wrong situations. That has been fixed.

 

10. You're also using a third party saber blade mod. I think it normally looks better with the basejka blades.

 

11. Good idea. However, this will require more extensive enemy scanning than what is currently being used (since your target might not be the dude holding a lightsaber).

 

12. They don't now?

 

13. Yeah, I've been wanting to do that. However, it's not something that's easy to do. I'm still thinking about it.

 

14. See other thread on bot force powers.

 

15. Agreed. However, I haven't figured out a way to do this without unbalancing things. My guess is that a jedi shouldn't be affected by force push at all unless they're in a saber stun or the attacker is at a much higher force level.

 

16. Agreed. It should be doing that now. I honestly haven't testing it much so this might have to be messed with.

 

17. Interesting, but that would take a lot of work. Mind trick and Force sense are going to be tough to retool.

 

18. Actually Obi-Wan blocked Dooku's lightning with one hand on the saber. Anyway, it's an interesting idea but I don't think restricting the force powers to one handed styles would be fair. Realistically, it doesn't take that long to just take one hand off the saber. Plus, from what we've seen in the movies, we really don't know if using both hands is more powerful or not since the characters normally turn the blade off for another reason. Maybe using the force while holding a lit saber should be less powerful/take more FP so that the player can still saber block?

 

19. Attack fakes are changing the direction from which you're going to attack. you're winding up for one direction and then suddenly transition into another direction to attack. It's more visible the larger the different in direction is.

[Kyle Kelasheski]

Razorace,

 

I’ve responded to your reply by quoting your points and then following up with more of my feedback by placing it after an arrow that looks like this: <----

 

 

2. Mmmm, I might shrink the saber trail in the future. I currently like it but it might need to be tweaked if it's an issue for more users.<-----Maybe supply us with a cvar that allows us to select a range of saber trail length options, from “Very short, Movie lengths, Long,” and “Very Long?”

 

4. Well, the reason why it takes so long because I needed to make the vulnerability last long enough for people to be able to take advantage of it. The saber trail->fatigue is interesting but I'm not sure that I'd want that change to be gradual. I'd probably make it just be based on their fatigue status.<----That sounds like an elegant and an easier way to approach this feature!

 

5. I rewrote the knockdown system to allow for forward knockdowns like in SP. The way the ported code works, it appears to require you to "move it or lose it" in terms of quick getups. If you don't, it makes you get up the slow way.<----So that means that if I’m going to do a “leap up from a knockdown” I have to do so immediately or else I’m stuck with slowly getting up from my knocked down position?

 

8. hmmm, for a particular stance or just the animations in general? If it's just the animations in general use the g_saberanimspeed cvar and let me know which setting you like…and…

9. It looks like you're referring to the slow bounces. That's intentional. Your player gets temp stunned instead of suffering a mishap at high DP/FP levels. I also noticed that there was a bug in the slow bounce code that was causing slow returns/bounces in the wrong situations. That has been fixed.<----I’ll just wait for the next release then to see how the animations are really intended to work. In general, most of the animations just seem slower to me than the last build. Perhaps this is partially due to the extremely long saber trails we see whenever an Attack Fake is made; the saber trails persist so long that it misleadingly contributes to the sensation that it’s taking a long time for a swing to be executed from its starting to finishing points. If this is the case (and I do believe that it’s playing some role in contributing towards my observations) then perhaps it’s another good reason to reduce the lengths of the saber trails.

 

10. You're also using a third party saber blade mod. I think it normally looks better with the basejka blades.<----Then I’ll try the mod without the third party saber mod. I hope it works, since in the last build of OJP E, this saber mod looked beautifully accurate to the films’ effects.

 

12. They don't now?<----I can’t recall ever seeing a bot charge a stunned enemy. It would be helpful for someone else to post their observations regarding this behavior that’s either absent or being missed by me.

 

15. Agreed. However, I haven't figured out a way to do this without unbalancing things. My guess is that a jedi shouldn't be affected by force push at all unless they're in a saber stun or the attacker is at a much higher force level.<----This is a solid and believable design decision of yours.

 

18. …Maybe using the force while holding a lit saber should be less powerful/take more FP so that the player can still saber block?<----Again, another sound approach towards using Force powers in consideration of saber usage.

 

19. Attack fakes are changing the direction from which you're going to attack. you're winding up for one direction and then suddenly transition into another direction to attack. It's more visible the larger the different in direction is.<----I need to get online to get a better feel for this, because in my mind having the fake so strongly pointed out by a super long saber trail that’s pointing to the ACTUAL direction of attack makes it seem like it’d be easier to avoid falling for the fake. As it stands right now, the bots are really lousy to responding to this kind of attack, and they’re pretty lousy at delivering it. I have yet to be consistently “fooled” by their Attack Fakes because I’m reading their super long saber trails. It might also be due to the fact that they really don’t change the direction of their actual saber attacks all that much so it might be because the course of their saber is mostly predictable and I’m automatically responding in the direction towards where the attack is being really delivered. There are a lot of variables involved in assessing this, so it’s tricky to judge exactly what’s going on and why. So, if the goal of the Attack Fake is to mislead the opponent into misdirecting their parry so that the actual attack can hit while their saber is in the wrong position then I’m not really seeing it play out that way against bots.

 

Your detailed response has really filled in a lot of gray areas for me. Thanks for taking the time to being so thorough in your responses.

 

Yours,

 

Kyle

Feb. 28, 2006

 

 

.

[JRHockney*]

Kyle, If you P.M. me your email address I'll send you a copy of the saber trail mod I constructed made specifically for OJP Enhanced. It shortens the trail length to a much more movie realistic length and still keps the regular trials decent. The trail "glow" might be a little longer than you like (because I'm sure you just want the core to blur) but if it wasnt longer, the animations won't blend together as well with the changes. Let me know.

[razorace]

Kyle, please use actual quote tags when quoting other people's text. The arrow method you used is hard on the eyes.

 

2. I don't see a need for a dedicated cvar when a player can changes the trails by using saber mods.

 

4. Ok, added. We'll see how it works out.

 

5. Right something like that. I was missing the define for one critical value that is used to determine when a player can get up from a knockdown. This value might need to be tweaked a bit. The rest of the code is pretty straight from SP.

 

9. I haven't changed the animation speeds so I suspect it's an optical illusion. However, since you asked, I've shorted the saber trail lengths for attack fakes. Let me know if it looks better to you after the next release.

 

12. Bots should be always trying to get as close as possible to saber swing you if they're trying to use a saber in the first place. I just realized that they don't technically attempt to do a special downward attack to kill you so that might need to be fixed in the future.

 

19. The attack fakes aren't all that great vs the TABBots since they parry randomly instead of realistically like a human player would.