The New Enhanced Sabersystem Manual

[JRHockney*]

Heres the new sabersystem manual for Enhanced so far. This covers all the changes that have been made up to this point at the code server sabersystem wise. This is for reference and up for proof reading by anyone who wants to do it. Obviously, the figures don't have any pictures but in the future maybe we can do web links or something. There are underlined and bold sections of the actual manual that don't show up here btw:

 

Official Manual:

 

The OJP Enhanced Saber System Manual

 

Hello everyone!!!! Thank you so much for downloading this mod and choosing to read this manual because if you don’t know what your doing in this saber combat, you’ll think its all random, you’ll get frustrated, and die very quickly!! (which happens way too often and it shouldn’t) This manual was originally meant for a technical writing college class so it may seem a bit weird in is format at times. The purpose of this manual is to instruct players who are new to OJP Enhanced on how to use its very different and unique saber system. This manual assumes that you already have a moderate to advanced level of understanding on how the base Jedi Academy saber system works. Without such knowledge, you will have a more difficult time understanding the content of this manual. This manual covers all of the major changes to the saber system and gives step-by-step instructions on how to perform certain critical moves. It is important to note that the new saber system was designed to be more movie-like than the base Jedi Academy (JA) saber system.

 

Because of the length of this manual, I have created a quick start guide to help players just start playing without reading everything. This quick outline on how to play is very summarized and I would highly recommend still reading the rest of the manual so you understand the system in detail and to see the visual movie references to the moves (the hud is a little dated on the movies though). You will be less likely to defeat more knowledgeable players without knowing this system in the highest detail.

 

Quick Start guide:

 

Important notes:

 

1. Your blue meter is your Dodge/block (DP) meter is your lifeline. It will go down very fast if you don't parry block most of the hits on you. When your defenses are down from a stumble, knockdown are a saberless hit, you will "dodge" the hit matrix style and loss double DP.

 

2. The empty meter that files up as you hit your opponent is called your mishap/balance meter. If goes up faster if he parry blocks you alot. The higher your balance meter is, the more vulnerable you are to kicks and getting stumbled, knocked down, or disarmed.

 

3. You lose force points by swinging. At 10 FP or less, you swing and move really slowly and are completely vulnerable to lunge.

 

4. Walk 75% or more during a fight because you lose double DP for hits on you if you run and it fatal to get hit in a jump. Running and hitting someone will do 1.5 times more DP damage to them, but if you get hit while swinging or from behind, it will kill you instantly.

 

5. Comboing on your swings is often the key to winning a fight, but do it strategically because you can still be beaten or win with pure defensive playing.

 

6. Kicks are available in all styles and cash in on your where your opponents balance/mishap meter is or when they are at critical DP. It will cause a knockdown when your opponent is high on the balance/mishap meter or critical DP, a stumble a around ½ mishap, or get absorbed by a backflip when they are low. Holding alt attack when getting kicked will block or reduce your mishap effect at any mishap level

 

7. you will notice that you get paused in combat where you can move from time to time. This is usually due to your balance meter getting high and you got parry blocked or you just got riposited. You get slowbounced at 1/3+, heavybounced at 2/3+ or critical DP, and disarmed, stumbled, knockdown at 9/10 of your Balance/mishap meter. More info and visual references on these are in the official manual.

 

8. There are now a total of 7 styles to choose from at full saber attack points in single saber. You can also do lunge and yellow DFA in any single saber style and a red DFA in both purple and red styles (purple style looks different in its DFA though)

 

Moves:

 

Parry block (this is the most important technique): Hold the directional key to move into whatever side your getting hit on. A and D for side hits, S for high swings (up-down swings) and W for lunge and low hits. This move lessens hit damage on you greatly. If your opponents balance/mishap meter is very high, they my maxout their mishap meter and fall down or lose their saber.

 

Startfake: tap attack. This fakes people out and is important for riposites

 

Attack Feint (attack fake): hold attack and alt attack with a directional key (basically like doing a kata except you are doing a normal swing with it). This does more damage than a normal swing, puts your opponent into a saberlock in which you win automatically, and it cashes in on where ever your opponents mishap meter is. If you're in a saberlock, you can break it by holding back and alt attack unless you have low DP or high mishap.

 

Riposite (attack parry): hold attack while you parry block a swing. This only works if your already in a preblock for the incoming swing or you are in the startfake animation. This move causes a slowbounce on them unless they are high on the mishap meter (where they will do whatever their level makes them do)

 

Disarm (conversion): If you hit your opponents saber in a heavybounce, they will get disarmed.

 

Superbreaks: Hold attack at the end of a saberlock where you win. This will kill them instantly , but this only works if your opponent's DP is low. Otherwise, you will get slowbounced for trying it.

 

Official Manual:

 

Before getting in to the step-by-step instructions, it is important to cover several basic aspects to this new saber system. Without knowledge of the key changes here, you will be confused about what is happening to you in the combat, so it is very important to keep these in mind. The important changes include the following:

 

• Regular swings require holding down the attack button for at least half the swing, otherwise you will perform a basic/start fake.

 

• All swings of the saber drain your Force Points (FP) depending on the type of swing. When you have 10 FP or lower, your swings will slow down greatly. This

helps to prevent too much swinging.

 

• The Dodge Point (DP) meter, which is the second blue meter above you FP meter (see Figure 1), drains as you absorb hits in different amounts depending on the hit. Most of the time, it just acts as a like a block meter; however, if you get hit while you are stunned, disarmed, or knocked down, the dodge meter will act as a matrix style dodge, which will drain you DP more than a regular hit. When it flashed red, that means you have maybe one or tow more hits until your dead or unable to block. Attack fakes (which will be explained in the step-by step section) can be fatal to a person who is in the red zone of DP.

Note: You have have no DP when you jump, so getting hit during a jump is usually fatal as well.

 

(Figure 1. The DP meter)

 

• This newest version of Enhanced has added a “Mishap meter” or also referred to as a balance meter (See figure 2). This meter controls whether or not you go into a mishap from regular parries or attack fakes. It raises as you swing, and lowers as you parry. At 40% its height, parries and attack fakes on you will cause slowbounces and your meter will lower to zero. At 66% height, parries and attack fakes on you will cause heavybounces will also lower 25% or the next level down. When your meter is maxed out You will go into a mishap and your meter will reset (The slowbounces, heavybounces and mishaps will be explained in more detail later) Vid Example:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WupNyWU7UOQ (obiwan does it).

 

(Figure 2: the Mishap Meter [The arrow is pointing to it.])

 

• Running is penalized during saber combat by making you lose double DP when you get hit and cause a much higher mishap probability. Hitting an opponent with a running swing will do 1.5 times more DP damage; However, if you get hit during running and swinging or running and hit from behind, it will kill you instantly. Because of this factor, it is essential to walk when swinging at a saberist and getting hit by a saberist. This is to add to the movie realism of this sabersystem since there is little running in the movies during saber combat and to just keep it mostly toe to toe.

 

• Crouching is penalized by not being able to parry while in a crouch. This is to stop crouching spam that we discovered was possible in our beta testing.

 

• There is only a very slight difference in the speeds at which all the saber styles move and the swings are all indefinitely chainable (even red stance).

 

• Tavion's and Desann's saber styles are now accessible with single saber and are colored on the FP hud as aqua (Tavion's) and purple (Desann's).

 

• All the stances are a bit different in their DP damage scales, but not nearly as different as in base JA. The damages are ordered from weakest to strongest: duel and staff (which can often hit twice in one swing), aqua, blue, yellow, purple, and red. Red and purple stances have higher stun mishap thresholds then the other stances and aqua and blue styles cause the earlier possibilities of slow bounce conversions (which will be explained in the step-by-step section).

 

• The staff and dual saber styles have their own unique characteristics as well. Staff costs no extra DP to get hit in the back making it a great two-on-one weapon. Dual sabers have no attack fake costs for direction changes (which I will explain later).

 

• The blue style lunge and yellow style flip attack are now usable by all styles except staff and dual. Lunge do 1.25 times the damage of a normal swing and flip attack do twice the DP damage of a regular swing. Lunge is parried by holding forward and if you hit someone in a lunge, you cause them double DP damage (lunge is also a great option to break through someone’s defense if they are constantly parrying you). Flip attacks are also used for getting behind your opponent. The aqua, blue, and yellow styles use a stab flip attack while red and purple use the traditional slash. The difference between the two is visual only.

 

• Red and purple styles have jump attacks, normally called a “Death From Above” (DFA) that cause double the normal saber hit DP damage. The red style uses a jumping hack version while purple uses a spinning jump. They are also done the old JO way of first holding attack to start the swing and then pressing and holding jump.

 

• All styles can kick by using the alternate weapon attack. Saber throw has been turned into option in the force powers selection menu.

 

Parrying:

Parrying is THE most important techniques to master. It prevents you from losing too much DP and makes your opponents mishap meter go up. Parrying costs only 1/3 the normal amount of DP required to block a saber attack which means it is the “block” of this game more or less. You can usually parry even while swing except for maybe at the peak for your swing (this knowledge is essential to winning duels). Most parries do a knockaway animation (or onehanded block) when do them right like in this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzRUxN89D4M The normal blocks just do normal block animations. Your opponent will bounce more slowly once you parry him and stop him from comboing (this is not in the video because its fairly new) Also look at the DP meter in the vid to distinguish the DP damages.

 

Step 1: Watch the angle at which your opponent's swing. Watch whether it's a high swing, coming from the side, or a lunge. Also watch the angle at which it is about to hit you.

 

Step 2: Use your forward, back, and side keys (w, a, s, and d) to move into the swing. It is important to remember that the direction for high swings is inverted from what you might expect. You parry high swings by pressing the back key (s). Side swings are parried by moving into the swings with the side buttons (a and d).Lunges or low swings can be parried by pressing forward (w).

Note: The parry is determined based on where you get hit. For example: If your player gets hit lower on their body with a high diagonal swing, the proper parry direction would be to move to that side.

 

Step 3: Check if your opponent has been parried and/or if you do a knockaway animation or lost less DP. You will do a one handed block and your opponent will bounce slowly if you do it correctly. If you opponent was very high on mishap, he might max out and fall over or lose his saber.

 

Running Swings:

 

Exactly as they sound. Just run and swing, These swings are the true power hits of this mod aside from the DFAs because they do more than the normal amount of DP damage. These are VERY dangerous though because if you get hit while running and swinging or get hit from behind while running with a saber, it will kill you instantly. Sneaking These hits in can be very beneficial, but they are easy to counter since you can just wave your saber at a person and their running swing will most likely get them killed (this is personal experience talking ).

 

Block-to-swing or swing-to-swing transitions:

This technique allows you to bounce out of your block into a swing faster than you usually would and allows you to combo easier in different directions when your swing bounces off an opponent's saber. It is a very effective way of countering after you have blocked or hit. Heres a vid example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKVOx-qdZ5Y

 

Step 1: Watch for a saber block or a bounce hit off an opponent. If your opponent parries you, You'll bounce slowly and will not be able to do the transition.

 

Step 2: Hold the attack button and press a different movement direction than you blocked or swung in, or just keep holding it and what ever direction your were holding before and it will automatically switch.

 

Step 3: Watch and see if your transition was successful. If it was successful, you will usually get the first hit and force a block by your opponent. If used correctly, you can chain several of these swings and do a lot of DP damage on your opponent.

 

Attack Feints:

Attack feints are a very useful technique allows you to fake swing in one direction and hit in another. The Attack fake also causes one-third more damage than the regular swing. There is also a cost of 1 FP for each change of direction you do in the faking. This technique has been upgraded especially in 0.1.0. Now if you hit your opponent without getting parried with this move, you both will be forced into a very fast saberlock animation in which you automatically win. If you get hit while trying an attack fake, the attack fake you do will be canceled. The Attack fake also does 1.25 times the damage of a normal swing and it cashes in on where ever your opponent’s mishap meter is (see the above info on the mishap meter to find out what that is exactly). Heres a attackfake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxt8G4C4xVU as distinguished from a normal swing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kASIN-SdOPI

 

Step 1: Look for an appropriate situation to use an attack feint. While usage of this technique is more personal preference than anything, the best times to use this technique is starting at a distance in order to avoid getting hit in the process.

 

Step 2: While pressing and holding attack and alternate attack, use the directional keys to change direction of the swing. By default, the attack fakes will usually change directions at a 90 degree angle unless you press in a different direction. The blur of your saber's core will be longer then normal if you successfully do the attack fake (see Figure 5).

Note: There are versions of sabers that use MB2’s saber trail code floating around the OJP community. If you use one of these sabers, use will not be able to see the longer trail.

 

(Figure 6. Attack feint saber blur)

 

Step 3: Hit your opponent with the attack feint at any part of their body where their saber isn't in front of or in a place where you don't believe it will be parried. As with any swing, you have to be careful about where you hit. Watch you opponent's movements because if you hit high and they are moving backwards for example, you will get parried. It is also good to transition into another swing if you can in order to do more damage. You will know if you have successfully hit your opponent without getting parried if you see both of you go into a quick saberlock animation in which you win automatically (this is more for visual effect than anything). If you suspect that your opponent is in the DP red zone (if not, you'll get slowbounced if you try it), hold the attack button until the end of the saber lock and you will deliver a fatal or near fatal hit (this is the Superbreak which will be described later).

 

Start Fakes (Occasionally referred to as wind up fakes or basic fakes):

These are a lot more straight-forward than attack fakes, but still useful in many ways. They cost no FP to use. Heres a vid of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGdhVb5OloA

 

Step 1: Look for the right situation to use the windup fake. Attack fakes have many uses depending on your personal preference. You can use them to fake out an opponent, disguise a parry (which can be done during the fake), and even block a swing for no DP cost if you move your saber in front of the opponent's swing (this is a very hard technique to do). It also causes a little DP damage on your opponent at very close range.

 

Step 2: Tap the attack button and press the directional buttons in the direction you want do the basic fake or simply let go of the attack button during a windup or transition

 

Step 3: Watch your opponent's reaction to the fake and plan your next move based on that reaction.

 

Riposites/Attack Parries:

A new move in this version of Enhanced is the Attack Parry and uses the start fake as its aid. This will do exactly what all parries did in the previous version of Enhanced with is cause a slow bounce. This parry, however, does not rely on the mishap meter completely. It will cause a slowbounce at any low point on the balance/mishap meter or it will cause a heavy bounce at higher points on the mishap meter (usually 66% or higher)or at critical DP. Heres a vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoLGwPLdndE

 

Step 1: Watch where and when your opponents saber is about to hit you.

 

Step 2: Hold the proper parry direction (explained before) and tap attack just as your opponents saber is about to hit you (sometimes taping it at the same time works to). You must be in a preblock animation or a start fake animation for it to work, but you cannot be holding attack at the time of hit.

 

Step 3: Check to see if your opponent has gone into a slowbounce or heavy bounce.

 

Kicking:

Kicking in OJP Enhanced is more structured than it was in base JA. It is available with all styles, but only works in certain situations in order to avoid over usage. Any other instances using the kick other than ones listed below will result the opponent absorbing the kick with a low level back flip (just like the movies!) Vid Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uTt4EpQpLU The effects of kicking someone are measured by your opponent's balance/mishap bar. The higher their balance/mishap bar, the more dangerous the effect will be. Also bare in mind that getting hit in a kick is does more damage to you and you cant parry in it.

 

Step 1: Observe whether or not if your opponent is either in a slow bounce, heavy bounce, a stun, has his back to you, or you think he might be higher on his mishap bar or critical DP. These are the only situations where kicking will knock your opponent down or make them stumble.

 

Step 2: Execute the kick by pressing alternate attack and the directional button towards your opponent (See Figure 7). Vid Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-Fw5gltTBk

(Figure 7. Kicking a normal slow bounce)

 

Step 3: Make contact with you opponent and see whether they fall over or stumble. This opens them up to being slashed at on the ground for a large DP loss. Using lunge or ground stab is especially useful and damaging in this situation (See Figure 8).

Note: If your opponent's mishap bar is less then about 1/3 of the way up, they will absorb the kick with a backflip

(Figure 8. Opponent falling over from kick)

 

Slow Bounce Conversions:

These are the hardest to perform, yet one of the coolest and most rewarding features in OJP Enhanced. It is a way to cause disarm mishaps before they could normally be caused (sadly, they may not always happen if your ping is really high). These also require your opponent to be in a heavy bounce. Vid Example:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JknhF_R9fUs

 

Step 1: Observe if your opponent is in a more dynamic slow bounce animation (See Figure 4) This happens when you riposite your opponent at critical DP or Higher mishap. You can spot it because his saber is sticking out further than normal and more perpendicular to his body.

 

Step 2: Hit your opponent's saber before the animation ends. This is very difficult to do in most cases. The best way to do this is to use a straight downward chop. Faster styles have a speed benefit at doing this as well as the ability to cause these slow bounces on opponents with slightly higher DP than the other styles are allowed.

 

Step 3: Observe your opponent to see if they have enter a mishap. This will tell you whether or not you conversion was successful. They will get disarmed if it is successful. This allows you to follow up with a very damaging attack of your preference.

 

Superbreaks:

This is essentially the OJP finishing move. It requires the use of a move that causes a saberlock whether it be an Attack Fake, Attack Parry (if we keep it the way it is), or just a random lock. It only works if you are the person who started that lock (since your opponent cant fight it) and if your opponent is in the red zone of his DP meter (or has little left). If both of these conditions are met, You will do the old saberlock break animation and it will chop your opponent in half!..usually. Vid Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbf5XGGg4TE

 

Step 1: Try to determine whether or not your opponent is low on DP. If you hear the grinding nose of him losing HP, thats a good indication.

 

Step 2: Find a way to do a winning saberlock on your opponent and hold the attack button to the end of the saberlock.

 

Step 3: Observe to see if you do the superbreak and your opponent is killed. [important note: If you try and superbreak your opponent and he/she doesn't have low DP, you yourself will get slowbounced!)

 

Closing Comments and Support:

 

Ultimately, this saber system is all about movie realism and strives to achieve it. It is not a finished product and is still being added to, so feel free to post any questions or comments at the OJP forums: http://lucasforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=542. New ideas are welcome as well. If you encounter any technical difficulties, post them at the forums as well and they will usually be responded to in 24 hours or less. Enjoy.

[Sushi_CW]

Correction: slow bounce conversions cause only disarms, not knockdowns or stuns.

 

It might also be helpful to point out how to do the DFA moves, since it's a bit different than base JKA (start swing then jump).

 

Also, are the quick saber-lock features you describe actually implemented? I didn't think they were...

[JRHockney*]

Ok, I fix those. As you know by now, they are implemented at the code server (since you were just there. LOL)

[datguru]

"you will be confused about what is happen to you in the combat" just a little thing

should be "what has happened"

 

( am i supposed to be correcting this type of thing or is it more if something is left out?)

[JRHockney*]

"you will be confused about what is happen to you in the combat" just a little thing

should be "what has happened"

 

( am i supposed to be correcting this type of thing or is it more if something is left out?)

 

Its suppose to be "what is happening to you in the combat" but thanks for pointing that out. I'll fix that.

[UDM]

An idea: how about using font, bold and italics and special characters like * to make it more visually appealing? Would help to capture the attention more easily

[datguru]

Ye on important points ( i know there pretty much all important) But just to highlight differnt sections, so that if someone said to me ingame you need to work on your parrying, i could look for the bold headers ans find parrying guide straight away. Plus udm is right it would look more appealing.

 

Cause people dont like to read vanilla text they get bored and the eyes get tired . Good job on the guide tho, im using it loads!

[Maxstate]

This community never ceases to amaze me, good work Hockney.

 

 

.

 

 

No wait.

 

EXCELLENT WORK, HOCKNEY

[JRHockney*]

An idea: how about using font, bold and italics and special characters like * to make it more visually appealing? Would help to capture the attention more easily

 

Yeah I'll get around to it. All the things I put in bold on the original MS word document didnt get transferred over in the copying.

[razorace]

I have a suggestion. I think we should add this to the OJP wikipedia entry (as a seperate page). That way we could have multiple people update it and add multi-media and such. What do you guys think?

[Sushi_CW]

Sounds like a good idea to me.

[JRHockney*]

Yeah that works. As soon as its finished.

[crail227]

are there supposed to be screenshots for it?

[JRHockney*]

Ok, I just recently added video demonstration links to just about every move in the saber manual. There are still a few that need to be done, and I haven't added the superbreaks in yet. Special thanks to Tanquexe for creating the videos and putting them on youtube.

[razorace]

neato. When are we going to be able to see it?

 

Ensiform had a good idea that we might just want to include an html powered manual with OJP. That might be easier and less confusing than constantly updating wikipedia.

[Tanqexe]

Hock provided links throughout the manual posted here...but what I was thinking of was to embed the YouTube videos on each page/section of an HTML manual with the description next to the embedded video. All you'd really need to do is make the HTML pages and copy/paste the embedded video codes off the YouTube pages that're linked throughout the manual here.

[razorace]

Oh, sorry. I wasn't paying attention to the beginning of the thread.

 

As for the videos, they're pretty good. I was mistaken, the moves are visible at the current resolution. Good job.

 

I have a couple of suggestions for possible of improvements before the next release (IE when/if you have time)....

 

1. Higher resolution/framerate videos.

2. Don't use dark playermodels on dark maps.

3. Isolate the move being deminstrated. A couple of the films have the other player attacking wildly (IE, a bot). If you need help with film extras, I'm sure we can find someone.

 

Finally, Tanqexe, do you have IM? WOuld you mind PMing your contact info to me?

[Tanqexe]

Yeah, consider these clips works in progress. Hopefully we won't have to rely on YouTube in the long run; instead we can embed our own vids on the site, and that should allow for better resolution/framerate videos.

 

About the Invisible Hand map...yeah, I know what you mean about the dark models and everything. It looks fine at the original video size, but after uploading to YouTube it looks like crap. Fortunately I made replacement videos for those hard-to-see clips (the kick clip, especially), so they should be replaced shortly...after I get back from work.

 

A film extra would be awesome, but for that I'd need to get on a server...and the way things are with my current DSL connection, I don't know if I'd get any lag-free recordings.

 

PMing you contact info, chief.

[razorace]

Actually, you can have the extras come to your local game so that your game won't lag at all.

[JRHockney*]

I just updated the saber manual a bit and added a sort of quick start thing in the beginning. Its still in the works on how it will turn out for the inal version, but its a place to start. Let me know if you think something should be added changed.

[razorace]

The guide needs to be made into a .html file and then commited to the Enhanced/docs folder. I've already given you write access, you should already have the details in your aol email account.

 

Also, I recommend that you get an editor that can simplify the html editing. I use Visual Studios myself but I'm not sure if the Express version you had does it. However, I do know that the web developer version of VS can be found here.

[JRHockney*]

The guide needs to be made into a .html file and then commited to the Enhanced/docs folder. I've already given you write access, you should already have the details in your aol email account.

 

Also, I recommend that you get an editor that can simplify the html editing. I use Visual Studios myself but I'm not sure if the Express version you had does it. However, I do know that the web developer version of VS can be found here.

 

Um, Ok. I don't really know the first thing about how to turn anything into html, but I'll give it a shot. Html isnt too hard last I checked. Are you sure I can't just turn it into NEDM?! ('We Interrupt This Programme' song plays) LOL You probably won't get that, but max will. XD

[razorace]

Like I said, get a html editor.

[Maxstate]

Um, Ok. I don't really know the first thing about how to turn anything into html, but I'll give it a shot. Html isnt too hard last I checked. Are you sure I can't just turn it into NEDM?! ('We Interrupt This Programme' song plays) LOL You probably won't get that, but max will. XD

Hahahhaha!

 

Man I tried with notepad and I succeeded but Ace didn't like it, I'm switchin' over to an editor too. Good editors will make it as easy as a word document.

[JRHockney*]

My open office program has the option to save things as html documents. Is that good enough?

 

Hahahhaha!

 

My personal favorite: http://billymadisonnedm.ytmnd.com/ XD