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JuniorModder's The New Jedi Order


JuniorModder

Are you excited about this mod?  

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  1. 1. Are you excited about this mod?



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Hey people! I am to the point where I can start asking for help! YAY.

 

To pre-De-clutter the thread, I won't give info on this post. Instead, go to my website.

 

But I will post Screens:

 

Ju'un

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B1-D1

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Tenneth

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Helayna

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And I'm working on Na'adia's and Tressek's skin.

 

Please Volunteer, comment and Critique!

 

I mainly need scripters, and moddelers. But some Voice actors and reskinners would be good too. ;)

 

 

Also, listen to the modcasts.

 

 

JuniorModder

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I am very impressed! Keep updating the thread and website, I look forward to seeing more!

 

EDIT: Btw, the char's look great. Just maybe modify the colors of Helayna's droid and her eyes...they look choppy to me, or something. =P You're still doing great, though!

 

EDIT 2: Jeez. Can't stop coming up with ideas. You should provide a preview of B1-D1's voice for us. ^^!

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I am very impressed! Keep updating the thread and website, I look forward to seeing more!

 

EDIT: Btw, the char's look great. Just maybe modify the colors of Helayna's droid and her eyes...they look choppy to me, or something. =P You're still doing great, though!

 

Thanks! B1-D1 is supposed to be rusty, old, and pitiful. But I will have a sidequest where you polish him up and he looks a lot better. I will edit his eyes though.

 

JuniorModder

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JuniorModder I want to be on your VIP Update list.

I'm no modder, but I want to feel what a beta tester does.He plays the beta and reports the bugs.Plus he adds new ideas and tells the leader or the other skinners what he likes and what he doesn't like.

P.S. I love TCs.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey guys! I have some images from two VIP Updates that I will post here.

Helayna:

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Tressek:

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Na'adia:

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And I am going to re-record the dialog, because I will be getting higher quality equipment.

 

Join the New Jedi Order Social Group. There you can do your part in creating the mod, and give your ideas.

 

 

JM

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Hey guys! I have some images from two VIP Updates that I will post here.

Helayna:

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picture.php?groupid=150&pictureid=5046

 

Tressek:

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picture.php?groupid=150&pictureid=5047

 

Na'adia:

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And I am going to re-record the dialog, because I will be getting higher quality equipment.

 

Join the New Jedi Order Social Group. There you can do your part in creating the mod, and give your ideas.

 

 

JM

 

Little problem there. Your pictures don't show up. Since they are in an LF album, you obviously have yours set to private, so only you and people on your friends list can see it. You could either make it public, or use some other image hoster (your own website, photobucket, imageshack, tinypic, etc)

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  • 1 month later...

Lots of Updates:

 

New website: http://thenewjediordermod.wetpaint.com/

 

My YouTube Channel (Containing all modcasts and updates related to the mod) http://www.youtube.com/JuniorModder

 

And GET ON THE VIP UPDATE list! I have sent out a LOT of sweet content. Like pictures of Tenneth, Helayna, Na'adia, Mission Vao, the new color for in game GUI, and selectable PC heads!

 

I won't post pictures here, the whole "using pictures from album, even if they're public" thing didn't work to well last time, so go to the group, website, or VIP update list to see pics.

 

Last thing: I have a new Voice Acting Email address that I want people to know if they want to contact me about voice acting, and want to know if it would still be against the rules to post it here.

 

JM

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I'd say forum staff would still want you to use the PM system for exchanging email addresses to keep spam bots from the site.

 

Having looked over the basic plot outline I have a couple of comments on integral gameplay points you may have overlooked, since this is a total conversion mod.

 

I think you may be overlooking player motivation a great deal. Players aren't actors and don't want to reflect their characters so much as their playable characters to represent what they would want to do. Among professional writers there is an aversion to becoming self indulgent with a story, where it reflects the desires and fantasies of the writer rather than identifiable characters designed to entertain the reader.

 

The difficulty with a conversion mod is that you must become a writer with some professionalism as well as a modder, and the primary concern as much as the story itself is entertaining and involving the player in the story, interactively.

 

Then there is the difficulty of sequels, which need to break new ground and can't be repetitive, since this loses reader/player involvement in the story.

 

You've got a good synopsis and that's a start but you also need a writers strategy, a motivational subplot designed to personally involve the player.

 

Ask yourself what were the player motivations of K1? They were the mystery of why he was on board the Endar Spire with Jedi, why was he having visions of Jedi in combat, there was the promise that the Player would at some point through the game have the choice to become a Jedi, and there was the need to rescue a proper Jedi Knight of the Order from crime bosses within the city.

These things were used as a device to introduce the main plot theme of the game, which was full of revelation and romance, a threat to the galaxy and the promise of exploring interesting new worlds and subplots as a free agent with his own starship.

 

By then there is no thought about the fact you get no choice about becoming a Jedi or embarking on the mission of the Star Maps, curiosity gets the better of the Player, whom has already been terrifically entertained and most would want to become Jedi anyway. And the shift from Bastila's subordinate to a peer and the centre of the main plot are intriguing.

 

To avoid repetition let's also have a look at the motivations of TSL, which many would say were a disappointment in the final release version compared to K1.

Firstly you are trapped at a mining station on an asteroid. From a plot point of view this is interesting and the immediate introduction of the Jedi class choices takes the edge off but there is little Player involvement except by necessity and this goes on for quite some time until the Exile is finally aboard the Ebon Hawk, which is a repetition from K1 and personally I was really looking forward to having a new and different looking starship in this game.

Then Kreia's conversation is totally wordy, boring as hell and doesn't motivate me to do anything but want to flush her out the airlock. I wanted to go with Atton to the Nar Shadaa red sector right off the bat, and the whole Telos/Citadel station parts of the game became annoying, time consuming, boring, pointless detractions from what me as a Player wanted to do with my character.

 

Yes it was all written into the plot, but the sense of having no player control over the destiny of the main character became a central theme which dominated all but a couple of short sections of the game when arriving on new planets, before being again taken control of by the game for pointless, distracting subplots and sidequests which really have nothing to do with anything particularly interesting.

 

Slowly, the intricacy of class skills, high level gameplay and special abilities introduced by Kreia begin to move the Player motivations along, but this is short lived before once again all control is taken from the player, there is a very disappointing and unimaginative anticlimax on the Ravager and the endless epilogue threatens to make you want to toss your computer out the window and go watch a movie instead.

 

A big fat fail on TSL saved only by the mod community. Much better gaming system and general gameplay improvements over K1 however, if modded, being designed for high level RPG (once you take out the arcade aspects).

 

 

 

I'd suggest not making the same mistakes of TSL. There are a few major ones.

Reintroducing the Ebon Hawk: boring, unimaginative, un-epic. It gives the sense that the civilised galaxy is a very small, isolated region where the truth is the SW galaxy is supposed to be truly massive, full of life and interaction, full of gigantic industry and interest. Repetition kills Star Wars.

 

Design a new starship, make it a light transport (a small star yacht), or a military shuttle (an assault class transport), make it look completely different. Decide if you're going to have starship combat or just use it to move the characters around. Make the starship design purposeful, if it is going to be used to assault a Sith warship with, then it should be heavily armoured and armed. If it is going to be used as a diplomatic transport, and infiltrate enemy stations using guile and stolen identity codes then it should be a clean and streamlined looking luxury vessel.

 

Try to avoid the same planets unless integral to the main plot. If visiting the same planet try to add some interesting new dimension to it, such as something previously left unexplored or something completely new.

 

Maintain the impression of an active galaxy at work when visiting planets, avoid too many isolated, repetitive or unpopulated locations and definitely avoid trapping the player there unless integral to the main plot.

There should be a sense of daily life in a city irrespective of the player's presence, and yet one they can interact with. K1 did this very well, TSL failed miserably.

Part of it is in grandeur. Manaan is a beautiful location and as good as any movie set for splendor. Going from place to place there is a physical city to cross which is seamless enough not to feel like different modules, or replacements of the same thing from module to module (like boring citadel station), but feels like the one continuous, large place. There is a regular hotel you can go into, which has a subplot. There is a docks administration in a proper looking office you have to interact with to enter the city. There is a sense of a galaxy at work, regular service personnel to actually interact with and lead you any random direction. Wow.

 

There's no comparison to Onderon say, where the player only has direct control over events part of the time, pointless sidequests run his life and there's no sense of anything going on that isn't scripted to this point in the game. There is no outside galaxy at work, no splendor, it's just a game with game goals and no sense of independence. The only people to interact with are either there for alignment change options and no real subplot or people tied to the main sidequest you're supposed to interact with. Boring and unimaginative, what it isn't is fun or entertaining. Onderon was one of the biggest loser wastes of TSL, being it could've been so much more if it had just a touch of Manaan about it.

 

Or Kashyyyk, that place was fun too, too few modules for my tastes but nicely done, entertaining and interesting. Dxun, boring. One trip in the forests is enough thanks, especially pointless excursions looking for parts, hey kids want to do something fun, clean up your room or go play in the rubbish tip. Boring. And FYI hack and slash is not RPG entertainment, exploring interesting and changing locales is. Stumbling across something, which leads to something else, which winds you up in a sidequest choice, which has nothing to do with anything but the fact things are happening all around you.

 

And the thing is these places were well constructed in terms of module building, models and placements. They fell down because of the writing of the plot/sidequests, and the main contributor is a complete lack of any character freedom, or sense that the galaxy is a large and wondrous place which is doing things without you.

What, were the Mandalorians just going to sit around at the camp for a thousand years until you showed up to fix their computers? Zero suspension of disbelief for a larger universe at work. At Dantooine every sidequest is really part of the main quest. There are no interactive settlements with real dimension to them. Everything revolves around the player/exile and he is being controlled by the plot/script writers at every turn.

 

 

 

 

So you see of primary concern for the writer/lead modder is very much Player involvement and the creation of a SW galaxy which holds some suspension of disbelief, and seems so real that it becomes real.

This is not a visual exercise, but one of plot delivery, character independence and events which are greater than the characters, but do not directly control their actions.

 

You can't have plot routines like "the player is interested in becoming a Jedi" because why do I want to? Do I want to? Maybe I want to play a Han Solo.

The player hooks up with this character. Why should I? Maybe I want to take his credits and tell him to get stuffed.

The player goes to Coruscant. No I don't, bugger that I want to go to Manaan.

Some Jedi Master has a quest. Big deal, I've got a life.

This character turns bad or does some betrayal. Why can't I shoot him/her in the back of the head and call it a day?

You need player involvement, interest, interaction and investment to get them to want to do these things, and forcing them is no substitute.

 

And seriously watch how often you force players into specific environs like a force cage or a Sith warship, or a particular planet. It has to be plot orientated and it has to be something the Player finds personally involving, or it's just annoying. Nobody wants to play a game where you're just a passenger for the gratuity of a self indulgent writer.

 

Think about why the game player wants to do things, not why the characters want to. Characters want to do whatever writers want them to. Players don't and they get really miffed when you assume otherwise.

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Thanks for the advice. From the start I've wanted to make a new ship, but I've always thought it would be to difficult. If you think it would make the mod so much more enjoyable, than I'll look into it. Many of the things you wanted me to avoid, I've encountered already, and have planned to improve.

 

The only deserted planet you visit is Draethos, but that many redeeming factors.

 

The only "foresty" planet you visit is Telerath, but even there it is minimal. I am VERY excited for this planet. It will be as much fun as Mannan.

 

 

"Try to avoid the same planets unless integral to the main plot. If visiting the same planet try to add some interesting new dimension to it, such as something previously left unexplored or something completely new."

 

Onderon and Telos Citadel station will be reskinned slightly to give a more fresh look, and will have new areas to explore.

 

"Maintain the impression of an active galaxy at work when visiting planets, avoid too many isolated, repetitive or unpopulated locations and definitely avoid trapping the player there unless integral to the main plot.

There should be a sense of daily life in a city irrespective of the player's presence, and yet one they can interact with. K1 did this very well, TSL failed miserably."

 

I agree totally with you there! I want to blow the problems that TSL had completely out of the water. I plan to make every planet (save Draethos) filled with the hustle and bustle of busy commoners. Even Arkania, in which all commoners will have to reskinned to look like Arkanians.

 

"Part of it is in grandeur. Manaan is a beautiful location and as good as any movie set for splendor. Going from place to place there is a physical city to cross which is seamless enough not to feel like different modules, or replacements of the same thing from module to module (like boring citadel station), but feels like the one continuous, large place. There is a regular hotel you can go into, which has a subplot. There is a docks administration in a proper looking office you have to interact with to enter the city. There is a sense of a galaxy at work, regular service personnel to actually interact with and lead you any random direction. Wow."

 

Telerath will blow you away. I promise. I repeat: I'm EXCITED for this planet!! Alot of Telerath will use existing module in ways so creative you won't even notice that they're reused.

 

 

You can't have plot routines like "the player is interested in becoming a Jedi" because why do I want to? Do I want to? Maybe I want to play a Han Solo.

I have considered this. I am working on it.

 

The player hooks up with this character. Why should I? Maybe I want to take his credits and tell him to get stuffed.

 

I have literally created 2 parties that you can aquire based on your decisions.

 

 

Some Jedi Master has a quest. Big deal, I've got a life.

 

Unfortunately I can't create a Kotor Sims game.

 

This character turns bad or does some betrayal. Why can't I shoot him/her in the back of the head and call it a day?

You can. ;)

 

 

JM

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  • 1 month later...
Ju'un

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Helayna

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Speaking from experience, I'd suggest using head models that have both a Goggle Hook and Mask Hook. Otherwise, party members won't be able to wear head gear.

 

Also, I know how hard it is to make white hair look believable. Helayna's hair right now looks like a chef's puffy hat. The way I get around it is to use Photoshop's "Match Colors" function (under the "Image/Adjustments" pull down). It has saved me a lot of trouble, and it is well worth looking up some on-line tutorials, and learning how to use it. Basically, I have the original hair on a seperate layer, then open Handmaiden's tga file and put her hair on a seperate layer as well. Then I click "match colours" and follow the on-screen dialog box options (again, search for a detailed tutorial).

 

The hair line (where it meets the forehead) usually gets a bit darker, as skin shows through easier. It, as well as the eyelashes, could use more detail. You can use the Handmaiden and Atris as a reference.

 

I do like how you changed her eyelashes to white. It's a little detail, but most people wouldn't think to do that (I've already done that on my own Arkanians). Helayna's skin tone looks pretty good for an Arkanian, but her eyes look a bit too flat white.

 

Keep at it.

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Speaking from experience, I'd suggest using head models that have both a Goggle Hook and Mask Hook. Otherwise, party members won't be able to wear head gear.

 

Also, I know how hard it is to make white hair look believable. Helayna's hair right now looks like a chef's puffy hat. The way I get around it is to use Photoshop's "Match Colors" function (under the "Image/Adjustments" pull down). It has saved me a lot of trouble, and it is well worth looking up some on-line tutorials, and learning how to use it. Basically, I have the original hair on a seperate layer, then open Handmaiden's tga file and put her hair on a seperate layer as well. Then I click "match colours" and follow the on-screen dialog box options (again, search for a detailed tutorial).

 

The hair line (where it meets the forehead) usually gets a bit darker, as skin shows through easier. It, as well as the eyelashes, could use more detail. You can use the Handmaiden and Atris as a reference.

 

I do like how you changed her eyelashes to white. It's a little detail, but most people wouldn't think to do that (I've already done that on my own Arkanians). Helayna's skin tone looks pretty good for an Arkanian, but her eyes look a bit too flat white.

 

Keep at it.

 

Thanks, I'm working on her right now. And just to let you know, that's an old picture of her. There's a few updated pictures in the social group, I'll send one to you. And last time I played she was able to wear goggles, but I haven't tried masks yet. It's a necessity for her to be able to wear goggles, because she gets a pair of Arkanian Blinders in the mod.

 

I'd really appreciate you're help with making Mission Vao in the mod, so if you'd like you could join the social group.

 

JM

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