E-Mail from an employee of RavenSoft (unofficial patch information)

[Ascari]

I wrote an e-mail to ravensoft and got a response (within the hour no less!)

plz note that this is NOT an official standpoint from RavenSoft.

 

 

 

E-mail:

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Hello,

 

first let me gongratulate u ( and the rest of your team ) on this great game. I really have a blast playing it !

 

 

Well, I suspect your a busy man so i'll get to the point:

I dont know if u keep track of the LucasForums (http://www.lucasforums.com) but me

(and many others) have a few comments about the MultiPlayer section of Jedi

Knight 2.

 

 

First off, plz plz plz plz fix the Multiplayer dismemberment! It totally

rocks but it makes the server unstable.

Further more we have the guns vs. sabers problem.

Most of the Jedi Knight 2 players want to weild there sabers and kick some

ass. But certain guns are just a tad too powerfull. For instance the

repeater's alternative fire is hard to avoid as a saberer.

 

 

A lot of people think that people who use guns are more powerfull then the

saberers, which is true. Because someone who is using guns doesnt putt the

force points in the Saber skills and can but the points in other forces.

Which gives the gunner a huch advantage over a saberer.

Maybe a solution would be to have some sort of lower force power, or no

force recharge when weilding a gun. Or make a gunnery points sytem like the

sabering point system.

 

 

I also dont find it realistic that a person carrieng a big gun can walk as

fast as someone carrieng a light saber. Maybe if someone is carrieng a gun

hi's walk speed should be reduced, this would be realistic.

 

 

 

Also I noticed that a lot of people are complaining about the drain skill of

 

the dark Jedi. People say it's a bit overpowered. ( I have no idea because

when I see a dark jedi using this power I turn absorb on.)

 

 

I almost forgot this one: When I'm in a saber duel and I turn my saber off,

nothing happens. I just keep on pushing which is a little bit weird Not a

 

big detail, but realisticly when I put my faser of I should fall back the

same way as when I loose a duel.

 

 

 

Well that's it for now, if I notice something else I'll be sure to let u

know.

 

 

 

Your sincerily,

 

 

 

Paul "Ascari" Rispens

The Netherlands

ps. Excuse me for the bad grammar/typo's.

 

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

E-Mail from Ravensoft:

 

Well, we haven't 100% decided on what, exactly, we are and aren't going to

try to do in any patch... and we don't have a timeline on it, yet, so I

haven't said anything about it until it's more set in stone.

 

Now, specifically, some of the things you mention aren't bugs, they're

problems people are having because they're using unsupported features that

they weren't supposed to use (like dismemberment in MP).

 

I do agree that sabers feel to weak against guns, I'm pushing for a game

modifier that makes it so you have to play as either a Jedi (saberonly &

force powers, no guns or pick-ups) or non-Jedi (guns only and pick-ups, no

saber or force powers). I think that would go a long way towards balancing

those kinds of integrated games.

 

And, I agree, that big guns should slow you down and that you should run

slower when running backwards.

 

We also plan on tweaking the force drain, force grip and force heal powers.

 

And the turning your saber off in a saberlock is a bug that was fixed in SP,

but never fixed in MP, that will be addressed.

 

Thanks for your e-mail, it confirms for me that we have been listening to

all the right feedback from players and that we're on the same wavelength as

them when it comes to changes we may make in a patch.

 

Michael Chang Gummelt

Gameplay Programmer: Jedi Knight II

Raven Software

http://www.ravensoft.com

[GreyJedi]

Nice job bringing some legitimate concerns to our friends at Raven Software. Good to know they are considering the points brought up in the forums.

 

Being Dutch, your grammer/spelling is excellent - better than many native to the English tongue.

 

Thanks for sharing the information.

[Mattman]

SWEET! I'm glad to hear both, that they are listening, and that they are considering these things. Beyond that, we'll have to trust Raven to bring balance to the force (oh, wait, the last time that happened, it ended in a mass jedi purge...hmmm. )

 

[Silent Wolf]

*sits back at his office table and puts his hands behind his heads*

 

how can you not love this company?

 

[XorKaya]

thanks for the post... if only you'd mentioned that people want to control what force powers are allowed to be used on a server... ie, neutral only

[Mattman]

Given that the letter from Raven mentioned things that were not addressed in Ascari's original email, I have little doubt that they have also noticed the requests for force power controls at the server level.

[Agen]

Actually some of the guns are jsut better than the saber and some aren't, to tell you straiht it's obvious a saber shouldn't be as powerufl as a gunner but saberers always seem to forget they have force and just do nothing about a gunner, pull their dman wepaon if they'reo wning your ass!

Also the people that are ocmplaining about drain are really quite er.;.. dumb

I mean they're draining you... oh no!... they're draining me, i'll sit back and jsut wathc, see what happens FFS kick his ass!

if your light do absorb if you;re drak give ihm some of his own medicine.

[Makkoan]

Sweet!

[Jedi_WilliamKy]

I think what he's trying to say is...

 

"Lets see how much money we rake in on this game before we decide how much time/money we will put back into it"

 

Or maybe that's not what he said at all....err..

[Vanor]

Thanks for posting that, it's nice to know they're aware of the balance issues we all are discussing.

 

Of all the things mentioned, I hope they do the saber/jedi only vs gun/no force mod the most. This type of game would really put a end to the "guns vs saber" debate/flame wars on here.

[digl]

I think what he's trying to say is...

 

"Lets see how much money we rake in on this game before we decide how much time/money we will put back into it"

 

Or maybe that's not what he said at all....err..

I don't think so

they'v released things like the linux server, that they had no obligation to do, they reply to emails and post at this forums

 

Besides, maybe they won't even get more money if there are more sells, it depends on the contract they have with LEC.

 

Nice to know that they are thinking about the patch already.

[n00bieWanKenobi]

how bout asking them about a co-op multilplayer missions...i know u guys talked about this before...but this would be badass if we had a co-op just like jedi power battles

[Ascari]

Hmm,

 

I read somewhere that a modding team is allready working on a co-operative campaign.

[digl]

Originally posted by n00bieWanKenobi

how bout asking them about a co-op multilplayer missions...i know u guys talked about this before...but this would be badass if we had a co-op just like jedi power battles

 

http://wls.jediknightii.net/games.html

http://modcentral.jediknightii.net/rebelstrike/

[Hell Raiser]

Bleh, there's a thing called Force Push ya know.

 

Anyway, I think that's great, the email, and the fixes and the whatnot. The Saber-Jedi Guns-No Jedi thing had better be a game mode though. Some people like their guns and force and saber ya know. *points at himself*

[Zek]

Noooooooooo!!! Not Heal!!

 

Heal is my saving grace as a light sider. Maybe I won't need it anymore if they fix the dark side more, but I'll have to wait and see. Anyone who can't see that the dark side is overpowered in some aspects needs to have their eyes worked on; sure Absorb counters all of it, but drain still takes off about half your force power before you can turn Absorb on, and if they manage to drain you empty(very easy) then god help you if they have Grip.

 

If they do put in that new game mode, I seriously hope they still do more to balance the repeater against sabers in all games.

[Solo4114]

Looks encouraging. I may e-mail them myself, just to reiterate a few concerns and propose some ideas to fix things. Also, I'd be curious to see if they respond back to me as well.

 

I think slowing down backwards run, and switching the speed depending on the gun you're carrying would definitely help the game's balance some. I know some folks will complain, but honestly, I think that without these changes, it'll remain quake3 with force powers, and not so much a true Star Wars game.

 

One other idea that'd be cool (but probably impossible to implement) is if you could dismember guns. Yeah, you read that right. I mean someone's charging you with a gun, you pull out a sabre and chop the thing in half. Luke did it to Fett in ROTJ, so why not let us do it? Of course, this would require that the gun model actually have portions that could be separated, and include skins to show the damage, so maybe that's not such a hot idea after all. Oh well. Just a thought.

[BlacKnight]

pull and push were made specifaclly for the repeater well ok maybe not but if you have them it's really not a big problem so long as you're careful. it's tough true but that's the balance of the game. If I could pull any weapon every single time no one would be able to use anything but a saber against me. It just takes a little practice and you're fine.

 

p.s. no I'm not a gun whore if I play for and hour or 2 straight I may fire a gun 5 times. maybe.

[Zodiac]

With the slowing down while moving backwards or having a big gun: I hope they tweak all the speeds, because you move so slow already! Just increase ur forward running speed and don't increase the moving back speed and u have the same effect.

 

ok.. anybody got any ideas when this patch will come out? I think it can take a month.. what do u think?

[happydan]

the SP combat needs to be merged with MP games.

if anyone is going to email, raise this concern. ive noted alot of support for this in reading the patch thread elsewhere.

[digl]

Originally posted by Solo4114

I think slowing down backwards run, and switching the speed depending on the gun you're carrying would definitely help the game's balance some. I know some folks will complain, but honestly, I think that without these changes, it'll remain quake3 with force powers, and not so much a true Star Wars game.

I don't remember those things in DF or JK, the only two SW FPS, so saying it isn't a true SW game without that doesn't make much sense.

It could improve balance though I agree.

 

ok.. anybody got any ideas when this patch will come out? I think it can take a month.. what do u think?

Well, we haven't 100% decided on what, exactly, we are and aren't going to

try to do in any patch... and we don't have a timeline on it, yet, so I

haven't said anything about it until it's more set in stone.

No one has an idea

[Zodiac]

ur right digl, nobody has an idea. I just hope a patch comes out soon

 

Hey.. in JK, running backwards went slower then running forward... and strafe+forward running was even faster then just any other kind of running... I hope they can implement that in JK2, because it gives u so much more control over your character. And any kind of extra control would help you to do a move you'd always wanted to do.

[Jaif]

A mod that limits force powers to saber people will wipe gunners out of contention. All the force powers, including (and maybe especially) jump, kick ass when they aren't opposed.

 

-Jeff

[TheArch]

they have that mode now. . .its called jedi master

 

It is cool to see that the folks at Raven are supporting this thing. And about the force-drain, I dared a friend of mine to turn from the Dark Side for a few duel rounds (he was killing me as a Drain-Grip whore) and playa as a light Jedi. He was quick to admit that the light side IS much MUCH harder to play (I started beating him down when we were both light). So, it stands to reason that drain might be a bit overpowered. I don't mind grip (save for the swirly spinning grippers) because my counter power of absorb actually DOES something. VS Drain all absorb does is slow down your loss of force power to the normal absorb rate. And with my "HEY LOOK AT ME I HAVE ABSORB ON" blue glow, any Darkie knows to just wait a second and that'll end. Then enter the grip/lighting. . . .At least make absorb a truly passive power. Sure it can glow when you TRY to attack me with force (like the shield effect) but other than that, you don't know if I have it running or not.

[DannyDiplo]

Good to see Raven listening and I do hope they tweak the aspects mentioned in the email, as I think they would go a long way to helping make the game more fun and viable for the future. All good MP games need balance if they are to stay popular, and I think the changes mentioned would certainly help. Good work!