State of ProMod beta 3

[ksk h2o]

Thanks for the tips Atifex, I allways thought the reason the bots were so deadly was due to the fact that their aim is as you said nearly perfect. If they ever start using heavy stance though, as you said, their sabers are above their head or to the side a long time, allowing for multiple slashes druing that time

 

I also agree with your point about guns being indestructible and non-jedi spawning with only the bryar. How about the shield/medpac/bacta powerups?

 

There are plenty of maps that have just HORDES of powerups lying right by the flag-points or main combat areas, that essentially make the game a chase-the-looser game. Nowadaws I really piss people off on some servers since, as soon as they go for the mega-uber-shield powerup, I start pull-kicking them to death. Of course the natural response to this are the whiny "laaameeer, neeeeeoooob, or-place-your-insult-here" but hey, if there are all these shileds lying around and kicking and your feet happen to be the best moves/weapons in the game that bypass shields then I'll be usnig and abusing it on the ones that run away

 

I know the saber is a LOT deadlier in promod and thank god for that! I haven't been able to play promod as an FFA against many other humans but would like to know if the "runners" are as annoying as in vanilla. since if they start running around 40 health a saber throw wont kill them and you definitely can't catch up to them (or pull) to land a heavy blow or a finisher.

[ArtifeX]

Originally posted by MMXP

Wait, I just realized something. How will the bots' have theor points doled out to guns?

 

Currently, they all have level 3 in every weapon skill. Their bot personality dictates which weapons they will use. If you load up Lando, you'll notice he never touches a lightsaber. He'll blow the crap out of you with the guns if you're not careful though.

[ArtifeX]

Originally posted by ksk h2o

...

 

I know the saber is a LOT deadlier in promod and thank god for that! I haven't been able to play promod as an FFA against many other humans but would like to know if the "runners" are as annoying as in vanilla. since if they start running around 40 health a saber throw wont kill them and you definitely can't catch up to them (or pull) to land a heavy blow or a finisher.

 

No, runners won't be as much of a problem. A Jedi running away will be susceptible to projectiles (especially the sniper rifle), and a gunner running away can get Pulled multiple times to slow them down.

 

If your plan in CTF is to run in lone-wolf-style, grab the flag, and run out without dealing with any of the defenders, you're going to have a nasty surprise in store with version 3.0.

[The Truthful Liar]

Originally posted by ArtifeX

If your plan in CTF is to run in lone-wolf-style, grab the flag, and run out without dealing with any of the defenders, you're going to have a nasty surprise in store with version 3.0.

 

In one way I'm glad to hear it, however it'll most likely dash my entire technique playing CTF matches. To tell you the truth I've only played ProMod 2.0 a couple times even though I liked it very much I didn't have the patience to learn something new. Will it be an easy switch from normal 1.4 to ProMod 3, or is it going to be overly complicated? It seems to me that it is, however will there be a good number of ctf servers running the new promod?

[ArtifeX]

New stuff that's done:

 

I've implemented a fuel gauge for the jetpack (no, not the force meter--that's lame), the ability to save your force/weapon skill config using the same file saving mechanism as the old force configs (yay!), and server side validation of your weapon skills (no cheating).

 

What's left:

 

Jetpack bolted model (if possible), jetpack sound effects (shouldn't be difficult), jetpack thrusters effects (not sure how difficult this will be yet), and of course, the new force power.

 

I'm teetering on the edge of releasing this as soon as all the jetpack code is in, without the new force power. The power won't affect gunner/jedi combat much anyway, and would probably require another week or more to complete. There's so much new material in this patch already that I think that adding the new power would be just too much. Saving it for 3.1 would probably be a good idea.

 

On another good note, all bugs that have been found in the current feature set are gone. Everything is super stable now, thanks to some help from my beta testers: ZeroWingZero, Lazarous, Fatal, and Blind Moradin.

 

Yeah, yeah. When's it going to be released?

Assuming everything goes well for the rest of the jetpack coding and I leave out the new power, I could be done as early as tonight or tomorrow night. At that point, I'll have a large beta test on my server with some former members of dsbr clan, and likely some members of SM, if fatalstrike can convince them to come along. After that, I'll shake out any bugs that were uncovered and publicly release.

[Mex]

Erm, what about people in CTF, with guns, but use force powers, and a saber? They could resist force pull, [and push] and then you get their gun, [pull] and then they can switch to saber and fight!

 

Thats not very reallistic for a Gunner to use a Lightsabre, [or is there a mercinary option, if there is, I havent payed much attention ]

[ArtifeX]

Originally posted by AB_Legion

In one way I'm glad to hear it, however it'll most likely dash my entire technique playing CTF matches. To tell you the truth I've only played ProMod 2.0 a couple times even though I liked it very much I didn't have the patience to learn something new. Will it be an easy switch from normal 1.4 to ProMod 3, or is it going to be overly complicated? It seems to me that it is, however will there be a good number of ctf servers running the new promod?

 

Remember, Promod doesn't require you to do anything that you shouldn't have already been doing in 1.4. The CSC concept is very similar to the way that saber damage is scaled in 1.4, where you have to hit someone in the exact middle of your swing animation to do full damage (this just happens to be squarely in front of you for most swings). So, if you've been trying to maximize your damage in 1.4, then you've been sharpening your Promod skills all along.

 

The other facets of Promod saber combat are as simple as you want to make them. Moving forward gives you an offensive bonus, moving backwards or crouching gives you a defensive bonus. Blue stance trumps Yellow trumps Red trumps Blue. That's pretty much it. The bonuses are small enough so that they're only useful when fighting a very evenly matched player, in which case they are going to decide the outcome most times.

 

I've been speaking with several different CTF clans, and they seem very interested in where Promod is going. I think 3.0 is going to be big, but we'll just have to wait and see how well everyone spreads the word once its released.

[ArtifeX]

Originally posted by Abarath

Erm, what about people in CTF, with guns, but use force powers, and a saber? They could resist force pull, [and push] and then you get their gun, [pull] and then they can switch to saber and fight!

 

Thats not very reallistic for a Gunner to use a Lightsabre, [or is there a mercinary option, if there is, I havent payed much attention ]

 

Promod 3.0's skill system only allows you to use either guns or force at full effectiveness--not both. For instance, choosing level 4 weapon skills will disable all force power ranks, while having level 2 weapon skills will only disable level 3 force powers. Check the other Promod 3.0 thread for the pictures of the new Skill setup screen and you'll understand.

[ksk h2o]

quite impatient for the relase. And since I do not know what the new force power is, I could not say if it will be a major impact. However, if it can be done in a few days or a week. I think it would be best to get one release instead of two consecutive ones

[Moradivh]

I'm teetering on the edge of releasing this as soon as all the jetpack code is in, without the new force power. The power won't affect gunner/jedi combat much anyway, and would probably require another week or more to complete. There's so much new material in this patch already that I think that adding the new power would be just too much. Saving it for 3.1 would probably be a good idea.

I concur. The masses have waited long enough. Time for war.

 

I can't wait to have a big beta 3 game going. Not sure which time zone you're all in (Eastern for me) but I'll lurk around the server tonight all the same. And I look forward to the new media pack whenever it comes out, as I've fallen in love with the Kit Fisto skin. He sounds like a mutant porpuse when he talks, best taunts I ever heard. Might change my name to Flipper just for that.

 

btw, though I did get into the beta very late, I haven't found much of any bugs. The only one that slightly annoys me is that I have to re-open my player setup screen every time the map changes, to remind the game which items I can pick up (can't pick up any otherwise). I never bothered reporting it though, as it's a global bug that happens no matter what build I use, so I assumed you had found it a long time ago and was on your fix-list, Arti. Lemme know if I'm wrong. First time I've ever tested a game/mod that wasn't mine.

[ArtifeX]

Originally posted by Moradivh

I concur. The masses have waited long enough. Time for war.

 

I can't wait to have a big beta 3 game going. Not sure which time zone you're all in (Eastern for me) but I'll lurk around the server tonight all the same. And I look forward to the new media pack whenever it comes out, as I've fallen in love with the Kit Fisto skin. He sounds like a mutant porpuse when he talks, best taunts I ever heard. Might change my name to Flipper just for that.

 

btw, though I did get into the beta very late, I haven't found much of any bugs. The only one that slightly annoys me is that I have to re-open my player setup screen every time the map changes, to remind the game which items I can pick up (can't pick up any otherwise). I never bothered reporting it though, as it's a global bug that happens no matter what build I use, so I assumed you had found it a long time ago and was on your fix-list, Arti. Lemme know if I'm wrong. First time I've ever tested a game/mod that wasn't mine.

 

Ok, so that's 1 vote for and 1 against so far.

 

The bug you noticed is something i'm aware of. It's a result of not having a weaponprofs cvar value set when you join a server for the first time. If you drop connection and then reconnect, jk2 will write your weaponprofs value to your jk2mpconfig.cfg file and it should be fine from there on out. I've looked into this in depth, and it has to do with the q3 engine not reporting user-defined UserInfo cvars upon connection. It's weird. I came up with something sneaky earlier today that I might use as a workaround though. I'll give it a try when i get home.

[ArtifeX]

One other thing:

 

I can't wait to get a huge game of CTF going in 3.0. It's going to be a f*cking blast! The strategy is going to center around travelling in gunner/jedi pairs for maximum effectiveness. Jedi are the going to be the best flag carriers, as they aren't going to be easily Push/Pulled and can use Force Speed or Rage to cover ground quickly. Gunners will be great for base defense with their gadgets and explosives, and will do just as well rooting out the other team's dug-in defenders.

 

The big thing will be that one-man armies are no longer going to be as effective as they were before. Seriously, if one-man armies are your thing, why bother playing a team game in the first place? Everyone's going to have a weakness of some sort that can be exploited, so they'll need to rely on complimentary teammates to accomplish goals.

[taboo]

A new force power Promod needs not ... yet. The force power isn't really needed for balance (as far as I know) so as soon as the jetpack etc is stable, release the damn thing! Lookin' forward to it!

[Doctor Shaft]

I'm just curious as to what it is. Since you're so excited to release it, and you figure that it'll take you another week to get the force power, then that means you must know that you can put the force power is.

 

My opinion depends on what the power is. What does it do? If it's like force throw pie in the face, then go ahead and release 3.0. But if it's something cool, I can wait a week, I've been so busy just doing school work that I can calm those random cravings for..... pro.....mooddd..... AR..ti..f..e....x..... i.... must.......hav.....po....mod......nau..........agh..........

 

::sPlaT::

[Toa Tahu]

Ah,ArtifeX,will there be a option for saber/guns teams,like there is for light/dark teams??And when ProMod 3 comes out let's have a big CTF party for 3 nights?I'll be online about 9-12pm EST.Lol,my time is 12 hours ahead of EST,so I can adjust my time more properly.

 

Right ArtifeX(about the big CTF party)?

[Syfo-Dyas]

Originally posted by ArtifeX

 

No, there won't be a hilt selector in 3.0. It's a nice feature that will probably get added in a later version. So far, the dual-glow RGB sabers are my only capitulation to eye-candy-only changes.

 

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. That was something I was looking forward to. I like the idea of each person having the ability to heavily customize as many aspects of their character as possible. Hopefully we'll get to that point in the future. I'll vote for it!

[ArtifeX]

Originally posted by Doctor Shaft

I'm just curious as to what it is. Since you're so excited to release it, and you figure that it'll take you another week to get the force power, then that means you must know that you can put the force power is.

 

My opinion depends on what the power is. What does it do? If it's like force throw pie in the face, then go ahead and release 3.0. But if it's something cool, I can wait a week, I've been so busy just doing school work that I can calm those random cravings for..... pro.....mooddd..... AR..ti..f..e....x..... i.... must.......hav.....po....mod......nau..........agh..........

 

::sPlaT::

 

There's actually three of them that I'm thinking about, but the one that I had originally planned to implement would have limited usefulness against a gunner. I still don't want to let any of them out of the bag, because I'm still not 100% sure which one I'm going to put in; don't want to get anybody's hopes up/let them down.

 

Update

 

I will say that I played with Avatar and Blind Moradin last night for a couple of hours at least, and had an absolute blast! I really can't sit on this any longer. It's just so much better than the regular version of the game. As soon as the jetpack cosmetic stuff is complete and I work out whatever bugs crop up, I'll be releasing it.

 

What's really odd is that CTF and FFA maps are looking to be the ideal choice for saber vs. gunner duelling. With so much space and equipment, the Gunner has time to equip himself (he hopes), and the Jedi can make good use of Mind Trick and Force Sight. Blind Moradin and I had some really great battles on CTF_Bespin. I was playing as a gunner and was having to use all inventory Gadgets, explosive charges and weapons that I had available to beat him. The experience is very similar to playing a Marine(gunner) versus an Alien (Jedi) in Aliens vs. Predator 2. The Jedi has superior tactical information and options in the form of Force Sight, Mind Trick, Dark Rage and other Powers, while the gunner has superior firepower, range and equipment. As you can imagine, the gunner experience is very reliant on resource management. All the firepower potential in the world doesn't matter if it's laying on the floor 10 meters in front of you when you meet the business end of a lightsaber.

 

It's great to see this culminating in what I wanted all along: a fast-paced, but tactical shooter that demands cleverness and depth of strategy to succeed.

 

A couple of balance things I'm planning on putting in: 75% self-damage from your own projectiles. This is currently way too low at 50%, which encourages spamming the floor underneath your feet when a jedi gets too close to you. I'm also considering having the Golan alt-fire shoot only one ball per shot instead of two, but at a faster firing rate. This would stop the one shot kills that are pretty rampant with it currently, and reward those who have the skill to land two consecutive shots. It's much too spammy firing two shots at once, especially with level 4's enhanced firing rate.

[Lathain Valtiel]

Only 75% self damage..? Bah.... I'll take what I can get though, but that partially allows gunners to be a bit sloppy, especially with rockets.

[Doctor Shaft]

I agree with MMXP.... bad form.

 

Here's the comparison. Lightsaber. You either get the guy or you don't. No compromise, can't be sloppy.

 

Guns. Fire anywhere you like, as long as it's close, you got them.

 

With only 75% damage, that still leaves a window for a gunner to be reckless with his firing. With the golan arms, I can understand that 75% gives the guy a chance. He only needs to get hit twice, and since he fires both shots at once, it's a liability. but then you got the rocket launcher and the repeater. nobody fears firing those things. You gotta let them have it man. The FF reduced damage thing was put in to help the new players from frying themselves, or to give a rocket jump. JK doesn't need a rocket jump, nor is promod supposed to be helping the new players.

 

But I'll take what I can get too.

[ArtifeX]

Originally posted by MMXP

Only 75% self damage..? Bah.... I'll take what I can get though, but that partially allows gunners to be a bit sloppy, especially with rockets.

 

Baby steps, baby steps. I don't want to go the route of too much too quickly. I'll see how 75% works out in beta testing.

[Toa Tahu]

Well,ArtifeX,will Promod be a real big download?Please give an value of the size of the download,please?Thanks.

 

Lately 56k'ers like me and people who live 1/2 around the world(like me) will never ever play a MP game again.My ping is SO low,even with cable(friend),my ping is still SUPER HIGH(500-600).So I think I'll never ever play MP again.

 

Anyway,Artifex,are you making Saga MP mode for Promod 3?

[ArtifeX]

Originally posted by Toa Tahu

Well,ArtifeX,will Promod be a real big download?Please give an value of the size of the download,please?Thanks.

 

Lately 56k'ers like me and people who live 1/2 around the world(like me) will never ever play a MP game again.My ping is SO low,even with cable(friend),my ping is still SUPER HIGH(500-600).So I think I'll never ever play MP again.

 

Anyway,Artifex,are you making Saga MP mode for Promod 3?

 

Download size should be around 1Meg.

 

Saga support is planned for a later release.

[Syfo-Dyas]

Originally posted by Toa Tahu

Lately 56k'ers like me and people who live 1/2 around the world(like me) will never ever play a MP game again.

 

Where is "1/2 around the world", Toa? I would think if you are anywhere near a large metropoliton area, you should be able to find others to connect with. And if you are in Japan, I was under the impression that they have a gaming scene that would put the good 'ol U.S of A to shame!

 

Either way, I hope you find some MP contacts. Bummer you can't play here. We need all the support we can get!

 

Maybe we can take up a collection and fly you in once a week!

[Toa Tahu]

Originally posted by Syfo-Dyas

 

Where is "1/2 around the world", Toa? I would think if you are anywhere near a large metropoliton area, you should be able to find others to connect with. And if you are in Japan, I was under the impression that they have a gaming scene that would put the good 'ol U.S of A to shame!

 

Either way, I hope you find some MP contacts. Bummer you can't play here. We need all the support we can get!

 

Maybe we can take up a collection and fly you in once a week!

 

Well,thanks a lot though but if you don't mind horrendous lag then I can join(ping 999!)

 

Hmmm...I won't be in Japan...and Japan is indeed a gaming scene to wonder about.

 

However,I live in a country many of you guys won't want to hear:Malaysia.

 

Well I can't help if any of you want to diss me but I'm Malaysian and I'm proud of it(no offence).Anyway,since everyone that's playing is about 100,000 miles away,I might as well forget about playing except if that guy has super cable or T1 like ac/dc fan bill.

 

Cool...one meg would be a reasonable download...it's fascinating that such mods wouldn't take up such a large space(like sbx for JK,if any of you guys remember.)

 

Saga support...?Planned...?YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Saga would be nice for a game like JO!And,will you make a Saga map?

[Doctor Shaft]

Hey!!!! An SBX fan. I remember, I remember all too well. That was a great mod. By the time it came out, JK wasn't dead, but it had been beaten to death in my mind. I was around when the game started, and while that doesn't give me the authority to declare it dead, and technically the community was still going, the game was still kind of dead. Old netcode, etc. etc. SBX breathed new life into it, even though it was still plagued with the same ole ancient software code. GREAT GAME.

 

How's it coming so far Arti, planning on releasing anytime soon, like in a few days, or you hit a few tweaks you want to make? Ar....ti.....fe....x..... spLAt