Well I've no deadline for when this will come out, but hopefully sometime before you all stop playing SWBF1 (if anyone is still playing that is!). Among the main changes for this release:
- Acklay and Rancor as pilotable vehicles
- all-new ridable Reek
- all-new ridable Orray, including a (buggy) version of Orray with Geonosis cart/chariot
- many many new Jedi characters based on the "ring of survivors"
- fixed stadium (no more transparency issues)
- skirts added to Obi and Anakin and most of the Jedi units
- AI-controlled gunships now descend down into the arena to assist/rescue the Jedi
Lots of little collision and animation issues with the new beasts, but they work well enough. If you can overlook a stretched Yoda, you can probably live with an Acklay who scrapes the ground more than walks on it, and an Orray that floats a bit off the ground... Each doorway spawns one of the beasts (Rancor, Reek, or Acklay) and they have their own minor offensive attacks e.g. the Rancor vomits/spews blood/guts/bones at enemies haphazardly, the Acklay has a sonic attack, and the Reek runs around the arena trying to run over enemies.
The main goal was to finally have some creatures in my arena. I'd always thought it felt incomplete in the 1.0 release not to have a few beasts in there to keep the regular army units from just fighting each other. Their attacks are NOT very powerful so as to prevent the gamer from simply riding in one and slaughtering all the enemy units. The gamer isn't really meant to even pilot them, they're more there to complete the atmosphere of the map BUT I do recognize that (some) folks seem obsessed with getting their fantasy of being a playable rancor or acklay and I left these guys just useful enough but not too strong. They all have very high health and are hard to kill (partially due to collision issues with ordnance too :) )
The Acklay is sized larger so that it and the Rancor can sort of fight "head to head" more easily. Note that the original intent was to have the Nexu in there but that didn't work out, so I took the Rancor from my planned/delayed Force Unleashed mod and put it here in place of the Nexu. The Rodian jedi has also been transplanted from my TFU mod into this map and is playable.
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Are these like movable rancor's? and are those like real? omg i can't believe this is happening (this really looks awesome! :D)
I'll sure look forward to play it Napseeker! really nice job, i hope people are allowed to use the skin of rancor's for their own maps (more fun) :D
Lol amazing!I can't wait to try this.
As always Napseeker, a delight to see something new coming to the table soon!
That Acklay is quite the showstopper.
I will still be here. Count me in on mod map fun, call me.
Quote from: Darth_Verik. on November 04, 2010, 11:45:27 PM
Are these like movable rancor's? and are those like real? omg i can't believe this is happening (this really looks awesome! :D)
The Rancor does walk (it's a walker like any other you might see in SWBF1, so it walks but that's it... the arms cannot be controlled unfortunately so it is NOT possible to pick up an enemy unit and eat him. The jaws do move up and down to give the appearance that he is munching on something if that is any consolation).
Definiltely don't expect anything even close to a perfect walk cycle from the beasts, it was a challenge to get any of them to move around without the whole object distorting badly and looking disjointed. The Reek is the most successfully done creature (probably because I worked on him first and spent the most time getting it right) whereas the Orray and Cart I decided to stick into the map at the last minute a few months ago and definitely has some issues.
At any rate, I stopped working on the map a few months ago and just found some time tonight to post some pics. The big stumbling block is the gameplay. As I've learned - the fun factor in the game greatly depends on whether you play this map on a slow or a super-fast computer. I do my modding on a slow PC, but did my playtesting on the quadcore PC and discovered that the gameplay changes drastically depending on the speed of the computer. On a slow PC, the game plays exactly as I want it (if the gamer does nothing, the CIS always slaughter the Jedi fast), but then on the quadcore PC, if the gamer does nothing and just stands around, the Jedi massacre the CIS everytime - quite frustrating to see. The AI gunships also fly way smoother on the fast PC, are able to hit enemy CIS units with far greater accuracy thus enabling the Jedi to win even more quickly. I guess on a faster PC you have more CPU cycles to dedicate to the AI which wind up playing a far smarter offense? Either way, it's a bit of a dilemma... I would ideally want the map designed such that all gamers regardless of PC speed will experience the same thing.
My current solution is to release multiple versions (mission maps) whereby the number of CIS reinforcements varies from 300 to 700; people with faster PC/Macs could then pick whichever mission map offers JUST enough of a challenge that they have to work hard as a Jedi unit in order to win the game. This is intended to be single player (as all my mods are) where the gamer plays as the Jedi of course although as with ver 1.0 I do not restrict anyone from playing on the CIS if they want.
I remember one time when i download one of your geonosis arena maps and there i find when you play whit remotedroid and when you click the right mouse button after few seconds comes gunship from the sky then crush to the ground and kill droids.That was amazing and i am really curious how you do that.This was just amazing!Is there will be something like that in this version?
I love you Napseeker. :P
Looks fantastic, was wonderign when you'd get back!
Thank you for working on this Napseeker! I have always loved your mod maps.
Could you send me a PM regarding how you got the animations in for the beasts? I've been wanting to do a mecha mod but I don't have the bones for the ATST and the closest I could get to one was using the bones for the SBD and scaling the model up in the game.
Haaaaaaaaaaw... this looks amazing.
Whoah, fancy stuff. :tu:
This is definitely something I'll keep my eyes on. Especially looking forward to seeing those AI gunships. Awesomesauce Napseeker. :cheers:
Really nice stuff you have here!!
I'll be keeping my eye on this ;)
Looks like you have out-done yourself once again. And whats this about a Force Unleashed mod. You never ceases to amaze me.
:o how'd you make the Acklay playable? great job! :tu:
Quote from: gogo12 on November 05, 2010, 03:16:34 AM
I remember one time when i download one of your geonosis arena maps and there i find when you play whit remotedroid and when you click the right mouse button after few seconds comes gunship from the sky then crush to the ground and kill droids.That was amazing and i am really curious how you do that.This was just amazing!Is there will be something like that in this version?
Yes, Obi-Wan now has a similar weapon to the Clone Commander. When he throws his homing device onto the ground, it will signal his Jedi Starfighter (piloted by R4) to come down and crush any enemies at that spot. The damage done by the starfighter is smaller (and covers a smaller area) than that done by the gunship so you have to be sure the enemy isn't going to run too far away when you toss it.
@Nikoli: I would wait to see the anims in EAG2, you may not necessarily see these as ideally suited to your mod as you might from just static pics. The process was a kludge and may not really work with a mech mod IMO. I can get you the AT-ST skeleton if you do want it regardless.
@SchTicK: my TFU mod was going to be partly a mission map of JK's Felucia ported map from BF2 along with some new custom maps made by me. You probably already saw a small preview pic of it last year (it had my TFU "jungle" Shaak-Ti along with the Rodian jedi (Jedi + Greedo = "Jeedo" is his name :) ) and some 327th Star Corps troops as well as the Felucian warrior). That may not happen now just due to time constraints which is another reason why the playable Acklay and Rancor are coming out in EAG2 instead. I want to make sure those assets that I worked on actually get used in one of my mods somewhere...
Thought to ask, the Felucian Warrior (http://www.mpcgamers.com/smf/index.php?topic=991.msg12031#msg12031)has not been playable in a mod map yet, yes? (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_cFA-t1J8KUA/THmgF-xR4HI/AAAAAAAAAT0/rWDZk1y-C8o/s1600/deaths+head+big.jpg)
late post to this topic, but this map looks amazing and a better looking map that have came out recently! glad there is still great modders out there!! :tu:
Quote from: Xfire Keenmike aka cull on November 06, 2010, 06:15:07 AM
Thought to ask, the Felucian Warrior (http://www.mpcgamers.com/smf/index.php?topic=991.msg12031#msg12031)has not been playable in a mod map yet, yes? (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_cFA-t1J8KUA/THmgF-xR4HI/AAAAAAAAAT0/rWDZk1y-C8o/s1600/deaths+head+big.jpg)
No, not yet... would still like to release that TFU mod/map someday so he will be "new" when that does come out (along with the custom jungle Shaak-Ti and a few other new TFU-based units).
(Thanks Fire)
looks awesome! is this availabl for download onto macs yet?
Quote from: CT-5108 on November 13, 2010, 06:47:08 PM
looks awesome! is this availabl for download onto macs yet?
Not even available for PCs yet :P... (okay, the maps are platform neutral so PC and Mac would be the same thing either way...)
oh no, i don't think when i play this i'll be able to stop.
I always thought I'd never be able to stop playing SWBF! And with maps like these, there's no question about it! It looks so amazing! I've had fantasies about rancors every since the first time it dropped me twice and the camera angle switched! (i got free from the sarlacc pit too.) This is so awesome! I think I'll gonna have a heart attack! :panic: It's unspeakably great!
Looks like I'm gonna have to go dust off my SWBF CD, this map looks great! :tu:
I've never fought against rancors before, are they hard? :o
Quote from: Kelle on November 19, 2010, 08:21:22 AM
I've had fantasies about rancors every since the first time it dropped me twice and the camera angle switched! (i got free from the sarlacc pit too.) This is so awesome! I think I'll gonna have a heart attack! :panic: It's unspeakably great!
lol you've had fantasies about rancors?
What I mean is the extended possibilities and flexibility of the rancor rather than it just standing in a cramped room all by itself. How often has this happened --> :sleep: and then dream about playable rancors. But that would just be a dream/fantasy. This map would be like a dream come true! Even now at this very minute I'm working on a movie which includes a lot of rancor footage. I WANT LEGIONS OF RANCORS!
Quote from: Kelle on November 20, 2010, 09:39:39 AM
What I mean is the extended possibilities and flexibility of the rancor rather than it just standing in a cramped room all by itself. How often has this happened --> :sleep: and then dream about playable rancors. But that would just be a dream/fantasy. This map would be like a dream come true! Even now at this very minute I'm working on a movie which includes a lot of rancor footage. I WANT LEGIONS OF RANCORS!
I can honestly say ive never dreamed of Rancors, but this is an awesome map gw
Just a reminder (before all this Rancor love gets out of hand) that you mostly just walk around when you pilot the Rancor, there's no arm movements whatsoever, so you can't grab or smack anyone or have them for lunch.
Other than a scattershot vomiting of blood and guts at your foes, it's been designed to be a giant walker that mostly annoys the soldier units rather than wiping them out. Same goes for all the beasts, since I don't want the gamers to beat the map just by hopping into a beast.
For a soldier unit to kill a beast, it is difficult, especially if you're a Jedi. Lightsabers won't do any harm since the collision here is off (if it did work and were realistic, those beasts would be dead with one swing of the saber anyway, not much fun there). Grenades are the most effective and the CIS battledroids have plenty of those in case you, as a Jedi unit, decide to pilot one of the beasts.
I should note that for the first time I've given the Jedi a grenade-type weapon (which can be used to attack the beasts). Previously I didn't want to give Jedi actual grenades since we all know they don't use these in battle ever. Still, it felt unbalanced not to give the Jedi something which they can toss at the enemy and have it "explode". The new "grenade" is the Jedi training ball (seen in Star Wars ANH, when it zaps Luke as he is training with the blastshield helmet). The padawans and some Jedi Knights carry it - throw it at your enemy and the ball lands on the sand. Half a second later, the training ball levitates into the air and begins firing green zaps in every direction. Unlike in the movie, the enemies don't get poked when hit, they're killed :)
Similar to the Jedi training ball, I've also given them a mine-type weapon also. Here the Jedi tosses the training ball onto the sand. Instead of immediately levitating into the air and firing away, the ball will sit there until an enemy comes close and once it does, THEN it levitates up and starts firing. So it acts like a mine in essence.
Oh my that training ball sounds epic, reminds me of JK2 !
Wow, this sounds great. When is it coming out, because I'm gonna be all over it.
I'm hoping to have it out late January. Having some issues with the brightness of the terrain right now that seem baffling....
Good Luck , once again it looks great :tu:
Quote from: Napseeker on November 28, 2010, 03:56:14 PM
I'm hoping to have it out late January. Having some issues with the brightness of the terrain right now that seem baffling....
Hope it turns out as well as it looks. Best of luck to you.
Take as long as you want Napseeker, maybe you might make it before my 17 birthday. and then in the readme thing it says: "congratulations on your birthday V" and then we here...at MPC all know who he means
(birthday is in April btw XD)
Thanks Bacara and Fire, much appreciated. DVerik/Darth Santa, I do hope it comes out long before April. I should have more time to work on it over the Christmas holidays - the only real problem seems to be the placement of the sun, which despite being directly overhead, still seems to cause the arena to cast a looooong shadow over the arena floor, making it all too dark.
Well it's dark if you have the ShadowQuality turned to High (not a problem if it's low or off, as the ground is "bright" although the units don't seem to cast shadows no doubt because that arena wall's shadow is still there in effect). If I can fix that, I can proceed ahead with the final stuff to do a beta release... it's a fun map, retuned to work on faster PCs and much closer to the events in the film.
sweet
I do look forward to this.
Hey, Napseeker, when MPCGamers shuts down, where will you be posting these?
Hey this looks amazing! About the bright terrain, i have a tutorial up about that http://www.mpcgamers.com/smf/index.php?topic=2098.0 (http://www.mpcgamers.com/smf/index.php?topic=2098.0) hope it helps!
I like Ggctuck question!When Mpcgamers shut down where we go?Maybe gametoast?Its not bad idea.There will be the last place where we can mod and talk for BF1 (I think to move my KOTOR MAP-PACK forum there.)
Quote from: MileHighGuy on December 16, 2010, 11:15:39 PM
Hey this looks amazing! About the bright terrain, i have a tutorial up about that http://www.mpcgamers.com/smf/index.php?topic=2098.0 (http://www.mpcgamers.com/smf/index.php?topic=2098.0) hope it helps!
Hey MHG, I saw that tutorial (nice job), but in this case it isn't brightness per se, just the shadow that seems to be cast down onto the terrain from the arena walls itself (which are very high). If I remove the walls completely from the map, the shadowing for the units work fine, but once they are put back in, they darken the whole terrain. I can brighten it back up again by burning the terrain, but that doesn't really solve the actual issue (i.e. why placing the sun directly overhead the map still causes the shadow).
@ggctuk/gogo12: gametoast is one possibility, although I would prefer just to stick with mpcgamers if the plan by the new owner is to keep things consistent. I'm already registered on enough forums and sites, I'd prefer to actually stay with what I'm familiar with. MXG/MPCG is where I started off and most loyal to, so I'd rather not leave...
On the bad side, I have gotten
zero modding done over the holidays due to work commitments... maybe Darth Verik shall get his April "birthday present" after all, at this rate :slap:
Quote from: Napseeker on December 28, 2010, 11:22:45 AM
@ggctuk/gogo12: gametoast is one possibility, although I would prefer just to stick with mpcgamers if the plan by the new owner is to keep things consistent. I'm already registered on enough forums and sites, I'd prefer to actually stay with what I'm familiar with. MXG/MPCG is where I started off and most loyal to, so I'd rather not leave...
Just to reiterate for all you guys who are considering leaving, MPC will be given to a new owner (to be disclosed later) and will not be shutting down completely. The new owner is very dedicated to this game and has no intentions of leaving anytime soon. I fully expect the site to remain the same as it always has been and to provide exactly the same services it always has to the community. There is no reason to panic and try to force yourself onto any new sites or create your own.
@Jedikiller
Who is the new owner?
@Napseeker
Burning the terrain actually just makes the overall map 100 billion times brighter, to the point where looking at it for extended periods of time will give the mapmaker a headache. But I can't wait for this to come out!
Jedi said he would say who bought the site at a later date. Meaning not today
So can you release this mod...srry for bumping the topic. :rofl: