Execution at Geonosis 2 (beta) - just pics, just pics...

[Napseeker]

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.

[Darth Verik]

Are these like movable rancor's? and are those like real? omg i can't believe this is happening (this really looks awesome! )

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)

[gogo12]

Lol amazing!I can't wait to try this.

[Hardcore]

As always Napseeker, a delight to see something new coming to the table soon!

That Acklay is quite the showstopper.

[Xfire Keenmike aka cull]

I will still be here. Count me in on mod map fun, call me.

[Napseeker]

Are these like movable rancor's? and are those like real? omg i can't believe this is happening (this really looks awesome! )

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.

[gogo12]

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?

[Breakdown]

I love you Napseeker.

Looks fantastic, was wonderign when you'd get back!

[Katarn]

Thank you for working on this Napseeker! I have always loved your mod maps.

[Nikoli]

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.

[Unit 33]

Haaaaaaaaaaw... this looks amazing.

[Rhino]

Whoah, fancy stuff. 

This is definitely something I'll keep my eyes on. Especially looking forward to seeing those AI gunships. Awesomesauce Napseeker. 

[Rinku]

Really nice stuff you have here!!

I'll be keeping my eye on this

[SchTicK]

Looks like you have out-done yourself once again. And whats this about a Force Unleashed mod. You never ceases to amaze me.

[jdee-barc]

  how'd you make the Acklay playable? great job!