Progress Report: April 2022

[Linken]

Looking forth to the mod's future (no nobody is leaving )

MAP OVERHAULS

Progress has been made on working on improving a few maps featured in the mod.

To begin, so far several maps which feature self-respawning vehicles will no longer crash the game if you decided to drink and drive. Other maps with issues regarding swoops infinitely respawning have been and will be addressed.

Maps that so far have been fixed include (but aren't limited to).

• Battle of Hoth
• Battle over Coruscant
• Coruscant Speedway
• Boonta Eve Classic
• Battle of Geonosis

Other maps with similar issues will be tracked down and fixed in the near future.

Referring back to the announcement made several years ago regarding adding waypoints to the Star Forge map to make AI battles much easier, a lot of changes have been made the Star Forge map to improve the experience on it as compared to what was available at launch.

The waypoints on the map have been completely overhauled in order to make NPC pathfinding much smoother. We have also added NPC barriers around areas where NPCs could get stuck in the geometry and find it impossible to get back on track.

The chasm area between the inner area and outer ring has been deepened and turned into a death drop.

The dead Jedi have been removed and (for Revan vs. Malak) have been replaced with KOTOR-accurate Jedi NPCs.

The lighting has seen to improvement.

But enough of that, let's see some screenshots!

BEFORE

AFTER (More dynamic lighting from the floor and better contrast for floor textures). NPC barriers erected to prevent AI from getting trapped in areas of the map.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER (Less blocky fog texture, looking more natural, deepened pit, turning into a death drop)

BEFORE

AFTER (Replaced static Jaden Korr model with live NPCs for the Revan vs. Malak mission, otherwise removed entirely)

All of these changes and fixes have also been applied to the Revan vs. Malak map. Speaking of which....

REVAN VS. MALAK

The Revan vs. Malak mission has seen to a number of serious improvements, and after many hours of debugging and testing, the logic for the Jedi Draining stage has been completely re-written so Malak no longer soft-locks if you destroy specific tanks in some random order. Additionally, the Jedi Draining stage has been made significantly easier, making it much easier to destroy the Jedi tanks instead of needing to hit the tanks with lightning at very specific angles, you can even destroy the tanks with your Lightsaber now (GASP!)!

Other improvements to the mission include re-adding Malak's "Savior, Conqueror, Hero, Villain" line during the ambush portion as a taunt, stopping the cutscene npcs from making noises, and fixing some lines of Malak's dialogue which were clipping for some unknown reason.

UI OVERHAULS

The UI has also been a problem point for the mod, discouraging free-reign for browsing characters, NPCs, lightsabers, and the like. The biggest issue out of all of them is being forced to move your mouse "ever so slightly" in order to click on the same arrow.

As of typing this, the NPC menu has been given this fix, so you can rapidly scroll through the many pages of NPCs we're offering to you at your leisure.

Other issues will be tracked down and fixed as we find them and are able to address them. I don't want to list all of them as I don't want to cause any accidental disappointment if I'm unable to fix them.

AN APOLOGY

Over the past month, I have done a lot of self-reflection in regards to this mod, and even thinking back on Knights of the Force 2.1, prior to the split and its death (despite a certain Phoenix claiming it's still alive, lol).

Feeling nostalgic, I looked over the past progress reports, and seeing how far the mod has come. Though I am proud of the work that myself and the team have completed over this past year and a half, I have come to the realization that despite all of these accomplishments, this mod has also been tainted with broken promises. Looking over past Progress Reports, I have counted multiple mentions of a remake for Father vs. Son, saying that "it's the next thing I will work on". Along with that, more promises of new weapons, waypoints, and multiple other missions have been made, none of which have been delivered on.

The False Emperor mission we released with the last update was my attempt to attempt to fulfill a previously unfulfilled promise, as it's been a mission I have promised as far back as the Knights of the Force days. The realization that False Emperor has been the only mission we've produced since the mod's release back in December 2020 (I'm not counting the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis) is completely unacceptable. Looking back on previous patch notes, the only features we've released up until the last update were New Game Plus, New Force Powers, a few new maps, new characters, an April Fools joke, and that's basically it (minus bug fixes here and there).

I grow easily distracted when working on one thing, or I may come up with an idea which just overrides anything else I'm working on, and promised features become easily lost and forgotten memories. To those who were looking forward to promises I have failed to keep, I would like to offer my sincerest apologies.

But what will be done?

Though I will not speak for our other Mission makers Darth Voiid and Lwkill regarding their many missions, I will make new promises that I fully intend to keep. I have promised NPC Waypoints, a Father vs. Son remake, Deathstar Rescue, manual blocking, and other things, and those things I will be 100% focusing on after some major improvements to the ingame are addressed (else they will be bugging and distracting me severely), I'll be taking a hiatus from coding any major things (except blocking) until these promises are fulfilled.

Though I may periodically add new characters, my own updates to the mod will be as follows (in this order).

I will remake Father vs. Son first, because it's the thing I have promised the most, so I will treat it as a higher priority.

Next, I will move on to completing Deathstar Rescue (Ben Kenobi and Luke Skywalker POVs)

Next, I will painstakingly add NPC waypoints to every single map.

Next, new weapons.

Finally, I will code in a brand new Manual blocking system.

This is my promise, and one I intend to keep. I am sorry for breaking so many promises, but as always I am thankful for your support.

As always, thank you all for following the development of Star Wars: Galactic Legacy, and may the Force be with you.