5 things I discovered while modding Jedi Academy

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Working in the modding scene for many years now and getting a chance to work in the Jedi Academy source code has unveiled a lot of really interesting things about the game that I never would've guessed to be a thing. I wanted to share a few of these discoveries with you all.

1. Jedi Master difficulty is not real

It turns out according to the code that the difference between Jedi Knight Difficulty and Jedi Master is the health reduction.

2. The Difficulty nerfs your lightsaber

Depending on what difficulty you're playing on, the lightsaber loses its ability to reflect the projectiles of certain weapons.

On Padawan, it'll reflect all appropriate weapons. 

On Jedi, it'll no longer reflect the Flechette or Demp 2.

 On Jedi Knight/Master, it'll no longer reflect the Flechette, Demp 2, Bowcaster, or Repeater.

3. You can't die from fall damage if your playerteam is "free"

Honestly this one surprised me a bit. I'm not entirely sure why this is the case or why it was coded in the first place, but it's a fact.

4. You can take away an NPC's force push

So we all know the mechanic where if you grip or drain anyone with a lightsaber (even if they don't have push) they'll push you back anyway. There's a special function coded to perform this, how it's coded is that it'll assign the push power to the npc, play the power, then take it away. There's no check in the code if the npc owns the power beforehand, so this method will take away the npc's ability to use Force Push in normal combat.

5. Blocking Force Lightning with a lightsaber is in the game, it just doesn't keep you safe. 

You might have noticed if an npc is shooting Lightning at you that your character is moving the saber as if attempting to block it but you're still taking damage. This isn't a glitch but is an intentional mechanic.

Lightning damage is calculated with a number of  factors in mind (distance from the victim, one or two hands, etc), however, the simple act of holding a lightsaber offers the victim a significant damage reduction (not immunity). The blocking animation played is hard-coded in the game.

If you want to experiment with this, spawn 2 npcs, one with a lightsaber, and one with another weapon. The non-saber user will die much faster than the saber user.