Recognizing Contributors To The Jedi Knight Series

[Link]

This is an idea which came from @'s thread about the "Top Jedi Academy Authors" found here however I felt it was a bit biased and perhaps approached the wrong way. After reading @@eezstreet's reply about some sort of list being seen as a hall of fame, I decided to not make this into a list but rather a (hopefully) big open discussion.
 
Purpose
Okay, the idea behind this thread is to recognize those who have made contributions to the community. I think rather than just listing favourite modders, it would be more constructive for everyone if a form of template was used so you can get across why you think somebody deserves to be recognized in your opinion. 

 

I'm hopeful that this will be used as a way to show respect to our peers whom may not be recognized much or who simply deserve the recognition that they have earned from their contributions over the years.
 
Who is eligible?

Any one, as long as that person has (In your opinion) contributed a great deal to the Jedi Knight series (Not just Jedi Academy). This is not by any means for modders only.
 
Structure
Aliases: Names this person may be recognized by

Area of skills: e.g. Coding, Skinning, Tutorial writing etc etc

Brief list of accomplishments: This should be an actual list e.g. Creator of the ____ website, written over 20 tutorials, has a mod with over 10,000 downloads etc. This is your opinion remember, so don't worry if you feel the accomplishments you're writing for someone don't match up to someone elses post

Examples of contributions: Links/images or any other form of media which show examples of the above work.

Comments:

This should be the most important part and should make clear why you feel this person should be recognized for their hard work.

 

Template

Aliases: Answer

Area of skills: Answer

Brief list of accomplishments: Answer

Examples of contributions: Answer

Comments:

Answer

 
Agree with someone?

I know this goes without saying, but I'd like to actively encourage people to click the  button if you agree with somebodies recognition below. This is not a contest and votes will not be counted towards anything, however it will show if the community is in agreement with that person.

 

Please keep it to one person per reply, you can make as many replies as you want of course.

 

Have fun!

[Raz0r]

Aliases: Rich Whitehouse

Area of skills: Coding

Brief list of accomplishments: Core developer of Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy

Examples of contributions: Putting in a lot of work to aid mod support, general development of the games we all love.

Comments:

He also wrote a few mods for Jedi Outcast.

Since leaving Raven Software, he has been engaging the coding community regarding OpenJK and answering any questions people have.

His work on the engine, gamecode and mod support helped build a long-lasting modding community.

[Link]

Aliases: Caelum
Area of skills: Web/Servers
Brief list of accomplishments: Creator of JKHub, Clan leader (3), Hosting communities for free, Has spent countless hours helping others set up dedicated servers
Examples of contributions: JKHub.org, StormRiders (Clan), Cosmos (Clan)
Comments:
It's difficult to sum up this guy and his contributions to the community into such a small area, but I'll try! Back in 2011 when JK3Files began to break after FileFront was purchased by Break Media (Oh the irony...) Caelum began to share his ideas with me for an alternative. At first I honestly thought it was pointless, especially due to the fact people had tried before and gave up many times. However early on into the project I noticed that Caelum was very serious about this project and began to invest a lot of money into it, this is when a lot of people started turning heads and noticing JKHub as a serious attempt. I feel Caelum is one of those people that once he starts something he has to finish it and finish it well which is why JKHub is as successful as it is. Nowadays he is focused on building his own web hosting company from scratch and has retired from the Jedi Knight series however his accomplishments and contributions still echo today.

 

Whilst JKHub may be his biggest contribution to the community as a whole, he has also spent countless hours assisting people one to one with their technical issues, especially with setting up dedicated servers from scratch. To the vast majority of players, building a dedicated server on Linux, adding the game and making it run is simply too difficult to pick up and figure out however every time I (Or any one else I've known) have asked him for help, he was always there putting in hours to ensure that not only it was working, but that it was as safe as he could make it.

[MoonDog]

Structure
Aliases: @Seto
Area of skills: Coding, Entity modding
Brief list of accomplishments: Friendly and approachable about coding/entity related issues. Contributed to the ent modding tutorial widely used by people starting off. Creator of the SoW plugin on the entity coding and scripting side. Putting up with Pyro.
Examples of contributions: The FFA3 plugin at the School of War server.
Comments:
Had I not been inspired to take up entity modding, and then later addicted to it, I would probably never have picked up mapping. It all lead to me getting my dream job in the game industry, and having a place where I can point and say, "There is where the spark happened", is awesome.

[Ping]

Aliases: Dureal

Area of skills: Sabering, Administrating

Brief list of accomplishments:

- Master League Admin (MLA) for the ESL's JKA section for over half a decade

- Article writer and tournament organizer for the ESL for about as long

- Longest and most consistent streaks of dominance in 1v1, 2v2 (with Sadrior from 2003-2005 and mrl 2008-2010) and TDM (with aXiom from 2004-2006 and 2007-2010) with over a dozen major international tournament victories, which makes him the most competitively successful JKA player of all time

- Core member and leader of the most competitively successful clan in the history of JKA (aXiom); leader of Germany's official national team in the ESL

- Inventor of the "Poke" technique, which changed the course of how JKA would be played forever

Comments:

In JKA, Dureal showed that flaws and mechanical incosistencies at the core of the game mean little, when genius is at hand. Before Dureal came about, single was considered a weak and slow stance with miles of ground to make up against the much more potent staff and dual-saber styles. A single player never even made it into the top10 of the ESL ladders. But turning the game on its head, Dureal became a pioneer of creative attacks and an artist with the saber. The worth of a single swing was never looked at the same way once Dureal landed ontop. Not only did he revolutionize the way the game was played competitively through his invention of the poke, he also maintained an unprecedented dominance over the entire competition in JKA, at one point leading on the international 1v1 ESL ladder by as much as 306 wins to 10 losses, on the international 2v2 ladder by 61 wins and 4 losses. Team aXiom, which Dureal helped found and became a leader of, was competitively the single most successful clan in the history of JKA as well, sporting a winrate of over 90% on the ladders over a timespan of five years.

 

They say that if you were to face one of the great saberists of old, you would very quickly learn that we are as children playing with toys compared to the prowess of the old masters. And yet Dureal's skill was considered remarkable even in his own time, when many of the greatest players were at their prime.

 

His unquestioned supremacy was only checked by his unparalleled charisma ingame and out, which meant that he quickly became -the- iconic figure of competitive JKA, closer to Michael Jordan or Diego Maradona. But his greatness was not restricted to sabering: For over half a decade he lead the team of ESL admins responsible for the JKA section and used his experience and skills to organize tournaments and resolve problems between players. During that, he was one of the most fair and well respected admins on the ESL. In a community as divisive and riddled by controversy as JKA's competitive one, he is almost unanimously regarded as not only the best player, but one of the best people to have ever played JKA.

[eezstreet]

Aliases: Raz0r, boonagem, meganoob, Raysore, Lavern

Area of skills: Coding

Brief list of accomplishments: Helpful, respectful, and overall the general leader of the JKA coding scene from 2007 onwards. Provided many early coding tutorials. Founded JACoders and OpenJK. Member of (JAWA) for a period of time. Created the JA++ mod, which serves as a vastly superior version of JA+.

Examples of contributions: His tutorial on how to compile the game is what brought me and others into the JKA coding scene.

Comments:

If Raz0r wasn't around, chances are there would not have been an engine source code release. He's the bridge between the coding community and the rest of the community, and he has time and again proven his professionalism and knowledge of the engine. He's the most laid-back of the programmers, and offers some of the best help.

[Astral Serpent]

Aliases: Slider

Area of skills: Coding

Brief list of accomplishments: Created JA+, which has become one of the most widely used JKA mods ever. Made it closed source, compelling Raz0r to make the much better open source JA++.

Examples of contributions: Made JA+ and raised hands like man power

Comments:

If Slider wasn't around, chances are there would not have been a JA++, or a JA+ for that matter.

[therfiles]

Aliases: Wector, WectorX

Area of skills: Mapper, scripter, Single player guru

Brief list of accomplishments: Popular Single Player modder, pioneer of "saga-based" mods, and guru of SP infastructure

Examples of contributions: Creator of Movie Duels II

Comments:

One of the mods that everyone secretly wanted was a movie-based single player campaign. Many had tried, like Tim, but failed. Such a massive undertaking had never before been attempted and exacted with the degree of success he achieved. While he definitely didn't do it alone, (Plasma was a notable contributor) the founder of Movie Duels was integral in designing a workable, manageable mod. It is by far one of the most popular SP mods ever released. It not only fulfilled a popular community request, but it provided inspiration for many other modders to persevere through their projects.

 

Synopsis of Movie Duels II from the wiki:

 

 

Movie Duels II is version 2 of Movie Duels created by WectorX. The mod provides a full campaign of famous duels from the prequel trilogy and some "Rise of the Empire" missions, which encompass the time period between episodes III and IV. This single player mod is one of the few saga-based mods ever created for JKA and is extremely popular.

[Shadzy]

Aliases: Shadowstone

Area of skills: Mapping

Brief list of accomplishments: Creator of the popular JediHome and JediHomeJLII maps amongst others

Examples of contributions: http://jkhub.org/files/file/934-jedis-home-jl/ & http://jkhub.org/files/file/939-jedis-home-jl/

Comments:

His hard work n mapping resulted him in an era to have any map he made downloaded off the charts, talented mapper with the toolls available for his time, some of the most overplayed and over-downloaded maps in our community, worthy of recognition!

[gerbilOFdoom]

Aliases: Phred, RoboPhred, Robo

Area of skills: Coding

Brief list of accomplishments: Lugormod-T2, Lugormod-U#, Eukamod

Examples of contributions: http://lugormod.robophreddev.net/

Comments:

This guy made some massive overhauls and improvements to Lugormod and, for awhile, had an excellent RP mod in the works. 

[minilogoguy18]

Yeah, I'd really like to see Phred return to JA now that the source has been out, I'm sure he could do some great things.

[Onysfx]

Aliases: Toast & Scooper (not the same person, but I felt I should mention them both here)

Area of skills: Coding

Brief list of accomplishments: Makermod

Examples of contributions: https://www.dropbox.com/s/kejf18rj3k13rnw/shot0016.jpg (made using makermod, with some friends on venoms)

                                                                    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPBKVoRUIS0 (makermod trailer)

                                                                    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-ihC3zJqrs (solid placed entities at 45 degree angles)

Comments: For coding a mod that brought out player creativity in JKA, where people could build whatever they wanted anywhere on the map, bringing a whole new level of freedom and creativity to any server that ran the mod. Makermod wasn't a well known mod, and still is overshadowed by Lugor. But building was far easier, and you didn't need to be an admin to build, nor were you a slave of the quest and credit system. Toast originally wrote the mod, and Scooper has taken over the coding of it. For me, the golden age of makermod was when Venoms and Joes servers were around. But now that they are gone, Makermod has nearly died out. However, it shall not be forgotten, and deserved a mention here.

[Orion3132]

Aliases: NeWaGe

Area of skills: Coding

Brief list of accomplishments: Clanmod

Examples of contributions: Main coder of Clanmod

Comments:

NeWaGe gave JKA players a nicer, more secure (in many opinions) alternative to JA+. Clanmod had many more things than JA+ did, it contained many admin commands like: Slay. And also got rid of having to type /am before many of the commands. He made many versions of Clanmod and I for one would love to see him someday return to the JKA scene. Oh, I have briefly hung out with the dude once. Also, I heard that he lives/works someplace down in Florida I think.

[Orion3132]

I also would like to give special thanks to another contributor of Jedi Academy:

 

Aliases: Boba Fett

Area of skills: Coding

Brief list of accomplishments: Boba Fett's Ultra Utility

Examples of contributions: Boba Fett's Ultra Utility (also simply called Ultra Utility

Comments:

Boba Fett's Ultra Utility is an awesome tool to use for quick access to favorite JKA servers, A nice Auto Replier AND kill Tracker (for those that like to track your Kills and stuff). The latest of these fine UU products is V3 beta 16 or beta 17... Not sure but I've heard news of a V4 on it's way (it's still in development) that will work with  the Steam version of JKA.

[NumberWan]

I've heard about the most of the above mentioned people. I would name a lot of other JK fans and modders, which contributed just a few things, for instance certain models, but their work was so brilliant, that they are still in high demand and most if not all of the JA fans have these models in their collection. Such people actually inspired me to become a modder myself, many years ago.

 

I can name one more person, which at one point in the past was well known in the modding JK community of Russia. His works are considered to be controversial, mainly because they don't follow Star Wars canon in certain stories, and are full of things, which are not normal to Star Wars at best. However his team was the first to release any mod at all, and for many years it was an example, that everyone can make a mod, nothing impossible about mapping, skinning, scripting, etc. But here is the info.

 

 

Aliases: Nazar

Area of skills: General Modding (Huge Mods)

Brief list of accomplishments: Assembled a team, which released 3 large mods for Single Player (JO and JA)

Examples of contributions: Single Player modifications for JO - Communication Force, Lady Jedi; Wild Force for Jedi Academy

Comments:

Back in early 2000s Nazar created a design team, which was developing SP mods for Jedi Outcast. The first being Communication Force about a Jedi Padawan serving the Order in a mission against crazy Imperials, the second Lady Jedi about  a former Jedi turned into Imperial agent and serving the Emperor. The third mod is for JA - Wild Force, about the bounty hunter. Each mod included 8-13 new maps. All three are controversial, as I've mentioned above. ComForce might be the best in a sense of mapping, effects and graphics, but has no new models, only maps. The second and third have interesting ideas, but lack what we see in JO, JA and such nice SP mods like Nina adventures and the Dark Forces mod (these two have atmosphere of real Star Wars, imho). Up to this day, only certain fans remember these mods.

[NumberWan]

The person which I respect a lot, and which I can't help but mention in this thread is the creator of the already mentioned Nina adventures mods.

 

 

Aliases: Larry McBruce

Area of skills: Modding

Brief list of accomplishments: Single Player mods for JO and JA

Examples of contributions: Nina mod, Nina: Undiscovered Secret, Nina: Nova Unit, Nina: Genesis and Privateer

Comments:

While Nina mod is not the first one, I played years ago to feel like "Oh mine, I want to make mods!", but it's surely to be first in the list of my favourite SP mods for JK series. Why? Well, there are modifications all around, but most of them are based upon existing sources or games, released before or concurrent JO and JA. Larry McBruce set a certain example of quality for modding, by creating his own story, well-balanced gameplay, excellent maps, some new features among many things. Up to this day, we see only a few mods for SP, and yes, I am one of those who has passion for these, rather than Multiplayer (even though there is so much potential in that area as well). If there is a person which I would like to work with on a mod, then that's Larry McBruce.

[Tempust85]

Aliases: Hapslash, HS

Area of skills: Modeller, Texture Artist

Brief list of accomplishments: Single Player & Multiplayer character models + weapons

Examples of contributions: EPIII Dooku, EpIII Obi-wan Kenobi, EPII/EPIII Anakin Skywalker

Comments:

Hapslash is perhaps one of the 'greats' in the community when it comes to models of characters or weapons. Hapslash made his models, then passed then onto his brother Infinity Blade who rigged them superbly by hand. Would be good to see Hapslash back.

[Tempust85]

The first modder I respected, not just through work but also as a person.

 

Aliases: Infinity Blade, IB

Area of skills: Modeller, Texture Artist, Character Rigger

Brief list of accomplishments: Helped his brother Hapslash get characters in-game, managed The Void.

Examples of contributions: Mercenary Kyle, modview sabers

Comments:

Infinity Blade is the brother of Hapslash. His skill (from my point of view) was the rigging of characters & knowledge of modding JKA. Others may know of his other skills though. A lot of people (including myself) bugged him for hours about how to weigh characters better, and he was always helpful. Heck, he even gave me his own JKA skeleton .max file he used. I still use his modview sabers to this day. He was also admin of The Void if I recall correctly.

 

Infinity Blade passed away in 2011, but he will always be remembered online by those at The Void & by those he helped.

[minilogoguy18]

Wow, I never knew Infinity Blade passed away, maybe the fulcrum of the void falling apart and Hapslash leaving JA?

[Circa]

Wow, I never knew Infinity Blade passed away, maybe the fulcrum of the void falling apart and Hapslash leaving JA?

Basically. It was at least a big contributing factor. The other part was most of the members left JA anyway, so there wasn't much keeping them there. There have been a few attempts to bring people back but it didn't work. I miss the Void. It was a great little community.

 

[katanamaru]

I didn't know Infinity Blade passed away. That sucks hard. His Merc Kyle is still the model I use for myself ingame. I had a blue jacket and wear blue jeans all the time.

 

@@NumberWan, do you have any of those mods from Nazar? I've never heard of those. Why were they controversial?

[NumberWan]

@@katanamaru

These are very old mods, and they are controversial, because at the time, they were only a few mods to play, especially big ones. But these lack Star Wars feel, as I said. While ComForce had sort of philosophical question as a basis on the story, LJ was more like a crazy adventure, where you play a real Jedi b*tch (that is said in the mod itself), and one mission includes a brothel with girls and some obscene paintings. It all might have worked, but there is serious discrepancy regarding the timeline and events, as well the deformed image of the known characters: Palpatine became the Emperor almost during the Jedi Order existence, the Republic is fighting the Empire (!) and is failing, the JO disbanded itself sending the young students home, and only a few decided to remain and continue studies under a Jedi Master (like Obi Wan) on Yavin IV (?). And yes, Vader and Palpatine enjoy watching matches and podracing (oh mine). There were curious scenes in LJ, which can be considered as a contribution to JO/JA modding community. But I read a lot of complaints (usually with arguments). Nevertheless people played the mod and had fun at one point. Wild Force was created later and it had some decent graphics, but nothing special in the plot (notable only for appearance of Vader, Leia and Boba Fett).

 

But I guess, this thread is more about the contributors themselves, rather than just their work. So it is better to move our discussion, if anyone interested, to a different topic.

 

 

 

http://www.neomaks.ru/uploads/posts/2009-12/1260123992_3.jpg

http://www.neomaks.ru/uploads/posts/2009-12/1260124049_1.jpg

 

 

[Cerez]

Aliases: DT85, DT

Area of skills: Player Character Creation (Modeller, Texture Artist, Character Rigger)

Brief list of accomplishments: High quality player models for characters from The Clone Wars, The Force Awakens, and new generation Star Wars content.

Examples of contributions: Darth Maul, Savage Opress, TFA Stormtrooper, TFA Luke Skywalker

Comments:

Single-handedly responsible for creating much of our beloved, high quality, new generation player models, rising up to and continuing HapSlash's legacy. Never one to refuse help or the offering of genuine advice, DT has been a great inspiration and friend to us all, and a valuable, distinguished member of this creative community.

 

(I'm honoured to have had the pleasure of modding beside you, my friend.)

[Cerez]

Aliases: Sith-J-Cull, SJC, @JCulley3D

Area of skills: Mapping

Brief list of accomplishments: From the prequel films to The Clone Wars, SJC has brought inspiring and authentic worlds to our game.

Examples of contributions: Palpatine's Office, The Senate Building, Mustafar (Anakin's End), The Invisible Hand, Utapau, Mygeeto, Kashyyyk, Coruscant Adventures

Comments:

Needing no introduction, Sith-J-Cull is pretty much single-handedly responsible for bringing the world of The Clone Wars and the prequel films to Jedi Academy. From his legendary Mustafar maps, and the Chancellor's Office, to the engrossing, shady world of undercity Coruscant, SJC has amazed and inspired us all with his astoundingly detailed, authentic works, and given us cinematic places/worlds to enjoy in-game for a whole decade and more. With the high quality of his work, he has left a lasting legacy for us to follow and live up to.

 

Plus, he's a great guy, who's built an R2D2 in his home workshop!

[Cerez]

Aliases: wedge2211, Wedge

Area of skills: Mapping

Brief list of accomplishments: A number of highly original design maps featuring innovative concepts and ideas, and inspiring creativity in others. A creator of new, original design Star Wars worlds.

Examples of contributions: Bloodmine Shaft, Gulf of Souls, Tal Erulanei, Nirenne Station, Corellian Platform Encounter

Comments:

His accomplishments often forgotten, Wedge has been an amazing mapper and creative thinker, always striving to create original, new worlds and environments for Star Wars that have great story backgrounds and practical applications. One of the most talented original design mappers I've ever known.

 

Kind, humble, and generous toward the community, Wedge is now retired from the JK modding scene, though I often wish he would take a plunge back in and surprise us.