Interview: Moviebattles II Team

[therfiles]

Interviewing the Moviebattles II team
We had the chance to speak with the Moviebattles II development team today about creating this behemoth of a mod and what's in store the popular multiplayer mod. As you may know, they recently released "version 1", the latest build of MBII, which added new mechanics and new maps to the game.

Click here to download and view the full change log for V1.


What is Moviebattles II?

Moviebattles II (commonly referred to as MBII) is a fast-paced objective based multiplayer experience that builds off the unrealized potential of the Siege game mode. The action takes place in quick 5 minute intervals, and players who die within that timeframe spectate until the round is complete. To begin, the player can choose a side to align themselves with: the Rebellion or the Galactic Empire. Each side has numerous exciting class archetypes.

The Rebels have the basic but respawnable Soldier, the advanced Elite Trooper, the versatile Clone Trooper, the highly trained ARC Trooper, the incredibly strong Wookiee, the quick and precise Hero, and the force wielding Jedi. The Imperials have the Soldier and Elite Trooper in common, but also contain the deadly Super Battle Droids, the powerful Droideka, the cold and calculating Bounty Hunter, the gun slinging Mandalorian, along with the infamous dark side using Sith. Each class has a variety of unique abilities and traits, giving them a unique advantage in battle. For example, the Mandalorian comes equipped with a jetpack and a flamethrower, while the Arc Trooper relies on Pulse Grenades and the PLX Rocket Launcher in order to get the job done.

The experience is much like configuring your force preferences in Multiplayer: you get an allotment of points to customize your character’s build. You also have a bevy of playermodels to choose from. From there, you are ready to jump into the action and fight to complete your objective. This could involve securing the Throne Room during the Invasion of Naboo, or Escaping the Death Star in the Millennium Falcon. MBII has over forty incredible maps for the player to explore, each varying in objective, pacing, and who is on the offense. The mod also revamps several core mechanics, such as a new robust sabering and weapon system. The game has been modified in order to provide an authentic, exciting combat experience for the community.


Sitting down with MBII

JKHub: Would you mind introducing yourself and telling us a bit about your role in MBII?

Serath: I’m Marian, and I’m known in the MB community as Serath. I currently study at the Slovak University of Technology and I develop games in my spare time. I have experience with engines like Unity and Unreal and have created (and even published some) 2D/3D games. I’m mostly a game designer and a programmer, but I do occasionally bump into other areas like level design and 2D art. I joined the MB2 team about 3-4 years ago and have been there ever since.

Sxx²: My name is Dylan, known as Sxx² over at the MB community, but most of the folks over at JKHub will know me as Tx606. I’ve been involved with Moviebattles for 4-5 years, starting as a beta tester. Nowadays I’m keeping myself busy with level design, running beta test sessions and leading the MB2 project together with DCM.

MaceMadunsus: I’m Alex, known by the MB community as MaceMadunusus, or MaceMadanus/(M)ace as a lot of people like to do as a joke. I am currently starting school again after a two year absence for Mechanical Engineering. Movie Battles has always been a favorite project of mine, and I have been on the development team for over 7 years now and it has been 11 years since I started modding in the Jedi Knight community. My primary role has always been Level Design, but I do bump into other areas fairly frequently. While I didn’t make every level in MB, with the time I have been there, there is likely something I have touched in just about every single one of them. I also have experience with numerous other game engines and even have some content featured within them. An example of that would be PlanetSide 2 on the Forgelight engine. I am also pretty fluent with the Unreal Engine.

Good’Ol’Ben: Ello, my name is Hemmo. I’ve been involved with MB2 since 2006 in some degree. First off as nothing more than an enthusiastic player. Then in 2008 I joined the team as a tester and soon after as the lead tester. I was also responsible for steering the boat that is the MB team from like 2009 to early 2013. Eventually I decided to “retire” as my life has required more attention. These days my role is nothing much more than a tester again. If I do find something worth my time, I’ll do it, be it textures, sound or code. Outside of the MB2 community I am a front end web developer and a game programmer.

JKHub: How many active developers are a part of MBII's current team?

Serath: Huh, there has been a huge boost in developers in the last couple of months, I don’t know the exact number, around 20? We have programmers, level designers, 2D artists, but are kind of short on character modellers and animators.
Sxx²: Serath’s estimate of about 20 seems accurate. I suppose the key word is 20 here. There have been periods of time where there were roughly 5 people active, for instance. Luckily ‘retired’ developers tend to show up once in a while and assist with things, so that’s pretty helpful. We have roughly 20-30 (this number changes constantly) active beta testers as well.

MaceMadunsus: I would say slightly shy of 20. We have been very grateful to get an influx of new talent recently that has really helped out. It was really good for the team after having a rough time with a low amount of active developers. I had to take a near two year break from MB as well, that I recently returned from to finish up a few levels. We all do this in our free time, so the number of active developers fluctuates quite frequently.

Good’Ol’Ben: Pretty sure others answered that. Though I’d like to think that the entire community takes part in the development at least to some degree.

JKHub: What are the main inspirations for the mod's changes to the mechanics and gameplay?

Serath: Well, we try a bunch of improvements in the beta that never see the light of the day. We’re inspired individually by the things we see all around us, whether its books, movies or other games. Then we kind of try to fit it in the Star Wars universe and see if it works. If it does, we improve upon it until it seems good to us and then let public decide if they like the changes or not.

Sxx²: We try out many features internally, and change numbers around quite often. However with V1 we’ve been trying to close the gaps between classes a little bit. Balancing things is quite difficult and we’ll often think of other games like Counter-Strike, TF2 to see how situations are handled there. In the future we’ll also aim to release more smaller balance patches in a more frequent rate. This is so that we can try out gameplay changes in public - it helps us see how specific features work out for the average player.

MaceMadunsus: As Sxx and Serath both said, we try a lot of things in beta and constantly tweak numbers until we get a result we are happy with. Internally, there are a lot of debug tools only available within the beta build that allow us to see how everything is handling, from force power drains, to weapon damage and hit locations, to saber blocking point drains and disables, and more. While this isn’t as beneficial to being able to constantly record all this information to a database from beta as well as live for us to put into charts to see how everything is functioning, it allows us to see things we might have missed and make more accurate judgements than just flat out guessing based on play. An example of this being with the recent hit location modifier changes. We noticed a huge difference in damage across the torso area between the chest and the waist and though it would be logical to standardize those numbers a little more. This same change also required some damage values for weapons to be lowered to allow for the same Time To Kill (TTK).

Good’Ol’Ben: Inspiration? Other games and their interesting mechanics. Balance-wise it’s mainly feedback from players as well as ourselves. It’s fun to have the game evolve based on who’s working on it. That’s part of the beauty of MB2. It’s very different in terms of what it was before much due to a completely different developer team.

JKHub: What has been the primary motivator for working on MB2?

Serath: Huh, back when I started I was pretty excited that I’m a part of a development team that made such an amazing mod as MovieBattles and I wanted to add a bit of me into it. Overall seeing everyone working on things pretty much motivates me to do something too. Obviously, seeing people play and enjoy something you created feels amazing.

Sxx²: Well I’m a big fan of Jedi Academy and enjoyed playing around with mods. Seeing players still playing MB2 is a huge motivator for me to try and improve things further.

MaceMadunsus: The players. Seeing people play and enjoy the mod is simply the biggest motivator. The fact that it is still played today, is something simply amazing and something none of us expected. If you ever see me in-game, you will see me talking and interacting with people frequently. Even with all the experience with how MB handles, there are always things I can learn, and seeing the different perspective of players outside of beta and how they interpret a level and getting their opinions of things are important to me and help keep me moving forward and improving anything I have worked on.

Good’Ol’Ben: Playing the game myself.

JKHub: What is your favorite aspect of MB2?

Serath: I like a lot of the things about MB2, that are unique and I haven’t seen them anywhere else. If I had to pick one though, I would probably say that the various different classes with bunch of unique abilities that uniquely fit into teams and represent different play styles and roles. In MovieBattles, each class can be played in various different ways, and it’s really different how it’s played per each individual player.

Sxx²: I’m a big fan of all the different playstyles all the classes have. There are many ways to play a single class, which is really great since you can pretty much adjust your class to whatever style you like to play. This also gives a huge amount of replayability, so you won’t get bored as fast as you’ll have plenty of point configs you can try out.

MaceMadunsus: I love the diversity of everything. Every class, even those with similar weapons like the E-11, has the ability to play entirely differently due to its role, abilities, speed, tankiness, additional weaponry, and more. Each level is entirely different, and requires different tactics with certain teams having advantage in one area, and the other an advantage in the next. The mod has similarities with Siege, Counter Strike, and a bunch of other games, but manages to combine them in such a way that is simply unique. The asymmetrical class balance as well as unique objective and level styles things I believe are extremely important to MB's identity.

Good’Ol’Ben: The melee fighter mechanics fused with gun combat. I don’t think many other games have a similar approach to it. That’s why I can’t drop it. There’s no good alternative.

JKHub: What are your thoughts on the source release, and the future?

Serath: Definitely an excellent news for any JKA Modder. We currently got a couple of guys that are trying to implement the OpenJK support for MB2. A few of our team members also actively work on OpenJK.

Sxx²: I was pretty surprised to see it getting released. OpenJK is an amazing project and I hope MB2 will properly make use of it in the near future. Perhaps on the long run Movie Battles 2 could go open source, too.

MaceMadunsus: It was one of the best things to happen to JKA, though a little late. It was one of the things I personally pushed for years, specifically working with Ford Dye while he was still at Ravensoft. I hope we can fully switch over to requiring a stable OpenJK build in the future thanks to all the work they have done with bug fixes and performance increases. Though I don’t think you will be seeing any updates for MB on the rendering side of things, simply because redoing all that content for normals, gloss, parallax or whatever else that gets added to Rend2 would be a task that would be too much work for us to even consider doing.

Good’Ol’Ben: I’m hyped. There’s so much that can happen in the future. OpenJK is a tremendous project which has opened up so much possibilities for the future of MB2.

JKHub: Is there ever a thought of "after MB2"? (MB3?)

Serath: Actually, there is. Mace and I have started to work on the spiritual successor to the MB2 mod about a month ago. It’s being made in the brand new Unreal Engine 4. Compared to other engines, it feels great having so many tools already pre-programmed and ready to use. We have decided to no longer pursue the Star Wars franchise due to possible license infringement issues. Don’t worry though, our own universe is inspired by the giants like Mass Effect, Prey 2 and Star Wars. This essentially gives us more freedom to not be limited by a certain franchise, which is really awesome. We already managed to implement various different classes, with a bunch of different weapons. The game looks beautiful so far and I’m looking forward to showcase the content in the near future.

Sxx²: I suppose Mace and Serath will know more about the current situation than I do. Wildebeest and a few other people initially started MB3 (“SW UDK”), however the project never truly got off the ground. Another spiritual successor is currently in the works, so I hope it turns out to be something nice.

MaceMadunsus: There was an MB3 built within UDK started by Wildebeest and myself for the first few months before we brought the rest of the team into the picture. As Sxx said it never really got off the ground, and that is partially my fault. I started having some personal issues and was the only one with a level close enough to being completed for the first alpha release when I had to stop working entirely. That kind of brought the initial project to a halt. Now, as Serath mentioned, we have started work on the spiritual successor using Unreal Engine 4. We wanted to stay away from Star Wars, while still keeping the same ideas intact and making our own universe. This would allow us to expand the team and game without worrying about a cease and desist or other copyright/licensing issues. It is still in its early stages, and we actually do have two playable levels already. This engine is absolutely fantastic and I can’t wait to see how great things will be in the end. Even though we are literally making everything from scratch, including simple entities like doors and buttons, everything is just so much easier to use and fun to do than it ever was within Radiant. From a personal perspective, it feels good to not be limited by an old engine anymore and I cant wait till we are far enough to promote and have more people willing to hop on the team.

Good’Ol’Ben: MB2 will live on. I want to be playing this when I’m retired and have more spare time again. Open sourced JKA guarantees that we have a near-infinite amount of options now. As for MB3? It might happen. I’ve kind of promised to join the new project once I’m done with my BA on Media Engineering. ^^ MB3 should be interesting as long as we can kick it off the ground. It might actually be more than just a bunch of 14-year-old youngsters modding their hearts out. Albeit there’s nothing wrong with that either.

JKHub: How much longer are you planning on working on this project? / What's next for MB2?

Serath: As long as possible. I like to think that the mod will live on forever. So let’s see in another 10 years if I was right. It would be amazing seeing people still playing the same game we played and developed as teenagers. Well, anything might happen. If we publish the successor, uhm let me correct myself right there… when we publish the successor, it will probably bring some people to MB2, because they will want to see where it all started.

Sxx²: For as long as there are people playing it! As I’ve mentioned before we’ll be aiming to release more smaller patches in the short term. We have a couple new developers on board who will hopefully be helping us bring some new content. On the long term I hope that we can start making use of OpenJK and perhaps get a launcher done too. Perhaps a new Anti-Cheat would be neat too.

MaceMadunsus: As long as I can. I may not be in MB2 forever, but I would love to continue its legacy for as long as possible with its successor. I would love to get the launcher done, and full use of OpenJK. Don’t be surprised to see more level related updates from me either. I have got additional changes to Comm Tower and Death Star in the works right now. Some changes of which, actually came from the successor’s version of Death Star and trickled back down to impact MB2. Some model optimizations are coming that I have worked with another new developer (Spaghetti) on for a few weeks, and I hope to see some more usability updates to some parts of the game as well that we haven’t touched in years. I also cant wait to see any additional game modes that we have been working on finally make it live.

Good’Ol’Ben: I’ll stick around as long as there are players. MB2 is great fun and that’s mostly thanks to the people who I’ve met through the game. My MB2 friends mean the world to me. We’ve grown up together and learned to know each other so well. That’s something I can’t experience again to the same degree ever again. What’s next for MB2? OpenJK, a potential spiritual successor and a ton of fun. Plus I am definitely hoping to see you dear readers and friends on the servers as well. GLHF!



That's all for now, folks! Be sure to give the Moviebattles team some love in the comments below and check out their site for exciting new developments and discussion for their mod!

Click here to view the article

[hleV]

I play MB2 for lightsaber duels only so if this successor thing doesn't have them I won't even consider giving it a try.

[Onysfx]

In MBII, the first and most important technique as a mandalorian you must master, is the suicide jihad attack.

[MaceMadunusus]

I play MB2 for lightsaber duels only so if this successor thing doesn't have them I won't even consider giving it a try.

 

We will have them in some form. The style and such should remain the same, but the visuals and name will be different (still energy based and glowy).

[therfiles]

Very excited to hear about your new project, @@MaceMadunusus! Can't wait to hear more and thanks for the opportunity to interview your team!

[The Son]

[DerFürst]

I like to hear practically anything about MB2. Thanks for your continued support of the mod and community guys!

[MaceMadunusus]

Someone plays MB2 for the lightsaber duels? Huh. Well, I suppose that's plausible...

 

Although I must say that if MB2 has anything that resembles a shortcoming, that'd be the lightsaber duels =p

 

Great read, though I must confess that opinions contradictory to actions actually done were displayed here quite prominently. However, this was a nice insight into the heart of MB2. Keep up the good work, JKHub interviewer and MB2 team!

 

We've never had a really solid spec for lightsabers. Hopefully we can get that to change and make them more exciting in the successor. It is the one area in MB2 I think needs the most improvement from a gameplay perspective. The code at this point in time, after years and years of manipulation makes it such a daunting task though, that it would be better if we scrapped it and started over.

 

However, which ones are you specifically referencing on the opinions contradictory to actions part?

 

This was a really nice interview, would be good to do some more in-depth ones for the sections of MB2 as well I believe. Like for example, getting old level designers like Plasma, Norman, Immenor, Frost, and Myself to all talk about how we made things, and how we worked together kind of thing. And yes, I still have contact with Norman and Immenor, that isn't an issue at all.

[The Son]

.

[Serath]

We were happy to answer the questions you had. Maybe in the feature you might want to ask community what would they like to ask us?

 

As for the MB3 project, we currently had our very first alpha version tested, with 3 class archetypes. We will showcase more in upcoming developer diaries.

[MaceMadunusus]

Just that Sxx's comment - Sxx²: Well I’m a big fan of Jedi Academy and enjoyed playing around with mods. Seeing players still playing MB2 is a huge motivator for me to try and improve things further. [as well as other similar statements] - rubbed me the wrong way since a number of changes in the mod have been done under the radar not only in spite of the playerbase's wishes but also because of these. Case in point, the removal of the much loved torso freeze (something that has been discussed heavily with little progress - primarily since the supporters of its removal seem to be unable to do anything beyond acting like parrots and repeating their, not only very biast but also incredibly flawed, arguments) as well as the less obvious removal of the base JKA "Air support" voice command and muting of the "charge" voice command.

 

Yes, completely. Has nothing to do with the main instigator of all the drama regarding removal of the torso freeze not attending a test session for 2 months prior to release to even voice his concerns while he was on the beta team. 60% of beta testers thought the removal was needed, which is why it was removed. We listened to the majority. It has nothing to do with the fact that torso freeze is a BUG that allows you to bypass animations to instantly kata/grapple or do other things to players without their knowledge. Several of us have already stated and even voted on your threads saying that we would be okay with torso freeze returning as a gesture, or when we remove the ability to bypass animations with it. Several of us stated it was a TEMPORARY solution that you and the community are not listening to. We removed a bug that impacted gameplay NEGATIVELY, god for bid it impacted something considered time wasting and for the lulz that has no impact on actual gameplay as well. Were such nazis! There were other bugs for the recent patch that we had to focus on, like sabers lagging when in contact with another saber in idle. We didn't have time to fix the animation-bypass but keep hug before release of the patch. I am one of the ones that support bringing torso freeze back, without insta kata and other issues and I am now having a harder and harder time supporting that out of sheer annoyance. If you want to continue saying our arguments are flawed, then good luck getting us to actually listen to you. The amount of energy we are having to expel to just try and get you guys to have some patience, and understand our side, is taking development time away from fixing the issue. Saying that the majority of the community support keeping torso freeze as it was in V0 is absolute false and your own poll on the MB2 forums followed that, where most people supported keeping torso freeze once the other bugs with it were removed.

 

The air support voice command served no purpose, which is why it was removed. Charge was too loud, so what? Is it really that big of a deal that you, Jango40, and others complain about an entire release for weeks causing drama everywhere over something completely minuscule? None of these things you complain about have anything to do with the core gameplay. They're things you spam to screw around and waste peoples time who are waiting in spectator after they died, and to murder their ears.

 

We have already addressed this issue multiple times to you and others on the MB forums, and continuing it here will not help us fix the bug. So please, lets stop this here.

 

Remember, we work on this for free in our free time. We aren't a paid team that works 24/7. For example, the past two weeks I have been trying to get back to school for the first time in 2 years and haven't touched a single things related to MB. We're busy, give us time.

[The Son]

.

[Jango40]

Yes, completely. Has nothing to do with the main instigator of all the drama regarding removal of the torso freeze not attending a test session for 2 months prior to release to even voice his concerns while he was on the beta team. 60% of beta testers thought the removal was needed, which is why it was removed. We listened to the majority. It has nothing to do with the fact that torso freeze is a BUG that allows you to bypass animations to instantly kata/grapple or do other things to players without their knowledge. Several of us have already stated and even voted on your threads saying that we would be okay with torso freeze returning as a gesture, or when we remove the ability to bypass animations with it. Several of us stated it was a TEMPORARY solution that you and the community are not listening to. We removed a bug that impacted gameplay NEGATIVELY, god for bid it impacted something considered time wasting and for the lulz that has no impact on actual gameplay as well. Were such nazis! There were other bugs for the recent patch that we had to focus on, like sabers lagging when in contact with another saber in idle. We didn't have time to fix the animation-bypass but keep hug before release of the patch. I am one of the ones that support bringing torso freeze back, without insta kata and other issues and I am now having a harder and harder time supporting that out of sheer annoyance. If you want to continue saying our arguments are flawed, then good luck getting us to actually listen to you. The amount of energy we are having to expel to just try and get you guys to have some patience, and understand our side, is taking development time away from fixing the issue. Saying that the majority of the community support keeping torso freeze as it was in V0 is absolute false and your own poll on the MB2 forums followed that, where most people supported keeping torso freeze once the other bugs with it were removed.

 

The air support voice command served no purpose, which is why it was removed. Charge was too loud, so what? Is it really that big of a deal that you, Jango40, and others complain about an entire release for weeks causing drama everywhere over something completely minuscule? None of these things you complain about have anything to do with the core gameplay. They're things you spam to screw around and waste peoples time who are waiting in spectator after they died, and to murder their ears.

 

We have already addressed this issue multiple times to you and others on the MB forums, and continuing it here will not help us fix the bug. So please, lets stop this here.

 

Remember, we work on this for free in our free time. We aren't a paid team that works 24/7. For example, the past two weeks I have been trying to get back to school for the first time in 2 years and haven't touched a single things related to MB. We're busy, give us time.

Eh. First of all - bringing torso freeze back would take a few minutes, and blocking Secondary/Primary fire while pressing USE_HELD_ITEM would make instakata impossible. (And also take practically no time)

Second - Where the hell did any of you state that this was only a temporary solution? I have seen practically every torso freeze related thread, and never seen anyone mentioning it was a temporary solution. Link?

Third - The poll is not false. 37 people voted yes, 27 voted no (At the time it was closed). If you decide that insta kata won't be brought back, people won't suddenly want to keep torso freeze away, therefore they overflow to torso freeze w/o kata.

Fourth - Yes, I know a lot of developers want torso freeze, but Sxx (Leader) said it won't come back. How were we supposed to know it was only a temporary solution?

Fifth - If you communicated with us better, this wouldn't ever have become a problem! You can't blame us for making a drama when you are not ever clarifying what you want to do. A post in some other non-torso freeze related thread can easily slip by and go unnoticed.

 

Uh, and also, I think you devs should communicate better with each other too. While you say it is a temporary solution, Sxx is basically saying torso freeze is cancer and will never return. I don't know who to believe.

[eezstreet]

Eh. First of all - bringing torso freeze back would take a few minutes, and blocking Secondary/Primary fire while pressing USE_HELD_ITEM would make instakata impossible. (And also take practically no time)

.

I'd also like to point out that this was fixed in OpenJK, so the fix for it should be public. You'd have to dig through the commits to see how they did it.

[Jango40]

I'd also like to point out that this was fixed in OpenJK, so the fix for it should be public. You'd have to dig through the commits to see how they did it.

What was fixed in OpenJK? Torso Freeze or Insta kata?

[eezstreet]

What was fixed in OpenJK? Torso Freeze or Insta kata?

Insta kata. I think torso freeze to the extent you're speaking of may be MB2-specific. USE_HELD_ITEM is blocked for sure though with +attack and +altattack

[Jango40]

Insta kata. I think torso freeze to the extent you're speaking of may be MB2-specific. USE_HELD_ITEM is blocked for sure though with +attack and +altattack

Oh, okay then. Torso freeze is the same in basejka as it was in MB2 btw.

[therfiles]

Lets not consume this thread with discussion on the torso freeze issue. Frankly, we have no say in it and I don't see why it's being discussed here. If you feel the need, continue the discussion in this thread, or on the MBII forums, with the community that understands and knows the repercussions.

 

@@Serath: Excellent idea! We were just a bit pushed for time and wanted to get this out there ASAP!

 

@@MaceMadunusus: Really love your mapping interview idea. I'm sure members of the community would really benefit to hear from some mapping greats. If you'd like to get that ball rolling, we'd be happy to host the interview here.

[MaceMadunusus]

@@MaceMadunusus: Really love your mapping interview idea. I'm sure members of the community would really benefit to hear from some mapping greats. If you'd like to get that ball rolling, we'd be happy to host the interview here.

 

I'll see what I can do, it might be a while.

 

I was specifically thinking of mapping from the perspective of MB though. Which has a lot of different things to consider in comparison to traditional level design in JKA and I think it would be interesting to have a look at that as a lot of people don't know what actually goes into it in comparison to most other levels made. 

[Sovietskiy Partizan]

 

 

What is Moviebattles II?

 

 

Best JA mod addon.

[Serath]

Huh, they called it an addon, well thats a first. I always liked to think that MB was an unofficial mutliplayer Expansion Pack to Jedi Academy.

[eezstreet]

I'll see what I can do, it might be a while.

 

I was specifically thinking of mapping from the perspective of MB though. Which has a lot of different things to consider in comparison to traditional level design in JKA and I think it would be interesting to have a look at that as a lot of people don't know what actually goes into it in comparison to most other levels made.

 

Hi,

 

I think this would be more appropriate to have on the official site rather than JKHub. I imagine that some mappers may be interested in the difference, but ultimately to me it seems something more catered to fans as a "behind the scenes" thing. Therefore, I think your audience would be more centered around the MB2 site. However, you might find some interested readers if you advertise here.

[MaceMadunusus]

Hi,

 

I think this would be more appropriate to have on the official site rather than JKHub. I imagine that some mappers may be interested in the difference, but ultimately to me it seems something more catered to fans as a "behind the scenes" thing. Therefore, I think your audience would be more centered around the MB2 site. However, you might find some interested readers if you advertise here.

 

It isn't just about the audience. Lets say people here learning from modding, eventually want to go and make their own game or work on another game with a team as a level designer. Now that they have OpenJK's Rend2 to allow them to experience some of the more modern art practices (still outdated but better than base) with the normal maps, gloss, parallax, etc, this makes this even more possible without classes or a lot of personal time learning these. This would give them examples of things to do and consider that they never would have before. This doesn't even just apply to mappers within this community either. There have been many instances of coders venturing out into other areas as a one man team for a mobile game, and who knows, maybe what we say helps them in some degree depending on their game. 

 

Just about every game is different in how things are constructed, and have different sets of rules. However, having insight towards what goes into other games can be a pretty big thing in learning how to design your games or things to consider. If you know some things before hand, rather than having to figure them out down the line, it can be very beneficial. I think the community in general being able to learn from the mistakes and things we have learned from in MB can be pretty good, as they aren't all MB specific.

[Angel Soul]

I love the work you've put into this. You've brought a much better system to JKA than its original authors lol.
Is there any chance you guys will add bot support of kind? I prefer to play with bots.

[MaceMadunusus]

I love the work you've put into this. You've brought a much better system to JKA than its original authors lol.

Is there any chance you guys will add bot support of kind? I prefer to play with bots.

 

Bot support would be really difficult for us to add with our current level of manpower. Plus the fact that not many on the team have AI experience, and those that did are retired. 

 

Remember, BaseJKA's bot routing system uses waypoints. If we wanted something even remotely good enough for MB's case, it would have to be converted to a navigation mesh (I think xycaleth had prototypes of this at one point?). In addition to new entities being created in order to determine points of cover for boxes and walls, as well as the ability for bots to understand objectives and how to accurately make decisions and strategies. As well as understanding the saber system and asymmetrical class balance. We can't just have bots chose random classes fan out at the beginning and go different routes and chose cover based on that, its really lack luster and doesn't have much depth. I'm not saying its not possible because it certainly is. I also personally believe that it could add a few years onto MB2's life span by allowing people to play once the population cannot sustain itself any longer. 

 

The main issue is the manpower, and the level of work required that makes it something very unlikely to happen, even if all of us wanted it to happen.