Standalone version of Jedi Academy

[afi]

Hi. Is there anyone currently working on a standalone version of Jedi Academy (like openArena is for Quake 3)?

I know people worked on compJA but I think that project is dead. I'm working on my small puzzle game but that doesn't have much to do with the original game.

 

I think it would be cool if there was some kind of open JKHub standalone community project to make that a reality. If enough people worked on that it wouldn't even be that much work for anyone. I guess the biggest problems would be the animations as there are not a lot of people who are into that.

For those of you who are not aware: Making a standalone means that you have to replace every single asset (models, animations, textures, maps, sounds...).

The code could be based on openJK (could even be an official asset-expansion to the openJK project).

Any thoughts?

[Oobah]

The problem turns into a select group that runs it all dictates whatever is used, the modding capabilities become lighter for clients and is more so in the hands of the people who run the show and with the age of the current community.  No one is going to give up that creative freedom for a mass produced watered down JA.  JO was more or less abandoned modding wise, DF2 is still alive with lot of modding and freedom in some sense as well.  Hell even Doom wad based games are still kicking in spite of no open kinda come all try our game with specific/core features in place of the original stuff that you pay a one time case of beer price to do whatever you want with more or less.  Basically I see more creative control in the hands of those that run vs. those that play it.

 

No one would wanna recreate all assets from scratch, that's a full game scale level of work even if this was just MP when those of us that are playing already own the game why would any of us get behind this when we can already play the game itself however we want as free as we truly want.  This also opens the flood gates for monetary money making (incentive to continue the project, pay the bills, some play money for yourself, etc) which I'm fairly certain with the open source it can't be used for making money (Raven put it up due to peoples interest in the game), because dlc or things offered by said community for premium mode or specific models one can use etc.  With the injection of getting into a big project such as that you need some kinda dedicated team also and how many projects have come to full fruition for JK and how many have retained a large portion of the player base?

 

This is the same thing in general though as people who cry, clamor, complain, and hope with all there might for a JK4.  The problem is even if it is a new game, every single person has to learn the new modding or what we as a community can edit again.  On top of that people also people will bring the same old rules, drama, and mindsets into a new project and you will end up with nothing but crap posts of people being forced to be on a same client version which they don't have to now, as well as any alterations to the game they don't like. 

 

In other words, this may pull in new people provided you have a means to broadcast/advertise as well as some lurkers coming out to jump on this to be the first one with the power structures and what not, but in the grand scheme will be right back to where we are now.  It's a wasted effort in that we have a good solid foundation now, why turn something with overhead people dictating and kinda nudging people into what to do/say where as now it's purely open to interpretation.  You're not giving people more options and freedom and a better quality product in a sense, what I see more so with stuff like this is you want someone like a DM (mmo GM, dedicated moderators you can trust, etc) in D&D aka an equivalent for JK to basically tell you what to do in regards to specific game related things.  From something like coding which is in the background, to full blown dlc/premium content, and heavy forum moderation when it blows up with people acting out or freaking out over things they don't like or agree with.  It's not going to boost the game in life or spirit if this even happened.  We would most likely take the private forum/clan/community based stuff and we thrust it into a larger picture so EVERYONE can see.  Do you really wanna also open those flood gates to at least 1 admin randomly deleting posts also cause "kids play here" or "that's not constructive for our community" kinda stuff?  It happens one way or another no matter what anyone thinks.

 

This isn't meant to sound over dramatic or like it will happen.  But the point being from my own general view, I don't see this really having a major impact on extending the game/series life span.  Most anyone has to do is get in game and play when they wanna play to keep interest across the board for everyone going honestly.

[Tx606]

It's a lot of effort. Larger projects like JKG have failed simply due to lack of proper leadership. 

It also depends on what you'd like to do with it - remaking SP/MP content would be silly, if you ask me.

 

The real problem would be animating, models and sound, I'd argue. Models would have to be re-made from scratch, and many third party-made models out there are not really that optimized.

Level design wouldn't be much of an issue.

[afi]

Well the idea was to have a free game with the mechanics of JKA for people who don't own the game and/or don't like the SW-setting. I think it would be quite doable if you'd focus on a small working build with like one model, one map etc.

But I guess you guys are right that most people already own JKA and won't care for all this anyway.

[Smoo]

I'm thinking of making a game based on the JA source but have samurai instead of jedi, may have ninjas too.

[Raz0r]

Lack of coders, lack of animators, licence issues.

Animations will be the hardest to recreate. Even CompJA was just using base animations to start with.

[afi]

Chivalry could have been awesome but unfortunately the developers are completely incompetent. 2,5 years after release they didn't even manage to fix the serverbrowser not to mention the balance. The devs basically killed the comp scene when they released a balance patch in 2013 that made most clan players (me and my clan included) quit the game. It's sad because there are basically only four multiplayer melee games out there: JK2 and JKA (which are old) and Blade Symhony and Chivalry (which are shit and/or full of bugs).

I almost forgot: www.reddit.com/r/TheSlashering/ This could become a better kind of chivalry if it ever gets released.

[afi]

It's a cool game but there is no multiplayer (only splitscreen).