[OpenJK] BZTweaks Edition

[blinkyzero]

Hi folks! This is a small OpenJK fork I started working on for JA a couple days ago with the sole intention of spicing single player up a bit. The base game is quite easy even on its highest difficulty, so for my own amusement I thought I'd try to give the enemies more of a fighting chance while also perhaps opening up a few new playstyles for Jaden.

 
Please let me know if you've got any suggestions toward those ends.

 

GitHub repository is located here.

 

Completed

• Bowcaster hits now have a knockback effect and an additional chance to knock damaged targets down. Stopping a bolt with a lightsaber will drive you back a couple feet as well.
• Bowcaster bolts can now be reflected on Hard. Previously they'd just disappear, which I thought was rather silly.
• Attempting to use a lightsaber to deflect damage from a DEMP2 will cause the lightsaber to deactivate and be briefly unusable. DEMP2 shots will also cause guns to jam for a brief amount of time.
• Increased the player's likelihood of being knocked down by explosive effects from 0%/33%/50% on Easy/Medium/Hard to 0%/50%/100%.
• Removed the attack cooldown from Force Grip, allowing you to saber or shoot enemies that you're choking (though any attack except for a thrown saber will break the hold). Victims of ranks 2 and 3 of Grip will also fall down after being released.
• Increased NPC weapon damage values on Hard to equal a player's. Previously, most guns did significantly less damage in the hands of NPCs, even on the most difficult setting.
• Increased the burst spacing (rate of fire) of NPC guns on Hard to be equivalent to those of the player.
• Increased the pitiful blast radius of thermal detonators.
• Enemies with blaster rifles will now mostly use primary fire (more accurate, fewer shots) when their target is far away, and secondary fire (inaccurate, many shots) when the target is near.
• Enemies with the Imperial repeater gun will lay waste to their surroundings with the explosive alternate fire when targets close in on them. Very nasty!
• Enemies with the flechette launcher will frequently use its scatter bomb alternate fire when their target is at long range.

 
In Progress

• Fix the facepalm-inducing time it takes for Imperial officers to attack once they come out of stealth.

 

Neat Ideas?

• Possibly randomize the appearance of certain enemies (an idea taken from Seven's Reborn Sith Replacer and Spanki's wonderful Sith Customization).
• Similarly, possibly randomize (within reason) the weapons, AI ranks, and other stats of enemies at spawn.

 

Discarded Changes

• No more increased projectile speeds. It was actually a bit too brutal combined with some of the other tweaks.
• No more chance to be knocked down by bowcaster bolts at close range even if you deflect them (same reason).

[Lancelot]

- Possibly randomize the appearance of certain enemies (an idea taken from Seven's Reborn Sith Replacer and Spanki's wonderful Sith Customization).

- Similarly, possibly randomize (within reason) the weapons, AI ranks, and other stats of enemies at spawn.

This is something I wanted to suggest before I came to read this part. I thought it might be interesting.

Maybe you could try to randomize the NPCs depending on the difficulty you choose. The higher the difficulty, the higher is the chance of randomized NPCs appearing throughout the game.

 

An example:

 

Padawan: It has the basic setting just like in vanilla Jedi Academy.

Jedi: Random NPCs are activated. They have random weapons and are slightly stronger.

Jedi Knight: Random NPCs are activated. They are stronger and take more hits. Stormtroopers are better marksmen.

Jedi Master: Random NPCs can now change their ranks, appearances and weapons. The nemies are even more ruthless.

 

Of course it should be kept in a realistic way as possible. I mean, Stormtroopers should still be Stormtroopers, Reborns should still be Reborns, but only with random appearances, weapons and abilities.

[blinkyzero]

This is something I wanted to suggest before I came to read this part. I thought it might be interesting.

Maybe you could try to randomize the NPCs depending on the difficulty you choose. The higher the difficulty, the higher is the chance of randomized NPCs appearing throughout the game.

 

An example:

 

Padawan: It has the basic setting just like in vanilla Jedi Academy.

Jedi: Random NPCs are activated. They have random weapons and are slightly stronger.

Jedi Knight: Random NPCs are activated. They are stronger and take more hits. Stormtroopers are better marksmen.

Jedi Master: Random NPCs can now change their ranks, appearances and weapons. The nemies are even more ruthless.

 

Yup, that's definitely doable.

 

I like the idea of having randomized encounters. One of the (several) reasons JA is too easy is that there really are no surprises after the first playthrough.

[Xycaleth]

Hey this looks pretty neat! Have you heard of JA Enhanced? They're looking to improve the SP experience as well so maybe you could team up with them?

[blinkyzero]

Hey this looks pretty neat! Have you heard of JA Enhanced? They're looking to improve the SP experience as well so maybe you could team up with them?

 

Yup, I've actually played with JA Enhanced a bunch. Great mod.

 

I want to get all of this stuff working independently first, but afterwards it wouldn't be hard at all to integrate the changes into other OpenJK projects. I'm fanatical about keeping track of what I modify in the source.

[Xycaleth]

I'm fanatical about keeping track of what I modify in the source.

It sounds like you aren't using a version control system for your code

[GamingPrince83]

Yup, that's definitely doable.

 

I like the idea of having randomized encounters. One of the (several) reasons JA is too easy is that there really are no surprises after the first playthrough.

If you want to make JA a bit more difficult increase the weapons projectile speed.

I increased them to Battlefront series level speed, it makes the Jedi Outcast Missions very difficult even on the second difficulty level.

[blinkyzero]

It sounds like you aren't using a version control system for your code

 

Not a formal one, no. I should probably create an official fork...

[Futuza]

Not a formal one, no. I should probably create an official fork...

Yeah that'd be a good idea   Working without version control is...crazy.

[Xycaleth]

Not a formal one, no. I should probably create an official fork...

Even if you don't have an official fork you can use git locally on your own computer without uploading it anywhere. It'll let you keep track of every change you make It's an invaluable tool when editing code.

[blinkyzero]

Even if you don't have an official fork you can use git locally on your own computer without uploading it anywhere. It'll let you keep track of every change you make It's an invaluable tool when editing code.

 

Oh, yeah, I use a Git with Visual Studio, of course. I suppose I should have said no formal online version control, heh.

 

Correction: I use a Git, but apparently not properly. I learned C years and years ago as a hobby, not as anything professional, and wow does Git ever confuse the hell out of me. All I want it to do is store a pristine copy of the OpenJK source that I can then build off of and compare my changes against, but I can't seem to figure out how.

 

Guess I'll roll like it's 1994 again and just keep separate copies along with a master change log, haha.

 

Got my fork going. Was massively overthinking how Git does source control. Turns out it's pretty neat.

 

Repo's here. Haven't pushed anything yet as I need to migrate a lot of stuff over from my clunky old way of doing things.