Modifying enemy AI for Jedi Outcast's FPS levels to make them stand still when they see the player

[gameragodzilla]

So we all know Jedi Outcast and Academy's gunplay has a reputation for being extremely inaccurate by now. A lot of people have blamed the projectile based weapons, some auto aim shenanigans etc. However, based on me messing around with the source code to increase the weapon's projectile speeds, I've found that the primary reason why the gunplay feels so inaccurate, especially compared to Dark Forces and Jedi Knight, is because Stormtroopers move around a lot, and move around much faster, too. They'll constantly strafe around, retreat from combat, run perpendicular to the player, and also fire on the player while moving, which necessitates the player to move around as well to minimize damage. So even after I increased the projectile speed of the Bryar Pistol to 9999999, I was still unable to hit anything when enemies are moving around like that reliably.

 

So here's my mod request: I would like to have a mod that modifies Jedi Outcast's FPS levels (so basically anything before visiting Luke's Jedi Academy to get your lightsaber back) so the enemies stand still as soon as they see the player. That way, even though they're firing, the player can more easily hit targets that don't move around as often. Simply reducing the movement speed of running and walking could also work. This is what I noticed regarding the enemy AI in Dark Forces and Jedi Knight, and this is also what I noticed of the enemy AI in the Dark Forces mod for Jedi Academy. In that mod, enemies don't move around much once they see you, and while you still have to dodge their shots, the fact that they don't move around much makes them much easier to hit and the gunplay less inaccurate. They also don't seem to shoot much when moving, so that reduces the number of times when both the player and enemies are firing projectile weapons at each other while moving quickly, which makes accuracy drop even harder.

 

Preferably, it'd just be the first few levels, as the dynamic movement of the AI does make for more entertaining combat when using a lightsaber, as you have to chase down enemies, outmanuever them, and generally stay mobile. I have attempted to look at this myself, even downloading the Dark Forces mod to see how the AI in that mod was programmed, but I'm a very inexperienced modder who only dabbled in very basic stuff so this is far more complex than what I think I can handle.

 

I think if this mod is made, the early FPS levels would be more enjoyable to play, if only because now the player isn't shooting like a Stormtrooper or has to take damage standing still in order to line their shot up correctly. Thank you.

[Raz0r]

Did you also try just decreasing the projectile spread and aiming steady :3?

There's also a cvar toggle for hitbox vs model surface projectile collision. Hitbox is probably too big to be reasonable though.

 

As for modifying movement speed, this might be possible by modifying the .NPC files? I know this was handled slightly different in JK2..

[gameragodzilla]

Did you also try just decreasing the projectile spread and aiming steady :3?

There's also a cvar toggle for hitbox vs model surface projectile collision. Hitbox is probably too big to be reasonable though.

 

As for modifying movement speed, this might be possible by modifying the .NPC files? I know this was handled slightly different in JK2..

Well the Bryar Pistol doesn't have any spread as far as I can tell, hence why I modified that first. I still constantly missed, so that's why I abandoned trying to do this.

 

I don't want to do hitbox vs. model collision because it might lead to some oddities in shooting, so I wanna avoid that as much as possible.

 

As for movement speed itself, I did find something in the .NPC files, so I might mess around with that. But I would ultimately prefer to modify the AI directly to have them sit still when firing like in the Dark Forces mod, as I think that works best at making enjoyable shooting, especially since I want to try and modify only those specific levels rather than the entire game. Do you know how that was accomplished?

[gameragodzilla]

Bumping and updating this thread with something I noticed: Was replaying Jedi Academy recently and after replaying that level where you are captured and hunted by that Remnant officer or whatever early in the game and are forced to rely on blasters for the entire mission, I noticed that enemy AI was also less mobile there as well. They usually stood still when they saw me, making shooting them easier.

 

Now I’m wondering if the AI thing was something Raven tweaked between Outcast and Academy, and if porting that new AI is possible to Outcast.