NumberWan

I guess, we'll need a poll to decide. The reason why I would like to see an Imperial Technician as an adversary, is that making them neutral isn't that fun in a level like this. They don't act naturally, even if you set them to avoid the Player and so on. I guess, it is possible to do things like this, but yet, it must look persuasive (and JA isn't exactly the game which is good at such things). I think most people will blast them anyway. The second reason is that it's a tradition now, that if you fall into Imperial hive, its members will attack you one by one no matter what. Since the first Star Wars games. Just think of Dark Forces 1 and 2, as well as MOTS, JO, JA, TFU - the enemies are enemies. =) The third reason is that the game has plenty of neutrals on different levels, including on Imperial worlds. For instance, there is an entire city, where you can see stormtroopers, but also technical staff and Imperial citizens.

@@Circa You are not that far from truth. Star Wars Rebellion actually depicts Bothans more like human creatures, with fur and still sharp ears. But with more and more sources showing Bothans, they looked more like what we created here. We are not using a human appearance, because there are quite a lot of human characters in the game now, including Chiss, Zeltron, Zabrak and Twi'Lek (which we will be showing soon enough). The encyclopedia says, that Bothans differ in appearance in a manner, that some resemble humans. @@DT85 Good point. I'll think about that one

These look very good. When I saw them in TFU, I had questions, whether they had these helmets from the start, or did they adopt this uniform at later stage.

You'll be able to count during the game. =) Now, that we've decided to release the mod in parts, it is a real possibility. thanks for the comment, the fur was a quite a puzzle. I used a different Wacom tablet to make that one work fine. It seems, that the shader works better if the thickness of each hair is very-very small.

BOTHANS The latest news, which is titled "Hello from Bothawui" has finally been authorized, so it is time to present another species, which will make a cameo in Dark Pastime modification. Bothans can be seen on a variety of worlds in Dark Pastime, including Anarmar, Uffel, Tuak'Khan, Rutana, Coruscant and in some other places. Mainly they are neutral, but with their well-developed spy net, they are good allies of the New Republic, thus you'll get a chance to work with them side by side in one of the missions. Bothans come in different skin colors and hairstyles, as well as clothes, which can be changed easily through switchable surfaces. The main problem was their beard, though we are working to improve both such details as fur and clothes.

I guess, most people vote for JO and JA, because these bring the most recent good memories. True. But I voted for Dark Forces. In the whole series it is the only one, which I haven't re-played in recent years. Sometimes I install Dark Forces II JK, and have fun. MOTS was also quite good, though it lacked the goodies of its predecessor, like cutscenes with real-life actors, the diversity in the plot, and the more or less defined main villain. Still it was a good game, and I would like to see it re-released and updated to be a bit larger and more detailed. DF2 JK has no need to be updated, I like the way I remember it - 1990-styled video game with 2d menus (but perfect ones with eye-catching illustrations) and these grey and dark levels of Nar Shaddaa, Barons Hed and reddish to orange caves, temples and canyons of the Valley of the Jedi. Oh mine, I think I'll install it in the evening. As for Dark Forces - even though I am a big fan of the whole series, I guess, that it will be difficult even for me to play this game today. It's not just the graphics, but perhaps something else... It was so much fun to try the DF mod for JA, especially the ruined city of Talay base, which I (as many other fans, I presume) enjoyed so much, so something like that would be superb.

I've never had a problem like that with stormtrooper NPCs or any basic JA NPCs (as far as I recall), but I did have such a problem with the NPCs I'd added myself. It happened only, when I added too many like more than 100 (a lot more than that actually) and the game just started removing them randomly from the game. The other reason is that you had too many mods with additional NPCs or the one, rewriting the existing models. Try to sort the installed stuff by seeing, whether you have new NPCs, new models, which are override the basic ones, and other mods which add something new to the game (like shaders, models,etc). I remember something like that happened, when back in early 2000s I installed a no-cd patch, all things dissappeared. Nevertheless, all NPCs dissappear? They don't become invisible, do they? What happens, when you load a map from JA (like Hoth or Taspir)?

Wow, that is surely an eye-catching picture. It gives a truthful Star Wars feel, that one I haven't seen from Jedi Outcast, Dark Forces II and classic movies. The design is almost flawless, and has something unique to it. I can't add anything else here. I must say, that the only thing that you might like to change is the Jedi Academy transport. I know the model looks like that, but it was scaled to a smaller version by the developers, and if you look at this one back in JA (where it appears, like Yavin or Blenjeel), it's much larger. If you intend to change that, use modelscale in the parameters.

The process of texturing the levels, so that they looked as in the original game, but fresher, newer, up to date, is complicated. But you might like to use some basic rules, that you pick the main color(s) from the original texture (for instance olive from stone and grey-browny from metallic part of the picture) and re-create the texture from scratch, applying the colors on it correspondingly. Also the textures in JK DF2 were of a little size, like 128x128. With JA having lived up to this day, the textures of 256x256 (originally used in JO and JA) might not be enough, though not always. In our mod we have sometimes textures of 1024x1024 and 1024x2048 dimension for better quality.

Though I like what I see, I wouldn't recommend using the same texture applied to all the brushes in the map, even it is the very-very preview of Barons Hed. Without lights it looks too dull. I played Dark Forces 2 several times (if not dozens), so I know this level pretty good. So yes, I recognized the rooms, small hatches, and the river canal. However for other people this might be not that obvious. I would recommend making at least some minor changes to the textures for now, for instance let the wall be that dark grey (for now), try Shift+Ctrl and click on one the sides (e.g. the floor), and apply some sandy or brown textures to it. This will have a much better effect, and it'll be much easier to distinguish the rooms and corridors. But I guess that is forthcoming. =) I will be looking forward to seeing this map complete.

@@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.

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.

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.

Yes, the first mission includes a large battle in space, which you can observe from the starship, while fighting very different Imperial forces. This first mission together with a trip to Ord Mantell are a reference to good old games of Rogue Squadron 3D and the above mentioned Shadows of the Empire, though it happened more or less inadvertently. Larger cities, as Olgo said already, will have a lot of traffic in the sky, while minor locations have starships land and go away, landspeeders passing by or minor transport going above the roofs of the buildings. Don't worry, there are certain missions, which take place in remote mostly uninhabited places too.

You might be interested in checking the graphic enhancing mod for Jedi Knight II, which changes the game, especially the models of characters. It might help you with inspiration a bit.

We've already changed the effect, and I am soooo glad, we've made it for our mod. The game is just played differently, because nothing spoils now the model of your character, or the appearance of your enemies, which are otherwise almost unrecognizable.

I guess, the level could be even more interesting, if you added some elements from the novel. I am sure, the book and the radio novel depict more on Nar Shaddaa, than we originally saw in the game. Though it is not necessary to make Nar Shaddaa too crowdy or smth like that.

There was a rumour, that the good old trio was getting in shape, preparing for the parts of Luke, Leia and Han. In any case they will be quite old in Episode VII, so just get the Jedi robe and go ahead. =) I thought, that some characters from the Prequels might re-appear in Episode VII as well, and not just the dead Jedi as holograms in the new Jedi Temple, but some minor background ones, like Orn Free Taa, Baron Papanoida, or perhaps some species, introduced there - a Roonan or Neimodian in the back. I believe in most cases it will be impossible (perhaps for the best too), as between the prequels and the sequels happened a lot - in almost 60+ years! So no familiar humans, no doubt. I also wonder, whether we will see Tatooine again. This planet is so iconic, not only it appeared in almost every film of the Saga, but also in many games, books, cartoons - they all bring it to our notice. Surely seeing some minor things from the OT would suffice my expectations as a fan too (besides the desire for a true feel of Star Wars), but I would really like to see the old aliens from cantina in Mos Eisley back here - Ithorians, Kitonaks, Devaronians, H'nemthe, Qiraash, Nimbanel or others. Some ships like Moldy Crow (Kyle Katarn's ship), Mon Calamari cruisers. And Bothans. =)

Interestingly, that Grans both in Dark Forces II and Jedi Outcast (and JA) have wrong fists from the start. Originally it's the way grans looked like in Episode VI, one of which had a certain decease on his hands, which made them swell so much. Whilst the illness was known in SW almost from the first appearance of grans, the true form and size of the hands was shown, perhaps, in Episode I, where the Malastare senators can be seen, supporting the offer of the Trade Federation to send a commission to Naboo. But these fists fit more than perfectly into the plot of JK, the gameplay and the fact, that grans are good at fist-fighting.

It's actually Olgo, who found the effect. At least one of them, which is effects/forceprotect, can be changed with ease. The thing is that you are limited to the color, or so it seems. Thus you can't make all allies be colored with blue or so. But you can change the way it looks. I plan to look more into this, and will post any new info on the matter here later.

@@Asgarath83 Thanks a lot for your help. =) We've been trying to change the aura only, and we've finally found a solution. It's close to what you've posted above.

Interestingly, Bespin in JO didn't look quite like the Cloud City in the films, coloring is wrong. When we wanted to create Bespin map, we though of making the city more grey and the creamy walls more like snow or just white stone. However Bespin in JO had it's own charm and distinctiveness.

You can also make a Galactic Senate Guard, which is blue and looks very similar except for vizors and details on the helmet. Switchable surfs can be used in this case.