NumberWan

The new series does have a mix of feels like Good Ol' Western + Original Trilogy + Anime/Disney Stuff. By Westerness I mean what people ask now from J.J.Abrams to show in Episode VII and later films, whilst it was indeed in Episode IV. The OT is clearly seen through images of the ships (TIE fighters, including the lately revealed Inquisitor's vehicle), the characters (Chopper looks more like old droids in OT, and Zeb is based on Chewbacca's early sketch), and general images are derived from McQuarrie's wonderful illustrations (a very good sign btw). Anime/Disney stuff also has an appearance here, if we look on Ezra and Kanan - they are pictured in this manner or close to it. I've suddenly remembered Mulan animation, especially when seeing some pictures of late.

As I mentioned in different thread, the series are based on the concepts for early Star Wars, and they are indeed more like Episode IV. I am glad, that they had work with Clone Wars and now have necessary experience to pull this project through, make something decent. I like the glimpses of what's been revealed to the net. I think, the series might even be pretty good, and the timeline is partly remote both from Episode III and Episodes IV-VI, which is good - they now have more place to make things, which will not spoil anything. I also like the idea, that they've brought a new villain, though some say he is not the only one, as Tarkin and other Imperials will step in as well. Mara Jade is rumoured to appear too, though this is just a rumour. But many people wait such appearances both in the series and the new Episodes.

I recall the Dark Temple as well, just looking at this picture. I guess, the fact, that so many people recognized the location so easily, means you on the right path. I would retexture the yellow statues into something more suitable to the Dromund Kaas though. However the yellow ones fit in as well.

Being able to create a texture and understanding the way it works - is a big advantage. I really like the textures I see above. Making some of them a seamless one is also hard work. I am making a lot of textures for our project, currently my goal are the terrain textures for Dantooine. So I might ask some advice later.

I think the only problem with the pine tree is that we see it the very light environment. In any other map the pine would work just perfectly, I think. As for the similarity, I am not sure that is needer: hey, you are creating a model for a Star Wars game! The trees there might not look the way we see them in our life. I have a question regarding the shaders of the branches. Sometimes they would behave nasty in the game, so I wonder, does the shader works fine with the pine? What I mean, is that the shader for hair, leaves and other staff which deals with alpha channel of tga or a png file sometimes works weirdly. Funny thing: in the past it was so hard to create a world which wouldn't look like ours, and now we all try to recreate the perfect reality.

@@Pande Wow, that's most unexpected. And thanks for offering help with music. Yes, there are levels which use their respected themes, though we try not to be too obsessed with adding the music, which gives a familiar sound in certain locations. Speaking of SW themes in the possible song for a level, I like the idea. We have a few planets, which are creations of our own. Anarmar is indeed one of them, but it's more cosmopolitan-like city. But we also have Tuak'Khan and Shiib, two planets, that I haven't posted here yet (but planning to do that), so I could show you some pictures and more about them. We also have cantinas, most of the planets have them (including Anarmar, Sulon, Dvorn and on some other planets, which are not yet revealed). Perhaps that would be interested to you as well. In case you are interested, I could send you a PM with all necessary info. And usually I provide as much info as possible, so that a person could work the best way, understanding the whole idea and even more.

I do like the look of Jedi Dooku. A version of a younger Dooku is also most welcome. There've been pictures of him at Padawan age, but you can also check on Christopher Lee ictures at younger age. One of his (perhaps) most memorable appearance is that at 1974 James Bond movie - The Man with the Golden Gun.

I am not much of a coder, by some aspects of the game do allow to make the AI be more complex. For instance, scripts allowed me to make the enemy attack me, if I took away his weapon by Force. It's a bit tricky, but a way bette, than seeing an NPC running from you until he picks a new weapon somewhere. Also in some cases scripts allow them to use the nearby turrets or speeders. Though NPCs are still very unpredictable... As for regrouping, I might be mistaken, but there are several commands in the scripts, which allow the NPC be part of a group. I am not sure about the meaning of this command, but it might be close.

These look so great! I am usually not very fond of Imperial troopers, but I like the textures, and the model on the left is a complete novice to JA, right? I see the one in the middle has some tubes at the helmet, as well.

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.