NumberWan

@@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.

We all know, that most things can be easily changed in JA, including lightsabers, weapons effects, skins, shaders, textures and much more. I wonder, if it's possible to change the aura of the characters and objects, when you use Force sense to see through walls, those of enemies, neutrals, allies and items. The same applies to the effect, which applies to the Player or NPC, when he activates a certain Force power on himself, like Force rage or Force Rage, or similar like these. The question is, where is this data stored inside the game? Is it a shader, then which one? I looked through a lot of files, but found nothing, what might be responsible for this aspect of the Force. =) I've experimented with so many things in JA and JO, and yet "this one eludes me. It must be important" ©

It is possible to make a model of NPC as a statue, either by making a md3 object from glm model, or via scripting (adding such parameters to the character as invincibility, ignoring pain, enemies, no taunts, one animation, with endless timeframe, etc). It was made on a certain level of one of the SP mods, though I wish I remembered the title of that mod (not that bad by the way).

It's a small Galaxy far, far away...

Good progress, continue the work, so that we could see the whole level, and later - the next chapters of Dark Forces II (oh, one of my favourite games).

I prefer the darker one. Desert one is nice, but I hope it won't make the whole forum too bright.

I actually like Mon Mothma, though I am quite sure, we won't be seeing her in the new movies at all. By that time - as I recall it - she was quite sick or even died after long service for the Alliance and later the New Republic. As we don't know yet, which timeline they are planning to show, there are quite a lot of background things which are difficult to predict, such as the who is in charge of the Republic, what the Jedi look like after the Empire, whether the Jedi Temple looks the same and if it used somehow, etc. All these things have been elaborated in one way or another in EU sources, but as far as I remember, they said they are not gonna follow any previously established canon. I am trying to remember - again and again - whether I knew anything at certain production stage like this (with Episode VII), when we all were waiting the prequels. Back in 2000 or 2001 I got my hands on unofficial script of Episode II, which looked pretty much like what we've seen in Episode II except for some things. It had quite a detailed description of most scenes, planets, creatures, aliens, which could drive one fan's mind. As for Episode III I was checking the Internet myself instead, taking small parts of rumours here and there, comparing them and later adding into one text, which would remind, what we see in ROTS. I think, the same is forthcoming with Episode VII. Yet, I have a different feeling right now about the sequels...

From what I know, there hasn't been any official posters just yet. Also no info on the new logo, and I guess, it's also a fake one, because the Internet actually has some other sources already, indicating, that logo remains the same (these include the new video games, the Rebels TV series, as well as new Lego sets, based on the Rebels and more). Changing logo is also a serious matter. I would prefer this aspect of Star Wars to stay unchanged, as a special symbol, if you ask me. Some things must stay true to themselves. The confirmed news is different - the script is done, Carrie Fisher 100% participates in shooting in April, as well as Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford, and the most important stuff begins in May 2014. Some people speculate, that Episode VII will be the last movie to tell the story of the classic trio, Episode VIII and IX on the contrary will show more of the next generation. But everything remains to be seen. In the light of making a new movie and not making it too disappointing, some fans published a very good video addressing J.J.Abrams on how not to spoil the good story. http://youtu.be/_joDNOpeWWo I must say, I don't agree with all things, mentioned in the video. I think Star Wars is great for the very reason, that it can be different, showing very contrast things, several sides of one character, one planet, one event, one problem, one Galaxy. So there is place both for rebel bases and ancient temples, for elegant libraries and slimy cantinas, Imperial cruisers and Naboo silver starships, sandy back-water Tatooine and maritime highly advanced Kamino, among many other things. The video is quite good in a sense, that it makes good points, that Episode VII should indeed look like Episodes IV-VI, with older ships, with the technologies, which remind us of the Imperial era, rather than the prequels (in my opinion have to be that shiny and new, at least due to the reason, that all events shown there take place before the Dark Times). That's all for now. Or almost... Well, one spoiler perhaps?

The background is not just a picture, it's the 3d model of holoprojector, which is originally seen in the menus of Dark Forces II. Olgo wanted to link DP more to the old good games, including the DF video games, which had simple, but quite stylish designs, especially in 2d graphics. We've decided to follow the traditions of those wonderful games and thus have created a model for the old good look. I am glad, I've had a chance to work on this model myself, texturing it, while Olgo created the holoprojector from scratch.

I must say, that I prefer the yellow sky the most. It distinguishes Ord mantell from other planets in the mod, which are more cold or darker. There are lots of planets during the day as well, but the sky is purely blue. We also have one dusty planet. The sky in SW TOR seems to be acurate as well, but it works fine there, because the characters move through open spaces most of the time. Ord Mantell during the Cold War is mostly the islands and continents with hills and mountains, some of which are volcanic, and the skies are hidden behind the clouds. Some lighter areas are in the distance, which can't be seen in our maps due to a large amount of junk and old ships. Speaking of which, I have to notice, that the planet has become a junkyard (possibly) some time after the Cold War, thus the climate, the atmosphere and general color gamma might have changed as a result of deteriorating situation. Shadows of the Empire had quite a lot of Ord Mantell stuff. In the cutscenes the sky is more reddish. The atmosphere in the game - due to game engines of course - is more like sandy dust. Piles of junk, wrecked starships and other things add more to the atmosphere as well. Yet, the violet-like skybox might just work the best way. We'll have to look into this matter.

The textures are based on those, created originally from the KOTOR ones and to be used in mod version for Jedi Academy (DP was for JO and then it was made for JA). Besides the textures, the level design has changed drastically through years. I guess it's only fair that we update the textures. However it's not in the nearest plans, except for skies, which we created in Terragen in the past. As the new version of Terragen has been released, we've already updated the skies for several planets, but not all of them - Anarmar, Ord Mantell including. Dantooine is also planned, as well as Sulon. Both these planets are finished in the level design way, only lighting, md3 objects, some scripting might go through additional renovation and change.