therfiles

Oh boy. It's here and it's incredible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wji-BZ0oCwg

So pumped for this trailer! So glad it comes out early in the morning.

Those saber recreations look gorgeous. And the new concepts look great. I especially like Arbitrator concept and the Veteran looks very interesting. Will you play around with 3-bladed sabers, like Kylo's? Great work here.

@@Cerez, again I misspoke. I still don't like that all that canon was thrown out, and I do value one, well-created storyline. But I think the sacrifice maybe was worth it, especially since the way they've handled it thus far. Again, I really appreciated this discussion.

Hey Cerez! Sorry to see you go . Good luck with stuff and I've really enjoyed having you around this place. Hope you manage to recapture the magic of Star Wars for yourself someday!

What? A New Hope was made with just 13 million dollars. The Force Awakens was created with a whopping 204 million dollars. Say what you want about the quality, but one clearly has more production value than the other. Now, I'm not saying that ANH wasn't innovative and ground breaking, but maybe I'm missing your point. And again, while I agree that the original films and KOTOR are incredible and innovative pieces of storytelling, I fail to see how TFA isn't. Again, I'm not arguing that TFA is perfect. It is not. In fact, the mico-story (the characters) play strongly but the overall story is a bit more murky (political confusion, etc). Really? No originality? I mean I'm not huge fan of the PT, but I cannot deny the new stuff it does and the new ideas it brings to the table. Any way, here are some of the biggies that stuck out to me: Cosmetics/Visuals New aliens and droidsNew planets (alteration on the desert archetype = junkyard. I won't argue that Takadona or Q'Dar are super original because they really aren't atm )New lightsaber typeNew spaceships (not really...kinda forgettable but I'm being honest haha)Much more cinematic than any of the previous Star Wars filmsCompelling actionNew lightsaber fighting styles (as a formidable weapon, not a meat cleaver)Lore No more Sith. All new dark side faction that has a new ideologyA more brutal Empire (compare with what we saw in ANH to what we see in TFA)The Jedi didn't rise again. But why? Darth Caedus (I mean Kylo Ren) killed them all. Why???New force powers (force freeze, mental abilities amped up)New force practitioners (Church of the Force)New political situation (factions are now on a somewhat even footing. Republic vs First Order)Snoke and Maz. Where were they and who are they?Story Leia as a political outcast. She is the only one who really sees the danger of the First Order but the Republic has grown complacent.Luke as a troubled outcast, afraid of his own abilities.Han as a wise figure, but struggling as a father.Han and Leia's conflict (Leia hiding the risks of training from Han)Rey's Journey. Someone who is left behind who only wants and needs someone to accept her (Finn or Luke)Rey's interaction with the force. She is truly powerful, but she never taps into it because she doesn't want to let go of her past.Rey vs Ren. While one is clearly more trained, Rey has more control over herself and thus gains the upper-hand.Ren's killing of his father as a way to convince himself that he is evil, and failing (just look at his face!). He has to convince himself to stay on this dark path.Finn's Journey. A traitor who was destined to always be on the run until he gained courage from an unlikely source (Rey). He was overwhelmed by the massive struggle in the galaxy, but once he made the conflict in the galaxy small (Ren kidnaps Rey) he gained the strength to go on.Kylo Ren. A figure very much aware of the dualism within him. Knowing he will be tempted by the light and yet he suppresses it (usually, people try to suppress the dark side)Kylo's parentage and interaction with Vader. How he views his sacrifice as weaknessThe Hux vs Kylo conflict.Undid the "happy ending" of the OT. Hurtful to the OT, but more realistic as an authentic story. Sorry, this list is super incomplete. I hope to watch TFA again in the near future. Again, I understand your anti-Disney narrative. But I'd love to hear how you counter some of my above points. And remember the alternative. We'd have no new Star Wars without it. No new fans. Etc. EDIT: Also, a quick, incredible quote by Lucasfilm Story Group creative executive Pablo Hidalgo: "When you ask 'is it canon?' The answer means 'do other storytellers need to take it into account?' That's all the answer means."

@@Cerez: That's cool you feel that way. However, I don't think you are being entirely fair to a new generation of content creators or fans. The old books, the games, the shows...they all exist. And that's awesome. But there is more content, more story to be had, and now there is room for it. The old stuff still exists and is still respected, but there is a new direction. Its fine you don't like it, but its hardly a marketing scheme or only a profit motivated venture. I often forget that Star Wars was quite dead before the Disney buy out. I'm so glad that new people can finally get into Star Wars. I know quite a few people that have never been Star Wars fans (by choice or by never seeing the films) and they love this new direction. So its cool if you don't but I don't see why it needs to be such an us vs them conflict. To be fair, games like KOTOR, JKA and other licensed products are just as much "profit" driven as any other Star Wars properties. If you want to talk about innovation and quality, that's a different story, but Star Wars has been a business since day one. Again, saying TFA brings nothing new to the Star Wars universe on a thematic or narrative level is simply false. I'd be happy to outline this argument if you like.

As great at KOTOR and TOR are, they really exist in their own bubble on the timeline. They don't really affect the new stuff very much. So I'm surprised that they would make it uncanon, but at the same time, it really doesn't matter. There is no story in that bit of the time line, so just play KOTOR and be happy. It's in that gray canon area where it is technically not canon but it is not actively contradicted by canon source. Plus, arguments could be made over the whole "kiddie" films thing, but I don't think that's needed in this topic.

Wasn't a huge fan of the deleted scenes. Really proud of the decisions Abrams and his editor made on this film to leave these moments out. While having Kylo on the Falcon is really cool conceptually, you'd then need the speeder chase and more outdoor stuff to build that outdoor atmosphere more, so I think it was an OK cut.

Hmmm. Just had a quick peek around the kor2 script files. I'm worried that the music isn't triggered directly by the script, and that it just triggers an in-map entity that changes the music. I don't see any direct changes that are called upon in the scripts. But the entities may hold some secrets. I might be able to change the music manually...but I still think there should be a file you can replace to make it all work.

Here's a fun resource we have here on the site: https://jkhub.org/page/mapping.html

I'm sure he's working on it. Takes a lot of time to make these comics, do a tutorial, and live a life.

Today we sit down to talk JKHub's resident mad-scientist kitbasher and visionary comic creator, Kualan! therfiles: Hey there! Thanks for talking with us. First off: what inspired you to create comics with JKA? Kualan: I've always loved making new stories in the Star Wars universe – even as a kid I used to come up with new adventures for my action figures to take part in. As I got older I wanted to find a way to channel this urge to create new tales in the Galaxy Far Far Away, and I even dabbled in using those old action figures of mine for a stop-motion film. It failed miserably - imagine the Nightmare Before Christmas, but with General Grievous instead of Jack Skellington and moving at 6fps! So I started looking at machinima – using video games to create films or comics. I settled pretty quickly on the idea of making a comic instead of a film, and as I had loved the game as a kid, I knew Jedi Academy would be the ideal medium to use. therfiles: So what about JKA makes it easy to create these kind of projects? Kualan: There are two big reasons that make JKA the best video game by far for those who want to make some Star Wars machinima. The first is the sheer amount of assets available for the game. Unlike many modern games (Star Wars and otherwise), JKA is insanely modder-friendly and that's naturally led to thousands of different maps, character models and vehicles being created for the game over the years. There isn't a single era in the Star Wars universe that doesn't have a significant amount of content for it, from the prequels right through to The Force Awakens. For anyone wanting to make some Star Wars machinima, JKA is like one big toy-box with every action figure you could ever need inside. The second reason is down to the tools available for the JKA modding community – most importantly the tool 'Modview'. This is a tool that lets you render, view and pose any character model in the game and is vital to the 'green screen' process I use to put the comic together. If Raven Software hadn't released this and similar tools all those years ago, I wouldn't have been able to even think of making the comic, let alone do it. therfiles: Your past four volumes have been set during the Clone Wars. What made you choose this era for your stories? Kualan: I'm part of the generation that was still growing up when the prequels were hitting the cinemas – old enough to have seen the original trilogy first, but young enough to not want to put my head through the wall whenever Jar Jar Binks walked onto the screen. So the Clone Wars were the real focus of Lucasfilm's output for many of those years and I became really engrossed in the stories set during that era. I think the scale of the Clone Wars also gives them great potential as a backdrop to new stories. Whereas the major events of the Galactic Civil War tend to boil down to the actions of a close-knit group of freedom fighters, the Clone Wars are more of a grandiose 'age of heroes' where every lone Jedi has their own tale of adventure, heroism and tragedy. It plays more to the mythological aspects of the Star Wars universe, which really appeal to me. therfiles: Out of your four volumes, which one are you most proud of? Kualan: That's a tough one! There's things I like and dislike about every volume of TFTCW that I've done so far. For example, Volumes One and Two barely feature any emotion in the characters' faces! This is because my knowledge of Photoshop at the time was too limited to portray expressions properly. I sometimes wish I could go back and do 'remastered' versions of those volumes to bring them up to scratch. I think overall the volume I like the most is Volume Four, which puts Mace Windu in the spotlight in a way that I don't think he ever experienced in the old Expanded Universe. It also featured the first villain in the series who was given some real depth and history – Railas Tok, the fallen Chistori Jedi and former Padawan of Windu's. therfiles: Can you give our readers a quick synopsis for your four volumes? Kualan: The plot behind each volume comes from a single idea that I think has potential to bloom into a full-blown story, and usually revolves around things we haven't seen before in licensed works. So in Volume One, the story follows Anakin Skywalker as he encounters a maverick sect of the Jedi Order – calling themselves the True Jedi Covenant – that eschews the leadership of the Council and seeks to find their own way to destroying the Sith. The idea behind this volume was that, with ten thousand Jedi in the galaxy, it seemed unlikely to me that absolutely all of them would follow the Council into an unannounced war. Volume Two was actually inspired by the premise of the 'Clone Wars' TV show, which sees Anakin receive a Padawan – Ahsoka Tano. Instead, I gave the plot-line of a new Padawan to Obi-Wan, and his attempts to pass on what he has learned from training Anakin to a young Zabrak named Zell. This new Padawan was a great way to explore how trying to teach the Jedi path in the middle of a war (that seems to contradict said teachings) has an effect on shaping the future generations of the Jedi Order. In Volume Three, we meet the infamous Jedi spy Quinlan Vos in the midst of his attempts to infiltrate the ranks of Count Dooku's acolytes. To me, Vos was one of the most interesting characters in the old EU, and I thought he was a great way to bring the story into the darker, murkier parts of the GFFA. Through Vos, the comic gets to see how the war affects 'lesser' factions in the galaxy such as the Mandalorians, the Hutts and the motley assortment of smugglers and gangsters that thrive in the Outer Rim. Volume Four brings the focus back to the Jedi – specifically Mace Windu and his past. For fans of the old EU, it's known that many of Windu's apprentices have a tendency to fall to corruption (Sora Bulq and Depa Billaba among them) and so the comic introduced another former Padawan who is no exception. Railas Tok is probably my favorite villain in the comic so far – a fallen Jedi who believes himself to be the Chosen One, and that bringing balance to the Force means conquering both Jedi and Sith! therfiles: Over the last 5 years, you've created a whopping 55 comics! What is the favorite issue that you've produced? Kualan: I often find I like the more stand-alone tales – such as the issue 'Just Good Business' in Volume Two, which sees Jedi Master Luminara Unduli take on a Hutt gangster (and his pet rancor!). That was a fun comic to put together. therfiles: What is one of the biggest challenges you face during production? Kualan: Lightsaber duels are easily the most difficult element to portray. Not only do you need to successfully portray the movement of each combatant, you have to ensure the 'choreography' of the fight transitions smoothly from panel to panel. It can also be tricky to establish a different character's fighting “style” in a single shot – Count Dooku's style looks very different to Anakin's, for example. I also don't know why I keep using General Grievous for lightsaber fights – the guy is an absolute nightmare to pose! therfiles: Can you give us a simple breakdown of your process? Kualan: I begin by taking screenshots for the background of each and every panel in-game. These are then resized and positioned in Photoshop to give me the basic layout of each page – a typical page of the comic will contain anywhere between four and six panels: Then, using Modview, I access the models of the characters I want to put into a scene. As Modview allows you to place and pose the character models over a single-colour background, I can then take a screenshot of the character in the pose I want and transfer it to the panel I want it to feature in. Photoshop's 'Magic Wand' tool allows me to do away with the single-colour background, just like a film studio's green screen: I then add any special effects or speech bubbles to the panel (after Photoshop and Modview, I use Google the most to find out how to create certain effects) and voila – the comic begins to come to life: That's a very basic overview, but the upcoming tutorial will take a real step-by-step approach to guiding potential comic-makers through the entire process. therfiles: Do you map out the story of the entire volume? Do you sketch out an issue before you create it? Kualan: I write a small one-page 'treatment' of the volume's storyline as a whole, and then script each issue in detail when I come to make them. I don't sketch anything out, but when writing the script I make notes of how I want to pose a certain scene as this is vital when it comes to taking the in-game screenshots for the background of each panel. therfiles: Your comics tell stories using JKA game assets. How hard is it to find all the models and art needed to tell your story? Kualan: Very easy! As said before, JKA is a treasure trove of Star Wars assets. The modding community for this game is better than any other Star Wars game I know, and it's still going strong to this day. I learned how to kitbash new models in the past year or so too, which has also really helped bring new characters to the comic, but it is the modding community as a whole that I owe for making such high-quality content available for use. therfiles: Your first issue came out in 2011. Now, almost 5 years later, what keeps you going? Kualan: Knowing there's a small but dedicated audience in the fandom that get a kick out of reading a new issue is a great feeling! Though it's worth mentioning that the Star Wars franchise just keeps on changing and evolving – from the original films, to the old EU, to the Clone Wars TV show, and now the sequels under Disney – and that makes it very easy to keep being inspired to write new stories. therfiles: In your comics, we've seen characters like Mace Windu and Grand Moff Tarkin in prominent roles Who was one of your favorite film/canon characters to flesh out? Kualan: Oh, Tarkin. Easily. The guy's always been such a deliciously evil villain, and I've always felt he should have had a more prominent role in the prequel films. The comic has been a great way for me to portray how I think a seemingly normal man with no magical powers could rise to hold the keys for the galaxy's deadliest super-weapon and stand second only to the Emperor himself. He's also a great conduit to show the rising corruption and darkness behind the Republic – a recurring theme in the comic. therfiles: You introduce many new characters in your comics. Who is one of your favorites? Kualan: Maybe I'm biased because I'm in the middle of writing their stories as we speak, but the two clone trooper protagonists of Volume Five – Corliss and Asher – are great fun to write. Because they act as sounding boards to each other, it allows for a lot of neat 'character moments' to take place between the two amidst all the big plot points and action taking place around them. therfiles: Do you have favorite real-world comic? Kualan: I read a lot of Star Wars comics, of course! The Republic and Dark Times series were particular favorites of mine, and in fact some of the characters from them will be featured in Volume Five of TFTCW. Outside of the GFFA, I read some of the Marvel Universe – the Civil War arc a few years ago was a really good story-line, and I've recently got into Deadpool as well. - Well, that's all for now folks! Be sure to give Kualan some love down in the comments and check out his comics right here! Be sure to read Kualan's most recent comic, Conspiracy on Coruscant (Volume 5, Issue 2).

You can add that to your autoexec.cfg

Yep, @@Circa's mod will interfere. I will send you a quick file via PM in order to patch this bug! In order to add new menus, you need to modify a file (called ingame.txt) which lists the ingame menus. So Circa's was being used, not mine. The patch I will send you will add all the new menu files to that registry.

Hi there! I'm the author of that mod. Do you have any other mods (especially UI) that might be interfering with my mod? What version of JA do you use?

Hello! Welcome to the Hub!

This is kinda possible with a LOT of scripting. We can alter the mindtrick script in order for these effects to happen. However, the NPC would need a set targetname...which is kinda impractical.

That's odd. I've always had this issue. I just assumed it was how it worked in the code.

@@Ramikad you read my mind, good sir! It won't be pretty, but maybe if the Luke NPC froze in a specific animation and then the Kyle NPC ported to that place in that same animation and angle direction. That might make a rough transition smoother. The only other (weird) way was if you somehow fused Kyle and Luke's actual .GLM models together and then used two .skins to toggle between them.

You should make a simple script to verify that the SET_PLAYERMODEL thing even works on NPC. I know it works for the player, but I'm not 100% sure it does for NPCs. If it doesn't we can do some other dark magic.

Awesome! Lego's sense of humor never gets old!