Kualan

Hi all, been getting several messages here and elsewhere from folks asking for some of my uploads that have been removed from the Hub.

Posting here for any future PMs -

- All my old JKA stuff is on an old PC. I still own the machine, but I'm not planning on going through it any time soon so will not be able to provide any direct downloads. I'm happy for anyone to share any links they have though or upload it elsewhere. Credit for myself appreciated but not mandatory, credit for the makers of the source material (when it comes to kitbashes, etc) should be required though.

- I'm not planning on returning to JKA modding any time soon. Still love the game and the community, I just don't have the spare time to commit to the modding scene!

- The Hub is perfectly within its rights to remove any content it doesn't want to host. I'm not interested in badmouthing the site, nor am I annoyed by their decision.

"Long have I waited..."

Awesome stuff, this is enough to get me to fire up JKA again for the first time in a long while

I don't hang around the forums much these days, but just stopping by to say - nice thread, liked what I saw.

Nice job recreating that Hapslash screenshot! 

• a mod that makes "Circa" replace every mention of "Rosh"

I agree, this should not be on the Secret Santa. Such a mod is worthy of the entire community, not merely one member.

It's been a long while since I checked in on progress here but damn - looks awesome.

Just out of curiosity, if I posted a DropBox or some shit with all my unfinished BS in them, would anyone want them?

Thank you for making the assets available, but a shame the project never reached fruition. I remember this being high on my list of "ones to watch".

Moira main FTW.

It's a historically sensitive subject. Fundamentally the idea of offering to commission work from a skilled artist is entirely sensible - most of the hesitation around it comes from the fear doing so would eventually lead to an environment in which only paid mods get made.

On the other hand I would seriously question the sanity of anyone who offers to part with good money for the sake of bringing Ugandan Knuckles to a 15 year old game.

Really cool, looking forward to seeing more.

Cad Bane's first episode, Hostage Crisis. Introduced a solid new villain and also began the show's transition to being willing to take on darker, edgier stories.

It isn't only you. I noticed that in Multiplayer the CLASS_MINEMONSTER is bugged and the NPCs with it make random sounds (like shield/ammo healing and others). It works fine in Singleplayer though. Hopefully the people behind OpenJK can fix it. 

Just spitballing here and have in no way tested this theory, but could this be due to minemonster being given vehicle sounds to default back to when there are no specific sounds in its audio folder for the game call upon?

Similar to how male/female NPCs will default to base grunts for jumps/pain/death etc if they don't have their own sounds, dictated by whether they are classed as male or female in their NPC file.

So if you have sound files (even blank audio) in a named sound folder for the creature using the minemonster class, this will override any others the game may default to?

Or it's just a crazy bug.

Starkiller OP plz nerf.

[snip]

Now, I'm not exactly a Disney fanboy (there's good and bad sides to the new canon) and I don't doubt you strongly believe what you have posted, however despite the long and detailed posts what you are proposing is entirely speculative with little actual objective evidence - that is to say, evidence for which your hypothesis is the sole conclusion. I am afraid what you're suggesting is conjecture so far, and most (if not all) points have other possible answers that are just as if not more likely.

The idea that Disney would not change a "decades-long business plan" does not reflect how large corporations do business. Inflexibility is not how you get to be the biggest kid in the playground. We have a wealth of evidence that changing the plan is precisely what Disney is willing to do - the Rogue One reshoots and the replacement of the original Solo directors with Ron Howard are two well-documented examples of the company willing to make radical (and expensive) changes in the name of delivering a good final product.

The original reason for cancelling Clone Wars is also well-documented and largely comes down to two issues - budget (it was costing several million $ an episode) and tone (it was too mature for its would-be home on one of the Disney channels) with the expense being the primary factor of the two. As the fresh owner of the Star Wars IP, it would have been a risky play to invest such big $ in the show. Given what you have said you know of Disney's intentions, I'm sure you will agree that their first priority would be to ensure their new acquisition turns a profit and the safest way for them to do that was to invest in a) The upcoming Force Awakens and b) A TV show they could own and broadcast outright without sharing it with another network (i.e. Rebels).

So why bring the show back now? 

You propose it is two-fold. One, to keep Dave Filoni on-side. Again, this is not how big companies work. Filoni is a huge part of Star Wars animation's success over the last ten years (TCW and Rebels alike) but let's be realistic. If Disney is all about the bottom-line and creating their own universe at the expense of the old, they are not going to throw several million $ at a project set during an era they are apparently trying to eradicate just to keep one man happy. Especially when they have a separate show coming up (Resistance) set entirely in their new world, with their new characters, etc that requires resources, promotion and creative leadership.

Secondly, you suggest it is to wrap up the prequel/Lucas era for good. Clone Wars was already dead, despite the hashtags and petitions I would posit a majority of fans did not expect the show to ever actually return (for the same reasons as before - largely expense). There is literally no reason that obliged Disney to invest the necessary time, people and resources in concluding the series when so many alternatives were on offer. Novels (Dark Disciple) and comics (Son of Dathomir) are both tried-and-tested methods of telling the same story if they wanted to do so out of a sense of creative obligation, and could have been done at a fraction of the cost.

So what's different now? Why change the "plan"?

I keep using that phrase 'how big companies work' and it's key to my alternative suggestion. Big companies - and for the giants like Disney this is increased tenfold - maintain their position through a combination of safe bets, market research and a huge archive of customer data constantly being gathered and analysed. Now don't get me wrong, I love that Clone Wars is coming back but I do not believe it is being done as a 'thank you' to the fans, or because Filoni won Disney execs round with a passionate speech or anything else. It, as ever, comes down to money.

Look at the format the show is coming back in - it is there to help launch the new Disney streaming service (it doesn't have a name yet - let's just call it Disneyflix). Disney/Lucasfilm has access to a ton of metric data that the public never sees, and this includes things like viewership and sales figures. Season Six did very well on Netflix (I remember it dominating the animation section when it first arrived) and given the multiple re-releases and boxsets it is fair to assume that sales for DVD/Blu-Ray have also been strong. If Disney is bringing it back now, it is because its own research and data since 2012 suggests it has moved from "risky" to "safe" as a revenue generator.

It is also a product with huge marketability potential - and that is key. The show is coming back to promote the launch of Disneyflix, so having something that will hype people up, get them talking about the upcoming streaming service, etc is the overall goal and judging by the reception so far this is succeeding. When Disneyflix launches it will be done with a HUGE investment in marketing as they are trying to push into a sector dominated by Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. Dropping a few million $ into a show that will be one of the exclusive 'draws' of the new launch is a more profitable investment than doing so back in 2012 to allow Cartoon Network to keep broadcasting a show in its seventh season.

This is becoming an essay of my own now so I am going to wrap up, but I hope the above shows an entirely different explanation behind Disney's decisions - and ones that I find to be more practical and realistic than the idea that is part of a Machiavellian-style scheme to turn the fans against the prequel/Lucas era.

I've credited him on several mods without issue.

This is a research spanning many years, and hundreds of sources. Which part are you interested in in particular?

 

Here are a few of the more credible, online articles I've collected (relating to recent events) that provide a general insight into Disney's on-going business strategy as it relates to the Star Wars brand, and its future results -- an appetiser, if you will:

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-25/disney-s-star-wars-headaches-include-outcry-from-its-own-fans

 

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/star-wars-producer-kathleen-kennedy-next-10-years-rey-poe-finn-150456794.html (Watch the Kathleen Kennedy video interview mid-way through the webisode.)

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2018/06/12/box-office-solo-star-wars-bomb-flop-disney-lucasfilm-incredibles2-jurassic-world/

 

And an honorary mention (great commentary):

 

https://www.thewrap.com/solo-is-failing-because-disney-had-no-vision-for-the-star-wars-franchise-commentary/

 

 

I mean that the ending will be changed (Rebels-like), forced, rushed, and unsatisfying in comparison to the rest of the series. Since Filoni is directing this as well -- mind you, much of his team has changed and been disbanded after the Disney acquisition -- this will look like The Clone Wars has failed to deliver in its final chapters, effectively putting fans off the series and the prequel era. Hence the "flop".

I read through/watched those sources (I have seen the KK interview before), but they just seem to reiterate what we already know about Solo and what went wrong there. I was more interested in how you are so certain that the Clone Wars has been brought back as a deliberate effort by Lucasfilm to "make that which was popular of Star Wars unpopular". I can not see any evidence for that, and bringing back the show in the first place would seem to fly directly against that idea.

I've done a little digging behind the scenes into Disney's current (and historic) business practices and marketing strategies. The Star Wars line has exhibited some of their worst moves -- both ethically and in terms of sustainability. (And just sheer arrogance and stupidity.)

 

 

For the intrigued, here's a short summary, made easy for you:

 

The fundamental internal business tagline for KK's management of Star Wars is: "Out with the old, in with the new -- our new." The idea is to make that which was popular of Star Wars unpopular, and to introduce new content in its place for a "new generation" of fans.

 

This is why this revival of The Clone Wars is going to flop -- no question about it. It's carefully planned. Milk it, and put an end to it -- those are the orders.

 

What this radical business strategy (the likes of which only a conglomerate like Disney could afford) doesn't take into account is the artistic merit that made Star Wars what it is today -- which is something that The Clone Wars team (with the assistance of George and Katie Lucas) actually carefully invested in over time, for its fans, and what made the show a fan favourite. You ignore that, you focus on the business aspects of the franchise only, and you lose the quality of the brand, slowly killing it. Which is what's actually happening throughout the franchise and all its creative content if you look around, and stop to think.

Certainly sounds radical. Given the level of research and digging that you have done, could you provide some sources?

They haven't. That's the problem. She is still assigned to handling the latest in the Star Wars line, and even still playing a prominent role in the media in their latest announcements: https://www.starwars.com/news/jon-favreau-to-executive-produce-write-live-action-star-wars-series

 

They still think she's the shiz -- despite the declining sales.

 

This crap will go on for a long time, until they start to run out of money. In the meantime, they'll make sure to damage as much of the Star Wars brand and content as they can (and that includes The Clone Wars as well).

 

I think "saved" is very much the wrong word to use in the title of this thread -- an overhyped marketing catchphrase that they are promoting intentionally.

 

#CloneWarsToBeSlain lies closer to their actual intentions, and to the effect this will ultimately have on the series' popularity.

 

That's the grim future from this announcement that I foresee. But please, prove me wrong, Disney!

Did Highsinger ever get released? Was curious about this one. Front page shows that it wasn't, but that was some months ago so I wasn't sure.

I have not worked on Highsinger since, though to be honest he would be one of the easier ones to finish up. IIRC the main issue was I just have to do a final pass on the weight painting to make sure his limbs stay connected during certain animations.

I have limited time at the moment though.

I hope we get the last Boba Fett arc in which he teams up with Cad Bane.

Yeah, this is high on my list too.

 

So, does anyone know any details about the episodes?

• Will this 'season' include those six unfinished episodes (Bad batch, Utapau kyber crystal)?
• Are they gonna show Order 66 in action?
• Will we get closure for Ventress (I know they did it in book form, but still)?
• Something else?

 

- Bad Batch arc is in, based on the tracking shot in the trailer which is identical to one in the released animatics for that arc.

- Utapau is assumed to be the second arc on the basis that it was at the same level of completion as Bad Batch at the time of cancellation however we don't know for certain at this stage.

- I don't think we will see Ventress. I think the Dark Disciple novel and Son of Dathomir comic will remain the definitive versions of those stories. Since they only have 12 episodes to work with there's no sense in going over old ground - and Dark Disciple alone was planned to be an 8-part arc across two seasons.

Extremely mixed feelings. Way too much Disney-style (and un-old-LucasArts-like) cliche in the trailer. Please don't destroy The Clone Wars, too, Disney, you merciless, heartless, savage, corporate bastard.

The clips in the trailer are all animated from episodes written and in pre-production before the Disney takeover, so it's all old-Lucasarts-like ???

As the self-appointed Clone Wars fanboy of the Hub, this was my natural reaction: