Hello Everyone...

This is my first post on this forum, With the expandability of this game, there are sure to be some extremely high-quality mods being produced by this community.

Allow me to introduce myself. I am G. B. Jackson, administrator of the Diversified Community of Game Developers, a brand new organization located at www.dcgd.org). (http://www.dcgd.org.)

This is not spam, but rather an invitation of a sorts. The DCGD's purpose is to gather a community of aspiring game developers together for the purpose of cooperative work on a variety of projects including (but not limited to) mods of existing games. The benefit of this is that every community from which the DCGD gains a member will also receive coverage on every level of its activities.

Coverage of the The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind's community is already started and the Wheel of Time community coverage will be going on-line soon.

What does this mean for the JK II community? What I am proposing is a structured core-group of DCGD member from this community organize a standard of activity. This core group will also be responsible for rounding up and reporting community news and submitting it to me.

The core-group's leader will be the DCGD spokesperson for the JK II community, and will assist me in ensuring that all things JK II get reported propperly on dcgd.org.

What will I be doing? Coordinating the efforts of the varrious teams associated with the DCGD in producing their respectoive mods, as well as maintaining the news pages for all communities associated with the DCGD.

What other communities are going to be a part of this DCGD?

As I've stated, the Wheel of Time and Morrowind communities are on board, and some members in the Unreal community have expressed an interest. Other communities I plan to approach with this invitation include Quake, Doom/Heretic/Hexen, Half Life, Rune, Unreal Tournament, Neverwinter Nights, and more.

DCGD.org will be a central hub from which game development enthusiasts can jump into a diverse assortment of development communities. It will also serve as a possible means of bridging the gap between member development communities, possibly drawing some of another community's members who may want to try their hand and brain at JK II development.

And there's another potential perk, though it won't happen at once. From the pledged members of the DCGD, I will ultimately gather a team of the most talented individuals I can find for the purpose of developing a professional game product to be marketed, with each member of said team being qualified for an equal share of any sales earned from that product. But that's a long-term goal to shoot for.

Does this interest any of you? Let's hear your thoughts, either way...

sounds cool..if you can get it off the ground good luck to ya my friend

How. You're a good writer. I hope you do develop that game. Although, it will most likely be far off.

cool... any other activities like meetings, conferences, classes?

will this be like GDC for game mods?

A damn good proposal, man. If you could get a team up and running producing hacks, mods cheat utilities and more for JK II when it is released, I sincerely give you my good wishes and hopes for the future. Right now is a good time to first be a part of our community and seeing how it develops. Here's an idea for the mods:

I think everyone would like it if all the mods were made so that they could be used for single player "practice" matches ( using bots) AND Multiplayer Deathmatches. How 'bout a Bot Pack where you can play against characters from the Star Wars Movies ? It'll be fun playing as Chewbacca.

RJK
:cool: :D :)

[ June 29, 2001: Message edited by: Rogue Jedi Knight ]

Mafia_Jabba :
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Thanks. How well I am able to pull it off depends on the individuals in the communities that will join the DCGD. If they are willing to cooperate with people outside their original editing communities, then some very high-quality projects will be possible. The more involved, the better it will be.


matt-windu:
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Oh, I will eventually develop an original project, but not without help. And I don't want to develop it for some corporate company, either. The corporates take most of the profits and all of the rights. I believe that equal pay for all members involved is in order. After all, Music, Sound, Graphics, Programming, Level Design and administration are all equally important to a game project. Leave one out, and it will never work out.

But the original project is, as you point out, a good way off.


runab0ut:
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There are no plans for extended activities at this time, though I will be setting up mailing lists to help member teams communicate with each other easily. There will be a DCGD-wide mailing list for trans-game sharing of ideas. Meaning, whether you originally come from the JK2 or Unreal editing communities, you'll be interacting with talented people from all DCGD-supported editing communities. This will help everyone get to know each other. And it will make it easier for these diverse individuals to team up.

It is quite conceivable that with this form of interaction, JK2 editors may end up assisting a group in the Wheel of Time community with their project, with the reverse also being true.

Cooperation and interaction are the founding principles of what the DCGD is all about. Each individual game's editing community is awesome in its own right... Just imagine how awesome it would be if those communities were to unite! That is my vision for the DCGD.


Rogue Jedi Knight:
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Actually, I'm not trying to form a Jedi Knight team... yet. But rather make it possible for a visitor to the DCGD's JK2 site to find everything there is to find in the JK2 editing community. That includes editing tips and level reviews; Graphics and 3d models, Sound and music; and whatever else may come out of the community.

Your idea of single-player bot matches is a good one. However, I'm not sure if all mods will be able to support it. Architecture being the primary example of why. Deathmatch maps tend to be laid out to accomodate fast-paced action for more than one player, while single-player levels tend to have a more linear design to them, in that you proceed from one point to the next and to the next until you come to where that map makes the transition to the next map...


By the way, does anyone know whether or not levels will be linkable so that you can go back and forth between them at will, or will they all be linear, meaning there's no going back. I hope that the non-linear approach will be possible (at least for single player games) as it will add a new dynamic to Jedi Knight gaming. I'm not too familiar with the Quake 3 engine's capabilities. I don't have a good 3D FX card, so I haven't bothered to buy it and find out.

Take care, and God bless...


In Christ,
G. B. Jackson (gbjackson@dcgd.org)
Administrator, The Diversified Community of Game Developers (DCGD) http://www.dcgd.org/)
"E pluribus unum..."

The q3 engine does allow for 'hub' structures, allowing players to move back and forth between maps either via a hub map or directly.

I do not know whether Jedi Outcast will indeed use this featue. If it fits the game design I don't see why Raven wouldn't use this option. Many of Raven's games, such as the Hexen and Heretic series used the 'hub' concept.