Originally posted by Smood
FORGET MOVIE!!! (Although I might have liked this)
AT LEAST GIVE ME A GAME WITH REALISM. Give me a game with EXCELLENT animation, not swing a saber so damn quickly and jerkely that you cannot see it.
Listen all I know it is a game, but its attitudes like that, that hinder games from progressing to new levels. Instead, think of it as a conveyance of imagination, give it more meaning then it might even deserve, and watch games flourish and accelerate technologically. if you hate it so much and aren't satisfied with what they are doing then do the following:
1. go to school
2. graduate elementary school
3. graduate middle school
4. graduate from high school
5. go to full sail or ITT Tech and learn programming
6. make your own engine
7. make your own game
want to know why its so fast paced? BECAUSE ITS ON THE QUAKE 3 ENGINE. get a freaking clue if you are gonna bitch about everything
uh, the engine has nothing to do with the pacing. It's a design decision made by Raven.
Originally posted by Smood
Zodiac, In what way did they make this closer to the movie! By saying this you must have no clue what realism is. ELABORATE on your vague rebuttle.
They probably aren't making JKA closer to the movies, or they probably are. I'm actually not sure which option they're doing, I just can't judge it from what I've seen from the trailer. But what I am sure of is that I don't even care if JKA's really close to the movie or not. All I want it to be is a fun game. If more fun means getting rid of some elements that make it close to the movie, then so be it.
I think my point of view is very similar to that of Spider Al's and Emon's, so a lot of what I wanted to say has been already said. Cheers.
Lets look at the situation for a minute.
On one side, you've got Smood, a JO player who has novice to intermediate skill at most when it comes to game design.
On the other side, you have Raven, who has been developing games for over a decade, and is one of the most wanted developing companies on the market.
Raven has reasons for making the saber combat system the way they did. Probably because something true to the movies like stupid fanboys want isn't very feasable with current technology. They know what they're doing, and they have good reasons for every major aspect of development.
Smood on the other hand, has probably no experience in the field, therfore doesn't know what is possible and what. He's also making judgements about a game for which he's seen only screenshots and a short trailer. He's also spewing out lies about the first game, which just really boosts his credibility. :rolleyes:
Does holding your crystal ball all day give you callouses? I'm just wondering as you seem to be extraordinarily clairvoyant.
what is everyones version of true to the movies saber combat? I hear people say but no one has defined it.
Originally posted by Emon
Lets look at the situation for a minute.
On one side, you've got Smood, a JO player who has novice to intermediate skill at most when it comes to game design.
On the other side, you have Raven, who has been developing games for over a decade, and is one of the most wanted developing companies on the market.
Experience doesn't always result in quality. There's an @$$load of games, movies, books, etc that prove that.
As for Raven as a company, they've always put out ok games. IE nothing that I've considered mindblowing. So that's what I'd expect in the future from JKA and other titles.
Basically, don't rail on Smood. He's got every right to have his own opinion on JKA.
god guys. you are pulling down the game now wait till its out will you i meen it will not stop you from buying it will it no. ...<snip>...you did that with jo saying that jo sucked and how it df2 was better. just wait till the game is out. i will be getting it no matter what you guys say. The trailer has confirmed my fears bit what fears the trailer rocks...<snip>...
From Vagabond: You are being officially warned, JEDI OUTCAST - do not call people names, and do not speak in a hostile manner toward others. State your opinion civilly, or don't state it at all. I have edited out the offending material from this post. Further transgressions may result in post deletions, or possibly banning. Thank you in advance for your cooperation, and I hope you enjoy your stay at LucasForums.
At least we know what the enter key does. :D
My english teachers must all be rolling in thier graves right now, Outcast. That is, if they're dead.
If you notice clearly at the trailer, there's quite a few bugs in it... I'm convinced they are the typical bugs of a still unfinished game since it's not normal for a game company to put a title on the stand that has the characters face facing the opponent all the time while the rest of the body spins around... that would be a serious contortionist feat if you ask me (check the part i nthe trailer where the rodian Character with green double saber slashes a weequay...see it frame by frame).
I am gonna buy the game even if it's just JO with a few more novelties. Why? Well first cuz that trailer doesnt come even close to prove me the game sucks...If my mind is set on seeing a certain movie at the local theater and a few people I know already saw it and say it sucked...I go anyway... I happened to disagree with those people on some ocasions regarding movies...the opposite has also happen...people say blairwitch project rocked...and I totally thought the movie was a waste of time...but hey that's just me.
watching the trailer i can see somethings i wished to be changed like the lightning fast gameplay... i dont exactly like sluggish games but i think that fast is exagerate... im not gonna condemn the game to burn in Hades flames for that tho... I was also hoping for a more interesting double bladed saber handling... oh well... too bad.. on the other hand dual sabers look kick@ss.
Level design seems pretty interesting if you ask me.
Now there's news about an Assault game type...thumbs up Raven.
The character custumization works fine from what I saw...nice!
Burnt out character wounds....hmmm that wampa looked like he was all rigged with xmas lights... better make the saber deal more damage before that happens. Show potential either way.
This time we are a true jedi learner... kyle was a good character but that reluctant jedi role was getting on my nerves...again thumbs up Raven.
Guyz... I'm a modder...I ahve been ever since JK1... do you want to know why im a modder? cuz im picky as hell and no game EVER was built 100% to my taste... sometimes i spend more time changing a game than actually playing it... the first thing i said when i tried JO was... "my god..this game sure needs some new models for MP... these suck!"... I am gonna buy the game... if i dont like it... i'll change it the way i can... what i can't...some other modder will do that eventually. I've been paying close attention to renegadeofphunk's movie battles mod cuz it introduced something i liked into the game.
Now you may not want to buy a game that has to be modded i nthe first place... i can surely understand that... but i think it's too rash to pass judgement on the game now...when it's not completed and you didnt try the game yourselves.
I may eventually hate the game...but i wont know until i play it.
Right now my mind is set on buying it...and hopefully....MODDING IT :)
One thing I think they could have cleaned up between the 2 games is how well grounded people are to the enviorment. Right now it is still the old JO way of looking more like your skiing on the ground playing different animations. Scrub through the dakr jedi kicking the player, and just watch the foot work. Instead of rocking back on his foot keeping it grounded and in place it slides back behind him rotating the entire body.
Its a small thing and its something most people might not think they notice, but it would help clean up some of the gameplay. Movement speed being the second thing to clean up, but if any puzzles were built taking speed of the player into account they won't think twice about tweaking that. There are lots of other ways to make gameplay fast paced w/o having to actually move at light speed.
As far as making the sabers like the movie, I think what people really mean is being able to swing the saber left to right, right to left, top to bottom w/o having to actually move. But also at the same time being able to do those same moves while moving in any direction creating total user control. It worked great in obi wan and let you pull off some cool attacks in groups or solo jedi fighting.
Originally posted by Jolts
what is everyones version of true to the movies saber combat? I hear people say but no one has defined it. I don't know about other people, but for me movie lightsaber fighting is all about lightning quick attacks and counter attacks. Flips and jumps and super human moves. That's why I love JO. It provides that for me.
Originally posted by Solbe M'ko
It's not just the engine; this game did not take as long as JO (I think), nor did it really change anything, like JO did to JK.
What more do you want them to change? You've seen the rough list of new features and improvements. How much more is needed before it counts as a "new game"?
Originally posted by Solbe M'ko
My english teachers must all be rolling in thier graves right now, Outcast. That is, if they're dead.
Calling fbi now.
Well yeah, sorry Smood I did overreact a bit there. But I think you are, too. You're making assumptions based off very little information, and that's the problem.
By the way, if you had jerky animations in JO, you've got some serious problems on your system. JO has some of the smoothest, most realistic animations I've seen in a long time. MP borks up the running sometimes, but nowhere near as bad as you make it out to be.
I agree. I don't see how JK2's animations are any worse than any other FPS on the market.
are you talking about what I said?
Originally posted by Emon
By the way, if you had jerky animations in JO, you've got some serious problems on your system. JO has some of the smoothest, most realistic animations I've seen in a long time. This is my experience also. I have a Pentium IV and a G3 video card, and my game runs as smooth as silk. No jerkyness anywhere to be found. Except maybe my play :)
JKII's animations are very smooth, however they are also very bland, Especially the medium stance swing, what I didn't like on the trailer was when the Dual Saber was ignited that the same animation for that was used when the Jedi slashed the grate, I was quite dissapointed at that, however the game isn't completed yet so that could be subject to change.
Originally posted by Count_D00ku
however the game isn't completed yet so that could be subject to change. Yeah, the game is still five months away, so there will be plenty of time for tweeking and improvements.
I'm not talking about jerky animations or poor animation, watch the trailer again and just focus on the kick and tell me what you notice. Load up a level in JO and spawn a reborn acrobat run around him when he does flips, or jump on on something and tell me does it stick his hand or is he alreadying floating at you before the feet are planted on the ground?
The trailer is missing frames, thats why the animation looks this way. JO mov trailer had the same problems and I was really concerned about animations but they turned out very well eventually. Anyway just look at the finishing move that Twi'lek is applying to laying Tusken. In 80 fps game animation it will look much like the spinning stab that Oi-Wan used to finish acklay at Geonosis arena. But right now you must watch it frame by frame to notice that she spins her sabers twice before stabbing. Same goes to most of animations you can see in this trailer. In fact when you learn to live with it you can see all improvements like vast open areas, rideable tauntauns, saber and weapon burns and so on.
Concerning gameplay pace, I guess it's also because of the movie capturing method. Again it was the same effect in JO trailer.
Other problem, as mentioned, are some animation bugs wchich is normal at this stage of development. Look at the beggining of the scene whit your character pushing this ugly-textured rock. You can see him standing in default skeleton position. It looks unnatural and shouldn't be there.
And remember promises about great interaction between character animation and world. It must be there, so JA should't repeat JO's errors in this matter.
Its not a missing frames of animation problem, its not keeping things stuck, the feet snap back behind the root joint of the player. Load up JO and watch how floaty everything moves, when you jump and land you slide forward vs sticking your landing. If a reborn cartwheels, and you run around behind them, they float around behind you still doing the cartwheel vs being stucking following through that action, getting back into stance, then moving after you.
It is part in the actual animation and part of how the engine handles it. Load up Jo, do the default saber swing and notice how the feet rock around vs just showing shift of weight in the knees? So when you run forward, stop swing you get these sliding feet? hard to describe w/o an actual good quality clip to compare this to.
If you do a cartwheel your hand doesn't stick to the ground where it firsts starts and then let the rest of the body fall into place it slides along the floor and if you look around with the mouse the whole body just rotates around and not from the hand pivot, but from the root.
Its just a detail like no more player clipping in walls, something of low low priority that won't be changed.
I think some are being too paranoid.
Jedi Academy is a 'First Person Shooter' with the use of the lightsaber in place of firepower.
We all here have known Star Wars to be full of myths, fantasy and bull****. No one in this world, can ever jump five stories high nor can move objects with our mind. Not to mention a Lightsaber. Does all this appear in reality? I dont need to answer that at all. There is no need to be too realistic in the game. All the effects about being able to see the Force powers are just to give the game a nice dramatic feel.
Jedi Academy was initiated to emphasise on the Lightsaber combat. Jedi Outcast were all about one handed to one handed saber combat, now in JA we got more variety. And now in JA, we get to choose stages, how much better can that get?
I was thrilled with the E3 trailer but what erks me is the HUD. Its kinda ugly, messy and it takes up too much space in the game. I hope there is an option to hide it or at least change it on the final product. Even if those two doesnt happen, that wont stop me from buying the game nontheless.
And if you happened to be one of those who were not impressed with the game, download the demo first then. I'm sure they will do it since JO also had that. Download it and have a hands on preview. You never know, but the Double Saber would be a nice Lightsaber experience in ANY Star Wars game
Jolts: Yeah, I was refering rather to animation being jerky, as I didn't fully understand what you meant in your post. What you're saying is true- there is some sort of friction reduction effect that causes character moving quicker than he should judging by walk animation. Also when he should stop, he sort of slides a meter or so before holding. Or during wall running, where the feets don't actually touch the wall.
But, to be frank, it started to bother me when I was working on video clip from JO. It's really hard to notice during actual gameplay.
And yes, it's not corrected in JA. You can see the sliding walk in the very first scene of the trailer, or in mentioned scene with rock being pushed. But again, it does't bother me at all.
However I'm still optimistic about the improvment of colision detection in terms of character animation being limited by map geometry.
Its just one of those small things that gets me for some reason. I see why its there, based on how the original animations were done, but then I question why were the orginal animations done that way? lack of time? lack of attention to detail? who knows...
Maybe it gets me because I've seen so many games before JO was even released that had already solved this problem including the crappy obi wan. And when I look back at that game now I see more core elements that it got right that JKA could of actually learned from. When I look at both games they are both missing what the other had now that I think about it.
Originally posted by Smood:
Calling me a fanboy over and over constantly reminds me you don't TRULY understand my vision, or me as a player.Did you really just use the word "vision" in that context? Without self-deprecation? If so, my advice to you is to stop taking your own ideas so seriously. As for understanding you yourself, do I need to understand you as a person to understand that what you are doing is both counter-productive and annoying? ie: picking holes in a game that hasn't been released yet, just as you picked holes in JO, a game you didn't seem to like at all and yet you carried on telling everyone exactly what you didn't like about it, instead of merely not playing the game, or making a mod. Just talking eternally about your grand design to improve the game is not, in my considered opinion, constructive. Firstly, many people who enjoy the Dark Forces games AS THEY STAND, wouldn't enjoy this game you've dreamed up. Secondly, you're not getting anything done to create the game you want. Make mods with people who feel the same way as you. Lots of mods. Then everyone will be happy. You won't have ruined the game for the rest of us, and you'll have something that's closer to what you want.
Besides that, (the most constructive advice I can think of to give you,) all this character animation/sabre-look subtleties stuff (and everything comparable to it) is what I would call petty. I mean, I don't care about whether the sabre in motion is fan-shaped or not. I don't care whether it matches the movies. I don't care whether Kyle's feet jiggle about unconvincingly as he turns, or remain static. It's all so irrelevant to the game experience. Furthermore, they make the game as realistic as the engine allows, give or take. You might as well complain that Kyle's beard hairs never move in the wind. Or that fields should be millions of individual blades of grass. It's that pointless.
And even if Raven were to botch it intentionally, cut corners and NOT make the game as well as they can, what then? If you don't like what they produce, you don't like it. If I don't like a game, I just don't play it. I used to think everyone would do the same. Obviously, I was mistaken. Why? Because this game is Star Wars. And Star Wars fans? They seem to think the world owes them something: A game that only exists inside their heads.
Realistic character animations? Sure. When the average home system has the spec to support totally realistic character animations. And on a side note, totally realistic character animation hasn't been accomplished yet. The seams are easy to see even in productions like Lord of the Rings and Matrix Re. Does that annoy me? No. I don't know why such things annoy you in a Jedi Knight game.
Originally posted by Smood:
If you are disgusted with my comments with your 'ugh' comment, please do not reply.Actually I think I'll continue to oppose your viewpoint. :rolleyes:
Originally posted by Jolts:
Its just a detail like no more player clipping in walls, something of low low priority that won't be changed.And quite right too. It SHOULD be low priority, because it's purely cosmetic AND negligible at that. It doesn't affect gameplay, and most people won't even notice it. Of those that do, myself included, even less will care.
"Realistic character animations? Sure. When the average home system has the spec to support totally realistic character animations. And on a side note, totally realistic character animation hasn't been accomplished yet. The seams are easy to see even in productions like Lord of the Rings and Matrix Re. Does that annoy me? No. I don't know why such things annoy you in a Jedi Knight game."
I guess the average home system is the low end system requirements for half-life 2, since that actually does have muscle sim in the face and is expected to be released before JKA. Also a lot of the big movements for JO and JKA are mocapped I don't know how much more realistic you can get, but its there. I think your taking the realism statement too seriously.
At the end of the day I could care less about the light saber or the force or single player, I'm in it for MP only. In mp I use guns, I'll bust out the saber for a giggle now and then. I would still like to see it be the best it can be for other players who will use it.
Also a lot of the big movements for JO and JKA are mocapped I don't know how much more realistic you can get, but its there. I think your taking the realism statement too seriously.Nah, merely trying to point out that if you're unhappy about such tiny tiny concerns now, you'll never enjoy any game. That IS the point of games, to enjoy them. Realism? Nothing short of real life is realistic.
I know you'll probably be thinking: "He doesn't get it, I don't want it to be 100% realistic, I just want more realism." But I do get it. Now, I was happy playing JK1. Nothing about the animations annoyed me. The game was what it was. Likewise JO, and in future, JA. More realism? How much is enough? If the negligible, animation "problems" (I use quotes there, because they are not, in fact, problems.) are important enough to you to annoy you, I have no doubt that you'll find something else that annoys you with each improvement that occurs.
To my mind, Smood and yourself (among others) are looking for problems where none exist. There are cosmetic concerns, perhaps, but that's just so trivial when compared to the larger gameplay issues.
As a modeller and animator, my eye picks these things up first thing. Is it wrong to want improvements? did I ever say I'll never be happy with this game as long as I live? I see no harm in nitpicking at the game. I could sit here and just say "can you wait until it comes out?" "no, can you?" "no I'm really excited, and you?" "yeah me too, and you?" "totally..."
When I make a model or animation and people reference back to real life I don't snap back and say "yeah well it looks real enough so back off, you know nothing, its all about the general shape not the details sucka!" Even if its a cartoony loony tunes animation or model.
Where is the harm in pushing people to do better and better?
As a modeller and animator, my eye picks these things up first thing. Is it wrong to want improvements?Improvements are one thing, cosmetics are quite another. It's equivalent to lamenting the fact that the health indicator on the HUD isn't the ideal shade of burnt sienna. Furthermore, "THE GAME IS IRREVOCABLY TAINTED because of these trivial animation concerns, Raven are foolish fooly fools" is the sentiment that comes across from threads like this, and posts like those written by Smood and yourself, and it's just not useful in any way, is it. Not to mention the fact that they've been going on for OVER A YEAR NOW. Uuugh.
/me shudders
I could sit here and just say "can you wait until it comes out?" "no, can you?" "no I'm really excited, and you?" "yeah me too, and you?" "totally..."That would be similarly constructive to what you're doing at the moment. "The game's just moved to the end of the list" et al.
Where is the harm in pushing people to do better and better?Even if the animators from Raven read this thread, to get to any constructive criticism at all, they'd have to wade through mounds and mounds of bitter (and oft repeated) statements from people like Smood and yourself, attacking the animators, claiming that the game's going to be crap just because of these trivial concerns, etcetera.
If I was an animator working for Raven, I very very much doubt that I'd have enough respect for the people, to listen to their "advice". Pushing them to do better and better? Pushing them to ignore the voice of the community forever, more like.
did I ever say I'll never be happy with this game as long as I live? I see no harm in nitpicking at the gameWell, since even you call it "nitpicking" surely you can see my point. Besides, it doesn't matter whether you've said you'd never be happy, it's a natural progression. He who is initially displeased with trifles will always be the hardest to please.
I wish a moderator would lock this thread. Its just old, anoying, and pointelss.
P.S. I 100% agree with Spider Al. Jolts and the others, grow up. Untill you make a game yourself, you can't do much about it.
And there is a big defference between pushing yourself to be better, and pushing others. Pushing others to do stuff up to your standards is just....... I dont know the word, ignorant? maybe. who knows
Rofl!!!!! I just thought it was really funny that somone complained about the swimming animation in JO, lol!! If you want to swim go jump in a lake!! hehe
As for the rest of the complaints about JA I am shocked, I think Raven is doing a bang up job. I mean even if it isnt exactly like the movies, when have you ever seen a video game that has been exactly like the movies? I have only seen games that try to be like the movies and fail miserably and piss me off when I go through some level that wasnt even in the movie. The stuff Raven is adding to the game is to make it more movie like but its not going to be perfect because nothing is.
Why don't people focus on the good things about the game and not the bad all the time, be optomistic maybe the animations will be smoother then the trailer lets on, it is only a trailer and they said they are improving it so just wait and see. Most of the time trailers are crap anyway. I mean damn they are so small and confining, you have to live in a park with all these crappy crack head neighbors around, and the place smells ****.
Also there is a reason they are making it easy to modify because they know some people are just gonna hate seeing some stuff they put in like the force push bubble, hehe, i think thats great that they put that in there! It pisses people off!! lol!!!
One things for sure, Seige mode is gonna rock, there is no way it can't, all the other games Raven has created with an objective based mode have been awesome.
Furthermore, "THE GAME IS IRREVOCABLY TAINTED because of these trivial animation concerns, Raven are foolish fooly fools"
Quote me where I said that? There is difference between looking at tech issues vs color schemes on the hud. If I don't like the hud color I know I can rip open that pack file and change it in 5 seconds, if I don't think an animation is showing weight, sticking its pose, or anything else like that I can't go in and change it.
"Even if the animators from Raven read this thread, to get to any constructive criticism at all, they'd have to wade through mounds and mounds of bitter (and oft repeated) statements from people like Smood and yourself, attacking the animators, claiming that the game's going to be crap just because of these trivial concerns, etcetera."
again, where have I ever said this game is going be crap and suck because of this? all I said is this is a small detail that would have been cool if they fixed. Then other people come along take personal offense to it and blow up into a 3 page arguement that breaks down into "I'm right because I'm right, and your wrong because your wrong"
And where have I made a direct attack at raven animators saying "raven animators suck"? might as well now...btw my ex roommate is an animator at raven, so I would have no hard feelings ripping into him if I wanted.
here is 2 examples of a kick, you tell me which one looks defined and well posed and still holding clean deformation
http://www.lucasarts.com/products/jediacademy/images/screens/10.jpg)
http://www.lucasarts.com/products/galaxies/images/model/8.jpg)
http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/media/qtswg/brawler.htm)
and because I notice things like this and make comments on it, I'm the big dick?
"Besides, it doesn't matter whether you've said you'd never be happy, it's a natural progression. He who is initially displeased with trifles will always be the hardest to please."
Now you tell me how I will act in the furture? maybe you should get a crystal ball and start charging people. What is the point in even trying to have a conversation with you if you?
I think your starting to turn into what you hate the most.... a fanboy, not a sw fanboy but a raven fanboy.
I'll end this right now, you guys don't like what I have to say, it hurts your feelings? Make the bad man go away? Like dust in the wind....
Originally posted by Jolts:
Quote me where I said that?You'd better read the line in context, Jolts, because I obviously never claimed you had said it.
Originally posted by Jolts:
There is difference between looking at tech issues vs color schemes on the hud. If I don't like the hud color I know I can rip open that pack file and change it in 5 seconds, if I don't think an animation is showing weight, sticking its pose, or anything else like that I can't go in and change it.You prove another one of my points. Since you can't do anything about the animations it's even MORE pointless ranting on about them than if you were ranting about HUD colours. And they're both petty. That WAS the original point.
Originally posted by Jolts:
again, where have I ever said this game is going be crap and suck because of this? Clearly implied when you posted this line: "Out of all the game expected this fall/winter this game just moved to the end of the list for me."
Originally posted by Jolts:
all I said is this is a small detail that would have been cool if they fixed. Wrong, see above.
Originally posted by Jolts:
Then other people come along take personal offense to it and blow up into a 3 page arguement that breaks down into "I'm right because I'm right, and your wrong because your wrong"Actually people have "come along" in order to tell you and Smood to stop obsessing over trivia, which you patently are. You're the ones arguing about it.
Originally posted by Jolts:
and because I notice things like this and make comments on it, I'm the big dick?Well, not the words I would have chosen, but to cut a long story short, yes. It's petty and pointless, in my considered opinion.
Originally posted by Jolts:
Now you tell me how I will act in the furture?No, I honestly won't tell you how you will act in the furture. I will tell you this: You're exhibiting behaviour I consider to be wrong, for the reasons I've expressed above. People don't change often, therefore you'll continue that behaviour regardless of what Raven does. That's not precognition, it's playing the odds.
Originally posted by Jolts:
I think your starting to turn into what you hate the most.... a fanboy, not a sw fanboy but a raven fanboy.The word "fanboy" implies immaturity. It does not, therefore, fit. Try "fan of JO".
Okay, people, that's enough. If you want to continue bickering, go and do it via PMs, ICQ, MSN, or whatever other means of communications you prefer - but keep it out of these discussion threads. If you can't debate in a reasonable fashion...then just agree to disagree and let it lie.
Any more to-and-fro 'you said this' and 'I didn't say that' posts will just get deleted from this point forward...so you may just as well not post them.
*goes and takes an aspirin*
Now, does anyone have anything constructive to add to the overall topic - i.e., before it went off the rails?
I do! I do! But I also have something to add to this pointless argument, so I'll put THAT in italics (classy, huh?).
The trailer showed very little of the actual game, yes, but I think it's better to show the real deal or nothing at all. I understand that E3 is the best place to pitch your new game (not to me, to the game mags), but I think lucasarts should have put this trailer off until it had something to show. To me, the trailer looked like a very well done JO mod (which is basically what JA is, but that's a whole other thread). I can't remember exact titles, but there have been several games that blew me away when I played them, as opposed to months before. I like to be surprised, what can I say, and I would have prefered to learn about this game from a friend of a friend. But that's just me.
Now for the BS! (cue music)
The "realism" of a game should not be though of as real-world "realism" if you follow. It should be thought of as attention to detail. A post earlier in this thread said that Star Wars games could not have realism because they did not have real storylines, technology, etc. Neither did Rainbow Six, Medal of Honor (Ugh!) or any other game with a "real world" theme. The reality of a game is confined to the space/time the game encompasses. So saying that JA should have more realism than JO is not to say that Kyle Katarn's character should be replaced with a businessman, his lightsaber replaced with a briefcase, and his spaceship replaced with a Chevie. It means that his feet should touch the ground, his saber shouldn't go through his legs, and bad guys shouldn't get stuck inside one another.
Whew!:o
For the record, I'm not a big fan of how the animations look in JO/JA either. Until saber movement is effectively independent of leg movement, saber combat will always be unrealistic and it will always look weird, simply because you have to constantly be running in order to use more than one type of slash.
Foot movement will always be unrealistic and disconcerting unless the engine gets a major overhaul...the game doesn't care about what your feet are doing unless they get shot or hit a ledge while jumping. This is fine for a point-and-shoot game like Quake 3, but it looks disconcerting in a game like this, where what your feet and legs are doing should be a huge deal.
That's the way it is, and you can't flame or bitch your way around it. Now, the room for interpretation is in how much it actually matters to the game. Personally, I can't say I ever felt compelled to post about it until I ran into this poor excuse for a thread. That doesn't give me a reason to flame people who want the game to behave more realistically or convincingly. Nor will I lash out at people who are satisfied with the current system.
I'd love to see a sabre system that actually lets you stand STILL and fight without having to constantly be running around. I think that may be one of the things about this game and pretty much all of the JK games that made it seem less "movie" like, less "realistic", or whatever you want to call it. I think it also makes the game more "quake like" because, as in quake, you're constantly on the move. Whether that's your cup of tea or not, well, that's a different matter.
The question you have to ask yourself, however, is: is it possible? From what I'm seeing in some of these posts, it looks like people want the following:
1.) the ability to swing the sabre in any direction while standing still OR
2.) the ability to swing the sabre in a set of pre-defined directions (basically along the 8 basic cutting lines of sword fighting -- straight up, straight down, left to right, right to left, and the diagonals in both upwards and downwards strokes) without moving AND
3.) The ability to do the same when moving.
In addition, I imagine people would also want certain "special" moves (flips, backstabs, etc.), as well as blocking abilities, and the ability to do combinations of moves.
Now, I know we've got a lot of keys on a keyboard, and we've got the mouse too, but I wonder if it would be possible to create a streamlined control system to do all of this. One that wouldn't be overly cumbersome, one that wouldn't require you to become some over-sugared hyperactive pre-teen who's memorized all the Mortal Kombat combinations (yes, they always kicked my ass and I'm still bitter -- what's your point? :) ). One that would be fun, complex, but not complicated.
Now, I haven't played Obi-Wan, but I have played around with a few other X-box games. One thing I thought about when playing those games was how the analog controllers would NOT be really possible to implement on a mouse-keyboard combo. I don't know if that's how you controlled things in Obi-Wan, but it'd seem that having THAT degree of control would be near impossible without some sort of analog controller that basically let you move your sabre anywhere you wanted.
On the other hand, maybe it is possible. I dunno.
I still haven't seen this trailer, since I'm on dial-up at the moment, but what I really hope for has nothing to do with animations and everything to do with sabre lethality and stances that compliment each other and such. I don't mind special moves as long as they're not uber moves, since that will cause the game to get boring when all people do is spam 'em.
Off topic: Why doesn't the current MP patch use the same backstab style as SP? You can't spin in SP, but you don't miss by mere centimetres either. It's better.
Originally posted by Solo4114
I'd love to see a sabre system that actually lets you stand STILL and fight without having to constantly be running around. I think that may be one of the things about this game and pretty much all of the JK games that made it seem less "movie" like, less "realistic", or whatever you want to call it. I think it also makes the game more "quake like" because, as in quake, you're constantly on the move. Whether that's your cup of tea or not, well, that's a different matter.
The question you have to ask yourself, however, is: is it possible? From what I'm seeing in some of these posts, it looks like people want the following:
1.) the ability to swing the sabre in any direction while standing still OR
Have you seen, in any SW movie, two Jedi just STAND STILL and fight? No movement? No. Can you imagine how goofy it woyld look, two guys standing still, doing all kinkds of great looking swings? Oh, the model deformation we would see. PLEASE notce that when Jedi do nice moves in the movies, they are moving at all times. Hence, having to move to swing differently is more realistic and true to the movies.
Solo: It is possible to replicate the analog stick on a pc, but it does eat up at least 3 keys. The other thing about all those consoles games even the fps's, is that movement is also pressure sensitive. The only game I've seen that solved that was splinter cell by using the mouse wheel is increase/decrease movement speed. And any game that does that, then has to redo all the inbetweens in movement speeds and have animations system that can do a nice blend.
As for recreating the analog stick, say they used the 3 buttons on the mouse for 3 degrees of motion. Swing left, swing right, overhead swing. Now you can standstill and while moving and swing anyway you want, but now they have a bunch of ai they have update inorder to do the same. It also makes you pretty accurate and then creates issues of being able to drop 20 people in 10 seconds. Now where will the game be a challenge? What happens when you switch to a gun?This is all sp related of course.
In the end they would have to also update the blocking system to match it, and they just don't have the time. One system change like that creates a whole web of new problems to fix and that won't happen.
Boinga: I think you missed the point, it supposed to create a more accurate system. What happens on a small catwalk with a saber fight in JO? since the movements cover so much ground you come close to falling off all the time. The system other games have come up with lets still move and attack, but now you press forward and not be limited to the types of attacks you do.
Right, Jolts, that's my point. You can theoretically map tons of buttons and variations (shift+ buttons, CTRL+ buttons, alt+ buttons, whatever), but you're left with a pretty cumbersome set of controls. It's either that or have a ton of combos a la a fighting game. I just don't see it really working that well for the PC system.
I actually like the sabre swinging system we have now, although, I would like not having to constantly be running while doing it. Boinga, you're right that jedi don't typically stand still while attacking and defending, but when engaged in sabre vs. sabre combat (as opposed to vs. blasters), the movement is much different from what we see currently in the game.
As far as the standing still comment, that's not about actually physically standing still (although, if you're in a sword fight, you don't want to be running and jumping all over the place -- puts you off balance) but rather being more centered in terms of the movements. As it stands currently, you have to run in a particular direction to execute any move other than a basic swing. I'd like to see that changed so that you can execute more than just one particular swing while stationary, as well as keeping the running moves.
As far as running while attacking goes, one improvement from 1.02 to 1.03, I thought, was the fact that sabre fights seemed less like jousting matches and more like actual duels. In 1.02, it always felt to me like people were simply running and timing red swings. Whoever got in the first three red hits, won the day. Not much duelling there... With 1.03, you could actually stand your ground, block an attack, and then launch one of your own (which would often be blocked, or the other person would just backstab you). The problems that 1.03 created outweighed this improvement, but I still view it as an improvement of sorts. I'm hoping that JA will learn from these mistakes.
Sure, in the movies, people jump and flip and such, and that's cool to look at. It'd be cool to play that way too, but I think that as far as sabre vs. sabre fighting goes, I'd prefer a more grounded approach, where you only execute the flipping and spinning moves for a reason, not just to button-mash and hope to produce cool looking attacks. The moves should be used more tactically (as opposed to the current spamathon we have) and be used for breaking defenses, attacking from different angles, or taking advantage of openings in defenses, rather than simply dishing out the most damage or being unblockable.
This is going to get off topic if I go too far into this train of thought, however. Suffice to say, I'd like to see more thought out moves, and less button mashing which would hopefully remove the need to have uber moves or a particular uber stance of some sort. (though, alternatively, you could ditch this whole stance thing and just have moves, plain and simple)
Anyway, in terms of the actual animations, I'd love it if the game could be smart enough where your animations actually take place with you rooted to the floor. IE: if I perform a kick, the leg I'm standing on doesn't slide backwards and then plant. I don't mind if someone lifts their leg up and then plants it to kick, but the sliding thing just looks weird. I wonder, however, if this is actually possible in the Q3 engine, or rather, if it is possible, whether it's feasible/worthwhile to do so.
I know absolutely jack about the Q3 animations/model system, so I don't know if movements necessarily have to occur within a given box area (which would, it seems, require the current system), or if you can have the box move, depending on the particular animation.
Even if it is possible, would this require that animations suddenly become MUCH more complex, taking up more processor power or something along those lines? I honestly don't know (which is why I ask).
I don't play FFA and I usually only use red stance, but if youre on a little catwalk, hold down the run/walk key and you probably won't fall off.
If you want to stand still you should blow the dust off your playstation and play Masters of Teras Kasi. The system is pretty good as it is, IMO. Yes, there's too much spamming sometimes and you do get jumpy players, but if you find a good duel server with non-jackasses you can have alot of fun.
The saber defense system, however, needs a change. Certain moves should be unable to just break through your defenses like nothing, particularly red stance attacks and lunges. I'll be waiting to see what changes JA makes...
Originally posted by Jolts:
I think you missed the point, it supposed to create a more accurate system. What happens on a small catwalk with a saber fight in JO? since the movements cover so much ground you come close to falling off all the time.Actually Jolts, every swing is reproducible with the bare minimum of movement. Tap right and fire together, with an infinitessimal delay between right, and fire. You will move all of one millimetre to the right, and perform the swing you want. You don't have to cover any ground at all. Timing is all you have to possess. Unforced catwalk errors among the skilled are rare, at best, and most counter-attacks contain very little lateral motion.
Originally posted by Solo4114:
Anyway, in terms of the actual animations, I'd love it if the game could be smart enough where your animations actually take place with you rooted to the floor. IE: if I perform a kick, the leg I'm standing on doesn't slide backwards and then plant. I don't mind if someone lifts their leg up and then plants it to kick, but the sliding thing just looks weird. I wonder, however, if this is actually possible in the Q3 engine, or rather, if it is possible, whether it's feasible/worthwhile to do so. Exactly Solo, exactly. I too would like all the animations to be picture perfect, but it's probably unfeasible and definitely trivial. I mean, who cares, really?
NO MORE BICKERING!!! I CAN'T TAKE IT! I had to wade through a conversational fragfest between Smood, Spider Al, and Jolts for most of this thread; that is sad.
The trailer looked pretty nice in my opinion, but the trailer just got my anticipation riding high once again. Tusken Raiders and Taun tauns will be something to see as well as the double bladed saber and lightstaff. Don't forget those new player models!
The new HUD will be something fresh, but it will take away from the classic DF hud thats been around. NP.
In a way this is going to be a major JO mod, but it will probably be a lot more than JO was ever. I just have two major questions:
1) Where was the MP footage in the trailer? Did I miss it if there was any? There was a good bit in the first JO trailer. Also, I heard of something called "seige mode." Is this just an idea or what or did i make this up in my head? It sounds like RtCW. It would be pretty sweet to have an objective based MP mode.
2) Where are the new guns? I think I saw a DL-44 blaster, but thats it. Hmm....
This is to those who complain about the trailer. I agree that it looked a bit like JO, but I know that the game is going to look much better in reality than it looks in the trailer.
Jedi Academy will again be using a heavily modified version of the Quake III engine. Without doubt, everyone will detect the advance from Outcast to Academy.
Which means that those who have actually tested the game, know that the game looks better than JO and the trailer does not look as good as the game itself.