This is Duel Zero, my JK mod. I've been working on it for far too long now, and I'm just now wrapping it up. I thought I'd showcase the idea before the impending beta release.
The Saber
The lightsaber is so adaptable in my mod I don't know where to start.
There are three ways to modify it in-game - saber stance, saber system, and hand preference.
The saber stances are based off of Lightsaber Seven-Form. They don't change the visual appearance at all, but they do change the balancing of speed, power, and defense time. These are changed with an inventory item.
Seventh form won't be included because it's too unnecessarily powerful, and first form is the suckiest by far, but other than that, forms 2 through 6 are relatively balanced.
Duel Zero will have three saber systems, meaning three methods for controlling the saber. They come in three levels of complexity - JK style, Mouse Control, and RPG Quality, changed by crouch + stance button.
JK style is eight directions, where each direction does a different attack regardless of anything else. Super easy to control.
Available keys: 9 single handed, 9 double handed
Mouse control is four-directional, but each strike is changed depending on whether or not you're turning, and in what direction.
Available keys: 15 single handed, 15 double handed
RPG quality is a bit harder to explain...
The way it works is, when you first press the button, it checks to see if you're trying to go forward, backward, left, or right, or neutral. It checks this again when you release it, and uses it to determine which of 25 attacks per firemode you'll do.
Available keys: 25 single handed, 25 double handed
Examples:
Overhead strike - forward + press, neutral + release.
Overhead with circular windup - forward + press, forward + release.
diagonal - forward + press, sideways + release.
The reason I fail to mention a specific side for a specific diagonal is because there may or may not be a checkbox for JO style directional control. JK style control means pressing right + fire to do a right-to-left strike, whereas JO style control would make you press left + fire.
The last customization in the lightsaber is the hand preference.
Fire one is two handed strikes, which are a bit slower, more powerful, and worse guarded. Fire two does one handed strike, which are faster, lighter, and better guarded.
Oh yeah, you get to pick your saber color using a button, which has fancy-pants glowtrails like every saber mod these days. The only thing you really can't change at all is the defense.
Saber Defense
Saber defense... is way better in this. The block radius in JK was about 51 degrees, I think I did the math once. The block radius in DZ is 180 degrees, meaning you can block anything that's even remotely in front of you or to the side of you.
Also, the blocking anims are synched up perfectly over multiplayer - regardless of connection, they show up at the exact time the bullet or strike comes. It's pretty cool that way.
Guns
Fists - These were going to be more martial-arts style attacks, much like the game Oni, by bungie - but with a total workload of 50 keys for the saber, I've about had a buttfull of keying, we'll see about fists.
Bryar - It charges. Infinitely. You can make it dangerous enough for a one-hit kill without too much charging, but hitting someone with only one bryar bullet is still a hell of a longshot, what with the saber defense and all.
STRifle - It shoots at a random angle like usual, but it shoots a second bullet at the opposing angle, giving a pretty cool effect. It's not exactly consistant with SW, but if I get enough complaints I'll have Acharjay make a model that looks like it'd shoot like that.
Crossbow - a new plus-style spread pattern. Has anyone ever done anything useful with that sideways spread of the current bow?
Repeater - Everyone who's played the beta loves this one. In the JK manual, it says the repeater alt fire 'fires all three barrels at once.' So, it does. There's some background details that explain it, but all you need to know is that it fires really fast, eats ammo like a mofo, and doesn't lag any more than primary fire.
Nothing else is changed, gun-wise.
Forces
These get pretty cool, IMO.
Force Speed - it covers the ground of both Force Jump and Force Speed. The way it works is, the power doubles your velocity every time you press it, regardless of your direction. This means you can run like hell, and your jumping would be flying if it were more accurate. The drawback is that you DO die if you hit something too hard, so using back + force slows you down to 1/2 your speed. If it sounds confusing, just wait on it.
Telekinesis - I'm still not sure exactly how I want to handle this one. I've gotten great responses in the past to the power that lets you move objects with precise control, but it's not really that useful.
I'm deliberating over what I want to do, and what will probably take place (provided I can get it to work) is something like the JO setup, but in one button. Neutral + telekinesis grabs ahold of something and gravitates it towards a given point in relation to the player, then lets you move it around like Force Grip does, but without the damage.
Player properties
Fist blocking - the player blocks fist attacks provided he's got his fists out and is within 180 degrees of the attack.
Fall damage - you only take damage if it's enough to kill you. If the damage is 99.99% of your health, you'll live, but if it's 100 or higher you die.
Well, that about covers it.
Stuff I need to do is listed here:
In The Bag: saber control checkbox, saber systems
Easy but time consuming: The remaining 41 saber keys
Tentative: Telekinesis cog.
[Edit] Crap, I was supposed to say that everything else is done right about... here.
[Edit #2] I had a talk with a rather impatient friend and decided that I'd better have the mod preset to the simplest settings possible so stupids can't complain my mod sucks/is too hard/is too complicated, and smart people can customize and utilize as much as they want.
When you first start a game it'll be preset to somewhere between SBX and JO SP - JK style directional control with JK 8-directional saber system and 6th form, ideally cancelling out most of the negative feedback.
Questions? Comments? Feedback? Yell at me for such a long post with no screens?
------------------
"Anyone who talks about martial arts on the internet is a weakling geek fool. I took karate, does anyone else take any martial arts?" -James Saibot
[This message has been edited by Checksum (edited September 28, 2003).]
The Saber
The lightsaber is so adaptable in my mod I don't know where to start.
There are three ways to modify it in-game - saber stance, saber system, and hand preference.
The saber stances are based off of Lightsaber Seven-Form. They don't change the visual appearance at all, but they do change the balancing of speed, power, and defense time. These are changed with an inventory item.
Seventh form won't be included because it's too unnecessarily powerful, and first form is the suckiest by far, but other than that, forms 2 through 6 are relatively balanced.
Duel Zero will have three saber systems, meaning three methods for controlling the saber. They come in three levels of complexity - JK style, Mouse Control, and RPG Quality, changed by crouch + stance button.
JK style is eight directions, where each direction does a different attack regardless of anything else. Super easy to control.
Available keys: 9 single handed, 9 double handed
Mouse control is four-directional, but each strike is changed depending on whether or not you're turning, and in what direction.
Available keys: 15 single handed, 15 double handed
RPG quality is a bit harder to explain...
The way it works is, when you first press the button, it checks to see if you're trying to go forward, backward, left, or right, or neutral. It checks this again when you release it, and uses it to determine which of 25 attacks per firemode you'll do.
Available keys: 25 single handed, 25 double handed
Examples:
Overhead strike - forward + press, neutral + release.
Overhead with circular windup - forward + press, forward + release.
diagonal - forward + press, sideways + release.
The reason I fail to mention a specific side for a specific diagonal is because there may or may not be a checkbox for JO style directional control. JK style control means pressing right + fire to do a right-to-left strike, whereas JO style control would make you press left + fire.
The last customization in the lightsaber is the hand preference.
Fire one is two handed strikes, which are a bit slower, more powerful, and worse guarded. Fire two does one handed strike, which are faster, lighter, and better guarded.
Oh yeah, you get to pick your saber color using a button, which has fancy-pants glowtrails like every saber mod these days. The only thing you really can't change at all is the defense.
Saber Defense
Saber defense... is way better in this. The block radius in JK was about 51 degrees, I think I did the math once. The block radius in DZ is 180 degrees, meaning you can block anything that's even remotely in front of you or to the side of you.
Also, the blocking anims are synched up perfectly over multiplayer - regardless of connection, they show up at the exact time the bullet or strike comes. It's pretty cool that way.
Guns
Fists - These were going to be more martial-arts style attacks, much like the game Oni, by bungie - but with a total workload of 50 keys for the saber, I've about had a buttfull of keying, we'll see about fists.
Bryar - It charges. Infinitely. You can make it dangerous enough for a one-hit kill without too much charging, but hitting someone with only one bryar bullet is still a hell of a longshot, what with the saber defense and all.
STRifle - It shoots at a random angle like usual, but it shoots a second bullet at the opposing angle, giving a pretty cool effect. It's not exactly consistant with SW, but if I get enough complaints I'll have Acharjay make a model that looks like it'd shoot like that.
Crossbow - a new plus-style spread pattern. Has anyone ever done anything useful with that sideways spread of the current bow?
Repeater - Everyone who's played the beta loves this one. In the JK manual, it says the repeater alt fire 'fires all three barrels at once.' So, it does. There's some background details that explain it, but all you need to know is that it fires really fast, eats ammo like a mofo, and doesn't lag any more than primary fire.
Nothing else is changed, gun-wise.
Forces
These get pretty cool, IMO.
Force Speed - it covers the ground of both Force Jump and Force Speed. The way it works is, the power doubles your velocity every time you press it, regardless of your direction. This means you can run like hell, and your jumping would be flying if it were more accurate. The drawback is that you DO die if you hit something too hard, so using back + force slows you down to 1/2 your speed. If it sounds confusing, just wait on it.
Telekinesis - I'm still not sure exactly how I want to handle this one. I've gotten great responses in the past to the power that lets you move objects with precise control, but it's not really that useful.
I'm deliberating over what I want to do, and what will probably take place (provided I can get it to work) is something like the JO setup, but in one button. Neutral + telekinesis grabs ahold of something and gravitates it towards a given point in relation to the player, then lets you move it around like Force Grip does, but without the damage.
Player properties
Fist blocking - the player blocks fist attacks provided he's got his fists out and is within 180 degrees of the attack.
Fall damage - you only take damage if it's enough to kill you. If the damage is 99.99% of your health, you'll live, but if it's 100 or higher you die.
Well, that about covers it.
Stuff I need to do is listed here:
In The Bag: saber control checkbox, saber systems
Easy but time consuming: The remaining 41 saber keys
Tentative: Telekinesis cog.
[Edit] Crap, I was supposed to say that everything else is done right about... here.
[Edit #2] I had a talk with a rather impatient friend and decided that I'd better have the mod preset to the simplest settings possible so stupids can't complain my mod sucks/is too hard/is too complicated, and smart people can customize and utilize as much as they want.
When you first start a game it'll be preset to somewhere between SBX and JO SP - JK style directional control with JK 8-directional saber system and 6th form, ideally cancelling out most of the negative feedback.
Questions? Comments? Feedback? Yell at me for such a long post with no screens?
------------------
"Anyone who talks about martial arts on the internet is a weakling geek fool. I took karate, does anyone else take any martial arts?" -James Saibot
[This message has been edited by Checksum (edited September 28, 2003).]
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