Introduction / Endorsement Thread - Jade Empire in Style mod for Jade Empire

I have been a great fan of Jade Empire for as long as I can remember; maybe what drew me to it had something to do with my love for Chinese culture and history (thus extending to my interest to asian-inspired video games, books, works of interactive fiction, et cetera), maybe it was because I like BioWare's way of designing RPG's and the way their games' atmosphere and stories immerse me into the game's world and make me relate to its characters. Or maybe Jade Empire was just very good in and of itself. Perhaps all of the above.

This is not to say that I didn't find flaws in it, most of them having already been pointed out by the existing community. Yes, the combat was clunky, yes the game could have been larger, yes the companions could have had more depth, and so on and so forth. I still loved the game, I still do. And it has little to do with the small elements that make up the factual pros and cons. It's more than that. Jade Empire has *potential*, it drips with it. Few games drew my attention as strongly as Jade Empire did. The gameworld is unique (among western games) and offers plenty of opportunity for interesting quests and characters, the lore is solid, but maleable enough to be expanded upon, the martial arts combat and its relation to ally/enemy AI provides greatly in the way of tweaking and adding new styles and techniques and way to use them alongside the existing ones. Not to mention that it has a source of plentiful real-life mythology to draw upon and grow.

Why BioWare did not provide modding tools for such a gem, I cannot imagine. Modding ensures a game's immortality (or at least a very long lifespan), Bethseda Softworks has already proved this. Oblivion started off as a mediocre, dumbed down action RPG with some fun elements but a lot of annoying gameplay elements, a sort of poor man's Morrowind, and it ended as one of the greatest games of all time when modded properly. The material out there is endless, as is the community's talent and imagination. I'm sure I don't need to elaborate.

The same thing could have been done here. True enough, it happened in the case of other BW's games, KoTOR 1 and 2 (well, TSL wasn't really of Bioware, but it had the same engine as the first, thus the same modding tools could be used), but those games sparked interest, not enough to create the huge fanbase Bethseda has of course, but it is considerable nontheless. It was large enough so that even today we are brought great works such as The Restoration Project and The Brotherhood of Shadows. Years after years since the original game(s) have been released, modders still work to bring forth works of art, people still play and replay for their sake, the original great quality of those games refusing to be forgotten, and instead being worked upon and expanded as time passes. Modding has brought, in a way, a games' immortality. Ok, maybe that was an exaggeration, but not a lie.

I had hoped the same thing would happen in case of Jade Empire. It didn't. I still do not know why there is so little interest, or why so few tools have been created, or why there are so many who outright hate this game. In my opinion, it's one of BioWare's best, and there is nothing worse that could happen in the video game world than having a work with such great potential crumble and ruin. In a way, it reminded me of Lionheart (even though ironically that one was easier to mod than JE, despite no public mods existed but one of my own). I resigned to this idea and moved on to other things.

And then I saw Jade Empire in Style, after so many years. A work in progress. A compilation and an overhaul. A spark of life within the waters of a past modding community. And it provided a chance to replay one of my favorite games in an entirely new light. I must thank you for that, and for the work you continue to do, despite such small a community and with so little tools to work with. I very much that your work will inspire the creation of others, for JE certainly deserves it. You have breathed new life into this hidden treasure, and as little as that means, I appreciate it wholeheartedly.

I would also like to offer my full support for Jade Empire in Style. My skills are not the greatest, but I'm decent at retexturing, and good at writing dialogues and quest plots (because of this I've developed an eye for spell-checking, in case that ever helps). I could also beta test of course (in fact it's my favorite part), but you may have other people for that - or have no need for it at all - and I wouldn't want to impose.
In any case, I'm certainly going to be here for every release, and I surely hope that your work will inspire others, at least to create better tools (MDLOps, anyone?), because JE certainly deserves it.

Forgive my long-winded post, I am not accustomed to writing posts on such forums, but considering how few in number we are here, I thought that an addition to this subforum would help greatly on this particular case.

Good luck with your project and thank you for all the work that you have done and all the work that will follow.

- ShadowF0x

Edited by: ShadowF0x