A meeting place + mod grow. Thread - Evolution of Combat IV mod for Star Wars: Jedi Academy

So, here I go with another suggestion that in my opinion is deeply needed in order to grow as a community and as a game. We need a meeting place where we can chat live, in the momment, and we don't need to wait until we get a response. So, my suggestion is to use a chatango room and embeed it on the main web of the mod, and you could be uploading the game to Gdocs aswell and put links on the web, since it's a server with fast download. Personally I think those two would be good ideas.

Aswell... I must say it, guys. In my opinion, you've got potential enough to become the next old school fighting game. And yes, I've said game. Altough tecnically you'd still be a modification of Jedi Academy, the game feels as something completely different. A different product. If you featured other universe, other characters and a brand new story, you'd be almost a new game. It would take a lot of work, I am concious about that, but it's still interesting the fact that with this fighting system, solid, challenging, that forces you to examine your opponent for an opening in his attacks, with such a quantity of moves, all of them so fluid, you'd end up reaching some awards as indie game.

TL;DR: A creation of a chat embeed in the web would help us to get people playing, since it is a fast way to get a review from the own community, that can guide you in real time, as well, at the time of installing the mod or learning the saber system.

Now I will talk of the gameplay itself, what did I noticed, and the growing possibilities of this mod.

I've noticed that the sets of moves are the same for all characters. However, each one handles that set of moves in a different way. For example. Due to his own acceleration, Count Dooku has the same moves as mace windu when both using the red style, but I noticed a system in Dooku that makes him easier to chain the attacks so that they hit in front of him, because he can change the attack direction without finishing the animation, and get's a little boost to the attack speed and power. Then Mace Windu has much faster attack speed in any style than any other character, and hits ver strong. Luke has the potential, as his father, to defend in such a way that opens a sploit in enemies defense by putting his sword away from the optimal defence position. It's like if you have, in some way, change the way each character accelerates the saber respect another characters, they way the characters defend and create sploits in an enemy, and although having the same attacks per style, you CAN USE THEM DIFFERENT. That is what makes this mod so amazing. The fact that each character has his own mechanics even when sharing the same style than another, and how the mechanics of each character modify the use of each style, is simply AMAZING.

Now... imagine the next thing. A brand new story, either in SW world or in another one, where you have your character, and you can select the way of fighting you think you fit mostly (anakin, windu, etc) by buying it with experience points. It could be awesome. However, it would be interesting that by unlocking windu's way of fighting, you don't unlock the stances windu has, you only choose a way of using the styles, but you then have to unlock each style, one by one. So, at the end, you would end up on choosing something like a profession or a class (4ex: barbarian, knight, blade master, fencer) which would modify how you use the styles (as now do choosing one character or another), and then unlocking the styles. Now, set this in a Skyrim-like open world, and add to it minor RPG features. I sum it up for you in a few words. BEST SWORDFIGHTING GAME EVER.

TL;DR: If the mod is set outside SW world, in a Elder Scrolls-like open map, featuring the class system and how it affects the different fighting styles, and adding to the game minor, this saber system has the potential to grow into a game of his own that would end up on being one of the best swordplaying games (or even the best) in the history of videogames. ¿The reason? It's not about hack-slashing your saber, it's all about strategy, and this game hits the core of the swordfighting arte, which is finding weak spots on your opponent style and exploit them, timing your attacks and have your saber well positioned against the enemy. The footwork is aswell very important in this game, and how you control the ranges, and the class system featuring different abilities per character and different way of using the diverses styles/move sets, help much to give this impression. As swordfighting amateur, I find it almost a sword/lightsaber combat simulator. Go further and you will succeed. May the Force be with you.

Thanks for the kind words! Your ideas are good and I'll pass them on to Serenity. It might be too big of a challenge however as the mod in its current state has taken about two years (even longer counting the dev time from EoCIII backwards).

In terms of arranging meetups, I've created a topic in the forum for that, it's just a case of signposting people to it. If we find that doesn't work, sure we can create some kind of live chat.

An addition to your suggestion about creating a little chatroom. Matt could perhaps create a room on a public IRC server. It's easy to setup and easy to maintain.

I was thinking the same thing about the community chatting. A public community free for all server would be a cool meeting place.

I can do a chat in the web chatango.com. Is free to use, and you can register or simply put a name.

I did look into creating a chatroom after this was suggested and it is something I can do if you're interested? It could be accessed through the website.

It would be really appreciated, Matt. Is easier to go to the web and see whose online and ready to play, rather than opening the game and looking for servers. In adittion, it would be a nice place to interchange opinions, and everything related with the mod but that is not playing inself, in real time.

I'd really appreciate it, and I think most of people, aswell. As I said, you can use chatango. Free to use, you can register or enter as guest, AND you can embeed it easily into the web. Probably best option. Other option I know is xat.com. Is pretty easy to use aswell, but I'm not sure if it will be so customizable and I think the desing itself is not so smooth and adaptable. So I would bet for chatango. Try both and use the one you like more, you can search for other options aswell, but the two I gave you are the one I have seen more in other webs.

Ok, I've created a Discord chat that can be accessed through our website by clicking the "CHAT" tab at the top of the page. I'll include it in our next news post so that people know about it!

We owe you so much! Thank you Matt!