Before I start, again, thanks for all the support! It's been great talking to everyone and we're almost at 11,000 downloads as I write this which is absolutely awesome.
I just wanted to give some more information about the work I'm doing to improve menus in the next patch, along with some news about our FAQ.
I mentioned in the last news post that we were working a Frequently Asked Questions guide to provide simple answers to commonly asked questions on ModDB, and it has now launched! You can check it out at eociv.mattfilerfilms.co.uk/faq.html. I'll update it if more similar questions are asked regularly. Please check that guide before asking a question here from now on.
In news regarding patch #1, it's coming along well. As well as the features mentioned to be in patch #1 in the last news update, I'm also working on updating the singleplayer menus (by popular request) and I thought I'd share a couple of screenshots of finished menus so you can see the theme I'm going for, it's similar to the style of the multiplayer menus.
^ Main start menu - I'm hoping to change this up a bit to have more characters
^ Pause Menu - just finished today
Feedback is welcome on them as they're still a work in progress. We hope to get the first patch out to you sometime this month.
Thanks again for all the feedback and support, we'll update soon when the patch is ready. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter for all the latest, and feel free to discuss everything EoC over on the forums!
Will the patch contain bug fixes? Playing as Palpatine will be a shocking experience for the Young skywalker :D
Yeah, the first patch will contain some bug fixes. Read the notes in the last news post for more specific info about patch #1, this was just intended to show people that we will be working on improving the menus as requested!
Sweet stuff. Joining the Darkside of course.
Pretty amazing how this evergrowing mod keeps evolving as it's name says. I'm really proud of you, guys.
Now, personally, I would give aswell some balance changes, specially in multiplayer, to how the class system and Forms work. The precept "one style, one form, one bonus" is outdated. Aswell, classes shouldn't be characters from the SW Universe. Characters in Star Wars Universe should be fitting in some of the clases in the game, as it's done on role games (I mean pencil and paper role, altough role videogames work over pencil and paper manuals).
Solution to this? As in Movie Battles. Two game modes, a open mode, and another one with characters from SW universe. When joining open mode, give posibilities to select which class you want to play, Jedi/Sith (0 armor but Force Points), Hero/Bountyhunter (no armor the heros but autododge, and light armor the bountyhunter with a lesser dodge), or Soldier (heavy armor), each one with different abilities to be leveled up.
The already existing SW characters should be made simply by buying different abilities from the class they fit in, and of course with the corresponding differences. For example, Vader is Sith, and, initially, Sith and Jedi don't use armors since they halve their movement, and with the reflexes provided by the Force, they preffe not to wear armor. However, Vader uses an armor, that in fact gives him more strength. Then, he would fit in the Sith class, but he would have armor points, unlike other Force Users, and he will hit a little harder to the Force Points, but he won't have Force Jump, or will have only the first level, that makes you jump higher, but not fly.
This is how the classes should be handled.
Now I will post about the Saber Forms, and how they could be reworked.
Now, about Forms acting as a "sub-class" for Jedi and Sith...
Forms should be treated as another Force Power which unlocks different saber styles (blue, yellow, red...), in a similar way as Movie battles let's you choose styles, and should have some pre-requirements in order to level them up (as in EoC III Force Sense was a pre-requisite for the rest of Force Powers).
Instead of having only 3 options to choose the styles, giving at least 9 options, one per form + staff + duals, that currently are not a Form, in fact. You may say... "hey, wait, there's not 9 styles in the game. There are 7 counting both staff and duals". Well that's not a problem. Forms are not set of attacks. Forms are more than that. Forms are philosophy of how to approach a combat, wich kind of strategy are you going to use to overcome your enemy. Just for giving you an example. Form II, Makashi tends to deflect the enemies attacks by intercepting the blade of the enemy with an attack on their own, this means it uses the momentum of the enemy blow to deflect it by hitting the blade by the side. Form III, however, preffers to block the attacks without worrying about deflecting them. That's because of it's philosophy of no agression, that leads to just block without trying to create an opening into the enemy's blur of attacks. Form V combines this two philosophies, first blocks the hit and once blocked, uses strength to redirect the enemy saber and create and opening. And when attacking adds the aggresiveness of the Form IV with open, wide brutal sweeps. When attacking is like Form IV but slower.
So what? Simply. EoC III worked with slowbounces, and you were supposed to be able to disarm or at least slowbounce the enemy when you blocked in the right direction and timing. It can be made. For Makashii, for example, I would made so that if you are able to impact the enemy blade with an attack of your own, you have a probability of making him slowbounce (depending on when and where did you hit). Soresu would work with timing and FP looses. It should be made so that if you defend in the correct position but you are hitten too early, or after you stay in that position for too long (2 secs, for example), any attack that comes from that side still makes you loose FP. Soresu would make that time longer (another two seconds) and would make you lose less FP in case you are hitten. Lastly, Form V would have the same styles than Ataru, but merging both abilities from Makashii Soresu. With the same base of timing blocks of Soresu, Djem So would make the enemy slowbounce for each time he perfect blocks. You see? Simple. Instead of attaching this kind of bonuses to a style, or set them free to all styles, as you did in EoCIII, you simply attach it to a menu selection, like Force Powers work.
I will post a longer explanation to this in the forum, anyway, so Matt, I hope you pass by and read and talk about to this to serenity. I have already thought about the bonuses to all Forms except Jar'Kai and Staff, and will be very happy to share it with you.
Great posts as always, thanks Hels. As you said, please post this in the forum!
For me it just say "an error has occured" everytime i try to launch it
How do you create your own character? Since the update it has seemed to have disappeared.
Can you add an option to chose your force powers?