New styles Thread - Jade Empire in Style mod for Jade Empire

Hello!
I wanted to know if it's possible to add only the new styles from your mod into the game, so that i can play vanilla
but with more fighting styles.

Thank you for listening to the community!

I gotta ask a few questions first, to find out how tricky that would be (and if it is indeed possible):

Do you want all of the new and modified styles or just a few specific ones - like the new martial styles? Do you also want the new mechanism for learning styles? Do you want the new stores? And what about collecting style points in combat? Where do you draw the line?

Or maybe it's easier to ask the other way round: What is it about my mod that you find gets in the way?

PS Welcome to the Mod DB!

Edited by: pecoes

Thank you for the reply!

The main priority is to have the new martial styles (Leopard Fist, Monkey Paw, Black Mantis, Divine Void, Seven Thunders, Willow) in the vanilla game,
so no style point mechanic, no new stores/items, no quest removal for viper style, no modified storm dragon etc etc...

The second priority is the new weapon styles, and the third priority is the new magic style. I do not care either way about the new transformations.

It's not that your mod get's in the way (it doesn't ) it's just that i want to experience JE like all those years ago when i first bought it. It may sound silly but
that's how it is .

So basically, if you can put the new martial styles in the game and put them in regular stores with regular prices like vanilla styles, i'll be happy. Everything else (weapon and magic styles) is just bonus.

Or if there's a way, put the new styles in the character creation screen so that i can start with one of them and then buy others from various stores.

Also, another bonus priority would be to have the undecipherable stone tablets for the martial styles as well, if possible.

The first part is easy. Just use Lothario's original files. I modified his styles even further - especially Divine Void, but whatever. They won't be available at any merchant and the stone tablet mini quest isn't included either. But other than that: You'll get Leopard Fist, Willow, Divine Void, Black Mantis and Seven Thunders. I think somebody repackaged his styles to also include Monkey Paw, but I can't provide you with a link, I'm afraid.

The new weapon styles are trickier, because they rely on the new upgrade system, I wrote. I also swapped the models, but that's just eyecandy. The modified stats and animations are inseparable from my mod. Somebody else made Moonlight available, but the Halberd you can only get in my mod. You also need my mod for the Staff's third upgrade: Tien's Justice. The Morning Stars are inseparable from my mod as well. Eyes of the Dragon and Crimson Tears should be available in vanilla Jade Empire (in some form or another). I seem to remember someone else making Death's Razor available, but I have no link in my bookmarks...

Blizzard is also a bit tricky - if only because it doesn't have a name and an icon in vanilla Jade Empire, which means it won't show up in your in-game style list. You also won't get the unblockable powerups like you do in my mod. In fact, you won't get any powerups at all.

In any case, there will be no system to make these styles available to you. You will have to use the savegame editor instead.

Try to download as many of these styles as possible and send the files to me. I can make them compatible in less time than I needed to write this reply.

EDIT:

Here's what I also could do: I could add options to turn off the style store and the style point rewards to the cheat console. If you turn off the style store, new styles would be available through merchants and the cheat console only. (The savegame editor is incompatible with my mod.) If you turn off style point rewards, the game would give you style points at level-up instead. How does that sound?

Edited by: pecoes

The turn-off option sounds great! I think it would be easier too.

Version 0.2 is going to come out this weekend. I think, I can squeeze these two new features in...

Great! Thanks!

Hi!

I have playing your mod since a few days ago. It's fantastic! I played through fast, and at the Black Leopard School i found information about Black Leopard style. If you can put it in somehow... I know it's not easy to creat a new style, but you could try it. Many thanks if you can do it.

Edited by: Jackobiczjacko

I don't think the game ever mentions a specific style that would be taught at the Black Leopard school - under the label "Black Leopard" or any other. There's the Leopard Fist style, of course, but nobody at the Black Leopard school uses that one.

But the point is moot, I'm afraid. I'd love to create a completely new style from scratch, but I don't have the tools to do so. Without a model-importer/exporter, that would allow me to edit/create models in a 3d-editor, I can't do much. A programmer with some 3d-expertise would have to look into it. I don't know anything about this stuff. Sorry!

About Leopard Fist: i have found that out you have created Divine Void with combinating drunken masters 2nd move with legendary strike. Why not create the new style from Leaping Tiger and Divine Void or White Demon? This is just a tip i don't know how complicated the creating is.

RECOGNIZATION: In the Imperial City if you accept the Captain's bounty hunter quest, and you follow the closed fist and fight creative yukong he uses the morning stars. If you want to just that ghost under the lotus assasin fortress to use those weapons you might have change it. I ran at Yukong with death's razor and i was freezed when it said "Immune". I nearly died at that point.

Edited by: Jackobiczjacko

Jackobiczjacko wrote: RECOGNIZATION: In the Imperial City if you accept the Captain's bounty hunter quest, and you follow the closed fist and fight creative yukong he uses the morning stars. If you want to just that ghost under the lotus assasin fortress to use those weapons you might have change it. I ran at Yukong with death's razor and i was freezed when it said "Immune". I nearly died at that point.

I did not know that. No other character but Jizu is supposed to use the Morning Stars. This is a bug. I gave Yukong Hidden Fist and Legendary Strike instead. The fix won't be of any use to you, though. I had to edit the SAV file. The tricky bit about SAVs is that they become part of your savegames. So if I gave you the new SAV and you would load a savegame, that was created after you've entered the Scholar's Garden for the very first time, Yukong would still be using the Morning Stars.

But thank you for bringing this to my attention!

Jackobiczjacko wrote: About Leopard Fist: i have found that out you have created Divine Void with combinating drunken masters 2nd move with legendary strike. Why not create the new style from Leaping Tiger and Divine Void or White Demon? This is just a tip i don't know how complicated the creating is.

The same problem as before, I'm afraid. I can't combine movements from different styles, because that too would require editing the models. And editing the models is sadly out of the question.

Divine Void uses hidden movements of Legendary Strike and nothing but. Seven Thunders uses hidden movements of the standard Brawler style (and is thus a twin to Leopard Fist). Black Mantis uses hidden movements of Heavenly Wave. And what Willow uses, you probably have guessed already...

Edited by: pecoes

Two things: i am further than creative yukong so it's don't matter now. and the other i have announced in willow the first kick move of Death's razor is used but in the weapon style it's removed and also the follower Death's Hand uses that kick

3rd extra thing: i was happy to help you found out this "yukong" bug

Hi there! I've been a huge fan of Jade Empire, and the lack of any significant mods always annoyed me, so I want to thank you for your brilliant efforts so far.
I have couple of questions, if you don't mind answering, and a few suggestions as well. To the questions;
- Are the animations for the new styles you've incorporated completely unique? Or will I see them recycled when I switch to the original style they were taken from? And do those unused animations fit the descriptions of the new styles? Say, if a style is described as quick and agile, will the animations used correspond or be slow heavy chops and swings?
- You've mentioned the stone tablets and some wandering scholar who translates them. Are these lines new, and if so, voiced? How does this work?
- Could you make the specialisation in a particular field (magic, martial, etc.) aspect optional? I don't want to be hamstrung in one area and overpowered in another.
- Is there any difference, animations wise, between a style at low and high levels? I mean, I know the damage changes but is there anything else affected?

Now to my suggestions;
- I personally feel that certain styles should be kept solely for their users, and not make them learnable. The most glaring examples are the bull and elephant transformation styles. It makes the enemy be that much more memorable and important if you don't get to just copy his style after a single fight, as you might from a mook at the beginning of the game.
- I saw in one of your videos the scroll that pops up explaining the new learning method, and it might preserve immersion if you remove mentions to it being a mod.
- The styles used should make sense in context. A bandit fought in Tien's Landing shouldn't have an overly advanced style or legendary weapon style. Leave them for enemies who are justified in knowing them.

Whew, sorry for the miniature essay.
Finally, might you consider expanding your mod beyond abilities and so on, perhaps to graphical changes? Unique NPC faces and so on, instead of clones.
Again, thanks for a great job .

Porthos18 wrote: - Are the animations for the new styles you've incorporated completely unique? Or will I see them recycled when I switch to the original style they were taken from? And do those unused animations fit the descriptions of the new styles? Say, if a style is described as quick and agile, will the animations used correspond or be slow heavy chops and swings?

Why don't you look at the videos? They should answer those questions!

Porthos18 wrote: - You've mentioned the stone tablets and some wandering scholar who translates them. Are these lines new, and if so, voiced? How does this work?

The lines are new, but I have yet to figure out how to add sounds. As it is, I don't even know how to re-use in-game sounds! As everything else in Jade Empire the sound format is undocumented and arcane.

Porthos18 wrote: - Could you make the specialisation in a particular field (magic, martial, etc.) aspect optional? I don't want to be hamstrung in one area and overpowered in another.

It is optional. You need to equip a certain gem to specialize.

Porthos18 wrote: - Is there any difference, animations wise, between a style at low and high levels? I mean, I know the damage changes but is there anything else affected?

No. That's not possible.

Porthos18 wrote: - I personally feel that certain styles should be kept solely for their users, and not make them learnable. The most glaring examples are the bull and elephant transformation styles. It makes the enemy be that much more memorable and important if you don't get to just copy his style after a single fight, as you might from a mook at the beginning of the game.

Others want to learn these styles. There's no way I can do right by them and by you. You could simply decide to not learn the style. Or you could use the console to turn the style store off.

Porthos18 wrote: - I saw in one of your videos the scroll that pops up explaining the new learning method, and it might preserve immersion if you remove mentions to it being a mod.

You got a point there. Keep in mind, though, that you will see this pop-up exactly once and most likely within the first ten minutes.

Porthos18 wrote: - The styles used should make sense in context. A bandit fought in Tien's Landing shouldn't have an overly advanced style or legendary weapon style. Leave them for enemies who are justified in knowing them.

You mean the guys who use Eyes of the Dragon, I suppose. I somewhat agree with you, but I wanted to give the player a (small) chance to learn an advanced style early on.

My philosophy is this: Players should decide for themselves how much challenge they want. You want to make it easy on yourselves? Use Jade Golem or Red Minister! You want a challenge? Go up unarmed against heavily armed opponents! Both extremes and anything in between is fine with me. My only job is to add more choice and more flavour.