Progress Report: October 2021 news - Star Wars: Galactic Legacy mod for Star Wars: Jedi Academy

This is gonna be a big progress report! Hope you stick around until the end!

FACTION REWORKS

Over the course of this month, a lot of work was done on looking over many of the characters currently featured in the mod. A large issue constantly present in the mod, ever since the beginning, was that many characters were either assigned to the wrong faction, or were assigned to the best faction possible, but it still didn't make sense.

After some discussion, we have decided to introduce 1.) A brand new faction, and 2.) Sub-factions.

First off, the brand new faction we will introduce is called "Force Users", which will encompass characters that are neither Jedi nor Sith, but also have no affiliation with any other faction.

Secondly, with sub-factions, many characters are not directly related to their primary faction, such as Darth Revan and Malak have nothing to do with the Sith Empire faction, which is illustrated by the logo of SWTOR's Sith Empire. As they are closely related, but not exact, their icons have been updated to reflect their correct faction, but will still be located in their primary faction.

For example:

Sith Empire Sub-factions: Revan's Sith Empire, Exar Kun's Sith Empire, Ancient Sith, Sith Lords, Brotherhood of Darkness.

Rebellion Sub-factions: New Republic, Galactic Alliance

First Order Sub-factions: Sith Eternal

And others will be made

NEW CHARACTERS

Next update will see to a plethora of new characters coming to the mod. Here is the current list, but please keep in mind that this list is subject to change:

THE OLD REPUBLIC

- Orgus Din
- Trask Ulgo
- Vandar Tokare (New model)

SITH EMPIRE

- Darth Angral
- Darth Bane (Dark Lord)
- Darth Baras
- Darth Krayt (Vong Armor)
- Darth Nihl
- Darth Zash
- Dread Master Bestia
- Empress Acina
- Exar Kun (Dark Lord)
- Jorak Uln
- SCORPIO
- Sith Pureblood Warrior
- Tulak Hord (New model)

GALACTIC REPUBLIC

- 501st Clone Trooper (New model)
- Cin Drallig (New model)
- Female Jedi Knight
- Ferroda
- General Kenobi (Mid-war)
- Nikto Jedi Knight
- Ord Enisence
- Serra Keto (New model)
- Vergere
- X1 (Clone Commando)
- Younglings (New aliens and other variants)

THE SEPARATIST ALLIANCE

- Asajj Ventress (Late Bounty Hunter)
- Captain Argyus
- Wat Tambor (New model)

REBELLION

- Ahsoka Tano (Nomad) (New Model)
- Cade Skywalker (New models)
- Cal Kestis
- Koth Melan
- Mara Jade (Jedi Master)
- Mirax Terrik
- New Republic Security Droid
- Rebel Pilot (Female)
- Shado Vao
- Zekk

GALACTIC EMPIRE

- Admiral Screed
- Crosshair
- Dark Trooper
- Darth Sidious (Sith Apprentice)
- General Mohc
- Imperial Commander (Trench Coat)
- Imperial Officer (Trench Coat)
- Imperial Senate Sentinel
- Moff Gideon
- Purge Trooper (Uprisng)

BOUNTY HUNTERS

- Boba Fett (1313)
- Fennec Shand
- IG-88 (New model)
- Montross (New models + variants)

CRIMINALS

- Shahan Alama

CIVILIANS

- Czerka Corporation Guard
- Kuill
- Nico Okarr
- Shmi Skywalker
- Teebo
- Tokkat
- Wicket W Warrick

FORCE USERS (NEW FACTION)

- Revanite Avenger
- Revanite Champion
- Revanite Convert
- Revanite Pursuer
- Revanite Vindicator
- Senya Tirall

INFINITIES

- Beach Trooper
- Darth Voiid (Separated model)
- Dark Lord Anakin Skywalker (Two new skin variations)

NPC FREE CHOICE SYSTEM EXPANSION

A heavily requested feature for the mod is at last coming to Galactic Legacy, allowing you to customize the weapon and lightsaber of any NPC featured in the mod. Whether it be having Anakin use Mace Windu's lightsaber, have Obi-Wan Kenobi fight in a most uncivilized manner by using a blaster, or for whatever reason giving a Wampa a gun, you will have that freedom! Please enjoy a demo video of the new system in action.

Please keep in mind that a menu has not yet been developed for the system at this time, but will be coming later on.

QUALITY OF LIFE CHANGES

With new characters and faction reorganizing will also see to a large number of Quality of Life improvements to the mod.

The first and so far largest improvement is that you will be able to customize the color of your Force Lightning (and Lightning Strike) ability to one of 8 different colors. Aside from the default blue you'll also have the choice to change your color to Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Purple, White, and Black. This customization will also reflect on many characters featured in the mod, so Darth Desolous will get his red lightning, Arcann will have yellow, Plo Koon will get his orange "Electric Judgment" ability, among others. This customization freedom will also be implemented in the expanded NPC free choice system, so you'll be able to give Emperor Palpatine green lightning or Count Dooku red lightning as you desire.

The issue regarding save games in missions was finally tracked down and addressed, you'll no longer Crash to Desktop when playing any of our missions, and we will also implement proper Objectives to your datapads for your convenience, limited our usage of printing Text to the screen unless absolutely necessary.

Next, many NPCs when hurt would often switch to Fast Style, and some other NPCs would even use Fast style even when using Dual or Staff lightsabers. This issue was tracked down and appears to be fixed, so NPCs will only use their assigned Saber Styles.

Additionally, the issue regarding the Sith Sword making NPCs unkillable, such as Mother Talzin and Marka Ragnos was tracked down and fixed, so all NPCs using the sword will be killable as intended.

Finally, a small change, but definitely worth it. For those who are fans of the Dark Side ending of the Jedi Academy campaign, you will have the option to trigger it through our mission selection screen or console commands instead of needing to play through the 2nd Taspir mission.

NPC MECHANICS

More recently worked on, NPC mechanics.

We are aware that all NPCs basically act the same as each other, either fighting the same or shooting guns the same. Recently we have taken steps to make some NPCs more unique than others.

Over the last week, we have successfully programmed Darth Vader and Lord Starkiller (and respective variants) to play their respective breathing sounds, as well as them playing a more strained breathing sound as they take damage.

Most notable of all, the Lord of Pain himself, Darth Sion has been given his unique trait. Upon his first defeat, Sion will regenerate a partial amount or all of his health, and on subsequent defeats he will have a 33% chance of dying. Testing this has been a lot of fun, as Sion's unpredictable chances of dying has made many fights dramatic. I suspect and hope someone will release new challenge videos regarding Sion's iron will to live at any cost.

We have discussed other possibilities for other unique mechanics for other characters, and we should have more details at a later time. We have a lot of exciting ideas and we cannot wait to share or implement them as needed. Though this next update will likely see to a small number of NPCs being given new mechanics, we foresee other characters will be given new perks themselves.

CONCLUSION

This month did not see to any progress on the upcoming Deathstar Rescue mission as we felt it was more important to improve what we had instead of adding something new and (possibly) introducing more bugs.

We can confirm however that the remastered Lord Vader POV for Operation: Knightfall is coming along very well, and we cannot wait to share it with you.

Thank you for following the development of Star Wars: Galactic Legacy, and may the Force be with you.