Duel Zero

Description

WELCOEM TOO MY JEEDI NIEGHT MODAFICATION ::: !!! XTREME UBAR SABAR FIGHTING0RZ !!!
...Er... I mean, hey Massassi, get a load of Duel Zero. That's right Muurn, I finally released it. It's got a load of features. Sure, I could do better now, but I'm putting all that kind of effort into Randsaber, and I'll be damned if I'll toil through all of these keys again.
I figure I better lay the features on the table so you guys know what you've gotten ahold of.

Options

The first thing you need to know about Duel Zero is the options system. The fieldlight (same old icon and all) selects the option, irgoggles changes it. A text message will appear on screen when you select or change an option, just keep your eye on the top of the screen and it shouldn't be too hard. Here's your options:

Saber color: This one should be obvious. When you change the color, it'll only show the name of the color you changed to - your actual saber won't change untill you swing again.

saber form:For this one, you might want to look at this site. I've included a text file that covers the subject a little more for those who are interested. If you don't want to bother, Duel Zero starts you off with sixth form, a decent balance of speed, power, and defense.

sideways control: This one is pretty simple. Consider a left-to-right strike. To get this strike in JK, you'd press left and fire, so this method will be called "JK style." To get the same strike in JO, you'd press right and fire, so that method is "JO style."

saber system: This is where it gets either really complicated or really fun for you guys. This is covered in the included text document (the one that covers saber forms). Just read that thing, it'd ruin my little pattern to explain it all here. Like the saber forms, if you don't want to bother, it's already preset to eight directional system - meaning front, back, left, right, and diagonals.

So fieldlight selects, IR Goggles changes. The presets are fairly balanced, with eight directional saber system and sixth form, so if you don't feel like making it complicated, you don't have to. It's no more difficult than SBX with these presets.

Features

Duel Zero has a few added perks, as you'll see.

The Saber: You'll notice that we have a big, fat block radius. If it's even a little in front of you, you can block it. It's a 180 degree arc of pure blockage. This is very handy, now you can actually use blocking to defend yourself. I've heard people tell me they wish JO and JA had this kind of blocking.
Also, you'll notice how the block animations are instantaneous. No lag at all. Your block anim plays right when the bullet or swing comes, no waiting on ping time.

The Force: The only force power I've added is Force Speed. What this power does is pretty simple, although it can be difficult to use. It's really just for getting around huge levels, if I need to justify it. What the power itself does is double your velocity. That is, if you're running, jumping, falling, swimming - just, whatever - when you press the button it'll double your speed in that direction. You can keep compounding them to go infinitely fast, jump infinitely high, etcetera, but you still die if you hit something. For that reason, pressing backward + force speed will cut your speed in half. This is good for saving your ass from long falls and the like.

Fists: I was going to make a fancy-pants kung fu system, but it didn't really pan out - I exhausted all of my keyframing ability on all gazillion of the saber keys. The only real difference is that it fires faster and you can block within a 180 degree arc, though it has no new animations or anything. Fists only block fists, no saber blocking with fists or any of that crud.

Crossbow: I gave it a new spread pattern. Everybody likes it, the old crossbow spread pattern was useless anyway. Really, who EVER used it? Now it's just a plus-sign kind of setup.

Repeater: Every tester loved this one. I remember fondly the time I read in the JK manual, "Secondary fire shoots using all three barrels at once." I thought to myself, "Awesome, that means it's super fast!" Sad disappointment. I got rid of that pansy little triangle and made it just do that - fire three times as fast, with a big ol' random aiming error. It still takes a reasonable amount of ammo though (1 cell per shot), so in the time it takes you to say "OMFG THIS PWNS," you'll be almost out.

The Player: This is simple crud. No drowning. No fall damage unless it kills you.

Updated Graphics: This is just the part of the mod that looks cool. All of these models (bullets, lightsaber graphics) were made by none other than Acharjay, and in my opinion they're the best ever. I colored the sabers myself, complete with 16-bit mats, but everything else is pure Acharjay at his finest.

Closing

I put way too much time into this mod. WAY too much. I can't even tell you when this thing started, it was well over a year ago. I think I may have started it before I even got expelled from school, which would put it at almost two years ago. It's not like I planned it in advance and spent the whole time making it to how it is now, it underwent a whole bunch of changes. TONS. Just ask any of my testers (Acharjay and Firejin Zero/Saadow, Muurn and Pommy, Chikyu-jin and Dark Auron/SSJ_Yun, and OberfeldWebel and Lord Archon.) about it, they'll tell you.

Before I finish, I would like to thank a whole lot of people. What started out as an unspoken ritual came to be a revered ritual to me - the pairing of beta testers. They would always come in pairs. Always have, always will if I can do anything about it. For this reason, I'll thank them by the pair, in chronlogical order.

Acharjay and Firejin Zero/Saadow: These guys have seen me through the whole mod. Acharjay dubbed the mod 'Duel Zero' early in its history. He made all of the weapon and saber models you see, as well as countless others in the past that will unfortunately never see public attention. Firejin Zero has also seen me through the whole modding process. His help mostly came in the form of gameplay advice. He helped me through the balancing of the saber forms and with gameplay ideas. He also helped me discover the very nature of multiplayer game lag, a secret that's helped me through to JA.

Muurn and Pommy: These two guys were great. It's a real shame they both ended up leaving Massassi. Muurn tested this sucker since darned near its creation, gave me gameplay advice, helped me conceive the very idea of saber styles. Pommy helped in a very similar way. Many, many hours of testing with these guys. Probably the most testing of any of these pairs was with Muurn and Pommy.

Oberfeldwebel and Lord Arch0n: These guys helped me make the transition from the less polished, cruder compilation of concepts and cogs into what I have now - while it still lacks the polish of other mods, these guys helped me polish the HELL out of it.

Chikyu-jin and SSJ_Yun/Dark Auron: These two are my very oldest testers. They've been with me since the dawn of Randsaber, a mod that lived and died long before Duel Zero. I'm resurrecting it, since it's by far the most original thing I've ever came up with and it's just a blast to work on. That's beside the point - the point is that these guys have seen me through the very ages of JK. We've done hundreds, maybe thousands of hours of testing of various mods. These guys were with me for Randsaber, all of my DBZ mods which are as of yet unfinished, Jedi Knight Power Battles (A Jedi Power Battles mod), all two-dozen or so versions of Duel Zero, and now the final.

Thank all of you so much, this mod would have been a crapshoot without guys like you to work with. What really made it work was how terribly informal it was. Many times I'll see a newer editor start a mod and have the final result all planned out from the start, they'll give everyone positions and tell them exactly what they want done, when in the mod's development they want it done, and how they want it to work with everyone else's work. What the hell is that? Our mod making process was basically AIM chats between me and whoever my two testers were at the time, with some JK play. We just chilled out - "Hey, here's the new beta." "Hey, here's some new models." "Wouldn't it be cool if...?" "Sure." "Nah." "OMG, THIS PWNS!" Just that kind of thing. So terribly laid back.

That's how I really think it should be done. I know I had fun with it, I hope you guys do too. And so, I pass Duel Zero to the masses. I do suggest you check out that seven-form website, it's a good read. Also, check out the text file about saber forms and systems that's included in the zip - knowing these details is the way you make this mod fun. You can get seriously customized like that, give it a go.

Enjoy,
Checksum.