This section is intended to give detailed reasons behind the selection
of default settings for FFAmod.
Double and Dual-Blade Sabers
The damage caused by two sabers in parallel is the same as the damage
caused by one saber. The two blades act as one. However, the dual bladed
sabers can score on the front blade and the back blade when spinning.
Also, in the orange and purple stance specials, each of the double blades
will do damage. In the blue, yellow, and red stances the left hand blade
is largely passive and will not do any damage (unless a player runs into
you).
This situation does give double and dual bladed players an edge. I have
noted several areas where double/dualblades have a significant advantage:
- Strong stance swings. The strong stance swing is has a very long
arc. You can actually hit a player twice with the swing. The first hit
can happen and the extreme part of the backswing when the back part of
the dual saber is actually pointed straight ahead. The downswing can
hit again as the front part of the saber chops downward.
- Yellow overhead special. Spin the special or simply take advantage
of the greater chance of keepin a saber lodged in your opponent as
they move around you. Note that if your opponent moves into your space
you can still do damage to him until the animation is fully completed.
With multiple blades you are far better protected!
- Orange and Purple specials. Heck you can have up to four blades
twirling and each one of them can do damage!
- Dual blades are great for saber throws -- double the opportunity for
hitting your opponent!
Settings for Balanced Fighting
All of my fiddling with the mod parameters on the server has been to
achieve balanced fighting regardless of the saber configuration. (And I
have tried to do the same thing with model scaling). The resulting
configuration is perhaps not ideally balanced but I think it is as close
as can be obtained while retaining as much fun as possible. The following table shows the JediPlus cvars and the
configuration I have chosen
Cvar |
Setting |
mod_scaleDamage |
0 (disabled |
mod_scaleKicks |
0 (disabled) |
mod_scaleSabers |
1 (enabled) |
mod_extraStances |
0 (disabled) |
mod_allStances |
0 (disabled) |
mod_nerfDualBlade |
0 (no nerf) |
mod_nerfbs |
2 (same as 1.04) |
mod_dualblade |
1 (single dual blade) |
mod_dualsaber |
1 (enabled) |
mod_blockThrow |
1 (enabled) |
g_allowThrowDuel |
1 (enabled) |
mod_scaleDamage
Turning this one gives a big advantage to large models -- everyone
should play Desann. One could argue that small models are hard to hit and
while this is true, I find that scaling damage overcompensates
considerably and creates a real imbalance between standard size players
(e.g. Kyle) and big players (e.g. Desann). Besides, why should a light
saber make more damage 'cause it is bigger?
mod_scaleKicks
You can scale the damage of kicks based on character size. When double
click is required to kick, small models can be very very hard to kick
without the use of a macro. Enabling large models to really hit small
models hard under this circumstance does make sense. However, in this mod,
a kick can be performed by a single click (as in early versions of the
base game). As such, small models are as easy to kick as large ones. Leave
this setting disabled.
mod_scaleSabers
When this feature is turned on, the saber size is controlled by the
tckmodel.cfg file on the server just like the character sizes. If you use
the tckmodel.cfg file that comes with the ffamod distribution, the sabers
scale with model size except for small models. Models with size under 1.0
are given a 33% boost in saber reach relative to their size (but not more
than a scale of 1.0). I find that scaling small characters' sabers exactly
with their size strongly limits their ability to use the saber and it
becomes very unfair to the folks who like Yoda!
mod_extraStances
This cvar is not well documented, perhaps only in the code! What it
does is to enable the extra stances for players with only a single bladed
saber. When disabled, players with a single bladed saber will have only
the normal three stances (blue/light, yellow/medium, and red/strong). Only
a player with a double bladed saber or two single bladed sabers will have
the orange and purple stances available.
mod_allStances
It is fun to use two sabers or two dual bladed sabers all the time!
But, it does not provide for balanced play. Two dual bladed sabers give a
player a distinct advantage. One can compensate so that when using two sabers or dual
bladed sabers, the only stances available are orange and purple. That is,
you are restricted to the "Darth Maul" style. This may be overly restrictive and also detracts from some
fun, but for the best balance in saber duels it is necessary.
mod_nerfDualBlade
When enabled, this slows down the player speed when attacking. The
saber moves just as fast and causes the same damage, but rather the
players motion (forward, backward, etc.) is slowed. This is particularly noticeable
in the lunge attack. I experimented carefully with this as an alternative
to restricting stances. I did not chose it for two reasons: one, the real
advantage of dual blades is that you hit more often in spins and you are
much more protected from counter attacks during specials; two, the change
of timings and distances for many moves screws up your timing when not
using a dual bladed saber.
mod_nerfbs
If you are not using the damage control system, this will keep multiple
blades from doing multiple damage during backstabs. Since the server is
configured to use the damage control system, this setting is redundant
(and off to be sure).
mod_dualblade
Dual bladed sabers are allowed, but only one of them. Dual blades are
not nerfed and do provide a small advantage over other players without
dual blades.
mod_dualsaber
Two sabers are allowed. Since all stances are enabled, you will be at a
small disadvantage to a dual bladed player and you will have a small
advantage over a player with only a single blade saber.
mod_blockThrow
If you throw your saber at a player at a time when they are not
attacking, they can, and probably will, knock your light saber down out of
the air. If this happens, your saber will be disabled for a random period
of time and you will also be unable to use force powers. Hopefully, this
will encourage skilled use of saber throws rather than flagrant saber
tossing just to see if you might score a hit.