Introduction
The JK2 MP game has gone through some fairly big changes as the base
game evolved from 1.02 to 1.04. Several mods have been introduced that
add new features and functions like multiple sabres, grapples, jetpacks,
etc. Only one mod, promod, has taken a stab at fundamentally changing
the basic nature of the game. Many mods have enjoyed only limited
success. Indeed a quick survey of game servers shows that most support
the basejk game. Popular mods include Adminmod, Jedimod, and Jediplus in
order of decreasing popularity (by my survey of gameservers via gamespy).
I personally, have been a fan of Jediplus.
Unfortunately, Jediplus is not open source. I think this presents a
problem in two ways. One, it cannot receive the benefits of having
others contribute good code to implement new features. Two, I always distrust
code that has not been created by a known and reputable entity if it is
not open source. [And that applies to anything I write too!]. I recall a
number of rumours to the effect that JediPlus has a backdoor for the
author to use in order to access your server. I don’t know whether or
not this is true, but I do know that if I have access to the source, I
can just check!
Jedimod is open source, but I found that many of the new
features of JediPlus were very nice additions. So, how did I
solve this problem? I wrote my own mod based on JediMod and I will
distribute the source.
Now, I don’t consider this mod a replacement for JediPlus or any
other mod for that matter. I did it ‘cause I could and I wanted a mod
to work just the way I desired. Of course, you can take my mod and
modify it to make it work the way you want to! If you do, I have only
three requests:
- Give
credit where credit is due to other authors.
- Don’t
call your mod FFAmod (too confusing).
- If
you think the change will be generally popular, feed it back to me
and I will incorporate it into the “official” mod, if I can.
So what the heck is FFAmod anyway? Well the short story is that it is
mod based on Jedimod that has many of the same additional features that
JediPlus has too. No, I didn’t copy JediPlus nor do I intend to track
it’s development and keep up with an alternate and open source mod.
However, much as with the author of JediPlus, I do intend to add good
ideas and code if possible from other authors, (e.g. as I have done with
the Jetpack mod).
My focus is the saber only free-for-all game type.
That is what I enjoy playing the most. If changes help improve gameplay
in other gametypes, then great, but that is not why I created this mod.
If you would like to suggest a feature or better yet, to feed me
some code that implements your idea, feel free to contact me,
Lee
Oattes