Introduction

Welcome to the second generation of Duelers. This time around we are building on
the base Jedi Academy game. Duelers/JA will develop many of the same features of
the original Duelers for Jedi Outcast. However, this will not happen all at once!
As discussed on the Duelers Web Page (http://duelers.jk2files.com), Duelers/JA will
develop over time with a series of releases. Each release will have a set of new
features drawn from the ideas in Duelers/JO and also completely new ideas generated
by the players of Duelers/JA.

Raven did some great work to improve the base Jedi Academy game over Jedi Outcast. The dual sabers and staff sabers with new custom animations are very well
done. The elimination of the all too powerful kick was, I think, appropriate -- but
I do really miss that dimension of combat! The best idea of all, I my opinion, was to
set up the system where special moves consume force power. This, again in my view, is probably the best way to prevent the endless spamming of a single power move that we all saw in Jedi Outcast.

That having been said, I also think that they nearly ruined the game by nerfing the
blazes out of every fricking move! The base game has been reduced to a slash and spin saber fight with all of the cool multi-dimensional moves effectively removed by making each of them useless in an attack! Many of the people I know who really liked the "art" of JO simply did not play JA after a while as it was simple too boring. I agree with them.

So, my first work in building Duelers/JA is aimed at restoring all of the special moves
and removing all the "nerfing". The consumption of force power for all specials as in
the base JA should prevent the abuse of same. Feedback from the players will be important in achieving balanced fighting, but I think this approach is much better than the one taken in JA where everyone is stripped of potential "skill" and forced to play at
"novice" levels.

The first release of Duelers/JA will have these "restorations" of fast and furious gameplay as well as the core features of Duelers/JO. Namely, admin functions, enhanced duel types, duel non-interference, anti-macro code, a clan password feature, and, lastly, enabling the standard game emotes in all gametypes, and including many  more emotes. Over time, I expect that Duelers/JA will grow to incorporate more of the features contained in Duelers/JO and, no doubt, some new features too! If you use Duelers/JA, I strongly encourage your feedback -- this feedback will drive the development of Duelers/JA.

Lee (oattes @ not4hire . net)