Jedi Academy Empire
Jedi Academy Empire (JAE) is an open source server-side administration mod developed by cHoSeN oNe that started developement in 2005 and was released in April 2006.
Overview
"This mod was created initially for the Jedi Academy. The JAE Mod is a server-side only modification designed administrate a server with ease. It is loaded with Admin Commands, Client Commands, Server Options and cVars; Extremely modified to meet any clans and admins expectations. This is truly the only mod you will ever need to get that doesn't alter the normal game play of Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy®. Please visit us at http://jamod.jk3files.com, or on IRC at #jae @ irc.quakenet.org." - Documentation
The mod is designed with admins and clans in mind and is filled with admin commands to make server control very easy. It's divided into 2 sub-admin levels: admin and knight and while it lacks many of the common gameplay features of other mods, it is much tidier and has extra emphasis on addressing bugs, communication and administration and has many features that other admin mods lack.
History
The mod was adopted by The Jedi Academy and cHoSeN oNe retained his position on the Jedi Academy Council to oversee developement and cater it to the academy's needs.
Pre-release
The mod went through extensive testing before finally being released at version 1.0. A forum was setup at The Jedi Academy which received a large amount of feedback, various clans volunteered to test it thoroughly for bugs and many aided in the open beta tests.
Version 1.0
There was a large amount of confusion upon the mod's release in April 2006 regarding its gameplay. Like other modifications, JAE typically changes the gameplay from the original game in some way regardless of whether there has been any modification to the gameplay code.
cHoSeN oNe denied this claiming not to have made any gameplay changes but received a wide amount of criticism. In order to prove the criticism, four servers were setup. Several individuals volunteered to hop between a server with basejka and a server with JAE hosted on the same operating system and noticed very significant differences in the attacking, blocking and parrying of the saber system. A further test was conducted between the JAE server and two other JAE servers hosted on different operating systems and there was reportedly a significant difference in JAE's performance across different operating systems, but worked most closely to basejka under Wine.
It's been suggested that this is caused by using a different compiler, however cHoSeN oNe made every effort to replicate the compiler and compile options and still received criticism. The author eventually concluded with the assumption that the code of the Software Developement Kit did not accurately match the code of the original gameplay code and added in a gameplay configuration to allow people to tweak it themselves.
This release of the mod saw praise for being tidy, smooth, efficient and open source but lacked the features of many other admin mods and apart from some notable new server settings only included the very basics required for administration and education such as the kick, ban, slap and protect commands and several emotes.
Version 1.01
This version of the mod, released in January 2007, saw the inclusion of gameplay damage modifiers, some new emotes and notably a new warning system based off MultiPlayer Xtra which allows an admin to warn a player a set amount of times before they are ultimately kicked or banned. This hoped to reduce over-leniancy in admins. There was difficulty reported in accessing the source code from this version onwards due to the author working on the next version, however cHoSeN oNe stated in the comments "If you need the source for your mod, I can email it to you as well."
Version 1.02
Released in September 2007, this version included time tracking in duels, admin-only servers, updates to the saber damage CVars, the ability to connect to the server with the admin password in order to login, shortcuts for using admin say and a security fix preventing amsay typos "amsay" and "?amsay" from being processed as regular chat. There has still been difficulty reported in accessing the source code in this version.
Open Source
"The JAE mod source was completely refactored in order to allow mods to be created dynamically from it. With little to no editing of the basejk or JAE Mod source, you will be able to create a fully customizable mod by following a certain architectural structure." - Documentation
One of the most exciting aspects of this project was that it was announced to be open source. The source was accessible for the first version but people had difficulty accessing it from version 1.01. The author, however, has stated that they will be willing to e-mail it if needed.
Features
- Various Admin and Knight commands
- Logging of player IP when player connects to the server. Logging happens in the following format: mlog_ClientConnect: <player client id> '<player name>' -> '<player ip>'
- Logging of Admin and Knight commands. Every command will be logged in the following format: mlog_command <playername>
- Removed the 2 player at a time duel limit.
- Sabers don't automatically ignite at the start of a duel.
- When player wins a duel, they receive their pre-duel health and shields back.
- Typing !motd or !rules when in any chat mode shows the motd to the player who said it.
- Typing !version or !author when in any chat mode shows the version number and author.
- Typing !home or !web when in any chat mode shows the JA home page link.
- Typing !license or !about when in any chat mode shows the license and JAE mod information.
- Rcon command "cvar_restart" now resets all JAE mod cvars back to the defaults, except admin passwords.
- Clients can now automatically log into the server with admin access if admin password is supplied instead of the server password.
- Clients can have Admin Only servers if g_password matches any of the passwords defined for g_mAdminPassword or g_mKnightPassword.
- Applied MAX_VEHICLES fix to be 64 instead of 16.
- Unable to lame bots in a private duel when bot_honorableduelacceptance is enabled.
- Private duels can continue if the server timelimit has been met. No new duels can be initiated. Thanks to lmo.
- amsay or ?amsay when in any chat mode will go directly into admin chat. Now your chat will go to the right people in case of a typo
Version 1.0
- Source Code available via Subversion
- Built off of the Jedi Academy Mod for Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast.
- New documentation rewritten and verified in XHTML 1.0
- Rank name automatically appended to names for chatting.
- Admin levels use shared command names.
- All new emotes
- Custom chat colors
- Fixed buffer overflow in amsay.
- Completely refactored code base to increase speed and overall optimizations.
- New commands !about, !license to view the terms of the software.
- Fixed security issue with viewing the rconPassword using the mvstr command.
- Windows binaries and Linux shared objects are packaged together
Version 1.01
- Refactored some code having to do with the saber damage cvars.
- Linux Makefile has been revamped to mirror the one originally created by Raven Software. Raven Makefile is also included with the source code.
- Project has been upgraded to compile in Visual Studio 2005. VS 2002 and 2003 projects still exist.
- Over 10 new bugfixes applied from authors in LucasForums. Author credit is commented in the code.
- New emsit4, emsit5, and emsit6 emotes so you can sit proper in those chairs. That is a total of 20 emotes in all.
- New g_mPSayMode CVar to control the location of the private chat messages.
- New warning system based on the idea introduced by MultiPlayer Xtra mod.
- Re-added g_mSaberDMGIdle and g_mSaberDMGThrow CVars to better control the saber system should it deviate from basejk.
- New CVars g_mDuelTimer and g_mDuelTimerWait to control the waiting period a client needs to wait between another private duel.
- New Cvar g_mBanFile to signify the name of the file you want to save the banned IP addresses in.
Version 1.02
- New CVar g_mAdminLoginControl allows specific settings for restricting the clients that are authorized to enter your server without the hassle of altering passwords all the time. Great for clan servers.
- New Saber Damage Amplifier CVars - to fully adjust your saber combat to the extent it needs should you prefer a different feel to your server.
- @ allows you to do admin chat directly from any chat mode.
- Time can now be tracked during private duels.
Emotes
Emotes are done by typing the appropriate command in the console.
- emsit
- Performs a sitting animation.
- emsit2
- Performs a laidback sitting animation.
- emsit3
- Performs yet another sitting animation.
- emwait
- Clamps your hands behind your back. Player is able to move.
- emsurrender
- Puts your hands up in the air. Player is able to move.
- emsorrow
- Places the character at a sorrowful animation, kneeling on the ground.
- emhonor
- Places the character at a honorable animation, kneeling before their master.
- emnod
- The player nods their head.
- emshake
- The player shakes their head.
- empraise
- The player raises the roof.
- emattenhut
- The player stands at attention.
- emcrossarms
- The player leans against an entity with their arms crossed.
- emalora
- The player executes the Alora taunt from SP mode.
- emthrow
- The player randomly throws the saber in two different directions.
- emtavion
- The player executes the Tavion taunt from SP mode.
- empoint
- The player points in a general direction.
- emcomeon
- The player motions the other client to come here.