ForceMod III Classic Edition - Version 1.3A Basic

Description
Well its been a while since the last version of Force Mod III Classic Edition was released, but now Venomous^Heart is back with an update. Below is a snippet from the readme which explains the new updates since the last version:

[quote]Version 1.3A Changes (from Version 1.3)

- Corrected Ki-Adi-Mundo form style ability by only providing wall grip ability (with no wall run and wall flip.

- Corrected some name form spellings in the Melee 1 Chart located in the Saber Menu section.

- Restricted Hirmans models to their proper class selections for Sith & Jedi.



Version 1.3 Changes (from Version 1.2)

- Expanded the Dual Sabers selections section. You can now choose up to 12 saber hilts for either saber1 or saber2.

- Added Saber powers 1-3 section in Saber menu for saber classes that do not specialize in level 4 saber (Warden, Sentinel, Cardinal, Crypt Guardian)

- Anakin style was added as an additional Djem So form.

- Removed the forced spectate mode between class changes.

- The "1" key was reactivated for use with key binds.

- For balancing purposes several melee modifications were made for various saber forms and classes (please consult in-game Melee Charts)

- Added Hirman's Darth Bane, Darth Plagueis, Asajj Ventress, Ahsoka Tano, Cad Bane, and AT-RT Driver skins

- Added Zkyo's Ingame Server Join Menu.

- Some saber animation place-holders were changed back from OJP version to FM3 defaults due to ongoing modifications and improvements.

- To make room for the new Menu modifications the Fourth Person along with Zoom-In and Zoom-out were removed from the Xbinds section.[/quote]

For those of you unfamiliar with the mod, it is a massive and far reaching project which changes many aspects of gameplay, from saber selection and combat, character classes and some fantastic little features available via the ingame menu, which I will come to later.

All you need to do is look at the saber selection menu and the incredible amount of detail which has gone into it, with melee damage charts for the various types of weapons. Add to that new saber colours and a whole new saber selection interface and it makes for an amazing change, though the complicated looking damage tables will not appeal to everyone. Check out the screenies below for an example. There have also been some changes to the force power menu, with several force powers now having a 'level 4', or turning the force up to 11 you could say. :P Force jump in particular on power level 4 now allows you to jump huge distances. These level 4 powers obviously cost a large amount of points to purchase however!

As for character selection, as in Movie Battles II there is a wide variety of different characters to choose from ranging across several different classes, such as Jedi, Sith, Mercenary, Droid and more, with models and skins made by top notch modders.

Now onto the features that I was the most impressed with; take a look at the ingame menu and you will see a variety of new options, one of my favourites being the Music menu, which allows you to choose from a variety of Star Wars music, depending on your mood or what you may be doing; using something more dramatic if you are having a duel for example, or perhaps if you don’t like the music used on a particular map you are on, you can pick from this list something which you would prefer to listen to whilst exploring or playing, or maybe just as a bit of ambience. Other features include a bonus button menu, which allows you to hide or show things like your FPS, the HUD, whether or not you want to render the weapon models, etc. which is great for taking good screenshots. I wish there was a mod like this for base JKA, it would save a load of faffing around using the /cg_draw2d and /cg_drawgun commands all the time to get good screenies! XD

Another cool feature which is great for both taking screenshots and adjusting your view ingame is the aptly named Views menu, which lets you adjust things like your field of view, and also rotating the camera around your player using slider bars, another cool feature for taking screenshots, especially of skins, like the bonus button menu, this would actually be a great feature for helping the process of taking screenshots of skins for when I am reviewing them. Rather than having to use the modelview.cfg method, which although it works fine, it would still be nice to have a graphical user interface to change the camera position.

Then there’s the Optimization menu, which allows you to either choose from a selection of pre-sets, or adjust settings via slider bars to help you optimize your connection and squeeze better ping, and thus less lag out of the game whilst playing online.

These are some absolutely fantastic features, and I would love to see these made into separate mods for base JKA, if they haven’t been already, and if they have, please tell me where to get them!

There are of course many more features to discover and much more depth to this mod than I have been able to cover here, but I hoped I have managed to touch on some of the most interesting and unique ones. This mod is definitely worth a download for those of you interested in a fantastic Multiplayer mod with loads of great features and a distinguished history, keep up the good work Venomous^Heart!

~Nozyspy~