News from the Office of the Proconsul of Clan Naga Sadow #10

Battlelord Xanos Goatham Zorrixor

6th April 2002

Bow

Headline

Something I stick the top to get it read...

Students are all listed out in an attached list, if you want one, email them and CC me, simple as that.

Introduction

Well its been a somewhat dismal week, mainly to do with the issues revolving around recruiting which i'm sure you're all aware of. This has drained all of my time trying to sort out the multiple issues which have arrisen as a result, so i've been unable to do a lot of what I wanted to do this week.

On the brighter side of things I put together a basic PCON site yesterday, its nothing special, my HTML skills suck, and it doesn't have much finished information, but its got the Clan Manual, the Activity Points Scheme details and the Academy Roster, so should be all thats needed, i'll be posting my reports up there also.

News

• Jedi Knight II released, go buy it now!

• Dark Jedi Knight Magus appointed Quaestor of Primus Goluud.

• Dark Adept Mejas joins Marka Ragnos.

• Headmaster position open.

• Belzedar appointed Chancellor.

• Proconsul site is released, tempoary until Clan site is finished.

Projects

Clan Website

The clan websites currently in production phase therefore under the project heading of my report, Sildrin is doing the majority of the work on it, i'm just giving ideas on what to put in it, from what I gather it should hopefully be finished this week.

Reports

• Dark Forge Academy Headmaster Report

  • Office of the Primus
    

• News

The Elite Battleteam remains at 10 members strong, I'm still waiting on people wanting to be the open Sith and Obelisk Guardsmen spots, if nobody applies they'll remain open until further notice.

Roster

• Primus Xanos Goatham Zorrixor

• Sith Inceptor Abel Malik

• Sith Inceptor Carl Lost

• Sith Inceptor DujHoD

• Sith Inceptor TBA

• Krath Inceptor Ghost Angel

• Krath Inceptor Kant Lavar

• Krath Inceptor Tomaas Banys

• Krath Inceptor Dr. Fox

• Obelisk Inceptor Glorfindel

• Obelisk Inceptor Magus Lionheart

• Obelisk Inceptor Thrawn Kratas

• Obelisk Inceptor TBA

• Office of the High Master

  • News
    

Well, I was hoping to get the Students assigned this week, but due to all the recruiting stuff thats wasted my time I've not been able to do what I should be doing instead...I will endevour to get Students assigned this week, for now...

A list of Students is attached, feel free to take one and email me your choice.

• Office of the Headmaster
  

Well HLK has adapted to the new system so I'm glad, may be somewhat weird to start adding new points on top of the old, but I'm sure Scithe'll be able to cope when it comes to making sorta, guesses at when people have broken a suitable number of points for a promotion.

As for HMR and HPG, with a new HPG QUA in place its time to start getting to work on installing the systems in both houses, it shouldn't take much work, just a bit of discpline from the summit to adapt to it i guess. With some hope, this'll be running by next week.

Additional News

Well I said I'd review Jedi Knight II, so I guess i'll write a quick review just to give people some kinda rundown of it.

First things first, when buying this I'd recommend not setting your hopes too high. Its a good game, but its in many ways different to JKI, though again its in many ways similar to JKI. But think of it as an evolution rather than a sequel, saber combat has been greatly changed, and if you're expecting a complete replay of JKI you'll be disappointed, as its quite different in play.

Graphics: 9

I would say 10, as they are great graphics, but after games like Wolfenstein and Medal of Honour they do look a little less interesting. If anything the main problem with the graphics isn't the actual asthetical appearances of them, they do look very nice. The problem is that they need one hell of a fast computer to run on, so if you've not got a fair top quality machine you're likely to experience some run-tme problems if you try playing it on the top graphics settings.

The only letdown really with the asthetical side is that of the facial expressions, the teeth look...weird and the faces look rather bland, but its only a minor thing. I found myself too interested in what they were saying to care what they looked like.

Theres loads of extras too, like you can lob limbs off (and with a cheat you can deactivate the protection and change it back to how the developers wanted it before it was censored, basically...chop any limb off that you slash at, even heads, and make the saber its true power...it is a laser beam after all, nothings going to take more than one or two slashes before its lobbed off).

The weapons look rather sweet, the force powers are pretty good looking, so in the sense of weapons everythings good nice effects.

The levels though, they're nice but...do get a bit bland. For instance on the imperial levels you often find yourself running around in circles because the textures seem reused, but i guess its probably how a base would be. The amount of actual modelled scenary far makes up for the plain 'grey walls' that cover practically every place in an imperial installation.

Sound 10

The sound in this game has to be one of its best parts. Its a rarity that I find that a voice over is good, but this game actually has decent voice overs, at least as good as a game can get. If anything what pulls up this score is the actual extras in game, like if you sneak up on a couple of stormtroopers you can often listen in to conversations, they talk about rather meaningless stuff at times like Massassi Lanvarok weapons, which is quite interesting.

The music is implemented very well for a change, usually a SW game just has boring music from the films replayed over, and over, and over again. The themes from levels back in JK return, Nar Shaddaa hasn't changed a lot. But the music from the films thats put on certain levels actually sounds really good. For instance, though this is a bit of a spoiler, on the last level you hear the music of when Luke was confronting the Emperor for the last time, which fits the scene and the plot perfectly.

Gameplay

Singleplayer 7-10

I say 6-10 because it really does depend on what YOU like personally. Myself, I love the SP game, its easily replayable, the heaps of hidden easter-egg cheats add to the game brilliantly, and when people start making some decent mods and some add-on levels this game will easily surpass JK and MotS. The AI is excellent, the enemies actually seem like they're fighting for their life for once not just stand there and shoot, they dodge, they run, if you kill the commanding officers they leg it. Its actually realistic to an extent for once.

The bad part, are the puzzles. Many people get angry because they just cannot get past the puzzles, I had the same problem in places of the game. But...I find two things with this. If you skip the cutscenes, like many do, you get lost in the levels not knowing what to do, so people that get lost due to that really have themself to blame. But there are certain levels wher you're looking for hours trying to find a tiny little hidden tunnel underwater that you never thought of. Once you find it you smack yourself for being so dumb, but it still can get annoying.

So thats why I say 7-10, personally I think people are just being too harsh on JKII. They're comparing it not to JKI, but to the hundreds of add-on missions people have made, which is unfair. The original JK was annoying at times, trying to find a secret passage, so if you don't let the mods that you've play cloud your mind, it is good.

Multiplayer 0 or 10

Yes, here I really am saying a lot, not 0 to 10, but 0 or 10. MP in this game can either rock or suck like hell. If all you've got is a 56k you may as well not bother, I don't. Many servers have started to kick or ban anybody that has a 56k because the lag skyrockets. When browsing the servers I've found pings of around 350, thats my best, but when i join it immediately doubles to 700 and well, thats the end, its not possible.

I've read even cable is poor to play on, pretty much you need a top connection to stand a chance of running a decent game of JK MP, so if you've got a 56k don't expect a pretty experience.

However, you can still play against bots. Which is fun. They're actually very good, its taken me a while to get past them, theres five levels Initiate, Padawan, Jedi, Jedi Knight, Jedi Master. I've got up to Jedi, but originally even the Initiates kicked my ass badly. Its a case of learning the new force powers, which by the way rock. I actually pray somebody makes a mod to add the MP powers to SP, as they truely rock. For a Dark Sider if you've got Drain and Rage you're ready to kill everybody, Drain takes away their force power and adds to your health, Rage them sends you into a fury of speed and power, yet drains your health...but you've got Drain to get it back, so you're a killing machine.

So multiplayer can be 10, and will easily take off like JK did, its got loads of tactics, sabering works, or just walking around with a heavy repeater, or alternativelly you can join a no-force match, so theres no force sight, find a spot to take up sniping, just charge the rifle up and its one shot, goodnight.

One extra to add here, the double-bladed saber cheat. Yep, they stuck it in. Sadly, its only on a cheat-enabled server (which i think only allows bots) and its more a mod than a real extra, as like any JK mods the saber still slices through you, but hopefully someday somebody will made a real mod for it....after all, with THIS being in the game as it is, if gives people something higher to aim for.

Story 8

The story is good, I was thinking of giving it a 10, but i knocked 2 off on account of thats its not the most original of stories. Pretty much if you get DF, get JK, stick them in a pot and mix it up a bit you've got JO. But it is a damn fine plot, in my oppinion its the best of all three games, and for a Dark Sider i do like how far the Empire got...though I wish Katarn had failed myself :P As it was practically one step away from the Republic being toast :P

Overall 8-10

Overall i'll give it an 8 to 10, depending on how you feel. Theres the puzzle problem and the MP problems that really lower the score a bit. Putting aside these its good, if you don't judge it like you judge JK now its definately a 10. However, its hard to do that, as we all don't think of JK as it is, we think of JK with about 300 mods stuck onto it to enhance it a million times, so compared to that its not that much of a huge change. But it is good, and in a few months, with some mods, will rock.

Conclusion

Well thats it for this week, go buy JK2 >:P

Signed and sealed on this day,

In service to the Empire,

Admiral Zorrixor

Proconsul of Naga Sadow

= Admiral Zorrixor, Command Attache to the Logistics Officer =

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