JKMAG Guns Sect News

Here you will find any news tidbits I felt would be of interest to JKMAG gunners...

Got news? Email it to Eddy Currents

It's been a looong time since I updated this, but I'm not going to apologize, 'cause there just hasn't been that much guns specific stuff to tell... 'til now. JKMAG is accepting members again, and so I have updated the guns sect member list. Welcome new members! Cya online, and happy blasting. Let's show them saber wielding wannabes what a real weapon looks like. :=) (I can say this 'cause Cuda is a good friend of mine, and we all remember what the score was in our last few saber matches, eh Cuda? =) ).

Wow, has it been that long since I updated this? I guess it's time I said something, for my legions of fans who tune in daily with sweaty palms eagerly awaiting the latest pearls of knowledge to drip from my fingers... ok, all of you can stop with the letters, and the stalking, here goes:

Need to get rid of DirectX6? A lot of people have been having problems with it. The problems are mostly framerate related, where your framerate will start to stutter but JK will still tell you (when you go t, framerate, or t, tab, framerate) that your framerate is fine. It's the video card dying, not JK. Anyhow, go here. The description is for DirectX5, but it works for DirectX6 as well. It did for me.

If you have been keeping up with the main site we have a levels section, run by Chyren. I am on the level review team, and we will slowly start to consolidate the levels we have elsewhere and put them there. These level reviews are more on how the level plays, not so much on how it looks (like most of the other reviews out there). So getting 4 of us together to look at a new level and give it a good test is hard, since we are all in different time zones and in several different countries. Which is kinda cool, when you think about it. Also, we are still looking for a new webmaster, if you are interested email me, or Zeus, or Torplex Tark.

More on the UGP -- played a couple more games, and it seems to run fine for the first few levels, then craps out at Frag Factory and especially Cardia 2 SE. Cog interference perhaps...? Or DirectX6?

I played another game with the UGP and I and the other guy got a crash after a couple minutes. This is the first time I have had any problems. If anyone has tried out the UGP and has any stories to tell (worked? didn't work??) please email me...

I found a few more broken links and fixed them. Unfortunately they still go nowhere, but our fearless leader, Torplex Tark, is working on that (the ladder and new member app and stuff). And best of all, our main man Jedi Master Griffen has updated the member list with a bunch of new members. I added the gunners to the member list here. More fraggin' fun, add 'em and start shooting. Make sure you try out the Ultimate Guns Pack, it rocks.

I updated the files section to fix the links broken from the move. And make sure you get Tiberius' kicker helper, damn that's a great program. You can kick ASCII cheaters in seconds, and you are safe from most hacks. You can also use it if you want to do other things while waiting for people to join your game. To see if anyone has joined yet, rather than alt-tabbing to JK you can just click on "Check Player Names". I never play JK without it.

First day in our new home! Finally Tark got most of the stuff working. Haven't got the message boards working yet. Lots of news to update, but I don't have time right now. :-P I'll be back later, never fear...

There are a few strategy guides you should check out if you are into that sort of thing. There is mine, of course, see the link in the Files section. There is a new one Battleground Jedi which looks pretty good and is well laid out, but there isn't much there (yet) and he is wrong in a couple places. Like: like the amount of force for Protection isn't always 55%, it varies depending on how much force you have left. Light sabers aren't random, you have to learn to predict them in laggy games. The stormtrooper rifle isn't useless, it stuns the other guy for a bit so if you back him into a corner he can't escape, especially if you are power boosted. Force Throw isn't great, but it isn't useless -- it works great against saberists or protection users, especially when you have a dark surge, just back up so you have a bunch of boxes on your screen, hold the key down til you get the red circles, then pulse it. You get an incredible rate of fire, and you'll toss those boxes around so fast they become a blur. Oh well, not everyone is as wise as me, it's a cross I have to bear. :-) The JK Multiplayer Guide looks awfully familiar. Take a look, maybe I should sue for copyright infringement? Nah, he probably doesn't have any money. At least he credits me in there. And the JK Outpost strategy section has a ton of miscellaneous tips submitted from people. They aren't organized though, and I didn't see any really new ones there.

If you haven't been keeping up with the JK Kicker Helper from Marko (or Tiberius) you gotta. The latest version has protection against Fade and Delete hacks, plus a way to recover from Disco and Flood hacks against the map, and flying hacks against you. Renaming ASCII cheaters permanently works only for the host, but the rest of them work for everyone. Check out the link at the bottom of the Files section.

My God, I'm 30 today. The shock of it. My life is half over, I'm going downhill fast. My fingers are already aching from typing -- it must be the rheumatiz setting in. Man, most of you guys were in diapers when Star Wars first came out, I remember it like it was yesterday. The theatre I saw it in is a supermarket now, and the original black and white version has been colorized with new special effects and a wee baby Jabba. Now I feel really old... can you pass me an aspirin, it's behind my Geritol. Although, I kicked young Jedi butt all over the Zone this weekend, maybe I still have a few good years in me yet.

We have a volunteer to maintain the member list so we should be seeing new members (a lot!) on the main member list soon. Once they show up there I can start adding them to the Guns Sect list here. I handle the incoming JKMAG applications and I can tell you we get at least 80 applications per week (!). Not all of them we approve, of course (we look at a few things, but mostly whether they seem serious and willing to play JK often, with new levels) but that still makes for a lot of new members in the last month. Get ready for your ICQ to take a hit. Well, we warned you right on the application form, so no whining. You want lots of people to play against, right?

Tiberius has revised his JK Kicker Helper (supports up to 8 players now) and created a web site for it. He posted it to the jk.net news. All thanks to yours truly for getting after him to share it with the world. No, no, don't send money, your simple gratitude is enough. You can go to the Files Section here for the link.

Jedi Master Griffen has stepped up to updating the member list. Poor bastard. =) As soon as he updates the main list I will start adding members to the guns sect member list.

A friend of mine sent me a file created by a friend of his, Tiberius. It allows you (the host) to rename players during a game of JK. You alt-Tab to it while JK is running, and then press a button, then it grabs the names of everyone in your game, then you can press another button to rename them to "2" or "3" etc., then you can alt-Tab back to JK and kick them. No more ASCII charts! I have tested it and it works. It has become a permanent part of my JK toolbox for whenever I play the Zone (aka Hacker Haven). You can find the file in the Files section.
---Right after I posted this I got a message back from Tiberius. I asked him why he didn't post it to jk.net news, and he said he wrote it a couple months ago and passed it to some friends, then had pretty much forgotten about it. He didn't want to send it to jk.net then in case someone figured out a way to block it (that would be blocking the kicker, hehe). Now he figures it's ok to pass around, but he wants to fix it up a bit and send it to jk.net himself in a couple days or so. I said no problem -- so I removed the file for now. Sorry all, but I don't want anyone stealing his Thunder. It should be coming out in a day or so anyhow, if you really want it email me and I can send it to you.

Also, I revised my multiplayer FAQ, Confessions of a Light Jedi. They posted it in todays news at jk.net, and I put a link to it in the Files section.

In the JKMAG message board you may have seen Torplex Tark's plea for help in maintaining the JKMAG member list. I do the initial replies, but we need someone to add the members who sent confirmed replies to the member list. If you are interested contact me or another JKMAG staffer.

The Ultimate Guns Pack is out! See the files section to get it. From Cruel Phate's Message Board post:
Yes, I finally was satisfied with the pack, and it's out! Torplex was also very near done with his packs, so those should be out soon. The file is 1.8mb, it has 13 levels in one gob, named a LONG time ago, all of the original readme's in a single zip, and a readme for the pack gives credit to all of the authors and such.

I am back from vacation. Didn't know I was gone? Now I am crushed. Anyhow, I gotta go on a business trip (real life intrusion) for a couple days. Not much news to report other than that, yet...

I updated the files section, at last, with most of the best guns levels I have played. Just hyperlinks to where the guns levels are kept for now, but it keeps them all in one place. Soon we will have the JKMAG levels pack in there (the BMP? ULP? any other snazzy names?).

In a fit of temporary insanity I played a few games on the Zone tonight. Just as I remember it, there was at least one hacker in every bloody one. No wonder everyone wants to join JKMAG. I have come to my senses, no more Zone for me. I did find one really good player though, the first guy I have met on there who could beat me (and he thumped me good too). I would have invited him to join JKMAG but a hacker crashed the game first. Figures. Half the games on there say they are for hackers, why don't these nutless wonders go there? Grump grump.

Yup, more members.

I have played a few games on the Jediboard with the Anticheat patch, no cheaters at all. Like a breath of fresh air (ahhh).

Cruel Phate has announced the Big Mappy Pack, or Ultimate Level Pack, or whatever we are going to call it, is almost ready. In case you hadn't heard, it will have the top rated JKMAG gun levels all in one pack. This will be awesome, you can use rotating levels, and be sure people have the same levels you do. Also, it will incorporate Pele's Anticheat patch, so cheaters are SOL.

Even more members added to the members section.

More members added to the members section.

I added the first batch of new members to the members section. If you see your name there, check to see if the information is correct. If you don't see your name there, don't panic, give us another couple days, then panic.

Looks like the Infiltrate designers will be fixing some of the problems. Good news.

Infiltrate is out! Check the news at www.jediknight.net for the link. I have played a few games already, it's a hoot. As a team game, I like it better than Capture the Flag (CTF), because with CTF once both flags are picked up, there is only one thing to do, go find and kill the guy with your flag. With Infiltrate there is always lots to do -- defend your base, fix up your base, go attack theirs, or go kill someone. :-) And there is one new weapon and two new force powers. You can't destroy their base with guns though, you must use saber. :-(

There is a lot of interest so far in this TC (total conversion) because of its depth. We will probably will be creating a new JKMAG sect, like the Manowar sect. Any interest in running it? Email me or someone else on the JKMAG staff.

The Guns Sect is almost ready. Please bear with us, we will start adding members to the members page soon. We are going to add another step in the membership registration process, where we ask you to reply to a confirmation email. The idea of this is to keep the membership to those people who are truly interested.

Good news! (cause no news is good news)