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| 4.5.1: Introduction -Janus - Apr 18 06:56pm | |
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First I’d like to thank the JA and NOC community for all of their support. Without all of you, I would not be where I am in the Jedi Academy today. This article is dedicated to the JA, The Aurochs, and the NOC. Please come, sit down, and get relaxed. I’m going to spin you a tale dealing with a new era in the Star Wars Universe, the Jedi Academy Era. Beginning in October of 2003, Jedi Academy was released to the world, and with it a new generation of Jedi and Sith have been borne. One of the new features within the game was the ability to fight with Dual Sabers (a la Anakin in Episode 2) and the Double-Bladed Saber Staff (stemming from Darth Maul’s use in Episode 1). Gone are the days of just Single Saber dueling. Now there are 3 different styles (5 if you count Single Saber’s 3 forms, Blue/Yellow/Red) that JA users can pick from. My article will focus on the Saber Staff’s history in the JA universe beginning in October of last year coming up and through March of 2004. For those who read this and are interested in wielding such a fine weapon, I’ve included after the article my tutorial for getting started with the basics behind the Saber Staff. Without further ado… The month of October during the year 2003 brought forth into the world of gaming Jedi Academy. Being a fan of Jedi Knight, and having my newly acquired Cable connection, I was eager for a Star Wars game. Upon purchasing Jedi Academy I saw that not only were Single Sabers used, but also that of Dual and Staff sabers! Being a fan of Darth Maul (although Jedi at heart), I took it upon myself to learn the ways of the staff. Little did I know what I was getting myself into... Within a week worth of time, both the Dual and Staff sabers were being crowned cheesy, too easy to use, noob sticks, and about 15-50 other negative names in which I spare you. Not good considering such a short time. The use of the preanimated movement, also known as a kata being used over and over again (defined as spamming) was polluting the chances of Staff saber becoming an accepted means of dueling. Fear not, for there IS a light at the end of this tunnel. Through the months of November and December I spent about 95% of my time inside the Jedi Academy Home server, meeting new people, learning the ways, and honing my skills using nothing but the Staff Saber. There were others like me, and a few people in particular showed me that there was more to Staff dueling than randomness and luck. Even with all these positives, the complaints of damage being dealt by a Staff in comparison to other sabers was a hot topic, and the hopes of a patch were on the wish-lists of everyone. January rolled around and once the patch hit, a change of Staff saber damage was not to be found. The end of December, going into January and February were months used in digging deep into the art of the Staff, analyzing the moves and timings. Here I will focus a little more of the article. Dueling with a Staff saber, Dual sabers, or a Single saber all involves the same thing, timings and animation. With the focus of the Staff, I noticed that animations for everything the Staff had were in a flowing-like manner. One move would spin into another move which spun into another and another and so forth. The key was to control with a nice mixture of mouse and keyboard directions the flow of the animations towards an opponent exactly when they were susceptible to a hit. Where the Single saber styles of Yellow and Red have a defined amount of times the saber can be swung, Staff can go on and on with no end. The point here is that even though chaotic in nature, controlling the Staff after analyzing it isn’t as hard as some make it out to be. This had to be the ultimate light bulb going off, because I was able to understand the Staff and how it should be used. Still to this day the names the Staff saber are called continue, and with each time I defend it to it’s fullest. This is partially some Staffers’ fault, and some of it is the need of other people to ridicule something they don’t understand. Why blame the Staffers? For one when you see them repeat the same move over and over and sort of “cheese” win, it really doesn’t look like skill, and it looks more like a lucky randomness win. I can see where frustration kicks in, but don’t ridicule them, instead let them know there are other ways of dueling than the ways they are using. If I happen to observe this, and I confront you about it, please allow me to help you out. I love showing people how this “Staff” works, and I love to teach. That is why I am including the tutorial for this article, just as a means to get the tastebuds wet and thirsty for more. The beginning tutorials are listed below and will help anyone starting with the Staff able to see what the animations look like and how to perform them with the directions instructed. I'm still forming more advanced lessons with the staff, most of which consists of timing attacks to coincide with other users. I’m pretty familiar with the techniques, but being able to explain them, and produce the same results without error can be difficult over and over again. Bear with me though, once I get down how teach and effectively communicate this and see the same results, you all will be the first to know. Ok, think I've said what has needed to be said about the Saber Staff at this time. I will continue to back the Staff Saber 150% and will look to add to this article as time passed on. MANY thanks for allowing me the opportunity to express my views and for all of you who’ve read this. I hope everyone gets something out of this. Take care, May The Force Be With You. Janus Team Member of Jedi Academy Aurochs Jedi Master of the Nation Of Chaos |
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| Comments |
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{JASA}GhosT - Student 
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Thats awesome Janus ... thats so cool lol  I hope to learn alot from you with staff during my time in JA |
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Apoc[JAS] - Student ![Apoc[JAS]](/image_thumbnail.php?f_type=users&f_width=70&f_height=67&f_image=3463.gif&f_odd=1)
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oh.. YOU notice that... lol... |
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lemmings47 - Ex-Student |
hi, when i was playing with the staff once i noticed that by pressing the scroll bar in, it shortens the blade to only 1 blade. just like a normal saber. this may not be to helpful, but i thought i would add it anyway. Cheers Lemmings47 _______________ ~live by the saber~Die by the saber~ To know the force is to know existence. |
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