Jesus Christ guys, this community has been reverse engineering JJ2 for 18 years. You wanted sounds, you should have asked.

how did you import .j2l files to ue4?

@Sir Ementaler, you are the man!
We were not aware of this.
I guess we should get to creating videos soon.

Lukasz, we did not import any original files. We exported them as pictures, packed them in a texture set/atlas (then made some extra masks, material components, shader maps etc.) then imported them into Ue4, and made our assets based on that.

So basically its not possible to create new levels with tilenaps in this version right? But again at the same time, we can make a custom maps without botheribg with creating tilesets and just use them, right? Which also means we can also create light souce infront and back of the characters to have dynamic light?

This looks so beautiful. Please don't make this end up like an unfinished fan project :! .

@SAMI actually, Unreal 4 has a tileset editor(multi-layered), what makes it a lot easier to create a map, and anyone can make one, if they know how to use basic unreal 4.

@Jelly Jam we'll make no promises. We're working on other projects too, and most of them are paid.
But if we have the support, the inspiration and the time, we're gonna finish it of course!
And if we fail... well, it's in unreal 4, so anybody can continue the development.

so are you working on level editor inspired by jazz creation station in epic games launcher=unreal engine 4?

No Lukasz, the editor IS unreal 4, so a standalone level editor would be really unnecessary.

We've started to work on the different weapons. After the default blaster, the first one we've attempted was the TNT.

[IMG]http://s5.postimg.org/oaexo929z/TNT_7.gif[/IMG]
[IMG]http://s5.postimg.org/dov2c8vyf/TNT_6.gif[/IMG]
[IMG]http://s5.postimg.org/9i5mj66yv/TNT_9.gif[/IMG]

It has a custom particle effect for its explosion, but we tried to make it as similar to the original as possible.
They can also be chained, like in the original game (one TNT's explosion triggers the others in the explosion's range).

Since the TNT didn't have an upgraded version in JJ2, we're thinking about adding one, maybe a version that works like a proximity mine (detects nearby movement).
What do you think?

that's pretty amazing and custom carrotus map is very good idea.

Looks really good, everything seems to work fine except the rock physics. You can clearly see it stops once while being pushed by the explosion. Is it supposed to be like this? Oh, and the explosion animation, well, it seems a bit off. Maybe it should be less opaque? Just my opinion, feel free to argue with it, I don't mind.

That would be because there are two pieces of TNT placed on the same position and thus two explosions.

Well @Primpy, @Sir Ementaler is right, there were two charges by the rock.
But, yeah, I too feel that the explosion effect is a bit off. Unreal 4's Cascade particle system is amazing, but translucency is the weakest point of the whole engine. And the smoke is translucent.
Maybe this version is better(?):
[IMG]http://s5.postimg.org/xwd3iaitj/TNT_12.gif[/IMG]
It's fun to launch Jazz, gaussgun-like:
[IMG]http://s5.postimg.org/7a0mtbemf/TNT_10_Gauss.gif[/IMG]

Any opinions on the proximity bomb idea?

I think TNT already works kind of like a proximity bomb, with the caveat that it will explode anyway if nothing destructible comes close within whatever time it explodes after. Making that time unlimited would be useful in some cases, so that could be a nice powerup. On the other hand, it would make it impossible to use TNT to boost yourself in some direction, rocket jump-like, so that could be a disadvantage in some cases.

@Stijn hm... true. In that case, the proxybomb could ignore players but not bullets, so bullets could trigger explosions, even explosion chains.

Dude i love your fangame you should work on reverse engineering with jj1.

No, we have our projects.

So only you're reverse engineering jj2?

lukaszwhateveryournameis, please -- for the sake of our sanity -- please stay on-topic.

Anyway, as for the TNT powerup, perhaps allow custom detonation timers? (Tap for almost instant, hold for a little for regular length, hold for a while for unlimited)

barrel physics is amazing while shooting

Good idea, @Robo4900 !
Funny, my teammate's opinion is the same as yours.

My opinion is that the variable detonation timers should be the default, and the powerup could make the weapon even more useful.
The proximity idea is kinda boring, the charge already blows up if an enemy touches it, so it should be something more... awesome.

Like it could become physically active, or it could be thrown/launched, then stuck to the environment like a sticky bomb.

Or maybe something as simple as increased explosion radius? Anyway, can I play it or not?

I guess the question is to what extent you want to deviate from vanilla JJ2. TNT's explosions are relied on for some moves (see 8:40 in this video for example) which would be broken by pretty much any change more radical than changing the amount of damage the gun does. But if that's not a concern, stuff like making it a launched projectile or a sticky bomb could be a lot of fun.

Our main concept is to make it as fun as we can, and keep as many assets and mechanics as possible.

But there are a lot of things that need to be... modernized? Bah, that's an ugly word.
We want to balance it a bit. Like players could switch (with a button) between ammo upgrades. The reason for that would be because the upgraded ammo would cost double. By doing that, we could balance the pvp, and make ammo upgrades even more different from the original versions.

So if anybody has ideas about weapon changes, - especially veteran JJ2 players - share them with us.
If it's possible and reasonable, we'll implement it.

But we don't want to change the game's flow drastically, so keep that in mind.

You could make freezer not simply a glorified version of blaster. Give it unique behavior when shot, like shooting a blizzard for example. Also, I don't think enemy players should be able to break out of it manually.

Also pls nerf seekers.

Trey's right, Seekers are one of the biggest flaws of JJ2 MP. A power-up seeker is just horribly OP, even an unexperienced player can beat everyone's ass with it. As someone with not much MP experience (compared to the others), I think shortening the range of the seekers or lowering their precision (making them dodgeable) would nerf them.

IMO seekers should stay the way they are.

@Treylina what would be the behavior of the freezer bullets? That's tough...
More fluid-like, so it goes in an arch? Without 360° aim control that would be uncomfortable.
Or it could be like the toaster, but with bigger spread? So it would be short ranged, but very hard to dodge.
And the upgrade could change the bullet's form to become one bigger "ice-ball" or something, that goes forward, but as it goes it could become smaller and lose its power. So if you shot somebody quite far away, the enemy would stay in ice form for only a little time.

Anyway, to make it balanced, the original one should not freeze the enemy with a single shot. With the first successful shot, the enemy would slow down, the second would make it even slower, then the third one would freeze it solid.

And the upgraded one could make the enemy solid with its first shot AND physically active, like a statue. A statue that can receive damage. But falling damage would break it so the user must think fast.

As for the breaking out of it... It should be possible, but not easy. Like you could make yourself move a bit in ice form with jumps or something... that would be very funny.
Just imagine, frozen rabbits trying to flail to the next cliff to fall down and break out.

For the seekers, my idea is just to make them explode when shot in midair. So because of this, you couldn't just spam them any time, if somebody shoots it while it is still near you, you'll receive the damage/blast.
Hmm... and how about the upgraded seekers not exploding with the first hit with a bullet, but just getting derailed? The seeking mechanism would be instantly disabled and the seeker's direction flipped. Then its movement would slowly become more affected by gravity and it would go down in an arch.

[IMG]http://s5.postimg.org/87g8to4w7/Screen_Shot00162.png[/IMG]

So, with that you're probably only gonna shoot one seeker at a time, because if one explodes, the others just spread, become directionless by the first one's explosion.
So if you use upgraded seekers, you must know how to use them, or somebody with more experience could send them back to you.

All of these are just ideas, and we only want to implement the ideas that the players like, so feel free to discuss or criticize.

Yeah, it would act like toaster, but with bigger spread. I thought the powered version could have the projectiles stick around on the walls/floor for a while, along with a slighty longer range.

Anyway, I just had some ideas regarding sprite rotaion.

How about the players sprite rotating if they go on a slope? This would also influence the direction they shoot in. (lets stay, if you were running up 45 degree slope, you'd be shooting in that direction too).

I think seekers could rotate smoothly instead of using the 45 degree sprites, which looks kinda jerky.

The projectiles sticking around is a good idea. They could act like spikes on the floor/walls, hurting the player that walks into them, then disappearing (because the player crushed them). Of course if the projectile touched the player before touching the floor or walls, it could just freeze the player.

Sprite rotation would do more harm than good. We had a similar idea, but changing the shooting direction would make the game unpredictable (tiny changes in the floor's slope or moving objects could throw off the precision of shots).
We're still thinking about an analog aiming mechanism, but that would most likely be out of place as well. Maybe in another version.

The seekers will be able to rotate in any direction, there are no sprite movement limitations in Unreal 4.

Regarding freezer, maybe it should go in sinusoidal shape and upgrade could fire two at once creating DNA helix-like pattern.

Like in Mattrix film.

Like it already does, but more pronounced?

I suppose it could leave a transparent trail behind them in order to be more pronounced.

The trail behind the freezer bullet can be sinusoidal shaped, but if the bullets move in such a way... that would be inefficient.

So yeah, visually it may be a good idea, but not technically.

Well, I've seen such bullet patterns working in several SHMUPS (albeit of a space-y shippy kind not rabbitty one) so I think that as long as amplitude of the wave will be low (like 32 pixels or so), it'll both look cool and work well.

Anyway, since UE4 is basically a 3D engine, any chances of bonus stages making their return? I think this is the best thing about first JJ game and was kinda bummed out it wasn't in the second (though as a game developer myself I understand now why they did it).

I think increasing the area that the bullets can hit is good, but yeah, you don't want them to go up and down so much that they just explode against the floor. (So, the lowered gunspot while crouching is also a concern.)

I really want this to happen. Not to mention that JJ2 already has the 3D bunny animations.

CarpenterGeril any further progresses?

Carpaintergeril: It seems you know what you're doing and the results looks spectacular! And that's even if what was shown is a very early progress. If Epic Games were not entirely out of their mind, they would have followed what SEGA has (finally) done recently with Sonic Mania. And they would have hired you to develop a new classic, yet modern Jazz Jackrabbit game using UE4.