What is ^J Mod?

[PaTMaN]

Hey, this is PaTMaN. I had quite an AQ2 career starting back in October of 1998. I helped lead a clan for many years, was part of a jumping guild for a long time, and even put some admin time in for a few World OGL AQ2 ladders. I created a mod for AQ2 and here's some info on it.

^J Mod started off as a simple mod with some tools to help people practice jumps, for an old guild I was a part of called ^J. Since the mod's creation back in early 2002, it has grown into a very powerful tool for practicing jumps, teaching people how to do jumps, and even saving and sharing jumps. The major feature in this mod is the ability to record a player's movement and then play it back in real time. It's almost like recording a real demo, but you can then play the demo back while still in the game. This is done by using fake players called puppets. Hence the demos acquired the name of puppet demos. These puppet demos can be saved for loading later, just like real demos. You can even download any available puppet demos from public servers. Another great feature is called Trailing. With trailing, a player's movement is shown using a colored laser line. When a trail is made, you can use it as a guide for doing the same movement again. For example, if you make a hard jump, you can use the trail to guide you to making the jump again and eventually getting better at it. Trails can also be saved for later use and puppet demos can be converted into trails. Another feature is Jump Markers. These are small objects that are placed when a player jumps or falls, or can be set manually by the jump marker weapon. These markers can help guide you when making a jump. A text message can also be applied to the jump marker, so they are good for documenting how to go about hitting the marker directly and what to do for the next jump in the sequence. These also can be saved and shared just like puppet demos and trails.

There's many many more things to be found in ^J Mod. With version 1.22, there are over 90 new commands to use! This number is expected to grow with future versions.

I took a long break from ^J Mod when I left the US AQ2 community in August of 2004. I came back at the start of 2006 for old times sake and found myself being asked by multiple people to update ^J Mod and port it to Linux. I also found that people were using the mod to help make movies. With this in mind, I have changed the mod plans a little and am incorporating ideas from jumpers and movie makers alike.

So where do you get ^J Mod? You can find it at my website http://patman.has.it in the AQ2 ^J Mod section. You can also read the help file there which lists all the features, commands, and their use.

Sound interesting? Give it a try. I'm always open to suggestions and bug reports, which can be submitted in the general suggestion thread, and the bug list thread for the most current release version.

I have to say thanks to Caracol, for bringing me back to ^J Mod, AQ2World and Den, for hooking me up with this cool forum, and everyone who has ever given me ideas, bug reports, and general support. I am now making this mod for this community, so your voices will be heard!