[Axem]

Just what is Just Another Day?

Just Another Day is a series of funny and silly little adventures for FreeSpace 2 Open that I hope you'll enjoy.

The makeup of JAD is a little convoluted, so bear with me.

Hidden Text: Click SHOW to learn more! • Show

There's 2 main series of JAD. The completed original trilogy and the in progress JAD2.2 trilogy.

The original trilogy, Just Another Day, Just Another Day 2, and Just Another Day 3, star the Hero Of The Universe Alpha 1 as he saves the universe from a cranky and evil god manifested from the game's mission editor, FRED. Sounds like a weird premise? Don't worry, it only gets weirder from there. It's like FreeSpace meets Monty Python or FreeSpace meets Spaceballs. They are some of my first campaigns, but I think they've held up pretty well.

The new trilogy, Just Another Day 2.21, 2.22 and 2.23 is a whole different story...

After vanquishing FRED for a second time in JAD2, aforementioned Hero Of The Universe Alpha 1 himself disappears. Now without any heroes or gods to contain this crazy universe, FRED's demigod slaves, the Beta Testers, want FRED's power for themselves. All that stands before them are a bunch of overconfident teenagers with massively overpowered spaceships.

You've got Holley, the loud-mouthed smart aleck; Delta 1, the pilot extraordinaire with a glass ego; and Epsilon 1, the... some guy. Those three somehow find a way to stop bickering with each other long enough to save the universe.

All rules are thrown out the window, and the brakes fell off 11 parsecs ago. A radically transformed mission structure lets you enjoy a beautifully illustrated visual-novel type story to set up the insane and bizarre space sim gameplay. You'll hardly believe some of the things you'll be asked to do! From defeating a multitude of bosses with specific weak points, to buying 10,000 credits worth of tacos, to going on dates with suddenly appearing girls, to eventually exposing conspiracies and finding true power of friendship, determination, and love.

And you will bake cakes.

Even if you're not a fan of anime, I still think you would have fun with JAD2.2. It's just the sort of thing to brighten anyone's day. You don't need to have watched a bunch of anime to get the jokes (but it certainly helps).

I want to download Just Another Day!

Grab it on Knossos, the new next generation downloader/launcher!

And be sure to use Knossos 0.14 RC2 (this link!) or later due to issues with older versions not seeing FSO 19.0 correctly!

Classic JAD:
Just Another Day 1-3

JAD 2.2 Series:
Just Another Day 2.21
Just Another Day 2.22
Just Another Day 2.23

NOTE: Each 2.2X release builds on the last ones, so you need JAD2.21 files for JAD2.22 and JAD2.21 and JAD2.22 files for JAD2.23!

Advanced Users Only Manual Install Instructions: Grab the files from the above links and more or less follow these instructions.

Hidden Text: Currently Released Episodes • Show

Just Another Day 1 + 2 + 3: Special Edition, Rereleased together September 18, 2010
Just Another Day 2.21: Released September 23, 2011, Last Updated January 21, 2017
Just Another Day 2.21 Original Very Awesome Mission Pack: Released March 31, 2012, now part of the main 2.21 release
Just Another Day 2.2 Xtreme Arcade: Released December 31, 2013, now part of the main 2.21 release
Just Another Day 2.22: Released February 22, 2017
Just Another Day 2.23: Released December 24, 2019

What order should I play Just Another Day in?

You've got a few options.

There's playing it by the release dates:
JAD1 -> JAD2 -> JAD3 -> JAD2.21 -> JAD2.22 -> JAD2.23

But if you are enamored by the high quality work recently showcased here, you could just play JAD2.2 alone. There's not a lot of overlap between the two series, you can probably fill in the missing "plot" yourself.
JAD2.21 -> JAD2.22 -> JAD2.23

If you're really in it for the long haul, you could play it chronologically:
JAD1 -> JAD2 -> JAD2.21 -> JAD2.22 -> JAD2.23 -> JAD3

Hidden Text: Other Releases • Show

Just Another Day 2.2: Xtreme Arcade is add-on that's just for quick arcade like battles.
Just Another Day 2.2: Original Very Awesome Mission/Preview packs are tiny in-between releases to keep the populace happy. They eventually get integrated into the main releases, so don't worry if they suddenly vanish.

Troubleshooting

If you play JAD in one long sitting, the game may... crash. So if headanis stop loading or errors pop up about fileExists or missing masks, don't panic. Just restart the game. Or just take plenty of breaks! (You should be able to do a full in-game episode arc without any problems)

Special Mega Shoutouts

My Main Men
Spoon - For all that unpaid testing, feedback, and amazing character art that puts paid games to shame
Niffiwan - For all the coding and features that let my wild and crazy ideas take shape

My BP Bros
General Battuta - For being a really cool inspirational guy with amazing stories, both fake and true
Darius - For having a rad philosophy for everything

My Other Bruhs
Redsniper - For having the second best taste in anime
Hades - For watching all 500 episodes of Naruto in 1 day P.S. Anime is my favorite Star Citizen
DahBlount - For being an ubernerd
Mjn.Mixael - For all those free graphics, even the ones you still owe me
All SCP Coders - For all the great new features

Other Community Assets by
Aesaar, Aldo, Ancient Shivan War Team, Axem
bobbtman, BlackWolf, BrotherByron, c914
Col. Fishguts, Dark, DahBlount, Ironclad Games, Kingdom Hearts
Luis Dias, Machina Terra Team, Mikhael, MjnMixael, Nico/Venom
peterv, Raa, Rga_Noris, StratComm, Raven2001
Vasudan Admiral, Volition, WeatherOp, Zacam

Various material used without permission from...

Hidden Text: Show

Neon Genesis Evangelion / Rebuild of Evangelion (Trademarked Color Schemes + Headanis + Music + Sounds)
His and Her Circumstances (Music)
Legend of Galactic Heroes (Headanis + Sounds)
Nodame Cantabile (Music)
Cromartie High School (Headanis)
Abba (Music)
Azumanga Daioh (Headanis)
Baccano (Headanis)
Battlestar Galactica  (Headanis)
Counterfeit Stay Night  (Headanis)
Crest of the Stars (Music)
Dark Souls (Sounds)
Dragonball Z (Headanis)
Earthbound (Music + Sounds)
FLCL (Music)
Gunbuster/Diebuster (Music)
Hard Gay (fuuuuuuu)
Kannagi (Music)
Pani Poni Dash (Music + Sounds)
Planetes (Music)
Reccetear (Headanis)
Sins of a Solar Empire (Skybox)
Sora no woto (Music)
Spongebob Squarepants (Headanis)
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan (Music)
The Internet (For too much)
The Sims 3 (Backgrounds)
Touhou (Music + Idiots)
Village People (Music)
Welcome to the NHK  (Headanis)
Wings of Dawn (Headanis + Weapons)
Working!! (Music)
Probably a lot more

[Axem]

UPDATE: January 21, 2017!

The Disclaimer/Warnings/Indemnification
Just Another Day loves to be edgy, so we use edgy dangerous bleeding edge builds. So to make things slightly easier on you, I have uploaded a hand crafted artisanal build on the installer that should work. If you are brave enough, you can also use nightly builds (warning Jan 21st 2017 nightly won't work!) Once 3.8 comes out, that should be cool too.

If you play JAD in one long sitting, the game may... Crash. If headanis stop loading or errors about fileExists, don't panic. Just restart the game. Or just take plenty of breaks! (You should be able to do a full in-game episode arc without any problems)

Flag recommendations
The new PBR stuff makes stuff a LOT brighter than before, so maybe try ambient factor around 60?
Also turn off 3d models for ships and weapons! You'll miss out on helpful gameplay info about them if you don't!

The Pretty Stuff
Amazing new intro movie, following in the tradition of anime parodies, and the primary source content, it's a Cruel Angel's Thesis parody. Thanks to m|m for adding ffmpeg support for maximum 1080p quality!
Totally redone character art by the amazing Spoon (also its all animated, so this is also why the mod is now about a gigabyte larger). Mega thanks to niffiwan for implementing apng support and setting up all the tricky scripting functions!
All out-of-mission exposition now handled through Visual Novel segments (instead of fiction viewer/command briefing/briefing). The briefings are handled this way too and are pretty cool
Action packed short outro preview video for JAD2.22 after the in game credits roll

The Gameplay
Ships slightly tweaked and rebalanced, I forget the specifics, just trust me on this one
Completely new and redone weapons! Equip things like the all-too-familiar Prometheus S2 or rampage around with the Tempest XL or wreck everything with the MegaDoom Torpedo!
Visible health bar HUD gauge added to the top of the central brackets. Player subsystems are now also invincible, because we're here to kick butt and chew bubblegum, not wait for comms to repair themselves!
Some missions have been adjusted for message timing or some dialog got moved to VN scenes.
'Fly Like You Want To Win' has been adjusted so the fight is longer. You've got more time to defeat the Beta Tester, but it does have more health. Overall the difficulty has decreased though.
Expanded items: grab items that slowly regenerate health or give you unlimited weapon energy, or just plain make you invincible! (Behind the scenes, items are more flexible for me to place or spawn)
Berserk System v2: This doesn't mean anything to you, but it makes things easier for me behind the scenes

The Extras
Entirely reskinned interface, everything is a lot brighter and easier to read now
New fonts to make things even easier to read!! (Thanks m|m!)
There are new optional 'slice of life'/'omake' VN scenes that unlock gradually as you complete missions
New deep 13-part lore into the 'worldbuilding' of JAD if you're into that (it's in the clubroom)

The Boring
An endless assortment of bugs introduced and fixed

JAD:XA
Now completely integrated with the main mod (this will make it easier to add on to for new fighters in the future)
Hub has billboards to display things like ship and item stats and mission high scores
To go to a challenge, you now just fly through the billboard, just like in your Super Mario 64s
Also has that tricky bug fixed where fighters didn't spawn again for the credits after the Endless Gauntlet Bosses are defeated
In the Endless Gauntlet, on non-Insane difficulty, an Item Dispenser appears to give you free items to make things slightly easier

[Axem]

UPDATE: January 22, 2017!

• Fixed Delta 1 mentioning a weapon that doesn't exist anymore.
• Fixed Holley's shields suddenly vanishing in Queen Pirate Holley
• Modified the VN script so it scales up for people with resolutions above 1080p

[Axem]

UPDATE: February 22, 2017!

Just Another Day 2.21

• Visual Novel script had a big huge (and stupid) problem fixed that had been slowing down performance by a good degree (very fast now!)
• Harriet had a ribbon added to her hair (very important!)
• Other miscellaneous table fixes (very small!)

Just Another Day 2.22: You Can (Not) Be Serious is RELEASED!
Finally...

[Axem]

Update: February 22, 2017

Just Another Day 2.22
Escape from High School:

• Talking to Delta 1 first no longer crashes other conversations
• Boanerges 57 removed (he or she will just need to get their own campaign)

...Get Revengeance

• Passphrase issues fixed when you replay the mission

Artificial Malevolence

• Added the Prometheus R to the starting weapons list of the campaign. A campaign restart may be required... or if you don't want to, cheat and give yourself a better weapon. I won't tell anyone.

[Axem]

Update: February 23, 2017!

jad221_root and jad222_root were updated

Weapons

• Cloaking device no longer turns into a lightning sword after berserking

JAD:XA

• No Traitor turned on for each mission, so if you use a HAXase on an enemy and decide to kill it early, no one thinks that's a bad thing

Stop the Music

• The first part of the mission no longer tries to restart if you kill the boss from the checkpoint

My hero...

• Now has a fail debrief

Almost Anything Is Possible

• Now actually works!

[Axem]

Update: March 11, 2017!

jad221_root and jad222_root were updated

Infinite Spawning Script:

• Before the game could try and always keep a number of fighters battling you (usually 10). On insane this got to be a little unfair and dumb. Now the spawning system checks once a minute if it needs to add more fighters or not. (Note this doesn't apply to the Endless Gauntlet!)

AI:

• Insane no longer has a 99 fighter and missile targetting limit on the player. It is now 7 missiles and 5 fighters (same as Hard)

VN Script:

• Fixed the error about Speed being nil if you right clicked.

Cloaking System:

• HUD gauge now re-appears after quick restarting after getting blown up

Escape from High School:

• Fixed typos

Get Revengeance:

• You can no longer jump to the junkyard from the junkyard
• Henrietta will now actually leave properly

Various Missions:

• Built in messages disabled on various capital ships

Almost Anything Is Possible:

• Hakase is a little more smarter and considering with respect to dragging around giant starships

Xtreme Arcade HUB:

• Selkie and Iapetus billboards are now fly-throughable

Endless Gauntlet:

• Endless Mode ranking revised. It now goes…
• S: 10,000+
• A: 7,500-9,999
• B: 4,000-7,499
• C: 1000-3,999
• D: 200-999
• F: >199

The scoreboard rankings will be retroactively revised.

[Axem]

Update: July 22, 2017!

jad221_root and jad222_root were updated

Visual Novel Script:

• The message box is a few pixels higher now, so people with smaller resolutions (around 720px high) can see all the choices for menus.

Journal:

• Fixed bug where it wasn't releasing cfile handles on journal entries. (This, in addition to some recent headani fixes in the code, might let you play the campaign longer before the game will inevitably crash)

Campaign Map:

• More graceful error handling

Forced Feeding:

• Fixed some bad checkpoint stuff

The Power of Friendship:

• Mission no longer assumes Befriendinator's hull is hard capped at 75% because that's not how supercap works!

Get Revengeance:

• The Tenth's ships are now invincible until he latches on to them (sorry, no free ride there anymore!)

Le petit dejeuner symphonie:

• The PPB Heartbreaker is now actually flyable in the mission!
• Going back to the mission map after completing the mission should no longer cause a lua error

Holley's Cooking Corner:

• Scoring details are now shown so you can see what you need to work on
• Cake baking scoring totally revamped. You can now actually make good cakes, Brent.
• (Note, that only applies to the scoring, the cake is still literally poisonous and no matter how hard Holley bakes, her friends won't trust it)

[Axem]

Update: November 12, 2017!

jad221_root, jad221_assets, jad222_root and jad222_assets were updated

Visual Novel Script:

• Added more helpful error messages in case of a missing/invalid image being used

Tables & Models:

• Fixed a lot of minor issues that caused debug builds to give you warnings, complicating things when I'm trying to solve other problems.

...Get Revengance:

• No more crashes if you chose Alex or Epsilon 1 during the "Battle of Wits Trollfest" with the Tenth Beta Tester

[Axem]

Update: July 8, 2018!

jad221_root, and jad222_root were updated

Cowboy Delta Star:

• An issue where the POOCHIE Fighters would crash the game was fixed

VN Files:

• Various typos fixed.

Tables:

• Fixed bad sound references.
• Some behind the scenes stuff in the scripts to make error reporting better and making future developments easier.

[Axem]

Update: July 11, 2018!

jad221_root, and jad222_root were updated

Cowboy Delta Star:

• Holley after battling the Battlemoles is invincible now

Tables:

• Fixed an issue causing bugs in "Escape from High School"
• Possibly improved performance for VN Scenes...

[Axem]

Update: January 13, 2019!

jad221_root, and jad222_root were updated
Stop the Music:

• The Berserk Tutorial does not crash the game

Tables:

• Assorted minor fixes

[Axem]

Update: December 24, 2019!

All files updated with minor changes, but here's the highlights:

Weapon Balance Changes:

• Novalance's damaged nerfed to 60-20 (from 80-30), (Hull DPS now 1800-600 instead of 2400-900, by comparison the Maxim has 1750 Hull DPS)
• Unlimited Laser Works damage nerfed from 120-30 to 65-30, (Hull DPS now 2600-1200 instead of 4800-1200)
• Progressive Edge has now been super buffed, it no longer just does subsystem damage and is a real viable weapon (with super short range)
• Progressive Chainsaw has also been kinda buffed and nerfed. There's no warmup time anymore, but it does the same base damage as the Prog Edge (but its lifetime is longer so it will do more damage overall)
• TempestXL's cargo size reduced from 1 to 0.666
• Shockin' and Jammin' Torpedo cargo size reduced from 10 to 3.75
• HAXase and HAXase Virus cargo size reduced from 10 to 5
• Light of Justice's cargo size reduced from 15 to 10, speed increased from 200 to 260m/s, range increased from 1500m to 2990m
• Flame of Justice's cargo size reduced from 15 to 10, range increased from about 3000m to 3990m
• The child warheads for the two have had their turning rates buffed a bit

Just a quick comment about the Novalance and ULW nerfs: It does seem like a drastic nerf, but when facing capital ships there's almost no reason not to bring it and I wanted to give reasons to consider other weapons (which I buffed a bunch of). Those two weapons still rip any fighter apart in no time though. Yeah its just Maxim DPS but it does full damage to shields!

JAD2.21:

• Forced Feeding: Stop messages from arriving on top of each other if everybody kills the Shivan cruisers before disarming the Ravana
• Temporary Pact of Friendship: Fixed Merv's positioning at the end

JAD2.22:

• Very Ultra Rare Limited Edition and ...get Revengeance: Dissy has a 10% guardian now so he won't vanish if you damage him too much before killing a core
• Meet Cute: Added a checkpoint skip to the outskirts
• Almost Anything is Possible: Momma Lucy won't notice Dissler if he arrives after she's decided to leave. (Close call, Dissler!)

[Axem]

JUST ANOTHER DAY 2.23 RELEASED!

[Axem]

Update: December 30, 2019!

All jad221_root, jad222_root and jad223_root have been updated.


JAD2.21:

• Tables: axscroll-sct.tbm moved to jad221 so the VN script won't break if you don't have the other parts
• Power of Friendship: Buffed Holley's health when you're Delta 1

JAD2.22:

• Just Another Date: Better sooner checkpoint skip added

JAD2.23:

• Cake Eater & Stood Up Bride: Builtin messages disabled until I figure out what's going on with the messages.tbl

[Axem]

Update: February 1st 2020!

jad221_root, jad222_root, jad223_assets and jad223_root have been updated.

JAD2.21:

• Fly Like You Want To Win: Fixed bogus weapons if you swap back to Holley in the first half of the fight. Also forced valid weapons on start in case of weird bug coming up again.

JAD2.23:

• Mainhall graphic for smaller resolutions added
• Stood Up Bride: Fixed incorrectly set guardian that can cause the mission to crash/softlock when defeating the boss
• Alpha 1 Forever: Less rush on the boss rush if you are playing on Medium or lower

Weapon and Ship Changes

• Hellfire (enemy Light of Justice) nerfed so it shouldn't completely wreck you on a direct hit.
• Seranerges shields and hull nerfed by 25%