Dark Tides

[AZCoder 921]

*** Project Terminated ***

Please see my 7/7/14 post. Thanks!

Edited July 7, 2014 by AZCoder

[nettrucker 142]

Beautiful the trailer. I gonna definitely play it when it's released. Good that you will finish it. I'm looking forward to it.

cheers

[tom3kb 15]

I saw title "Dark Tides" and i was thinking, great its released. ;)

But i see i must wait little more. :)

Im really waiting for this campaign. CSLA is great and i can't wait to play good campaign that use this mod.

[Kommiekat 11]

AZ Coder does it again! Nice video production. I just don't see why you and nuttrucker don't get together and put something out.

Looking forward to this.

And CSLA. Has got to be one of the best MOD's out there. The Campaign and missions for that MOD alone are worth their weight in gold.

[h34dup 148]

This one has been on my radar for a while, was wondering what the status was-- good to hear you are still working on it duder!

[mathias_eichinger 64]

Hey, I am hooked as well...wish you all the best to see a rather speedy release!

[AZCoder 921]

Campaign is coming along well. Uploaded a new cutscene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rgmMl10nIs Sorry that's it kind of dark and small. When Dark Tides is near completion I will reach out again for voice acting :)

[AZCoder 921]

I want to reach out to you guys and get your thoughts on this project. Dark Tides seems to be ill-fated. Originally started in late 2012, I had a lot of setbacks in 2013 from illness, moving, unemployment for a couple months, and then first four months of this year I could hardly type because of a condition called trigger thumb. So by late April, after I could type again, I was getting bored of the original concept and ideas from 2012. I tried making some major changes to reinvigorate my motivation on the project, and while it was fun for me, it has really set back the development quite a bit. All development was on the 1.62 patch of Arma.

So after hearing crazy things about the 1.63 patch, and that I need to make sure things work in 1.63, over the past weekend I installed the Steam version of Arma in order to get the patch. Everything I build is script heavy, so I need the showScriptErrors flag on, but in 1.63 you get spammed with BIS created errors almost non-stop. It's virtually impossible to develop missions on 1.63. It's hard to see any errors that I may have caused as a mission maker, when the BIS errors quickly overwrite themselves on the screen, and of course the errors take up a chunk of real estate right in the middle of everything. That fact combined with Arma 3 being out for quite some time now, I feel demoralized and unmotivated to continue.

I had planned to build it as a large 3-chapter campaign. At the moment, I could release chapter 1 as is. It's more of a prologue than anything, so if people played it, it might be unsatisfying knowing that the rest of it will never be released. There are 6 missions, 3 use the CSLA mod. I could also release the older and somewhat longer 2012-2013 version. It would be less cohesive and incomplete, but it has more missions. In either case, not sure I want to release an incomplete product, so if anyone has thoughts/opinions on this, please let me know. A lot of what I developed will probably find its way into an Arma 3 campaign at some point (in some form), so I'm relying on feedback to help me decide on a course of action. In either case, I no longer see myself moving forward on completing the campaign for A2. Thanks everyone!

[tom3kb 15]

Really bad news, i was waiting for this campaign from 2012. :(

It's your decision but i wouldn't never release unfinished campaign. I also dont think i will play this campaign knowing that i will play only small part of it and that i will never know the rest of story in the future.

You write you dont have motivation to work. So i think you should leave this project, take a breake from editing and maybe come back with something new in future. ;)

Ps. I stay with arma 1.62 patch (i have non-steam dvd version of arma and i dont plan to move with my game to steam).

[nettrucker 142]

Really bad news indeed . . . especially considering how much time and effort you invested in it. It is sad but understandable to me especially since I know very well how much love you put into your creations. That was a tough choice to be made because it is kind of a defeat. I understand perfectly well your reasoning behind it though.

BTW no one can help you with that decision on the course of action to be taken. If you can't find a decision. Design a cross and list the positive and the negative arguments in case you should bring this campaign to an end or not. The prevailing arguments will help you to decide. Piece of cake.

Hi tom

Ps. I stay with arma 1.62 patch (i have non-steam dvd version of arma and i dont plan to move with my game to steam).

We should open up a club or better build a new arma 1.62 patch community.

Edited July 8, 2014 by nettrucker

[AZCoder 921]

@tom3kb - are you running A3 as well? I know that some players are staying with A2 and/or will not make the transition to A3.

The motivation has no single cause, but as long as a year ago, I was concerned about working on this project in the face of Arma 3. The A2 forums are almost a ghost town at this point. Dark Tides is a very large and ambitious project that still requires a few more months to complete. I don't feel it's a good use of my time, and I guess I've known this for awhile now.

My current plan is to release one of the missions as a standalone. This would at least add one more CSLA mission to A2.

After that, I will probably port the completed missions over to A3. It would require some changes because the CSLA mod will not be in A3, but the overall story and ideas can still be utilized.

I was hesitant to make the move to A3 for a long time since it is short on some content like transport planes and women. Just seems weird to me that there are no women on Altis, and I make lots of cutscenes as you know. They should port women over from DayZ Standalone.

Thanks guys for your support!

[nettrucker 142]

Hi AZCoder

Dark Tides is a very large and ambitious project that still requires a few more months to complete. I don't feel it's a good use of my time, and I guess I've known this for awhile now.

Let me ask you a question? how many month of work and effort have you invested in DT since you started with the project? If it is really only a matter of few more month than you should finish it and conclude your ArmA CO tour of duty in honor by a releasing a worthy AZCoder campaign. Now given your difficulties with patch 1.63 I can only advice to roll back to 1.62 and finish your campaign. After that you will have still a lot of time to switch over to ArmA 3.

Now you might ask yourself what you would gain.

My 2 cents on that

- First if you finish this your time wasn't wasted. I know that you have already invested a lot of time working on this project . . . now no good use of time is when you can't finish the project . . . I would say it's a complete waste of time.

- You are paying homage to one of the Veteran modding groups the CSLA MOD team by using their mod in your campaign and some other mod or terrain makers. It's the only thing they can get back from the community if people are making campaigns with the stuff they create. People are more likely to use a couple of Mods in a campaign rather than a single missions. A single mission won't make a difference.

I thought you had created the plot somehow around the CSLA mod so what's the point in trying to use the overall story which was originally tailored for the CSLA mod. You are not suffering from lack of ideas you should start something fresh from scratch instead of recycling it.

In any case it's up to you . . . you know I'm speaking always my mind. :)

[tom3kb 15]

@AZCoder

Yes i have A3 but i dont play the game. I dont like te "futuristic" seting etc.

I waiting for more user made campaigns (its 1 year from A3 release and we have 1 full user made campaign ;) ),, good that i found few nice mission packs.

Im also waiting for some big and new mods (for example RHS), i dont want to download the same looking retexures of few units. Maybe in next year i will play more in A3.

Ok, now im back to A2 more than 150 campaigns and my favorite CWR 2 on Hdd are waiting. ;)

[Variable 322]

AzCoder, that's bad news. I hope to see your splendid work in Arma 3 sometime in the future. All the best to you!

I waiting for more user made campaigns (its 1 year from A3 release and we have 1 full user made campaign ;) )

There's a lot more than just one! Few campaign authors that come to mind are: Bardosy, Sekara (this guy alone made three campaigns already!), Wiki and Misty Ronin.

[AZCoder 921]

Thanks, Variable!

Just to be clear, I will not finish DT for Arma 2. It's just not possible. So I think releasing one completed mission for the CSLA mod is better than releasing none. Just remember that I'm a software developer, ergo I think like one. I have a lot of tasks that I need to work on for A3 due to changes from A2. I also have non-gaming projects I need to work on that were put off because of DT. I'm not even sure when I will revisit the campaign.

I don't think I would call it "recycling" for missions that have never been released. The campaign has always been a work-in-progress. Several missions and cutscenes already have 2 to 5 versions. Whether I finish them in A2 or A3 doesn't really matter in that regard. Any port of a mission, whether it's from A2 to A3, or simply a map change from Chernarus to Napf, will never be exactly the same, but it's no reason to throw out a good mission design.

I don't consider my time wasted, not entirely. Part of the experience is the journey. A lot of things I did can still be used, whether they are part of one campaign, or separate releases, who knows. I developed new tricks along the way, and have expanded upon what can be done in cutscenes beyond the norm.

Also regarding the CSLA mod, I came up with the basic plots before I had ever tested CSLA. I implemented the plot to work with CSLA mod, but it could have gone other ways. I could have used Russians, but didn't want to, and RHSMod was still a year out when I made this decision. I had also evaluated the SLA addons, and wanted to use Sahrani, but found the CAA1 project to be problematic for some people. This is long before the new version of Sahrani came out of course. CSLA mod blew away the competition. The only other mod of that quality was FDF Mod, which I already used in Gambit v2.

[tom3kb 15]

@Variable

I know about Sekara's Mission packs, i have all of them. I also know about Misty Ronin and Wiki's work.

So far i saw only one full campaign released as "campaign".-> Persian Tale.

If we count some mission packs as campaigns you are right we have more than 1 campaign released. ;)

[Variable 322]

If we count some mission packs as campaigns you are right we have more than 1 campaign released. ;)

And that's what matters. They way they packed their campaigns is almost insignificant :)

[Kommiekat 11]

Hi, you've been a great help in my early mission making days and I've been a big fan of yours.

I agree with nettrucker and tom3kb.

Roll it back to 1.62 version and pump that bad boy out.

From here on out, keep any future A2 work as 1.62.

I just don't see much happening with 1.63 in the future, but you never know.

Consider also moving on to A3.

Like tom3kb, I have A3 but am waiting for more mods and camps to come out.

I've also played the same ones he has and they are damn fine.

Cheers