Project ASTFOR - Astelandic Armed Forces

[PTV-Jobo 820]

Yeah the G36 is my favorite too. But i think there are already enough HK Weapons in Arma. (And my Pack still contains tons of them)

 

Yeah, I hear ya. Which is one of the reasons why I kept to my vision and creative license. Otherwise if I would have thrown HK's or Colt's in Astelandic hands, it would have just blended in way too much in with everything else out there. Great rifles in real life I suppose, but in terms of ArmA, I just go so damn bored of using the same thing year after year from Armed Assault to ArmA 2 and now ArmA 3. Figured, why not be a tad bit more interesting or qwerky with the weapons a bit. Even if people complain, can't say Asteland's military would't stand out one way or the other, hahaha. Also another reason why aside from the RobArms XCR, we discussed working with the Galil ACE family, which is a lot more difficult to wiggle into our lore since it's heavily Latin used, and really not much elsewhere for now.

 

But I figured, in terms of upgrade program, why wouldn't they stick to a familiar platform that has served them well enough all those years but brought up to date. Plus, to the best of my knowledge, I've not seen any ACE's around in ArmA (although who knows with APEX, BIS has this weird ability to read my mind and beat me to the finish line like they did with the modernized leopard, as well as making a superhind in TOH that I originally had a massive hardon for and wanted back in ArmA 2 when Asteland was originally Astoria (Baltic), lol). 

 

But that's for the future of ASTFOR--which is still yet to be determined. 

[Eagle1992 373]

Yeah, I hear ya. Which is one of the reasons why I kept to my vision and creative license. Otherwise if I would have thrown HK's or Colt's in Astelandic hands, it would have just blended in way too much in with everything else out there. Great rifles in real life I suppose, but in terms of ArmA, I just go so damn bored of using the same thing year after year from Armed Assault to ArmA 2 and now ArmA 3. Figured, why not be a tad bit more interesting or qwerky with the weapons a bit. Even if people complain, can't say Asteland's military would't stand out one way or the other, hahaha. Also another reason why aside from the RobArms XCR, we discussed working with the Galil ACE family, which is a lot more difficult to wiggle into our lore since it's heavily Latin used, and really not much elsewhere for now.

 

But I figured, in terms of upgrade program, why wouldn't they stick to a familiar platform that has served them well enough all those years but brought up to date. Plus, to the best of my knowledge, I've not seen any ACE's around in ArmA (although who knows with APEX, BIS has this weird ability to read my mind and beat me to the finish line like they did with the modernized leopard, as well as making a superhind in TOH that I originally had a massive hardon for and wanted back in ArmA 2 when Asteland was originally Astoria (Baltic), lol). 

 

But that's for the future of ASTFOR--which is still yet to be determined. 

 

I am usually going with foreign modern day equipment but with smaller or bigger Improvements or changes made by the local Industry.

Like AH64E and UH60 with additional Armor, new Engines and stuff like that, just stuff that makes sense for a small country with smaller manpower.  

[SovietCanadian 20]

Alright, lets board the hype train down to Asteland.

[wildcatbridge 377]

choo choo

[Folkward 50]

Served 8 years in the German Army

[wildcatbridge 377]

what role if i might ask?

[Folkward 50]

sergeant in an electronic warfare battalion, served from 2003 till 2011, absolved basic training at an air force regiment

[wildcatbridge 377]

why is it everyone here did something skilled with their time in the army? hahaha starting to feel the odd one out

[Folkward 50]

sounds more skilled then it was :D

 

EDIT: Just drove some of those and was radio operator

[wildcatbridge 377]

I'm sure its more skilled than 'here's a rifle, there's the enemy, you work out the rest'

[Folkward 50]

Maybe a little bit, had to learn a bit of encryption/decryption and how to use different technical equipment...but at first i had to learn how to drive a truck :D

[wildcatbridge 377]

sounds actually kinda fun

[Folkward 50]

Mhm...i would say 70 % of my service time was boring in my opinion, i was pretty young (17) when i joined the army and

got disenchanted after a while, sure it was easy money but also not the right thing for me

[Eagle1992 373]

I'm sure its more skilled than 'here's a rifle, there's the enemy, you work out the rest'

 

Well its still a big part for the most.

 

 

I always wanted to get into the Air Force as a Pilot but these damn size regulations.

[wildcatbridge 377]

Well its still a big part for the most.

 

 

I always wanted to get into the Air Force as a Pilot but these damn size regulations.

what did you end up doing instead?

[Eagle1992 373]

what did you end up doing instead?

 

I still got atleast into something close to aircrafts, as a Forward Air Controller for the Airborne Troops.

 

 

Mhm...i would say 70 % of my service time was boring in my opinion, i was pretty young (17) when i joined the army and

got disenchanted after a while, sure it was easy money but also not the right thing for me

 

I joined the Army with 17 but until now i never regretted the choice of joining, but i guess it depends on the personality and the Line of Service.

But yes i think especially in the german Army the money is a big point, because it is really over average for what a normal 17 year old can earn.

[Folkward 50]

In my opinion it was the wrong Line of Service for me...maybe only the wrong unit, i don´t know

If i remember right, a friend of mine got 400 Euro monthly in his frist year of learning a job...i got three times as much and don´t forget

the 13th month pay ;)

[CrazyCorky 463]

In my opinion it was the wrong Line of Service for me...maybe only the wrong unit, i don´t know

 

I was originally supposed to be intel. But when I was boarding the plane they told me: "Hey we screwed up your paperwork, you're open contract." If only I knew what I know now about breach of contract. Anyway my job wound up not being bad aside from moving from a 4yr contract initially to a 5yr one without a say in it. Aviation definitely wasn't where I wanted to be.

[Folkward 50]

I was originally supposed to be intel. But when I was boarding the plane they told me: "Hey we screwed up your paperwork, you're open contract." If only I knew what I know now about breach of contract. Anyway my job wound up not being bad aside from moving from a 4yr contract initially to a 5yr one without a say in it. Aviation definitely wasn't where I wanted to be.

 

These damn contracts, something i hate all my life, tons of paperwork with a lot of small written sentences <_<

[wildcatbridge 377]

I still got atleast into something close to aircrafts, as a Forward Air Controller for the Airborne Troops.

Thats a pretty nails job man

[Eagle1992 373]

Thats a pretty nails job man

 

Yeah, you will never really get used to jumping out of an Aircraft.

 

Another topic: You said that you are the writer for the Mod, how do you get the history for the country without struggling with the history of other european Countries?

[wildcatbridge 377]

I basically know roughly where my country is based, then i find out the major things that happened in that area at certain times, and work my way into it. So for example most of Scandinavia was part of a union called the 'Kalmar agreement' so i basically threw us into that. To do that i researched how nations were brought into it (mostly by marriage) so i looked for any ways i could marry a daughter of our royal family to the danish family. used some creative license, and hey presto asteland isles is part of the kalmar agreement.

 

I make sure to also go for as realistic approach as possible. So like in 1939 the German army was probably the best force out there, so it wouldn't be believable that the Astelandic forces would hold them off, and in fact most countries capitulated after a few days. so same with asteland, but that doesn't mean the odd fighter pilot or platoon can't make a final stand. I also researched and found out that the British commando's had a special company for foreigners, so i integrated some of our guys into that unit under Norwegian command. but on the other hand a lot of people thought that the Nazi regime was their kinda style, and decided to join them, so i created an Asteland SS battalion same as the ones from Norway and Poland and even the 50 blokes from Britain.

 

Its really all about the research, creative licence and realisum.

 

If you have any ideas you want to work through i'm happy to help.

[PTV-Jobo 820]

It's been awhile since any real news has trickled down from the Project ASTFOR team, and so I've decided that it's time for some real talk. I've decided to open up a bit on the current situation with my project and speak my mind from the heart and be brutally honest. Now I'll warn you, it might turn out to be a bit long-winded, but its one of those things where I can't really convey what's going on and what's possibly going to happen with a few quick lines of text and some funny gif's. Especially in today's world where god forbid people on the internet have to read more than 3 sentences without losing focus and getting bored, but oh well, lol. So regardless, just bear with me here folks....

 

For those who are new to our project, a little history—Project ASTFOR started as a mere little idea with not much of a particular set direction by myself in ArmA 2. For those who don't know, I was born with a form of Muscular Dystrophy, which is a neuromuscular disease and have been living a very painful life for around 33 years. It's something that I've learned to cope with at a very young age. Now, I'm not saying this for pity. I mean it is what it is. Sometimes life hands you lemons and other times it rings your doorbell and leaves giant flaming bags of shit on your porch. You just learn to accept things and move on. You have to, otherwise it just swallows you up alive and destroys you completely from the inside out. The point being is that I lost a lot over the years—abilities, friendship, etc. because of being born with something I never asked to be born with. It's just one of those things that happen. No matter how much you fight back and put up a front of strength, it does wear you down a lot. So you find yourself trying to find places and things to "escape" into away from the bullshit of life and just have something positive, you know? Well, ArmA—and in particular, Project ASTFOR—was that for me.

 

Originally it just started as a fun idea I talked about with friends, that I never even thought would have made it this far. An idea that allowed me along the way to meet a lot of awesome people here in the community over the years and make some lasting friendships--many of which also went on to help me make ASTFOR a reality. And for that, I am ever so thankful for such an opportunity. However, after about 5+ years going from mere idea phase to what Project ASTFOR is now, it's looking like one of the very few positive outlets for me is coming to an end possibly for me (and also means the community as well)......

 

While I've had some good things happen along the way, I've also had to deal with an equal amount of headaches, stress and unfortunate situations along the way. I've dealt with a lot of broken promises, people claiming they wanted to help make ASTFOR great for me and the community and yet only to either flat out disappear never to be heard from again, or even saying they are too busy but only to find out they were doing work for other people behind closed doors. And all the while feeding me this crock of recycled shit of "Yeah but I still want to be a member and we're going to make ASTFOR AWESOME!" and yet somehow not making a single damn effort until they were kicked from the team. And if you think that's all in way of horror stories? Oh, that's just scratching the surface, haha .

 

What little we have in terms of manpower nowadays (Myself, RobertHammer, Wildcatbridge and Tasksoldier), ended up having to shoulder more responsibilities and workload to keep things afloat and not see me just give up all hope and call it quits since they also wanted to see ASTFOR succeed—which brings up again about ASTFOR being an opportunity to meet a lot of great people in the community who ended up becoming some of my best mates in real life.

 

The truth is that things went from super productive to sinking literally overnight. We've also lost a crucial member who was also helping get the weapon models done and uv'ed, which really sent us far back in terms of progress and there's really nothing we can do about it. And because of the numerous setbacks (including losing this member who was crucial to our partnership with FINMOD), it ended up putting the breaks on said partnership with the Finmod guys as well, since people dropped off the radar with literally barely any communication—leaving a lot of headaches in my lap and people asking me questions I can't answer because a lot of crucial parts of our agreement was dependant upon those people who vanished.

 

So the reality is, this project that was once one of the few actually happy and positive things in my life to focus and escape into—now has become a symbol of frustration, anger and disappointment over the years, hitting an all time critical point now.

 

In all honesty, I am on the verge of closing up shop and give up completely with ASTFOR. And that alone kills me the most. I use to love ASTFOR and working on it more than you guys will ever know, and now to see myself brought to a point where I've lost complete faith in it and tired of seeing something I use to love turn into something that has sucked the life and joy completely out of me.

 

ASTFOR needs help in way of manpower—which in and of itself is an impossible task because everyone I've approached to try joining our team either ended up being already quickly approached and scooped up by RHS (which is understandable due to the bigger opportunities, which as a RHS fan I can live with, haha! :P ) or just busy and prefer working on actual US tacticool kits. So at this point, it's not looking good at all, and it's going to take a massive miracle to recover and get back to where we were and save this project.

 

Right now our priority is weapon development since I've officially shelved everything non-infantry related (i.e. vehicles, terrain development, etc) indefinitely. Tasksoldier is trying his hardest to finish up the basic infantry kit such as the THOR place carrier, kneepads, helmet, etc. J0nes was in the process of doing the low poly's, baking and uv mapping our FFV-890 rifles, before disappearing. So this is basically top on the priority list right now we really, really could use help with. 

 

I know we've asked the community for help in the past, but this is definitely the last time I'm sending a SOS out. After this, if we cannot find much in way of help, I'm going to call it a good try and just walk away. It sucks, but it is what it is. I don't want to see myself waste another 2-3 years only to see the project take a few shuffles forward and fall apart completely again. Even if by some luck we can get help with the rifles--which would be a massive boost of help right now--we still desperately need an increase in our team numbers to stay afloat. Casual passing help is great, but at the end of the day is also just putting a bandaid on a sucking chest wound. And by more team members, I mean actual team members and not more idea guys who only occasionally come around every few months to post ideas and vanish again. Been there-done that for years. No thanks. 

 

To sum it up completely and officially: if things don't improve by the end of December of this year--Project ASTFOR will not continue any further.

 

Sorry for the long-winded post, but I felt its time as project lead I open up completely with some real talk instead of sugar coating everything so that if I do walk away, the community realizes there is a valid reason, and not merely having a bad day and getting overly emotional. I've put in a lot of years into ASTFOR and just can't waste another 2-3 years for little to no outcome.

No matter what happens in the future, I want to say to the community, to my friends and supporters and all those who helped us along the way over the years—THANK YOU.

 

Words cannot begin to describe how appreciative I am for all the love, support and help over the years. ASTFOR and all the support from the community helped me get through a lot of dark moments in my personal life and helped pick me up and want to keep moving forward. So again....thank you one and all. And sorry for both the overly long-winded post and being a shit way of starting off the weekend for our fans.

[PuFu 4591]

if you have a place when we can have a live chat, do let me know. sent you a PM either way

[wildcatbridge 377]

Actually to second my friend I too would like to say some words. This isn't me being the usual laughing jokey not so serious stuff, like this is not the situation for that. I am a firm believer in this community and its ability to pull together, I've seen it loads of times where absolute strangers end up coming together to solve the problems of someone on this forum. It's happened a hundred times before and i pray that it continues to happen. Right now genuinely i hope above all that somehow the word gets out to anyone who can help us, and they answer the call. I'm not one for admitting i need help, but...help. I have made some awesome friends from this mod, and I'd like to make more. That can only continue if people answer our call, so please community work your magic.