Community Upgrade Project - CUP

[Alwarren 2767]

Sry guys, maybe I missed some info - couldn't find anything about that, but what are those CUP modules (Boomerang, Crew Duke and Satcom), what do they do, and how do I use them?

 

You can sync them to the RG-31's to get visual attachments of the same name (for example, syncing the Boomerang wil give you the microphone mast on the rear of the vehicle). Right now, they only work with the RG-31, and the visual changes is all they do - they do not have any real functionality. The might be added in the future, but please no question on how long- or short-term a goal that is ;)

[Moon_chilD 200]

This kind of question is basically asking "when", and we already said multiple times we are not going to commit to anything. Things will be out once it is done At the danger of sounding like a broken record, if you want to help out getting that stuff out earlier, feel free the join the project.

 

Otherwise, please don't ask for a date, or how short- or long-term something is.

 

Sorry to be the douche here, but no he actually did not. He basically asked what priority the Tak Civilians have. He did not say, do you think they come any time soon....next week or whatever. He just asked if they might come in the next update or when Arma 4 is released. 

For me that's a legit question. If that's not allowed I don't know what is. 

[Varanon 892]

Sorry to be the douche here, but no he actually did not. He basically asked what priority the Tak Civilians have. He did not say, do you think they come any time soon....next week or whatever. He just asked if they might come in the next update or when Arma 4 is released. 

For me that's a legit question. If that's not allowed I don't know what is. 

 

It's a rewording of "when", just with different semantics, and we said at least a 100 times that we will not answer questions like that.  Don't try to make it anything else but a "when?" in disguise. We will not answer any of those questions, as we said a million times before.

[hcpookie 3770]

Moon child not being on the CUP team but doing other mods I have to agree with Varanon's point of view.  I re-read that question and I am interpreting it as "do you plan to do something that you already said you would do either SOONER or LATER".  So does it really matter if the team has already said they would release it?  Does it REALLY matter at that point?

 

As a mod maker I understand it takes countless hours of people doing this stuff as a hobby, a way to kill some time, or as a school project for their art or computer science class.  Since there is no paycheck, it isn't a JOB and people simply devote whatever time they feel like to get something they love to work.  So when you see things asked of you like "can you make it in this color" or "can you make my personal request part of something" then it becomes a chore and frankly I am surprised the mod teams like CUP continue even after all of those trivial pursuits are requested.  My point being it makes people somewhat reactive to REQUESTS posted in the form of QUESTIONS.

 

The inevitable unspoken "next" question is "could you make it SOONER instead of LATER.

 

SO let's say someone on the team replied with a "yes we are making that very soon, get ready because it will completely rock your socks off".  NOW you have a bunch of kids asking "are we there yet", and a string of responses that inevitably have to be posted to correctly convey something in the forum setting.

 

Inevitably, Murphy's Law will kick in and break something the day before it needs to be released.  NOW you have literal weeks of repair, re-testing, STRESS TESTING to make sure it is really fixed, and so on.  So now in the eyes of the audience, the mod makers are either lazy, incompetent, or just want to be a douche and push the feature back.

 

These are some of the reasons mod makers have the responsibility from time to time to reply with "you don't need to know our time line for release of feature X".  This isn't a crowd funded endeavor where people are owed money, product, or anything really.  People aren't owed anything and you know if the team says "one day we will get to that" then fine, that should be enough. 

 

So I hope you can appreciate that, even if the post was NOT meant to ask "are we there yet", it comes across as "are we there yet", and IMO the response was appropriate, and BONUS it was humorous as well... its hard to respond to those questions WITHOUT coming across as sounding like a douche... so putting some humor in there is a win-win!  Perhaps that humor wasn't recognized which is why you asked your question, but regardless it was funny to me :)

[Moon_chilD 200]

Guys, don't understand me wrong. 
I appreciate the work of the modder in this community. Also I'd don't want to kick of yet another discussion in that regards. 

While you might be right, that the follow up to the question might be "When?" or "Could you do it now?", it was not been spoken here and always thinking of the bad in the people is not so healthy xD

 

I can definitely see that questions that regard towards a "when" are annoying. Not a modder here but a mission creator in my group :P

And I also see that MANY people still ask for the when and I can see that the modder are annoyed by that...I'm totally on the side of the modder here. 

I was just pointing out that he not really said "When" but was just asking for the overall priority. He has not said "When will the tak civilians come?" but "Has it any priority right now". A simple "Yeah we have started to do something in this regards" or "No, right now we are working on other stuff" would have been enough. See my point here. My answers ideas where much shorter than the one Alwarren gave. It would have been easier. 
Sure you might argue "But these question come frequently" yeah...but the answers too. xD So giving simple (maybe let people know with these answers you are annoyed like "No, we will let you know when we do them!")
And as you already said, you might argue, the next question could be "And when will they come?" but hey...you can maybe just ignore these questions. That is a harsch way, but "shouting" (the "" are there for a purpose) is the same. 

Again, I'm pro modder here. But I lately see a rising number of saltiness on this forum here which is somewhat sad. I mean, the Arma community should be a family and also the somewhat slow brother is loved in a family...isn't it? 

So no hate from my side, just a member who is somewhat concerned ^^

Edit: Also whoever is responding with: "yes we are making that very soon, get ready because it will completely rock your socks off" doesn't need to wonder xDDDDD

Edited May 8, 2016 by Moon_chilD

[NeoArmageddon 958]

I was just pointing out that he not really said "When" but was just asking for the overall priority. He has not said "When will the tak civilians come?" but "Has it any priority right now".

 

And the only answer to that is: "It doesn't have a priority". Because nothing "completely new" has a priority at CUP. It is done when it is done. Mostly in a short period of time when somebody feels motivated and without much lead time.

 

It just doesn't work the way that we assign priorities to anything except critical bugs that actually need to be fixed (the latest hotfix for example).

[Moon_chilD 200]

And that is a reasonable response! :3 

[bad benson 1733]

shit guys. way to elaborate. i'd say ignore questions that are pointless or annoying to you. at least that's better imho than wasting time on explaining. since when do content creators also have automatic PR obligations? it's an optional thing, a bonus. although i found Alwarren's post really polite. if you don't then that's on you.

asking for dates (i think that includes "will you prioritize this thing i personally want first?" or "will you make this thing i love part of your mod?" - the latter falls basically under addon request which is restricted to a specific thread), in a vague way or not, is against the forum rules anyways. to avoid such waste of everyone's time and emotion, i imagine.

 

anyways.

 

i noticed the Uzi and Scorpion looking really flat lately. did you guys mess with the materials/normal maps? might have been the light conditions but looks almost like they have no material. really sharp edges and flat coloured look without any specularity. looks like ofp now.

 

just curious, if it's on purpose, on accident, or nothing changed and it's the engine doing things (although i was on stable without visual update stuffs).

[Chairborne 2594]

We messed with materials, they were bad before, they're still (less) bad now, in a different way. :P

We're going over them one by one more in depth, while also experimenting with sound shaders:

 

http://imgur.com/a/VFiDM

[bad benson 1733]

i dunno. it's of course down to taste and stuff but when edges are sharper than before, something went wrong. i will post a screenshot later of what i mean. some edges even look like normals are reversed or something. having black lines almost increasing the sharp look.

 

anyways. good to hear that it's an ongoing process.

[Chairborne 2594]

With the previous materials some weapons were unbelievably shiny, the mac10 and scorpion looked like they were dipped in baby oil.

[bad benson 1733]

yea i agree. but now they look like they are folded from paper or carved from stone or wood :P  it's better to adjust the spec maps instead of turning specularity off entirely. there needs to be a balance. not trying to be a wise ass or something. i'd totally be willing to tweak it myself, if someone gives me a folder that allows easy buldozer preview.

 

please just don't make everything matt. it's not the sexy baby oil rub but it surely isn't how metal looks either.

[Chairborne 2594]

yea i agree. but now they look like they are folded from paper or carved from stone or wood :P  it's better to adjust the spec maps instead of turning specularity off entirely. there needs to be a balance. not trying to be a wise ass or something. i'd totally be willing to tweak it myself, if someone gives me a folder that allows easy buldozer preview.

 

please just don't make everything matt. it's not the sexy baby oil rub but it surely isn't how metal looks either.

Well, if you want to give it a shot our folders are organized correctly... :P

 

In other news, we're also experimenting with FFV:

 

[dreadpirate 173]

Guys, I see you getting frustrated with "Frequently Asked Questions" in this thread.

 

May I humbly suggest creating a FAQ in the original post and everyone linking to it in their signature?

 

Here's a few to start you off:

 

• When will feature X be ready?
• Are you planning on adding feature X?
• Can you add my favourite mod to CUP?
• I've found a bug, what should I do?

[slatts 1978]

Guys, I see you getting frustrated with "Frequently Asked Questions" in this thread.

 

May I humbly suggest creating a FAQ in the original post and everyone linking to it in their signature?

 

Here's a few to start you off:

 

The answer to all those questions bar the 2nd last one is included within the first 10 lines of the opening post. That's why we get annoyed. All it takes is you to utilize the skills your parents spent so much money on school for you to learn. 

[war_lord 934]

When will feature X be ready?

When it's done.

Are you planning on adding feature X?

Yes, no, Maybe.

Can you add my favourite mod to CUP?

Can't do anything without the original author's permission. 

I've found a bug, what should I do?

Bug tracker is love, bug tracker is life.

[dreadpirate 173]

There is a reason why FAQs exist.

It is to save the sanity of those working on a project.

As you rightly point out, the answers to all of those questions are not hard to find.

And yet the same questions keep being asked.....

[slatts 1978]

And yet the same questions keep being asked.....

 

And who's fault is that? We know why FAQs exist. Yet the same questions will still get asked regardless.

[dreadpirate 173]

And who's fault is that? We know why FAQs exist. Yet the same questions will still get asked regardless.

Ok, I'm sorry. Carry on with your good work.

I appreciate that you are all volunteers, donating your time and effort for the good of the ArmA community and I am grateful.

[gaero 10]

Any chance of a standalone updater with the ability to verify the mods in case anything become corrupt? I have slow internet and downloading the updates off the website would take me 3+ days of nonstop downloading, and to download them on the Steam Workshop would take the same amount of time, unless there is a way to transfer the download from the website to the workshop folder so it automatically updates?

[Alwarren 2767]

And that is a reasonable response! :3 

 

Give me a break. I made the mistake to try and answer a question with a few words, and you jump in my face anus-first for answering it, and then if someone says basically the same thing THEN it is a reasonable response?

Nevermind, that was a rhetorical question.

 

[Alwarren 2767]

Any chance of a standalone updater with the ability to verify the mods in case anything become corrupt? I have slow internet and downloading the updates off the website would take me 3+ days of nonstop downloading, and to download them on the Steam Workshop would take the same amount of time, unless there is a way to transfer the download from the website to the workshop folder so it automatically updates?

 

Not very likely. Stuff like that requires infrastructure which in turn costs time and money to create and maintain. I know it can be frustrating to have a slow internet connection, but unfortunately we cannot solve that problem.

 

(I hope nobody feels offended by this answer)

(I should make that my signature)

(OTOH... nawww)

[twistking 204]

In other news, we're also experimenting with FFV:

 

 

Nice.

May i suggest, that you also add some unarmed version of APCs, that feature FFV but have no heavy weapons?! I think of the M113 vehicles or the small britisch APCs for example. That is because i think for small scale coop missions, an APC with heavy weapons might have too much firepwer to balance against light AI forces, while an armored vehicle with only FFV available might fit better balancing-wise, while still maintaining some defensive capabilities.

[Chairborne 2594]

Nice.

May i suggest, that you also add some unarmed version of APCs, that feature FFV but have no heavy weapons?! I think of the M113 vehicles or the small britisch APCs for example. That is because i think for small scale coop missions, an APC with heavy weapons might have too much firepwer to balance against light AI forces, while an armored vehicle with only FFV available might fit better balancing-wise, while still maintaining some defensive capabilities.

You can remove some or all the weapons from turrets if you don't want them to be available.

As far as i know the only versions without a turret of the AAV are the command&control and the recovery ones, the troop carrier always has a turret.

[ravenleg 37]

You can remove some or all the weapons from turrets if you don't want them to be available.

 

How does one go about doing that?