PTV-Jobo

To the ArmA 3 Community: It is with the utmost and deepest regret as project lead and creator to announce the official closure of what has been known to the community for the past 5 years under the name of Project ASTFOR. This project started back in ArmA 2 with the desire to have something of my own design to enjoy, since to be rather honest, I find all the "tacticool" Operator/SF stuff boring after awhile. I wanted something for myself that I could love and continue to for many years. It so happened that some good friends along the way felt the same and supported my desire and before I knew it, the first step forward towards making it a reality was started with good people like Robert Hammer and StalkerGB, turning it from casual idea/dream into an actual mod project. The first few years was quite the adventure, learning new things, trying to shake lose a clear vision of what I hoped for, meeting some great people in the ArmA 2 community, etc. But then like all good things—sometimes it comes at a price.... During the years of development, unfortunately there was a lot of bullying, false promises, people trying to force me into changing my vision for theirs, etc from people who have come and went that myself and my project have experienced and the past 2-3 years have been nothing short of depressing and exhausting to say the very least. Many who have followed the development of my "baby" knows how much what we know as ASTFOR meant the world to me personally. It's always something that went far beyond just a dumb little mod for a dumb little video game. As someone who has had to sacrifice his entire world due to my disease (Muscular Dystrophy) and whose world is pretty isolated and alone, ASTFOR was one of the few things I could just escape all the bullshit and have something positive...but it is no longer that, and hasn't been that for me for the past 3 years. The truth? It became yet one more thing in my life I felt ripped away and poisoned and strangled slowly over the past few years. I clung tight for my life onto it's proverbial ass like the most glorious booty imaginable, lol, hoping and thinking "hang in there, it'll work out.......someday". But year after year have gone by, and that someday never happened. Things just kept getting exponentially worse. And even now, we've ended up losing good people from my team due to real life needing priority and they just couldn't stay any longer. So I went from 3 modelers to 2 and now down to 1. And I've lost count how many times I've practically begged on virtual hands and knees for help or posting if we can't get help by the end of the year we'd have to call it quits. I know that's happened at least 3 times already and nothing's changed other than the usual "1 like=1 prayer" type post likes. Good vibes are nice, but you can't sustain a project on good vibes and positive "keep your chin up and keep going!" posts. I wish, hah! After a long time contemplating things, I can't help but feel the reality is that with the ArmA 3 community there is really not much focus on for a fictional Nordic mod. Most people are just more really into the whole aforementioned US Army/USMC/SF/Operators stuff or the bigger mod names out there. And fair enough. Not saying people are wrong or for liking such things at all. It just means at the end of the day, people are more inclined to offering help for those types of mods than something like Project ASTFOR, and the past 3-4 years is pretty proof of that. I wish things turned out better, I truly do. I just don't have it in me to spend another 3+ years on ASTFOR in depression, waiting for a miracle or wasting time posting anymore uselessly posting a bunch of Help Wanted posts in our thread that go nowhere, etc. It's just not worth it anymore..... Either way, it's been one hell of an adventure and one I will always appreciate having had and shared with others so they could see why I was so passionate about it. -John F. Aka "Jobo" Project ASTFOR Creator | Project Lead

Lookin' forward to it, mate! :)

UPDATE! Yes, we are indeed alive. Progress is just slow due to not having more than 2 modelers on the team currently and real life just becoming an overwhelming focus for most of here on the team. But alas, progress is progress, and that is what counts the most! Things are moving along, and a lot of things have changed and evolved--both in terms of lore as well as equipment. I won't speak much of it just yet, but our little Nordic country will definitely see some interesting toys in its future. ;) I will say though that priorities switched up a bit and we're focusing more on the mid-2000's forward equipment and modernization, and after those are released and we can all relax and enjoy things, the plan then is to work backwards into the older kit. I know it might disappoint some folks and what they were expecting to see, but...I think once folks see what's lined up they'll enjoy it nonetheless. :) Right anyways, time to show a little something-something to prove we're still not giving up:

Agreed, Rich. Cranky/demanding "feedback" givers aside, I'm really enjoying the updates and implementations. I was especially excited about the release of the NVGs. It happened to be released on my birthday as well, so when I signed into Discord that morning my team informed me the thing I've been anticipating and foaming at the mouth for since the initial video was released way back was released I nearly jumped for joy. Smashed ArmA up on the ol' 4k monitor, grabbed a pair of nvg's and the moment I turned them on all people around me heard was me mutter "it-it's beautiful...." :P And the best part? Not only is it in finally, but tweakable as well. Nice! I am still getting a little use to the new way of doing things like settings since I'm still a little too use to putting down the module in the editor to tweak and export the settings for the server ace config, but that's just because I'm now old and just pure absent-minded in general, lol. :p But overall, you guys are just awesome, period. If it wasn't for the work you guys do for ACE, I wouldn't have even played ArmA much at all. No offense to the crew at BIS, but....well....when you play with ACE instead of vanilla everything, you find yourself thinking "How could I have even played from the beginning without this mod?!" So with that said, I wish the entire ACE team a big Happy Holidays as well as a Happy & healthy 2018 filled with even more success! :)

I know where this is going, I've seen the Godfather enough times. We go for a drive, and the only thing that comes back is you and a box of delicious cannolis. :P lol But I know what you mean. Look at how many times we've taken a crack at those 890's over the years. Sometimes you think finding the perfect sound is far more impossible than bumping into Bigfoot and taking a picture in the woods, haha. Anyways man, hope you and the fam have a great Christmas and New Year as well man. Here's to a whole new year filled with success for JSRS as well. :)

To be perfectly honest, I find the new batch of sounds better and more enjoyable than the previous. Everyone will have their own preferences to how things should sound. But I remember back in the summer when the new setup was introduced and I fell in love with the Zafir. When it changed I definitely didn't let LJ forget I missed them, hehe. But again, that came down to personal tastes. Plus, I understand the "madness" as I do exactly the same. No matter how many say "Love it--don't change a damn thing!", you sit back and that compulsion kicks in to keep changing things. But at the end of the day, 1) it's his baby and his call. And 2, LJ has a way of when he changes things 9 out of 10 times they grow and evolve into much better sounds. If he would have kept things as they were a year ago, we would not have the awesome sound experience we do now with JSRS. So with that said, people are free to like what they want. But it's his choice. Plus I personally really enjoy the new MX rifles even more than the previous ones personally. (Though Dennis, you know if you change those AK sounds I'll have to kneecap you lol j/k)

You sir, are just too awesome. :) You have no idea how badly I was waiting for a mod like this to come along for the trenches, haha.

Same. My guess is false report.

Those were replaced by Viper's from Revision. Maybe the more "old school" helmets might be brought back with old kit. But right now our infantry division aspect of development has grinded to a halted lost cause. We'll see.

Ah yes! Someone else who has had the same issues as I am right now. I've been banging my head trying to figure out what is going on. Was constantly kicked back to the lobby with the same error. Plus after trying to get in 2-3 times and finally manage to get into the mission, we noticed that everyone's ace interaction menus completely stopped working and we were all unkillable, haha. So now I know what's causing the first issue, now I just need to figure out why ACE is freaking out now. *Sigh* Oh, ArmA......how you hate me so, lol. :P

I think I asked some of my team members about similar things, and unfortunately--if memory serves correct--I believe it's kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiind of/ sorrrrrt of possible to a small extent, but means a lot of work because I think you need to basically change things with all of the animations. It's not where you can just go "ok, I'll script it where if you press this key you'll do this walk instead of the vanilla". I asked awhile back because I'd love to see like this style for a walking anim: And also wanted to do a complete overhauled M2 reload animation kind of close to what you'd see in other games like SQUAD for example. And the answer was basically one of those "No and yes." Basically, what you can do would just turn into a nightmarish pain in the ass to get there. But again, memory on the specifics are a bit foggy since it was quite awhile ago I posed the question to guys on my team. So there is plenty of room for error. I personally do hope it's possible for a script genius, but I think this falls under the category of it would be awesome as hell, but the con's and work amount far outweigh any pro's. Maybe if in the future ArmA 4 is done in such a way where making animations are less.....hemorrhoidal shall we say. ;)

It's good to know, however I will state I am not using the EF mod and still have this issue. Certainly confusing and a bit of a bummer. Hopefully someday some sort of fix could be located to get it working more reliably, since ArmA tends to be....well, ArmA. ;)

Same. I use the helo rappel and urban stuff and 9 out of 10 times when I try, it starts off working for about 1-2 seconds and then *pffftht* I fall to my death. :(

FINALLY! Now I don't need to keep holding the right mouse button down all day. Woohoo! Cheers for this, Gunter! :)

When we get to them, absolutely. But they will not make it to Alpha release, unfortunately. They'll probably come with Bravo release. We have waaaay too much work ahead of us with not much manpower, so progress is painfully slow until we can grow our team.

OFFICIAL NOTICE Project ASTFOR is still looking for and in desperate need of help and support from our community in way of 3D modelers. I know we've SOS'ed the community many a time and rarely received much of a response. I think it's due partially to the fact of how long we've been in development and lack of releasing what we have so far. In which case, I'll be honest and say I get it. It's a lot of hard work to do that kind of work, and it doesn't make sense offering your talents and time if you think it won't even see the light of day, and thus maaaaaaaybe consider passing on the offer of help because of that. Again, totally understandable and I get it. However, Project ASTFOR has always been details and quality-focused. We're making sure all of our high and low poly work is as good as we can humanly do, our lore department pretty much established enough information to make a school-level history book of Asteland let alone all the meticulous work into structuring its military. We're even going to be doing our own ArmA 3 radio protocols with voice actors to also improve immersion, etc. And there are tons of other things planned and being worked on also that we cannot disclose at this time, as it would be giving away a lot of easter eggs and other fun stuff. So why are we putting so much thought and doing things that most project out there never would? Because we love this project and want it to be the best and immersive project we can do not just for ourselves, but also for the ArmA community! We don't want to half-ass anything, even if it's "just to get something out to play with". We've always striven for quality--even if that quality takes time--and believe first impressions are everything. If the community sees the love and heart in even an alpha release of assets, then things can only get even better. But if we just slap anything together and toss in yet more vanilla asset re-textures just for the sake of actually releasing "something"....then....well, I won't say much on that since it'll be over my dead body before I let that happen, lol. Especially when I know if I was looking at it from the perspective of our fans and supporters after so long waiting and giving them something we would never be proud of putting our names upon, I would also be like: "Wait, what? What's this crap? We've been waiting for all these years, and this is what they release? Pfft!" So all I can do is say, look...I get it. But we really, really could use more help on board to really get things moving forward at a better pace and start getting some spectacular stuff out there into the community and grow. I wish I was a rich man that could just make it rain and buy a whole fleet of modelers and whatnot, but I'm not. And until I manage to somehow win the lottery jackpot, all I can do is reach out as a community member to the rest of the community and say--You want ASTFOR and we want to give you ASTFOR, but for that to really happen and especially at a better pace, we need the help. We really appreciate having all the love and support shown to us up until now, but the reality of the matter is we need more help to get the Alpha where it needs to be and released. For that, we need real genuine help. And unfortunately the occasional offer of help in the past once again resorted in, "Ok what do you guys need? Oh that? Ok great, so I'm uh....going to model something totally different that you probably don't even need just because. Ok? Ok!" So I also need to make an understanding that we need genuine help. So if there are any people out there that can 3d model--whether their area of interest be infantry kit models or vehicles--feel free to contact me. Thanks all! :)

Slightly older kit first. Also, Asteland's government hasn't decided if it would purchase the newer 360 or AMPV or not in the future. It likes to keep its options open for its future upgrades. :)

Hah, thanks. Yeah I got bored of the old one, and figured time to refresh things. Just started messing around in Illustrator bored one night and by the end of the week had that and figured, "Why not?" haha. Glad to see someone noticed and is digging it!

Our very own member, Jones, is making one beautiful Pasi for sure. We're all excited to someday be rolling through town in this. :)

Funny you should mention that. I had the same thing, but thought it was just ArmA being ArmA since I haven't played in awhile. It's quite vague, so I have noooooo idea what could be. But since you mentioned it, I'm wondering if something got missed with the update, because JSRS was the only thing that updated from the Workshop as far as I can recall.

Taken while watching a friend nervously trying to pick up and sling a truck filled with supplies on Altis. MODS: Sullen Skies, ReColor, RHS

Vasily, I actually get that as well. Only it's not just tanks, but also if using a camera on a helicopter as well. I always thought it was just my computer being old and dumb, apparently someone else out there has experienced this weird behaviour on occasions as well. Feels like if you and an invisible AI are sharing the same seat and fighting over the controls. "Look over here!" "No I want to shoot over there!" lol Me personally? I'd say its just ArmA doing what ArmA does best--just being weird for the sake of it. :P

+1. Pants flew off after just the first picture. Looks really, reeeeeaalllly good! :)