jinzor

Hey Gunter, we're not criticizing or angry at the game itself (at least, I'm not), the game is alright. Sure, the campaign and some parts of the game has loads of bugs, but I still manage to find enjoyment out of it, that's the main thing. The D-Day DLC isn't as good though (simply because there's not enough, if there were enough then it would be good). I'm just angry at the lack of support for the game and this final kick in the teeth; removing the forums. That place was active, that had a lot of good discussions on there and we had a chance to speak to developers, and now it's gone. And also sure, we now have the "fan forums" where everyone can go instead, but I'm not really sure I want to be much of a vocal "fan" of this game anymore given everything that's been going on with it. There's nothing much to discuss; support is dropped, modding is disabled and hardly anyone plays it these days (except for the couple of times where there is a sudden influx of people which plan to play the game on a set date). The only thing that I can think of discussing is mission making, but I'm sorry to say, why would I want to make missions for a dead game anymore? To me, it's like going back and making a mission for Dragon Rising; there's not much point, especially when there is a fairly big community right around the corner tied to a series of games on which the engine came from; the ArmA series. It'd be way more worthwhile making missions for that game, or even for the mods on that game. At least the chances of more people playing your mission(s) will be much, much higher and the game has longevity; it has modability. People will be coming back to those games for a long time. And before you come back and tell me that I should leave if I think this way, let me just say that I still care about the game, I don't want to leave. I think that if you don't voice your concerns or displeasure then there is more chance that NOTHING will improve. I do want the game to survive, but I'm displeased with all the other stuff, that's why I'm ranting. If you don't want to read these negative posts, then you don't have to read them. There is a small possibility for the game to survive as well; modding. Modding fixed ArmA II, it can fix IF44. But how do we get that if support is now dropped and that no-modding agreement is still in place? This is definitely not going to happen, but what I think needs to happen in order for Iron Front to survive, to allow modding, is for the rights/IP/whatever of Iron Front to move directly into Bohemia's hands, DS/AWAR will need to give it for a price. I mean, what will it be worth in the future? I doubt it'll be much. Re-name it (like what they did with the original Operation Flashpoint when they couldn't use the name anymore, due to it being trademarked by Codemasters; ArmA II: Iron Front?), maybe fix some things (especially the campaign) if they want and then allow mod/community to fix the game. Like I said, this is definitely not going to happen though.

That's the thing I'm worried about, maybe they do care and do actually want to say something, but then again they never said that they "couldn't" say anything, ever. All they've done is avoided questions or news since late-January, when the new patch was supposed to be released. And besides, NDA's haven't stopped devs from anonymously giving status updates, explanations or other information before. A developer for OF: Dragon Rising unofficially revealed that Codemasters were going to halt development and start a new game (Red River) after the final patch and apologised, a confirmed anonymous developer for Aliens: Colonial Marines went to Reddit after the game was released to reveal what went wrong with the game. Even if AWAR can't say anything, they can say something. They haven't even tried. Also, the closure of the AWAR IF44 forums, without even a warning, was a clear enough message from them I believe; we don't care/want to support the game anymore. That's not the way to go about it. I agree, I would have been fine with a warning or a message like that, from mlacix, on this forum after the other forums were shut down, as well.

That is probably very true, and if it is then I feel sorry for them. But that still doesn't explain why AWAR haven't said anything regarding this. I'm just angry at how they are keeping silent/mysterious, not the actual quality of the game. All evidence, so far, points to them wanting to move on, shutting down the forums and not saying anything about it (the last few times the forums were shut down, which were for maybe a day or two at most, they would come on this forum, say that it was a temporary problem and say it would be back up again. They haven't done that this time) could be their way of saying "it's over, we don't want to hear anything relating to this game anymore". The actual game is pretty good; big maps, original WWII location for the RV engine (except for the DLC). If DS have told them to cease development, or for whatever reason they cannot support the game anymore, why not just say so and try harder to make their next game better after their experience with IF44? That would restore some of my faith in AWAR.

Then if that is indeed the case, why are the developers not saying anything? I'd be happy about them coming clean with us and saying how difficult it is to support IF44, due to low sales and/or other reasons, and want to give up on the game. But just leaving us in the dark and closing down the forums, as if the game and community never existed, without a warning, is cowardly. That is not the way to gain respect or future loyal customers, I expected better from them. I was loyal to them until that happened; I was willing to buy the game three times over for my friends to help support them (which I was about to do, before the forums shut down), willing to make an American Campaign (for the D-Day DLC), willing to voice act for British soldiers in a possible British DLC and pay professional bilingual/north american voice actors for the DLCs, since the original D-Day DLC had no voice acting in their scenarios (in a private message, after I offered examples of my voice, Ingeneer (one of the AWAR devs I believe) said that a British DLC was their "hope for the future" and would reply back when he had dialogue to read, implying that that was the next DLC they could have possibly made after the D-Day DLC). But they really dropped the ball and I am not going to be hopeful or supportive for their next project, at all, as long as those forums are down and we still get no response/explanation for everything that's going on with IF44. Why should I trust this developer when I know that they could act like this again? Who knows if they will do the exact same thing with their new project in the future?

I'd rather just use this forum tbh: 1. All the sub-forums are already laid out, similar to the AWAR/X1 IF44 forums. 2. The BIStudios IF44 forum is just part of a larger forum; the rest of the BI community is here discussing ArmA II/OA/ArmA III/ToH, they can come in here freely as well. 3. The BIStudio forums already have a lot of activity and a lot of active moderators. There's no point making yet another when there are already three different ones; Deep Silver IF44 forums, AWAR/X1 IF44 forums (which are now down, not sure if they will come back) and then this one. It'll split the community even more.

I never said that! Stop assuming things that I'm not saying. Until I have sat down and played a released simulator game with that engine I will keep my opinion. EDIT: I agree, it's never going to end. Should make a new thread for this.

I said I have yet to see a (released) game that can do what a game like ArmA II/IF44, running the RV engine, has done. Not the fact that I don't think the CryEngine can do it at all. It probably could, I just need it to prove it first.

What? I'm not saying you should do anything about it, I'm just saying why I need them. Who knows, maybe some people from AWAR/X1 are reading these forums since they closed theirs down (some have accounts here and have made posts in this forum), I don't even have their contact details anyway therefore I've got nowhere else to post (they probably wouldn't reply to me anyway considering how poor their communication with the community is). No need to throw the book at me for a post. EDIT: Edited a little bit, I was in a bad mood at the time of writing.

I really need the forums back up for help with the IF44 mission editor. There are some things which I need specifically for it, such as the airborne paratrooper script that was in the "Missions" sub-forum. I can't find it anywhere else.

You've said this about twenty times, we get the picture, please stop banging on about it; I think it's really disrespectful to what Bohemia Interactive have achieved with that engine in the ArmA series and irritating to read. Sure, the Real Virtuality engine has problems, but that doesn't make it terrible. The engine has done some amazing things; pretty nice graphics (sure, no god rays or whatever CryEngine 2 or 3 has, but still nice) all the while with a good mission editor, ability to render massive maps/sustain lots of things happening in a game and the ability to mod them (save for IF44, but if it wasn't for legal issues we would have had that with the game). It's a little unstable, has pretty dumb AI (but then again, AI in video games isn't an easy thing to get right anyway. I think the AI that has been achieved is pretty amazing considering the massive scale of the maps and what the engine has to do), a lot of these things are probably going to be fixed in the latest version of the engine in ArmA III. But to call it a "crappy" engine altogether is just wrong. I'm not sure the CryEngine, while looking amazing (visually, especially), could do exactly what the RV engine can do right now because I've yet to see a simulator on the exact sort of scale as a game like ArmA II's in that engine.

This is getting bloody ridiculous. :mad: Can the forums PLEASE come back online now? I really do need the forums, for once. I'm trying to make my American Campaign for the D-Day DLC, but I can't find the scripts/help I need in order to create it due to the Iron Front "Mission Editing" sub-forum being locked out to me since the forums are offline. Things I need to find on the forums: 1. Airborne paradrop script (somebody uploaded it to the forums, but I can't get to it now) 2. How to edit briefings/endmission texts on IF44 (not sure if it's different to ArmA II or not)