Preparing the Forum for Armed Assault

[macguba]

OFPEC will be fully supporting Armed Assault when it is launched.    This will mean changes in the way the forum is organised.   We haven't quite figured out what all these changes will be, but in preparation we will be making some changes and trying a few experiments.   Boards may be merged or moved around.    However, no posts will be deleted.   Everything that is here, will stay here.

Speculation about ArmA remains off-topic.   However, on-topic posts about ArmA are very welcome.

The first of these changes is to make OFPEC Vacancies a child board of General Announcements.   We've never had a child board before so this is one of the experiments.   If it works we will probably use child boards elsewhere: if it doesn't, we'll revert to the old system.

As always, questions, comments and suggestions are welcome in this thread.

macguba
Forum Admin

[SniperAndy]

Excellent news, and child boards sound good imho...yeah OFPEC 111 gooooo 

[macguba]

More changes have happened in preparation for Armed Assault.   These are the biggest yet, so pay attention.   

In all three main depot areas we have had board mergers today.      In each case the discussion ideas boards have been combined.   Comments on the Depots themselves (as opposed to things hosted in them) should now be made on the OFPEC Comments board.


Old                                                            New

Editing/Scripting: Ideas                         }  Editing/Scripting: Discussion & Ideas
Editors Depot Comments / Questions   }

Addons: Discussion                                }
Addons: Ideas                                       }  Addons: Discussion & Ideas
Addons Depot Comments / Questions   }

Missions: Ideas                                      } Missions: Discussion & Ideas
Missions Depot Comments / Questions  }


Everything that was on-topic before is still on topic.   No posts have been deleted.    It will take a day or so to sort out the stickies and a few threads that will need to be moved by hand to get them into the right place.

As always, questions, comments and suggestions are welcome.   We can't undo the mergers though.   

[PetriHonka]

Why not have a separate group of topics dedicated to ArmA? As in Have the Editors boards, Mission boards ect. then have the ArmA boards (ArmA Missions, ArmA Editors).

[macguba]

We are considering that.   However, it is only one possibility and the situation is not only opaque (because ArmA hasn't been launched yet) but also cloudy.    OFP and ArmA have many commands in common, many things are the same.   It's not obvious that they should be on different boards.

If anybody has experience of a similar situation with other games (i.e. a sequel sharing some but not all commands) we'd be delighted to hear it.

[XCess]

If I understand correctly, won't ArmA be making about the same amount of changes as Resistance did to CWC? Improving the engine (although much more extensively) and adding a few more commands, weapons and such. The actual editing will remain pretty similar, AFAIK, so the changes to the board shouldn't have to be too extreme... Ofcourse, this is, and can only be, simple speculation based on what, limited information has been released about the game.

[JasonO]

Armed assualt isnt a new engine, its modified from OFP.. so the scripting will be the same, but like you said, with the added commands and improvments.

[macguba]

Exactly.    But, conceptually, Resy was technically an expansion pack and ArmA is technically a new game.     

So which is less confusing for noobs?   Two games on one board where some stuff applies to one and other stuff applies to the other?    Or two boards where essentially the same game is discussed on both:  how to light a fire (for years the most popular question) isn't going to change.

It's a tricky one and we haven't decided yet.   I have a feeling we won't really decide until after we've had a good look at ArmA.   Creating new boards and new sections on this forum is really easy:  merging boards is slightly tricky but we can do it.    Unmerging small boards is very tedious - you have to move each post by hand - and unmerging large boards is de facto impossible.     The consequence of that is to create a slight bias towards creating new boards.   It's easier to merge two boards than split one board into two.

[JasonO]

I think it would be much easier for noobs to have 2 boards. If you have a question regarding Armed Assault.. people might not post their problem in OFP board since its two diffrent things.
But then you have the problem where 2 sites need to be maintained and  moderated. So yes, its a hard decicion.

[Cheetah]

One board please, it's easier to keep track of what's going on and people that bought OFP will probably buy Arma. When ArmA has been released, there won't be much people playing OFP. And even then, it's not two completely different games, they are pretty similar in terms of scripting (that's what I think / expect).

[PetriHonka]

When ArmA has been released, there won't be much people playing OFP.

Not necessarily, when new games come out not all players of the old game buy it at the release date. There will probably be a strong OFP contingent for many months if not years after ArmA is released.

[bedges]

http://www.ofpec.com/forum/index.php?topic=27434.0 

[PetriHonka]

Better?
ArmA will be very popular hoever the word on some of the public servers is that many will play both.

[macguba]

There have been a number of board mergers today.    This is to make the forum easier to use and to concentrate activity: a few lively boards are better than a lot of quiet ones.   Everything that was on-topic remains on-topic, it's just that you may find it in a slightly different place.   No posts have been deleted.   Details of the mergers below.

ArmA boards will be expanding as activity continues to increase.  (Don't forget it hasn't even been released in north america yet.)

As always, questions and constructive comments are welcome.   It'll take a day or two to sort out the sticky topics.


Forum sections:   OFP Editors Depot. OFP Addons Depot and OFP Missions Depot sections have been combined into one Operation Flashpoint section.


Forum boards:

OFP Editors Depot

Old

Editing/Scripting General
Editing/Scripting Sound & Cutscenes
Editing/Scripting Advanced
Editing/Scripting Multiplayer
Editing/Scripting Discussion & Ideas
Editing/Scripting Resource Beta Testing & Submission
Editing/Scripting Accepted Resources


New

Editing/Scripting: General¦nbsp; (combining General, Sound&Cutscenes, Advanced and Discussion)
Editing/Scripting: Multiplayer (same)
Editing/Scripting: Resource Beta Testing & Submission (same)
Editing/Scripting: Accepted Resources (same, but this board will vanish when the new Ed Depot is complete)



OFP Addons Depot

Old

Addons: Editing
Addons: 3D Modelling
Addons: Island editing
Addons: Discussion & Ideas
Addons: Beta Testing


New

Addons: Editing (combining Editing, 3D Modelling and Island Editing)
Addons: General, Beta testing & Submission (combining Discussion and Beta testing)


OFP Missions Depot

Old

Missions: Discussion & Ideas
Missions: Beta Testing & Submission
Missions: Reviewed Missions

New

Missions: Discussion & Ideas (same)
Missions: Beta Testing & Submission (same)
Missions: Reviewed Missions (same, but this board will vanish when the Missions Depot is completed)