Ok, so I'll start off with a few things that are going to probably hit some nerves and get peeps a little defensive but bare with me.

 

Current state of Australian PR just isn't there. When people decide they want to play it they winge about how the PR server at BigD was empty, yet on a US server you would sometimes see an entire team made up of BigD affiliates (I will admit I was one of these people).

Some things were trialed to see if Australian PR could be revitalized with regular event nights, more posts on threads and promoting the mod else were to try get people involved THIS JUST DID NOT WORK.

PR2 at this stage is a myth and from what I’ve heard we won’t be seeing it any time soon (or at all for that matter)

So before anybody starts throwing around ideas to get this all happening again im going to say lets look at another path.

 

Now we have trialed many different games over the past few years and we have managed to get some big hits that ended up with misses (insurgency, red orchestra etc.) but there has been one game that has kept with us in the background and managed to stay with most of us

I’m talking about the ArmA series if you play something apocalyptic (DayZ/Breaking point), something more suited to arcade PVP (wasteland, king of the hill) or for those who like the milsim, real war feel (ACE, AGM, CSE) this engine caters for the majority of players here and there, and I don’t know many in my circle who don’t own a copy from the BI franchise.

 

We have been toying recently with the mod from the TacBF team (mix of PR, PR ArmA, Battlefield, ACE mod and also created by some ex PR Dev members) and have got some bad and good feedback from the mod and more importantly players on the server

 

I say we should really give this a shot and I have many reasons for this:

 

1) It caters for PR players and ARMA players with familiarity's between all game titles stated above

 

2) The Devs care, we have had the Devs come play on the server for the majority of the events and they are hungry for ideas and your thoughts. some of the BigD ideas have directly influenced changes already in the mod and they want more and more from us (all quite approachable guys that welcome any one to have a go and give them good or bad feedback as to better the mod for you, the players).

 

3) Content, ArmA 3 has been a bit of a dud for the most part but hold your horses. There are some massive game changers coming out in the mod world that will really make this the game what it should have been at release, for instance the one im keeping a huge eye on is the RHS mod that I feel is very close to release looking at the work and presentations they have given RHS: Escalation | Make Arma Not War you want an AK while cruising in a T90 tank through Russia fighting USMC, this will be a mod for youhttp://www.bigdgaming.net/file:///C:%5CUsers%5CMatt%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_image001.png and all of this will be implemented into TacBF I’m sure at release.

 

4) Players, there is a lot of interest from a few clans in Australia that want to really get into this, more players = more events = more people to shoot = GG

 

Now this thread is becoming a bit long so I’ll stop it there. Your thoughts please. I have answers for everything I’m expecting.

 

 

Cheers

Edited August 27, 201410 yr by Madhouse

i agree with the comments regarding PR. it was a great ride while it was happening but its over.

 

Now i'm a bit or an ARMA fanboy, love the series and love ARMA 3 in regards to its visuals. I would love to see a thriving community based around it but the biggest issue i have always had is mods.

mods are the only way to play ARMA and add so much needed content you cant really play without them.

my issue is the need to constantly update and download massive mod files and go through all the different configurations to get it to work for one game and then change for the next.

i know there are programs that help with this but its a pain to login and then have to spend a hour or more updating everything just to play. After a while its gets annoying and this is the reason i eventually gave up on all 3 versions.

 

I think Breaking point has the right idea with a command window that takes care of things for you.

For the community to get involved i think the only way is to start out simple, even vanilla and then slowly introduce other features and build the player base around what flavors of mods are liked.

I remember when starting out the getting, updating and keeping up to date with mods was daunting and a lot of people just gave up.

with stuff like play with six and some game modes having there own launcher its easier than ever (got a tutorial showing peeps how to set up server mod collections with PWS)

if I can setup a server, create map layouts and setup events Im pretty sure peeps can watch a 5 to 10 min video on how to use play with six. really easy stuff now days and Im always on hand to help peeps out the only thing needed is to ask me. I mean I didn't have a teacher with any of this stuff I just researched it and got the hang of it. so if people cant do that there suffering from silver platter syndrome

in regards to starting with vanilla and doing missions etc there are multiple groups who hold nights for them (which me and a few other bigDers are a part of I may add)

what I though to do was something other groups aint doing and that is milsim PVP with a flavor that is reminiscent to alot of gamers here and abroad

 

but also yes I agree, PR had a really good run and will be in my mind as one of the best mods/games ever released but I have finally uninstalled it and think its time to evolve and stop being so stubborn and just have a crack at other things for pete's sake (many swear words could have fit there lol)

Nobody can doubt your passion

 

I personally thought BigD had diversified into a gaming community that allowed us to play many games without saying 'this is the game we play'.

 

So I'm surprised that your post seems to say say you want the community to change their support from a niche mod to another mod in a more niche market - what are your expectations ?

 

How many active members are there these days ? How many of us come here out of habit only ?

 

BigD worked because there was only one community for PR in Australasia - the ARMA community is much more fragmented with a number of different groups people are already in - so why you wanted to make your last event sign up only - seems a bit silly to me. Get the customers in the door then sell them

 

I think Darth is on the money tho - are you able to create an executable that will launch six, update the mods etc ? I'm a ARMA noob.. but that would take out a lot of the pain. Unfortunately in this day in age people do need hand holding... If you want people to play - then you need to make it as easy as possible as you can (your guides are good for me .. but some people might need more and that's fine too.. you don't want to exclude even one player getting hooked).

Nobody can doubt your passion

 

I personally thought BigD had diversified into a gaming community that allowed us to play many games without saying 'this is the game we play'.

 

So I'm surprised that your post seems to say say you want the community to change their support from a niche mod to another mod in a more niche market - what are your expectations ?

 

How many active members are there these days ? How many of us come here out of habit only ?

 

BigD worked because there was only one community for PR in Australasia - the ARMA community is much more fragmented with a number of different groups people are already in - so why you wanted to make your last event sign up only - seems a bit silly to me. Get the customers in the door then sell them

 

I think Darth is on the money tho - are you able to create an executable that will launch six, update the mods etc ? I'm a ARMA noob.. but that would take out a lot of the pain. Unfortunately in this day in age people do need hand holding... If you want people to play - then you need to make it as easy as possible as you can (your guides are good for me .. but some people might need more and that's fine too.. you don't want to exclude even one player getting hooked).

 

everything you have said here is every problem im fixing

expectations are that this works, and works very well. I think after a few nights of how to plays and some more events and we will be onto a winner, especially it being player built and community driven

active members aint the biggest issue. I care more about people on the server than on the forums and with interest from other groups, peeps will sign up when their comfortable this will lead into my next answer

sign ups dont even get me started. I have a plan for this that will keep all happy, just need to run it by a few first

launching I plan to set up a repo on the server. this will cut down the amount of things you need to do by 3/4's on play with six and will make a follow up tutorial on it, very simple(blame my lazyness for that one)

i'm sold....after playing a few rounds of arma3 and watching some video of tacBF i can def see the same potential as you are seeing D.

reinstalling windows this w/e so i can start fresh as arma 3 is not ideally suited to my rig.

Maybe select a really good vid that shows the elements that are good and similar to PR.

the player base will be small in oz to start with, just as PR was back in the day and the people drawn to it will be drawn to this version for those same reason, even though it's a bit different to set up and install. it will have a few years in it before it gets mainstream interest and gets ruined the same way PR was. i don't think many old PR players will come back for it but the new ones that seek it out will create the next generation....and they need a place to forum...no reason why it can't be here

Only just seeing this thread now and as one of the TacBF DEVS I'd like to lend some extra support to what Diabolical has stated.

 

2) The Devs care, we have had the Devs come play on the server for the majority of the events and they are hungry for ideas and your thoughts. some of the BigD ideas have directly influenced changes already in the mod and they want more and more from us (all quite approachable guys that welcome any one to have a go and give them good or bad feedback as to better the mod for you, the players).

 

We really do!

 

Dr. Eyeball is fro Brisbane and has been working on the current TacBF engine since back in 2009 with OFP (pre-ArmA1) when it was called Devastation. I'm also from Brisbane but I'm currently based in Melbourne. So at the very, very least we'd love to see TacBF take-off in Australia if only for the sake of our sleeping patterns! i.e. playing at 5AM to match the European peak-time nearly every weekend has been a difficult task for both of us these last 1.5+ years.

 

We not only play regularly with the public so we can speak from a position of experience, but are also willing to do so at the crazy hours because we really love what we're making (sometimes... pre-release can be a bit hectic). Even the European and US TacBF DEVS and wider European TacBF community have attended nearly all BigD TacBF events.

 

For me personally, I joined the TacBF team initially as beta tester purely to ensure that previous attitudes towards the community from the PR:ArmA2 DEV team after Eyeball left such as this {TwistedHelix: "We make this mod for us, not you. And let's face it ...you'll play anyway"} did not carry through to TacBF. You'll also notice that the PR:ArmA2 section in the PR forums has been 'mysteriously' deleted, lest these locked threads and attitudes to the community be referenced. Again this is only in reference to the PR:ArmA2 team at the time (and not the PR:BF2 team who are legends!) and as a past player who is very determined to help foster the global TacBF community.

 

For myself and TacBF, this sense of being able to have good PvP teamplay with any player, clan or no clan ...let alone not speaking the same language, is just as important as the development of the gameplay itself. To reinforce this last point, none of the current TacBF DEVS are affiliated with any clan, let alone from the same country. We've also just finished translating >300 phrases into >5 languages for the mod with more to come, so you could also expect non-English players to help boost numbers in the future. I also used to be an OFP player and part of the Australian OGN community back in the early 2000's, so I also understand the "nature" of the Australia ArmA community and certainly believe BigD to be the right fit to help foster the Australian TacBF community.

 

3) Content, ArmA 3 has been a bit of a dud for the most part but hold your horses. There are some massive game changers coming out in the mod world that will really make this the game what it should have been at release, for instance the one im keeping a huge eye on is the RHS mod that I feel is very close to release looking at the work and presentations they have given [/url]RHS: Escalation | Make Arma Not War you want an AK while cruising in a T90 tank through Russia fighting USMC, this will be a mod for you and all of this will be implemented into TacBF I’m sure at release.

 

I'll extend this even further. TacBF is primarily the PvP rule-set with some pre-existing gamemodes, with many more improvements to come. However you can already use whatever addons (island, factions, vehicles, weapons, etc.) you like with TacBF, all you need to do is configure this compatibility from the mission side, with no changes to the mod necessary. I also personally keep track of suitable addons for use in our forums addon secton. To reinforce this, we already have TFR compatibility (e.g. squad frequency shown in squad management screen) which we hope to improve upon and have also just added detection of ArmA2 buildings for the creation of caches in S&D missions made on those islands. So you really don't need to 'wait' for us to implement your favourite addon assests into the mod and can quite easily do this yourself depending upon what your community prefers. But we also be trying to preempt popular mods such as TFR, AiA, RHS, etc. to improve the integration for missions makers.

 

Keep in-mind that we're still in open beta. But despite this we currently have made 50+ missions of varying sizes and gamemodes and already have had 8 releases. So hopefully this is an good indication to you all that we're only just getting started and plan to grow with the ArmA3 community ...and hopefully a broader TacBF community ...as time goes on.

 

Anyway, feel free to stop by the TacBF forums anytime and see what's going-on, suggest some improvements or desired features as Diabolical has been doing. But at this point all I really want the Aussie community to start doing is just start playing TacBF and having fun, so I can join in during a normal time-zone!

I think Darth is on the money tho - are you able to create an executable that will launch six, update the mods etc ? I'm a ARMA noob.. but that would take out a lot of the pain.

 

We're actually working on a TacBF specific launcher at the moment, but that may take some months to develop.

 

In the meantime, we also have some guides on the TacBF forums here:

TacBF Installation using Play withSix

TacBF Installation using ArmA3sync (ArmA3 launcher and addon sync front-end)

TacBF Quickstart Guide

 

There's also an in-game manual available from the map screen:

http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn248/madrabbit711/th_020914_TacBF_InGame_Manual_zps48fa3907.jpg

 

As you've also already pointed-out, Diabolical has made some nice videos guides too.

 

We're hoping to make some more TacBF videos in the future of current development, tutorials on gameplay and also installation. However as I've said above, we're still in open beta and as such mainly concentrating on the development side. Especially as it's difficult to write tutorials on gameplay for example when we keep improving and thus changing these elements. Hopefully the community will help in this latter respect in the future as well.

Dr. Eyeball is fro Brisbane and has been working on the current TacBF engine since back in 2009 with OFP

 

would also like to add he is one of the oldest BigD members lol (2006)

also as soon as I find out why my video render software is having a hissy fit I'll be doin some TacBF specific tutorials

so there is no way to play the mod unless overseas servers have an event on?

are we able to easily jump into our own server for quick games or do they need lots of prep?

i wouldnt mind trying to get on our server once a week on a week night to get more familiar with the game...is this possible?

so there is no way to play the mod unless overseas servers have an event on?

are we able to easily jump into our own server for quick games or do they need lots of prep?

i wouldnt mind trying to get on our server once a week on a week night to get more familiar with the game...is this possible?

Im goin to be holding how to plays all next week. ill do a write up for it in a min