Origins of Forgotten Hope

[Flippy Warbear]

Lobo is like online all the time. He plays loads of games like every day. 

[Fuchs]

Lobo is like online all the time. He plays loads of games like every day. 

Yeah, I was about to say this. He's alive.

Or someone stole his Steam account.

[Zoologic]

If I'm not mistaken, the guy that made FH so special (with its pretty realistic physics, non-wobbling tank, tank combats, heavy surface controls of the aeroplanes, etc) is Takiwa... then he moved to the Frontline mod, which fate for BF42 is unknown, but then it merged with BG42 to become BG:F.

FH was so over the top back then. It quickly introduced me to more WW2 vehicles than any other books in the planet that you can read in less than a week without getting bored. From the guys back in FF like Jummy, Bunny, Meadow (where is he now?), Yosssarian and many other guy I learned politics. From Lightning, Mudra, Anlushac, and most FH fans I learned history. People here still look down on gamers, but they know nothing about history, one of many school subject that we must take back then. So, I found FH a bit educational and contradict many other reality-bending games like Command&Conquer, MoH:AA, or many other title many people deemed "quite realistic."

I chose this community over many others, because it has this unique mix: gamer, into realism/accuracy, internet-savvy, WW2 and military enthusiasts, generally not afraid to push on difficult topics (it was much heavier discussions back in FF).

I moved on from other communities of my hobby like Avsim.com, and several other add-on developer forums from time to time. Even though they shared the same interests with me, but the people there aren't that up to my taste, too many typical CoD noob-like joining, untouchable devs, shallow discussion (too many stupid arguments on typical Airbus vs. Boeings), it gets tired easily, so I chose to move on to real life, hanging around with aviation enthusiasts community in real life. But for FH, it has been like 6 years (since late 2005) and still going on.

[Thorondor123]

Takiwa

No.

[Zoologic]

Not him?

[Ts4EVER]

You know sheikyerbouti, it is always shocking to see how much your posts lack both in humility and common sense.

In general, most of them used Fh2 to buff their credentials and the moment that paycheques start to roll in they generally fucked right off from ever seeing us again.

What are you even talking about? Or who? And if you are indeed talking about anyone in particular, it wuld be thrilling to find out which dev landed a high paying job thanks to FH2 and what you are basing that information on...

 

In days gone by, it was not uncommon to face off against Dev squads. Hell, even Lobo used to visit WOLF (during NA hours) and there was, in general, a much greater sense of camarederie than exists today.

The obvious nostalgia aside, one could probably argue that the devs would help the mod more by, you know, actually modding instead of running arund ingame in order to give random pubbies like you a feeling of involvement. However, a short glance at the stats page shows that there are tons of devs having played longer than you since 2.4, including MayhemicMAD, Kev4000, Schism RVTL and kettcar.

Personally, after developing strong relationsships to some of these people, I see it as a slap in the face, the way that retired-Dev's are sort of pushed to the margins and not properly celebrated. For a change, it would be nice to know what happened to them.

First of all: strong relationships?? Since I am generally under no illusion concerning the closeness of my relationship to any dev, I can't really tell how they spend their private lifes, however I will make an educated guess and say that they don't spend it knocking back beers with you. In fact, considering you are a vocal member of this community, yet have made no appearance on the beta testing team at all, one could argue that they don't even particularly like you or respect any opinioins you display on these forums. But again, that's just me, no dev ever talked to me about that and I in no way claim that that is their opinion.
To change the topic: "Celebrate them"? Like what? All the celebration a dev needs is people playing the mod and maybe their name on the site when they made something. What else do you want, updates on their social and professional life? Befriend them on facebok or something... RAD obviously was an exception due to the circumstances.

Sign Non-disclosures/participation agreements?

What kind of scheme do you think the devs are running here?

Get forced out over internal issues?

Yeah like the team is going to throw out actual talented people, it's not like they grow on trees.

Have children/get married?

Some devs did these things, yes. I'm sure azreal is hard at work on a news update detailing the private lives of all developers for your entertainment. I heard one of them is gay. I can't wait to find out which one!

[siben]

In fact, considering you are a vocal member of this community, yet have made no appearance on the beta testing team at all, one could argue that they don't even particularly like you or respect any opinioins you display on these forums.

You people don't like me? 

[Fuchs]

Alright, we might as well be honest now you found out, Siben. No, we don't.

[General_Henry]

I feel that not much is left from the old forgotten hope...

I still remember the good old days. The community feels more solid at that time, now, I just feel that there is indeed a community hanging around but the mod could be dead all of a sudden. (warning: this is just FEELING!)

There is one moment the mod started to lose the appeal, I think it is at FH 2.1 or something. Many problems contributed to the decline of the forgotten hope community and the development team ignores the suggestions from die-hard forgotten hope fans. While no-one now might agree, but I am a firm believer of the current SL-spawn system is something that crushed the mod. A war feeling is gone, as it was traded for fun. There are numerous posts on this and while no a single person could really defend the SL system with good logic it still stays.

The only thing that still make this mod survive is the exceptional quality of work. The mod indeed provides you of unrivaled gaming experience despite some shortcomings. For once, the 128p server seemed to bring FH2 back to its old glory, as it brings true large scaled fighting and eliminates "fun" for unrealistic/badass behaviors. Unfortunately, for whatever unknown reason the guy who almost made a revolution decided to hold back and 128p disappeared from the FH2 community.

To me fun is important but the core value of forgotten hope is something that cannot be traded away and must be preserved at all cost.

sorry for going off topic.

[ajappat]

Well anctoville was first without SL spawn and it was total flop.

[Dukat]

I remember ArminAce being one of the top developers of the early days. In those days he was often fighting with others in the comment section of BF1942.de when a FH newsupdate arrived. You can't imagine how noobish claims and statements were. A discussion like "We need the PIII" - "No, we don't." could be already considered substancial back then.

I'm not sure though whether it was him who created the armor system of tanks with its different penetration depending on the armor thickness. However that system seperated the noobish mods from the pro mods. There was no other mod for BF1942 having the ability to make a shell actually bounce off or draw different amounts of hitpoints depending on distance and angle. In BF1942 there was only hit or miss, always drawing the same amount of hitpoints.

[General_Henry]

Well anctoville was first without SL spawn and it was total flop.

The spawnpoints were placed poorly and the APC spawn is not a good idea.

[Flyboy1942]

I actually like the spawn system on Anctoville. Partly because it plays differently than other maps, but mostly because of how suddenly spawn points become the most vital part of the game. You really cant do anything but defend/attack spawn points, because a) that's where you always spawn, and b) that's where the enemy always spawns.

I've had plenty of epic attack/defense struggles over flags, most notably that one in the open field with the trench and wrecked tank.

I feel like this board is still pretty solid. It's just a little less open to casual posters. I tend to lurk more than post, and one of the biggest turn offs to my posting more often are the 600 page threads that seem impenetrable to someone who hast read them all or posted in it yet. I like to get into a fresh discussion of only a few pages or less so that I know what has been discussed. I dont see the point of combining similar threads into one massive "pictures and discussions about war" or "games of FH2 I've enjoyed" conglomerates. I know they're meant to cut down on repeat topics, but they make the forum less flowing, in my opinion.

As for the "decline of FH2" I think that is just some of the older segments of the community taking on more responsibilities and drifting off, other parts of the community becoming a bit jaded towards fresh ideas and suggestions, and the newer community joining when the mod is fully matured and thoroughly discussed.

tl,dr: Anctoville system makes for CP focused battles, forum is a bit bogged down, FH community needs to stop being old codgers.

[sheikyerbouti]

 Mostly @ TS4

 I won't name them but there is a minimum of 3 devs that come to mind as being employed in the software industry and I never said anything about "high paying". Play the google game and you can even track them down... (it's wicked easy to do especially NATTY WALLO ... cough)

BTW, i have turned down 3 separate offers to become a member of the Beta team. With published title experience (as a tester for EA, R-star, and others), I have no doubt that I could be a valuable asset but unfortunately the Fh2 testing hours are not amenable to both my geographic locale and the fact that in my 30's,  I need to worry about getting paid and that means Sundays around the time that i wake up and Tuesdays during work hours don't exactly mesh well for me.

 You completely missed the point that I tried to make, so maybe next time ask before you get on the offensive against me. I am a massive supporter of the FH2 community, unfortunately you don't see fit to recognize that.


P.S. ""However, a short glance at the stats page shows that there are tons of devs having played longer than you since 2.4, including MayhemicMAD, Kev4000, Schism RVTL and kettcar.""


 With an official ranking (according to Ifihada)  of 559/13429, how much more often do I need to play
 

[TASSER]

Lobo left the team a while back for real life reasons. Other than that, its not really my place to say. I would love to comment further on this topic, but right now I have class, so I'll do so when I get back.

Hey azreal, mind following up? I'd love to hear your experiences with the Mod!