How is it selling, is there any chance for you to continue the work at Jagged Alliance titles in future..

...to improve the series and make it bigger again?

Can we get some information, or did we already and i missed it?

I´d like to know this, too.

I also would like to know if more features are planned to be implemented after v1.07. There are more than enough suggestions.

They already answered (on Steam and during the my Twitch interview with Thomas Lund) that the sales are underwhelming. Some would be tempted to say the 40% approval rate on Steam is to blame, but I've seen AAA games with worse.

The problem is that while AAA games can beat overwhelmingly negative reviews with a massive PR campaign, outside of Steam, Full Control is not in this position. They bet all their money on Steam and it was a losing bet so far.

Everyone can try to explain why this happened. It's not rocket science - low budget, high expectations is always an explosive combination. The real question now is how much community modding can help the game. I've been contacted by a lot of talented people, willing to add a lot of value to the game, since I've launched the Bear's Pit Community Roll-out Plan for JA:F. From the response I got, I am optimistical about how the "reloaded" version will turn out.

But before we can even start, we need FC to take a deep breath and push for the final patches, open up the modding again and then start praying talented modders produce more content than they can handle.

Ok thanks Shanga, thought so somehow.

Maybe there is a way to release some kind of a "JA:F Modders Edition" anytime? So they get more money, to make it bigger step by step to incluide more funtions of JA 1.13... or even JA2.

If it's gonna be how we and they want it, then it definitly will have good ratings, and then its selling.

Imho modding JAF should come in 3 stages:

Step 1) Good free mods on Steam Workshop, plenty of them

Step 2) Bear's Pit competition should produce a few excellent DLCs from top modders, priced low enough for everyone to afford them.

Step 3) The best modders shoud come together and work on a "JA:F v1.13 Community Edition" that should be RELAUNCHED on Steam as a separate product (to get away from the negative reviews of the core edition)

Thx for the info Shanga...your 3 stages sound like  a good plan, i´d love to do some map work for future mods...(step 1 first of course)

I have already made maps for e.g.:

Doom, Quake, Thief- The dark project, Shadow Warrior, Jedi Knight, X-Wing vs. Tie-fighter, UT 2004, C&C Tiberium Wars (also a map for coop Tower defense without mods), Battlefield Vietnam, Open Arena, JAF of course (when the editor still worked) and others i probably have forgotten.

I also have experience with scipting (C&C tower defense map style... was quite a lot of work), so if an oppurtunity like that is given for JAF i´m sure i can create storylines, too.

I really hope for the editor to work soon again.

How do you coordinate the different works of people to create a campaign (story writers, modders, map creators)? Joining the bears pit and then? Or does everyone do one campaign for themselves?

Hey guys,

@Glettkin: check out Bear's Pit (not the ingame one hehe) at http://www.ja-galaxy-forum.com for contributing to the "community edition". Shanga built up basic coordination for the upcomming work there and I guess he'll be the "head of community delevopement", too ;-)

I have created an account. Let´s chill and see where it leads ;) Btw. I saw there is need for audio works, too. I´ve got a professional microfone especially for voice recording at home. Don´t know if my voice is good enough (for e.g. a merc), though^^

Well, about voices... a good mike is nice, but you should be also a good actor, since it's "voice acting", not "voice recording". Try recording some ingame texts and link them here and let the world decide if your voice is trained enough for such a job. No other way.

I for one know for sure I'd suck at voice acting, I was bad in school at music, I no music ear, no voice acting for me I am afraid. 

@shanga

Yeah i tried to imply that. I can try to do some voice acting, but as i said i´m not that sure about it neither. Please don´t think i´m over-self-confident in that matter ;) 

Let the world decide? Sounds intimidating, thinking of all the trolls and haters. Even if it is kind of good enough, the answers won´t be. And who is going to do voice acting then? Only professionals? I doubt you can recruit so many porfossianals without paying them.

I understand for step 3 it all has to be perfect, but i´m talking about step 1 first (maybe step 2). I personally would like to have some "ok" voice instead of none at all. It´s not that disturbing.

It was a just a general advice for anyone who thinks voice making is an easy job (not directed at you specifically). It's not. You can of course give it a try, you never know what hidden talent lies withing you :) And as you said.. in the end it's a free mod.

No problem:) just wanted to clarify. Will give it a try of course. I also have drawn a raw structure of the island i want to create.  You can´t really build large/long campaigns with this limited space available. But in the end i guess i´ve got a plan with what we´ve got now^^ Is there any possibility the amount of possible sectors can be increased by modding?

JA:F map is 15x15, almost as big as JA2. And it can be filled from top to bottom with sectors. Considering a good map takes about 3 weeks to make, you can have a 225 sectors map ready in about about 12 years :) Just in time for JA:F v1.13 hehe

Well for the voice acting i guess the training is maybe even the smaller part. Every Voice has its own special sound.

So maybe it would be best if everyone who wants to help and has the needed equipment would record some standart sentences.

"Watch out!"(while being shot at) "Hi my name is Bob and im serving Beer tonight. Well, actually on all nights since this is a bar. If you want something else youre at the wrong place" ... Maybe 10 - 20 different recordings. But everyone records the same sentences. So some persons maybe dont fit for a merc but would be perfect for some npc.

And then the mod team could listen to the voices and decide if a voice fits their needs.

It could be even open for all mods on bears bit maybe. Like different modders could listen to the different voices and if they are intrested they could conntact the person. "Oi, we want you for our mod are you intrested?"

@ shanga

Actually it´s x:15 y:12 (A-L) ;) Except they included 3 additional y lines (M,N,O) in the newest patch i haven´t tried yet. And i´m not sure if the outer sectors (outlines) have to be water sectors or not. I´ll test it when it´s possible.

Also some sectors aren´t that hard to make. Some are just a quarter/half part of the map (rest filled with water) or road ones. Also my island isn´t a solid big one, it´s kind of seperated in the middle by some water sectors. We´ll see how much time it´ll take me to do it. I can be very obsessed some time.^^

edit: ja2 has 16x16 sectors available, so its 256 sectors. Jaf has 15x12, that´s 180. it´s about 2/3 in comparison to the old JA2.

Still sounds enough, but it can get crowded fast if you want to put in more than 3 major towns.

@ Django

agreed...I don´t think very many people have the will and proper equipment to do so. Thinking of persuading others to speak in my mic a few sentences in the past....it´s harder than you might think. Shyness is always a great factor. (especially women)

I could imagine me speaking e.g. the next Farmer Joe or something :) A merc-pack should only include the best speakers, becuase you hear them over and over. I sometimes don´t choose a merc because his or her voice is abnoxious.

Just a minor statement in-between:

It´s too less people on the forum. For days my comments were the only ones on the forum. That´s sad...

I want a new JA as much as you, but there are only a few of us....a few who care... Why listen to the community of 6-10 people?^^

FC could be right right when it´s looking on the stats, and not at us...BUT otherwise these/us people know what they are talking about. They/us know what JA fans want, and we are experienced.

So let´s try to raise some money with handworked products (just like Shanga´s plan), and show the world JA lives and it IS a good game!

I personally want to do something, I don´t mind if i get critizised or doubted...i will give what i can, to make it live. What JAF vision do i have when i don´t share it with you?

I will exploit my own voice to make sound samples,.... i will do a lot of map work/dedicating my time to create a new experience others will have just like when i was a teeny^^...and if possible i will chit-chat with the modders to create a living universe of JA again.

I will do my best... and if it doesn´t fit, i have failed and i´m fine with that. 

It´s a game... and you can loose...sure....nothing more or less...but i always have found/seen meaning in games.

Periode :=) 

P.S.: nobody has to respond to this post. It´s not directed to anyone specifically....but you can respond to the previous one of mine :)

totally with you, glettkin, and the other guys willing to contribute. losing my patience over at the steam forum with the trolls and haters, i'd love to be productive instead.

@Shanga (and/or devs): i tried to register at bear's pit forums, but didn't get the confirmation mail, so i try it this way: i'm the guy who came up with the sweetFX preset and would like to contribute as much as i can. what i could do:

- fixing german translation (german native, german linguistics major)

- record some ja2-inspired music tracks (long-time guitar player with decent recording environment)

- writing/storyline in general (literature major, experienced writer, mainly in german though)

maybe even

- 2d artwork (used to be good at drawing,but could use a bit practice)

- sector design

cheers guys, let's keep up the passion.

Glettkin, I know that feelings you share with us for 100%

I had the same when BioWare intoduced "Neverwinter Nights with Editor" 100 years ago - I waited, it was released, I had a vision and built my own persistant "open world" with database backend. Did all the coding (Aurora Script) and creation of items, NSCs, areas, EVERYTHING alone. The love and feedback from the players was my payment (I put a lot of time and money (for the 6 servers running 24/7) in my dedication and only had to stop because of "out of school into military service").
 

@edgecrusher: Wise decision to come to the forums here, I did the same (turning my back on steam forums because of childish "discussions" and hatered there) :-)

I manually approved your account, you should be able to log in. Welcome to the Pit! 

I fully agree with Glettkin - instead of arguind with the trolls on Steam we are better off doing as much as we can for the good of the game. Whatever is in our talent range... voices, small JSON mods, guides, Twitch streams, interviews with devs, fansites, anything that spreads the word helps.

Wow! I am happy to read that you guys are so dedicated! I thank you very much in advance for all your work! 

May I ask if your plans would go so far to implement the much needed roofs or would you have to stick to the engine as it is now?

Thanks again.

I am not that advanced in Unity to give you an answer on roofs. From what I've read on Unity forums, making 3d terrain isn't hard. If we made a game about hiking in the mountains, probably would've been very easy. But the issue here is with trajectory calculations, which on a 3d map (with heights and lows) will require additional math for up/down shots.

Keep in mind, JA2 has no actual roofs. They have this small area with triggers on borders that make you believe the merc is actually climbing something, but he's still on same level. So all the shooting is actually taking place in the same plane.

Funny is you can "cheat" like that in JAF too. But due to mobile camera people will probably figure it out so you need real 3d solution.

The engine fully supports roofs, but also adds a lot of complications to the table. We're better off focusing to simpler and more generous areas of modding, if you ask me.

Well the roofs will take a lot of Time no daubt about it. There are several steps on the way.

1. first we need the working editor.

2. hide the tree option: then we need a way that allows in the editor to place assets in a group of assets wich then can be turned invisible in the game. Even better would be to allow lots of these groups at the same time. One for trees, one for roofs, one for second storey roofs and so on.

3. Then comes the roofs as a visible gadget. I guess there are already some assets which could be used as roofs but of course we need more.

4. Then we would need an way to have access to some roofs with our mercs. Maybe at first without animation and then with at least two animations (up and down) better a hole bunch of them. (ladder, stairs, falling down ...)

5. At least on this point we are in need of an complete new 3D bullet trajectory system. We could use it already as step one as it probably would allow a lot more than just shooting from roofs. But this is probably the biggest step and i dont see how the community could do that.

6. New Balanced AI and a way for the enemy to also get on the roofs.

7. A Destruction system for the roofs.

8. And all the way. Lots of Bugfixing.

There a at least two big things that the community cant provide, so yeah lets concentrate on something else at the moment.

Edit: By the way apart from step one, i dont think we should push the devs on this. There are lots of other things that are easier to implemend that would also add great to the game.

Like: Rocketlaunchers, explosive devices, not dissapearing blood and bodys, militia to fight with us, sector inventory, sleeping, morale system for towns, doors, boxes that look different when open, merc interaction, multiple squads in one sector, getting drunk, free shooting, better UI and you name it.

A real cool thing that i am dreaming about are oldschool roofsectors like in Fallout 2. So that we have maybe a very big building and the second floor or the roof are new sectors on its own. I am thinking about mods that are inspired by movies like the Raid or (judge) Dredd.

I you dont know the movies watch em ASAP.

1. JAFEditor05 seems to properly load the new assets, but I have to double check what exactly is missing.

1a. It's been promised that the editor will have an addon that allows adding new weapons and armor to the asset bundles

1b. There are UI tools for Unity that allow for HTML/CSS based UI. I think that option would've been the most moddable. I could've made a much better looking UI out of HTML than the current one, plus it would've been completely moddable.

1.c I have a list in mind of stuff that would need to be toggleable withing JSON for future modding, I just need a dev with a bit of spare time to tell me what's possible or not.

1.d. There are crocodiles in this game and a bear. I am curious if we can add some AI scripting to them, maybe even make them attack. 

..........

I am curious what happens if we use larger maps and skyboxes. Might kill the game, but truth is Unity is designed for maps thats hundreds of times larger than JAF maps. Unity also supports proper grass, moving clouds, etc. I wonder what happens if we use a large map with an altered camera that allows free view. The gameplay will still be limited to 100x100 tiles, but you could look around and actually have mountains and ocean in the horizon.... Oh well.

Thats a really nice idea. I like youre out of the Box Thinking.

Thank you for your answers folks! Keep up the good work! 

A question about the cheated roofs in JA2 if I may. As far as I remember there were some bonuses being on a higher position like not being seen so easily by enemies and seeing further in the distance. Was that just my imagination?

In a way it is really sad that they used the "real" 3D in the game. I would have rather had the same cam like in JA2 but differend heigths instead. no matter if "cheated" or not...

Well, apart from that I hope you modders get all the support from the devs that you need to make this game more what it could have been.

Cheers to you!

Can't remember whether JA2 roofs had any bonuses, probably not. You did have mercs with Rooftop Sniper perk, who gained bonuses from shooting from a roof.

Games that are massively popular now on Steam, like Dead State, have multiple layer buildings, but those are not connected directly (you actually teleport from one zone to the other, it's not the same zone). They don't have rooftop snipining from what I have seen. And people seem perfectly happy with this. I think this is an area where FC can make ammends and introduce these without much trouble regarding 3D combat (shooting down/up). It would be a cosmetic change but a big plus.

I did several tests with this sort of idea as i hoped for more but with a 33 pix heightmap its impossible.

The Game stops working with maps bigger than 500x500, at least on my poor rig. 

Imo the gem2 engine would have been my fav engine for a new ja