posted 09-08- 09:39 AM               

Having received all the files for Australia (twice now... ) and France, the nations project second release is entering the final stages, so I thought I'd keep everybody posted on progress through these final days via this thread. (Oh yes, and also because I have an hour to kill before classes this morning and a little blatant advertising never hurt anybody around here. )

So just for those of you who are new to our community or perhaps who missed the development of nations v1, let me summarize what nations is, and what is involved in putting it together:

The Nations project, after a failed start very early in the year, took off around the time Laika's I16 was in development. People were already flying the zero as a german plane, and now the prospect of flying a russian plane under foreign colours (in terms of squadrons) and voices added to the impetus of support for the idea. With the tremendous contributions of guys like Jeeves, Lector, Zoycite, Poodle, gterl, Siggi (those Japanese voices are his!!!), Tailslide and many others, we combined efforts and expertise to add countries to the list from which you select. What does this involve? Here's what:

1. Recording over 50 wav files (often requiring research beforehand to get pilot 'lingo' right for each country)
2. Editing a number of ppf files
3. Creating artwork for medals, squadrons, etc
4. Researching and Creating squadrons
5. Compiling into parfiles
6. Scramble and test missions
7. Beta testing

I'm sure I've forgotten some things as well, given that my role in nations has developped in a coordinator/quality control capacity and less-so in file creation. In any case, it's a lot of work, but it can be rewarding. One member of the France Nations crew recently told me he enjoyed working on the project because he learned a lot about his country and his air force.

Quality Control has always been a cornerstone of nations. We try our best to uphold a one-release, no public beta policy to reduce downloads for users, given that the download does tend to be large. You'll notice that online standard for nations right now is 1.0 (ignore the nations fix, it is no longer relevant). Once France and Australia are released, we hope it will be 2.0. Not 2.1, or 2.0b, or anything like that. 2.0, period.

The Nations crews are structured as follows: Because of the need for quality control and coordination of projects (lack of coordination would lead to ppfs overwriting each other and causing all sorts of problems, not to mention the nations parfile), nations is administered by a coordination team. It's pretty informal, we're just the group that is in more of a decision-making capacity. For Nations 1, Jeeves, Poodle, Zoycite and I were the coordination team. For Nations 2, as of this point, the coordination team is myself, AGAS and Pachy. The grunt work for nations is done by a particular crew. For example, for nations 2 we have two crews, Australia and France. They liaison with the coordination team, which tries to assist as best it can to orchestrate the two crews so they finish raw files at about the same time. Then, the coord. team does the compiling work, beta testing, and then final release. You'll see in the readme once release is ready who has been quietly contributing to this project over the last few months, but just to name a few (I apologize if I miss someone, I don't have the draft readme handy, so pls speak up)

Australia:
AGAS & Zoycite

France:
Pachy, Lfbpro, Luny

These guys deserve a lot of accolade for their work, dedication, and research! These guys met with vets, researched pilot "lingo", did squad research... The impact of which will be reflected in the quality of the final product.

I apologize, I don't have any sampler wavs for you yet, but as soon as I get home I will try and upload some.

For nations updates in the run-up to final release, you can check back either here or, if the thread gets cluttered, at the official nations homepage (go to the "airfield" in the link in my sig)

Thanks for your attention, I don't mean to bore, but while the individual crews are quiet during development I believe they deserve a big chunk of limelight once the raw files are finished.

More info soon!

Werner

posted 09-08- 11:20 AM               

J'espere que la nation francaise sera
implementé comme il faut...heheh.

Si je peut vous aider...let me know

gt

posted 09-08- 04:01 PM               

babelfish rox:))

posted 09-08- 06:50 PM               

but I did have fun

Cheers,

posted 09-10- 12:22 AM               

Sound samplers available at the nations section of the airfield!

Werner

P.S. Note the aussie ones are in authentic pilot lingo - don't make smart remarks or you might end up with... (werner sifts through AGAS' email) "a bit of chewy on ya boot aye". Yes, indeed.

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Visit Abbeville Field Today!

posted 09-10- 01:30 AM               

Beta ready! Sorry, testing is closed to the public, but even before the beta has been sent to the testers I have been playing around with it and it's great! Only a couple bugs to squish, and they're my fault (file location/renaming probs). What does this mean? We're really close to release time!! Woooohooo!!!

Werner

posted 09-10- 02:52 AM               

I was going to say something about it being great news and all.....but I can't...

I'm too busy piss'n myself with laughter

Well done.

posted 09-10- 11:01 PM               

I spent 10 hours solid with my boss today planning web work. Seems I'll be side tracked for a bit, so the closed beta may not be ready for a few days, maybe even until next weekend. Sorry!

Werner

posted 09-10- 11:15 PM               

the end result will be worth it.

Cheers,

posted 09-24- 11:32 AM               

Werner

posted 09-24- 11:52 AM               

Aussie Spitfire Mk Vc

Just want to look at Tailslide's new Spit V for FM and DM tweaks to be shamelessly incorporated. Right now the Oz Spit has sliding canopy and working control surface and landing gear damage modeled, and hits top speed better than the old one did. I also added a little treat to the cockpit that's been sorely lacking. Spit fans with a bit of OPS knowledge can adapt the cockpit to the other Spits as well if they like...

posted 09-24- 04:32 PM               

and If we do do it as a whole country we don't really need all the wavs right>?

posted 09-24- 04:41 PM               

Werner

posted 09-24- 09:55 PM               

Ok just keep me updated I would like to fly under my own country and squad.

posted 09-25- 03:13 PM               

"Conscription if necessary, but not necessarily conscription"

Werner Molders

posted 09-25- 05:40 PM               

I can do most of that stuff. Not alone though.

I have already made the 414th into a squad for offline plane with the history and badge and pictures.

So a couple more wouldn't be hard.

posted 09-25- 07:10 PM               

I'm pretty full up between now and end of Oct, but can probably help during busy periods. If ya still going after Nov 1st - I can help heaps.

But please note - I don't want anything to do with the voices again for a looooong time

Cheers,

posted 09-25- 09:53 PM               

What the HELL does that mean?!?!

posted 09-25- 09:54 PM               

Spanky & AGAS - Try not to get too hung up on who's doing what just yet. Like I said, once Nv2 is done I can focus on recruiting the right people for each section. I promise you won't get saddled with more to do than you want, and it'll be stuff you like doing. That's one of the beauties of nations, work is easily compartmentalized.

ArgonV - I'm in correspondance with the wwi guys trying to network a bit to see what there intentions are regarding a wwi pack update or similar. You can go ahead any mod the ppfs any way you like now, of course.

Werner

posted 09-25- 11:32 PM               

So I guess 'Bluegum Tallyho' means I've over shot the runway, stuck up a bloody tree and having a smoko....

Seriously though, there will be an Australian Script and Terminology .txt file included to help the 'uneducated'

Cheers,

AGAS 5

posted 09-26- 09:08 PM               

Cheers,

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AGAS 5