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Well, if there is a patch like the current one that fixes alot of issues, it should be released regardless of what some server owners think. They can always run the old version.
 
Arma2 epoch will still stay alive for a long time, alot of servers will surely close... but some servers will remain. Please release the patch! For the long life of arma 2 epoch!

With the approval of AWOL I write this post to give you some heads up on what is going on behind the scenes, and why there have been little to no information lately as to what's going on with the mod. The information I am releasing here are what I've grasped from conversations with AWOL and streams from the developers themselves and thus are prone to change, but they should give you an idea of what's coming. Have no doubt that the devs are still working hard to release a new patch, and the reason why it (0.2.6) has been delayed is that they wanted to release something that will take a big step in the intended direction, something that will impress the community.

Maintaining two separate developer builds for release was not feasible, and pushing 0.2.6 further and further just wasn't reasonable any longer, so the current next milestone is version 0.3.0. It will come with a database wipe, partly because the database has been changed in development. A changelog is in the works and should be released soon.

Version 0.3.0 will first be released to the official hosts only, the objective is to stress test the build and see how it performs under pressure (100 players). Us official hosts have an established line of communication with the devs and will be forwarding test data during this initial launch so that the patch works well for a public release.

The current approximate ETA for release is about a months time.



What is coming up (PRELIMINARY INFO, EXPECT CHANGES)

+ Revamped building system, you can now insert buildables (walls, etc.) into the ground and snap to them, falling walls is a thing of the past
+ Axeman has been working on a new Epoch multi-part mission system, involving using UAV's to gathering intel, , engaging human opponents, etc. etc.
+ More stuff/items you can pick up
+ Expanded map support
+ Improved sapper brain
+ More sapper variants
+ New UGV-enemy
+ Several anti-duping fixes, one of the consequences currently of this is that you get booted to lobby after you permadie.
+ New treasure sites underwater, you can now loot underwater
+ More new loot containers (ie. at Ferris wheels)
+ Several bug and glitch fixes + improved antihack and admin menus
+ You can now bash persistent wrecks of vehicles/rocks and get scrap metal from them
+ Frequency Jammers now prevent loot from spawning within their area
+ More functions/upgradability for frequency jammers
+ Loot tables have been tweaked
+ Base items (cinder, wood, etc.) now are much sturdier and can take lots more punishment
+ New server events (shore ship wrecks) spawn with chests
+ A take all-button

Would be nice if to more realistic medical system, (bring back bandages and bleeding, infections and bloodbags!!)....

Whilst I am looking forward to the new antagonists I'm really hoping they're not just triggered by looting still, I would really like to see parts of the map become more dangerous, if you're going for a technology gone wrong type of feel then I think anywhere where there's power sources should be extra dangerous, power plants, HV lines and other places technology would hang about to gain charge. That would make parts of the map with lower energy signatures more valuable. Also a electrostatic meter should be added as a toolbelt item so you can detect the increased electrical activity of high energy technology activating as you move through the environment, giving you some warning of threat and your impending doom if you have one of the devices on you.
 
I've tried to not only work out what theme the devs are going for but in fact increase the Lore on my server. I've made a huge military complex surrounding the cloning building with patrolling AI. I've marked it on the map as Clonex Labs Military Area and put up ARMEX signs around the place as if it's a division of ARMEX. The story I've gone with is one of the few places remaining operational in the world is this military base that was a lab, making clones and other experimental creatures for military applications and they've essentially turned the whole island into their testing grounds, Dark Angel style.

Fair enough, but does that mean the other ~2500 servers (according to DZC) should be affected because you don't have enough time to do work on your servers / can not find anyone that has enough knowledge to do it for you? 
 
I still stand by my previous point, don't wish to have to spend time on update = don't update. I'm sure many other users will agree with this too. 
 
;)

I dont need zombies, but i'd love to have something similar to zombies in dayz mod.
 
Being:
1) You can spot enemy presence in an area before entering it: This makes camping harder, makes looting more dangerous and promotes random pvp encounters
2) They encourage stealthy gameplay, avoid making sounds, avoid being seen by the enemy.
 
It doesn't need to be zombies, but something that populates the area where players are and attack the player if they are not stealthy enough = WIN

There's a reason for that, they spent millions to make that content for you. If you want to have the rights to edit and use everything they have as you wish,  you could just buy the whole company... Then you can try how much of a wanker you want to be when you're holding the strings.
 
Edit: Ofcourse you cant afford to buy them, why? Because instead of doing something productive, you sit on the forums calling people names that -actually do stuff-.

I totally agree with the random new guy, it's total shite and should really be labled an Alpha that's only 25% done ...... oh oh wait a minute :rolleyes:

And this is by far the worst server advertisement i've ever seen. Take the chill pill.
 
Edit: this is in response to your next message, as i dont want to spam the thread with this kindergarden fight of yours. Why I call it bad advertising? There's 2 server admins, one responds to my message completely with calm and reasonable mind, another one gets butthurt and starts raging like a 8-year old who just got their candybar taken away from them. I'm sorry if i burst your bubble about Admin abuse, as obviously you never do such things since you seem to be a completely mature human being.
 
Now, please grow up and let people discuss more important matters than this pickering.

So glad I have players that donate without expectation of anything in return except a fun server to play on.

I think pay to enter servers, with active, working admins, as opposed to 'active, playing' admins, would work, provided it's not too expensive.

But hey, I've said this in the past on here... If everything is equal to all, then I'm cool with that.

There's a reason for that, they spent millions to make that content for you. If you want to have the rights to edit and use everything they have as you wish,  you could just buy the whole company... Then you can try how much of a wanker you want to be when you're holding the strings.
 
Edit: Ofcourse you cant afford to buy them, why? Because instead of doing something productive, you sit on the forums calling people names that -actually do stuff-.

I'm sorry that you've had negative experiences in the past with cheating admins. I agree that it is a problem and I also agree that a lot of admins want their own servers for dishonest reasons. However there are many smaller communities out there, such as my own, who want to run their own server to avoid the same issues as you have experienced. Before we ran Epoch servers we played on various community servers and were plagued by cheating admins or admins who were never around to take out the trash. So we decided to run our own and I dove in and learned how to do it. We brought to the table our admin experience from our years of running CoD and BF servers where we focused on integrity and sportsmanship. Our focus in running a server is so that we have a place to call our own and to provide a place for the community where our players can be assured that the playing field is as fair as possible for everyone. We are active in the server since we feel that's the best way for us to interact with our guests. We participate in raids with them, do AI missions with them and of course help them out when they experience random glitches. I don't see how an admin could possibly be effective simply by sitting in front of their PC watching Dart's chat console waiting for players to complain about a problem. That's not doing anything to build a community. That's just being a reactive police force, which I feel is very impersonal.

Having the power of an admin does bring great responsibility. I am keenly aware of how visible my admins are and how easy it is for reputations to become tarnished. I spend scores of hours every week working on the servers and I will be damned if I will let one of my admins ruin what we have worked so hard to build. Everyone is accountable, including myself, and we all review each other from time to time to make sure we are putting our best feet forward for the community. We love Epoch. We love our server. And we love interacting with the community. THAT is why we run servers. And there are many communities out there just like us.

There's a reason for that, they spent millions to make that content for you. If you want to have the rights to edit and use everything they have as you wish,  you could just buy the whole company... Then you can try how much of a wanker you want to be when you're holding the strings.
 
Edit: Ofcourse you cant afford to buy them, why? Because instead of doing something productive, you sit on the forums calling people names that -actually do stuff-.

No, just No.
1. Nobody forces you to update, if you don't want to spend time doing so then just simply don't (and suffer consequences) 
2. Managing a server correctly takes work and time, if you don't want to spend time in doing so then don't manage a server
3. If you are running your own mods / you added or made them yourself it really should not be too much of a problem to update them
4. There are things in A2 epoch right now that can not be hot-fixed by server admins. (require update)
5. We were promised an update back in July...

THIS THIS THIS  a million times. Admins in most Epoch servers are terrible. At least that's the impression I got. All those advertisements like "active admins" only mean that admins will interfere with your gameplay and abuse their powers. There should be only passive admins. Banning hackers. That's it. But when they start spawning shit for themselves and then hunting others... that's a sign of immaturity. I mean, if I wanted to spawn shit for myself I would go to Virtual Reality and be there all the time, but no, they are no different than hackers themselves, destroying joy for others with their power.

It's a nice idea on paper, but there's no practical way to conclusively verify anything. A server admin could have a beef with a particular player and doctor up a server log as "evidence", then post it publicly. Lots of issues with public lists, IMO.

This is my biggest problem with A2 epoch really, from 1+ year of playing my experience is that there's exactly 2 motivations to being a server admin, 1) Cheat '(Esp) or  bend the ruels in favor of your group (unclear rules that are "adjusted" on case by case) 2) Money.
 
Seriously, the only place where i havent seen any admin abuse has been CCG. I really dont like the high loot servers but i'm so scared of playing anywhere else from numerous admin kills when raiding a base, godmode admins shooting at you, admins telling locations on TS to other people, admins spawning endless amounts of building parts to people they favor over others....
 
I think I would be more interested about A3 Epoch if the servers were only hosted by the devs.

I'll buy any expansion that comes for arma 3, as long as it's good quality and good content. The Karts expansion i only bought because the profits go to charity.
 
Modding or not, bohemia makes a lot of great quality content for a great quality game. I don't understand how players feel entitled to years of free content for just 50eur? They already -got- years of content for that price. DLCs can be slightly overpriced and lack content.. but then again it's always the customer's choice to buy it or not.
 
 
Seriously, the epoch community is the most entitled community i've ever seen. "I demand source code for epoch mod because community made a2 epoch good, I demand to modify prices, I demand to modify the map, I want to monetize my players, I demand bohemia to give free content, I demand epoch devs to work faster, I demand epoch devs to make content i like" ... Who ever said this community is good?

I'll buy any expansion that comes for arma 3, as long as it's good quality and good content. The Karts expansion i only bought because the profits go to charity.
 
Modding or not, bohemia makes a lot of great quality content for a great quality game. I don't understand how players feel entitled to years of free content for just 50eur? They already -got- years of content for that price. DLCs can be slightly overpriced and lack content.. but then again it's always the customer's choice to buy it or not.
 
 
Seriously, the epoch community is the most entitled community i've ever seen. "I demand source code for epoch mod because community made a2 epoch good, I demand to modify prices, I demand to modify the map, I want to monetize my players, I demand bohemia to give free content, I demand epoch devs to work faster, I demand epoch devs to make content i like" ... Who ever said this community is good?

I'll buy any expansion that comes for arma 3, as long as it's good quality and good content. The Karts expansion i only bought because the profits go to charity.
 
Modding or not, bohemia makes a lot of great quality content for a great quality game. I don't understand how players feel entitled to years of free content for just 50eur? They already -got- years of content for that price. DLCs can be slightly overpriced and lack content.. but then again it's always the customer's choice to buy it or not.
 
 
Seriously, the epoch community is the most entitled community i've ever seen. "I demand source code for epoch mod because community made a2 epoch good, I demand to modify prices, I demand to modify the map, I want to monetize my players, I demand bohemia to give free content, I demand epoch devs to work faster, I demand epoch devs to make content i like" ... Who ever said this community is good?

I want to know why everyone is so Determined to give away boxes of supplies , seems kind of antiproductive if you really want to " Play " Epoch . Or is it for the money , if so , shame shame :angry:

I'll buy any expansion that comes for arma 3, as long as it's good quality and good content. The Karts expansion i only bought because the profits go to charity.
 
Modding or not, bohemia makes a lot of great quality content for a great quality game. I don't understand how players feel entitled to years of free content for just 50eur? They already -got- years of content for that price. DLCs can be slightly overpriced and lack content.. but then again it's always the customer's choice to buy it or not.
 
 
Seriously, the epoch community is the most entitled community i've ever seen. "I demand source code for epoch mod because community made a2 epoch good, I demand to modify prices, I demand to modify the map, I want to monetize my players, I demand bohemia to give free content, I demand epoch devs to work faster, I demand epoch devs to make content i like" ... Who ever said this community is good?

I'll buy any expansion that comes for arma 3, as long as it's good quality and good content. The Karts expansion i only bought because the profits go to charity.
 
Modding or not, bohemia makes a lot of great quality content for a great quality game. I don't understand how players feel entitled to years of free content for just 50eur? They already -got- years of content for that price. DLCs can be slightly overpriced and lack content.. but then again it's always the customer's choice to buy it or not.
 
 
Seriously, the epoch community is the most entitled community i've ever seen. "I demand source code for epoch mod because community made a2 epoch good, I demand to modify prices, I demand to modify the map, I want to monetize my players, I demand bohemia to give free content, I demand epoch devs to work faster, I demand epoch devs to make content i like" ... Who ever said this community is good?

All DLC is 'pay to play' in that sense. What I can't understand is how anyone can say the game is unfinished. In terms of content, the sandbox nature of the game means you are likely to get 200+ hours out of the game if you just play vanilla multiplayer and the campaign (which has infinitely more replay value than most full price AAA games). When you include mods, that's easily double or triple that. Even if you paid full price (the game has been available for over half price on several occasions now), you're still getting more content than most other games. BI have created some of the biggest land masses and environments known in gaming, and some of the most graphically pleasing. Not to mention the tools and modding features to ensure the game will be active for years and years to come.

The DLC isn't pay to play like other mods in that it's perfectly possible to access the helicopters in game without being able to fly them. All the mechanics to go with these are free to all. BI wouldn't continue to develop the game if there wasn't some sort of paid content to ensure it. If you remember, OFP and Arma 2 both had 'DLC' in the form of expansion games. The fact that they have opted to continue to develop the mechanics of the game and have obviously listened to the player base is a good thing. BI know that modders and fans will continue to develop their own weapons of their own, (including and let's not forget, free and open release of ALL the previous weapons from A2+expansions to the community). To complain of a shortage of weapons and content is daft. If you personally don't want to purchase the Heli's then don't. Just enjoy all the stuff that has come your way for free. These mechanics are a great addition to the game and didn't need to be in the game from the start at all.