Real life and a lack of an own PC prevented me from developing OA stuff for a long time. It's been more than two years since my latest blog post, and I'm starting to lose my english speaking (I'm not a native english speaker, as you may have noticed). Anyway, I've came back, and I'm trying to complete as much stuff as possible.
Oh, yeah, and there was a new OA release last year, 0.8.8, which included a lot of stuff. Most of the maps from the latest version of my own mappack were included there, so I need to update it. I'll be doing it soon. I've also took my hand on oasago2 and improved the visuals a bit. I hope to have done the same for the performance, though sago007 and I agree that the map needs a remake.
I've also started porting older versions of OA's maps after meddling with SuperTuxKart (a game I like so much... I hope to make tracks for that game once I finally learn how to use Blender). These maps are now packed into a single archive for players' own convenience. Unzip in the OA folder and play. The addons section of that game included older versions of the game's tracks, so I figured out that players might like these older versions rather than the newer versions included with the game. However, these versions are considered non-official releases, as we want to get rid of everything which makes OA FOSS's favourite punchbag. OA3 should be what OA should always has been in this regard. Many maps are being reworked, models improved, ugly stuff being deleted, and with the amount of content OA currently has, there's no real need for remakes/knockoffs so maps which are inspired by other maps are already being sent to a tribute mappack or being reworked so they have less "ripoff" feel.
Talking about mappacks, in December of last year some members of the forum started a Community Mappack akin to those of bigger games. The rules were pretty simple: stuff should be GPLv2 and the mappack must work flawlessly in a clean OA installation. Other than that, there's a lot of freedom, and this year's mappack is looking pretty awesome. There're 13 brand new maps by 4 different authors (some of them with a pretty rich prontuary on Quake mapping), and extra work by some more collaborators, and I'm daring to say that the quality of that mappack is on par with many of Q3A's best maps and packs. You should pass by the forum to check that pack and help us with any feedback.
Anyway, I'll be talking of most of the other stuff in other posts. By now, see ya!
hello Neon_Knight, you are the best, the game you created open arena is my favorite game I always play it, you are the best<3