I'm sorry to say I have some bad news for everyone. First off, let me say that no, I'm not about to announce that Operation Remembrance is dead, or I'm stopping development. Far from it. But its release isn't going to play out like any of us expected in the beginning. Things are going to be different from here on out. I've mentioned a few things that have been going on in my personal life, but let me lay it all out:
Less than a month ago, my apartment was flooded when Hurricane Ida came up the East Coast of the US. My wife and I are living with my parents and all of our stuff (what we didn't lose) is scattered between the apartment and their house. Even as recently as this past weekend, we had to spend several hours a day moving stuff around the apartment so the repairs can be made just to make it livable again.
I went from being unemployed for three months (which is how I was able to make so much progress so quickly on the mod) to working a ten-hour-shift, four-day workweek. I get up at 5 in the morning and by the time I get home, shower, and eat dinner, it's 5 in the evening and I go to bed no later than 10. Most of the time during the week, I have no energy to work on anything.
The weekends, which are nominally supposed to be free for me, have been spent dealing with the damage to my truck from the flood and some other components that decided to fail at the same time, as well as my wife's car getting totalled and running around trying to help her buy a new one.
So that's where I'm at. I'm not trying to provide excuses for anything or ask for pity, because most of this is beyond my control anyway, and also mostly temporary, apart from the work hours. I just want people to understand what's going on so they know why I'm making the changes that I am.
And what it's come down to at this point is: I've barely had any time to properly work on Operation Remembrance in the past month. And when I try to force myself, I wind up not giving it my best. For me, that's unacceptable. I need time to get things back in order so I can focus on making the mod the best I possibly can. I'm not going to be satisfied releasing something that's not my best work. It's partly my own ethics and also the fact that I feel the people who have been following this mod for a seventeen year-old game deserve the best.
And with that, I've decided to delay Operation Remembrance's release until January of 2022. There's a little more to that decision than just what's going on in my personal life. I got an unpleasant shock today, by something that I'm sure most if not all of you are well-aware of but something that is completely new to me: Battlefield 2042 is scheduled for release this November. I know a lot of people have been excited for the release of 2042 and have been closely following it, but not me. I'm already dedicated to the older Battlefield games and the newer ones just aren't the same for me. Somewhere in the slick graphics and modern game engines, the new Battlefield games lost the slightly clunky charm that makes me love the old ones, so I've been completely oblivious to what's been going on with 2042. I genuinely thought it wouldn't be coming out until sometime next year.
The reason why this news has made me decided to delay the release of Operation Remembrance is quite simple: I don't want my work competing with or being overshadowed by an official game. I don't know if anyone reading this was around back then, but I know from quick research that's what happened to the old Point of Existence mod for Battlefield Vietnam. It was extremely popular until Battlefield 2 came out, and then the fanbase all but disappeared and the developers abandoned the mod half-finished. By the time the newness of Battlefield 2 had worn off, the damage was done and it was too late for PoE. I've been working on Operation Remembrance for nine years and I don't want the same thing to happen to it. Releasing it at or around the same time as an official, much-more anticipated game would virtually be suicide for the mod. Hopefully by delaying it a few months, some of the newness of 2042 will wear off and players will be looking for a new experience of some kind until the next Battlefield comes out.
I also don't want people to feel like they should have to devote time to my mod instead of 2042. That's another reason why I'm delaying Operation Remembrance yet again. So for those of you who have really been looking forward to 2042, go play it when it comes out. Enjoy it, and take your time with the game. Get the full experience. Operation Remembrance will still be here waiting when you come back.
And don't worry. Development for Operation Remembrance will still be continuing in the background. If anything, I think pushing back the release date will help me. It was easy to work on the mod when there was no release date, and even when there was one but it felt so far away. Now that the intended date is approaching, I've been feeling pressure to give my best effort to something I barely have time to touch. I think pushing it back will take off some of that pressure and free me up to do the best I can with it.
I'm also going to be changing some plans for how future elements are added into the game. I'm not canceling any plans for content that was supposed to be added in patches and updates, but I am going to change the order that some of the content comes out in. Some stuff will be coming out earlier than planned, largely because developing the maps has been the hardest part. Once I'm done that, adding other features is easy, and I should have some extra time to add more features. I'm not going to say what, partly because I've only had about three hours to think about this and I haven't even fully decided for myself, although I do have ideas.
Along the same line, I've also made another hard decision: there will be no more weekly updates. Again, this is for several reasons. The first is something that I realized today when I got home from work. I sat down on the edge of the bed, hadn't even showered yet, and asked myself, "What am I going to say in today's article, and what's the weekly feature highlight going to be?" Then it occured to me that in the past month, I've spent more time working on the weekly update articles than I have on the game itself. Time that could be spent working on the mod has been spent forcing out yet another article, and truthfully it's beginning to feel like the update portion of each week's article is turning into the same thing: "I've made minimal progress the last week, but am still hoping things will turn around." It's a waste of my time writing these articles, and it's a waste of your time reading them when they mostly just say the same thing as the last one anyway.
I've also decided that regardless of whatever "extra" content does end up getting put into Operation Remembrance for the first release version, I want to surprise everyone. If I keep doing these updates, I know I'd get really excited about whatever new material I added in the last week and want to tell everyone about it. But then there would be no surprises. I'm not going to go off the radar completely, however. You guys have all been great and you deserve better than that. Your support over the past few months has been incredible and I've loved interacting with each of you. Every day after work the first thing I do when I get home is check here and on YouTube to see if anyone else has commented, asked a question, or made a suggestion. Seeing people as excited for this as I am has been almost as much fun as actually making Operation Remembrance.
So my plan is this: I'm going to periodically publish update articles when there actually is something worth talking about and just to let people know that I'm still around. I'm also going to stay active here on ModDB, Twitter, and Facebook. Anyone who wants to send a private message to me is welcome to at any time. I'm most active on ModDB and Twitter, so I would recommend that anyone who wants to message me do so on on one of those two sites, but if you only have Facebook, you can still message me there. I might not see it right away, but I should within a few days of getting it.
And with that, I'll take my leave into the background now. Again, Operation Remembrance is NOT dead or being cancelled. I've spent too much time on it to see it fail so close to completion. Things are just going down a different road, and I'm sorry for that, but I think it's the best course of action to take. I'm still looking forward to seeing everyone on the battlefield when Operation Remembrance is released. Until then, I wish the best for all of you, and have fun with Battlefield 2042 when it comes out.
Denal Douglas, AKA "ARVNRanger"
Do what you can and real life always comes first
I think we can all be patient with this as its a labor of love
Thank you. The support from everyone has been really encouraging.
Don't worry. Making mods is a nice hobby, you got all the time to finish it.
Or you could release an alpha and make it perfect the other day.
Doubt that a typical 2042 follower would dig into classic BF mods anyway.
Good luck with your life
I don't know; over on the HelloClan forum (the most active part of the BfV multiplayer community today), it seems like a lot of people have also been looking forward to 2042. The reaction to Operstion Remembrance will be small enough compared to what it would have been fifteen or even ten years ago without being released at the same time as an official game. This way, hopefully I won't even have to worry about it. Thanks for the best wishes, and same to you.
ARVNRanger- No worries man, can't wait for the release. I agree with the other comments, real life comes 1st, but maybe you could give us an alpha version with all the quirks. I doubt many of us wanting this are still into the current BF franchise: We LIKE the older clunky BF games too, and a messy-alpha would just be par for the course for a dedicated old-school BF fan, LOL. This reminds me of "DCX" (Played it just the other day too!) tons of content, and all the things in one mod. Either way, if its not FUN, then why do it? Much Love, keep going!
I think an alpha is an interesting idea. I did a poll a little while back on delaying the game to release a one-map demo or pushing ahead full-speed. The "no demo" side won by one vote, but given that I'm delaying everything anyway, I think if I did that poll now, the results would be very different. It might not be an alpha, but a semi-polished demo with several maps. That would give me a chance to get some feedback before the full release. Thanks for the suggestion.
Man, take all the time you need for this and do important stuff first
Thank you. I really appreciate the support.
xd i don't have money for bf 2042 but i settle for bf 1942, bfv and arsenal
I will wait for poeration remeberce hopefully it comes out in January 2022.
Thanks for the support. Another BfV mod you might enjoy in the meantime is Grenademan's AI Enhancement mod. You can find it here: Moddb.com. It makes a lot of improvements to the AI and changes quite a few other features in the game. I learned how to edit bot weapon and vehicle use from looking at Grenademan's work, and it was his mod that inspired me to make Operation Remembrance.
AIEV and AIE42 are what i use to play offline battlefield to this day, i love that AIEV works with custom maps, AIE42 does, but some features like recoil and certain loadouts were limited to the kits provided in certain maps, meaning that custom maps had to be made compatible for AIE42. I may dig into it and try my hand at it, but either way the ai enhancements carry over to custom maps, just know that anti-tank guys will fire rockets at you on said maps because, of course, the kits havent been edited to provide another primary weapon. great mods though, they really make these games fun again. i usually play with less bots but im glad this mod exists for the sole reason of keeping these games playable online or offline.
Denal could you do a la hachet force in operation tailwind in battle of khe sanh 1968
That might be do-able. I'll have to do some more research.
My man do not put pressure on yourself, take it at the speed you need art takes time :) Best to work comfortably rather than stressed as thats where artistically the juices flow the best. Working 12's ended a band I was in because **** just gasses you out. We are all grateful someone is pumping blood into this old horse again period. Wish you the best in your recovery from that anomaly of a storm.
Thank you for the support and encouraging words. I really appreciate it.
Hey Denal you can add to the colt model 606b
It used to be in the game but I took it out because I found out the US Army only ever used a few of them for trial purposes state-side. It was never used in action in Vietnam. Same with the Model 608 Survival Rifle, in case you were wondering.