The OF2Team was started by MenteR on late 2007. MenteR started developing his own project, a singleplayer modification for Half-Life 2. With no name yet decided for the mod, he started to announce his project through forums, along with media, to motivate any potential recruits. Days after, a few members applied, one of them being Ferdam, whose later would be one of the founder members of the famous Opposing Force 2 mod.
The team could now work on something. Consisting of 7 members, the OF2Team had 4 key members on it: MenteR, Ferdam, Jpe and OVRKLL. Those members molded Opposing Force 2 and its storyline, along with its first few maps.
Opposing Force 2 was announced by the team on ModDB on March 2008. It had been developed since December 2007. With enough media, the team started to gain its popularity, and potential members started to apply, looking for a position in the mod's development team.
The second lineup of OF2Team added a new key member: Rifle, along with a few more members. This lineup stayed as a definitive one for a considerable period, and by far, was the most important lineup for Opposing Force 2's development yet. In 2008, the storyline for the mod was discussed, and with sketches, layouts and concepts, the mod was finished, conceptually. This development boost motivated the team to work hard and bring most ideas to a playable state. On late 2008, the mod's development folder got leaked, along with a few maps. Luckily, the leak didn't reach a big part of the public, and became obsolete after a few weeks. At this point, both mods Opposing Force 2 and Operation Black Mesa were on their core development, so the minds behind OBM thought of merging with the OF2Team so each mod could help each other by sharing content, though it ended up not happening for various reasons.
As the mod boosted with quality, getting close to being a presentable, professional-looking mod, more members joined. The team's third lineup was composed of atleast 25+ members, and the unorganization started to show up. Most members did not follow the weekly meetings, and soon, were left clueless of what to work on. This unorganization delayed the development proccess, as the team worked more on organizing itself than actually developing the mod.
As the mod started to fall, Jpe and OVKRLL quit the development team, but the team did not cease to release media to the fans. By late 2008/early 2009, OF2, internally, was a huge mess, but somehow still managed to keep the fans updated with progress. The mod got leaked again, but this time it reached public's attention. The leak included the entire storyline, development documents and concepts/layouts of everything the team had on mind. It also included a few playable maps along with new weapons and NPCs.
A few members quit, others were kicked due to their relation with the leak. The 09 leak delayed the mod considerably, since the fans had the storyline on their hands, the team had no option but to heavily modify the mod's storyline. Looking at it on a brighter point-of-view, the leak had quality work, and called the attention of experienced mod developers. This brought to the team new members, and a new key member: nVidia.
After the leak, many gaming websites knew of Opposing Force 2, and the mod received a huge amount of fans. In less than two weeks, the mod gained around 400 watchers on ModDB, and reached a thousand. The team had a huge amount of mappers. Dredile and Zein were by far the most hard-working mappers. They had started working on many levels at once. The fourth lineup of OF2Team was comparable to its second, as it brought a huge boost on progress.
By mid 2009, multiplayer started its development, but was later cancelled due to focus on singleplayer. A few ex-members like Conker, XXXMags and Samuelgames helped working on the multiplayer while it was running.
The mod kept on going, but was gradually losing members. Dedicated members like Dredile, Zein or Madmodder quit the development team. One of the main reasons was that on mid to late 2009, the mod had a huge amount of progress on mapping and modelling mostly, but other areas like coding and voice acting were simply showing no progress. New content never got in game when it was needed.
By 2010, the team had been reduced to a small team of eight members. The team worked hard on including in-game whatever that hadn't been included. A potential key member joined, Chris528. The team stabilished its 5th and current lineup, and is by far, the most stable and solid lineup.
After many barriers and obstacles, this fan-made sequel has found a well deserved spot as being one of the most well known and supported Half-Life 2 mods to date. Opposing Forces 2 is proof that persistence and hard work will always lead to success, no matter what gets in your path.
MenteR
Ferdam
Chris528
nVidia (Henkka)
Acrono
Chaz
Rifle
Spooboy
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Written by MenteR and Spooboy
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Just a little something while we pack up some media for you guys.
I love you. You're MY "menter" haha.
I wish we had subjects like this in history class.
lul
Well guys, hope nothing but good luck goes with ya until this is finished. Best of luck!
"Opposing Forces 2 is proof that persistence and hard work will always lead to success, no matter what gets in your path. "
Not yet, you guys still have a long hard road ahead of you :)
Good luck though.
i didn't know anything about the leaks :)
Kick BMS ***, then you will be reknown ALL OVER the world!
And I wish modding and game development was a part of school program, lol :)
Good luck to ya'll in your future endeavors.
What about the part where Opfor 2 and OpBM talked about a merge/ cooperative relationship? I'd wager that would be an important event in the mods storyline :) At least thats what you told me ;)
Still, interesting read :D
Well, it wasn't really important, after all it ended up in nothing. But hey, I'll add that.
Hopefully this does not die, it is one of the best Source Engine Mods out there.
It was an interesting read. I personally never heard of a leak, let alone OP2 until a few months ago.
Nevertheless the few in game screen I saw were quite good looking. Although I do have to disagree with the "...as being one of the most well known and supported Half-Life 2 mods to date." Since I currently know no one in real life, or internet buddies that have even heard of the mod.
BM or HL2CTF are the most known IMO. Not a bash or anything, just think it was a bit exaggerated. But if the final product meets or bests the images shown I think it'll give Black Mesa a run for its money.
Actualy if you want to compare OF 2's statistics such as the number of watchers or overall profile visits with other top-known mods, the stats support their statement
Read above.
The most knowned mod ever of Half-Life 2 is Garry's Mod. And you can't compare mods popularity only by the stats they have on ModDB.
Interesting read! I wish you all the best in the future!
This is one of my most anticipated Half-Life 2 mods. It's impressive; it's had its ups and downs...I hope it delivers. Good luck in all your endeavors!
Well it's glad you guys were able to keep this mod going even after a leak. You guys have earned my respect considerably, I hope everything goes well from now on and will have a very successful release in the future!
Is it still coming out this year? Anyways this mod is going to be epic can't wait anymore
We'll try to release it this year, but if we don't, we'll release a demo with a shitload of content.
awesome reading! i thing this mod will kick BMS ***, i mean, common! this is shepard fighting against the combines!! thats new! but BMS source will be just the same adventure with gordon through the same old Black Mesa!
mpplayer,cancelled?NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
please co-op only like obm!
It wasn't cancelled, Phoenix Strike is working on it.