Crossfire - Upcoming changes, upcoming content

but using the short name makes more sense

ASF vs Alliance Star Fleet

LSF vs Liberty Security Force

GMG vs Gas Miners Guild

Armed Forces vs Bretonia Armed Forces

Police vs Bretonia Police

Bowex vs Border Worlds Exports

Cryer vs Cryer Pharmaceuticals

At least half of the factions have a short name and based on CF storyline the DK happen to call themselves "The Kavash".

Like I said... I think it makes sense.

I just released a patch that changed the encoding of all the new (~2700) voice samples.

This finally fixes the problem that samples are not correctly played in the game.... and the results are pretty good now.

That took lots of time but was totally worth it.

Just applied a server side fix dealing with a MP animation bug.

Regarding the remaining voice sample rework (for space communication) I have the intention to conduct a few tests in which way I can modulate voices to fit the FL radio effect. Once I have a reliable way to do that I will compile all the new voice samples. This will for sure take several weeks since AI computation is kinda slow.

Applying the voices should not be a big issue anymore since I meanwhile know how to make the stuff compatible with FL.

All this however will be more of a side project that I would do while working on other CF stuff.

So essentially the next update for CF will most likely be a complete overhaul of the LOD settings for solar objects and ships. That also take a bit time but lays a good foundation for the introduction of future content and the rework of serveral CF systems.

I just released a minor fix to the weapons rebalance (wrong typo in the settings)

dunno if this is possible

the menu at stations is variable... it can show different icons depending on the settings and can display them even in different order.

An integration at the moment is a bit tricky since it currently does not work with the modern CF UI.

I probably can get it working by creating new interface elements but since CF offers to choose between UI during installation it would not be possible to simply provide a patch via launcher without overwriting custom user settings.

Probably something that can be released with a new installer... but for that all the other stuff has to be finished first.

so with other words... yes possible... involves some additional work... and needs to be done in combination with a new installer release

As you probably might have noticed there was no update for a few months already.

The explanation is pretty simple. Lack of motivation.

Ive been working on the content refresh for almost a year meanwhile (well, 11 months) and have been busy pretty much every week working on the mod.

Meanwhile Im burned out a bit and my work mostly was carried mostly by a fragile motivation based on the the impression of making progress and potentially that there are people that would still care. A few incidents on Discord and the lack of feedback pretty much ruined that motivation (it pretty much was the breaking point).

Im not sure how to find a way out of this not so great situation but certainly taking a break is a good start.

Actually I have the intention to get back into modding work relative soon since I very easily get bored. Dunno when exactly but probably within the next few weeks.

While that for sure will not solve the motivational issues it at least might keep things running (more or less).

Just wanted to let you know what's going on.

I did some structural changes no the server yesterday that are required for future updates.

I kept it under observation to see if everything runs stable. Looks like the server is still there.

This change should make server side update a bit less complicated, with lower risks for causing potential bugs to chars.

I was not sure if I should write this. To be honest I am still not sure about it but I always used to be open about CF developement and its progress.

Therefore... here we go.

In the past weeks there have not been many updates (actually just one). After releasing updates almost weekly for over one year, dealing with bugfixes, content refreshes, rebalancing and preparing the next big content update I ended up pretty burned out. Keep in mind that I develop CF in the little time I have next to my RL job and family. The lack of community feedback also did not really help to keep my motivation up and running so I decided to take a break and maybe get a bit motivation from other sources.

Starfield was around the corner and probably would have helped with that a bit (at least that was the theory).

Truth however is that a lot of stuff derailed in the past weeks.

I got in the situation where changes at my job required lots of my attention and most certainly still will for weeks to come. On top of that are a million of private problems. Grandma at the age of 94 had an accident and as you can imagine at such an age the term "light issues" never applies. Big amount of my free time is consumed by organizing stuff and visits at the hospital. But since that is not enough yet the health condition of both of my parents isn't the greatest aswell and my dad also soon is to be hospitalized (hopefully without him eventually losing the ability to walk). At the moment I am trying to help out where I can and support the family.

My own health situation has not been the greatest in the past weeks but that most likely is just result of the non-stop stress situation.

As you can imagine it is difficult to focus on modding work in this situation in the evening hours or late at night. I tried to relax a bit by playing a bit Starfield but well... after almost 2 months I am still pretty much at the beginning of the game. I can't really focus stuff longer than half an hour or an hour at max these days.

Like I said. I am not sure if sharing this stuff is a good idea but I always used to communicate about CF development progress no matter if it were good or bad news. Right now it's just that. Now you know why there has been a lack of updates and why it probably will take some time for this situation to change again.

I am not sure it is appropriate to say "better times will come" but maybe at least less demanding times allow me to return to some modding work in a few weeks.