Nice read all! Completely missed this thread.
I'll quote an edited version of my introduction talk on the internal forums , 4(!) years ago:
**********************
Somewhere in 2001, I got my own PC that was powerfull enough to run OFP 1.00. A friend of mine gave me a spare (pirated) copy, and I was hooked from the start. Playing the famous CWC campaign in my little room was something that started my to dig deeper in the game, and find the MP part. I started with the famous "battlefield" missions, which were pretty much huge C&H missions. Someone that wanted to start a CTI squad spotted me playing, and wanted me to help him start the squad called N-force in 2003. I never played CTI before, but soon I knew this is what I always wanted: A combination of Red Alert and Delta Force (yes I played Delta Force a lot before)! I agreed and built a website and forums and N-Force was becoming successful quite soon. We played in the 2004 CTI Team competition with the crCTI missions, and we made it to the finals. The quick success made us pumped even more and I was sure I would be doing this for some time. Playing against the legendary CTI squads (like SWEC, Alcoholic Fan Club, 88th or PLAF) was somewhat of an honor for me.
We were small and merged with another CTI squad, and became HotShots and were soon the 3-fold winners of CTITC. This was mostly due to the tight organisation and dedication of the members and involvement of everyone in tactics before the match. We drew tactical maps the week before each match, and did training of those plans. I mostly was the logistics guy, helping the front repairing and rearming, but I loved it, because It also involved proper concealment, sneaking behind enemy lines and lots of communication.
This was the best gaming experience I ever had, following a plan, and adapt to the situation as it went on, and work as a team in games that usually lasted about 2.5 hours.
In the meantime (2003) I started at the university. That gave me some more time (students eh..) to play OFP and I started playing it with fellow students, creating silly missions to play on LAN. I bought the GOTY edition and I started modding the crCTI missions (make CSLA, FDF and custom versions). I also co-ran some small CTI tournaments for smaller teams and individuals. I never made any Coop missions, I didn't really know it existed.
In 2006 I noticed the OFP Coop nights on the BIS forums, asked Llauma for the password, and joined as much as I could. The tournaments were over and I enjoyed the change in playing style. At that time the OFP games on FDF were pretty serious, but I liked following orders (and was too shy to lead). I remember playing with Balchoiw, Hardrock, Variable, LLauma, Post, Tony and the other old timers from that time. I played regulary, but when Arma became the standard I lagged behind a bit, lacking a decent PC. When I fixed it, I started playing CTI/Warfare again and forgot about OFP a bit. When CiA got an arma server up, most of the old guys had left (?) And games were scarce for me. CTI in Arma wasnt what crCTI for OFP was, and I lost interest in the game style pretty soon. From there to Arma 2 CiA games is a bit of a grey area with playing mixed CiA and warfare. At CiA I met some of the great people that are still here or unfortunately left already, but never really considered becoming a member as a real option.
Arma2 Warfare (the BIS version of CTI) became pretty popular (the Hotshots server was the nr1 server for Arma2 for long time), but I still don't like the change of gameplay in public games, and the lack of tournament didn't do our motivation good. Hotshots died officially in 2014, and all the members scattered or left completely. It's fun to see everyone still lurking around the forums though, wishing each other Merry Christmas, but It's also a bittersweet memory.
The invitation for becoming a CiA member in 2011 couldn't be timed better, because I just finished the incredibly busy period of my graduation at that time, and started as a PhD.
************************************
The rest is known, I was quite active then, but I soon bought a house and real life simply eats too much time, and gaming is really scarce these days. I also lagged behind (again) with getting a good PC for Arma 3, so I pretty much missed half of the games in the transition period.
Fun to see our way into here are so different. I didn't really care for the campaigns and SP missions, apart from all the OFP campaigns.( I think I've never finished the campaigns of Arma 1, 2 and 3. )Â I was lucky to have ADSL internet quite soon after the OFP release, so I jumped into random (non-coop) missions after completing the built-in stuff.
I'll quote an edited version of my introduction talk on the internal forums , 4(!) years ago:
**********************
Somewhere in 2001, I got my own PC that was powerfull enough to run OFP 1.00. A friend of mine gave me a spare (pirated) copy, and I was hooked from the start. Playing the famous CWC campaign in my little room was something that started my to dig deeper in the game, and find the MP part. I started with the famous "battlefield" missions, which were pretty much huge C&H missions. Someone that wanted to start a CTI squad spotted me playing, and wanted me to help him start the squad called N-force in 2003. I never played CTI before, but soon I knew this is what I always wanted: A combination of Red Alert and Delta Force (yes I played Delta Force a lot before)! I agreed and built a website and forums and N-Force was becoming successful quite soon. We played in the 2004 CTI Team competition with the crCTI missions, and we made it to the finals. The quick success made us pumped even more and I was sure I would be doing this for some time. Playing against the legendary CTI squads (like SWEC, Alcoholic Fan Club, 88th or PLAF) was somewhat of an honor for me.
We were small and merged with another CTI squad, and became HotShots and were soon the 3-fold winners of CTITC. This was mostly due to the tight organisation and dedication of the members and involvement of everyone in tactics before the match. We drew tactical maps the week before each match, and did training of those plans. I mostly was the logistics guy, helping the front repairing and rearming, but I loved it, because It also involved proper concealment, sneaking behind enemy lines and lots of communication.
This was the best gaming experience I ever had, following a plan, and adapt to the situation as it went on, and work as a team in games that usually lasted about 2.5 hours.
In the meantime (2003) I started at the university. That gave me some more time (students eh..) to play OFP and I started playing it with fellow students, creating silly missions to play on LAN. I bought the GOTY edition and I started modding the crCTI missions (make CSLA, FDF and custom versions). I also co-ran some small CTI tournaments for smaller teams and individuals. I never made any Coop missions, I didn't really know it existed.
In 2006 I noticed the OFP Coop nights on the BIS forums, asked Llauma for the password, and joined as much as I could. The tournaments were over and I enjoyed the change in playing style. At that time the OFP games on FDF were pretty serious, but I liked following orders (and was too shy to lead). I remember playing with Balchoiw, Hardrock, Variable, LLauma, Post, Tony and the other old timers from that time. I played regulary, but when Arma became the standard I lagged behind a bit, lacking a decent PC. When I fixed it, I started playing CTI/Warfare again and forgot about OFP a bit. When CiA got an arma server up, most of the old guys had left (?) And games were scarce for me. CTI in Arma wasnt what crCTI for OFP was, and I lost interest in the game style pretty soon. From there to Arma 2 CiA games is a bit of a grey area with playing mixed CiA and warfare. At CiA I met some of the great people that are still here or unfortunately left already, but never really considered becoming a member as a real option.
Arma2 Warfare (the BIS version of CTI) became pretty popular (the Hotshots server was the nr1 server for Arma2 for long time), but I still don't like the change of gameplay in public games, and the lack of tournament didn't do our motivation good. Hotshots died officially in 2014, and all the members scattered or left completely. It's fun to see everyone still lurking around the forums though, wishing each other Merry Christmas, but It's also a bittersweet memory.
The invitation for becoming a CiA member in 2011 couldn't be timed better, because I just finished the incredibly busy period of my graduation at that time, and started as a PhD.
************************************
The rest is known, I was quite active then, but I soon bought a house and real life simply eats too much time, and gaming is really scarce these days. I also lagged behind (again) with getting a good PC for Arma 3, so I pretty much missed half of the games in the transition period.
Fun to see our way into here are so different. I didn't really care for the campaigns and SP missions, apart from all the OFP campaigns.( I think I've never finished the campaigns of Arma 1, 2 and 3. )Â I was lucky to have ADSL internet quite soon after the OFP release, so I jumped into random (non-coop) missions after completing the built-in stuff.