The story of Mare Nostrum from my point of view
Now as the life of Ro:Ost with all it mods is running out. Its time to summary some thoughts about modding
Red Orchestra and working on mod called Mare Nostrum. In all points, it’s really important to remember that I tell the things so that I have felt them and it doesn’t mean that things really actually were that way. However the story can’t be told without telling what I did in modding scene before that.
So I started modding in end of 2004 on Green Devils, which was a really small team and I ended up quite fast to be a lead modeler, well without a team anyways. However we were making first ww2 single-player game from German point of view. And even that we were really un-experienced team we were able to build up a quite a hype. As even Steam ranked our mod on its news to group of 13 mods which people should wait to HL2. Of course we didn’t had enough skills to make it work in real and all we got was just lot of un-textured 3d models, but we tried our best and I spent lot of nights with Royal Blackwatch to trying make some weapons work in-game and things like that. And well, everything ended up to one data crash where we lost some important data like hundreds of photos Royal took from battlefields in Crete.
(Thompson M1, first last textured object i made in GD, Logo on the corner is made by: Madphisto, one of the best
HL2-mod logos i say)
It was time to say goodbye to our fans, but even that didn’t went quite well as we released our soundtrack which our newest member had made. However it turned out that the whole soundtrack was ripped from some other game. (I’m still mad to you about this)
However after that I got lot of models, without any use and I joined to Resistance And Liberation team where they put me in to a “Boot Camp” , I think they do that to all new comers. Well they had already almost everything important modeled, even that I thought that they have remade most of that stuff now. So they didn’t need my models and I made some tables and chairs to their mod, don’t know if any actually ended up to game. And what that boot camp means, well it’s a place where you need to report once in week what you have done and if you haven’t, why? And in same time you don’t know anything about the progress inside the team. So I think it was too unimportant role to my ego and I left Resistance And Liberation quite fast.
In same time I started to play Red Orchestra and was quite soon addicted and started to make some research about it mods. So I came to Mare Nostrum forum and promised all my models to them. Then I cutted down some polyes to make them fit from HL2 to RO. However if i understood right nobody didn’t had a time to do anything for them so nothing really happened to my models. And it still took half year or something before I was really healed from Green Devils end and started to really work 3d-thigs again. First I just wanted to texture Vickers tank, but soon I somehow ended up to make more and more things and were totally inside the team behind Mare Nostrum, without even thinking in any point to actually join to team. That was somewhere near Christmas 2007.
The first Beta 1.0 was released few months later and it already got all those key elements our mod needed. There was work from many different members, and it was made by quite large team I believe. Even that I don’t exactly know who have made and what. And it got two things which made our mod as good as it is, Tobruk (Rex) and Bardia (Xendance). Tobruk was and still is best RO-map which I know. It’s playable with almost any player count and goes really tight almost every time, but still it doesn’t freeze up to one gap for multiple minutes.
Bardia cant bee compared to RO-classics like Basovka or Krasnyi Oktjabr, but is still one of the best custom maps, as only better one which I know is Foy from DH. So we had minimum amount of new content and 2 good maps and some playable maps which made 1.0 really good start.
However, after first release our team was anymore a just few guys as before I came to team, part of team had just left the Mare Nostrum and took lot of things with them. If I understood right they later started a new mod which we know as a Darkest Hour. At least if you go to take a look to our media gallery and watch closely some our old models, you can notice that they are playable in DH. As I came too late to see myself what happened I dont know exactly what made one team to split up in 2. And I can’t say more than probably MN just wanted to concentrate to Brits/Aussies and DH to Yankees.
Of course it doesn’t ever go that way, it’s always more about chemistry between people, but it’s also always polite to tell people something else.
Anyways you were still able to sense those doors which were just splashed closed and on those next years no-one really didn’t try to open them from MN or DH. Even that DH doesn’t actually got anymore those members which left from Mare Nostrum.
So after that almost everything was made by 8 dude with a really important support of Xendance who went to army, but was still able to help sometimes in mapping. And those 8 dudes were Null who made some beautiful static objects to Crete. Grollo, who was in charge on history things, and didn’t know much about making computer graphics, but still textured those Italian characters. Andrei313 , who created our Italian characters and all characters of CC-mod in same time. UncleDrax, who coded almost everything in Mare Nostrum and built up lot of new feature and teached me to use UnrealEd. Sam, who got even problems to render some models to Tunis Telegraph first, but who later made a two maps (Crete, Ancona Approach) to Mare Nostrum and kept our publicity up.
(Stuka on the air doing some bobardment, sadly it didnt never worked out online, but in training mode)
Waddler who built up an army of tin cup tanks, I don’t know like who he was in his early life, but you can count those tanks in MN, they are almost all made by him. And if he got too much time he made some animations as we didn’t got animator at all.
Well on that time I first learned to unwrap and texture things and then made all those Italian weapons and fixed some British and then animated so many of them as I had time. Sadly I hadn’t time to animate every one of them, so many didn’t made to in-game. Made my first character model (FJ) based on some old character model and got headache from that Karma Error, which DH got too when they made their first characters I believe as always when I tried to find conclusion to that from forums, I found post made by DH member where they needed the answer too. After that I started to make my first map, which went quite well, even that I don’t know how balanced it is as we didn’t got anymore any testing team on those times.
Also I need to mention Mr. Moe who came to team on its last year and also made his first map. And was able to make a epic-scale tank map.
So even that our mod can look pro as a mod, it was made by total amateurs. And that’s how I would like to it be remembered. As a milestone which amateurs were able to set up with hard work, good team spirit and trust to things what we were doing.
But still Mare Nostrum didn’t came popular enough even that I think it was really good to being a mod. It reached its top numbers of players in our first steam release and was played next few months with full servers, until it reached again its typical status, having players only in fight-nights. So we must have made something terribly wrong. And that was that we made a mod which we our self would like to play. We didn’t never thought would that feature or content be a popular, we just thought would it be cool in our own eyes.
As first we need to think which nation quite clearly runs Red Orchestra in Europe, and it’s quite easy question, the answer is Germany and after that comes Poland I believe. Then maybe France, and Scandinavian countries together. And even that people like to play with different countries I believe that they are always most interested to play on side of their own country.
So what we gave to German community, well one tank and in the end FJ’s. Which was quite a huge surprise to me that it didn’t made any hype. Yes it was my idea, or at least I was the guy who mostly pushed our mod to move on Crete as it was the place where the Green Devils mod were aiming years ago and I wanted that my models would finally get in home.
But no, it was like a empty well. And I still wonder why as I have seen lot of talking about FJ’s in game forums. And I trusted that it would bring on some German reality units to our forum as it was filled only by British ones.
However it needs to be still mentioned that we didn’t gave almost anything to German community.
So the Poland is next one on the list and what we gave to them, well actually nothing as they made their Polish voice commands by them self and we were able to add “Polish forces” in game as they used Allied gears and uniforms in late war. However Polish were not so interested about just Polish voice commands so it didn’t had any effect to our player volume.
So where we spent most of our time? Well to Aussies, who live in other side of world and not sure if they are able to play properly even in North American servers. To Brits, which is a logical choose even that they don’t have so huge RO-community as you could think of from their population. And to Italians, and that is the biggest mistake any mod team can do. No there haven’t been many World War 2 games which got Italians, and trust me there is a reason for that. We built up a huge bunch of Italian units, modeled all needed weapons, and gave them tanks. And that was more than Brits and Aussies get together. But did I was able to see even one Italian unit in our forum, NO.
YouTube - MN 1.4 Italian Weapons Preview
But that wasn’t the only thing. Also, I and Waddler share the same affection to those small tin cups which can be barely called as tanks and we added not so known tanks like Vickers, Stuart and M13/40. And it really turned out that people were not so interested about them as they are about huge King Tigers, JagdPanthers and ISU-152s.
So we made a mod which no-one was so interested about, expect ourself. And I believe that was the biggest issue why we ended up to same situation with Carpathian Crosses.
In same time Darkest Hour did made good chooses what they add in-game, and what they do not. And even that I would say they were quite far from our quality in the start they reached that quality quite fast on models and textures. Also they were able to build up an huge mapping team or community to being a mod team. So even that we got 2 good maps and lot of bad ones they got lot of average ones and one good one which made game actually playable for hours as our game was just playable in one hour rolls as playing Tobruk and Bardia sequentially.
So if you are planning to make a mod take a look to games clan community, and don’t underestimate it as a one clan player play ten times more than typical player and one clan plays as much as 100 players. So only with few active clans you can keep your mod up and running.
Also I need to say that TWI boys did heck of good job on supporting its mods and I believe that any other company in the world couldn’t do it that way. Also huge thanks to PzDF for running those Fight Nights.
Now as the life of Ro:Ost with all it mods is running out. Its time to summary some thoughts about modding
Red Orchestra and working on mod called Mare Nostrum. In all points, it’s really important to remember that I tell the things so that I have felt them and it doesn’t mean that things really actually were that way. However the story can’t be told without telling what I did in modding scene before that.
So I started modding in end of 2004 on Green Devils, which was a really small team and I ended up quite fast to be a lead modeler, well without a team anyways. However we were making first ww2 single-player game from German point of view. And even that we were really un-experienced team we were able to build up a quite a hype. As even Steam ranked our mod on its news to group of 13 mods which people should wait to HL2. Of course we didn’t had enough skills to make it work in real and all we got was just lot of un-textured 3d models, but we tried our best and I spent lot of nights with Royal Blackwatch to trying make some weapons work in-game and things like that. And well, everything ended up to one data crash where we lost some important data like hundreds of photos Royal took from battlefields in Crete.
(Thompson M1, first last textured object i made in GD, Logo on the corner is made by: Madphisto, one of the best
HL2-mod logos i say)
It was time to say goodbye to our fans, but even that didn’t went quite well as we released our soundtrack which our newest member had made. However it turned out that the whole soundtrack was ripped from some other game. (I’m still mad to you about this)
However after that I got lot of models, without any use and I joined to Resistance And Liberation team where they put me in to a “Boot Camp” , I think they do that to all new comers. Well they had already almost everything important modeled, even that I thought that they have remade most of that stuff now. So they didn’t need my models and I made some tables and chairs to their mod, don’t know if any actually ended up to game. And what that boot camp means, well it’s a place where you need to report once in week what you have done and if you haven’t, why? And in same time you don’t know anything about the progress inside the team. So I think it was too unimportant role to my ego and I left Resistance And Liberation quite fast.
In same time I started to play Red Orchestra and was quite soon addicted and started to make some research about it mods. So I came to Mare Nostrum forum and promised all my models to them. Then I cutted down some polyes to make them fit from HL2 to RO. However if i understood right nobody didn’t had a time to do anything for them so nothing really happened to my models. And it still took half year or something before I was really healed from Green Devils end and started to really work 3d-thigs again. First I just wanted to texture Vickers tank, but soon I somehow ended up to make more and more things and were totally inside the team behind Mare Nostrum, without even thinking in any point to actually join to team. That was somewhere near Christmas 2007.
The first Beta 1.0 was released few months later and it already got all those key elements our mod needed. There was work from many different members, and it was made by quite large team I believe. Even that I don’t exactly know who have made and what. And it got two things which made our mod as good as it is, Tobruk (Rex) and Bardia (Xendance). Tobruk was and still is best RO-map which I know. It’s playable with almost any player count and goes really tight almost every time, but still it doesn’t freeze up to one gap for multiple minutes.
Bardia cant bee compared to RO-classics like Basovka or Krasnyi Oktjabr, but is still one of the best custom maps, as only better one which I know is Foy from DH. So we had minimum amount of new content and 2 good maps and some playable maps which made 1.0 really good start.
However, after first release our team was anymore a just few guys as before I came to team, part of team had just left the Mare Nostrum and took lot of things with them. If I understood right they later started a new mod which we know as a Darkest Hour. At least if you go to take a look to our media gallery and watch closely some our old models, you can notice that they are playable in DH. As I came too late to see myself what happened I dont know exactly what made one team to split up in 2. And I can’t say more than probably MN just wanted to concentrate to Brits/Aussies and DH to Yankees.
Of course it doesn’t ever go that way, it’s always more about chemistry between people, but it’s also always polite to tell people something else.
Anyways you were still able to sense those doors which were just splashed closed and on those next years no-one really didn’t try to open them from MN or DH. Even that DH doesn’t actually got anymore those members which left from Mare Nostrum.
So after that almost everything was made by 8 dude with a really important support of Xendance who went to army, but was still able to help sometimes in mapping. And those 8 dudes were Null who made some beautiful static objects to Crete. Grollo, who was in charge on history things, and didn’t know much about making computer graphics, but still textured those Italian characters. Andrei313 , who created our Italian characters and all characters of CC-mod in same time. UncleDrax, who coded almost everything in Mare Nostrum and built up lot of new feature and teached me to use UnrealEd. Sam, who got even problems to render some models to Tunis Telegraph first, but who later made a two maps (Crete, Ancona Approach) to Mare Nostrum and kept our publicity up.
(Stuka on the air doing some bobardment, sadly it didnt never worked out online, but in training mode)
Waddler who built up an army of tin cup tanks, I don’t know like who he was in his early life, but you can count those tanks in MN, they are almost all made by him. And if he got too much time he made some animations as we didn’t got animator at all.
Well on that time I first learned to unwrap and texture things and then made all those Italian weapons and fixed some British and then animated so many of them as I had time. Sadly I hadn’t time to animate every one of them, so many didn’t made to in-game. Made my first character model (FJ) based on some old character model and got headache from that Karma Error, which DH got too when they made their first characters I believe as always when I tried to find conclusion to that from forums, I found post made by DH member where they needed the answer too. After that I started to make my first map, which went quite well, even that I don’t know how balanced it is as we didn’t got anymore any testing team on those times.
Also I need to mention Mr. Moe who came to team on its last year and also made his first map. And was able to make a epic-scale tank map.
So even that our mod can look pro as a mod, it was made by total amateurs. And that’s how I would like to it be remembered. As a milestone which amateurs were able to set up with hard work, good team spirit and trust to things what we were doing.
But still Mare Nostrum didn’t came popular enough even that I think it was really good to being a mod. It reached its top numbers of players in our first steam release and was played next few months with full servers, until it reached again its typical status, having players only in fight-nights. So we must have made something terribly wrong. And that was that we made a mod which we our self would like to play. We didn’t never thought would that feature or content be a popular, we just thought would it be cool in our own eyes.
As first we need to think which nation quite clearly runs Red Orchestra in Europe, and it’s quite easy question, the answer is Germany and after that comes Poland I believe. Then maybe France, and Scandinavian countries together. And even that people like to play with different countries I believe that they are always most interested to play on side of their own country.
So what we gave to German community, well one tank and in the end FJ’s. Which was quite a huge surprise to me that it didn’t made any hype. Yes it was my idea, or at least I was the guy who mostly pushed our mod to move on Crete as it was the place where the Green Devils mod were aiming years ago and I wanted that my models would finally get in home.
But no, it was like a empty well. And I still wonder why as I have seen lot of talking about FJ’s in game forums. And I trusted that it would bring on some German reality units to our forum as it was filled only by British ones.
However it needs to be still mentioned that we didn’t gave almost anything to German community.
So the Poland is next one on the list and what we gave to them, well actually nothing as they made their Polish voice commands by them self and we were able to add “Polish forces” in game as they used Allied gears and uniforms in late war. However Polish were not so interested about just Polish voice commands so it didn’t had any effect to our player volume.
So where we spent most of our time? Well to Aussies, who live in other side of world and not sure if they are able to play properly even in North American servers. To Brits, which is a logical choose even that they don’t have so huge RO-community as you could think of from their population. And to Italians, and that is the biggest mistake any mod team can do. No there haven’t been many World War 2 games which got Italians, and trust me there is a reason for that. We built up a huge bunch of Italian units, modeled all needed weapons, and gave them tanks. And that was more than Brits and Aussies get together. But did I was able to see even one Italian unit in our forum, NO.
YouTube - MN 1.4 Italian Weapons Preview
But that wasn’t the only thing. Also, I and Waddler share the same affection to those small tin cups which can be barely called as tanks and we added not so known tanks like Vickers, Stuart and M13/40. And it really turned out that people were not so interested about them as they are about huge King Tigers, JagdPanthers and ISU-152s.
So we made a mod which no-one was so interested about, expect ourself. And I believe that was the biggest issue why we ended up to same situation with Carpathian Crosses.
In same time Darkest Hour did made good chooses what they add in-game, and what they do not. And even that I would say they were quite far from our quality in the start they reached that quality quite fast on models and textures. Also they were able to build up an huge mapping team or community to being a mod team. So even that we got 2 good maps and lot of bad ones they got lot of average ones and one good one which made game actually playable for hours as our game was just playable in one hour rolls as playing Tobruk and Bardia sequentially.
So if you are planning to make a mod take a look to games clan community, and don’t underestimate it as a one clan player play ten times more than typical player and one clan plays as much as 100 players. So only with few active clans you can keep your mod up and running.
Also I need to say that TWI boys did heck of good job on supporting its mods and I believe that any other company in the world couldn’t do it that way. Also huge thanks to PzDF for running those Fight Nights.
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