One legacy of Operation Flashpoint has been the exceptional work of the Cold War Rearmed Mod Team. As part of our #OFP25 celebrations, we recently interviewed key members of the team and discussed Cold War Rearmed III - the latest and most definitive edition of their mod - as well as the past, present, and future of the Arma series.

COLD WAR REARMED III TEAM

Nicknames: 

W0lle
Jakerod
Max Power

Nationalities: 

German
American
Canadian

Can you provide us with one random fact about yourself?

W0lle: I'm on the road too much. Unfortunately, it's not for fun. It takes away time I could be spending on other things.

Jakerod: I have been making maps/levels for games since Warcraft II.

Max Power: For a while I worked as a Parks Ranger for a municipality in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. I have also been a youth worker, and I have a degree in psychology.  Currently, I’m a Lead Technical Artist for Compulsion Games. Our most recent project, South of Midnight, has won some awards including a BAFTA and a Peabody award.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Can you tell us a bit more about yourselves?

W0lle: Outside of Arma, I work in the security and defense industry. I spend what little free time I have outdoors as often as possible, biking and running - ideally with the two wonderful women in my life by my side. Even if one of them now tends to see me as an embarrassing parent.

Max Power: I joined the Bohemia Interactive Community out of enthusiasm for Operation Flashpoint. The idea that you could run around a landscape, drive cars, or even fly helicopters and aircraft is something that I had always dreamed of being able to do in the same video game. I think from the moment I played it, I was an Operation Flashpoint superfan. I participated in the community quite often, and was eventually invited to become a forum moderator. In my capacity as a moderator I tried to raise community awareness of an artist’s rights to their own work. My idea was that a community that is a safe place where artists and other content creators can share their work would have a vibrant and long lasting modding community. Back in those days, there was no vector for a modder to get paid for their work, and no road to follow to become a fully fledged module maker. The only currency for modders was the ownership of their work.

How did you all first get involved with Arma and modding?

W0lle: I took my first tentative steps into modding with Operation Flashpoint  replacing the vegetation in the original landscapes with that from Nogova. This was never shared beyond the small circle of people I used to play with online back then. My real passion became creating missions.

Jakerod: I was looking for a new game to play after Delta Force 2 and one of the guys I played with recommended Operation Flashpoint. I played the demo for about three months before I got the game for Christmas in 2001. I loved the mission editor and later started making terrains back when WRPEdit, a community terrain making tool, was released in 2002. 

Max Power: I had played Operation Flashpoint for many years and I had participated in some other small game building projects in the past when I was in College. I was always interested in games and making art. I eventually decided to pull the trigger on a career in gaming and I joined the 3D Animation program at my local University. The program was very intense and didn’t cover game specific topics like implementation.  So, I thought I would give my portfolio a boost by modding for OFP’s newish sequel, Arma. I saw that there was a project to recreate OFP in the new engine and I knew this was just the challenge I was looking for.

I also recall publishing a few tutorials based on things I learned in my courses to help the community get more out of the tools that were commonly used at the time.

Can you give us an introduction to the Cold War Rearmed project?

W0lle: Well, the Cold War Rearmed project has always had just one goal: to port the legendary Cold War Assault (formerly Operation Flashpoint) including its units, missions, and campaigns to the Arma platform. We’ve now succeeded in doing that three times.

Can you tell us how you started with the first version of Cold War Rearmed for Arma: Armed Assault?

W0lle: I joined the CWR project relatively late and only by chance because, as a new forum moderator, I had access to the internal subforum. As far as I recall, it was a “joint venture” between BI and a few community members. Once I decided to get involved, my first attempt was to port Desert Island. A spectacular failure - terrain editing for the Arma engine and I are completely incompatible.

After that, I focused on porting the missions and campaigns. Back then, that was still relatively easy. Besides that, I took on more and more organizational tasks, which is apparently another area I’m good at. At some point, I don’t remember when, raedor, the Project Lead at the time, asked me if I wanted to take over his position because he couldn’t put in the time anymore. I had no idea what I was getting myself into! Finally - a few days before Arma 2 was released - we had managed to release the mod.

Cold War Rearmed II was simply the logical next step, one that had already been planned while we were making the final changes to CWR. Now independent of BI, we could bring anyone who wanted to join onto the team. That was a good thing, because thanks to the expertise of many contributors and the existing material from CWR, development progressed much more quickly. Not to mention the many people who shared their add-ons - or parts of them - with us. In the end, we had released not only CWR II, but also 21 expansions for it.

I wasn't really interested in Arma 3. I couldn't get into the futuristic setting. The initial issues, combined with the time and nerve-wracking work on CWR II, did the rest. I took a long break until 2020 came along. I was sitting at home and just wanted to see what CUP had done with our material. It didn’t take a day before I had ported the first mission. Things moved quickly from there. I realized there was enough material in CUP to create something like “CWR Lite” initially for myself, and as luck would have it, someone at CUP had a similar idea. I decided to build CWR III based on their mod. The fact that Stagler joined the team shortly thereafter was an absolute stroke of luck. Without his tireless work, much of what is now in CWR III would not have been possible. Here, too, numerous people saved us a lot of time by sharing their work. Also, without the pandemic lockdowns, CWR III in its current form would never have been possible.

So, I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported us in the past, in whatever way.

Max Power: It is the same story as how I got into modding. Actually, if the forum data still exists, you might actually find the original conversations. I don’t recall if I was a modder first or a moderator, but being a forum denizen made me aware of the efforts being undertaken at an early stage.

Can you give us any insight into the development process? Are there any interesting anecdotes you can share?

W0lle: At the moment, the project is more or less at a standstill. The reason is simply that, following the pandemic, the team members have been back to their daily routines.

Jakerod: There were several terrains we had planned for CWR II that we ended up cutting for lack of time:

• Takistan-like version of Everon, where the original shorelines were rivers, and had huge mountains where the oceans normally are.
• Finnish inspired version of Malden.
• Some variation of Nogova and Kolgujev but I don’t recall if we ever got further in planning than just wanting to make them.
• A terrain based on an unused heightmap found in the CWA data files.
• A Malden Islands terrain featuring all the original CWA islands. We eventually made this for CWR III.

Max Power: We were very blessed to have some real geniuses on our team who were modding OFP from the very start. Consequently, we had a degree of automation designed by Mikero that made dealing with content a lot easier. We also had a 3DS Max plug-in that helped package up and export LODs, and I developed a PhotoShop layer system that allowed me to output all the required textures from the same document, with some help from some plug-ins. Using layer effects, I was able to paint a heightmap, surface masks, and some other things, and much of the final textures were procedural or derived by height to normal operations and such.

Can you tell us about any future updates that might be coming to Cold War Rearmed?

W0lle: Given what I said above, it’s almost impossible to tell about any plans for future updates. Maybe we’ll come back one day with a surprise release, or the mod will remain in its current, stable state.

What is your favorite piece of Arma user-created content (mod, addon, scenario, game mode, tool) and why?

W0lle: Tool – Mikeros pbo tools. They aren't always my favorite, but as nitpicky as they are, they help prevent errors that would otherwise have to be fixed later.

Otherwise, all kinds of landscapes: Drakovac by Sgt.Enfisk, Yulakia by IceBreakr, and Hurtgen Forest by E_50_Panzer, to name just a few - and all for the same reason: I love exploring landscapes and figuring out what crazy missions I could create there. This is because I know how much time and effort it takes to create interesting landscapes. 

Jakerod: This is going to sound self-centered but Cold War Rearmed. I’ve been a big fan of the Cold War setting since CWA. In addition to having the assets for that era, it also had the terrains and missions I loved from the first game. It’s been an honor working with all of the talented people on the team as well.

I also want to mention CUP here. They have been a tremendous partner for CWR III and the team is filled with brilliant people which shows in the quality of their excellent mod. Even before we started CWR III, it was one of the few mods that I used in Arma 3 and it’s been fantastic to watch it grow.

Max Power:

With the popularity of Arma Reforger and the potential of Enfusion Engine and Workbench, what are you looking forward to with the franchise as we move along the road to Arma 4?

W0lle: The backdrop to the Cold War era. That’s where it all began for me, and it will probably end against that same backdrop. Who knows, maybe there will be another revival of the original campaigns in a fourth edition of Cold War Rearmed.

Jakerod: I’m glad the setting has gone back to the Cold War and it has been terrific seeing the old terrains in a new engine fully fleshed out by the extraordinary artists at BI. The Workbench, especially the World Editor, is incredibly fun to use and a huge improvement over tools in the past games. As a terrain maker, I am very happy to have all the new map technology and assets that enable such high fidelity terrains in the new engine. I’m excited to see what you (and the community) have in store for Arma 4.

Max Power: Looking forward to Arma 4. I haven’t modded in a while though so I haven’t used any of the new hotness.

BONUS

What is your most remarkable “Arma” moment?

W0lle: Hard to say. In the 25 years I’ve spent playing these games, there have simply been too many.

If I had to name one, it would be a single AI soldier in the Battle of Montignac. My entire team was wiped out by that BMP, and just as it started firing in my direction, the guy took out the BMP. Yeah, sometimes they have their moments of glory.
Oh, and right at the very beginning, I once created a mission using the awesome FDF mod. I spent hours placing units and objects. Tested and corrected everything until I was satisfied. And then, instead of clicking “Save,” I clicked “Clear” and hit Enter. Backup? What’s a backup? Well, I’d definitely had enough for that day.

Jakerod: I have a million remarkable Arma gameplay moments but looking back, finding the game was the most remarkable. It unexpectedly changed my life.

I joined the Arma modding community in 2002 and met so many phenomenal people. People that helped me improve my skills or provided me encouragement.

One of those people was Bushlurker. He helped me get back into terrain making after I had taken a break. He convinced me to join CWR II where I got to sharpen my skills. When a job opened up in the company he worked for, he convinced me to apply for it and gave me a reference. I wrote once that he did more to get me the job than I did and I still believe that. In 2018, that job sent me on a business trip where I met an amazing woman. I moved states to be closer to her and a few years later she became my wife.

Unfortunately, Bushlurker passed away in 2017. He never got to see just how drastically he affected my life. So, this is my small way of thanking him, BI, and the community for all you have done for me! You changed it all. Thank you and Happy 25th to CWA!

Max Power: The CWR Cobra is the biggest project I ever undertook of any kind, and it took a village to get it over the finish line. It is not only the most intense thing I ever produced, but also a remarkable product of international team work, friendship, and a testament to the passion of the CWR team and our friends on other teams.

Also I got the first 3D modelling job I applied for so that went well.

What advice do you have for people who want to start modding?

W0lle: Work together. With every engine and game update, modding becomes more and more time-consuming. A problem you can’t solve may have already been solved by someone else. Also, don’t give up on your idea.

Jakerod: Two things:

1. Don’t tell yourself you can’t do it. At one point in time all of your favorite modders, CDLC makers, and even BI employees didn’t know how to do it. They learned and stuck with it. They got better. They created works of art.
2. Start small and easy. Many people start by trying to do something too big and burn out not realizing how much effort it takes. You can work on smaller things that move you towards a bigger goal or teach you lessons needed for the bigger project.

Max Power: To any current or future modders, I would advise putting as much thought as you can into your tool chain / pipeline as you can.  Any automation that takes the boring part out of making mods and speeds up iteration means less of your personal time being taken up by nonsense. There are many tools out there for different use cases, such as generating LODs, that might save you literally hundreds and hundreds of hours.

Also, even with the perfect tools, modelling, and texturing takes more time than you think. Complex vehicles can take years to complete, and you’ll end up knowing more about those things than you ever anticipated. Make sure you’re committing to the right project.

POST SCRIPT: Thank you to Tom_48_97

W0lle: I’d like to take this opportunity to thank someone behind the scenes. To my knowledge, he never contributed to the Mod. But without him, developing this mod would have been much more complicated.

So, a really huge “merci beaucoup !” to Tom_48_97, whose server capacity we’ve been using for the repository for years - for free, and with an estimated 98% uptime! Whenever there was an issue, he fixed it in no time.