The History of Roleplay 2
written by Napalmic, and Jerad with help from Canadacdn
Preface
Mitchcom X (9:48:57 PM): One day, Blazea58 looked out over the vast weed-smoke filled emptiness of his bedroomMitchcom X (9:49:50 PM): and saw a Renegade map mightier than any before it, the idea floated around in his head, crashing together with thoughts about various video games he had played earlier that day, until the final vision of C&C_Roleplay 2 was created.
Mitchcom X (9:50:50 PM): It looked like what you could expect to produce with half of a C&C Renegade disc taped together with a copy of GTA: San Andreas
Background (circa May 29th, 2004 - Early 2005)
One day, Blazea58 released a map called C&C_Roleplay.mix on Saturday, May 29th, 2004. It was a huge map featuring wide open terrain, and began to hold significant popularity amongst roleplay fans and a small portion of the Renegade community. Later, Blazea58 started work on a new map, a sequel to the original, with the intended title of Roleplay2. Then, as fate would have it, a fellow named Napalmic met Blazea58 while playing the original roleplay map, and the two discussed modding and the map itself on AIM. Eventually, Blazea58 informed Napalmic of his new project, and through further discussion, Napalmic taught Blazea58 a few modding techniques such as tiling his textures better, and also made a new building for the new map, the Bank of China, still in the map today. Napalmic also said he was very good at Level Edit and he suggested somewhere along the line to create a test version out of the current map work. So, Blazea58 gave him the terrain to incorporate into Level Edit and thus the first real beta, C&C_GTA.mix, named after Grand Theft Auto, was created. And so, the Roleplay 2 "team" was created there, with Blazea58 as the map maker and Napalmic helping with the Level Edit.
The Golden Era (circa Early 2005 - 2006)
At that time Napalmic used to host a lot of C-130 Drop Mod games, which he called Bot Massacre games. He did this, and made quite a few buddies out of it, as well as being continuously inquired as to how he did his drop mods. He met some guys named Canadacdn and SlikRik, and made good friends with them. During this time, Napalmic suggested to Blazea58 the idea of a forum, which would not only allow Blazea58 a place to conveniently post map updates and pictures, but also provide information and a home for the map itself. As more people became aware of the map, the forums became filled, and the popularity of the map, as well as the map itself, grew. Blazea58's work really shined and the Level Edit work of Napalmic increases in its efficacy.
The Dark Age (July 19th 2006 - October 6th 2006)
There were many betas and internals tests released, but over time the map got better due to both the maturing artistic talent of Blazea58 and the innovating Level Edit capabilities by Napalmic. Then one day on July 19th, 2006, Napalmic went away with the world, and the map struggled to continue because of the lost Level Edit work. Not much was known as to why Napalmic left and the map seemed to be headed on a course unintended. Fortunately, Canadacdn heroically gained access to the forums by persuading the official forum server website owner to give him administrator access, due to the leave and absence of the former administrator, which left no one else to manage the forums. At that point, Canadacdn decided to take it upon himself to fix what trouble loomed.
The Reconstruction Era (October 7th 2006 - December 11th 2007)
Thus, Canadacdn became the root administrator, and also enlisted SlikRik to help administer. As map assets were pulled in from earlier betas, the map was able to move on, and the community was able to come back together; recovered but shaken by the tragic loss of Napalmic. Canadacdn took on the Level Edit work, while SlikRik became the manager of both the forums and the new Roleplay 2 website. Jerad Gray came relatively new to the scene, discovered by Canadacdn one day during one of his Renforums adventures. Jerad's scripts and contributions to the map have proved invaluable thus far. With the current release of the 1.4 beta, the map sure seems to have come a long way.
The Modern Era (December 12th 2007 - March 8th 2010)
There were many attempts to revive Napalmic back from the grave, but all of them were either fools or impersonators of a joking nature. However, what everybody didn't expect was that on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007, Napalmic did come back. And so, with Napalmic back, the map lives on. In addition, one day Jerad looked back at his scripting work in 1.4 and said "What the hell is this shit" and scrapped over 90% of it, rebuilding it from the bottom up as the team began work (unknowingly) on what would be their 2.0 release. The team looks to finish by the end of 2009, for the sun has been setting quietly on Renegade for many years now. Also because the game is mostly full of god-damned retards and 12-year olds.
RP2 2.0(March 8th 2010)
For years, 1.4 was left to stagnate. While initially a great success, years of neglect would take its toll on the popularity of the mod. The constant howl of PLECOS used to eminate from Canadacdn's mouth daily, but that has become nothing more than a folk legend. Thus would mark the start of the renaissance: a rebirth of ideas, tactics, and scripts to revitalize the dulled complexion of RP2 that would culminate in the releasing of RP2 v2.0 Beta on March 8th, 2010. In reality, the true renaissance took place about half a year before the release, but at the time an actual release of the mod in the near future was considered barbaric. Unfortunately, it would take severe internal pressure and a forced hand from Jerad that would push RP2 to be released fucking finally.
The Renaissance (March 8th 2010 - April 29 2010)
It only took a few days for RP2 Team to discover issues and think up ways that 2.0 could be improved. Thus they began work immanently on the 2.1 release, thus within a month, the team had constructed an update that improved the lives of RP2's citizens. It also further improved the maps foundation, making it much more stable. Then on April 29th, this improvement was released onto thou community, and there was much rejoicing.
The Great Calm (April 29 2010 - August 13 2010)
Jerad was one of the first team members to find things that bothered him with RP2, within 2 weeks after 2.1's release, he had already constructed an improvement that was complex enough it required Leveledit work, with the combined power of Canadacdn and Napalmic, it only took a few days to get the changes that where needed in place for the next release; and once again, Jerad made a push for the release, however nothing happened... Within the following week, Jerad got a job which began eating up a lot of time, which was needed to annoy the PLECOS gods enough to force a release, thus, RP2 2.1.2 was left to sit out on the general community with its flaws and imperfections.
The Great Decline (August 13 2010)
On August 13, 2010, it became public knowledge that Napalmic and Canadacdn (the original creators of the beloved Roleplay 2) had lost interest in the mod, and would be pursuing other hobbies in their free time. As if this wasn't bad enough, www.roleplay2.com discontinued working, and all that was left were the forums, leaving Roleplay 2 looking crippled and unprofessional. With the team falling apart and the site collapsing, Jerad naturally had no other choice but to step in and save Roleplay 2. With permission of the old team, he appointed himself the new Roleplay2 Leveledit Guy. Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of Roleplay 2 civilians were tremendously loyal to the old regime, and once they saw that falling away, they left, most of these people haven't been seen since in-game.
The Revival (August 13 2010 - October 28 2010)
The slow decline of Roleplay 2's awesomeness had of course been noticed; it hard started back when 1.4 had been originally released. Most of Roleplay 2's decline could be blamed on the instability of 1.4's scripts, which seemed to enjoy crashing whenever you blinked. However another part of it could have been caused by the drama that took place between Roleplay 2 and the good old ETK server. However, there is nothing that could be done in the past. Jerad, of course knew, that Roleplay 2 could be saved, it just needed more content, stability, better frame rates, lower net lag, and several thousand other things. Needless to say work on 2.2 began immediately. Soon 20+ new vehicles had been added, several new weapons, and even a new land mass had come into existence. The frame rates of players were improved exponentially and the net lag even showed some reduction. Alpha tests were taking place weekly during this time to make sure that it would be more than stable when 2.2 was finally released to the public, all the figures were looking great, Roleplay 2 had a more finished feeling and by October 28th, it would be ready for release.
The DERP (October 28 2010 - October 30 2010)
Roleplay 2 2.2 was released slightly late due to some pathfinding problems, but by the following day the servers were up, and soon players were in game. Jerad, Mitch, Blazea and many Roleplay 2 alpha testers joined on the server, and many hours of free for all gameplay commenced. After about 8 hours, Jerad had to leave, Roleplay 2 having made him rather tired. The next day the server owner reported that that the server had not crashed, or been empty all night! Exceedingly pleased Jerad of course joined the server; however to his disappointment he only found 2 people on-line, regardless, a game of Roleplay 2 is a game of Roleplay 2, which means it must be played. Sadly to say, by the 30th it was clear that something wasn't playing out right, the server was empty, and had been sense midnight the server's time, it seemed that even though Roleplay 2 2.2 was capable of out doing 1.4 in every way shape and forum, it either was not as much fun or the release was too late. At this point Jerad was finally starting to debate quitting; his efforts weren't saving Roleplay 2, in the end however he decided he'd make a final try, and then proceeded to ask around what most people thought Roleplay 2 needed. Slightly unsurprisingly, it turns out that most people think Roleplay 2 is in need of a more structured gameplay mode and thus the planning begun.
The Present(October 30 2010 - May 1 2011)
Jerad, now fully aware that everyone wanted a more structured gameplay system, began working on it immanently. Word has it that Jerad might have been capturing Canadacdn's PLECOS, and is planning to use them in order to save Roleplay 2, but this rumor is sketchy at best. Regardless, Jerad has decided that once this is released, the outcome will decide if the then Era in Roleplay 2's history is going to be labeled "The End" or something more livelily, and only time will tell what that outcome shall be...
Rebirth(May 2 2011 - Current)
One happy day in May, EA games granted Rp2 the ability to become standalone; thus, Rp2 will soon be available to all, and not just those who own Renegade!
