I posted on this thread once, but it was rather short.
I joined the H:FC team over at A2 Files and Dino suggested that I should come here, since we had our own forum section.
I feel like I can do better and be more interesting by telling the whole long and storied tale. By 'long and storied' I mean 'adequately summed up in a paragraph.' Though I think I'll start from the very beginning and go rather in-depth to pad it out a bit.
It was the year 19100. The Y2K bug turned out to have done absolutely nothing. My dad had gone to the store and came back with this Star Trek RTS that just came out. At nine years old, it was one of the cooler things I had laid eyes on. I didn't necessarily get out much. The game turned out to be a bit much for my pre-teen brain and I didn't play it much at the time. My dad preferred C&C and Warcraft II so it mostly stayed on the shelf for a few a while.
A few years later, I got my own computer, largely built with spare parts, and was looking to see which of our games I could run on it when I remembered that Armada thingy. I installed it on my computer (which I believe took about an hour) and gave it another shot. I was hooked. Hearing Patrick Stewart in a video game was still cool. After a while I became interested in how the game worked and found the Addon folder where I learned some very rudimentary modding. A little bit of Googling and I found the ODF pack. With that in hand I started to really look at what was possible.
My early efforts at modding eventually led me to Armada Fleet Command. Though I simply lurked at first, I also studied existing mods and Westworld's Big Book of Modding. Over time, I started to post and become involved. It was there that I met the likes of MrVulcan and Phantom, who seemed like Modding Gods to me. I fanboyed over Future Tense and probably made a fool of myself. In short, I was a noob. But I was learning and enjoying myself and that was good enough for me.
Eventually, I was pointed to Armada 2 Files. Though I downloaded from its vast library of files, I did not get a forum account at first. It was around this time that I really started to understand some of the intricacies of Armada and I became convinced that features that were supposed to be impossible simply needed a fresh look. Look I did, and I actually managed some of them. Burst firing weapons, firing flares for pulses and torpedoes, and even faction shielding were all worked out for A1 and the code posted on AFC's forum. However, actually implementing all of this was rather ridiculous; the Defiant alone had thirty six weapon entries to make them all work.
I started posting on A2Files one day and remember being intimidated by all these big name modders I had become familiar with from the downloads section. People like Jetfreak and Major A Payne (though you have to admit, that name is a little intimidating). I was pleasantly surprised to discover that these people were kind, willing to answer any questions I may have had, and hadn't let their reputations get to their heads. In time, I came to consider many of these people my friends. It probably helped that I had narrowly missed the worst of the Jetnova Incident. All was right with the world.
June 18, 2006, the beta for Fleet Ops v3 came out. Those who played it gave it glowing reviews. I distinctly remember somebody saying it was 'like dunking your face in liquid awesome.' I didn't have A2 at the time so I didn't pay it too much attention at first. But then something started to happen on the A2Files download section. The comments became a war zone as people started demanding FO compatibility and began down voting anything that wasn't for Fleet Ops. Comments were edited and deleted and FO fans began to leave the site in droves. For those who remained, the name 'Fleet Operations' left a bitter taste in their mouths. The Schism had begun.
Some time later, DinosaurJR started talking about this idea he had for a Halo mod. He had some models, but he needed coders, 2D artists, and et cetera. I applied as the GUI artist and wouldn't you know it, I made the cut. Probably had something to do with being the only person interested in the position. He suggested that I make an account at this place called MSFC as he had set up a sub forum there for the team so I did. Sadly, the mod fell through, but I have been here ever since.
After that, there were good times and bad and users came and went. Things like Maj getting hit by a car and the slow death of A2Files certainly were not highlights. However, something good did certainly happen. Slowly but surely, we started talking with the estranged community members who were on the other side of the Classic vs FO split. Like the Humans and Minbari, we reunited with the other half of our soul and stood as one for the first time in years. The Schism was over.
And now here I am, a moderator with the power to edit and delete your posts and approve or disapprove your uploads. God help us all.