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In early 2009 I started on a small mod called B.F.X. where I borrowed a few weapons from various other mods. While working on this, the game was getting bad player reviews due to it's buggy state when released, even more so when released in English. The need to collect the community efforts fixing the bugs in the game became obvious, and I released the first unofficial patch.

Around that time I started thinking about what direction the mod should take, and what you see today is the result.

First I asked myself, should I spend time trying to improve on the weaker and less liked parts of the game, or should I spend it on improving and expanding the things I enjoyed the most? I chose the latter since the weaker parts were very complicated to fix, and involves a profound rework of most vanilla assets and code. I am eternally grateful to Dancer, Deadhead and Xelat for there work on these matters, it's a big part of BSM.

I loved the vast amount of tactical options in the game, the SPM and timing system used makes the gaming experience feel very real, and it's just brilliant. The idea that just one small decision or action affects the outcome of an engagement had every fight feel fresh and new. How the choice of which enemy to shoot at first, and having to keep reacting to what the enemy was doing, kept the battles flowing back and forth, as I said, brilliant.

I liked the skill system in the game, how it influenced the outcome of the merc's actions. I found myself spending hours harvesting skills, which in the end made the game boring. Someone suggested adding an XP system to give the player a chance to specialize their merc, and I saw that as an opportunity to improve my gaming experience and remove the need for harvesting.

I also enjoyed how new items became available, but in vanilla the enemy load-outs were not very varied which became boring in the end. I've made some improvements in that regard as well, still keeping a close eye on weapon progression to keep the player looking for better weapons and gear among the loot. This is a major part of BSM, you need to work hard if you want the good stuff.

I loved the weapon progression in the game, but they ruined that as well in vanilla by making AKMs and other too powerful weapon available early on. You would end up playing with the same weapons every time since they were so much better than any other available weapons. This was one of the first things I corrected and I have made sure that the player has a wide selection to choose from when gearing up their mercs.

Then there's the complexity and detail in almost every instance of the game, from bullet calculations to player options. Which brings us to the subject of realism, which this game has plenty of, some say not enough.

There are less enlightened people who have called the Blue Sun Mod clownish because it fails to comply with certain things considered realistic. Things like some weapons are only prototypes and should not be available in a South American country. Or some bandits should not be carrying this or that weapon because they are rare. Or the way I have kept the developers vision of how weapons behave in the game and not how they behave in the real world. Sorry, but i don't care about that as much, to me it's more important to have a balanced and fun game.

Game balance is the most important factor. Making it too hard for new players is not advisable, nor is making it too easy for the experienced ones. When I get a request to change or add something, this is always the first thing I have to consider, while the person who requests it might only be considering the realism point of view. In many cases, if I did what was requested I would probably end up making the game more boring for the players who enjoy it for the same reasons as I. That's why I'm glad there is a mod called Arma Realista, it has some "realism" mistakes and the result is IMHO a worse gaming experience than playing vanilla.

In the end, what you can expect from Blue Sun is a mod where you need to consider the merc stats when giving them their gear, especially the weapons. You will constantly be looking for that little edge, may it be in a weapon, attachment, tactic, skill or environment. How you build your team should depend on the tactics you plan to use, as well as what gear is available. You should expect a freedom and variety of choices, and the consequences of those.

(с) Bjorn aka R@S
bluesunmod.webs.com