2008: a slow and inevitable year in review. December 31, 2008

I apologise for the lack of updates on this site for the last year or so, as most news has been coming through the blog (Production News)
This is a copy of the latest post from Cape Cortez:

 

For myself and many others around me, 2008 has been a blur, and not in any way that can be called "good". There isn't much I can say to it that has not already been said in the past, but I shall try, and I shall keep it brief.

I rode high for most of 2007. I set out to achieve alot, and accomplished most of it. The downside was that I wouldn't know how much it had cost me until the early days of 2008.

The road to hell is paved with the best intentions, and there is no doubt we came in to 2008 with some very high expectations and equally lofty goals. The fact is that I've done so much for so long, and with no pause, some form of burnout was only a matter of time. It would hit me like a tonne of bricks, and I would need a break.

2008 was that year.

Personal strife in January was followed by the lowest point of my life in many years. I didn't feel the full effect of it until May, and it was far too late to avoid. The enthusiasm I once felt for many things, including work, study and hobbies evaporated. I had no energy nor desire to do anything with my life, and didn't particulary see an end to it any time soon.

Yet there was still the hope that 2009 would be a better year, and we struggled on.

When I say I have needed this break for a very long time, it is not something that I say half-heartedly. Only at the very end of this year did things begin to come together, and it is in no small part due to my friends and family who have stuck by me through both the best and worst that this year could throw at me.

To Daniel G. Williams, Nathan Leong, Keith Carpenter, Michael Byrne, Peter Butz, Alexander Williams, Peter Gatward, Chloe Willems, Peter Hanshaw, the crew from CSU, all my very best.

To Daniel Watson - my heartfelt congratulations on your upcoming wedding. I'll see you next week.

To my family, who have continued to support me unconditionally throughout the year with much love and understanding, thank you.

And most especially, to Yvonne... I really need to say no more.

To all of you - Happy New Year, and all the best for 2009.

This time, we're going to do it right.

-James Ward

A surprise. June 12, 2008

For several very long months, I have been editing one of Atlantis's longest stories. Episode III - Rising Thunder.

From the new edition:

 

"When I started writing Atlantis, I wasn’t sure where or how far it was going to go. Episode III ended much of that uncertainty, and set out the pattern by which Atlantis would be written. Before this, each ‘episode’ was little more than a self-contained story that could be read on its own with no prior understanding of a greater picture of events. The impact Rising Thunder has had on the writing of Atlantis can’t be understated. From the moment I put it out to my friend Daniel Watson that I wanted him to come up with an idea for what I saw to be a conclusion to the first arc of a much larger story, I knew that I was committing Atlantis to a path I wouldn’t immediately understand.

It was my intention with this story to give Atlantis a life of its own, and as it happened, the end result never deviated much from Mr. Watson’s outline. How naive though, that I believed I could tell the story he had given me within a mere one hundred pages. Two hundred was passed, and at that point I was sure I can have it done within three hundred... and then three hundred passed as well, and so Episode III continued to be pushed back month after month throughout 2004 before being published online on December 16th of the same year. The date was significant for two reasons – first, because it was the date of my 19th birthday, and secondly, because it was the closing date of portfolio applications to Charles Sturt University.
While Rising Thunder was being written, another project in Atlantis was also in the works, although it sadly never came to be as planned. Rising Thunder was intended to be the first episode of “Firestorm” – a series of stories to be written by Nicholas Frankpitt that would follow the journey of Atlantis’s sistership, the Aquarius DSV. Long story short, life intervened, and Firestorm was never really brought off the drawing boards. Instead, several short stories called “Frontlines”, which chronicled the world of Atlantis, were written by several people including myself, which put in to context many of the references found throughout Atlantis’s central arc. One of the first of these stories was Full Fathom Five, written by Nic when it became clear that Firestorm probably wasn’t going to happen as we’d liked. Full Fathom Five was written as a character introduction to the VF-123 Ghosts, who feature heavily throughout this story. It seemed fitting then that when I did the last edit of these two stories, that Full Fathom Five should be included as a preface to Rising Thunder.

This edition of Episode III – Rising Thunder, represents the conclusion of the first arc of Atlantis DSV. It is the culmination of nearly four years of writing, refinement and editing. It’s by no means the “final” version – and I doubt we’ll see such a version unless it’s printed on paper, but for now, I am happy to call this as “complete” as I can make it.  I hope you find reading this ‘final’ and ‘complete’ edition of Rising Thunder comes through new eyes. Not much of the core text has changed, although I would like to think that in four years, my writing has improved enough to come through in this volume.

This is the story where we learn the origins of the war between the UEO and Macronesia. Through triumph and tragedy, we see how the war is destined to unfold, and most importantly, it is where we begin to learn to say “goodbye”. When characters die, it doesn’t always have to be for a reason. War is a pointless, bloody, and indiscriminate affair. After writing these characters for so many years, it is always hard to do the unthinkable – but it’s important to remember that if the writer himself can’t feel anything for the loss, then the reader, too, can’t be expected to feel anything more. Rising Thunder was the first instance of this... and it will not be the last."

 

If you wish to read the new edit of this story, head over to the episodes section download the new PDF which has been formated for screen.

-JW, 13:42, June 12th, 2008

The new Raptor, and growing server frustration, June 1-2, 2008

Howdy folks, welcome to our midyear update season, beginning with something that you may have caught a glimpse of at the start of the year - the new SF-38/A Raptor II.

For a while, we've been working on a new model for the old girl, and the general concensus around the office is that it's a vast improvement on the old one, so go check it out for new pictures, plans and details of the Raptor subfighter. For the record, I'd like to point out that I am now officially sick of seeing the Raptor, so I dont expect I'll be making another one any time soon.

Also new today in the library is this guide to the Atlantis's squadrons and their commanders, spanning Episodes 1 through 5. Everything from the Rapiers to the Dark Angels and even the oft-mentioned but never seen VAW-2 "Longshots" (Also known as SEWACS "WARSEER") is covered in some degree of detail, and we'll hopefully expand upon the little blurbs on that page with each new episode of Atlantis.

Check in later this month for more goodies, including, one would hope, the previously mentioned "big project" that is in the works.

Post Update Edit:

As you can tell by the date written above, this update has come late, and the reason for this is continuing server problems with NCQ's host, EPFarms. This has only just been (sort of) resolved, and until now I couldn't even connect to the FTP server to upload this update. DG Williams tells me that this may be 'addressed' within the next month or so if services don't improve, but for now, all I can ask you to do is share in my own frustrations and be a little patient as we try to resolve the issues.

-JW, 18:13, June 2nd, 2008

Site Maintenance, April 6-13, 2008

So, the site's been cleaned up. You'll find a few updates here and there - especially in the library. The following technical aspects have been addressed:

• Better templates for low-end resolutions down to 1024x768 and 800x600.
• Cleaned up excess HTML for faster page load times
• Scaled down and updated header and page graphics for lower resolution
• Typos. We're still working to eradicate these completely...
• Occasional broken links
• Updated site contact details and FAQs

In addition, the pages of the library have been largely updated to better represent the most recent Atlantis stories and material.

Also, go check out the new page for ANNIE in the library.

Ciao,

-JW, 20:41, April 8th, 2008

April Fools! April 2nd, 2008

Hey Folks,

We're back. I hope you all had a fun April Fools Day... As you could probably imagine if you checked out the site yesterday or today, we certainly did.

So, all's back to normal now. Don't panic - we're not quite resorting to time travel to save Episode 6 yet! This week I hope to do some maintenance about the place to fix up the site. Recently I was informed of format issues for people running 1024x768 resolution, which I'll endeavour to fix ASAP by downsizing the templates to fit within that resolution. In the mean time, please bear with us while we get things back to a state of 'normality', if there can be such a thing.

Cheerio,

-JW, 17:35, April 2nd, 2008

Website Maintenance. March 6, 2008

Howdy.

Just a note to let you all know there has been some minor maintenance and changes done with the site; any pages located in the Library section have had their links tabs at the top of the page condensed. The pages now link back to the library index. While not as accessible as previous layout, it will be much easier to maintain and update when changes such as the following are made...

The Atlantis Blog.

Yep. We now have a blog. As such, the production news link at the top of this page now directs to this blog, which - if all goes to plan - will be frequently updated with new information and writer's thoughts on a weekly, if not daily basis. This news page will used primarily for major announcements pertaining to Atlantis DSV as a whole; so bookmark the blog and have a look around.

-JW, 15:38, March 6, 2008

2008 - The Long and Tiring Road... And the future. February 28, 2008.

Hey Folks,

Well, we've come back later than expected this year, and not without reason.

Last year burnt me out; the crunch time of Third year university and the 'responsibilities' involving Episode V: Shattered Sword were tiring and indeed, difficult. Simply put; we needed a break, and a chance to step back and put the world in to perspective. It takes a very long time to write a book - even when it's not being published, and significant portions of my waking hours are given over to the process - not just in writing, but plot development, planning, backstory, reference and indeed, research. Since Atlantis began, we've written five books, six short stories (not all of which are online...) and more background fluff and reference than just about everything else combined. Here's but a snap shot of what I'm talking about:

Here's something to consider: the above is built only on what survived the massive data loss we suffered back in 2006, including excel spread sheets, 3D models, word documents, photoshop files, stock imagery and old web data.

To date, 702,930 words have been written in the five main Atlantis episodes (including unreleased versions) alone. By way of comparison, the entire Christian bible contains some 788,280 words. (King James version) Another benchmark - one of the more recent 'penultimate' book series of our time (Rowling's Harry Potter series) concluded at a mark somewhere around 1.1 million words. This said, Ms. Rowling is now officially the richest woman in England... I wouldn't dare rate my own work in the league of either of these combined 'tomes', but it's a staggering statistic for someone who doesn't even have their work published. I could graduate on the basis of a 5000 word essay, but it doesn't come close to the amount of time and effort I've invested in this web series. So, to reiterate a past statement - it's almost impossible for me to simply walk away from something like this and leave it unfinished. But once in a while, one does have to poke their head out a window and look at both the world and life to get some perspective.

To highlight this, I'd like to write on a most joyous note that during the time we've been away, Mr. Daniel Watson (Scholar, gentleman and an ultimate authority on any potential creative decision involving the overall plot of Atlantis) got himself engaged! Not only is he now teaching professionally at our old high school, but his finacee is our graduating year's school Vice Captain. This is not something one can make up; it's just one of many revelations which have hit me in the space of these past three months and made me look at life from different angles. (I might add, it couldn't have happened to a nicer couple. A heartfelt congratulations to Daniel and Anna. I do hope he will forgive me this moment of 'sap' so soon after my last.)

This brings me to a secondary (and major) reason why we've been so late coming in to the new year; the ending of Episode 5, for all my planning, has landed me in some creative hot water. For those of you who still haven't read it (I'll spare the staff member guilty of this heinous crime the embarrassment of identification) let's just say that Episode 6 has some significant questions to answer, and considerably massive shoes to fill. The process of working out how the half-planned plot will unfold is going to be lengthy and difficult, but progress is slowly being made. I dare not guess as to when a release will be seen, or even when principle writing will begin, but updates will be made as more information becomes available.

So, watch the horizons, people. In time... we'll have our answers.

-JW. 0133, February 18, 2008.

 

"From the Sea - Power." The Antaeus class Cruiser. December 18, 2007

Go check out the library for the new tech sheet on the Antaeus class cruiser, first seen in Episode V: Shattered Sword. This new submarine will probably get a lot more time in the limelight next year as we set about on the next Atlantis projects (already I've gotten angry emails about episode 5...) so consider this the new benchmark for all UEO fleet submarines that come in to existence.

The Antaeus is the first new UEO submarine design to come off the drawing boards since the Reverence some three years ago.

Next week is Christmas. And that means that we'll be finishing up for the year. I turned 22 on Sunday (Yuck, another year older) and got thoroughly spoiled by family and certain special friends, and it's always a pain having one's birthday this close to Christmas as everything comes at once. I've got too many people to buy presents for this year. So I want you all to do me a favour over the coming week; spend time with your families and loved ones, and get off the damned computer this holiday season and let your friends and family how much you care about them. Be it Christmas, Hunukkah, Yule, Ramadan, Rohatsu, Kwanzaa or anything else I might have missed, I find it's the best time of the year, and one to be thoroughly enjoyed to the best of one's ability.

So, with my community service message for the year out of the way, I'll wrap this up.

 

I do not know what updates (if any) you can expect on the site over the next week. My month's been pretty busy so far, and I'd very much like to do some more CG renders of the Antaeus and other things for you before I call it quits for the year, so if you wish to stop by again between now and December 24, you are quite welcome and indeed encouraged, because while I make no promises, I may surprise you just the same.

A few thanks and special messages are in order this December, too.

 

To Daniel Watson - Good luck with the new teaching job at our old School, and as always; thank you for all the support and interest. I look forward to picking your brain on the subject of Nycarian matters some time in the immediate future.

To Nathan Leong - You're still a genuine pain in my behind, but you provide more insight, thought and consideration to what it is we do here than most people I know. So all the best with your second year of University. Hopefully we can catch up some time soon. I owe you several games of World in Conflict... or Battlefield, one of the two.

To Daniel Williams - Master and Commander of New Cape Quest, Hopeless Romantic, Stalwart Comrade in Arms, and a Fine Gentleman: Your advice, support and help over the last year has been greatly appreciated. To the subject which will go unspoken; "Good Luck", and God bless.

To Alexander Williams, Kyle Comtesse, Luke Wrightson, Peter Hanshaw and the crew of MPI-306 - It's been a hell of a year, and we're hellishly overdue on Faithful Harp.... but thank you for your positively superhuman efforts in to that project. It might not be evident right now, but we accomplished alot this last semester, and I look forward to showcasing that work soon... Merry Christmas, and to Pete who graduates this year, good luck.

To Keith Carpenter - Who has worked quite tirelessly behind the scenes on things that will be more apparent next year. Should I be in England any time soon, I will buy you a beer. Until then, my best holiday greetings and kindest respects go out to you.

To The Men and Women of the United States Air Force 1st Special Operations Group - I've never mentioned this until now, but these guys have emailed me on an almost monthly basis for the past twelve months and have followed the development of Atlantis DSV very closely throughout their deployment to Iraq. I am, as you can imagine, very honoured to keep up such regular correspondence with this particularly special group of individuals. I'll forgo the bad and tempting jokes about "mistletoe" and "TOW missiles" (which is really more of an Army thing), but sufficed to say - to all of you from Hurlburt Field, Florida; a tremendous and heartfelt THANK YOU for your support, and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and a happy and safe new year. Good luck and god speed.

 

And lastly,

To my Family and Friends - there isn't much that needs to be said. Many of them are not even aware this website exists - Atlantis is only a small part of me, and they are the cornerstones of the rest of my life. I will take a moment to say a 'Hello' to my father however, who stumbled across this website (He wouldn't say how) about a week ago for the first time. Thanks Dad; I admire your devious ability to get in and out of difficult situations.

To anyone I have missed who should be here - and I'm certain you're out there - my apologies and thanks go out to you, too. I'm equally certain you know who you are, so to all of you, I leave you this year with...

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year

-James Ward, December 18, 2007

ATLANTIS DSV - EPISODE V: SHATTERED SWORD. December 9, 2007

It is done.

I cannot do any more to it. Well, that's not true. I am certain if I was to fuss any more over how happy I am with Episode 5, I would probably rip out entire chapters and rewrite them. But after so long, I don't think I can rationally ask any more of myself.

Atlantis DSV Episode V - Shattered Sword, is now complete and available for download in the episodes section of the site. Updates wil continue early this week beginning with the addition of the UEO's newest class of warship, the Antaeus.

For now however, I encourage you to go and download the PDF of Shattered Sword, and continue the saga of Atlantis DSV. Weighing in at exactly 300 pages, it is the second-longest episode of Atlantis DSV to date, surpassed only by "Rising Thunder" (Which I frankly doubt will be beaten any time soon. So despite the brief delay, I hope you enjoy Episode V: Shattered Sword.

EDIT:

Also, as a preview to the Antaeus update, here is a first-look at the new cruiser which will grace the UEO fleet early this coming week.

Shattered Sword/Faithful Harp news. November 16, 2007

I'll keep this short.

Faithful Harp's been a little delayed due to some personal issues with one of the crew members. A combination of this, and the crew's own university assignment responsibilities means that Faithful Harp is going to be pushed back to a date later in the month. For similar reasons, I am also holding back the release of Episode V. While principle writing is complete, the editing process will continue for a while until Faithful Harp is ready for release. The update shall include:

• New as well as updated character biographies
• Technical data on the UEO Antaeus class submarine
• Technical data on the Alliance SA-33/A Broadsword subfighter
• Short film: Faithful Harp
• Atlantis DSV Episode V: Shattered Sword

For now though, because I don't like keeping people waiting... head on over to the Episodes section to get a surprise...

-JW