The waiting is nearly over!
We’ve made it! No really, literally, we have MADE it! It of course the ‘it’ in question is the Achievement_Factory_V2 made by WhosAsking and myself that we’ve been working on for over 14 months now. We’ve had issues, setbacks and delays, and sometimes neither of us has felt like opening the Hammer editor. But now it is done! After 1 year, 3 months and 1 day, it’s time to retire Achievement_Factory_V1 for good. This isn’t going to be V1 c, this is a full and proper Version 2!

So just when is Version 2 coming out?
To answer the most asked question of 2012, the date you want to know is:

FRIDAY 4th JANUARY 2013 @ 20:00 GMT!

Timetable:

• 19:00 (GMT) – The factory server will close and we will wave fond farewell to Factory_V1b. All players in the server will be kicked and the server will become password protected so that we upload all the needed files and to make sure everything works on the server, such as the updated Helper plugin that powers a lot of the maps functions.
• 19:30 (GMT) – Map download link goes live. This will allow you to download the map files (including optional ‘Pyrovision’ files) ahead of connecting to the server. Installation instructions will be included in the download.
• 20:00 (GMT) – The server will be unlocked and you get to see V2 for the first time.
• Just be aware that a lot of people will be trying to connect at once, so it may be better to just wait a while till the rush dies down.

I know we said we were aiming for an end of year release, but things happen. Last minute bugs, parts that don’t do what you wanted and things like that.

Will there be a Version 3?
You’re already asking!? Go away! In the short term, certainly not. WhosAsking is going on holiday in early January and I have Jury duty the starting on same Monday. I know that When I get back into mapping, it will be to work on my other two projects, DR_Hourglass and CP_Tranquillity. Seeing as that’s why I made the first Achievement_Factory map because I wanted an easy project that I could learn to map with!
But will there be a Version 3? It’s quite possible. Valve have taken to ‘locking’ new achievements to certain maps, so that even if you decompile the official maps and try to extract the parts you need onto a custom map, the achievements would not work. We will never be able to help players get all achievements, but we can at least help players reach each all 3 milestone for each class. SO even though any new achievements will probably not work, things like the Halloween 2013 boss might and update will have to include them.
However Factory_v2 is already a giant of a map, pushing the upper limits in terms of the amount of things we’re allowed to use. We can’t add much more as it is, so any version 3 would probably have to remove bonus items. Who knows though, maybe Valve will update the hammer editor to run on whatever their next game engine is, and we can begin again.
In short, version 3 is not ruled out, but not ruled in either.

DOWNLOAD NOW!