Description:
"Many have dreams. IceBreakr's dreamt of an island that many ArmA 2 players could enjoy, along with his team of dedicated mil-sim gamers. He put on his yellow working helmet, rolled up his sleeves and started building and building and building, until his dream become reality. It took, time, energy and a lot of dedication but after initial three months he has succeeded - Island Panthera v2 is born!"
Version 2.9 is coming after 2 years (finally) and I hope you'll return to Panthera in various mil-sim scenarios.

Author:
IceBreakr is from Slovenia (Europe) and he's been a level designer for other games/simulations for more than 10 years now. Right after the release of Czech version of ArmA: Armed Assault, game soon became his passion and he formed a strong Slovenian community of mil-sim gamers supporting him in organizing and creating multiplayer coop/PvP events. Lack of islands made him switch to ArmA/ArmA 2 map making.

What is Panthera:
Name Panthera itself comes from Slovenian history of "black panther" crest. Map itself is based on the real height data of Slovenia's Northwest part in Europe - named Gorenjska Region.
"Gora" in Slovenian means mountain and Gorenjska region (represented in Panthera) certainly lives up to its name being home to most of Slovenia’s biggest mountains, including the highest of them all – Triglav (three heads) standing at an impressive 2,865 metres. The Julian Alps and the beautiful Triglav National Park are the main features of the region – offering not just outstanding scenery, but a wealth of plant and animal life and an abundance of outdoor activities. It is also home to the unforgettable lakes Bled and Bohinj. It is almost impossible to decide which one you prefer – Serene Bohinj and its majestic mountain setting or fairytale Bled with its seventeenth century church on an island overlooked by a castle perched on a rocky outcrop.

Fantasy story to go along with the new Arma island:
Massive climate changes rocked the entire world and heavy ocean flooding left only numerous islands. Panthera is luckly one of them, but people didn't unite in this disaster - army is able to protect only major towns, villages form their own protection squads and neighbouring countries (in order to survive) invade the last island between newly formed sea. Armor is scarce, but four airports serve as an air bridge for more equipment and weapons...

Interesting facts:
* Gorenjska region is in fact NW part of Slovenia in Europe and in RL it isn't an island, of course.
* due to heavy real-life vegetation and gameplay issues author' had to resize a sector of ~40x40 klicks (kilometers) down to 10km x 10km terrain, quite enough for a small infantry operation supported by light armor and choppers. Of course jets and heavy armor can be used too but it requires a lot of skill and tactics in such harsh terrain. Large mountains and deadly valleys can be tough even for the most experienced fighters. Roads are basically only way to travel around (except air transport), but dense vegetation and many chokepoints can be fatal for a single vehicle or even an armoured convoy, not to mention Panthera's terrain layout can be fatal even for an experienced pilot. Therefor recommended way of travel is tabbing a.k.a. by foot.
* first plan has been to create an entire Slovenia (of course resized to ArmA), but too many details were lost on mountain ranges. Slovenia is very similiar to other European countries with vast forests, several rivers, lakes and lush vegetation.
* real-life counterpart towns in the area had to be resized to small villages, couple of them listed here: Radovljica, Bled, Jesenice, Mojstrana, Kranjska Gora, Kobarid, Tolmin, Bohinjska Bela, etc. Map now features over than 60 settlements/places, of course much smaller than real life counterpart.
* texture is based on 10240x10240 composite of various satellite images and photoshopped in couple of places.
* there are four airports present:
- Lesce (real one is cessna/soaring plane capable, but in-game runway is the sake of gameplay paved and much bigger, so fighters & transport planes can use it)
- Bovec (real one, small for mainly helicopter operations or for very very daring pilots)
- Arnoldstein (fake one, Arnoldstein doesn't have one in RL, but this one has been added for better gameplay and mission makers' ideas coming to life. It supplies Tarvisio on SW. Its also the biggest airport with a long runway.
- Smugglers (another fake one, this one stands in the desert and locals use it for smuggling operations in and out of the island), supplies the Town of Skooma.
* Almost everything exists in the real World. But there are couple of fictional (FAKE) areas added to improve gameplay. One of them is a desert part on the SouthEast and entire Northern Sector (Austrian Coast) is also fictional with tropical vegetation and small villages, not to forget a fictional racing track ;)
* all roads are based on real-life data and cover all sectors of the map.
* first try to explore the island by positioning your squad on one of the four airports and launch vehicle and air patrols from there. Don't forget to visit highest peak Triglav or a skijump in Planica (NW Valley) ;)


Installation:
Unpack folder \@Panthera to your ArmA2 root folder and run game with -mod=@Panthera parameter. Island will appear in map list and is ready for use. Admins can grab server keys. I recommend that you copy ALL of .pbo and .bisign files so that you can play on signed dedicated servers hosting Panthera!

As we always recommend use modfolders to seperate the custom content from the official game content to prevent problems.
For different ways to set up your modfolders and use them please visit our FAQ.

When you are using the Steam version you can find a Steam mod installation and activation FAQ here.

Note!!
-> ibr_plants.pbo is shared with my other islands projects. Be sure to use the latest version, delete the old one in Lingor install folder!
-> Be sure to delete any previous versions prior to the installation! Check other mod folders for duplicate pbos and bisign files.


Included pbo files:
ibr_plants.pbo
ibr_rn.pbo
panthera2.pbo


Media:

Credits & Thanks:
Created by: IceBreakr
Special thanks: PeterGrozni (ideas, feedback), Randy (normal mapping)
Objects & Configs: MAj Z. (Aljaz Tower object), Sgt.Ace (Clutter & Plant configs), Kju (configs, help), Mikero (configs, tools, help)
Testing & bugreports: SBP Team, Monsieur, Sgt.Ace, Koly9n, SmukY, Spidi, Sjaba & Team L.A.M.B.S.
Special thanks: Sgt.Ace, Kju, Flossy, Nicholas Bell, Foxhound for all the help. Bohemia Interactive for making of ArmA/ArmA 2. And Linkin Park for great music I'm been listening during all the hours of work


Changelog:
v2.9
- fixed mountain heights, smoothened out terrain
- added Maleficio island on NW
- new town of Arnoldstein (based on another RL town from Cyprus, but it has nothing to do with Austrian Arnoldstein btw)
- Drulovka Army depot based on 1:1 size located in RL Slovenia, near Kranj
- tweaked satellite map data
- added roads and airports to the satellite map
- updated Soca River banks
- added rock formations to major mountains and hills
- fixes some trees to be more summer-like
- new bridges
- added a developer place (small island) on SW
- new forest optimizations, bushes and rocks offer more cover now
- various bugfixes]

v2.61
- fixed and now working: ladders, doors and other active stuff
- lighting optimizations
- clutter optimization

v2.6
- removed dependency to Isla Duala
- added new sector: Asabana Desert (South of Fishers Corner)
- 5 new desert towns (Zappada, Cato, Foxhill, Belley and Rockburn)
- added road Koritnica-Fishers Corner
- texture and clutter optimizations
- added civilian spawn markers for Silvie/Alice modules along with AI routes to travel between towns.
- couple of new FOBs (bases)
- smoother roads

v2.31
- Skooma rebuilt as New Skooma, increased 300% for CQB fans, more realistic urban design.
- fixed floating buildings (Tarvisio, Radovljica)
- fixed urban layout of Zelezniki, Radovljica and Boh.Bistrica according to RL
- improved Jesenice Hospital
- smoothed out bunch of terrain slopes and roads
- fixed Island Church, Bled
- replaced BIS hangars from A2 to A1, working perfectly now
- improved transformation from desert (vegetation/rocks)
- added village of Nomenj
- added new road from Dreznica to Tolmin with new settlements in between
- added steel bridge across Soca at Kobarid
- improved highest mountain Triglav with new rock formations
- improved Lesce Airport (flat asphalt)
- fixed palm trunks on steep slopes
- further improvement of satellite texture, removed dark violet places

v2.3
- improved terrain texture quality
- new ibr_rn.pbo instead of old BIS roads.pbo, no more CAA1 interference
- new "ILuvGreen" trees/bushes (to achieve summer look)
- added missing paa files & fixed config errors
- new villages of Livek and Radovna added
- new island added on SW, property of Druglord Ramon Vidal (Taff Grove Town & Pikia Village)
- added Northern Tropical Sector, river, villages, forests and lakes
- added a racing park Pantherion for fun with cars and bikes
- updated heightmap of fictional desert area, now more realistic terrain layout
- improved "Cliffhanger" areas with rock formations and added several lakes (as in real-life)
- added ILS/AI landing + takeoff points for Arnoldstein
- upgraded airport Arnoldstein
- improved make-shift runway in Bovec
- several terrain height fixes and roads smoothed out
- gas station Schnell and army fuel stations can now explode
- resolved bumpmapping issue with pebble texture
- removed palm tree from the middle of desert road
- added server keys for admins

v2.0
- major overhaul for ArmA 2 engine
- added growth, replaced all objects
- added roads
- added new fictional jungle section (SW part of map) with fishing villages
- added new fictional desert town of Skooma (SE part of map)
- added military ammo depots
- improved water color
- replaced all trees with A2, added palms from A1
- recolorization of plants
- new improved sat image
- replaced ground textures with hi-res

v1.1
- final release for ArmA 1
- fixed satellite image
- added airport runways to sat.image
- removed trees off the roads, altered two bridge heights
- smoothened out a couple of bumpy roads
- added couple more villages (real world positions)
- tweaked vegetation


Forum Topics:
- BI forums



- Arma 2

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