Sixshot

Epic fail for trying to avoid the topic of dedicated servers. The folks at IW didn't get the memo. It featured a link to the trend line seen here: http://www.xfire.com/games/ofdr/Operation_..._Dragon_Rising/ If people are being kicked for asking simple sensible questions with regards to dedicated server, that's not conversing with IW. That's not hosting a live chat. That's an open press conference. And you all know what an open press conference is! It's just hype and bullshit. This is ridiculous and getting out of control.

Must ... formulate... questions... "Is there any guarantee that if a person hosts a public match or round that they will not be given an unfair advantage (as being the host)?" "If IWNET is intended to be an improvement to the Average Joe Player, how does it improve upon a player's experience where ping and internet connectivity are major issues in other parts of the world?" "Can the IWNET infrastructure offer any guarantee that the general playing experience will not include players who may not live up to other people's higher standards? For instance, a dedicated server for which a clan or group host is able to offer higher standards of playing by removing players who do not abide by server rules. Is there any assurance for which players will not suffer due to unruly and disruptive people?" I don't know if I'll be able to participate in their live-chat. But the above two are what I want to ask them directly. Hopefully, if they cannot answer it or they answer in a round-about way, they'll start realizing that they'll need dedicated servers in order to continue retaining the community for which it has built (or destroyed).

Heh... always knew that it'd get worse as they add more unlocks. Why can't they just simply hand us X number of unlock points, refundable in case you want to change things, which can be spent on unlocking things in a tree-like manner? I played BF2142 and the tree system is pretty good as it forces you to prioritize what unlock branch you want to work on. Eventually you'll unlock everything but I still would like to see a limit on how much you can unlock overall. Giving you limited number of unlock points forces you to spend 'em wisely on certain weapon classes and perks. For example, one can spend all their unlock points on weapon classes and the like but would not have enough to unlock certain kill/death streak perk. Or one can unlock everything essential to being a sniper but have nothing left over to unlock things like assault rifles, SMGs, or maybe claymores. I think using this system, it guarantees that you won't have everything at your disposal by the time you reach the highest level/rank. And instead, forces everyone to consider how they want their profile to be like. I suck as a sniper in every game I have played. But hand me an assault rifle, semi-auto rifle, or a SMG and I can play okay w/ it. The bolt-action rifle category in World at War is the only set of weapons that I do not have all the marksmanship completed on. And I think the unlock profile should reflect that. Anyway, everything is pretty much moot. IW can't think forward and they think adding more unlocks and streak features will make the game better. Am I the only one who think that DICE's idea of going from 7 classes in BF2 down to 4 in 2142 was a radical and different idea at the time?

pffff, media blackout. PC gamers aren't going to care about this anyway, now that they (IW) are dead set on not using a dedicated server approach. There's even a games list on 402's blog site and, not too surprisingly, the majority that's listed are 360 games. I guess that's more proof that he's so disconnected from the PC realm that he isn't qualified to know how the PC gamers feel about this entire mess. Meanwhile, I spotted this post, which talks about dedicated server amongst other things (which I am sure most of us would be happy to hear). And then there's this ActionTrip Comic: Swift Punishment

Saw the blurb about 402's blog having comments disabled. I guess he can't take the heat with all the backlash he's getting. Not too sure about that idea of shutting down CoD servers just to make a stand. I doubt that'll work as I play just to play. If I can't play, then that leaves me with little else to do. So I'd rather back the idea of playing on CoDWaW (or CoD4, whichever is your cup of tea) than shutting down servers. I have contemplated on adding in a timed message mentioning of boycotting MW2. But I'm trying to gather opinions from my clanmates. I also saw the pre-order page up for MW2 on Steam. Still not all that interesting. It's nice they are implementing cloud support in the game. But it's still going to be junk for MP. Playlist? I don't need no stinkin' playlist. There's a reason why BF2 have 24/7 Karkand and other maps. There's a reason why some people put up a 8-player Shipment/Dome server. Sometimes certain maps are so good and so balanced that it's worth playing more than once. I'd rather dictate how the maps are ordered and how the rules are set up. But oh well. No need to point out the obvious.

I did a bit of extra digging and found something else. It seems that Hyphen's tweet was done in error, which resulted in misinterpretation by people (like myself) who do not know the situation. He mentioned about clarifying in the forums but failed to link to the post, which I now have found. http://www.infinityward.com/forum/viewtopi...art=50#p2466128 I better stop following this, though. I'm starting to lurk and troll around too much. Gotta take step back and start looking at it from a distance.

The link in question leads to a comment purportedly from IW Hyphen. Hyphen's claim via twitter indicates that it's not him. So make sure you disregard that. Although... whether or not it is him, I would not be surprised one bit by it. After all, he made that "grow up" tweet as well.

Egads I was lucky to find his comment on there when I zip all the way towards the last few pages. My comment: http://www.fourzerotwo.com/?p=745#IDComment39590025 RodeoBob's comment: http://www.fourzerotwo.com/?p=745#IDComment39615976 If you recognize anyone else in that pile, post up their perma-link here! (the perma-link is their "X mins/hours ago" text) I also spotted this blurb: http://twitter.com/IW_hyphen/status/5031626712 To which I have said: http://twitter.com/g1sixshot/status/5035202489

I had to delay posting my reply here in order to read his BS post. I already posted my opinion of it there. VAC is not perfect either but there's no way to further enhance VAC like PunkBuster can (file-MD5/cvar checks/scans). My only issue with VAC is how 1 strike vs VAC will prevent you from ever playing any other games, even when you have a clean system. How are players who have been flagged wrongly going to appeal against that??? Can they guarantee it? I hate their so-called match-making idea of grouping you with players of similar/same skill level. It's just pure BS and it never works. I can have a really off night and then the next day I get grouped into a game/round with a bunch of crappy players who don't know how to shoot a damn gun. No matter how I look at it, they can still implement a match-making system while retaining dedicated servers. The whole match-making crap is entirely front-end and likely to be entirely client-side as well. Why not just work with just that and leave the dedicated server stuff to us? It just doesn't make any sense to me. I still stand behind the notion that the outrage should spread beyond just the PC communities. Everyone should be notified of how they are doing this wrong. The IW responses are half-hearted. They are not listening at all.

As it was mentioned earlier, I also believe more needs to be done, despite that I still won't buy it if they changed back to dedicated servers. Instead of being vocal as a PC community, the best thing is to spread the word and try to convince the console players to also give up MW2. Let the console players know that it was the PC community and gamers that made IW what it is today. Let the console players that many of the FPS seen in console games today are all because of what the PC gamers and community has done for the game over the years. Let them know that it was because of PC gamers and community that Halo is the icon for Xbox players everywhere. Each canceled pre-order for MW2 on Xbox 360 is one small step closer to victory. If we can spread this outrage plague out into the console market, perhaps they'll start looking at this entire mess rather than thinking it's nothing but a speck of dust on their table.

Lots of posts. Don't care much for reading thru it all. Hehehe. Not sure 'bout y'all but I wouldn't hastily jump on the DICE/EA bandwagon just yet. Sure they may stick to the tried-and-true dedicated server system. But they are no different from shoddy support. How many maps have been released on BF2 prior to 1.5 patch? How many maps have been released on 2142 overall? One of the biggest problem with both of these games is the lack of maps in general. Sure there are custom maps but you cannot gain any points for your profile. Yes, people care about points. And that is also the primary driving force to people playing on ranked servers. People want to be able to accrue points so they can progress to the next rank. People want to be able to try to rack up as many kills as they can. I dunno how BF'43 will be when it comes to map and mod support. But it's known that BC2 will come with a ranking/unlock system. So one has to wonder just how far they (DICE) are willing to support their games. One thing I know for certain, they are not active on reviewing, endorsing, or approving user-/community-created maps. And if that is the case, it'll be like BF2/2142 all over again. Same ol' maps for years on end. I wonder if DICE will continue to use that terrible bullet deviation system that they use on BF2/2142. It drives me up the wall that if I fire off a shot from a heavy machine gun, it'll shoot straight on the first shot but never again after that. Well, for me, I never bought into the hype for MW2. Never had to cancel anything. All it took was viewing the gameplay footage w/ the AC130 aircraft and I made my decision that I won't be buying it. Last thing I need are kill-streak rewards that enable players to get 20 more kills.

I felt naked w/o PBBans protecting the server. That's not the kind of feeling I want to experience again any time soon. :o Anyways, good to see everything back up and running. Thanks for keepin' the place alive!

I seem fine here. Does your provider make overriding changes to your PB server config files when an update is made? Might look at the config file to check if the config got overwritten. I usually keep a backup copy of the PB and server config files so that I'll be able to restore them when necessary.

Hey all, thanks for the map names. :) Couldn't get to patching due to food priority. Can't kill on an empty stomach!

Mirror links are also here too, in case the current mirrors are too slow for you. This is going to take a while though. The file is 974MB large and it's going painfully slow for me. Whoever gets it installed first, can ya post the map names for use in server.cfg so I'll know what to put in? If nobody posts by the time I finish, then I'll share my findings here.

I've a good idea on why they did it but I am downright pissed that they implemented it w/o documenting such a change at all. This is an issue that started out on the console. Such an undocumented change is not cool with me since I utilize the bipod for suppression and defensive fire. Granted, there are undocumented changes everywhere, including in MMOs. Such a thing is of no surprise. But this is a gameplay change that basically killed a valid defensive option. Yeah, I use crouch and prone to fire off my MG. They work to a point. But when staring down at a long hall or alley, using the bipod turns your MG into a very nasty weapon w/ insane accuracy and firing rate, all at the cost of mobility. Frankly I don't care much for S&D. If I wanna play that... I'd play Counter-Strike instead. But killing the bipod? Ugh... there goes one of the best defensive option there is in the game. *sigh*

Ok, I am officially up in arms over this undocumented change. On a random stroll, I went to check the franchise forums for any new bits for future patches/updates. There I found some threads being created with regards to bipods. "Uh oh..." After a bit of following some leads, I came across this thread. So a hotfix/update that was pushed to Console users now makes its way to PC? WTF??? So now the one useful tool that I utilize for some maps like Hangar is now disabled. Great! Now I can't lay down suppression fire and mow people down on long alleys. Now I am frustrated and angry over this.

You'd think they'd coordinate their patch release so that it's available on both retail and Steam... I would be fine just delaying the patch a day or two if it means getting Steam users sync'd up with retail players.

Of course, my clan's server is all patched up and ready to go. I did get the chance to play around the new maps in a populated environment. Kneedeep is very interesting and fun. I'm not really impressed with Station. But once I get Dead Silence back up and my 'NinjaKit' rebuilt, I'll see how well that map plays out. Nightfire is can be quite entertaining in a lightly populated environment. Dark areas and low contrast? Sure makes hunting quite unnerving at times. I cannot comment on "spawn logic." But I still question how logical it is to spawn me opposite to a flag (in Domination) that I was defending before. I was defending Flag A and died. Why spawn me at C? (off-topic: how did I become the thread starter? What in the world happened to the original post?! :o )

Welp, another patch. Another run. Let's see how this one goes!

Well I'm a bit disappointed that their so-called auto-balance improvement is geared towards those who are actively taking objectives and whatnot. I still would like to see something that would enable me to force a player back to the other side because of team switchers. I laugh at the rifle grenade duds idea. I never did like S&D from the start. It has always felt like playing Counter-Strike and I know what to play if I wanted that kind of gameplay. The point deduction for TK'ing a planter/defuser is nice.. but I never played enough S&D nor Sabotage to really care for it. I'm curious about the Bayonet jumping dealie. I've seen it demonstrated via YouTube videos and I tried it myself to see if such a feat is plausible or feasible on PC. Yet I have never seen anyone who has really "exploited" this physics flaw. I thought, originally, that this is some quirk that only console users could do. So I never gave much thought of it. Even if it was possible on the PC end, which evidently is, I have yet to catch someone launching themselves into the air... at least on my clan's server.

Congratulations for 5 years of service. We hope, as technologies change and evolve, that you'll still be around in the next 5 years.

Hehe... yeah I know... I should have the server linked up already but lately the server has been getting intermittent lag so I've been trying hard to figure out where the issue is. I do have a couple of ideas on what's happening but I do not have concrete proof and it's only speculations for now. As for the Level 1 player, his name is "xxxxx" and his GUID is xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. I did a search for him on both here and PsB but came up with nothing. So I figure I'd come over here and ask y'all on what you guys think of it. I know it sounds wild for a Level 1 player to be using Second Chance but both a clanmate and myself witnessed it first-hand on what happened. I was in spectate mode when I saw it and my gut feeling tells me something ain't right. Well, please post here if you heard anything about it. I'm not going to worry too much over it. But it'd be nice to know on what I was dealing with when the server is running load test w/o any defense.

welp, got "demoted" since the server is running "naked" for the moment while doing some load testing on the server. But while people are on and are doing testing, I ran into something strange and would like info and insights on what I was dealing with. We have a guy who dropped by. Happens to be a Level 1 player. On the outside, it looks like your normal "I just got this game" player. He came in and played for a while. The round ends and the next map loads. But I wanted to keep tab on that guy as he joined a side that upset the balance of the teams (making it a 4v6). Yet when everyone loaded up and I see the person fully connects, he's still a Level 1. Having spent a few times as a Level 1, I know that it doesn't take much effort to go to Level 2. I know for a fact that you need just 30 points to go to Level 2. The guy spent enough time the previous round to have already gone up a rank. Yet he's still Level 1? What's even stranger is that as a Level 1, he got sniped and went into Last Stand/Second Chance. So what am I dealing with? I knew something was freaky with his setup and I had him kicked for it. I also took a PBSS to see if he was running anything funny but nothing abnormal showed up. As I mentioned at the start, our server is running "naked" at the moment so we do not have the server linked up nor do we have the cvar or md5 checks.

It'll be difficult for me to convince my clanmates to not buy into it. There are a few who have been waiting for something like a graphical update to their BF'42 game. But having been burned by DICE/EA over BF2's poor net-code, game-code, and overall map support, I just can't bring myself to getting another game from them. I don't even know if I'd accept '43 as a gift. It's bad enough that the morons at DICE can't figure out how to properly balance a weapon nor make a gun that shoots properly. I just don't want to put up with the idea of praying my shots will hit a guy when I have him lined up via iron sights or scope.