We are moving. All sites, services, and servers will be down starting on May 23. Hopefully they will all be back up by May 26, but there’s no way to be certain.
I noticed an in-game comment from a TPU player a few days ago, saying that it’s not actually necessary to click the 
button to switch teams.
I immediately joined TPU and was able to confirm that it’s usually only necessary to press Enter to go to the team selection screen, then click the AXIS or ALLIES button to switch.
There is still at least one situation where you have to use the button: if you’ve already switched, and want to switch back, but you haven’t spawned yet.
Otherwise you can just hit Enter and switch.
By popular demand (including my own), I’ve added an ammo box in the shed in front of the hotel on the Peenemunde map. That should make holding the hotel a bit easier.
As with all TPU map mods, this is a server side mod, so there’s nothing you need to download to see this change.
I recently received a request to increase the number of tickets for the Market Garden map. According to the person who requested the change, this change was requested by multiple players.
Market Garden now starts with 600 Allied and 600 Axis tickets. Previously it started with 400 Allied and 400 Axis tickets.
I’m also looking at adding an ammo crate to the Peenemunde map at the hotel. The hotel is very difficult to hold without an ammo supply.
Players have also asked for some of the planes on Pacific theatre maps to be replaced with torpedo planes. I’ve asked for additional details (which maps? which planes? which spawnpoints?)
I was getting reports from players about them being killed instantly when bots ran over their mines, or ran into their plane with a jeep, so I gradually reduced the friendly fire kickback percentage. But the reports kept coming, so I finally went into the game and tested it.
Sure enough, when a single friendly bot jumped into a tank and ran over a mine I’d placed in front of it, the tank exploded, the bot died, and my player also died instantly.
It looks like kickback damage, where a portion of friendly fire damage is reflected back on the attacker, doesn’t actually work in the expected way. Documentation on this BF1942 feature is sparse and inconsistent.
So, for now, I’ve disabled friendly fire kickback damage completely. Friendly fire settings are all 25%, so your damage to a friendly is 1/4 of what it would be against an enemy, but you no longer get punished for your damage to a friendly.
Thanks to TPU admin ced for his reports, and for his persistence in the face of my resistance to believe that the problem was real.
The power company here in Burnaby, BC are performing upgrades to their service on October 24. I will be powering down the computers that host the JDRGaming web site and all the JDRGaming game servers at about 8am Pacific time. Hopefully everything will be back online by 5pm Pacific the same day.
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been evaluating a Battlefield 1942 client tool called bf1942plus.
bf42plus inserts itself into the BF1942 process during startup, and its features can be controlled with a config file or using client console commands.
Here are a few of the features of bf42plus:
There’s now a link to bf42plus on the Files page on this site.
NOTE: this mod has some features that are considered cheats on some servers. I currently don’t see any reason to ban its use on TPU.
Take a look! I’m finding the player name colour function to be particularly useful.
I just discovered a wealth of useful resources on the Battlefield 1942 Information web pages maintained by Eric Haines.
These pages in particular are extremely informative, and if you play BF1942, you should take a look:
There’s now a link to Eric’s BF1942 pages on the How To page on this site. There’s also a link to a local copy of Eric’s pages on the JDRGaming server, because Battlefield 1942 is an ‘old’ game, and web sites about BF1942 tend to disappear.
Thanks to a group of dedicated fans on various sites and Discord channels, there’s a new master server for Battlefield 1942: master.bf1942.org.
If you don’t use the in-game server browser, you don’t need to make any changes, and you can still connect directly to your favourite servers directly via IP address, or indirectly from web-based server lists.
However, if you depend on the in-game server list, you’ll need to replace your Battlefield 1942 client binary with a new one that looks at the new master browser instead of the old, defunct one.
Here’s a link to the new BF1942 client files: https://www.moddb.com/games/battlefield-1942/downloads/bf1942-masterbf1942org-patch. Extract the contents of the ZIP file into your Battlefield 1942 folder. You might want to consider making a backup first.
I’ve tested the new server and the new client, joining and playing on TPU successfully.
The new client binary provides the master server fix, but also includes some other useful fixes:
Battlefield 1942 v1.612 Retail patched by henk on 23-2-2022 version 2.1 Fixes: ~~~~~~ * No CD * Portable * Widescreen support - In game * Widescreen support - In menu * master.gamespy.com replaced with master.bf1942.org * Increased accessible ram from 2gb to 4gb * Removed this message from console: Error: failed to add playerto buddylist. Couldn't locate player.
The Tanks ‘n Planes Unlimited server is now running a new version of the BF1942 server binary, which allows the server to report its status to the new master server. The new server binary includes several other useful fixes. Here’s the full list:
Linux Binary version 23-2-2022 by henk Modified to include: - master.bf1942.org replacement for gamespy master - Ignore client version and checksum (allow 1.61b and 1.612) - Ignore CD key checks - No longer sends player keyhashes to public queries - Allows all console commands on remote and local console - Fix assaultTeam typo. Defending team now wins if timer expires - Allow 128 players - Fix armor zombies generated by death bubble - Fixes IP bans not taking effect - Fixes segfault in dice::ref2::io::NetworkManager::getNetUpdate - Fixes segfault in dice::ref2::world::ObjectManager::checkMessages - Fixes segfault in dice::ref2::world::FireArms::Fire - Fixes segfault in dice::ref2::io::NetworkManager::getNetUpdateDelta - Fixes segfault in dice::ref2::world::BFSoldier::handleUpdate Addresses the following vulnerabilities: - BFE-200806.01 - BFE-201107.01 - BFE-201111.01 - BFE-201211.01 - BFE-201611.01 - BFE-201611.02 - BFE-201710.01 - BFE-201804.01
Sisko sent me a video that shows someone camping at the uncaptureable Axis base on the Battle of Britain map:
The video was created using Bandicam in spectator view in a recent session on TPU. It’s a good demonstration of the kind of base camping that some TPU players find objectionable.
TPU is a co-op vs. bots server, so human players should only ever attack bots. Since the object of any base camping should therefore only ever be to kill bots, and we needn’t feel any empathy for bots, camping on TPU is technically allowed.
However, base camping can also be annoying to human teammates. In this example from Battle of Britain, the camping player is destroying Axis bombers before they can even take off, which means any players defending the factory and radar stations in England have nothing to do. Many players, including myself, enjoy dogfighting in a Spitfire over England, and this camping would reduce the potential for that kind of enjoyment.
The other problem with this kind of camping is that it’s not very challenging. Sure, the Axis bots at their base will try to kill the camper, and the camper may not last long in that position, but while there, the camper can easily kill huge numbers of bots. So it’s not much of an achievement, except for racking up kills. Padding stats like this can also be annoying for other players.
It’s an interesting issue. I’m still not convinced that we need a rule against camping. Instead, I will continue to emphasize that: a) it’s kind of lame; b) it’s too easy; c) it’s a simple way to pad stats; and d) other players may find it annoying. If a player is doing this kind of thing on TPU, and it bothers you, use the in-game chat to politely ask them to stop.
If you disagree, or have something to add to this discussion, contact me on the #tpu_server channel on the JDRGaming Discord server.
