TPU (Tanks n Planes Unlimited)

There have recently been sporadic connection problems between the TPU LAN and the Internet. Basically, the network the TPU server is on loses its connection to the Internet for a few seconds. The connection usually returns within a few seconds, but the disconnection is long enough to kick players out of TPU. This seems to have been happening over the last few days. It seems to have cleared up now, but if you are still experiencing connection problems, please let me know.

UPDATE 2011Apr04: I've confirmed that the router is getting disconnected from the Internet for a few seconds at a time at irregular intervals. I will be working with Shaw Cable to rectify this as a soon as possible. Sorry for the inconvenience.

UPDATE 2011Apr08: Shaw Cable was here and replaced some ancient cables. We're now monitoring the WAN connection and Shaw will return to do some additional troubleshooting if the problem shows up again.

UPDATE 2011Apr09: There have been several WAN disconnects since Shaw was here. The problem remains, and may in fact be somewhat worse. Again, I apologize for the inconvenience and hope to have it fixed in the next few days.

UPDATE 2011Apr11: Shaw installed a new drop just now, so almost everything has now been replaced. Keep your fingers crossed.

UPDATE 2011Apr13: No new disconnects have occurred since Shaw replaced the drop on April 11 at 1421 PST. Looking good so far.

Apparently the Battlegroup 1942 map "Invasion of the Philippines" was kind of lame, with the bots in particular not behaving very intelligently. DarkRyda has made a bunch of changes to the map that should improve gameplay substantially. The new map is now in the Sunday BG42 rotation.

Here's what was changed:
* removed Allied PT boats with spawn points
* added Allied ships and landing craft to the bottom of the map
* added ships to the Axis side and spread them out on the top of the map
* removed all planes and AA guns
* added more small boats and ships
* changed all the regular cars to cars that float
* changed the Japanese tank to a regular Chi Ha
* left the Axis PT boat since it doesn't have a spawn point
* replaced the Allied boat with a floating tank
* added better support to both sides, including flamethrowers, and tanks, support, a car, and two types of boat at every flag
* added plenty of MGs
* added three new defguns

The Axis team starts with four ships spread out along the top of the map: two destroyers and two freighters. When they get to land they have Chi Has and Ho Kis to defend with.

The Allied team has one destroyer, one flower class support boat, and two landing craft (one has a half track and a Sherman III and the other has an APC and a Sherman IV). On land they have the Stuart and the Satan (flame thrower).

One of the TPU regulars, Mitch, has developed a new map called The Dock. It's available for download from jdrgaming - go to the Downloads section or use this link: https://jrc-core.com/files/The_Dock.zip

Currently The Dock does not work in single player or co-op modes, but Mitch will be adding bots soon and once he does that I will make the new version available here.

Thanks, Mitch!

The rules for TPU have been updated:

Rule 13, regarding player names, has been expanded somewhat:
13 - Player names.
Do not use foul words in your player name. Do not use the default player name (Player), because using it makes it difficult for other players to communicate with you (what if everyone used it?) Also, if you use 'Player', your stats will NOT be tracked. Try to avoid using weird characters or backspaces in your player name; again, doing so makes it more difficult to communicate with you. For the same reason, you should not use a player name that is invisible or blank in the game; while this may be useful in PvP games, TPU is a co-op server.

Thanks once again to DarkRyda, we have a new version of the Midway map for BG42. Read more for the details.

I just watched the TPU BF1942 server crash and restart several times on the BG42 Battle of Britain map. I restarted the server at the top of the BG42 map list and removed Battle of Britain from the BG42 rotation. I'm not sure what's going on there, so if anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

Also, if there are any other BG42 maps that are causing problems, please let me know in the comments here or by email. Thanks!

UPDATE 2011Mar14: The BG42 map 4411-towards_budapest is apparently causing the server to crash repeatedly, so I have removed it from the BG42 map rotation.

New information has surfaced regarding the apparent DDoS attacks involving TPU. As I suspected, TPU was not being targeted specifically. Rather, all known BF42 servers were being used to propagate an attack against one or more other servers. Because of the distributed nature of the attack, and the fact that BF42 servers were involved, many of the systems appearing to attack TPU were in fact just other BF42 servers being used by the attackers.

Unfortunately, given the nature of the Gamespy network protocols, we're unlikely to see an effective fix for this problem. The best we can do is to block the offending IP addresses as soon as we see them, so that's what I will continue to do.

According to the original source, the actual originating IP address of these attacks is 66.150.214.18.

Here's a link to the article:
http://www.redditgadgetguide.com/r/ba..._attacked/

UPDATE 2011Feb17: A small glitch in the placement of one machine gun has been fixed. Thanks to Mitch for reporting it.

Kharkov and Battle of the Bulge have been given the DarkRyda touch. Here's a rundown of the improvements to these two maps (now live on TPU):

Kharkov: added a few more cars in various places; gave both sides artillery at their main bases, instead of just on the hill; added machine guns and AA in strategic locations.

Battle of the Bulge: added planes (Mustang, Ilyushin, BF109 and Stuka); added Katyushas, some at the flags but mostly in empty areas); added more cars; added a heavy tank at the Allied main base; added AA guns to all sandbag rings and a few other strategic locations; added machine guns to defend bridges and strongholds; added new spawning locations for tanks and cars so players don't get stuck walking long distances.

DarkRyda has tweaked the Bocage map, adding some cars at the main bases, and to the farm houses along the roads; reorganizing equipment at the center flag (sawmill); adding a B17 at the Allied main base (low spawn rate); and adding one more fighter to the Axis base. Thanks, Ryda!

UPDATE 2011Apr26: Shaw plans to go ahead with UBB and expects to announce pricing changes in May/June 2011.
http://openmedia.ca/news/shaw-revive-...d-internet

UPDATE 2011Feb10: Shaw has responded to the anti-UBB outcry by posting a new page on their web site. They don't say anything definite about their plans, but clearly they are looking at UBB and I can only assume that if they think they can get away with it, they will lower their caps or take some similar action that will result in higher bandwidth costs for TPU. On a positive note, they are planning to host public meetings on the subject. Stay tuned.

UPDATE 2011Feb04: I've posted a new page outlining the costs of running TPU: click the 'TPU costs' link in the TPU Stuff section of the left sidebar.

UPDATE 2011Feb03: the federal government has said it will reverse the CRTC ruling if the CRTC doesn't reverse it themselves. So far this is just talk, so the fight is not yet over. (Also note that I've cleaned up some inaccuracies in my original post below.)

The TPU game server is located in Canada. It uses Shaw cable for its connection to the Internet. A ruling by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), scheduled to take effect across Canada on March 1, 2011, will initiate Usage Based Billing (UBB), whereby providers will be required to bill customers by the gigabyte when certain traffic limits are reached.

If nothing is done to stop this from happening, Shaw may choose to adjust their billing accordingly, which could raise broadband costs to the point where I have to shut down TPU. I'm currently analyzing the bandwidth used by TPU and will compare it with the limits that we're likely to see. If the result means I will have to pay more for hosting TPU, I will almost certainly shut it down. I run TPU as a hobby - I don't make any money from it, so there's a limit to how much I'm willing to spend on it.

The good news is that we are fighting this idiotic cash grab. You can read all about it and find ways to help at these web sites:
* http://www.stopthemeter.ca/
* http://stopusagebasedbilling.wordpress.com/

Some interesting perspectives on this issue:
* http://i.imgur.com/LJCKv.png
* http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/5620/125/
* http://opinion.financialpost.com/2011...eal-myths/

Thank you for your support.