There was some discussion in the forums recently about how the TPU admins always top the stats, and how that may be discouraging to other players. As an experiment, I've adjusted the formula used to calculate the 'Points' column, which is normally how the list is sorted.

The old formula was:
(score/rounds_played)+(first*3)+(second*2)+third-tks+attacks+kdrate+rounds_played+(heals/rounds_played)+(otherrepairs/rounds_played)

The new formula, which gives more weight to team activities, removes double-counting of certain stats, and averages all numbers over the number of rounds played, is:
(score-tks+attacks+heals+otherrepairs)/rounds_played

To make this work, I had to increase the minimum number of rounds played for a player to appear in the stats from 1 to 10. Otherwise, the list was topped by people who only played a few rounds.

Take a look at the new points ranking and let me know what you think. I can make additional adjustments to the formula, and I can always bring the old formula back if that's what you all want. Don't forget that if you want to ignore the points sorting, you can click on any of the column headings to sort differently.

By the way, now Mojo is #1, Sisko is #2, Ryda is #8 and I (Boot13) am #35. But the margin is a lot smaller.

There's a new poll in the poll block that asks which DC mod you prefer: DCX or DCFinal. Scroll down and check the right column to find it. Sisko pointed out the pros and cons of each in a recent forum post and suggested the poll. So, check it out and vote on which mod you prefer.

Version 2.45 of Forgotten Hope 2 has been released. The new version has a TON of updates, including fixes for some annoying bugs and several new maps. The full details are on the FH2 web site.

I will be testing the new version over the next couple of days, and if all goes well, the TPU BF2 server will start running 2.45 soon after that.

UPDATE: The new FH2 server has a glitch with co-op mode, but I worked with some of the developers and they came up with a fix, so the TPU BF2 server is now running the latest FH2. Two maps were removed, and three were added.

The new client files - there are two this time - have been added to the Files and Links page.

Notable changes in this version include:

• Stg44 pickups removed from maps (boo), but G43 and Stg44 still available in kits
• lots of ticket/bleed changes
• jumping stamina drain removed
• bots can now apparently work with humans on artillery
• new bot strategies and fixes
• decreased rifle recoil
• added artillery direct fire
• improved plane handling
• improved player collision meshes (many)
• destroyable barbed wire
• new minimap icons for some big guns

UPDATE 2: there were problems with the number of tickets on some of the maps: a couple had too few tickets, while several had 9999 tickets. According to the developers, this is due to a bug in BF2. The solution was to change the number of tickets assigned for 16 player maps for all of the affected maps from 9999 to something more reasonable. I've done that for all affected maps, so the ticket numbers should make more sense now. These were all server-side changes.

Most of the original Battlefield 1942 maps - and some of the expansion pack maps - came with 'briefing' images. These images are normally only shown in single player mode.

The briefings are useful because they give specific names to map features, particularly spawn points.

I extracted all available briefing images from the map files and posted them in the 'Files and links' section of the site. Here's a direct link: http://jdrgaming.com/geeklog/staticpa...pbriefings

UPDATE: A reader pointed out that some of the briefings were actually for other maps. The duplicates have been removed. Thanks!

There are sixteen players on TPU right now, which I believe is the most ever. Apparently the CKUA server is down and everyone has switched over to TPU for now. The team rules are apparently out the window as well, as they are playing on both teams. I wonder if they realize that one team is bigger? Anyway, it's interesting. I just wish BF42 had a spectator mode.

We are experiencing intermittently slow Internet connectivity. This has been going on since late yesterday. I worked with Shaw technical support this morning but they were unable to resolve the problem. I will take the cable modem to Shaw this morning and get a new one. Hopefully that will resolve the problem. TPU will be down for about an hour while this is happening.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

UPDATE 2012Jun21 9:26am PST: Everything should be back to normal now.

Thanks to an awesome individual who goes by the handle Tuia on bfmods.com, I have just patched the BF1942 server executable so that the current map no longer restarts when the second player joins.

Tuia is the same person who figured out the patch to prevent one of the hacks that was being used to mess up BF1942 servers a while ago. If you have any interest in server-side modding for BF1942, I strongly recommend that you head over to http://bfmods.com and do some reading.

I will be monitoring the server to make sure the patch isn't causing any new problems. If you see anything weird going on, please let me know. And if you notice the server restarting when the second player joins (which I'm sure it won't), let me know.

A few months ago, when BF42 servers everywhere (including TPU) were being hit by a nasty exploit, I discovered this web site: http://bfmods.com

Several of the site's contributors are adept at patching the server software, and they came up with a patch to prevent the hack. I applied the patch to the TPU server and the hacks stopped.

There's plenty of other useful information on the web site, including server-side modding, as well as modding tools. Check it out!

I'm taking the TPU server (Hubie) offline to reinstall that heat sink. Hopefully it won't take more than about 30 minutes to complete. With warmer weather upon us, I just couldn't put it off any more.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

UPDATE: and we're back up. Went faster than I expected, given that I had to remove the motherboard and fire up the soldering iron.

The TPU rules have been updated. Some of them were out of date, others needed clarification. A few few new rules have been added. Please take a few minutes to read them:
http://jdrgaming.com/geeklog/forum/vi...howtopic=3

If you have any comments or concerns about the new rules, feel free to comment on this post or contact me via email.