Next Wildcard Wednesday (October 19) TPU will be running a new mod: Battlefield 1918. This World War I mod has been on the TPU request list for a while. None of the maps have been tweaked for TPU, so you can't count on getting a ride when you need one, but then WWI was less about tanks and planes than it was about trenches and machine guns, right?

You'll find download links for the Battlefield 1918 client files (there are three of them) on the Files and links page.

Over the top, boys!

UPDATE: Vitry Classic and Midway maps removed from the cycle due to reported problems.

The DarkRyda map pack's version of The Race Track is set up to run for a long time, but it turns out to be too long for TPU. We've adjusted the ticket count and countdown rate so that it eventually ends. Some of you may also have noticed that The Race Track is now available for voting on regular BF42 and BG42 days on TPU.

The ticket countdown rate for both Wake and Tobruk have also been tweaked so that they are somewhat less epic. Both maps were running very long, which is both awesome and somewhat tiring. The current rates on those maps are a compromise.

As always, let me know if you see any issues with the changed maps.

I just added a new poll that asks what we should run on Tuesdays. Current Tuesdays are DCFinal all day.

I'm going to set up next wildcard Wednesday as another DR day on TPU. That's October 5th. I figure we should give it another shot right away since there were a few glitches last Wednesday, and to see if even more people jump in.

I think I have resolved the problem with the wrong maps appearing on the map vote screen, so that shouldn't happen. The scheduler problem that occurred at 6am PST, when TPU switched back to FH, should also be resolved. I will also try to tweak the server setup a bit so that there are some limits, but that's a bit tricky because of the mixed modes.

I'm going to try automatically switching to (and back from) the DR day announcement list. There's no way to do this with BFSM or its scheduler, so I'll have to cobble something together myself.

Coral Sea still won't be in the rotation as it was causing crash loops. I know there are a few different versions of this map out there, so if anyone has any suggestions for fixing this, let me know.

If you have any other ideas for tweaking DR day next Wednesday, drop me a line or post a comment here.

UPDATE: To keep things moving along, all maps on DR day will now have a 60 minute time limit. I also added Gazala CTF. DarkRyda tweaked CTF mode for Gazala, Berlin, Stalingrad, Kharkov, and Bocage so they now have more tank and plane spawns, just like in regular co-op mode on TPU.

UPDATE 2011Oct05: I just watched the server crash repeatedly trying to run Caribbean Inferno. I switched it to the next map and it seems to be okay now, but I will probably need to remove it from the rotation. Since this is one of the maps in the DR map pack, I'm going to take a closer look to see if I can figure out what's going on. Stay tuned.

UPDATE 2011Oct06: Apparently Stalingrad CTF was causing client crashes so I removed it from the DR day map rotation.

Gamespy flooding of TPU on UDP port 23000 seems to be under control, at least for now. I can see flood traffic arriving at the router sporadically, but it's all being dropped. Research shows that TPU is not the target of these attacks, but rather was being used as a reflector in a DRDoS (Distributed, Reflected Denial of Service) attack against one or more other servers.

Below are the IPs I am continuing to block. If you are aware of some reason why any of these should be unblocked, let me know.

78.145.117.49
82.21.203.53
85.234.149.219
94.76.216.44
109.70.148.51
220.25.130.98
89.176.28.198
24.110.31.66
76.111.53.176
184.106.242.223
66.8.194.174
81.19.212.130
96.31.86.166
69.14.213.132
72.10.172.39
67.215.65.132
184.4.130.120
74.72.216.160
108.65.237.65
208.167.232.92
64.120.251.131
209.246.142.73
24.184.255.80
69.175.48.194
64.79.109.136

As a tribute to TPU's most prolific modder, next Wildcard Wednesday on TPU will be dedicated to DarkRyda. He has selected what he considers to be some of the most fun maps available from all the mods played on TPU, including some that are rarely played, like his own Race Track. We'll be running the maps in various modes (including Co-op, Conquest and Capture The Flag) so the team ratio will be 1:1 all day.

Here's the map list:
Raid_on_Agheila Conquest secret weapons
SW_Groenland coop secret weapons
CaribbeanInferno coop bf1942
El_Rajhi_Pass coop bf1942
Faid_Pass coop bf1942
Aberdeen Conquest bf1942
Urban_Classic Conquest bf1942
The_Race_Track Conquest bf1942
x Coral_sea Conquest bf1942
Invasion_of_the_Philippines Conquest bf1942
Liberation_of_Caen Conquest bf1942
4005-train_raid_at_mill Conquest BG42
4503-cologne_trainstation Conquest BG42
4504-berlin_streets Conquest BG42
4504-crossing_the_spree Conquest BG42
stalingrad ctf bf1942
kharkov ctf bf1942
bocage ctf bf1942
berlin ctf bf1942
x market_garden ctf bf1942

UPDATE: Market garden does not have a CTF mode, so I've removed it from the list.
UPDATE: Coral Sea was removed from the list as it was causing a crash loop.

The XBox 360 has a feature that lets you 'install' a game to the hard drive. My immediate reaction upon learning of this feature was no doubt the same as everyone else's: "Awesome! Now I won't have to keep swapping discs whenever I want to play a different game!" If only.

Click "read more" for the rest of the story...

Next Wildcard Wednesday (September 14) TPU will be running a new (well, new for TPU, anyway) mod: Forgotten Hope. This is another realism mod with a load of new maps. Of course none of them have been tweaked for TPU, but it should be fun to explore this mod.

You should be aware that Forgotten Hope has some significant differences from classic BF42, particularly in the area of user interface. Tanks, for instance, have multiple views for the commander/driver, and only one of them has an aiming reticle. Press F9 to switch views.

There's a good overview of the mod here: http://forgottenhope.warumdarum.de.

You'll find download links for the Forgotten Hope client files (there are three of them) on the Files and links page.

See you on the battlefield!

UPDATE: Battle of Foy removed from the rotation due to repeated server crashes.

At 3:38am this morning, TPU started being flooded with Gamespy traffic from a single IP: 75.102.34.20. The IP is a server in California. It may be just a misconfigured server tracker, or it could be part of an organized DDoS. In any case, I've blocked the IP at the router and notified the person who manages that IP/server.

UPDATE 2011Sep05: The flood from 75.102.34.20 finally stopped, but in the past two days there have been several more, from these addresses:
64.237.43.195
64.79.109.136
71.211.32.58
70.139.49.87

UPDATE 2011Sep06: And more flooding from:
78.46.36.6
72.21.81.63

2011Sep08:
64.79.109.136 (repeat offender)

Wow. I thought Ubisoft was bad. EA's new Origin gaming service - which you'll need to use if you want to play any of EA's new games (including Battlefield 3) - wants access to everything on your hard drive. If you install one of the new games, you agree to the use of Origin, which means you also agree to its terms of use, one of which allows EA to root around in your computer, using what it finds in any way it chooses.

Let me think about this for a moment... it seems I have a choice: play EA games and give EA access to my computer, or stop buying EA games. Seems like a no-brainer to me. I'm officially boycotting EA games (for PC/Windows) until they come to their senses (unlikely).

Here are the details:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/2011...data.shtml