As any of you who have played on the BF2 server are probably aware, any attempt to enter an A10 Warthog was causing immediate server crashes.

It turns out this is a known problem with the Hard Justice mod (version 1.3) that was introduced with the Battlefield 2 version 1.5 update. That update placed a new restriction on the maximum number of rounds for a weapon at 1000. The HJ mod had the A10 set up by default to have 1350 rounds.

I found a fix and applied it to the server, so the A10 crashing problem should be resolved.

Please let me know (details, please!) if you run into any more problems like this. Now that I know what to look for, I might be able to fix them. So far, I am aware of a possible problem with the third position in one of the desert vehicles (but I may have that wrong), and a possible problem with the A203 grenade launcher.

I guess I should have expected this. I noticed that the new BF2 server I'm running seems to crash a lot. In fact, it crashes in such a way as to prevent automatic restart, which is a separate problem. Anyway, in researching this, I discovered that - just as with BF42 - there are well-known ways to remotely crash BF2 servers.

It's difficult to know for sure that the BF2 server is being crashed intentionally, unless someone takes credit for it. The BF2 server software has always been a bit crash-prone. But these crashes feel different, and they're happening way too often. Combine that with the fact that this is the first time I've run a public, Internet BF2 server; that the BF42 server running at the same IP address has most definitely been attacked; that there are known ways to crash BF2 servers remotely; and that the Internet is full of [expletives deleted] jerks, and I'm thinking it's likely.

If anyone has any ideas about dealing with this please let me know. The people doing the crashing apparently use proxies, so simply blocking their IP address won't help. As I see it, there are only five ways to resolve this:

1. EA/DICE fixes the bug that allows for remote server crashing. Unlikely, given the age of the game. Still, maybe if we make enough noise?

2. Someone else comes up with a patch to prevent these hacks from working. This may well happen; the TPU BF42 server is running with just such a patch.

3. I may be able to use packet inspection to look for and block packets containing the known hack sequences. I have the technology to do this, but it would be a huge pain to set up.

4. Change the BF2 server to require a password to join it. I'm seriously considering this. The password would be provided to people I know through TPU and anyone those people feel they can trust.

5. Finally, and least likely to occur, I somehow find out who's doing this and beat them to death with their own keyboard. Actually, this one is my favourite.

Now that Google is allowing non-person entities to have Google+ pages, I've created one for TPU. There's not much there right now, but I'll be adding to it soon. There's a link to it in the right side column of this web site.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/109146339717465223830

Update 2019Feb07: Google+ is shutting down, so the TPU Google+ page will disappear soon.

Those of you with Battlefield 2 may be interested to know that I'm now running a BF2 server. Like the TPU BF1942 server, it's co-op only, with a skewed ratio. But the sides don't swap, so humans should always play on the smaller (blue) team.

The name of the server is [TPU]BF_1.5_HJ_1.3_FH2_Coop. The IP address is the same as the TPU BF1942 server: 174.6.225.213. The Gamespy 'join' port is the standard 16567 and the Gamespy 'status' port is also the standard 29900.

The server currently runs the Hard Justice (version 1.3) mod all the time, but it can run standard BF2 as well as Forgotten Hope 2, although FH2 is somewhat crash-prone.

If any of you are interested, I'd appreciate some feedback. Are you able to connect to the BF2 server? Does it appear in your in-game server lists? Does it appear in server monitor software and on server monitor web sites that you use? Has your ability to connect to the TPU BF1942 server been affected?

Thanks in advance for any and all help!

UPDATE #1: I've removed from the rotation all the maps that are not part of the official Hard Justice 1.3 or its three map packs. I will gradually add back some of the removed maps later, and I'll post download links for them on jdrgaming.com.

UPDATE #2: The server is up to date with the latest Hard Justice version (1.3 + hotfix #1) and its three map packs. Links to the required downloads are on the Files and Links page. Let me know if you have any trouble connecting with any of the maps.

UPDATE #3: I increased the ticket ratio from 200% to 300% to extend the rounds a bit as they were too short. I also adjusted the team ratio from 2:1 to 3:2 as it was just about impossible to win as US/EU at 2:1 - at least without lots of help.

UPDATE #4: I increased the number of players from 24 to 32 since the server seems to be able to handle it easily. I also evened out the teams; it was just about impossible to win otherwise.

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.