DarkRyda's efforts to TPU-ize the BG42 maps continue. His latest work is now live on TPU, and includes the following:

4005-airfield_ockenburg (increased tanks, planes and a few cars)
4005-battle_of_arras (increased tanks, planes and a few cars)
4307-gela_beach (aka Operation Husky; increased tanks, planes and cars)
3908-khalkin_gol (increased tanks, planes and/or cars)
4105-operation_mercury (increased tanks, planes and/or cars)
4503-operation_varsity (increased tanks, planes and/or cars)
4307-route_to_agira (increased tanks, planes and/or cars)
4401-operation_shingle_small (increased tanks, boats and landing craft)
4401-operation_shingle (increased tanks, boats and landing craft; also increased the amount of artillery explosions on the beach, so that it's now a constant bombardment until the Allies take the beach)
4411-the_roer_plains (increased tanks, planes and/or cars)

On Thursday, in the early morning hours, my car was stolen from the covered breezeway in my back yard. Whoever stole it was not a professional, because the car was 23 years old and rusty. Was it just local kids looking for a bit of fun? Probably. Will the cops ever find it? (The rest of this paragraph was removed after I came to my senses.)

Anyway, I did notice that the thief also stole one of the mudflaps that had fallen off and was sitting on a bench near the car. That would seem to indicate that either the thief intends to keep the car, or they acquired it for someone who intends to keep it. A couple of weeks ago at a traffic light someone in another car asked if I would sell it. When I declined, he looked very annoyed and asked "why not?" Was it him?

The car is a dark blue 1988 Toyota MR2, supercharged, with a T roof. If you see one of those (in the Vancouver area), let me know. They are rare enough that it will be worth my while to follow up.

**UPDATE** They found it! Whoever took it drove to Maple Ridge (about 20 miles away) and dumped it. Someone reported it abandoned yesterday and the Maple Ridge RCMP called me last night. No obvious damage other than the ignition. It will be towed to a local mechanic and repaired, and I should have it back later this week.

Yesterday afternoon (June 21), from about 4pm to 8pm PST, TPU's connection to the Internet was apparently down. This morning it became clear that the building's WAN connection is going up and down sporadically.

I have started the troubleshooting process and will most likely need to call in Shaw again. You may or may not be able to play on TPU, and even if you are able to connect, your connection may drop for no reason.

I'll keep you posted. Sorry for the inconvenience.

DarkRyda has started going through the BG42 maps, bumping up the tank and plane spawns, TPU-style. The first batch is now on TPU:
Iwo Jima
3712-fall_of_nanking
4212-tebourba_breakthrough
4212-tigers_at_tebourba

Check out the changes on Sunday or Monday.

You can now check to see how the TPU server (Hubie) is performing on the new TPU Monitor page. It shows CPU, memory and network usage over the last 24 hours. If there are any more metrics you would like to see there, let me know.

Update: The monitor is finally working. You should be able to see four graphs showing Hubie's performance. Let me know if you can't.

This morning at about 1:55am PST, the IP for TPU changed again. Presumably this is related to the ongoing changes being made by Shaw. I re-added TPU on GameTracker with the new IP but of course that means all the GameTracker stats and ranking info will start again at zero. I put in a request on the GameTracker forums that they add a feature for changing a server's IP. The in-game server browser should show TPU at its new IP by the time you read this; if not, click the UPDATE button. If you have TPU listed as a Favorite, check the IP to make sure it's correct.

Old IP: 174.6.242.193
New IP: 174.6.225.213

Sorry for any inconvenience.

DarkRyda and TenaciousMojo have given the Eagle's Nest map their special touch.

New things: Natters, jetpacks, Tigers, M10s, Mustangs and BF109s.

The Natters are in about the only places they will work; there are four Natter spawning locations: three are in the middle of the map, but one is actually inside the Eagles Nest home. There is a jetpack or two in all open buildings, and they respawn like the tanks and planes, so everyone gets a pack now. There's only one location for the plane though; the Allies have the only flat area to take off from so if you want a BF109 you're going to have to take that base first. They also changed/moved/added new tanks all over the map, and at all flags. There are now some Tigers and M10s to play with. Tank spawns were added to that repair depot that is never used; bots will use it if a human is in there with a tank.

The fences at the Axis base were lowered so that the Natter can fly out of the compound. The fences are still there, but underground. So the map should still be 'pure'.

Yesterday the BG42 map '4412 Ghost front' caused the dedicated BF1942 server software on the TPU server to go into a restart loop. I have removed it from the BG42 map list.

While the TPU server hardware, software and configuration are administered by me (Jeff Rivett, aka Boot13), administration of actual gameplay is ably provided by several other people as well. These people are volunteers, but they are also TPU's biggest fans and contributors (both financially and in terms of modding work). So I thought it was about time to give credit where it's due. (From the home page, click 'read more' for all the details.)

I've posted a new topic in the (new) TPU forums about the idea of 'wildcard' days on TPU. What are your thoughts on this idea? Go to the new forums and jump into the conversation.