TPU (Tanks n Planes Unlimited)

This morning there was an extended power outage that brought TPU down between about 6am and 7:30am PST. Time to start looking into a UPS, I guess!

As of 2012Oct09, the TPU stats are no longer being updated. I am looking into the problem.

Update: the company that hosts this site made some security changes, which stopped the stats database from updating. An exception was made for the TPU stats system and it's not working again.

I noticed a couple of maps in BG42 where the bots don't move, so I removed them from the map list: 4410-debrecen and 4406-pegasus_bridge. If anyone has the urge to try debugging the AI in those maps, by all means have a run at them.

After careful consideration, I have decided to bring TPU back online, with some changes. No punitive actions will be taken at this time, although that is still a possibility if things don't calm down.

The team ratio on all TPU maps is now 3:1 instead of 2:1. Since I cannot force players to play co-operatively or to avoid disrupting each other, I have decided to adjust the server parameters, with the hope that this will make co-operative play necessary in order to win. At the very least, I hope that this change will force players to break out of their habits and find new ways to play, win, and have fun on TPU.

I will continue to monitor the situation on TPU and will make additional changes if necessary.

Meanwhile, I'd like to encourage all players, especially the admins, to be more respectful of each other. Don't assume another player is trying to disrupt your gameplay. Instead, try asking them politely to play in a way that allows everyone to enjoy themselves. They may not even realize what they are doing is disruptive. If another player asks you to adjust your gameplay, respect their wishes, get creative, and find a way to win the battle while allowing everyone to have fun.

Finally, take a moment to think about the soldiers in WWII who never saw combat. Some soldiers in the 101st airborne in Europe never saw any action, despite being dropped into Normandy and Holland, and being in Bastogne. I'm sure some of these guys felt cheated. I'm sure some of them wanted desperately to see action, and I'm sure they talked about it. But did they accuse the guys who saw action of stealing their fun? I doubt it. Some jobs in war are less heroic than others. Someone has to man the artillery. Someone has to transport vehicles. Someone has to guard lonely outposts. If your team wins, you win, regardless of the way it happened and how many kills you got.

TPU is down while I investigate a series of disruptions and possible admin abuse. If these issues can be resolved, TPU will be back up in a few days. Otherwise, it's down for good. Sorry about this.

By popular demand, TPU is switching from DCX back to DCFinal on Tuesdays, until further notice.

Sisko recently pointed me to a BF42 mod I hadn't previously heard of: Silent Heroes. It's modern combat, with choppers and other modern weapons, between Sweden and Norway. It includes several new maps (all based in the warring countries) as well as modified versions of many of the classic BF42 maps.

Most of the maps have co-op support (bots), so this mod would be a good fit for TPU.

So, let's hear it. What do you think about the idea of trying this mod on a future Wildcard Wednesday on TPU?

The Road To Rome map Baytown was causing client crashes, so I reverted the server map back to the original, basic TPU mods, bumping up tank and plane spawns, and it seems to be okay now. If anyone is still having problems with it, please let me know.

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.