TPU (Tanks n Planes Unlimited)

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.

The new router is active. Unfortunately, there was no obvious way to prevent getting a new WAN IP, which means the IP for TPU has changed:
New IP: 174.6.242.193
Old IP: 174.6.224.147

It will take a while for the Gamespy servers to update, but you should be able to join via the new address, or using XFire if you update it.

Please drop me a line if you notice anything different or any problems.

UPDATE: The TPU stats were not updated for the last couple of days - since the new router was installed. That problem has been resolved, and the stats should now be up to date. During the outage, stats were still collected, so you shouldn't end up losing credit for anything.

UPDATE: According to the admins, TPU is now once again appearing on the in-game server browser list. If anyone out there is finding this not to be the case, please let me know.

Name something about BF42 that's better than BG42.

1. Not everyone has BG42. But that's easily remedied.
2. Most of the BG42 maps haven't been tweaked for TPU. That's annoying. I hate waiting for planes and tanks.
3. Update: BG42 has higher hardware requirements, so some people who can run BF42 have trouble running BG42. That's a problem.

That's all I can think of.

Take a look at one of the BG42 maps that has been tweaked for TPU: Midway. Is the BF42 version better in any way? I don't think so.

BG42 has a much larger variety of units. All the sound is better. The visuals are better. Flamethrower tanks. More maps. All of the BF42 original maps are included, and the BG42 versions are better. Units vary more: the Tiger is much slower than the PzIV, for example. Weapon damage is more realistic: if you shoot someone on the head, they die. This increases the difficulty, but if you're an experienced player, you can deal with it. You can always see what vehicle you're in. The map names all start with the year and month, so if you play them in order, you move forward in time. Artillery and other emplacements can be rotated. Vehicle kills are more believable. Did I mention variety? There are more types of weapons, and they vary more noticeably, in terms of their effect and effectiveness as well as the way they sound. The list goes on...

Can you add anything to this list?

Because I'm starting to think that we should:

1. Tweak all the BG42 maps for TPU.
2. Bug all TPU players to install BG42.
3. Switch the TPU server to BG42 (with the TPU-modded maps) 24x7.

What do you think?

UPDATE: As you can see from the comments, several of the TPU faithful have chimed in - thanks, guys! I won't be increasing the amount of BG42 on TPU any time soon.

DarkRyda picked up the modding efforts for TPU where I left off. Originally TPU was mainly about adding tank and plane spawns to all the original and XPack maps, including planes on carriers. As you all know by now, DarkRyda's map mods go way beyond that, while keeping the spirit of TPU the same: namely, that you can always catch a ride in a tank or plane. What follows are Ryda's notes on the modding he has done for TPU. -- Jeff

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According to email I received from Shaw Cable on April 28, 2011:

"To give you a better Internet experience, we've increased the 
download speed for Shaw Extreme Internet from 15 Mbps to 
25 Mbps and upload speed from 1 Mbps to 2.5 Mbps. You'll be 
automatically updated and experience the new speeds by April 30."

If this is accurate, after April 30 TPU should theoretically support up to 40 connections. Of course, TPU is currently limited to 32 players at most, so it might be time to look at increasing that limit.

I've never seen more than eight human players at once on TPU, but was that because more players caused too much lag? Would having more human players be a good thing?

We might also start running into CPU limitations on the server, so I will monitor CPU usage as much as possible.

One other thing that I've been considering is reducing the 'Server bandwidth limit' from its current setting: 'No Limit' to '2048 Kbps'. This setting is supposed to throttle overall (upload) bandwidth use to the amount specified. The actual effect felt by players is uncertain. Is it better to have the BF1942 server limit bandwidth or let it run wide open and allow the network provider's limits come into play? TPU has been running with 'No Limit' for a couple of years now.

UPDATE 2011May14: I just checked again, and it appears that the speed upgrade has kicked in. Speedtest.net says that the WAN connection's speeds are now: 22.41 Mbps download and 2.44 Mbps upload. That's up from 19.33 Mbps download and 0.76 Mbps upload for the old Extreme service. Woot!

The B17s on the Battle of Britain map were causing a lot of server crashes, so they have been removed until we can find a better solution. Sorry folks. As always, let me know if the problems continue or any new problems show up.

Apparently Shaw Cable is planning to go ahead with UBB and expects to announce pricing changes in May/June 2011:
http://openmedia.ca/news/shaw-revive-metered-internet

This is obviously bad news, and is very disappointing, as Shaw originally appeared to be listening to its customers on this issue. Stay tuned.