TPU (Tanks n Planes Unlimited)

It's official: the Internet connection problems that were causing TPU player disconnections over the past few weeks are now gone. You may still get disconnected from time to time due to server crashes, but the incessant network disconnects are a thing of the past. Shaw Cable replaced everything from the pole to the modem.

Meanwhile, I took advantage of a promotion and upgraded my Internet service from 'High Speed' (8 Mbps download; 512 Kbps upload) to 'Extreme' (15 Mbps download; 1024 Kbps upload). This increases the theoretical limit on TPU players from seven to fourteen. Some of you may have noticed that over seven or eight players, TPU would start to lag. Hopefully the point at which severe lag starts will now be when there are over fourteen players.

As always, let me know if you see any problems. Check out the new status indicator at the top right of the site, and use the link there to report problems.

For the technical-minded: each human BF1942 player uses about 60 Kbps of upload bandwidth. Since the pipe is now 1024 Kbps total upload, that allows for a theoretical maximum players of 1024 / 60 = 14. Obviously this varies in actual use, but it's a good rough guideline.

Due to the increasing popularity of Battlegroup 1942, it will now run on Mondays as well as Sundays on the TPU server.

The Battle For Trier map was causing game client crashes, so it has been removed from the BG42 map rotation.

DarkRyda's wild new version of Aberdeen is now live on TPU.

The map still has no planes so it's primarily a tank battle. Both sides have ten tanks to choose from, a rocket launcher, four different kinds of stationary artillery and a motorcycle at their main bases. All have their spawn rates increased the TPU way. Also there are Katyushas at two of the flags on the map that spawn for both sides no matter what.

Units were chosen from all across the war for their special characteristics, with the aim being to create a wild fight, without being too concerned about historical accuracy.

AXIS UNITS
Panzer IIF (20mm, machine gun)
Panzer III (flame thrower and 3 machine guns)
Panzer III J/1 (50mm and 2 machine guns)
Panzer IV F2 (75mm and 3 machine guns)
Hetzer Flamm (flame thrower, machine gun)
Sturmpanzer VI (380mm, machine gun)
Stug III G (75mm, smoke, machine gun)
Chi-Ha 120mm(s)SP (120mm, machine gun)
Panzer II S.I,G 33 (150mm, machine gun)
Panzer VI TIGER I (88mm, machine gun)
motorcycle with side car

ALLIED UNITS
M4 Sherman 105mm (105mm and 3 machine guns)
Sherman T34E1 (75mm, machine gun, rocket launcher)
M26 Pershing (90mm and 2 machine guns)
Daimler Mk. II (40mm, machine gun, smoke)
Bishop (25 pounder, machine gun)
M3 Grant (75mm, 37mm, machine gun)
Matilda Mk.IIA (40mm, 2 machine guns, smoke)
KV-8 (45mm, flame thrower, machine guns)
Crusader II (40mm, machine gun)
Churchill VII (75mm and 2 machine guns)
motorcycle (Harley)

Thanks Ryda!

DarkRyda's new take on the 'Husky' Road To Rome map is now live on TPU.

The old setup had a lot of planes due to the carrier and there only being one AA gun. He changed that by adding a lot of new AA gun locations, a few in some pretty sweet spots. He also added BF109s at the Axis main base. Two more planes were added to the Allied carrier: Mustangs and a single B17.

Note: the carrier does not spawn the mustangs or the B17; they drop out of the sky and land on the carrier. Since the map is so small and people are not likely to be moving the carrier, it should not be a problem. The B17 only spawns one at a time, so this is just a bonus, not a B17 spawning machine. B17s seem to cause server crashes, especially when there are more than one or they are crashing at the same time.

Thanks, Ryda!

DarkRyda has been busy. First up is a new version of the Battlegroup 1942 map 4004-Narvik. He's given it the TPU touch, bumping up all the plane spawns so you can always catch your flight.

There have recently been sporadic connection problems between the TPU LAN and the Internet. Basically, the network the TPU server is on loses its connection to the Internet for a few seconds. The connection usually returns within a few seconds, but the disconnection is long enough to kick players out of TPU. This seems to have been happening over the last few days. It seems to have cleared up now, but if you are still experiencing connection problems, please let me know.

UPDATE 2011Apr04: I've confirmed that the router is getting disconnected from the Internet for a few seconds at a time at irregular intervals. I will be working with Shaw Cable to rectify this as a soon as possible. Sorry for the inconvenience.

UPDATE 2011Apr08: Shaw Cable was here and replaced some ancient cables. We're now monitoring the WAN connection and Shaw will return to do some additional troubleshooting if the problem shows up again.

UPDATE 2011Apr09: There have been several WAN disconnects since Shaw was here. The problem remains, and may in fact be somewhat worse. Again, I apologize for the inconvenience and hope to have it fixed in the next few days.

UPDATE 2011Apr11: Shaw installed a new drop just now, so almost everything has now been replaced. Keep your fingers crossed.

UPDATE 2011Apr13: No new disconnects have occurred since Shaw replaced the drop on April 11 at 1421 PST. Looking good so far.

Apparently the Battlegroup 1942 map "Invasion of the Philippines" was kind of lame, with the bots in particular not behaving very intelligently. DarkRyda has made a bunch of changes to the map that should improve gameplay substantially. The new map is now in the Sunday BG42 rotation.

Here's what was changed:
* removed Allied PT boats with spawn points
* added Allied ships and landing craft to the bottom of the map
* added ships to the Axis side and spread them out on the top of the map
* removed all planes and AA guns
* added more small boats and ships
* changed all the regular cars to cars that float
* changed the Japanese tank to a regular Chi Ha
* left the Axis PT boat since it doesn't have a spawn point
* replaced the Allied boat with a floating tank
* added better support to both sides, including flamethrowers, and tanks, support, a car, and two types of boat at every flag
* added plenty of MGs
* added three new defguns

The Axis team starts with four ships spread out along the top of the map: two destroyers and two freighters. When they get to land they have Chi Has and Ho Kis to defend with.

The Allied team has one destroyer, one flower class support boat, and two landing craft (one has a half track and a Sherman III and the other has an APC and a Sherman IV). On land they have the Stuart and the Satan (flame thrower).

One of the TPU regulars, Mitch, has developed a new map called The Dock. It's available for download from jdrgaming - go to the Downloads section or use this link: https://jrc-core.com/files/The_Dock.zip

Currently The Dock does not work in single player or co-op modes, but Mitch will be adding bots soon and once he does that I will make the new version available here.

Thanks, Mitch!

The rules for TPU have been updated:

Rule 13, regarding player names, has been expanded somewhat:
13 - Player names.
Do not use foul words in your player name. Do not use the default player name (Player), because using it makes it difficult for other players to communicate with you (what if everyone used it?) Also, if you use 'Player', your stats will NOT be tracked. Try to avoid using weird characters or backspaces in your player name; again, doing so makes it more difficult to communicate with you. For the same reason, you should not use a player name that is invisible or blank in the game; while this may be useful in PvP games, TPU is a co-op server.