TPU (Tanks n Planes Unlimited)

At some point in the near future, I intend to change my Internet service to one with a fixed IP address. When that happens, the IP for TPU and everything else on the JRC/JDRGaming server will change.

The last couple of times TPU's IP address changed, I noticed a drop-off in the number of players. Assuming that the two things were actually connected, this implies that some people were unable to find TPU after the IP change.

There are four possible explanations, for affected players:

• they still aren't using the new master browser, master.bf1942.sk;
• they forgot to click the Update button in the BF1942 server browser;
• they are relying on a BF1942 Windows shortcut to the old IP address; or
• they are relying on an existing Favorites entry in the BF1942 server browser.

Switch to the new master browser

If you're not using the master.bf1942.sk server browser, you should be. Without it, you won't see any servers listed in the BF1942 server browser. You can still connect to any server directly via its IP address, but IP addresses change, and you'll have to find servers some other way. There are instructions for switching to the master.bf1942.sk server browser elsewhere on this site.

Click that Update button

Assuming that you're using the master.bf1942.sk master browser, if you are suddenly unable to connect to TPU, try clicking the Update button on the BF1942 server browser list. This will pull a new server list from master.bf1942.sk, which will include TPU's current IP address.

Update your Windows shortcut for TPU

If you use a Windows shortcut to run BF1942 and auto-connect to TPU, and it stops working, go to jdrgaming.com and check the red notification area at the top. The current IP address will be shown there. Change your shortcut to point to the new IP address.

Update your Favorite

If you have TPU flagged as a Favorite in the BF1942 server browser, and TPU's IP address changes, your Favorite entry will not be updated automatically. Even if you are using master.bf1942.sk, and you click the Update button, if the Favorites filter is enabled, TPU will show with its old IP address, and the PING value will be 9999.

To fix this, disable the Favorite filter, click Update, find TPU in the server list, and mark it as a Favorite.

The screenshot above (click for larger version) shows how TPU looks in the normal Internet server list in BF1942. Note that the IP address is current, and the Ping value is low.

The screenshot above shows how TPU looks as a Favorite in the server list in BF1942. Note that the IP address is out of date, and the Ping value is 9999. That's because I haven't recreated the Favorite recently.

Happy New Year, folks!

I've just archived 2017's TPU stats and made them available from the TPU stats archive page. The current stats have been reset to zero.

The top player in 2017 was Johnny James. Congratulations! Johnny walked away with all the badges except for the healing badge, which went to B. Keeney.

This is a good opportunity to review the points formula for TPU stats. The current formula is below. If you'd like to see a change, let me know (see the About/Contact link at the top right of the site).

(((attacks*1)-tks+(heals/10)+(otherrepairs/100))/rounds_played)+kdrate

Available variables:
 

  

    
score
    
Total Score
  
  

    
tks
    
Total TKs
  
  

    
kills
    
Total Kills
  
  

    
deaths
    
Total Deaths
  
  

    
captures
    
Total Captures
  
  

    
attacks
    
Total Attacks
  
  

    
objectives
    
Total achieved Objectives
  
  

    
heals
    
Total Number of Heals
  
  

    
selfheals
    
Total Number of Self-Heals
  
  

    
repairs
    
Total Number of Repairs
  
  

    
otherrepairs
    
Total Number of Repairs to others
  
  

    
rounds_played
    
Total Number of Rounds-played
  
  

    
kdrate
    
The Kill/Death Rate
  
  

    
first
    
Total Number of being first in Battlefield End-Of-Game-Ranking

  
  

    
second
    
Total Number of being second in Battlefield End-Of-Game-Ranking
  
  

    
third
    
Total Number of being third in Battlefield End-Of-Game-Ranking
  
 
  

The Internet caching service Cloudflare allows web sites to remain accessible even when the servers hosting those sites are down. It also provides protection against DDoS and related attacks. Cloudflare's basic web site protection service is free. In September, Cloudflare announced that DDoS protection would be extended to free accounts.

The jdrgaming.com web site, TPU stats, BF1942 server, BF2 server, and numerous other sites and services are all hosted on a single server. Clearly, it would be helpful to users if the jdrgaming.com site remained accessible during server outages, and had some protection against DDoS attacks. As of September 26, jdrgaming.com and tpu.jdrgaming.com are protected by Cloudflare.

If you notice any problems with the site or TPU stats, please let me know (About/Contact in the top menu).

Due to circumstances beyond my control, all of the JDRGaming game servers will be unavailable on August 30.

A planned local power outage is expected to last from 8:30am to 6:30 pm on August 30. The outage will also affect this web site (jdrgaming.com).

I will post updates on the @JDRGamingStatus Twitter account as events unfold tomorrow.

UPDATE: As of 12:50pm PST, power has been restored and the server is back up. All game servers are back online.

At about 3am PST today (2017Jun01), my Internet Service Provider (Shaw) changed my WAN IP address. Again. This happens from time to time because of the type of service I use. I'm now considering switching to a service that provides a static IP address.

The IP address for all JDRGaming game servers is now 24.80.59.72. Server lists will gradually update, but you can usually hurry things along by clicking an 'update' or 'refresh' button in game clients.

I'll update the alerts at the top of the home page to show the new IP address.

If you have any trouble connecting, please use the 'report a problem' link below the TPU Status box.

At about 2am PST today (2017Jan16), my Internet Service Provider (Shaw) changed my WAN IP address. This happens from time to time because of the type of service I use.

The IP address for all JDRGaming game servers is now 24.80.14.52. Server lists will gradually update, but you can usually hurry things along by clicking an 'update' or 'refresh' button in game clients.

I've updated the alerts at the top of the home page to show the new IP address.

If you have any trouble connecting, please use the 'report a problem' link below the TPU Status box.

It's a new year, so the stats for the TPU BF1942 server have been reset. Stats for 2016 are now available by clicking the appropriate link from the list in the sidebar: 'Statistics' links to the current year's stats, '2016' links to 2016's stats, and so on.

Sisko won the points race again in 2016, but Wingslinger wasn't far behind.

A TPU regular recently suggested that the Battle of Britain map was unwinnable by the Axis. Certainly the TPU version of the map makes an Axis victory more difficult: the Allied factory and all five of the radar towers - all of which must be destroyed - respawn after a brief delay.

Still, I was certain that Axis victory was possible. But I was wrong. Checking TPU's map stats, I found that of the 854 rounds played on the BoB map, exactly zero had been won by the Axis.

Accordingly, I adjusted the map setup to make things easier for the Axis. The factory still respawns after a few minutes, but the radar towers do not.

It's not a squadron of Spitfires, but I think the Luftwaffe will find the going a bit easier now, in the skies over London.

There's been some discussion on the TPU Facebook page about some of the TPU maps having too many tickets. Certainly some of the maps - Wake and Midway in particular - seem to go on forever.

The current set of maps, including the number of tickets each map starts with, was set up by (and for) a previous group of players. Wake and Midway have a lot of tickets because those folks were heavily into air combat, and those are a couple of the best maps for that kind of thing. If you don't fly, grinding back and forth between the two spawn points on Midway gets old quickly.

The point is that different people have different play styles, and like different kinds of maps. There's no way to make everyone happy. The easiest way to get past a map you're not enjoying is to issue a map vote. The map voting system is set up so that even a lone player can use it to change maps.

Still, if the current crop of players can agree on shortening Wake, Midway, or any other map, I'd be happy to make the required adjustments. I could even reduce the global ticket ratio, although that would affect all maps.

If you'd like your opinion known, you have several options. Go to the Contact page for a few ideas. If you have an account on this site (contact me to set one up), you can comment on this post. You can also vote in the new poll I've set up (look for it in the right sidebar). Anyone can vote on open polls; an account is not required.

Update: most of the maps currently have starting ticket numbers of 600/600. The exceptions are Wake (900/900); Battle of the Bulge (Allies 1200, Axis 600); Berlin (Allies 600, Axis 360); Tobruk (Allies 600, Axis 900). The global map ratio setting is currently 300.

Discord is an excellent, free, gaming-centric chat client that you can use on the web or run as a client on your computer.

I've been using the Discord Windows client for a few weeks now and I like it so much I'm switching to it for JDRGaming-related chat. Previously I was using IRC, but that was a bit tricky to set up for users. Discord is much simpler.

So there's now a JDRGaming Discord server, with channels for each of the JDRGaming game servers. You can use Discord or install the Discord client at the Discord web site.

Here's an instant invite for the JDRGaming Discord server: https://discord.gg/5KVyRUv. I've added the Discord invite URL to each of the game servers, so you should see it when you join or during gameplay.