Blogs - ANTniquiler

Yeah. The weapon case problem has been finally solved. \o/
So the new version is near to be released.

Also, we have made more changes on the weapon unlocks. These are aimed to be make wepons more different from each other. So both armies now have a main assault rifle, a carbine, a sniper rifle and a shotgun. Ammo carried has been made more consistent too.

And we are preparing some surpises...

Hearing: Sonne - Rammstein (Mutter)

I found myself totally lost for the next step.
The main bugs have been fixed. Now the main task is making levels to be played decently. Changing flags locations, adjusting vehicles on each side, adding weapon crates and their pickable kits.

But at this moment, there's a bug about pickable kits that don't let me keep. The problem is that you can't change the model of a pickable kit in the floor, and meanwhile using the helmet geometry. So the model can't be changed to the weapon that the kit contains (like sniper rifle, machinegun or antitank)

I'm blocked at this moment. I don't know how to do to solve it. So that's the main reason that updates on the blog aren't coming as fast as the start. The second reason has been the modifications to the main web.

And i were helping dtneter to make vehicles HUD as mines. He helped me in some little things too.

Hearing: Knights of Cydonia - Muse (Absolution)

I'm gonna see the Expo Zaragoza 2008. So there won't be updates for a few days. I will be back on Friday. There are lots of things to see, and i'll rest on Thursday.
Meanwhile, I'll left my computer doing backups. There are a lot of things in the new patch, but there are still bugs to be fixed.

See you all.

Now it's time to check the options files:

Server options

In first part, we checked that configuration file was at "mods/bf2142/settings/serversettings.con".
Now we'll take a look at this file:

sv.serverName "Battlefield 2142"

The name that will be displayed at the list of the servers.

sv.password ""

If you wan't to be your server password protected, change this line to your password

sv.internet 0

If this setting is set to 1, the server will be broadcasted to EA server list, so it will appear to other people when selecting the online option at multiplayer.

sv.bandwidthChoke 0

Seems to be a leftover from 1942 and BFV. So forget this line.

sv.serverIP ""

The interface IP address were will listen for game client conections. Only usefull when having more than one netwoek adapter running at the same time. Keep at "" to listen in all interfaces.
Note: Regardless the option you set here, gamespy query port and Rcon will listen in ALL interfaces.

sv.serverPort 17567

The port were the server will listen. Can be changed to any listening port, but it isn't recommended.

sv.welcomeMessage ""

Welcome message. This will be shown to the users when connecting to the server. Use the "|" character to separate lines.

sv.punkBuster 0

PunkBuster is an anticheat tool. Set to 1 to enable it. Make sure it keeps upgraded or your clients will be disconected upon joininjg the server.

sv.allowFreeCam 0

Allows that spectators and not spawned people can fly the camera like a ghost.

sv.allowExternalViews 1

Allows the external camera views (F10, F11 and F12 camera modes)

sv.allowNoseCam 1

Allows the no cocpit camera (F9)

sv.hitIndicator 1

Enables the damage direction arrow.

sv.maxPlayers 64

The maximun players that can be conected to your server at the same time. As more people, more CPU will you need. See the requirements at the first part.

sv.numPlayersNeededToStart 1

The minimun players that will be needed to start the round. Ranked servers override this option.

sv.notEnoughPlayersRestartDelay 15

The time that the round continues to be playerd when there are less people than the minimun.

sv.startDelay 15

Number of seconds to wait when starting a new round.

sv.endDelay 15

Number of seconds needed to wait before server loads a new level.

sv.spawnTime 15

Seconds needed to wait when a soldier dies. Recomended to be equals or higher than the next value.

sv.manDownTime 15

Seconds while a soldier is still revivable.

sv.endOfRoundDelay 3

Seconds before the end of round results is displayed.

sv.ticketRatio 100

The % of tickets of each team

sv.roundsPerMap 3

How many rounds will be played for each map.

sv.timeLimit 0

Time before round ends. Set to 0 to remove time limitation.

sv.scoreLimit 0

Looks that the option doesn't works.

sv.soldierFriendlyFire 100

The % of direct damage that you can do to soldier teammates.

sv.vehicleFriendlyFire 100

The % of direct damage that you can do to vehicle teammates.

sv.soldierSplashFriendlyFire 100

The % of splash damage (explosions) that you can do to soldier teammates.

sv.vehicleSplashFriendlyFire 100

The % of splash damage (explosions) that you can do to vehicle teammates.

sv.tkPunishEnabled 1

Sets if Teamkiller punish is enabled

sv.tkNumPunishToKick 3

Number of teamkills at wich the player will be kicked.

sv.tkPunishByDefault 0

Sets if punish will be automatic or the killed has the option to forgive.

sv.votingEnabled 1

Enables the voting system.

sv.voteTime 90

Time before a votation expires.

sv.minPlayersForVoting 2

The minimun of players needed to make a succesfull vote.

sv.gameSpyPort 29900

The query port. If changed, it's recommended to be at the 29900-29950 range.

sv.allowNATNegotiation 0

Set to 1 if having problems when people tries to join at your server throug a router.

sv.interfaceIP ""

The ip of the remote VOIP server.

sv.autoRecord 0

Enables Battlerecorder.

sv.demoIndexURL http://

The website where the Battlerecorder files can be downloaded.

sv.demoDownloadURL http://

Same as the previous. Recommended to be the same.

sv.autoDemoHook "adminutils/demo/rotate_demo.exe"

The executable called when needed to rotate the scripts. In linux, this can be a bash, python, perl, etc executable.

sv.demoQuality 1

Demo quality. As more quality, more CPU will be needed

sv.adminScript "default"

When using another administation script than default, change this line to enable it.

sv.timeBeforeRestartMap 30

Unknown.

sv.autoBalanceTeam 0

Enables team balance switching players to the least players team.

sv.teamRatioPercent 100

To make assymetrical teams. The % ratio of players at PAC side against players at EU side.

sv.voipEnabled 1

Enables VOIP support on this server.

sv.voipQuality 3

Quality of VOIP records. More quality requires more bandwith.

sv.voipServerRemote 0

Tells if VOIP is done at local or in a remote server.

sv.voipServerRemoteIP ""

If the server is in a remote computer, the ip address of the VOIP server.

sv.voipServerPort 55125

The administration port of the VOIP server.

sv.voipBFClientPort 55123

The port used to clients to conenct to the VOIP server.

sv.voipBFServerPort 55124

The port that the VOIP server uses to resend the communications

sv.voipSharedPassword ""

The VOIP server password

sv.useGlobalRank 1

Shows the rank of the soldiers. Aways enabled at ranked servers.

sv.useGlobalUnlocks 1

Enables the unlocked weapons. Always enabled at ranked servers.

sv.minUnlockLevel 0

Allows the clients to use the tier 1 of unlocks, even if they didn't unlocked the items.

sv.maxUnlockLevel -1

Allows to set the maximun unlock Tier that will be available to players.

sv.sponsorText ""

Sponsor message.

sv.sponsorLogoURL ""

Sponsor logo. Showed at he server list.

sv.communityLogoURL ""

Server logo. Showed when loading level.

sv.customMapURL ""

Don't modify. Looks to be an experimental level autodownloader.

sv.radioSpamInterval 6

Unknown. Looks to be realted to max messages to prevent spam.

sv.radioMaxSpamFlagCount 6

sv.radioBlockedDurationTime 30

Radio spammers blocket time.

sv.maxRank 0

If activated, only player at least rank 11 (Sergeant) will be able to join the server.

sv.botSkill 0.5

Accuracy of boots at cooperative mode.

sv.allowSpectators 0

Allows people to join as spectators.

sv.allowTitanMovement 1

Allows the titan to be moved when shields are up.

Map list

Map rotation is contained in the file "mods/bf2/settings/maplist.con". This file follows the next format:

mapList.append [level name] [gamemode] [map size]

Level names are the folder names of the level. So "Suez Canal" map must be called "Suez_Canal".
Availabel gamemodes are:

• Conquest - gpm_cq
• Cooperative - gpm_coop
• Supply lines - gpm_sl
• Titan - gpm_ti
• Conquest & Assault- gpm_ca

Map sizes are available at 16 and 32 players. Some maps have support for 32 players and Titan always must be set to 48 players.
If some entry does not match available gamemode, map size or level name, when server switchs to this level, it will crash.

The beta 0.21 is almost done.
Corrected some minor errors, changed some equipments. And HUD has been reworked.
I'm messing with the md5 generator. It' still wont works. Imperial88 (from First Strike mod) has told me how them create the md5. So i'm gonna check what fails.

Thank you again, Imperial88. Your mod is awesome!

I had a little trouble when installing this at house. So for you, this is a little how-to.

Installing a Battelfield 2142 dedicated server

Hardware requirements:

From the original readmeserver.txt. Seem to be very accurate.
- Minimum Specification, based on playing a 16 player game:
CPU: 1 Ghz
RAM: 256 Mb

- Recommended Specification, based on playing a 64 player game:
CPU: 3 Ghz. For AMD Athlon 64 CPU: 3500+ (2.2 Ghz)
RAM: 2 Gb

- Recommended Specification, based on playing a 48 player Titan game:
CPU: 3.6 Ghz. For AMD Athlon 64 CPU: 4800+
RAM: 2 Gb

Software requirements:

Linux or FreeBSD (with linux compatibility activated) installed.
Glibc 2.4 installed
Latests dedicated version of Battlefield 2142 server:
Largedownloads.ea.com

Note: My linux server was running Debian etch 4.0, but the glibc version is 2.3.6. I had to update to unstable (lenny) wich comes with glibc 2.7. Before updating, dedicated server didn't want to start.

Installation

Download the dedicated server. We will have a zip file, so we need to extract the installer. Open a console and change to the directory where you downloaded the file and execute:

unzip bf2142-linuxded-1.10.48.0-installer.zip

It will extract a lonely file called "bf2142-linuxded-1.10.48.0-installer.sh"
In need execute privileges. So type in the console:

sudo chmod u+x bf2142-linuxded-1.10.48.0-installer.sh

And lastly, we'll execute the decompressed installer:

sudo sh bf2142-linuxded-1.10.48.0-installer.sh

Now two licenses will be presented. One is for the dedicated server and the another one is for punkbuster.
Finally enter an instation path like "/usr/share/" or if you wish "/home/user/". A subfolder called bf2142 with the server will be created. The files will be unzipped at those folder

Configuration

Now change to your Battelfield 2142 dedicated server folder. If you followed some of the previous suggestions, it will be named "/usr/share/bf2142" or "/home/user/bf2142".

To edit the general settings, you will need to edit the "mods/bf2/settings/serversettings.con"
It can be done with nano. Note the -w parameter to disable line wrap, it makes easier editing this file:

sudo nano -w mods/bf2/settings/serversettings.con

The map rotation is contained in the file "mods/bf2/settings/maplist.con" so to edit the rotation map will do:

sudo nano -w mods/bf2/settings/maplist.con

Starting the server

When all is configured (maybe i'll do another post about configurations) just can start your server just typing:

./start.sh

But it needs a console I/O permanently, so it better to use the screen command. The standard command is:

screen ./start.sh

Use (ctrl-a) then (ctrl-d) to detach from the screen session. The server will keep running in background. To retach to the server, typen the following command:

screen -r

If you wish to start the dedicated server from another script, then you will need the dedicated server to go automatcly to background. It can be done with these command:

 screen -fa -d -m -S bf2142 ./start.sh

Note that assigns a name to the screen session called bf2142 so if we have more than one screen session, we can retach just typing

screen -r bf2142

So that' all. Maybe in the future I'll complete some details, like making an autostart script, setting mod parameters, or looking in the settings.
So meanwhile, i expect that this little how-to is usefull for you.

Note: Battlefield 2 follows the same steps. The difference is the file to download. The 1.41 version isn't in the EA download server, so you will have to look for the "bf2-linuxded-1.1.2963-795-installer.sh.gz". You can found more information here. And if you want to install in a FreeBSD system, check out this link.

Battlefiled 2 used a md5 checking system to ensure that clients had the latest version. Battlefield 2142 inherit the same system.
The server looks like in spite of checking its content to check the md5, these values are precalculated in the server. So mod creators must use a little python script. It's located at the Battlefield 2142 folder, 'generate_md5.py'.
In Battlefield 2142, in order to get a faster content checking, if a file is larger than 8 megabytes, only a few initial bits and the las 8 megabytes are used in the check. And content is splitted in more files, to minimize md5 collision.

But now, the system doesn't works. DICE must have changed the md5 checking. Now if you generate the md5 files, the main file, called 'std_archive.md5', won't be recognized to Battlefield as the md5 that it was expecting. So for now, mod developers lost the ability to do client content checking. Crap.

By the way, as i'm writing this post, the beta 0.2 of Real Combat 2142 is being uploaded. There are lots of changes since beta 0.1, and we are expecting that you all love this version.

Thanks to all.

Titan gamemode will be removed in the next version of Real Combat 2142
"Why?", would you be asking. "It's a fun gamemode"

Yes, it's fun... But it's terribly unrealistic.
First, the titan itself. Look at it. Can you say that it's a combat giant gunship? It looks like a cargo ship with guns. The cargo bay it's a half of the whole titan. Where is the control room? Next to the ship bay. And this control room it's only 6 turret controllers. How many airship fits inside? Only two. And the core? Totally exposed crossing one door. Personal rooms? Infirmarys? Neither one. I think you catch the idea.

Second, pods. Assault pods are cool, but real? How many g's experiments people launched on those things. It looks like not to be safe.

Third, antititan missile silos. Yeah. Why would you not use your antititan missiles (wich looks like an ATACMS, with a range of 128 km!!), from kilometres away??? Better let them unprotected. We'll recapture them when the enemy can capture the silos too. [IRONIC MODE OFF]

And the core. What about the core. Hey, you blow up it, but the titan doesn't explodes automatically. And it's safe to be on ground. Because the wreck won't be falling on you, don't?

So for this reasons, me and Nighthawk decided to remove titan gamemode.

Battelfield 2142 has many details to be tweaked. Level can be tweaked in almost every thing. Although for object design, it's insufficient the most of cases.

I'm gonna talk you about distance visions.

These, like Battlefiled 2, are very limited. I think that isn't to optimize, since i've checked, and perfomance is affected a little only. So i think that this is to feel that maps are bigger.

It's limited on 3 factors

• Global distance vision
• Fog
• Objects distance vision

Global distance vision

Global distance vision tell us the limit of distance that objects can be seen.
It's maximun appears to be 1 km.
But increasing this, is not all done, because...

Fog

Fog is set to show that objects at the edge of the limit vision not simply disappears, they merge slowly with the sky color. So it's a nice effect.
The values where the mergin starts and where it ends ca be defined, but not all the work is done. There is a las thing.

Objects distance vision

Objects distance vision defines the maximun distance at which object individualy can be seen.
Level have settings to manipulate all in a global scale (so it can be increased or decreased at 300% if we wish)

When combined all this factors, levels get more impresive. I done testing with NBCNighthawk (a friend of mine and codesigner) last night, and we were impressed the changes to the atmosfere.
Now shooting at 750+ metres is possible, always counting on bullet drop.

And we have some problems about "modified content" and md5 checking, but I let this for another time.

What a lame name for a first post... Well, my name is Antonio, alias ANTniquiler from Spain (Europe) . I'm a university IT student at my last year. My hobbies are movies, books, and obviously, games. Specially First person shooters.

Now I'm working on a new mod for Battlefield 2142. It's called Real combat 2142. Ok, not very original, since mi first (and unique) mod for Battlefield 2 was called Real Combat.

I'm triying to recreate a realsitic combat athmosfere. Deadly and accurate weapons (assault rifles can kill people at 400m, althought you need to be a good shooter). And not all people receives a machinegun or a sniper rifle. Those weapons are expensive.

Vehicles are destruction machines, some of them more than others. From reconnaissance jeeps, to battle tanks, including VTOL aircrafts. But they need to be used correctly.

I expect that this mod likes to somebody. And there's only one way to know. Releasing to the public.
So here it goes. The beta 0.1 has been released. And beta 0.2 is on the way, at internal testing.

Whew, not bad for a first post.
See you soon, folks.