Map Packs

[Darnit696]

I got the three FREE map packs from TotalBF2. Does anyone else have them, I think Nerdboy does if I'm not mistaken. If enough guys have them perhaps we can get SGS to book a server for us to have a game on. It would be helluva nice to play some new maps, Euroforce is being buggered around already and I am NOT paying for that, you can get the three map packs FREE and there must be 10 to 12 maps there altogether, some of them award winners. Lets see if anyone else is interested cause this clan has enough peeps to push for something like this. So who else has the maps or would get them to play?

[TG]

I've got 2 & 3 - I took a look at 1 and it was carp.

[Bass]

Yup - I certainly would !!! :)

[Darnit696]

I have yet to look at any of them, I have dloaded the lot tho so I will play them wif the rest of the hillbillies and let you know how they work out. :D

EDIT: We can get 7 players together on the LAN (thats just hillbillies) and if TG does a "how to" for me, I could get mebbe two more peeps come in over dsl. So there could be 8 mebbe 9 players.

[WAJKILLER2]

Sounds good, where the maps?

[Albereth]

I can like to have them. Nerdboy infected me with them

[Darnit696]

Ok I looked at the Map packs. Well 1 and 2 so far. I wanted to share first impressions with you guys. I Loaded the Map Packs no hassles there, they havn't buggered around with my BF2 i.e. it still works in the way it should online in vanilla maps.

Here's what I did.

Loaded map packs. Started 64 player local multiplayer. Went into the map and moseyed around to have a look see. Wrote down my opinions.


Taiming Not much to say about this map, it is geared towards infantry so no tanks no airstuff, only humvees, Quite well executed in terms of artwork and features i.e things to hide behind, grass, rocks, general terrain detail. Nice feel. Looks like it will be quite fun to play the flags are well spaced out and positioned so that each will present a challenge for both defender and attacker.
Berlin City street fighting, two tanks a side, could get boring quite quickly since is really just grid of varied blocks (buildings) with the streets inbetween very little in the way of varied elements for each flag. Still could be quite a nice map, even though I reckon that there would be a good chance of it just turning into a slaughterfest for any side that gained the upper hand and for example got their hands on all the armour.
King of the hill This map looked very pretty, there area a helluva lot of trees which may havea accounted for the slight lagginess that I got when I got into the chopper, still I reckon this one would be fun to play. The centre flag is in an unusual position and would require skill to take and defend. I liked the feel of this map. Good mix of elements for a mixed Air,Armour,Infantry battle with the map looking to be fairly balanced toward each. I dont think the map could be dominated by air or armour since there are elements to the map that look to require co-operation of all three to achieve and mantain objectives.
Mahoni Island Interesting map, lots of terrain detail on the Island, how balanced the map is difficult to judge. Unusual starting positions and flag cap points. If you have 64 players I think that it will be next to impossible for the US to get the island. Still nice map for the unusual aspect that the Us start from some old fishing vessels, with 1 blackhawk floating on a pontoon affair that moves on the ocean swell and wobbles as you start the chopper to take off. Nice touch and the artwork on the fishing vessels shows that time has gone into the artwork aspect of this map. I would like to play it to see how tough it would be to get onto the island which is very small and thus easily defended by a small group of soldiers.
Straits of Hormuz I really liked the feel of this map, time hs gone into the concept behind the map and the artwork, looks like it could be a brilliant map to play. Interesting take in that each main base is guarded by a anti air unit normally found on the aircraft carriers. The map forces head on infantry attack by haveing a long narrow play area that is curved around. There were no air units that I could see and no armour, altho there were uncapped flags that could spawn armor as a reward for holding them. This one wold be interesting since the squads would have to work well and be co-ordinated well by their commander, any side that gets it together will sort out the other side and hand out seriaas punishment. Recovery is possible tho and a losing side could get their act together and recover, I liked the possibilities for interesting gameplay that this map presented. Lots of terrain elements so snipers will be able to rejoice for all the hideouts they will find, on the other hand plent of places to hide from said snipers as well.
Mekong RiverJungle warfare at its best. I give this map a good rating as well, the terrain is creepy and the chances of being ambushed are good, there are armour elemnts (APCs) I cant remember if there were tanks, but the terrain will give infantry plenty of chance against armour. Overall I liked this map but its quite big so you will need a fairly full map to stop everyone just riding around doing the flag cap circuit. Slightly misty, think Songua on steriods, lotsa steriods, no buildings and more jungle. Melikes.
Nan Hai Totally for helicopter junkies. Based over water the two sides start off on carriers each side has four transport choppers and five attack helos :eek: Basically the only other transoprt is three rubber ducks! In The centre of the map are neutral flags on a oil derrick/ construction area type thing, there are more helos there, I counted three but there could've been more. There is also anti air dotted all over the place, Would be an interesting just to seee all those choppers in the air but I think this map is way unbalanced and if you cant fly it wont be fun and even if you can fly I tihkn the boring factor might set in quite quickly. Still some interesting elements. The oil rig / Construction thingy has some cranes and spiky aerial stuff there all designed to take out the unwary pilot and looks interesting. There is also a third half sunk carrier to the North that is interesting to look at, other than that and some arb fishing boats, one of which is a flag point there is just a lot of water. I'd give this 5/10 on initial inspection. Fun for curiosity value.
Smyrna Would not load crashed BF2 to desktop. Tried twice.
Stike at Abudhabi Ok map, you can get everywhere by buggy, Basically there is a docked Aircraft Carrier, no planes or choppers tho. From the docks the US move inland through a port city capping Chinese flags as they go. Moving into the countryside to a heavily defended Chinese base. There is a route that can be taken by rubber duck around the one side of the map straight to this base but the surprise move is so obvious it isnt going to surprise anyone. Fairly made in terms of detail and there is a nice mix of city and rural fighting. No air or armour to start with but there were some neutral flags where toys might be spawned.
Stike at Karkand 2 Beautiful. Really well done detailed map with a lot of interesting tactical positions. Easy to see why this one was an award winnning map. As I drove around this one all I wished was that we could be playing it already, it really looks good and has plenty of replayability. I would love to play on this map. Will take a fair number of peeps to make it fly tho cause it is a fairly involved map.
Uluwatu Island I dont know quite hoe this one made the map pack. Terrain has a lot of trees and very little other vegetation or any other kind of detail. The gameplay doesn't look like it will be balanced to me. There are two landmasses, one of which is a really small island where the US forces have their only uncappable flag. This island is close to the treed mainland where the chinese have three flags all cappable. There is a neutral flag on the mainland that is close to the shore. The problem is that the island is too close to the mainland IMHO. If the Chinese get there first, which is likely since their closest flag is not far and has two jeeps/buggies there, then this map will just turn into a fragfest since the US forces only get two rubber ducks and 1 APC to get to the mainland. The APC might make a difference but the rubber ducks spawn on the side closest to the mainland and the even the APC is easily within range of rocket launching chinese. There is very little opportunity to gt a rubber duck away and go around or something. Looking at it I would say that id the US didn't get to the neutral flag first, which is unlikely I dont think they would get off the island. Yup I dont think I would enjoy this map. Gets a 3.5 /10 .
Wake Island Similar to the current one. The sides are swopped with the chinsese starting on the carrier. The island feels smaller and has more trees. The runways arent tarred and are at an angle to each other which could lead to some fun and games. The carrier is much closer to the island and a tank could easily rake the deck, the same can't be said for the antiair gun since the carrier is at an angle and altho it can get some of the one tip of the island the map designers have ensured that no one is going to sit in the anti air and rake in the kills. Like I said the same cannot be said for a tank, I rode a buggy to the tip and could easily see the desk of the carrier, the planes and the transport chopper. I dont know if you could get a tank right to the tip of the island since there are a lot of trees but if you can it would make life very difficult for the guys on the carrier. Hmmm would be interesting to play if only just to get another take on Wake island. Well executed in terms of visual elements, I liked the look of the island, the vegetation and that sort of thing must have taken quite a bit of time. Depending on the tank issue this one would get a 7 or a 5 /10 from me.

Thats it so far still dloading pack three.
:)

[FeralBanana]

holy mother of bejeebing essay lordiness.

Nice essay, a bit short though.

[TG]

I have yet to look at any of them, I have dloaded the lot tho so I will play them wif the rest of the hillbillies and let you know how they work out. :D

EDIT: We can get 7 players together on the LAN (thats just hillbillies) and if TG does a "how to" for me, I could get mebbe two more peeps come in over dsl. So there could be 8 mebbe 9 players.

My 384 can handle 2 peeps comfortably, so if you've got faster, you might be able to do 3 or even 4.

The trick is to have the correct ports forwarded to your lan server. It's quite a lengthy list tho.

[Darnit696]

Continuing tha saga of the maps...

Map pack 3 from TotalBF2 had the following maps.


A.T.O.M Despite the odd title the map looks god and has tactiacl elements that are unusual and could make for interesting gameplay. There is armour, helis and jets so its difficult to tell exactly how it would play out but the potential is there. There are quite a few anti air units so that would balance the air stuffs out nicely. I liked the feel of this map it was well put together in terms of terrain elements and flag placement. 7/10 for this one.

Bocage 2005I admit I am biased on this one since I am not fond of map remakes, although they work out more often than not since they are using a tried, tested and successful formula the potential is there to bugger the thing up, this will inevitably result in the ruination of an otherwise happy memory. Bocage is remade fromthe BF1942 map. The flag points are more or less in the same places and the terrains main elements, the river and the placement of bridges are in the same place. Of course they didnt have blackhawks then so including them and the jets in this map is IMHO a mistake the dynamics of the terrain that made this a challenging map in the BF1942 version are to a certain extent lost. Nevertheless the map is well made the terrian placement shows that time went into the map and it could still make for good gameplay. 6/10 from me.

Codename Valhalla This map has a Carrier sitting right off a coastline. There are no air units on this map. The Chinese have three flags right on the coast in villages and two more slightly further inland. The terrain has quite a bit of cover in terms of trees and rocks, the reason for this becomes apparent if you sit in the antiair unit on the carrier. The ship is angled slightly so that is backside is facing toward the coast. This allows the antiair unit to cover the front three flags of the Chinese. While visibility is slightly impaired by a level of mist it is not enough, so the front three flags of the chinese are in plain sight. While there are terrain element that will provide cover for Chinese units to cap the flags should they lose them, the anti air gun will ensure that the slaughter rate is fairly high. (Chances are that due to the mist there may be a good TK rate for the gunner in the antiair unit as well :)). I got the feeling that this map was made by someone who loves that antiair unit and wanted the opportunity to use it to mow down troops. In spite of this I would want to play this map at leat once just to see how it plays out. IMO it is biased towards the american forces to much. 5/10 from me.

Insurgency at Alcatraz
Unusual take. US have one uncappable flag at the bottom of the island. THey must work their way on a spiral course upwards and inwards to the last flag in the center of the island. Initially the path starts out quite narrow and the first neutral flag is (and the second also I think) are not accessible by vehicle. The MEC have the only two vehicles on the map. The two jeeps spawn at one of their flags second from the top. These can be put to good use to repel the US invaders BUT they cannot get everywhere on the route down the hill, so there are plenty of places to evade them. Also good antitank units will make it interesting for any MEC units driving the jeeps. I liked this map a lot, there are places where there are alternative routes. I particularly liked the back route into the US base that I found by accident, it would allow pressured MEC units to go around and cap flags behind the advancing US troops forcing them back. The US cannot use this route the otherway since there is a cliff that cannot be scaled. This and other similar places make this map a good one. The terrain is well thought out and executed. 8/10 from me.

Operation Power failure This is a map of Capetown... :eek: just kidding. Really nice looking map. Well thought out in terms of tactics. There is armour for both sides but the flag placement and terrain make it so that there are flags that will be capped esily by armoured units because they are open and offer little cover and then there are flags in the power station compound that have plenty of cover and are going to encourage infantry fighting. The chances for armour whoring are there if the mec tanks still spawn if the US caps their flag since they will have four tanks then. :eek: The other flags have plenty of cover so I think that it would be very difficult for the US side to get all armour and then just sit there and own the map. I liked the feel of this map. 8/10 from me.

Operation Yellow Dragon Crashed To Desktop so nothing to say about that.

[Darnit696]

16 working maps. Hmmm, I'm keen to try this. TG Did you find any place that a peep could go and get the info regarding the ports that need to be forwarded? Question 2 I wanda how much bandwidth it takes per peep up and down. I ask this cause the up and down bandwidths are different. I suspect that it will be pretty much the same amount of info going both ways. I am a noob on this so its just a wild guess. This means that going from a 512/256 telkom line package to a 1024/256 telkom package will make absolutely no diffs to the number of peeps that could be hosted. Howeva going to a 512/512 package would make a difference. Hmmm I sense a learning curve coming on. :)

[TG]

TCP 80
TCP 4711
TCP 29900 - 29901
TCP 1024 - 1124

UDP 1024 - 1124
UDP 1500 - 4999
UDP 27900
UDP 28910
UDP 16567
UDP 55123 - 55125

These work. The ports they supply in the readme.txt DO NOT WORK.
Took a lot of trial and error to get these.

[Darnit696]

Thanks TG I will try those settings on ma router and see if they work. Does the fact that my public address is dynamic make any difference? BTW Four peeps play on the connection ate th mo but that is outbound, so I dont know if it will be any different with inbound traffic.

[TG]

Nah, dynamic is fine. Just give your peeps you current addy before you play.
I recommend a service like dyndns.com. It's easier to use a hostname rather than having to look up an ip all the time.

[Darnit696]

Cool I already been to one of those but since you recommend dyndns.com I 'll use them.

[Darnit696]

:eek: it appears as if I am going to have to part company with some hard earned cash to get a domain name. Is this right?

[TG]

NOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

dyndns.com has a free service. You can utilise one of their existing domains.

For example, I have 'thisgeek.kicks-ass.org'.

It's been awhile since I used their interface, but yell if you need help. I can go log onto mine and tell you where you should go.

[Bass]

Please give a shout if you get this running Darnit .. will be keen to join you guys and give it a try ... :)

[Darnit696]

Give me a little time work has been keeping me busy, I got capped and I'm going to have to play with the settings on ma router, BUT its definitely going to happen. :)

[Sabre]

I don't understand, we had 3 guys playing BF on my 384 connection without any changes to the router?? Why would u need those changes TG?

[stoke]

@ Sabre ... cos TG would be hosting the game, which means that e'd have to forward incomming BF2 network packets to the machine hosting BF2 using the router.

[TG]

Yebo, and my router is an IPCop (firewall) box.
Nothing gets in without me explicitly allowing it.

[Sabre]

Aaah ...... I'm such a techno noob

[Brawler]

Whenever I try play one of these maps i get crash to desktop:(

[Darnit696]

I intend to host a dedicated map pack server tommorrow sometime. Those wanting to play say so and suggest a time. I reckon I could accomodate bout 6 peeps incoming. Game server details will be pm'd to those who dont know them already. :) Oh what the hell and to those who do. :D

Gonna play some interesting maps.

[Bass]

Yup - would be interested depending on time .... will just need to get the maps first .. :)

[Darnit696]

I can make the map packs available on ftp for those who want.

EDIT: FTP Server running. Go to clan members only area for details. If you are not a clan member become one. :D

[Bass]

:eek: tried downloading just now, but d/l speed she is tooo sloooowwww ... ;)

Will try from some other sites ..

[Darnit696]

Should be at least 50 kb/sec what did u get?
EDIT: I have checked the dload speeds and she is as you say bass SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWW, but that is per thread. The server for some reason is only allowing traffic per thread at about 12kb/s but open multiple threads and you can get 50kb/s. I am trying to figure why it is since the server software dont do that on the other machine. :cuckoo: