First Strike Forums — End of Development for First Strike

Re: End of Development for First Strike

2016-10-11T00:19:13Z

The stability issues in SP/coop were due to using an offline account. BF2142 was designed to always use an online account even when playing SP/coop.

But, with Revive for BF2142 using online accounts again, the stability issues are now resolved. Plus, Revive has made BF2142 available and easy to install.

Re: End of Development for First Strike

2016-07-25T14:25:39Z

Are these stability issues only because there is no official login server?

I know Dethklokk did some work to hold players over on 2142 while no other solutions exist, but we wrote a login/master server from scratch for 2142 recently. We currently have bf2 running at battlelog.co and are planning to add 2142 to the mix. Would be cool to see it grow as popular as our existing BF2 solution. We have recreated pretty much full functionality for the entire game, including accounts (and saved passwords), soldiers, buddy list, working server list, and stats. We're planning to launch somewhere around September once we get our distribution situation in order.

I was thinking about putting up a First Strike server since we've been asked about it many times. I set one up for testing at the moment but noticed there is a 1.6 client, but only 1.5 for the server... Additionally the update server that it tries to connect to seems to be down. I guess I don't really know enough at the moment to ask a bunch of questions, but I'm gonna do some digging in the next few days to see what I can find.

Re: End of Development for First Strike

2016-04-11T00:54:19Z

After several months of messing around with the mod, I am still seeing stability issues. Usually this doesn't happen until playing for at least 10 minutes, but its too frustrating to continue. The only real option now to continue the mod would be a scaled down infantry based version for BF2. I can upload the files for anyone that wants to mess with it.

Re: End of Development for First Strike

2015-12-06T15:59:18Z

The other problem with tracking down this bug was that when the master account server went down, it appeared that existing players could still use the multiplayer profile, which did not have the bug. It was only when BF2142 was installed new after the master account server was taken down, that players were forced to use an offline account and the bug popped up. I never saw the bug until I reloaded my operating system and installed BF2142 as a fresh install.

At least now that I know this is a game engine bug, I can move onto fixing up the navmeshes and adding AI support to more maps.

I have the mod cleaned up. Hoth defense is now with non-automated AT-ATs. Working on updating the navmesh for the maps. Endor clearing had not been updated since the map was redone a few years back and bots were running into trees. Also going to get some level of AI into most of the other maps. As a tester suggestion, I am changing the kits so that the trooper always has a standard rifle so that the iconic storm trooper weapon loadout will remain consistent across maps.

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You can't help but wonder if First Strike had any inspiration to DICE. It's just a shame that dice designed Battlefront for the Teen and pre-teen market.

http://gamingtrend.com/2015/12/03/star- … o-ea-exec/

Re: End of Development for First Strike

2015-12-03T11:05:41Z

Cool, and to some the chance to play FS Singleplayer even with that bug might still be desirable (as long as we add a statement to make people aware of it ahead of time it should be okay to release with, though obviously not ideal). If we ensure that multiplayer is still solid and unchanged so that can be still played as well to show what classic FS plays like, that would be great.

It is so frustrating when you see just how much inspiration SW:BF has taken from FS. Have you played Jakku yet? A crashed Corvette in the middle of the map might feel a little familiar.

Re: End of Development for First Strike

2015-12-03T00:44:38Z

Yes, it is really frustrating the way EA dropped the game and turned off the master account server, considering how dependent the game is on it. I am going to clean it up and make sure all the SP maps are playable before posting.

Re: End of Development for First Strike

2015-12-01T19:25:07Z

That is so annoying. We truly are paying the price for developing a mod for BF2142. That sounds like the last nail in the coffin then. Though like you say, multiplayer might still be viable. Would be good to make sure that is all cleaned up and free of errors with up to date Singleplayer. So at least that is available should anyone fancy playing it again.

Re: End of Development for First Strike

2015-11-30T02:21:38Z

Oh yeah. BF2 has no stability issues with an offline account. BF2 handles offline accounts differently than BF2142. Unlike BF2142, BF2 creates an offline profile by default. BF2142 allowed you to play singleplayer and coop with your multiplayer account - but you could only gain experience from multiplayer. So, Bf2142 was designed to allways use the multiplayer account. It's only when playing the game with no internet connection did it use an offline account. This bug must have been there all along, but it would only be in the rare case of playing without an internet connection that it would ever occur. We have had singleplayer bug reports in the past but not able to replicate it because the only way to play with an offline account in BF2142 is to only play the game without an internet connection. Thanks to EA dropping the Master account server, now that is the only way to play. What makes it even hard to track down was that it only happens after a map change. All this happened at the time when I was working on changing up the kits, so I was looking at a kit or weapon bug, not a BF2142 game engine problem. I confirmed it by trying out other BF2142 mods and asking other people to try the same thing. Bingo!

It may or may not show up in Multiplayer now, but if a player is missing a weapon in kit he will just not use it and since it doesn't happen to every player, he will probably be fine the next time he dies and respawns in. Unless it's the primary weapon, the player may not even notice it. But a bot will get confused and crash the game because he doesn't know what to do with a kit that is missing a weapon that the loadout tells is supposed to be in there.

I also tested it with Deathlok Clan server fix, but apparently that server is not a true master account server. Gameranger won't work because it uses offline account as well and it doesn't support mods.

Re: End of Development for First Strike

2015-11-30T01:56:38Z

So BF2 works fine it is only BF2142 that has this issue?

Re: End of Development for First Strike

2015-11-30T01:45:35Z

Yes, after chasing this bug down for the past year, I was really hoping that we could get stable singleplayer release.

I was contacted by a DEV from BF2 Project Reality this summer and gave them permission to do a infantry focused port to BF2. If they do go forward with the project, I will offer to fix up the navmeshes. At least then all my work on doing the AImeshes for all the objects would not go to waste.

Talon,

I update my announcement as a news post and send it to you. Maybe you can get a chance to update it this weekend.

I am going to zip up the mod files and upload it as the next release of First Strike WIP. Just in case anyone wants to try it out or a solution to the BF2142 comes around. It's possible that EA might one day sell BF2142 to steam or another secondary market company and start another master account server.

Re: End of Development for First Strike

2015-11-29T23:17:53Z

Indeed that does suck. Sorry I've been a bit incommunicado lately, just working through the first round of marking for this semester so spare time at a premium. Sad news, but yes, thanks for all your efforts with this.

Should probably get an official news post out to announce this to everyone though, as a lot of people are still watching the mod.

Re: End of Development for First Strike

2015-11-29T22:38:26Z

That sucks man. But what can you do. Thanks for trying to get it working!

End of Development for First Strike

2015-11-29T21:11:49Z

Due to the recent confirmation of a major stability issue with BF2142, the work on a stand alone version has stopped. The issue is that ever since EA dropped support and the master account server, the game crashes in singleplayer or coop shortly after a map restart. We just recently verified that it is a game engine bug. There have been reports in the past of strange crashes in First Strike singleplayer, but only when playing without an internet connection. Without the master account server, the crashes happen consistently. The means that the only way to play First Strike singleplayer or coop crash free is to restart the game before switching maps.

The bug is kit related. The kits are fine the first time the game is started but after a map change, that is when the kit will start to have issues. the map will load up, but as soon as the bots see each other and start to fight is when the crash happens. What we noticed is that most of the time the kits will appear fine, but every once in a while a weapon will be missing from a kit or a bot will be running around with no weapon. It appears that every time the map is switched at least one kit for one player or bot is bugged, which results in a crash.

I believe this is a an offline account bug. This was never a problem online. Multiplayer would probably still work, but considering that BF2142 is not available from EA and all support is dropped, there is no point in pursuing development.

I will clean up the work in progress of the First Strike BF2142 Mod beta version and release it as is. It's sad to see this come to and end, but now I can refocus on work on Star Wars Battlecry for the UE4 engine.