The [FGS] Clan

It came to my attention recently that gamespy is now owned by Glu mobile. I play sometimes both Unreal and Deus Ex when I am not busy, and have a 24/7 server for the purposes of game server use, which I am willing to lend a hand with it in any way I can. I host a backup server for unreal on the default ports.

master2.oldunreal.com I have decided to host one for Deus Ex also, this is on a server that is on a fibre connection, complete with backup power supply of my own custom design on the low powered machine, router and modem which is on a FTTC connection, syncing at 20mbps up, 72 down.

I know we need a way for new players to edit their inis, but thats not what I am focused on, I am focused on to provide this to the community who may do with it what they see fit, and will leave contact information for the leaders of FGS and that in the event I need to be reached.

I may ask deja for a copy of his masterserver tool, but currently am hosting a masterserver on a version of nepthys (V1.4a100), there seems to be a problem with UCC rejecting heartbeats from different versions of nepthys. The UDP port is 27500, so to be added to inis as follows:

ServerActors=Nephthys.NptServerUplink MasterServerAddress=master2.oldunreal.com MasterServerPort=27500

Now the TCP port also differs, so in DXSL the port number must be changed from 28900 to 25900,

in the game (to be used in the event of a gamespy downtime:
[DeusEx.MenuScreenJoinGame]
;MasterServerAddress=master0.gamespy.com
MasterServerAddress=master2.oldunreal.com
MasterServerTCPPort=25900
;MasterServerTCPPort=28900

when gamespy is normal:

[DeusEx.MenuScreenJoinGame]
MasterServerAddress=master0.gamespy.com
;MasterServerAddress=master2.oldunreal.com
;MasterServerTCPPort=25900
MasterServerTCPPort=28900



(the TCP port value must be added, so it overrides the default in the case of mine).

And if deja is reading this, your email seems to be dead if possible could you contact me about your MS tool? I wouldn't mind using it then i could update from UCC to that straight away, unreal does not have the problem we have with the MS.
EDIT: deja kindly messaged me back but has lost his MS tool, hopefully hawk may still have his copy?

Given that DX is on STEAM and it can be updated by valve if the community did groundwork a backup masterserver could indeed replace the original in the config files thru a valve update, transparent to the players just throwing the idea out there... Also we could as a community probably contact the developers of qtracker whom have a working unrean engine MS for many unreal engine games, maybe they could add DX to the list, master.qtracker.com does not respond for Deus Ex, and presume it was never set up, it works for many other unreal engine games, i have sent an email to them myself requesting this, as well.

Hope everyone is well, have not been available recently as my mother recently passed suddenly and ive had and still do other stuff aside from gaming, but i do a bit of gaming when I have time, but i dont want to start a new players inis topic, I want to provide it for the community to use as they see fit, with glu owning gamespy its a matter of time, they have shut off many old servers on games more popular than Deus Ex! Whats new with the community while I have been away?

Jacob

When ms dies out, this game dies out. Period.

DejaVu wrote:When ms dies out, this game dies out. Period.

Yea, you didn't exactly help that particular cause did you

Unfortunately that's the truth, though.

Master dead. Game dead. SCHLUSS.

In unreals case luckily they already did all the groundwork with 227 patch which was made with the permission of epic games, which
includes backup MS's, and also unreal allowed multiple masterservers to be configured in the INI at any one time in its default
configuration. I know it would be extremely difficult but this could be used to maintain a list of servers in case of temp downtime or just for the community to use as they see fit as glu mobile owns gamespys MS it really is only a matter of time

HDD21 wrote:In unreals case luckily they already did all the groundwork with 227 patch which was made with the permission of epic games, which
includes backup MS's, and also unreal allowed multiple masterservers to be configured in the INI at any one time in its default
configuration. I know it would be extremely difficult but this could be used to maintain a list of servers in case of temp downtime or just for the community to use as they see fit as glu mobile owns gamespys MS it really is only a matter of time

The patch is the ideal solution for sure.

There is not even real patch needed, actually just client side mod. But the main question remains; how would you distribute this as being official mod?

Shadow mentions he has contacts with eidos, one could start there, also contacting valve or basically anyone who would listen and mention it as being a patch for Deus Ex and that it is the 'lastest community multiplayer patch' if its not official meaning people searching for the deus ex multiplayer patch can get the latest version which is what they would look for, my first edition of the game never included multiplayer and i searched for just that

With unreal when i started searching for the latest patch lead me to 227 as in its base form does not support a server browser.

Jacob

I can create client side mod that supports multiple masterservers. Give me list of masterservers we will be going to use and I will include them all.

Mine is as above:

master2.oldunreal.com UDP uplink port is 27500, TCP query port is 25900

I ask if server hosters could also uplink to it, I have contacted zora on the nepthys issue as well, hopefully it can be resolved

Jacob

whats the catch of using non-standardized port number?

As my unreal one is already taking up the default ports

Okay, I made a mod for standard non-MTLed dx client (for MTLed client, mod will follow). Support for up to 8 masterservers, which are queried simultaneously so there is no speed degradation.

Current list of masterservers is following:
Give me more addresses, if you would like to host MS in near future. The more we have, the better and less chance the game dies out.

Since we probably have only 1 attempt to make the "patch", it has to be rock solid, with no bugs, thus I added only multiple MS support, nothing else. Will give mod out to be tested soon.

Like I said, I am doing support for default DX game + MTLed game (in case you have MTL installed). For people who have mmuserinterface, you need to talk to alex to make adjustment in it to support multiple MSs.

Please, test it and let me know of any issues. Will add more ms addresses on request. Once it is confirmed as rock solid with no bugs, I will create .exe installer (will have to do it with no .NET to make sure it is runnable on win2k+ even without .NET framework).

This mod is for stock and MTLed DX, just choose appropriate file (follow instructions in readme.txt).

http://freeweb.t-2.net/dev1/files/mms_1.0.0.zip

It seems to work smoothly actually, and I tested and commented out the original MS settings in the INI as well, seems to be working smooth
I cannot find where the actual MS for this mod are configured, are they hardwired as a default value in the mod?

Tested on windows 7 64 bit and windows server 2008 64 bit.

Now smirf the owner of oldunreal and oldunreal.com need some credit, he has made my unreal one an official unreal MS and he added the IP of my server to the DNS of oldunreal.com as master2.oldunreal.com. The effort oldunreal and smirf have put into Unreal which I also LOVE is astounding.

I assisted them last year to fix a couple of serious bugs, although I will not disclose what the bugs were for or anything here. Bugs i actually found through my own experimentation. Following in their footsteps we have a good chance if gamespy were to go, that we have a chance of keeping the community alive, effort is needed though on our part, its a matter of time before GS goes! editing the wiki page in the event gamespy were to go is crucial too, if we waited until it went it would probably be too late to establish backups, even putting a server in the mains erver list before GS goes to let current players know to update is crucial, too.

What we need to test, is if one of the MS in the list is down, then will it freeze or lag? as the MS in there are currently working? say if GS goes then the mod freezes, the early versions of MMUserInterface if bcombine was set to true it would take FOREVER to load the masterserverlist if one was down.

also we need to change the uplink as well with a patch, not just the query side, the installer could add the correct stuff to the INI?