FreeGST *BETA* Release v0.9u1

[Eyes Only]

THIS PROJECT IS NO LONGER SUPPORTED (due to the germs releasing gameranger and zero interest)

It's finally here, I am finally ready to release the project me and a bunch of people have been working on for the past few years. We have a drop-in replacement for gamespy up and running based on openspy-core targeting swbfront2. Here is the info doc included in the zip. I'm surprised it kept my shiny UTF8 ansi art.

GAMESPY ACCOUNT SUPPORT IS INCOMPLETE. CREATING AN ACCOUNT WILL NOT WORK. INSTEAD, YOU SHOULD LOG IN WITH *ANY* EMAIL AND USERNAME (email doesnt have to be real) WITH PASSWORD "freegst"
the username you chose will be the name you play as, the email is irrelevant

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FreeGST v09 Beta Release
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http://freegst.org

theres probably no page here *yet* ;)

What Is This?
-------------

This is a public BETA release of several executables which will allow you to
continue to play SWBFRONT2 online without the need for third party VPN software
such as tunngle, gameranger, etc. It is intended as a drop-in replacement for
the game's current executable (make sure to back up your old exe first) which
will offload all gamespy functions to our FreeGST project server. Several other
changes have been made, for details, see the What's new section.

As of this writing (6/2/2014) we have the lobby fully functional with
rudimentary gamespy account support. The lobby is also FASTER than the official
gamespy lobby, and is intended to be a seamless replacement.

Right now, service is unstable due to frequent upgrades to the back-end services.

Reboots without warning are possible!

Trouble? Read the FAQ at the bottom!

What's new?
-----------
+Release based on intl client 1.1. It functions the same as the NA client but
is more refined. Lowercase menu items and such, multiple language support, etc.

+All executables have been updated to near latest versions of Bryant's patches
which patch various exploits and such.

+Client has chat color fix integrated? along with Bryant's patches. See SWGO forums.

+VA is proud to release our previously private InstaSpawn server modification. The
server will spawn clients every 0.5s instead of every 15s. This speeds up the game
dramatically and tends to be very chaotic and fun. Executable is found in the
subdirectory labeled "Insta" and is RED.

+Server contains a near current version of Bryant's Server patch which patches
several exploits and increases the banlist to 240. This is used on SWGO servers.

+SHINY NEW Clone Head Icon has been added. The old icon was monstrous and ugly.
   -Client is a nice blue
   -Server is grey
   -Insta server is RED

+Rudimentary Gamespy Account support. Gamespy account creation doesn't work, but you
can log in with any email and username.

THE PASSWORD TO LOG INTO GAMESPY FOR ALL ACCOUNTS IS "freegst" WITHOUT QUOTES

+Leaderboards have been converted into a series of info docs outlining the
project, where to get more info, credits, etc.


How To Use These EXEs
---------------------

1. Back up your current BattlefrontII.exe to a safe place.

2. Replace (drag and drop) the old exe with the updated one.

3. Start the game and play!

Caveats/Troubleshooting/Faq/Hints/Tips/Etc.
-------------------------------------------

+This update will happily work with *ANY* v1.1 copy of SWBFront2 INCLUDING Steam.

+Check the leaderboards often. Useful information will be posted there when
available.

+Star Wars Battlefront II is natively portable. It can be started on any computer
anywhere without needing to be installed.

+If you are getting the error "Could Not Connect To Gamespy Services" or something
similar, try "freegst" as the password. no quotes.

+ANY username and email address will work to log into gamespy.

+Gamespy login is not required. Bypass this by clicking the "Join" tab after it
redirects you to log into gamespy.

+This shouldn't be required as all servers should show up as all regions, but if
you find no servers showing up, try toggling "show all regions" in the "Online"
options menu.

+Don't mute the game. Your framerate will suffer.


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Sends Greetz & Special thanks to:
----------------------------------
SWGO (matt, nite, otto, others)
JOG (jeff, mastaisac, orion, chicali)
Ashfire908 (venerable neckbeardless sysadmin)
CHC (original coder)
Luigi Auriemma (aluigi.altervista.org)
Openspy (base)
My VA minions (drai, jake, bryant)
RAPTOR (long live the royal family)
SR (14 and others)

Updated Greetz list will be in-game on the leaderboard somewhere.

Please consider donating to keep this game and service alive!

Known Issues in this release:
Banning someone will crash the server (fixed in update 1, issue caused by my shiny new icons)
When the server crashes, freegst entry gets stuck.(not sure if u1 fixes this)

Current Document Index for the leaderboard pages are as follows:
Conquest = MotD page
1 Flag CTF = Credits (horribly incomplete, will become a Known Issues page soon)
2 Flag CTF = TBA
Assault = TBA
Elimination (scroll down) = TBA (will probably become credits)



Download Links
-------------------------------------------


For all you tinfoil hat wearers, read Google Drive's Security section HERE, particularly the part about viruses.

[(SWGO)DesertEagle]

Nice job guys.

I have to get back into the game.

Heh, not only replacing an existing service but making it better.

[Draigun]

Also, when we started to build off of OpenSpy core, it contained quite a lot of bugs and general performance issues. We took the time to iron them out, and optimized the build simultaneously. Everything is better than it was before, and for once, we actually removed the useless Leaderboard and replaced it with useful, dynamic information.

[Eyes Only]

Also, when we started to build off of OpenSpy core, it contained quite a lot of bugs and general performance issues. We took the time to iron them out, and optimized the build simultaneously. Everything is better than it was before, and for once, we actually removed the useless Leaderboard and replaced it with useful, dynamic information.

the leaderboard is a bit of a hack, but swbfront2 doesnt have its own useful MotD Feature. I figured i could integrate a nice News, faq, credits sections and such relative to the different game modes.

[deadmeow]

hurray! thanks for the hard work!

[Mike4Real]

If I wanted to say, host a PS2 server on the FreeGST list, would the mod to the .exe look something like this:

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Find:
%s.ms%d.gamespy.com
Replace with:
%s%d.freegst.org

Find:
%s.master.gamespy.com
Replace with:
%s.freegst.org

Find:
%s.available.gamespy.com
Replace with:
%s.freegst.org

I haven't looked into the file you guys have made yet, but is that what we would need to do?

Also if then I wanted to then see the FreeGST list on my PS2, what would I change my DNS address to? Does 192.73.236.205 seem correct?

[CommanderOtto]

wow man that is awesome. I will try to use it soon and see what happens.

[Draigun]

If I wanted to say, host a PS2 server on the FreeGST list [...]

We are not planning to extend support for the PS2 aspect of SWBF2, simply because the activity there has unfortunately diminished to the point where playing online is no longer enjoyable.

To answer your other question, replace gamespy.com with freegst.org (the domain was crafted to make this fit happily in the executable), i.e. master.gamespy.com becomes master.freegst.org, natneg2.gamespy.com becomes natneg2.freegst.org, etc etc..

Also, we may work out a bug-report page of some sort, but for the time being, please post bugs that you think are worthy for the attention from the dev team. Obviously the project is still under heavy development, so we hopefully will purge most of these bugs.

[Mike4Real]

We are not planning to extend support for the PS2 aspect of SWBF2, simply because the activity there has unfortunately diminished to the point where playing online is no longer enjoyable.

Indeed I have heard from both Eyes and Ash that there were no initial plans to support PS2 servers being hosted on your list, however when I asked them if it could/would work given that we have the ability to change our DNS address they both responded that it should function in theory.

I would also like to contend the second part of your statement. While the activity in public servers of PS2 online isn't comparable number-wise to the PC version, the game is definitely still enjoyable. From what I can tell, it seems that a large amount of PC activity is based on huge public servers which are usually full or close to it. That's awesome, but its not how PS2 players observe activity anymore. Most of PS2 gameplay is in the form of scheduled clan matches from the BFC site or other various Jedi sites like JOG or V. This, along with maybe 1-2 remaining popular public servers makes for plenty of activity to make the platform worth supporting.

Now, I realize that it may require some additional configuration on your end to allow the servers to be placed on the list, but I am assuming this work will be minimal. If it is based of OpenSpy, and OpenSpy originally had PS2 in mind, I don't think it would be that much. Again these are all assumptions and I could be completely off base but I don't think it would be that hard. I have also talked to a handful of PS2 players that would be more than willing to donate to this project if our platform was supported.

[Hobo]

If I ever play this game again I'll have a place to go, gj eyes.