[bf1942] Punkbuster confirmed for 1.6

[David Harrison]

I agree with everyone that has said this is a good move - there's basically
no way you can look at it as anything other, in my opinion. We run PB on all
the game types that support it - not only is it a boon from an anti-cheat
perspective, but it adds signficant amounts of functionality from an
administrative perspective that many developers leave out.

>Ugh, poo.  Those of us who host Half-Life know how much punkbuster
>sucked.  :/  I for one am not happy to have to deal with this again.

This was because Valve would never give PunkBuster enough low-level access
to the code to actually make it work properly. Developers with a clue,
however, appreciate the importance of anti-cheating and integrate PunkBuster
in at a level at which in can provide the most functionality. Seriously,
VAC? Give me PunkBuster any day.

> The main problems we have seen is PB's issues with multiple servers
> running from one instance, it doesn't like it; due to the way it was
> designed I was told then I mailed their tech support.

I assume you're setting a +fs_homepath for each individual server? This
works fine now, at least in all Q3 engine games (not sure about the UT
engine ones, which barely seem to work anyway).

> update fails half the time ( download server bandwidth issues? ) and
> you have to manually patch it. Also the CPU load increases for games
> that have recently implemented it have also caused problems.

The update problem happened to me once with a few games when I first
installed them - since then it has worked flawlessly. Also, I'd happily
sacrifice a bit of CPU for the security of having at least SOME quality of
anti-cheat, combined with the administrative functionality there.

Again, this is a great move and I applaud Dice/EA for making this decision -
I look forward to seeing it in the next patch.

-- trog


---- Original Message ----
From: "Alex" <SantaHomer at web.de>
To: <bf1942 at icculus.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2003 2:53 AM
Subject: Re: [bf1942] Punkbuster confirmed for 1.6

>
> alex
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: Andreas Fredriksson
>   To: 'bf1942 at icculus.org'
>   Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 5:46 PM
>   Subject: RE: [bf1942] Punkbuster confirmed for 1.6
>
>
>   Well, I did the PB integration and carefully throttled the bandwidth
>   so that you'll hardly notice PB updates as a player on an ISDN link.
>
>   The BF integration is unique in this regard because screenshots and
>   net speeds for PB are all throttled by the game's own network layer.
>
>   I can't see the point in complaining about lag until you've even
>   tried the system.
>
>   // Andreas
>
>   > -----Original Message-----
>   > From: www clan - Starkness [mailto:starkness at wwwclan.com]
>   > Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 5:15 PM
>   > To: bf1942 at icculus.org
>   > Subject: RE: [bf1942] Punkbuster confirmed for 1.6
>   >
>   >
>   > Sad but true.  When you try to update their client or server
>   > side software patches through your console in the game
>   > (sof2), it takes forever for their servers to respond and
>   > send you the patch.  I have watched pings soar in SOF2 from
>   > 40's and 50's to never below 100 and this affected everyone
>   > playing the game, after punkbuster took over.  Their
>   > technique of catching punk ass bitches is paying off in some
>   > circles, i.e..  a whole slew of punks from top clans were
>   > removed from CAL sof2 ladder just recently because of being
>   > caught by pb.  There are pro's and con's to pb but it took a
>   > lot of the fun out of SOF2 because lag is attributed to their
>   > overloaded jacked-up servers/lousy connection?
>   >
>   > Thank God other games are just on the horizon.  IMHO bf1942
>   > is going to suck after pb takes over...
>   >
>   > my $.02
>   >
>   >
>   >
>   > -----Original Message-----
>   > From: Steven Hartland [mailto:killing at barrysworld.com]
>   > Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 7:24 AM
>   > To: bf1942 at icculus.org
>   > Subject: Re: [bf1942] Punkbuster confirmed for 1.6
>   >
>   >
>   > Time will only tell but from my experiences with PB it causes
>   > more problems for the admin than it solves :(
>   >
>   >     Steve / K
>   > ----- Original Message -----
>   > From: "SySt3M" <syst3m at downclan.com>
>   > To: <bf1942 at icculus.org>
>   > Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 12:16 PM
>   > Subject: Re: [bf1942] Punkbuster confirmed for 1.6
>   >
>   >
>   > > I'm the same, I think its great that DICE are at least
>   > addressing the
>   > issue.
>   > >
>   > > >i disagree
>   >
>   >