Battlefield 2142

[Koroush Ghazi]

Thanks for the heads-up. So far they are just generic ads, again not real product ads, and they're purposely using muted colors and generic game-related statements. I'm fairly sure EA is trying to 'warm up' users into accepting these by steadily changing billboards from fake, to semi-fake to real ads.

Here's what they look like now (not my screenshots):





If this is as bad as it got, and if the game came at a 20% discount off its retail price, I could live with it. However I don't believe the real ads will blend in this well, and of course we paid full price for the game. Plus as mentioned before, on some maps there are 26+ ad placeholders, so it's not just a couple of these spread throughout a map.

Note that I just played on Australian servers and there are no ads yet, so it remains to be seen if aussie servers will ever get these.

[Halious]

There is no need to do such things as block specific ports. Vivendi struck a deal with the same ad agency, IGA, and added dynamic adverts into SWAT4 multiplayer quite some time ago.

A packet dump of a SWAT4 play session showed that at the beginning and throughout each round (server map change), the game would query and record all players' looking at the ads by distance/angle/time/wholeness/location.

At the end of each round, a lot of data is sent from the server&clients to the adserver, with details of all players' activities and most importantly viewing of ads, and client queries to download more, new ad images.

As the same company is being used to put ads in 2142, it is very likely the same servers as used by SWAT4 will be used. The method to block them is the same as well.

Add these four lines preceded by the IP into your HOSTS file to block the adserver from your PC, while still being able to connect to the game without a hitch.
127.0.0.1 madserver.net
127.0.0.1 ad.madserver.net
127.0.0.1 imp.madserver.net
127.0.0.1 media.madserver.net

More detailed information on how IGA's in-game dynamic advertisements work.
http://nationalcheeseemporium.org/

[Koroush Ghazi]

I agree that blocking those servers in the hosts file is likely the simplest way to go about it.

However I have to wonder if EA will get sneaky over this. Remember that they track the ads based on a unique user ID. They could do a simple comparison of play time for a user ID vs. tracked advertisements, and if they find a huge disparity between the two, realise that the ads are being blocked and flag your account as being in violation of the EULA. It's probably a longshot they'll go that far, but it's entirely possible.

/EDIT: As it turns out I was mistaken - Australia does have anti-spyware laws which prevent the in-game advertising in BF2142, so it is not enabled in the Australian version of the game. I've updated page 4 of the BF2142 guide with this, and once we have a tried and working simple method of blocking the ads I'll also put details there.

As for the gameplay, I jumped on a server last night but I still find the game can experience strange packet loss (jerkiness/warping) for extended periods of time. I did also get disconnected once as well. I'm not sure when/if these will be resolved, as they're probably the most serious issues facing this game right now.

[manic.half]

i've been playing the demo like mad since release and i just noticed that yesterday. the 'enemy is out there' billboard one.

the current semi-fake ones, i dont mind. they kinda add to the whole story/lore etc.. but i really want to see how the -real- ads look before i buy the game.

which sucks, coz id buy it today if there was no ads ><

edit : i just read the above posts more clearly, i am now going to purchuse the game

[Jofaba]

Hey guys, I know it's hard to take a new member seriously but I wanted to share some information with you that I've learned from experience today:

Sometime between last night and this morning, some people experienced a sudden failure of the "BF2142Launcher.exe" based shortcut used to launch the EAD version of the game. What would happen, is that the launcher and the pace programs would start, and then they'd close, and the game would not open. Or, similiarly, an error message that looks like this would show up:

http://www.jofaba.com/media/pictures...h_somemore.png

As you can see, I was signed into the EA Downloader.

I called EA and they sent me to my ISP (TW/Road Runner). My ISP sent me back to EA. After lots of troubleshooting, EA was unsuccessful in getting the game to work. Also, the guy refused to say whether it could be related to the Intel Core Duo advertisement that was set for launch at 6:00am this morning.

There is a fix, and it came from Kaurvais over at Totalbf2142.com. In comparison to EA's idea of testing dozens of ports at my ISP, clearing out the hidden Anti-piracy folders created by the EAD, and sending me a guide (which I have yet to get) on how to manually uninstall the game including all registry breadcrumbs... all you have to do is run the shortcut once under Windows 2000 Compatibility. After opening the game once, you can set it back to default (no compatibility chosen).

Well, hope that helps anyone who might end up having a similiar problem and comes here looking for help. See you around the forums =)

[manic.half]

i should be getting my copy in the mail today so ill keep that in mind!

Moderator Edit:

Quote removed, its not necessary to quote the entire post specially if your posting directly after it. Please keep this in mind with future post as this helps to keep the threads from expanding so quickly. - 7thSeal

[Jofaba]

Chances are that since you'll be installing after the first ads went live, and after the time change, you'll be fine.

[bonecutter]

Hey everyone, new to the forum but have benefitted from the site for some time now. Thanks to all involved.

I'm having a problem in Titan mode when in the guns. Looking down at vehicles they will disappear at a certain range, even though still well within gun range. I will see pods clearly blasting from an APC, but no APC, or see a player zooming around in a jeep, but not see the jeep, just a floating soldier moving at high speed. I can track a vehicle with the gun and it starts to become ghostlike and then becomes invisible.

I've looked on all the major forums and haven't had any luck. I've optimized the game and Catalyst drivers using your guides and have no problem running most settings on high, other than the ones you suggest putting at medium. I have a 2600m processor running at 3200 speed, as well as an AIW X800XL which is also clocked quite high. I can remove both overclocks and the game still runs quite well with the same settings. Any suggestions?
Thanks

[Jofaba]

The theory is that your field of vision is like an isosolese triangle, with the distance between the base and the tip being shorter than the distance between the center of the base and the edges. This is why you can see them out of the "corner of your eye" (turned away from them) but when you look at them they fade away.

It's been this way since BF2 and I haven't noticed any change in this regardless of whether I'm using the ingame setting of "high" for texture filtering, or if I run it at low and force 16X AF in the nVidia control panel.

As far as I know there's really nothing that can be done. It's a design of the game, not a glitch. However, I've seen this discussed many times and this is the theory that always comes up, but if anyone can prove me wrong I'd be pleased as punch. Or pie. Or... you know what I mean.

Additional Comment:
UPDATE: There's a new issue with the EAD today that many people are experiencing. The EAD is actually being replaced by EA Link. It looks like STEAM with a Mac OS skin. The problem is that for some reason this has caused a CD Key error which hasn't been solved yet. I'll update once it's solved (or I personally experience it).

EDIT: As soon as I posted this and got the "wait 59 seconds" error, my EAD now has an error in the web browser section. Basically, it's a 404 error.

Additional Comment:
UPDATE: Okay guys, if any of you purchased your game through the EAD, chances are you WILL run into the Invalid CD Key error. There is a very easy fix to this that does not require reinstalling the game. Also, I'll tell you how to put your game files into the new folder if you backed up your cache.

1) CD KEY: Go here C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\Battlefield 2142\Support
And click on "Battlefield 2142_code"

Nothing will happen, and by that I mean nothing spectactular. You might see the icon flicker and that should be all.

However, if this does not fix the problem, the only other thing you should have to do is clear out this folder and restart the game:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\PACE Anti-Piracy\License Files

If that doesn't do it for you, someone at Totalbf2142 came up with a more complicated procedure here:

http://www.totalbf2142.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8165

2) Now, to put your backed up game files into the new EA Link software, the first change is that the EAL doesn't use your username as a folder name anymore. Once you've signed into the EAL, you should see a "hotprops" configuration file, and a directory with a name that looks like an encrypted password (and very well might be, I don't know). It's a 32 digit string of numbers and letters either way. Simply copy everything inside of your username folder (your back up) into this new folder. These are the EAC and the EAM files, along with your two "eagamesbf2142online" folders.

Log out then back in (might not be necissary in some cases) and go back to "My Games". Now Battlefield 2142 should say "Ready To Install" instead of "Ready To Download".

Hope that helps.

Additional Comment:
FURTHER UPDATE: I wish I had good news for you but some people are experiencing a Punkbuster kick after about 2 minutes of playing. I have't gamed any tonight so I can't confirm it, but a lot of people are getting a "Duplicate CD Key" kick. This is not because of the fix. Theoretically, getting into a server should clear EA from the issue, which the previous fix addresses. Now it's a punkbuster issue, but it's all due to the change from EAD to EAL. I assume there will be a fix for this in the coming 24 hours, and I'll update you when it's found.

Additional Comment:
I've figured out the PROBABLE fix to the Punkbuster issue by using the EA information and fixing it. You can see the fix at www.Jofaba.com in my latest blog entry.

Additional Comment:
SUPER UPDATE: Fix is documented at my blog: www.jofaba.com

It's a modification of the official EA fix. The value that needs to be altered exists, but not in the spot that EA thinks it does. This fixed the Punkbuster issue for me, but has been limitedly tested. I went into 10 servers for longer than 10 minutes each and had no punkbustere issues.

[manic.half]

maybe thats a distance view problem? what is it set at?