GameSpy closing down

[UT99.org]

There should be some ini lines for it, never knew you could define columns like that though, interesting

[Dr.Flay]

It will be worth people reporting any more tabs that are failing so we can compile a list of fixes.

[noccer]

Good spot. I just noticed that my in-game browser won't work with some game categories now. If I enumerate the "UT Servers" list there are not problems. If I select, say, "Rocket Arena" then it tries to connect to the Gamespy master and fails. Not sure why this is (why it's trying to use the GS master I mean).

I knew that will happen.....

I opened the RocketArena.u with a text editor and found out that it adds a line to the UT.ini

äEÕ ½³­ªe| x]Rocket Arena: All Maps m]°nRocketArena.UBrowserModFact,GameType=AnyMapRocketArenaGame,bCompatibleServersOnly=True,MasterServerAddress=master0.gamespy.com,MasterServerTCPPort=28900,Region=0,GameName=ut m!m! b S = ÂÉ XÅRocketArena - Weapon Configuration m! @ m!m! € m!m! b V < ÂÉ CÅRocketArena - Rules Configuration m! |" @ m!m!ï{"

So just find this part in your ut.ini:
RocketArena.UBrowserModFact,GameType=AnyMapRocketArenaGame,bCompatibleServersOnly=True,MasterServerAddress=master0.gamespy.com,MasterServerTCPPort=28900,Region=0,GameName=ut

[ShaiHulud]

Ah-huh! Thanks for the feedback. I'll reply again if I find any other similar issues

[UT99.org]

I'd like to hear from darkalarious at this point. Is he now taking new servers directly from the Epic server, or are the people who deleted gamespy in favor of his server going to not get new servers

[Dr.Flay]

Good find noccer.
If you just search your ini file for all occurrences of "master0.gamespy.com" that should solve it ayway, but does running the RA mod overwrite it again ?
Other mods create their own ini files so often you need to look there.


Unfortunately Darkelarious is out of the country and regular contact, so you won't hear any personal comment on that for a while.
If he does login, he is more likely to check his own site and the sites he uses more often. He has to be emailed or PMd to visit here when people ask stuff. As he previously said, this site is not part of his regular interests or schedule.
However as the 333nw PR I can comment on his behalf.

1st Why would anyone only have 333 as a master anyway. I thought we sorted that
Unless they were misled by someone
Yes Epic results are available to any other master, and as such will list in the 333 browser. Anyone can simply look themselves rather than ask Darkelarious http://master.333networks.com/ut

Anyone that followed the instructions, repeatedly provided on many sites and forums, will have at least 3 masters in their config including one of the 2 Epic masters.
I have repeatedly said "Anyone relying on only 333networks, or any one master as their sole connection, is either an idiot, didn't read the instructions, or still bug testing."
Anyone doing it properly should have had GameSpy, Epic and 333 as their main masters, so will not have noticed the lack of GS or either of the others.
The only people telling anyone to replace all working masters with one 333nw master, obviously don't understand, or are trying to create mischief and mistrust with a view to splitting a fragmenting community.
Why create an legion of masters, if you want everyone to use only 1 ?

[UT99.org]

I thought he said he wasn't going to scan epic's list with robots once gamespy shut down, and said it on these forums. I'll have to find his quote now that you've said he is

Not sure what you mean by this... as their PR manager maybe you can explain it in lay terms to me

Yes Epic results are available to any other master, and as such will list in the 333 browser. Anyone can simply look themselves rather than ask Darkelarious http://master.333networks.com/ut

And there was a guy or two telling people on their forums to add 333networks, remove gamespy, and disable their game client from 'calling home' and refreshing default master servers from epic's site automaticially

[Jetlag]

Seems the MonsterHunt and the MonsterArena tabs are also not updating after pressing F5
Luckily I have the servers I play on in my favs list..

[Wises]

epic has mentioned something about these things here :
http://www.unrealtournament.com/blog/ut ... -shutdown/

may help.

[UT99.org]

Seems the MonsterHunt and the MonsterArena tabs are also not updating after pressing F5
Luckily I have the servers I play on in my favs list..

Scan your ini files, they are probably in UnrealTournament.ini, if not then look in other ini files.

replace all instances of "master0.gamespy.com" with "utmaster.epicgames.com"

done.

[Jetlag]

I changed the ut.ini and the default.ini and scanned all of my .ini files in my system folder.. But it still says master0.gamespy.com when I F5 under the monsterhunt tab... ( Something I'm missing?? I have unreal.... and utmaster, and 333netowrks listed in the .ini file... Any more suggestions??

[Dr.Flay]

Do you use Xbrowser ?
If so, you need to edit Xbrowser.ini
I just installed MH and it updates fine for me, with around 50 servers.


OK. I have looked at the differences in-game, and it shows different results.
333nw: 550 - Epic: 563 - Combined: 617
The site version shows 665, so only the web version is combining them.
In-game it relies on using both in the config.
It certainly seems that wisely most server admin are doing multiple uplinks as recommended.


I'm not quite sure how many times I explained this but I'll start from the begining;
Originally we were investigating whether the Epic master was actually functioning, because some people said it worked and some said it didn't.
What I got from from Flak was "we have restarted it, please try again", and after the second time, we gave up on the Epic master actually functioning.
We now know it was running in a limited mode only listening for heartbeats, and GS harvested the results to combine with theirs (seems to be normal practice).

When you test a non-functioning master, upon failure of any masters UT re-writes your defaults, and you lose your test settings and gain the other old default masters (inc. gamespy), so you should then see results in the browser after a little delay.
To stop this happening you simply use the standard option "bKeepMasterServer=True"
(Look in you own default.ini and decide how useful the old up and down links are to have added back in)
Some people seem to have latched onto this normal Unreal Engine debug feature as being a focal point, rather than the option it is, or why you would want to use it.
Some people later skimming the info then proceed to spread half a solution, only interested in "how" not "why".
If people have then left themselves with 1 master, they need to go back and finish adding the rest.
The instruction page at 333nw has always contained a list of the known masters, so nobody that read the full info has any excuse to be missing any.
http://web.archive.org/web/201210310332 ... sterserver
And also from the current version, since the gamespy anouncement;

You can consider to remove the other lines as the other master servers are no longer online

Perhaps this is not the best example of English, but it is made quite clear you "keep any that work, and delete any that don't".

Come the doomsday announcement and predicted result, and lack of an update from the last master.
If you had already chosen working masters, but for some reason could not connect, you lose them all and have to edit your config again.
Disabling the master update stops that, and the assumption was there would be nothing running to update from anyway.
(It is the same reason I disabled the updater in Opera 12. I know there will be no more updates, therefore it serves no purpose. However, in just the same way I can re-enable it at any time)

Once Epic finally realised their master was not working as it should, they sent a rep to get details.
Smirftsch gave the details they needed and they got utmaster swapped to an updated master.
I then realised that is not what we have in the original defaults (we actually have unreal, so if your config is free to update and you cannot connect, once you did connect again, you would have an empty browser, and no ability to update.)
So I suggested they also resurrect the original domain they abandoned long ago, as that one is actually more critical, and thankfully they enabled it a few days later (I think Smirftsch spotted it first), so this is why we now have the 2 Epic masters (stupidly running on the same PC).

From the day that Epic re-enabled "unreal.epicgames.com" and not utmaster, it was safe again to allow UT to overwrite your config.
So beyond that point it is still up to you to lock or not lock, for all the difference it makes
Once you are happy with your chosen masters, personally I recommend you lock it, or at some point you will get gamespy and mplayer creeping back in.

My own personal solution to the whole fiasco, which I also gave many times as a more eloquent option;
Edit my defaults to only include useful masters like it is meant to have, so I will always reset to something that works.

The whole thing is a non-issue. A mountain out of a mole-hill.
No other community has had any issue with the transition, maybe because I decided from the beginning to speak directly to the CEOs and head programmers, bypassing paranoia and introducing myself to the communities later.
The companies that make those games are happy and so are their communities.

THE END

[UT99.org]

Surprised other Unreal1 engine games didn't make use of the auto-updating of master servers, like what Epic did with UT. Both Rune and Postal pushed out new patches. Maybe the UBrowser wasn't exactly the same, I tend to think it was and that these companies killed their own games by letting the in-game browser fail and force the users to manually patch their games

[Darkelarious]

Yesterday night I returned from a month in Ukraine (see post). The village where I was, had limited phone coverage and practically no Internet. I highly recommend the middle-of-nowhere village to everyone of you; it is very calming and refreshing to be far away from all the problems in the world, and to go to bed tired from the work you've accomplished (digging potatoes, fishing, feeding the ducks) in the burning sun.

I am now catching up on the events that happened, the Malasyan Airways plane that was shot down by Russians, the American teenager that was popped by police bullets, the Ebola emergency and people that died in the earthquake in China. Coming home and reading this information makes my return feel sour. The shutdown of the Gamespy master server pales in comparison to these events.

I'd like to hear from darkalarious at this point. Is he now taking new servers directly from the Epic server, or are the people who deleted gamespy in favor of his server going to not get new servers

Being a month out of the running leaves me a bit confused, I don't really remember which functions I already finished and which I did not. In my opinion, the content of 333networks is a mess: instructions are not in the right place, and as Dr Flay pointed out, not all my content is an example of proper English. I remember that I had trouble connecting to Epic's UCC masterserver applet, because it does not follow the gamespy protocol to the letter. The UT client seems to have no problem with that, which means that I "am allowed" to bypass the protocol as well. I think this is something I can easily repair on the short term.

I have repeatedly said "Anyone relying on only 333networks, or any one master as their sole connection, is either an idiot, didn't read the instructions, or still bug testing."

Obviously my goal is to be able to index every server of every game and being able to share all of that with everybody. 333networks has always been a hobby, but since the Gamespy announcement, it has been one of the more prominent activities in my professional and personal life. Nonetheless, at 333networks, we are only with a few people working on this thing, and we can not be expected to deliver a professional piece of software that suits everybody's wishes, demands and preferences in a small amount of time.

We keep working on it, and as said, my eventual goal is to have a master server that supports every protocol and every game, shows it on a site and inside the game, open for everybody and available for everybody. In the meanwhile, I would like everybody to keep adding (and -please oh please- organise) suggestions, problems and bugs. Can somebody start a shared document or something like that? I also realized that there is not a single good manual on the 333nw software, which is also something I would like to change in the next weeks. Again, add suggestions, what do you want to know/read in the manual?

Regardless of 333networks, there is another idea I would like to propose, but I need an experienced uscripter to help me with that: an ingame UT mod (window/interface?) that allows you to add/enter a list of different master servers. The mod then gets all (or a selected number of) those master server lists and queries them for UT servers and shows them in the appropriate Ubrowser tabs. Combo: it stores the combined server lists and only updates new servers, removes dead servers.

[UT99.org]

Even though I wouldn't help 333networks, given the master list ripping and rogue unprovoked packets that must be being sent out at a phenomenal rate (enough to catch the interest of the feds)

I wish you luck with your support of other games. Your website will really look good once you add the games that officially endorse you.

I still wish you'd leave UT people alone with all your dodgyness, but I will continue to tell people how to block your unprovoked packets. Epic are here, and we don't need you. Good luck