Please.... block all UT2004 demo servers from the Master Server...

[grice]

I'm sure it has been suggested before but please.....will Epic consider blocking all UT2004 demo servers from Master Server List (& Stats)?

At this point in time, 5 years after the release of UT2004, why are the demo servers still allowed to show up in the master server list? Why are stats from demo clients still allowed in the official stats? I really believe it's time to just kill the demo servers completely. Allowing demo servers to exist and demo clients to play online was always, imo, a great mistake. They never served any useful purpose other than to have the effect of cannibalising the retail servers of players while allowing the aimbotters to cheat unchecked (and for free too!), since demo clients can be kicked but not permanently banned. I will go so far to say that the demo servers were and are just a cancer on the retail game. Aimbotting on UT2004 demoes these days is far worse than ever. One google search reveals dls for UT2004 aimbots everywhere, including at a certain major game file site which was the subject of some April 1st fun recently....

Basically, non retail, non antitcc servers should not be considered legitimate servers and shouldn't be allowed to show up in the official browser list.

I don't believe Epic no longer cares about UT2004. If they didn't care, why would they keep the Master server up at all?

[Piglet]

There certainly seems to have been a massive surge in aimbotting on demo servers. I was unable to find a single Onslaught game on any sub 100 ping server the other day which did not have a blatant botter.

I decided to hang around and make fun of a particularly bad botter on one server - who then switched on speedhack and was unable to walk in the direction he wanted. One of the other players said, "Hang on - I'll bot him off the server", and loaded one themselves to target the other botter. Bot wars ensued.....

It wasn't a pretty sight.


I guess this thread will probably be deleted though. It's a shame - because these botters and demo servers are somewhat spoiling the remaining play this game has in it.

Thankfully there are retail servers servers such as at Titan with active admins around where other game modes can be safely played.

For freon, this is one of the best Euro places to play:

http://piglet.titaninternet.co.uk/cg...an.pl?server=3

[INIQUITOUS]

Demo servers must exist (atleast to start with), but 5 years on they should probably be shut down. It can only be good for the environment? (our planet). But I definately do not agree with "non antitcc servers should not be considered legitimate". Antitcc appears to lock my mouse axis 95% of the time and I constantly get flagged as having illegal files etc... Which is not true. I even got flagged on a clean install. So antitcc is something I really can't play with unfortunately.

I must say I have started to dabble in onslaught and was amazed at how many players seem to be cheating and at how many things wrong with the game type.

Don't play on servers with cheaters, just stick to the good servers, and its true Titan is one of the best imo

[grice]

But I definately do not agree with "non antitcc servers should not be considered legitimate". Antitcc appears to lock my mouse axis 95% of the time and I constantly get flagged as having illegal files etc... Which is not true. I even got flagged on a clean install. So antitcc is something I really can't play with unfortunately.

I must say I have started to dabble in onslaught and was amazed at how many players seem to be cheating and at how many things wrong with the game type.

Don't play on servers with cheaters, just stick to the good servers, and its true Titan is one of the best imo

Only version 3369 servers, with or without antitcc then, because, yes, I've also seen players getting timed out by the latest version with some message like "insecure client" or something and they are certainly not cheating. Maybe the latest version of antitcc has some bug. But the whole point is that the demo servers with people being allowed to play and cheat (for free!) is just a rot on the good servers and players who legitimately brought the game which needs to be cut away. There's not much of the UT2004 scene left, why is there still a need for demo servers?

[grice]

I decided to hang around and make fun of a particularly bad botter on one server - who then switched on speedhack and was unable to walk in the direction he wanted. One of the other players said, "Hang on - I'll bot him off the server", and loaded one themselves to target the other botter. Bot wars ensued.....

At a particular CTF demo server, there's this ridiculous daily "running battle" between one of the regular admins and a regular aimbotter. Basically, aimbotter keeps joining; admin keeps kicking ... ad infinitum .. until match ends.

[GreatEmerald]

Only version 3369 servers, with or without antitcc then, because, yes, I've also seen players getting timed out by the latest version with some message like "insecure client" or something and they are certainly not cheating. Maybe the latest version of antitcc has some bug.

Yea, it often marks me as insecure too... I'm a coder, I script things, so I get kicked because of "unknown loaded packages". Of course there are unknown packages, I made them myself! What the hell! And it also keeps kicking for things like announcers, especially the UC2 announcer. To be able to join any servers, I had to remove the package completely... Again, WTH?

At a particular CTF demo server, there's this ridiculous daily "running battle" between one of the regular admins and a regular aimbotter. Basically, aimbotter keeps joining; admin keeps kicking ... ad infinitum .. until match ends.

Maybe admin needs a "kickbot"?

[HornDog]

Yea, it often marks me as insecure too... I'm a coder, I script things, so I get kicked because of "unknown loaded packages". Of course there are unknown packages, I made them myself! What the hell! And it also keeps kicking for things like announcers, especially the UC2 announcer. To be able to join any servers, I had to remove the package completely... Again, WTH?

If you know that your test scripts are flagged by AntiTCC maybe you should consider a second "clean" install of UT2004 for online gaming.

[HornDog]

At a particular CTF demo server, there's this ridiculous daily "running battle" between one of the regular admins and a regular aimbotter. Basically, aimbotter keeps joining; admin keeps kicking ... ad infinitum .. until match ends.

A friend of mine has a Gore server that has no GUID system. A coder made a stand alone program that kicks players with an inputted IP as soon as they try to join. They get the hint pretty fast. An added benefit is giving the admin a rest. I don't know if it will work with UT2004Demo but I'll ask.

[GreatEmerald]

If you know that your test scripts are flagged by AntiTCC maybe you should consider a second "clean" install of UT2004 for online gaming.

That's true, but the problem is that I have Anthology, and it won't let me install it the second time, except if I extract it from the DVD...

A friend of mine has a Gore server that has no GUID system. A coder made a stand alone program that kicks players with an inputted IP as soon as they try to join. They get the hint pretty fast. An added benefit is giving the admin a rest. I don't know if it will work with UT2004Demo but I'll ask.

Oh hey, so it is a kickbot!

[INIQUITOUS]

If you know that your test scripts are flagged by AntiTCC maybe you should consider a second "clean" install of UT2004 for online gaming.

I already tried that and still get flagged by antitcc. I've already brought this up on the antitcc thread but no one seemed bothered

[HornDog]

I already tried that and still get flagged by antitcc. I've already brought this up on the antitcc thread but no one seemed bothered

They must be finding disallowed files or unknown classes on you other installed game. I don't know how that could happen if the game is not running. You have to admit AntiTCC is persistent in finding questionable content. To bad the "word we can't use" is still happening as bad as it is.

[grice]

A friend of mine has a Gore server that has no GUID system. A coder made a stand alone program that kicks players with an inputted IP as soon as they try to join. They get the hint pretty fast. An added benefit is giving the admin a rest. I don't know if it will work with UT2004Demo but I'll ask.

Well, there's a reason why some people insist on playing only demo servers and say they only have the demo version (all the same GUID). They know that if they played on retail servers with antitcc, they couldn't back up their play and trash talk and will be exposed as cheaters.

On that particular CTF demo, unless one of the admins is there 24/7, the botter just comes in and bots everybody out.

It just seems insane to continue allowing the demo servers in the master server list. If demo servers were blocked, cheaters getting to cheat for free and unstopped will go somewhere else, and probably people who are honest enough to buy the game to continue to play are less likely to cheat. It can only help the community, not that there's a whole lot left of the UT2004 scene.

[GreatEmerald]

An even better thing to do would be to update the demo with IP ban capabilities... Though Epic no longer actively support UT2004, so we'll get updates only after like 6 years

[INIQUITOUS]

It can only help the community, not that there's a whole lot left of the UT2004 scene.

This community is still very big and very active, and so is the UT99 community for that matter. Probably more so than UT3 which most people only care about for level editing purposes. (last time I checked I counted literally 10 servers with people playing. Or was that just 10 people playing. meh who cares right). Anyway my point is despite this being probably the most popular and strongest fps game ever made and I read everywhere epic says how much they are against "that word" and want to do ALL they can to combat it, they actually do very little - but please prove me wrong! please do something about the problem!

[HornDog]

If a Demo server had a non windows firewall installed (zone alarm maybe) all the admin would have to do is put the offending players IP in the firewall and that would be that or at least until the "euphemism" found a new proxy. A Linux server could use the IPtables (I think).