raknet down again?

[Juggernaut]

Yeah and I successfully tested Gameranger using TnTs mod selector to play VSR, it worked! My prior tests had clients try to join, supposedly using the mod selector tool but obviously did something wrong on their end.

[Michael]

What about Hamachi VPN and we all use connect through LAN? I don't know much about it the new version, but my brothers and I used to use it for private games a few years back and it worked fine. Only problem is that everyone would have to d/l it and have access to each others computers. Maybe it is not the most safe method.

[Ded10c]

Hamachi was good if you only needed a few players, but with larger groups it gets less workable. That registration is now required is also a bit of a pain.

[Commando]

I wonder how reliable a stand alone VPN would be. I have a SonicWall I could set up as an experiment.

[Michael]

If you have the time, I guess it could not hurt to try. If MP is unavailable in BZ2 it is literally dead. If you think about it this game is about 15 years old. Just that it has survived this long is a testament to the creators and the game. For it to fall dead because of a lack of MP functionality because of external issues is truly sad.

[Commando]

Yeah, I'm starting to suspect raknet was just the final nail in the coffin. Over the last two years, I've been able to do my job as a tester maybe 10 times, and that is a generous estimate. It is probably closer to 5. Noone on the testing team cares to contribute, as it appears, and I've pretty much given up personally as a result.

It's the main reason I don't touch this game anymore. I haven't really touched any of the recycler variants in years, as I don't see a point.

[Red Devil]

Like Oddball says, sometimes you just have to have a little faith:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IatwoA00E0

and "stop with the neg-a-tive waves!"

[General BlackDragon]

I'm always up for a test game, if I know there's one up.

[MrTwosheds]

Yeah, I'm starting to suspect raknet was just the final nail in the coffin. Over the last two years, I've been able to do my job as a tester maybe 10 times, and that is a generous estimate. It is probably closer to 5. Noone on the testing team cares to contribute, as it appears, and I've pretty much given up personally as a result.

Organizing testing has been a problem for a long time, mostly it is due to simply not having the critical mass of people willing and capable of making it work. Public Beta experiments failed utterly. And lets face it a sizable proportion of the community is still having its attitude to the project and its contributors deliberately poisoned.
I think the real final nail was failing to get the game into a legally downloadable position, without fresh blood coming in, it was always going to be a downhill journey.

[Michael]

I am always willing to play, but I don't have any time until maybe 9pm EST. I started this the first year it came out while I was in college. Then after, I used to play a ton before I got married two years ago, now that i am in my mid 30's I really don't have much time to play. I am sad about that because this game was such a big part of my life (maybe that in itself is sad, haha). But I am up for a game anytime someone wants to host.

[Michael]

So I am confused. On raknet's site, it says it is open source now. Doesn't that mean we can just find a physical server to host the raknet engine?

[Commando]

I don't believe the server is open-sourced.

[AI_Unit]

I'm assuming there's going to be a solution to this problem?

[Ded10c]

There are at least two community developers working on reverse-engineering BZ2's networking system and comparing it to the RakNET source to create a replacement. According to the PM I received a few minutes ago, one of them may be on the verge of succeeding.

[Juggernaut]

Confirmed to work (workaround script hosted by Kebbz at: gamelist.kebbz.com)
It's now working!

Quick version of instructions:
Open @BZ2ROOT/addon/config/localprefs.ini and add the line under [UserPrefs]:
MasterServerAddress="gamelist.kebbz.com"

http://bz2maps.us/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4829

Thank you Kebbz and Vearie