Howdy, it's cajunwolf from over at BFSP.
Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2012 4:06 am
Howdy fellow modders.
I see a few names here I recognize and some of the older modders probably remember me from way back in all the old forums. I now run Battlefieldsingleplayer since July 2009 when Game-spew sold out and the new owner decided to dump all the free subdomains Game-spew had provided to the BF community. Everybody (members) was in a tail spin and were moving to a free forum deal and griping about loosing years of accumulated bf/bfv/bf2 modding data. I noticed (being an observant type of fellow) no one had the domain name. Well I snagged that puppy up and managed to get a backup of the sight and database, which was like pulling teeth from a rooster I will tell you! It seems Game-spew had locked down their db admin link in the cpanel as they had been hacked to many times and were considered a risk. Add to this no one had been or knew how to bkup the db so had relied on Game-Spew's backups when they did them. I got a older backup from GS and took down the db as it was on forum closure table by table (I am shocked here by GS's lack of server security, as it let me install a copy of phpmyadmin and access the db , you know I could have been a bad boy ) and, with the aid of FourCentsShy we managed to merge the two and get everything back up with minimal loss of post data. We have not been hacked since, crossing my fingers. Just good security. We have a copy of IPBoard (older copy, but good forum software btw) so they are a bit different in some stuff. Anyhow many members pitched in and we rebuilt the old site even better than before. I will keep her going as long as there are Battlefield fans and modders out there and perhaps even longer as I already host 27 domains so cost is not an issue. After all almost every BF AI coder worth his salt started and learned his trade at BFSP so in a way I am preserving a legend not just a site. LoL, I don't even remember anymore how many different mods I did AI for now-day's, there were so many back in then. I did a lot for DC, DCX, FH, 1918, BG42 and GC just to name a few. I lost count on how many maps I added ai to but it is 200+.
That's why I am glad to see this site still up and running too as I do still love this old game. I see from reading the post y'all faced kind of the same situation and were on top of things by getting the domain and backups. Good job and I still find some of the older sites up and running as well as new ones. Long live Battlefield 1942 and BFV! I like BF2, don't get me wrong but it's just such a pain in the but to map and mod. Besides they pretty much automated the AI to a point you were limited with modifications. Oh and a navmesh is such a PAIN! With BF42 the AI is totally manual and on a modern machine with a lot of horsepower the bots can be over powering. I started mapping right after getting the game when it came out as mapping is my first love. I rarely finish maps but, hey the fun is in the creation (my ADHD could have something to do with it). I met Arc D Wrath on the old FPS forums back in the days and discovered the bf ai gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. Coin Coin was well along with ED42 and Rex had made some scripts to where we could convert the pathmaps to terrain and hand paint them in ED42. Our conversions were crude in the days because no one understood the pathmapping system fully until FourCentsShy and Arcing Lazer both discovered the secrets to the "smallones" files about the same time. Both created tools and FourCentsShy's genpathmaps owns the show. He also has a work in progress called the "Battlefield Swiss Army Knife" or "bfsak" for short that combines genpathmaps with other features such as a smallones editor. I have a copy and will upload it with a tutorial on it's use, just remember it is a beta. I chat with FourCentsShy often. I also worked with Benji on the development of the "Botinator" and Hellisher on BattlefieldSingleplayer Creator at BFSP.
As to real life, I try to avoid it. I am a small business owner (small is the key word here) and do computers (repairs and sales of used high end workstations and laptops), websites and management of same (latter being preferred), databases, CMS back-ends, and inventory systems to name a few. Actually anything I can make a buck at now-day's that keeps a roof over the families head and food on the table. The small business environment is TUFF right now. How did I get into gaming one might ask? Well I raised a bunch of boys and that should explain it. Looking back on all the money I have spent over the years on custom gaming machines and video cards I could be driving a nice BMW. As noted I am an old fart and will be 59 going on 16 come this December. I don't bite and y'all better pick my brains before the buzzards pick my bones!
Sincerely,
cajunwolf
I see a few names here I recognize and some of the older modders probably remember me from way back in all the old forums. I now run Battlefieldsingleplayer since July 2009 when Game-spew sold out and the new owner decided to dump all the free subdomains Game-spew had provided to the BF community. Everybody (members) was in a tail spin and were moving to a free forum deal and griping about loosing years of accumulated bf/bfv/bf2 modding data. I noticed (being an observant type of fellow) no one had the domain name. Well I snagged that puppy up and managed to get a backup of the sight and database, which was like pulling teeth from a rooster I will tell you! It seems Game-spew had locked down their db admin link in the cpanel as they had been hacked to many times and were considered a risk. Add to this no one had been or knew how to bkup the db so had relied on Game-Spew's backups when they did them. I got a older backup from GS and took down the db as it was on forum closure table by table (I am shocked here by GS's lack of server security, as it let me install a copy of phpmyadmin and access the db , you know I could have been a bad boy ) and, with the aid of FourCentsShy we managed to merge the two and get everything back up with minimal loss of post data. We have not been hacked since, crossing my fingers. Just good security. We have a copy of IPBoard (older copy, but good forum software btw) so they are a bit different in some stuff. Anyhow many members pitched in and we rebuilt the old site even better than before. I will keep her going as long as there are Battlefield fans and modders out there and perhaps even longer as I already host 27 domains so cost is not an issue. After all almost every BF AI coder worth his salt started and learned his trade at BFSP so in a way I am preserving a legend not just a site. LoL, I don't even remember anymore how many different mods I did AI for now-day's, there were so many back in then. I did a lot for DC, DCX, FH, 1918, BG42 and GC just to name a few. I lost count on how many maps I added ai to but it is 200+.
That's why I am glad to see this site still up and running too as I do still love this old game. I see from reading the post y'all faced kind of the same situation and were on top of things by getting the domain and backups. Good job and I still find some of the older sites up and running as well as new ones. Long live Battlefield 1942 and BFV! I like BF2, don't get me wrong but it's just such a pain in the but to map and mod. Besides they pretty much automated the AI to a point you were limited with modifications. Oh and a navmesh is such a PAIN! With BF42 the AI is totally manual and on a modern machine with a lot of horsepower the bots can be over powering. I started mapping right after getting the game when it came out as mapping is my first love. I rarely finish maps but, hey the fun is in the creation (my ADHD could have something to do with it). I met Arc D Wrath on the old FPS forums back in the days and discovered the bf ai gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. Coin Coin was well along with ED42 and Rex had made some scripts to where we could convert the pathmaps to terrain and hand paint them in ED42. Our conversions were crude in the days because no one understood the pathmapping system fully until FourCentsShy and Arcing Lazer both discovered the secrets to the "smallones" files about the same time. Both created tools and FourCentsShy's genpathmaps owns the show. He also has a work in progress called the "Battlefield Swiss Army Knife" or "bfsak" for short that combines genpathmaps with other features such as a smallones editor. I have a copy and will upload it with a tutorial on it's use, just remember it is a beta. I chat with FourCentsShy often. I also worked with Benji on the development of the "Botinator" and Hellisher on BattlefieldSingleplayer Creator at BFSP.
As to real life, I try to avoid it. I am a small business owner (small is the key word here) and do computers (repairs and sales of used high end workstations and laptops), websites and management of same (latter being preferred), databases, CMS back-ends, and inventory systems to name a few. Actually anything I can make a buck at now-day's that keeps a roof over the families head and food on the table. The small business environment is TUFF right now. How did I get into gaming one might ask? Well I raised a bunch of boys and that should explain it. Looking back on all the money I have spent over the years on custom gaming machines and video cards I could be driving a nice BMW. As noted I am an old fart and will be 59 going on 16 come this December. I don't bite and y'all better pick my brains before the buzzards pick my bones!
Sincerely,
cajunwolf