EA Community Update (7/21)
Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 11:03 pm
Huh? Wuh? They stole our idea and commercialized it!!!EA wrote:Community Update – 7/21/05
BF2 Combat Tour of Duty and Ranked Server Admin Program Launches
EA and Planet Combat are pleased to announce two initiatives that have been building up for some time and are now ready to roll: BF2 Combat: The Battlefield 2 Tour of Duty and the Ranked Server Admin Program. Both of these initiatives are provided to the community entirely by the team at Planet Combat, with our blessing.
BF2 Combat, the Battlefield 2 Tour of Duty, is a unique community which will allow players to experience Battlefield 2 as never before. Featuring multiple ten-hour battles every week (of which members can attend as many or as little as they like) the Tour of Duty offers members a hierarchically-structured environment replete with cool features. During signup, people have the option of enlisting to fight for the United States Army or Marine Corps, the Middle Eastern Coalition Armies, or the People's Liberation Army. All divisions offer the same superior game experience. Players can elect to participate in a variety of programs, including an Army Ranger School designed by real US Army Rangers and a wide swath of qualifications. Perhaps the coolest thing about the Tour of Duty is that the world changes dynamically not only after each battle but also after each three month Tour. That means generals are able to decide what areas they will attack next, and the maps played will reflect these decisions. Members will also be able to bring their unlocked weapons in on battle day and will get priority selection for BF2 Combat's public ranked servers.
The Tour of Duty works not only for the hardcore gamer, it's a great environment for those new to the Battlefield Franchise to learn the ropes and to get better. BF2 Combat's clan fusion, allows clans, LAN Centers, or other groups of up to fifty to join and fight as one contiguous unit. Members can also participate in the map-making team, movie production squad, or writers' guild if so inclined, and they're always looking for new ways to improve the system.
European gamers needn't worry. Planet Combat will soon begin offering high-quality Game Daemons servers on both sides of the Atlantic. About 40% of BF2 Combat's members are European, and the Tour is a place to work on English and fight with a team from your own country. Members will also be eligible for GeForce 6800 Ultras from NVIDIA, a complete Alienware system, and Zboards decked out with BF2 key sets! All in all, the Tour of Duty system is one of the most innovative community programs we've seen in a long time and we expect participants will have an outstanding time with it!
Planet Combat will also be setting up regular mini-tours on Friday nights to offer the public a taste of what the Tour is like and to show why you should join. These regular events will feature prizes such as NVIDIA cards and Zboards, and will allow people to play in 64 player, organized fights. Keep checking back here for more info.
I think that shot our chances of getting featured in the community spotlight out of the water.
I couldn't find the Admin program download on that site, but that's the link EA provided.EA wrote:BF2 Ranked Server Admin Program
Lock and load! Playing on ranked servers is about to get a lot more fun! We're pleased to announce the Planet Combat Network Ranked Server Admin program, which has been designed and implemented by Planet Combat and will be coming to you on EA Official Servers worldwide. This unique system will allow all players the opportunity to moderate the experience they are having on our servers and have a positive impact on the communities in which they play. As well as servicing the EA Official Servers, you will also encounter Planet Combat teams on NVIDIA servers, Zboard servers, and Game Daemons servers.
Starting immediately the Planet Combat Admin team will begin to enforce about players breaking the EA's Terms of Service (which all users accepted upon creating their BF2 account), including those exploiting the stat system -- medic cheaters we're looking at you! -- or others exhibiting obnoxious behavior. Players breaking the Terms of Service are subject to kicks, short-term bans and even system-wide permanent bans. Additionally, exploiters will have their stats busted down by EA's Customer Support team.
Our thanks to the Planet Combat team for creating and administrating the program, which should have a profound impact on the end-user playing on EA, nVidia, Zboard and Game Daemons servers.
If you are a game server owner and would like to have your servers administrated as part of this program drop the guys an email at relations@planetcombat.net for more information. If you are interested in helping out the admin program, please check out the forums at BF2 Ranked Servers
MOD Toolkit Update
As some of you have already discovered, rumors of the BF2 MOD Toolkit (editor) being released is starting to spread. Since we all know how rumors are, I thought it would be good to fill everyone in on what’s going on.
Yesterday we reached the point where we felt the editor was finally ready to be released, but in order to be sure we hadn’t missed anything, a final round of testing was in order.
We felt the best way to do this was by giving it to some of the actual mod teams so they could put it through its paces. The problem was that if we released it to all the mod teams, it would be a nightmare trying to organize all the data we would get back, so we decided on a very limited “Closed Beta” release.
This was done in order to get the editor to the public faster. If you’re on a mod team that didn’t get the beta, don't worry, you'll get it soon. The selection was intentionally kept very small so we could stay organized and focused. Barring a major issue being discovered, the editor is now mere days from being released. Not weeks, days!
I hope everyone can hang on just a little bit longer while we do our final tests. I’m looking forward to all the great work that’s going to be done and I want to get you started as soon as possible.
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). Their BFV battles were a blast...but now it sounds like they've made things way to serious. I think they've forgotten that they're playing a GAME.
