War is Over!

At exactly 12:21 UTC today, June the 30th, 2007 a truce was declared to the bloody flame war that existed between two bitter rival Call of Duty modding factions.

The war had pitted Tally (eXtreme+, RoTR) on one side and Wizard220 (and Mike Nomad's Raiders site) on the other. Both influential modders in their own right, these two code-artists let personal issues cause a rift in the Call of Duty modding community and then saw those issues drag that community into a prolonged and antogonizing war.

The truce was signaled by what has now become a historical posting by Tally on the Raiders own website. His attempt at reconciliation created immediate reverberations around the CoD world.

Here is but a small snippet of the post:

While out at the COD4 preview...I spoke with Rudedog at great length about where we thought the community was going, how it was going to shape up after the release of COD4 because IW is doing such a good job of finally listening to the community base...

It is a chance to forget all the old wounds that were created during COD2, for us to finally get a chance to move forward as one community together again. Standing shoulder to shoulder, and having bags of fun together.

This brought us around to discussing the division in the community that is created in large part to me and my war with the Raiders. We both agreed that the community cant take much more of it.

However, In order for this truce to have any chance of success, I MUST resign from the Support Crew. And this because, when all is said and done, I DID fake a PM, and whereas I had what I still feel was almost overwhelming provocation, it was still very wrong no matter what the circumstances. For that reason, and that reason alone, the only honorable thing to do is go.

...I was planning to go to COD4 with the intention of getting all the important site admins there to actually ban the Raiders throughout the community. To fight fire with fire. I had set up a summit meeting with everyone concerned, and the topic was going to be: "The Raiders: the final Solution?"

But, then, on the night just before I left for LA, the "Rise of the Resistance" site was hacked and decimated. All posts deleted.

My first reaction was anger. But, over the course of the night, and during the 11 hour flight out to LA, I started to feel a sense of shame - that my presence on the RoR team had lead someone to hack the site and destroy, not only my work, but the work of all those talented individuals that make up the dev team.

For the sake of community harmony, this feud has to stop. And stop now. Hence I will resign.

- Tally

This post of reconciliation was met with stunned awe and then accolades from Tally's fiercest critics - the folks at Raiders.

Wizard220, one of the original authors of eXtreme and Tally's fiercest critic had this to say on the raidersmerciless.com site:

Thanks for taking the plunge and doing this peace offering. Tally I would like to say I too accept my part in all this. I too can forgive and I too want the very best for CoD.

- Wizard220

The peeling of churchbells began shortly after Wizz's equally breathtaking post and the air is still echoing with their sounds across Callofdutyville hours afterwards as this piece is being written.

While the details of the peace will be hammered out in voice-to-voice comms between the two groups, optimism reigns right now that the Call of Duty community will come together as one after the release of CoD4. Perhaps the group will go on to rival the success of other large FPS groups like Counterstrike.

The fact that this truce occurred is no surprise to this reporter. I could hear the murmuring coos of peace doves in Tally's voice during my BASH interview two weeks ago. But the lubricant that started the engine of peace was surely the Community Event at Infinity Ward Studios this past week, when the major players of the Call of Duty community were gathered together for a major sit-down. Ostensibly, this event was supposed to be a showcase for Activision's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. In practice, it became much more that that.

It is easy to hate someone you cannot see. It is something else to continue to hate that person after you have met them face-to-face and shaken their hands. That is what happened at IW this week. Meeting your "enemy", seeing that he is not that much different than you and seeking a middle ground is as classic a human behavior as it gets.

Clearly, all of us in the CoD world are elated at this news. Thank you Tally and your supporters. Thank you Wizz and your folks at the Raiders. And most of all thank you to Activision, who made this all possible.

Now, let's get back to playing some video games!

CoD4: Community Event

As you may remember from listening to the last few BASH webcasts, a group of top-tier folk from the Call of Duty community were hand picked and flown down to California a few days ago to take part in a "community event".

While I was still checking my spam bin for my invite, the event has come and gone and some of the guys have already come back to talk about their experience.

Here are the CoD elite in a group photo at IW (photo courtesy of PST Joker).

Here are a few sites that summarize all the fun in the sun:

planetcallofduty.com: Whiskey's amazing summary!

codhq.com: JD's site
totalcod4.com: vexed
.map: Spark's site
IW forums: A collection of summaries
filefront's recap

Here's a snippet from garetjax's (PAL) post on the IW forums:

First impressions:

- The "Saving Private Ryan" immersion factor is back bigtime. I think I forgot how I felt the first time I played CoD1 and CoD4 totally brought back that feeling and then some. If CoD1 was a 6 on the immerision scale, and CoD2 was a 5/6 (not as high since it wasn't the very first time seeing CoD type gameplay), CoD4 is an 11. Yes Nigel, this one goes to 11.

- Amazingly smooth - both SP and MP. Graphic details close to Chrysis using DX9. We didn't know what hardware they were using and never saw an FPS indicator.

- The mp map was big

- Bullet penetration !!! Yes like CS but CS was clunky - in CoD4 every brush will have a set penetration value and every weapon will have its own penetration power (can you say less random unlike CS). This will add a whole new level to the game because with 30 weapons you can come up with lots of strats.

- Nades They are using a key again and you can cook them. It looked like you couldn't throw them outrageous lengths. They now have smoke, stun, and flash nades. You can now throw nades back at the enemy. I told them all about how many leagues limted them. Crap I forgot to ask if we can get a dvar or two to make smokes smaller or shorten their time.

- Perks For pubs they will add a lot of variety and be a blast. From the competitive player's view I am not sure what to make of them. I spent a lot of time with Grant, Jason, and 402 talking about competitive play and how leagues in the past have done polls on what to limit etc and usually ran a preseason to see how things were working before trying it in a regular season.

- Garetjax

Funny FPS trailer: Team Fortress 2

Yet another sneak peek at CoD4 has surfaced...it's called: Last Stand.

Oh and here's another CoD4 video, called Deep Impact.

CoD4 just a bit too serious for ya? Well, if you want to see a trailer with a slightly eclectic bent BubbaGump (BASH Episode 20, 26) told me about this Valve FPS classic (from 2006): Team Fortress 2.

The trailers are hilarious.

Lean on me: The Lean Bind

This article has moved to BASHandSlash.com

AMA on video game addiction

Sorry, I had meant to post this yesterday, but I got caught up in a clan practice, which kinda spilled over into a scrim when one of the clans we play against called us out...oh and then I had a TWL match...anyway, without further ado....oh say, there's a new map on the DD server, gotta run. But before I go, I just wanted to post some links for you in case you wanted to read more about that AMA story on video game addiction:

http://www.ama-assn.org

Here's some links with reactions to the story:

Experts: Video game addiction is real; players scoff

New illness seen: video game addiction

Gaming junkies get no diagnosis

Alert: Dark.net bot strikes CoD community

Sparks, from the Rise of the Resistance website posted this unhappy news on their forums last night:

Forum/Site Breach

Tally's other site [Tallys-World] as well as this one [Rise of the Resistance] got hacked/breached.

{EDIT}

Forum will be restored sometime Wednesday/Thursday when Tally returns from his trip to Infinity Ward.

Any questions, concerns, or comments... drop me a private message.

Sorry for the inconvenience and we hope to have the forum up and running again shortly.

Production has not ceased or slowed down.

- Alex "Sparks"

What we do know

BASH has learned other sites have also been affected aside from Tally's and RoTR's. Apparently, there is some indication that this is a world-wide problem affecting PHP Nuke sites. Hackers may have detected some vulnerability in these sites and are attacking them systematically.

Interestingly, the Devil-Dogz site was recently attacked by bots (automated scripts) attempting to write (gibberish) into its forums - at least that was what everyone saw on the surface. Security measures were upgraded and it seems the server survived the attacks (however the software it uses is not PHP Nuke).

If you have noticed such activity on your site, you might want to review your own security procedures (oh...and make backups!!). And make sure you have applied all the patches to your systems - not just OS patches, but 3rd party software as well!

There is current suspicion within the CoD community that the bot doing the damage is called:

"Dark.net"

The attacks have been going on for some weeks now. Apparently, 25 June 2007 was a "trigger" date for the bot activation.

According to those in the know, in order for the dark.net bot to work it "would have had to compromise your site and attach itself to it as a user". The lethality of the bot is clearly high and fortunately the American federal government is now involved.

BASHIE award winning RoTR

We are all looking forward to RoTR being restored again to what it was ... a BASHIE award winning website. I hope the culprits are caught and dispensed with.

Guest Editorial: CoD2 Hackers

Our guest editorial this week is written by a Devil-Dogz clanmate of mine, {DD} LemOnade. LemOnade is an extraordinarily gifted FPS player - and for that reason is much feared and respected by our competition. He is a passionate competitor and that passion extends to his writing. In today's topic he picks up from where BubbaGump and I left off in Episode 26: Haxer! Remember, all opinions expressed in this article are those of LemOnade. Please post your rebuttals below (under comments) or email him at the address shown.

{DD} LemOnade
BASH Guest Editorial
email: crazybandit@hotmail.com

1. Why players hack.

There are a myriad of reasons why people cheat. I think it all starts with society in general. Name a console/computer game and any 7 year old can tell you where to find the cheat codes for it. What are we telling these children? "Don't worry son, you're ENTITLED to win. Here's the cheats". Multiplayer gaming is just a carry-over from these same children and their cheat codes in a lot of cases.

Then you have the people who are so competitive they will do anything to win. We all know a few of them. These are the same people in real life you wouldn't want to be the banker in a friendly game of monopoly.

There's also a small amount of people who cheat who simply want to cause chaos and ruin the gaming experience for others. I'm sure there are many reasons for them being this way, but since I lack this quality or a degree in psychology, I will simply comment on it and not the reasons. The reason I know they exist are the answers given when asked why they cheat. "I'm bored." or "You're just mad cause you suck."

I find myself having a modicum of respect for the hacker who boldly proclaims his hacks and doesn't try to hide behind the "I'm just a good player, you noob." defense. I mean, lacking an admin on a server, what can you do to a hacker anyway?

2.What type of hacks are being used in COD2?

I wouldn't know the name of the countless hacks that are available to players, but i can tell you the main ones and describe what they do:

a. The wallhack. There are a lot of names for what is essentially the same hack. Whatever the case may be, a wallhack allows you to see through solid objects and know where the enemy is on any map. Some of these cheats will cause the enemy to glow (for lack of a better word) through walls and other objects. Some of these cheats simply allow you to see the enemies name (and location by default) over their heads wherever they are on the map. Some of these same cheats will also tell you what weapon your enemy has, and the distance to target from your location.

b. The aimbot. Pretty much as it reads. The aimbot is a program that allows your computer to aim for you. When used in conjunction with a trigger bot, this can make a hacker almost unbeatable in some circumstances.You run into this less than the wallhack because even the least experienced player knows something is not right when someone is shooting them in the head from across the map before they ever even see them.But there are a few who use it. Some of the toughest cheaters to catch are experienced players who use an aimbot but no wallhack. Even when following these players in spec, you cannot see them looking through walls because they are not. The aimbot for the most part is subtle, if they have the intensity of acquisition set right. Some noob hackers turn the intensity all the way up and you'll see them do a complete 180 and shoot someone in the head from across the map. Even then its hard to prove they have an aimbot, because good players sometimes make incredible shots.

c. The aforementioned trigger bot. This program allows your computer to fire when the aimbot acquires the target. The timing of a trigger bot is instantaneous, taking human reactions out of the killing equation. However, as said before, this makes the cheater more obvious.

d. No recoil. There are programs which allow you to fire your weapon with absolutely no recoil. This gives the cheater a huge advantage against the average player. It allows the cheater to follow the target effortlessly, since you do not have to allow for recoil. This cheat gives you the most advantage with smg's and machine guns since each have a higher rate of fire, and more recoil than other guns.

There are more hacks out there, but these are the most prevalent, imo.

3. How can the average player spot the hackers?

I don't believe the average player CAN spot most of the hackers out there. Simply put, I believe you have to be of a certain skill in the game yourself and know what each weapon can and cant do naturally before you can become competent in spotting the cheaters. Even then, most times you cannot tell without sitting in spectator and watching the player for long periods of time waiting for the moment whet the cheater reveals him or herself.

But anyone who plays the game can go to spectator and make a demo of any suspicious player. I recommend that everyone who thinks there are cheaters on the server they are playing make such a demo. This will allow the average player to, at his leisure, go back and watch the demo for what they feel the player was doing that made them think he/she was cheating. If the player finds something that is obviously a cheat, simply get in touch with that servers admin and send the demo through xfire or whatever peer to peer program that allows for transferring files. I myself have gotten many players banned from a server by making a demo of cheaters.

To record a demo, simply pull up your console by pushing your ~ key on the upper left of your keyboard. Then when that little bar comes up with the blinking underscore line, type in
/demo
"name of file"

Name the file something you can remember because you are going to have to go into your Activision folder to find it, and naming it will make it easier to find. I usually name the file whatever the suspected cheater's name is in game. The trace route to find this demo will be:

C:Program Files/ Activision/ call of duty 2/ main/ demos

To view this demo and make a determination if the player is actually cheating, click on your multiplayer icon but dont enter a server. Open your console and type in

/demo
"name of file"

When you hit enter, there will be a delay of a couple seconds and then the demo will start playing. You can then view whatever it is you made the recording of.

4. Are there solutions to the problem of cheating?

Can clans mitigate the problem?

Of course there are solutions. For every cheat program out there, the game makers could come up with a detection program. This however, is not making the game makers any money, so they have no interest in supporting their product in this way. We all know the bottom line in our society is "Does this benefit me financially?". The makers of CoD2 made a half-assed attempt to make people believe that cod2 would be cheat free by adding PunkBuster as cheat detection. But every hacker knows that PunkBuster is a joke. There are so many holes in the program, its a good thing it's not a submarine. Anyone reading this diatribe, think about it. How many times have you seen PunkBuster actually CATCH someone cheating? Ive played this game almost daily since it was released, and i can count on one hand the cheaters PunkBuster has caught while i was playing.

Since the cheat detection is lacking, its up to server administrators to police their own server by observing players. I recommend you make a demo of cheaters before banning, because there are a lot of people who would rather blame the administrators of a server, than try to recognize that there are cheaters in COD2. Also, make sure you record the offending players GUID so there can be no doubt of who is actually playing the game when you catch them cheating. Good luck, and hope this helps people in the gaming community.

BASH: Episode 26 (Haxer!)

In this week's BASH webcast, we bring you an episode on the scourge of on-line gaming, the Haxer!

Ben (a.k.a BubbaGump) joins me to co-Host this episode. You will all remember Ben from Episode 20 on Rise of the Resistance. Ben resides in Melbourne, Australia and we hope he will be joining us more often in the future.

In the episode we attempt to define cheating and hacking. We come up with the following:

Hacking, in fps-gaming, consists of gaining a competitive advantage in the game by modifying game files and thus altering the game's software code. Cheating, while not as blatant as hacking, can be thought of as the exploitation of flaws or bugs in the gaming software or the configuration of client-side game variables counter to the instructions set forth by the administrator of the gaming server.

The most powerful hacks are known as client-side hooks. These cheats inject hacked code right into the game executable. They do this by using a "loader" program that finds the game and loads the hack, also known as a "client side hook" (DLL) right into the game. Once the hook is in place the hack has access to all sorts of information the server sends the player (location of other players is the most interesting information). Client side hooks allow:

a) AIMBOTS - these hacks use player data from the server download data stream (snaps) to adjust mouse x,y coordinates. They target the nearest enemy hitbox and result in very, very accurate fire. If you have a high snap/maxpackets setting or good ping - you will get incredible hit registration resulting in a high number of kills.

b) WALLHACKS - these hacks allow you to see enemy players even through walls - an incredible tactical advantage. Of course wallhacks rely on intercepting the download data stream.

Additional hacks/cheats include video card hacks that can clear up fog in a game, scripts that allow you to zoom in (without using a sniper rifle) and auto-fire a Garand!

By any definition, currently, there is a blatant flouting of the gaming moral code going on at msxsecurity.com. This site is notorious for selling game hacks - including those for CoD2. Here is a video showing their wares:

A Belarussian, Maz is the leader of this piratical crew of coders. They do have a sense of humor, judging by their Forum avatars, but is a sense of humor what got them into hacking?

Maybe it's money?

Check out what he was offering as far as compensation back in 2005!

if you have a firm grasp on d3d and C++ then give maz a ring on IRC. You will reap the lucrative benefits of 40% income for every hack that you successfully create. Typical income should be ~50$ a day but in some cases much higher. It will be your responsibility to continually update your hack based on user input. If you don't update your hack and it gets detected, obviously the money is going to stop coming in. Anyone serious should contact me through some means and let me know there (sic) expectations.

At $50/day you're not going to find too many Silicon Valley C++ superstars signing up...but if you're living in Mumbai, or Belarus...you might consider it. To combat these black hat gamers, an online petition has started up to attempt to reign in folks who make money from selling on-line gaming hacks.

Check out this post: pen-is-mightier-than-hack

Also in the program this week, we mention this story about hackers/cheaters caught in China: you-cheat-you-bleed.html

What are the solutions to finding hackers?

Obviously, PunkBuster, brought in at version 1.2 of Call of Duty 2, is one. Certainly there are a lot of people banned from gaming due to PunkBuster, look at the list here: punksbusted.com

However, PB may not be as effective as you may think. Many savvy server administrators simply record players suspected of cheating in "Spectate" mode and play it back. The best way to view the video is to play it back in Developer mode (~ developer 1 - Turns developer mode on). This allows you to not only view the suspected-cheater but also allows you to see all the players in the game simultaneously.

The gaming community can do a great deal to slow down cheating. Check out this site in Australia: allseeingcow.com

Spotting a cheater:

- look for people shooting through fog (graphic card no fog cheat)

- look for people getting lots of headshot kills (aimbot)

- look for players rounding corners and firing accurately at people on the other side indicative of a wall hack. Or for that matter staring at players through seemingly transparent walls.

- look for players firing accurately through bushes (wall hack)

- look for players finding map seams (map exploit).

- look for players firing bolts/rifles as though they were automatics (scripting hacks)

BTW: If you cheat on-line, we want to talk to you here on BASH and find out what makes you tick, send your GUID and your email to: jockyitch@devil-dogz.com.

Gooooooooooooooooooooooolll!!

Ladies and gentlemen, damas y caballeros,

We here at BASH are very, very orgullosos, oh and we're proud too, to announce today the opening of the Latin American bureau of BASH the blog:

http://bashespanol.blogspot.com/

Read selected BASH articles in spanish or as we would say on bashespanol, 'lean nuestros articulos de BASH en espanol!'

Bien conocido jugador Mexicano de CoD, MEX_LGuerrero will take on the duties of Latin America Bureau Chief. L. Guerrero sera responsable por seleccionar articulos de BASH por nuestros amigos latinoamericanos.

¡Deséamos a señor Guerrero todos lo mejor por sus esfuerzos! And we welcome all of our Latin American CoD enthusiasts.

The Bog - A play by play

This article analyzes the latest gameplay video from Call of Duty 4. The video from Activision is called, "The Bog" (bog means marshy land) and you can download it here:

http://news.filefront.com/call-of-duty-4-bog-rescue-gameplay-video/

00:01

We first see a GoogleEarth-like satellite image. The image zooms-in on a major city highway situated near a marsh. The marsh is located in a populated area. It is early morning and the city appears to be located in the Middle East.

We are looking out of the eyes of Paul Jackson, Staff Sergeant U.S. Marine Corps. Jackson is standing on a bridge facing SSW. The bridge is littered with destroyed military and civilian equipment. He is surrounded by at least 8 of his Marine colleagues: Cpl. Cherubini, Cpl Castillo and the terse-lipped Lt. Vasquez are at the tip of the formation.

00:08

Lt. Vasquez: "Alpha(?) Company's tank is stuck half a click north of here. We gotta hustle, let's go!"

Move it. Move it!

I failed orienteering, but I think Vasquez is pointing south! No wonder these guys are gonna get ambushed. Vasquez for goodness sake, look at a map! The Marines hump south under orders, guns at the ready. They are all in battle gear, guns drawn.

The Bog
Day 03 - 05:00:19
SSgt. Paul Jackson
1st Force Recon Co. U.S.M.C

The overhead street signs indicate that Gaish Street and Abbasia is up ahead and the highway (Autostrad) is the next right. Anti-aircraft tracers are lighting up the dark sky. The bridge seems to have just been bombed or a major fire fight must have happened only a few hours ago. A Cobra helicopter screams overhead in the same direction Vasquez is pointing to: towards the stuck tank.

"...keep moving up"

Checkpoint reached

"Ambush!"
"Contact right!"

A hail of fire opens up on Jackson's 2 o'clock. Enemy combatants are firing from a 2 story building (red and white awning).

Eliminate enemy forces in the apartment
Secure the M1A1 Abrams tank stranded in the bog.

Our first glimpse of SSgt Jackson's armament:

He deploys his Marine issue M4 A1 Grenadier with a M203 grenade launcher which he can clip onto the M4. He has 390 rounds and 10 grenades. He is also carrying night vision goggles and his gun is equipped with a laser rangefinder.

Jackson lines up the hostiles in his sights. We see his view zoom-in. CoD4 adds a red reticule to aid his aim. The gun is steady as he squeezes off a magazine containing 390 rounds. It doesn't appear that he has hit anyone.

00:28

He's prompted to reload (very annoyingly, the graphics show up just at his aim point). He kneels and it states hold X for M4A1 on the screen. Clearly the game is for gaming consoles.

He places a new magazine in. He now has 420 rounds. Sixty two meters away, the enemy is firing at him.

After re-upping his M4 he walks near a Winchester Model 1200 Shotgun which is lying on the ground. He is asked to press X for the 1200. The X refers to a console gaming pad command. You can see the gamepad icon on the far left of the screen. He declines to take the 1200.

"RPG!"

00:38

Jackson's HUD appears primitive. A compass "tape" moves in a circular fashion and is located at the bottom-center of the screen. Note that when the enemy fires, 2 yellow circles show up on the compass tape. The yellow circles point to the enemy location. The number is the range in meters from the laser range finder that is bolted to the M4. As well, the range (in meters) of whatever/whoever the laser rangefinder is pointing at can be seen on the compass tape. As he attempts to engage the enemy, two cars in front of Jackson are hit by a rocket propelled grenade. The smoke from the RPG hangs in the air. Jackson, bravely, is unfazed. One of a large formation of low level choppers heading NNE is hit. It's a Huey! The rotor must be hit as the chopper begins to spin violently and crashes to Jackson's left.

00:48

"...take the stairs."

Vasquez heroically hides just below the windows of the target building. Our protagonist, Jackson and Sgt. Baker take the stairs down and flank the building on the right. It's pitch black down there. Jackson is prompted for night goggles.

00:57

Checkpoint reached

"...follow me"
"Switch to night vision"

Jackson starts firing at the hostiles, hitting at least one helmeted soldier (at first the enemy appeared to be friendly - fratricide! - but a closer look and the enemy does not seem to be wearing night goggles).

01:06

Rounding a right corner, Jackson and his platoon hit a major concentration of enemy troops in the targeted building complex. Jackson fires 3 grenades into the bombed out apartment building and charges forward.

The grenade launcher has a much different cross hair than the gun- it almost looks like the "Free French" cross from WWII and is white. As well another HUD element just above the grenade counter indicates the weapon in use - when night vision is engaged. One arrow up means the main weapon and one arrow up and one down means the grenade launcher.


The firefight is intense at the moment. Jackson gets clipped a couple of times. A red arc indicates his health has been degraded but no other visible display indicates his status. He seems to recover nearly instantly.

01:33

"...??? take the stairs we'll cover the entrance"

Sgt. Arya and Baker are taking cover behind some concrete slabs. Jackson follows Pvt. Gigliotti up the stairs. Gigliotti struggles with a hostile who has come barrelling from the hallway on the left.

Checkpoint reached

The hostile is carrying a shouldered AK47. As the enemy combatant tries to bring his gun around to fire, Jackson calmly dispatches him with carbine fire to the right kidneys. The hostile's AI in not too sharp. What was he thinking? All the noise was a car backfiring? Dude, if you hear gunfire, the least you could do is unholster your weapon. Sheesh.

Call of Duty 4 Links List v1.0

Here's a running list of Call of Duty 4 links. I'll be keeping this list updated - please email me anything you think should be added.

email: jockyitch@devil-dogz.com

BASH Call of Duty 4 links list, version 1.0

Official Site:
http://www.charlieoscardelta.com Requires registration.

Fansites
http://www.cod4gamers.net
http://www.cod4files.com

Game Trailers/Videos
http://www.planetcallofduty.com Great site in general. All CoD4 videos will be added here.
www.gametrailers.com Original trailer
cod4-intel.html Original Trailer critique
http://www.youtube.com Uploaded videos from fans

Game play Videos
http://news.filefront.com Game play video "Bog Rescue"

Gaming sites
http://www.planetcallofduty.com/callofduty4/
http://www.codhq.com
http://www.gamershell.com
http://www.gaming-age.com
http://pc.ign.com

IW personnel interviews

http://www.cnet.com.au Q&A with Collier on CoD4
http://www.computerandvideogames.com Collier on tour for CoD4
http://www.gamereactor.se Collier on video
http://www.gamewad.com Collier insults Microsoft's Live Anywhere
collier-of-infinity-ward-speaks-on-cod4.html Collier on CoD4

Playstation
http://ps3.gamespy.com
http://ps3.gamezone.com

Reviews of CoD4 pre-alpha
http://www.clandb.net 19th June 07
http://www.cnet.com.au 19th June 07
http://www.computerandvideogames.com 13th June 07
http://www.joystiq.com 13th June 07
http://www.shacknews.com 13th June 07

Screenshots
http://www.planetcallofduty.com

System Requirements (Not Yet available)
http://www.systemrequirementslab.com
http://www.cod4files.com

Webcasts
matt-pruitt-on-bash.html

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Duty_4:_Modern_Warfare

Xbox
http://www.1up.com CoD4 on the Xbox 360
http://previews.teamxbox.com Review

Tally: RoTR coming out on DVD!

Rise of the Resistance, the expansion pack for Call of Duty 2, will not only be available for download free of charge later this year it will also be available for purchase on DVD!

Activision is backing the CoD community led project by supplying RotR with the resources to market the game in magazines, on-line outlets (maybe even brick and mortar stores).

Listen to this BASH exclusive on Rallying the Resistance, the second part of a two-part series with Tally the leader of the Rise of the Resistance project right here:


You can listen to part one of this interview here:

Bind your CoD2 Sweet Spot on the fly

This article can now be found on BASHandSlash.com

The Sweet Spot

This article can now be found in BASHandSlash.com

We've been punked: Update #3

I wanted to post an answer I received from Even Balance's technical folks on an issue I and many of you have run into when setting up PunkBuster on your computer:

Here's the question I posed to Even Balance Technical Support:

I would like to create a Windows XP account profile - with limited priveleges to run CoD2 online. I moved CoD2 to a shared directory. It runs fine. But after a few seconds after going into a server I'm getting an O/S Priveleges error from PB.

How do I rectify this situation?

Glenn Courington from Even Balance answered:

When our PB Services are completely utilized in CoD2 (they are not at this point) it will be possible to run the games as a limited user on PB-enabled servers. Until that time, you will still need to run the game as an Administrator.

I must tell you that running CoD as an admin opens you up to internet security issues, so I would like to please ask the PB guys to see if they can make this issue a priority!

Relevant posts:

PunkBuster

BASHIE Award: Best Website for June

Yet another BASHIE award to be doled out. This time, it's for best website. And the winner is...

Call of Duty: Snipers Network


Slogan:

The one and only web site dedicated to supporting the Call of Duty sniper community.

The codsniper website is run by Razor, who hails from Norway! Lots of Norwegians like to listen to and read BASH! Clearly, they do not have enough to do, but we love them for it.

Razor went public with the website back in January 2006. He's a very talented guy and that has been noticed by the community: over 10 sniper clans have asked him to design their sites. Razor is no stranger to the BASHIE...he won it for designing the Rise of the Resistance site back in February of this year: Best Website for February.

In the codsniper site you will find all that you will need to start your own sniper clan or team! They offer help with all aspects of running your own clan. They of course specialize in CoD clans.

Razor started the site,

...with the purpose of bringing all the sniper teams and clans within the cod community closer, where they all could have a common ground to share files and information. This way they don't have to browse through a lot of other forums searching for stuff.

- Razor

You can just imagine the grief snipers in CoD get. They are constantly hounded by the run'n gunners for being campers. Sniping in CoD is definitely an under-appreciated and incredibly important job. Good to see someone is looking after the community and keeping their morale high!

Razor, true to his name, is as sharp as ... well, a razor. He hasn't missed a beat by being one of the first people to create a Call of Duty 4 website.

The site is called: Call of Duty 4: Gamers Network

This latter site is brand new and was created for only one purpose:

...to gather as much relevant information about COD4 from all possible sources such as magazines and other websites. In time we will offer maps, mods, patches and other relevant stuff for COD4. We strive to filter out any crap and only post/write about confirmed facts, all the rest end up in our rumor mill.
-Razor

Congrats on the BASHIE, Razor and please visit his site and look around!

Mods at War: WW2X vs eXtreme+

In an act that is beginning to resemble more the end result of a nuclear fission reaction than the product of asexual reproduction, the Call of Duty 2 mod community has split.

While the split could have been considered a legal separation last year, I can tell you that it is a full blown divorce right now. The details of this conflict have come out as gory as any National Enquirer article on Britney Spears' rehab. The messy goings-on have descended into a war of words (the foul and four-lettered variety) in public forums all across CallofDutyville.

Name calling and ill-tempered scrapping aside, this article attempts to provide some of the history behind the latest CoD2 multiplayer mods that have arisen out of the split: eXtreme+ and WW2X. As well, we link to both mods so that you can download them and judge them on their own merits.

Ante-schism

I have told this story before, but the history of the eXtreme+ mod originates way back to the days of the CoD UO modification A.W.E, or "Additional War Effects" by Swedish CoD modding legend Bell.

When the CoD UO community realized the untapped potential of A.W.E., many of the scripters back then expressed the wish to use A.W.E. as a "jumping-off point" to bigger and better things. Wizard220, ace coder in his own right, expressed just such a wish and was amicably given permission by Bell to take the A.W.E. code and move it in a different direction.

The new modification became eXtreme ("A.W.E-eXtreme" at first), a term that Wizard220 to this day claims is his intellectual property. As an aside, this claiming of intellectual property by folks using pseudonyms who all skirt around the issue that the original copyright holder to most of the material is Activision is a concept that is hard to follow for those like myself who did not do well on their LSAT.

Wizard220 and his colleague, [RoS] Dragon, were major forces in developing the old A.W.E. modification into the new "eXtreme" mod and added many interesting twists to Bell's work. When Dragon left due to personal problems, Wizard220 (Wizz) apparently took over almost all the scripting.

At this point Wizz became sponsored, he had a website, two extreme servers under him and he was managing the mod.

At some point in this development, the COD UO gamestate limit of 32k was reached with the eXtreme mod.

Let me take a sidebar to explain gamestate. When a player or client first connects or a new level loads the server sends the client a huge message that contains all the values of all game variables for that level. This data is only sent once. Basically the problem is that at some point you can exceed a given allowable level (32K was the level on UO) and the server can crash.

By October 2005, Wizz felt abandoned by the developers of UO because they didnt upgrade the gamestate and he handed over extreme to another genius modder, Astoroth.

Astoroth then continued eXtreme for CoD UO until the final release and then switched over to CoD2, porting over work from the eXtreme UO mod to the eXtreme+ mod, which is what the eXtreme mod became known as. Wizard220 apparently helped extensively in this port, as witnessed by the fact that his name lives on to this day in some of the files.

Additional contributions over the past few years have also come from Matthius of the Admiral Mod and of course Bell who led the AWE development.

Marc, a bright and level headed modder from Holland, had become involved in eXtreme+ and was testing the mod on Linux servers. Between the release of CoD2 and the 1.2 patch he became an eXtreme+ Support Crew Member.

Astroroth's stewardship of the mod has become one of early promise followed by some confusion due to his virtual disappearance from the scene due to personal issues. The spring of 2006 marks Astroroth's last full-time involvement with eXtreme+ (about the time the 1.2 patch came out for CoD2).

Marc took the reins at eXtreme+ after Astoroth's absence.

Tally, from the U.K. and a well-known modder (now of the RoTR project) came aboard. Joker, a Californian also started to take on more responsibility.

Just after version 1.5 came out (approximately in January of 2007) Marc left the eXtreme+ crew. Apparently he arrived at that decision due to a post from the perennially absent Astoroth, which he did not take to be believable:

"A big reason for me to leave Astoroth's site is because he posted recently in the closed moderators forum that he will be back AT SOME POINT."

- Marc

The Schism

The reason for Wizz's departure from CoD2 is perhaps as mysterious as his reappearance. We are now fast forwarding to 2007 and his return initiated a tug-of-war over the work that, some may argue, he handed off years ago.

Wizz had returned and the threats regarding "pulling the plug" on the "extreme" name, the "eXtreme+" mod and the "extremecod.com" website began appearing in many forums around the community. Wizz was back and he wanted eXtreme!

Questions of who owns intellectual property began to outpace scripting questions on those same sites.

The upshot of the schism is the new world order: there are now two camps in CoD2 modding and each have direct lineage to the original UO mod from Bell.

The new eXtreme+ crew

The eXtreme+ camp, who pitch their tents at extremecod.com, have uber-modders like Tally, Paulo88 and of course Joker. In my opinion, the "new" eXtreme+ modifier should apply to all mods put out by this group from version 2.0. Joker has taken the bull by the horns with Marc's departure and with Paulo88 by his side created version 2.0. Having said that, it was a bit of a hard go. We covered this in detail in other BASH...the blog articles, but originally version 2.0 was supposed to be version 1.7!

Numerous bugs put an end to 1.7 quickly. Once the bugs were squashed, 2.0 rose from the ashes.

You can read all about eXtreme+ in the many posts we have had here on this great mod:

eXtreme+


The WW2X crew

The new upstarts call their mod "WW2X". The mod is caretakered at the moment solely by Marc. Nedgerblansky, while not a modder for WW2X (he looks after A.W.E. along with Oddball) does participate indirectly. Marc has borrowed some of Ned's code/gametypes for WW2X.

The home of WW2X is raidersmerciless.com

Interestingly, Wizz may have finally relinquished the name "extreme" as clearly indicated by the group's new mod name WW2X. The "X" in the name is the only common letter - admittedly, it is one sexy letter and I can see why it has been kept. Having said that, it was Marc who came up with the new title:

WW2X is a name i came up with... parting from extreme i couldnt very well name it extreme2 it would cause too much confusion. Without really deep thought i decided to name it ww2x this you could see as: world war to the extreme or world war 2 extreme...whichever you prefer.

- Marc

Wizard220's role is not all that clear in light of the new WW2X landscape:

Wizard220 doesnt code for ww2x.... he doesnt code for cod2 period.... because of the lack of support from IW and the crapy out of the box code.

- Marc

It appears then that his reappearance on the scene may have been to settle some personal grudges rather than to take the mod back. I cannot completely confirm this, it is just an opinion.

The arrival of Marc, working more or less on his own has had an immediate effect on the direction of the old eXtreme+ mod. As Marc states in a raidersmerciless.com posting:

One of my first modifications to the mod will be the dvar handling...1280 is the max amount of dvars cod2 can handle and extreme is closing into that big time.

Thanks to Nedgerblansky who developed a new method to circumvent this (drm) im now in the process to make extreme work with that method...and i must say..its working great......with the settings i normally use on my server i already saved 400 dvars.....which means..more features can now be added in the mod again.

The DVAR solution is critical to any future upgrades and it was implemented in the Feb. 2007 release of WW2X (v 1.6)

1.6.0:
Changed from default dvar handling to DRM dvar handling method
Changed ranksystem, now 13 ranks again but combined with 5 rankicons
Added knives that can replace the pistols (not throwable yet)
Fixed IHTF spectating when dead bug
Brought back the possibility to use healthbar with healthregen (3 options)

Biggest and most important new feature is the DRM dvar handling.
What does that mean?....more features can be added to the mod ..not bothered by hitting the dvar limit cod2 has.

Note DRM dvar handling became available soon after in June 2007 in eXtreme+. One can only assume that despite the appearances, the modding communities are closer tied than would be believed from the forum flamewars.

In short, the WW2X mod is a combination of A.W.E, A.W.E.-eXtreme and some of the "Merciless mod". A.W.E and Merciless of course are unsurprisingly maintained at the raidersmerciless.com site. Undoubtedly there is a good smattering of eXtreme+ in there as well due to the presence of Marc.

The latest version(1.7) for the WW2X mod for COD2 is available now. Here are some of its features.

WW2X v1.7 Features
---------------------
- Deployable mg30cal and mg42
- Fire and gas grenades and sticky bombs. Sticky bombs are not as sticky as you would think. They only stick to a ledge or anything that physically sticks out.
- Turret overheater
- Mobile mg30cal and mg42: 2 mobile mg's per team...one that you can carry around and fire or this new deployable one.
- Range finder
- Landmines
- Vote menu limiter/delay
- Throwable Knives
- Parachutes
- Weather effects
- Server redirecting
- Tracers
- Ambient planes
- Disable stock map fx
- Clan specific welcome messages and voting options
- Bleeding and bleeding messages
- Ingame statistics board
- Livestats
- Movie mode
- Spectate/death/end/stats/voting music
- Announcement sounds
- Teamkill detection with different punishments.
- Server messages
- Welcome messages
- Disable minefields
- Server/Clan logo text and/or picture
- Sprinting
- Map voting: map/gametype callvotemenu handles 180 maps
- Customizable killcam time
- Healthbar
- Random maprotation
- Playerbased maprotation
- Maprotation error correction
- Painsounds
- Deathsounds
- Checking and renaming of duplicate player names
- Anti camping system
- Extended obituary messages
- Turret abuse system
- Disable deathicons
- Disable nadeicons
- Disable stanceicons
- Disable weapon drops
- Disable grenade drops
- Disable pistols
- Disable objective points
- Disable damage feedback
- Disable/Force crosshair
- Disable/Force crosshair enemy color
- Disable health regeneration
- Colored smoke grenades
- Headpopping
- Helmetpopping
- Damage modifiers
- Unknown Soldier handling
- Blood splatter on screen
- Cold breath
- Change gravity
- Change speed
- Healthpacks/Medikits
- Mortars
- Tripwires frag and smoke grenades
- Remove bodies and sink bodies
- Ammo limiting
- Weapon limiting
- Dvar to stop clientside exploits
- Spawn protection
- Selectable secondary weapon
- Turret disabling
- Rotating MOTD
- Command monitor
- Weapon drop on arm/hand/leg/foot hit
- Forced autoassign
- Taunts
- Player model limiter
- Laserdot
- Bulletholes on screen
- Ranksystem with rankicons
- Ammo crates
- Panzerschrecks
- G43 Sniper
- Weapon class usage option
- Enemy weapon usage
- Grenade warning
- WMD contol (option to set a rank that allows you to call in airstrikes, mortars, artillery and napalm)

Gametypes
-------------
- Last Team Standing
- Last Man Standing
- Hold the Flag
- Individual Hold the Flag
- Domination
- Onslaught
- Capture the Flag back
- VIP
- Classic Headquarters
- Conquest

New Gametype:
- ESD

Side by side comparison

Where it counts, a quick scan of WW2X 1.7 and eXtreme+ 2.0 features will undoubtedly indicate that there isn't much to choose from between these two mods. The big differences in my opinion are in the gametypes: WW2X has ESD and eXtreme+ has Liberation, Hitman and round-based CNQ and CTF.

I am not surprised by how similar the two mods are on paper. After all the split has only occurred recently. I'll be more interested in the directions these two groups take their respective mods.

BASH will keep an eye on them so stay tuned!

Conclusion

Competition, we are told, is very healthy for the consumer. Competition in the CoD mod arena is no exception.

The only thing that worries me right now is whether there are enough software modding resources (i.e. the scripters/programmers) to carry out and sustain these two mods in the CoD2 community.

As for the bitterness in both groups...

Clearly, the folks in both camps are excellent at what they do. Many of them have "type A" personalities: opinionated, passionate and strong willed. These traits are typical of true artists and creators. As in any other human endeavour, groups like these do not stick together long. Differences of opinion are created and people go their own way. Each camp has its leaders and each camp has its followers. The laws of nature could have predicted this rift well before it happened.

I only hope that both camps stop their bickering and get back to what they do best: write scripts so that my fellow gamers and I can play new and improved modded versions of online CoD2.

Late Breaking news:

After posting this article I was informed of some very good news. It appears there may actually be a truce in the war of words between the WW2X and eXtreme+ camps.

Apparently there have been olive branches exchanged and there is a peace offering on the table. Both groups have expressed the desire to put the ill will behind them (which apparently involved personal issues rather than technical ones) and move on - they have even said they may help each other out.

As Marc says:

Hopefully now we can coexist in peace together again.....and they even unbanned me from the eXtreme site.

Wow. That's how intense this little war had gotten. Of course it helps when there are level-headed folks out there willing to put the player ahead of their own ego.

Good luck to both groups - we'll be watching (and playing) their efforts!

Does MoH: Airborne threaten CoD4?

Does Medal of Honor: Airborne threaten CoD4: Modern Warfare?

We address these issues in Episode 23 of BASH. I have Matt Pruitt site director of:

planetcallofduty.com and
planetmedalofhonor.com

come to the BASH studios and discuss these issues.

He was just in the Electronic Arts studios in L.A. a few weeks ago and got a close up view of Medal of Honor: Airborne.

Listen up to what he has to say:

Why Jock? Why?

Sometimes, in the gaming world, a time comes in the life of a "clan" or "guild" where a member must be banished. The reasons for the eviction can range from showing disrespect to fellow clan members, cheating, to general oafishness.

Typically, the member about to be banned never sees it coming - and their usual response when you show them the door is, "Why?".

If you run into this situation...don't bother explaining it to them...point them to this video.

eXtreme+ 2.0 *RELEASED*

Hot off the wire from the good folks at eXtreme+, where they have been toiling on their exciting new mod for Call of Duty 2 (multiplayer):

From {PST}Joker:

eXtreme+ v2.0 for WINDOWS is now released!

Changes
-----------
v2.0

Ambient Artillery
Ambient Explosion FX
Command Monitor Arty
Command Monitor Warp
Documentation
DRM Conversion
End-game Map Vote
Gametype: Enhanced SD
Gametype: Hitman
Gametype: Liberation
Gametype: DOM overhaul
Gametype: Roundbased CNQ
Gametype: Roundbased CTF
Improved Server Redirection
In-game Map Vote
Kick Inactive Spectators
Knife Ammo Fix
Landmines
Medic Callouts
Mobile MG's
Player Artillery: visible shells
Player Mortars: visible shells
Range Finder
Spectator Music
Unfixed Turrets
WMD Friendly Fire Check
5 Gametype Vote Limit -- Solved in In-game Map Vote

Bug fixes, patches and minor feature enhancements:

Camper Bug
Clan/Mod Text
Corrupt Hallelujah.mp3
Double Cheers Sounds
GT Delay (RB game types)
GT Script errors
Level Music Bug
Notification "ex_died"
Pophelmet Default
Rank System Bug (RB game types)
Sprint stance bug
Shoot Stance Sensitivity
S&D Error
_callbacksetup.gsc (flags)
_weapons.gsc ammo pps42 webley

Optional Mods will be added as soon as they are tested with the v2.0

This is where you can download the mod: extremecod.com

And it comes with an excellent setup .pdf file!

Related Articles:

BASH Episode 21: The-return-of-the-joker
eXtreme+ 1.7 Still-Born but 2.0 lives on
eXtreme+ version1.7

CoD Client vulnerabilities on the internet

Luigi Auriemma, the software guru whose prolific bug-hunting prowess brought us news of a potential server side exploit (see related topics), has written us again here at BASH to confirm that the vulnerability talked about the other day affects servers only - not clients. So players need not worry.

Having said that, he pointed out another bug, this one in Quake 3 - one which, may have been ported over to CoD2 (Quake 3 engine powers the CoD2 game - albeit in a modified form).

In this bug, the client (player) is vulnerable to a security exploit if they find themselves playing CoD2 multiplayer while linked to a server run by a "black hat" (i.e. hacker) admin.

He has a nice write up of it here:

q3cfilevar-adv.txt

Here's a quick description of what this issue is all about:

A) File Overwriting through Automatic Downloading

The Quake 3 engine supports an option called "Automatic Downloading" which allows the clients to automatically download PK3 files (maps

and mods) available on the server but not locally.

This option is disabled by default for security reasons...this check can be bypassed through the ...bug described in this advisory, so an attacker can overwrite any file in any disk of the computer in which Quake 3 is running.

B) cvar overwrite with possible info stealing

In short, Luigi is saying that it is possible to overwrite or create any client cvar, even those that are write protected!

Fixes

Bug A) Turn off "Automatic Downloading" feature - unless you are on a trusted server.
Bug B) No fix is available for bug B.

The latter depressing news is not too bad as long as you stay on "trusted" servers. "Black hat" server admins however may be able to create a viable security breach on your computer based on B, but as Luigi, comfortingly, says:

...they are difficult to exploit.

Related topics:

CoD2 Server Vulnerability

BASHIE for June: ElJuan (Reader of the month)

The BASHIE for June goes to BASH reader ElJuan, who posted a critique of this here blog on a British forum:

Has anyone else ever come across this? I found it a couple of weeks ago while trying to find some more information about CoD2 server mods, and it's quite an interesting read. It's not updated every day but the guy who writes it comes up with some good stuff when he does post. Today's entries are about how the team behind the eXtreme mod are scrapping version 1.7 which was due to be out this week to move straight on to 2.0, and a security exploit that has been discovered in the CoD2 votemap function that was found by an Italian man who seems to specialise in looking for game server exploits and ways to fix them.

Good stuff.

It was very nice of him to say these things and even nicer that he still reads BASH inspite of the fact that I'm currently under a legal cloud due to those silly "practicing Exorcism without a Catholic priest" charges pending in Tennessee. I'm innocent by the way.

As a tribute to ElJuan we here at BASH are making his town, Lincoln U.K., BASH CallofDutyVille for the whole month of June. For this whole month, when we say CallofDutyVille, we will all know that, that is the place ElJuan comes from.

A big BASH booya to ElJuan. By the by, he's got a really nice blog where he voices strong opinions about gaming...check it out here.



Past BASHIE recipients:

BASHIE Winners

eXtreme+ 1.7 still born....but 2.0 lives on.

In a bit of a shocker, the eXtreme+ mod version 1.7, has been abandoned due to bugginess.

Version 1.7 was in Beta when, apparently, the number of bugs in 1.7 overwhelmed events and the eXtreme+ team decided that the fixes would require the mod revision to be flipped to 2.0.

Among some of the issues was a problem with the DRM module that was talked about by Joker in Episode 22: Return of the Joker. As well, there was a report that configuration files could not be altered.

The bugs are being squashed as we speak and the eXtreme+ team will re-start the Beta process all over again by re-issuing the mod to selected server managers. Software releases are a tricky process and this happens to the best of them. To me the commitment and optimism of the great folks at eXtreme+ are the news in this story.

Here is what Tally (eXtreme+ Support Crew member) had to say about this issue in extremecod.com's forums today:

1.7 no longer exists - it will now be version 2.0. We did this because we did so many version changes while testing that we got up to 2.0.

We are finishing up with the testing, cleaning up things, and fixing bugs that we have discovered while testing. this caused us to miss our dealine of last weekend (the one just past). Sorry about that.

Will be out very soon, and please believe us when we say: you are going to love what we've done!

ATTENTION: CoD2 Server vulnerability found (Map Vote)

If you are an online CoD2 administrator, you need to pay careful attention to this.

I recently came across a website by a prolific Internet security expert who seems to specialize in online game software. His name is Luigi Auriemma, from Milan Italy.

He runs a site dedicated to finding security flaws in games:

http://aluigi.altervista.org/

Signore Auriemma has told me that Call of Duty 2 has a software bug that can lead to an exploit (you'll know what all that means if you have been listening to the Malware series on my webcast).

Not unsurprisingly, the Internet security exploit revolves around the improper handling of user input during Call of Duty 2's map voting. All it requires is for a user to type a very large string into the callmapvote subroutine during voting.

Here is a quote from his site:

http://aluigi.altervista.org/adv/codmapbof-adv.txt

Callvote is the command used by the clients asking the server to start a voting poll for the selection of a new map, for kicking someone and so on. Voting is enabled by default on the server.

The "callvote map MAP" string is handled by a function of the server which takes the MAP parameter and copies it (memcpy) in a local buffer of 64 bytes.

Mr. Auriemma also offers a patch to fix this string handling error in the code and thus prevent any possible exploit. He also has a little test if your server is susceptible.

http://aluigi.altervista.org/patches/codmapboffix.lpatch

download the code here:

http://aluigi.altervista.org/mytoolz/lpatch.zip

Note, that any firewall your server would have would be circumvented with a vulnerability like this. This is a known bug and it might be interesting for players to ask their server administrators whether they are aware of this exploit.

The bug has been confirmed by RaDioAcTivE over on the extremecod.com forums. Here's what RaDioAcTivE said:

I helped Luigi come up with this patch. The exploit was reported to him along with the VA buffer overrun exploit and we worked with him to come up with a patch. Happy to say that both work well and it stopped our servers from being crashed.

He went out of his way to spend a couple of weeks going back and forth with me until he came up with a working patch when no one else would. At the time it was mainly for v1.0 servers since that's where the ******** were hanging out that were crashing the servers. It was mainly one group of people. We managed to get the leader of these idiots ISP yanked along with their main web site and myspace accounts.

Luigi also helped to stop a couple other exploits for UO for us as well.