[REMINDER] New Server Address!

[IceSkater]

Hello everyone,

This is just a reminder for those that have not been with us through our ... downtime. We featured the full details on our front end blog here: https://helloclan.eu/blog/welcome-back/

But a TL'DR version is that our servers have new IP's.



If you have the updated no-cd patch that fixed the master server (sometime ago), please just click "Update" in your server browser menu. This applies to both BFV / BF1942. If not, I'd advise you to grab them from the respective resource section.

Remember! You can also see the live-chat in the servers from their main-pages! And of course in our Discord server.


See you in-game!



Regards,
Ice

 

[x4|Al Gore]

Respectfully, this change IMO and in hindsight was unnecessary and so far failed to accomplish the objective. I wish I would've been in a position to give some input before this step was taken. I would have kept the old server alive by running BFV or it's mod on it, and moving BFV All-Maps to the new server as a trial. Then run an auto message on the old server broadcasting the new trial server IP address on it.

The new server has been crashing frequently and sometimes the recovery takes so long that all the online players have stopped trying to get back on the server by the time the server is restored. What was the point in deleting years of the old server's Gametracker history and player stats if the new server is even more unstable and crashes all the time?

Also, we may have lost several regular and occasional Game-Spy enabled players who simply didn't know how to find the new Hello BFV IP address because they are not registered on the forum. They must be under the impression that Hello BFV server is gone and BFV is dead because nothing shows up in their game browser.

Again, I understand the effort was to stop the alleged attacks on the old server and I appreciate the effort.

 

[x4|Al Gore]

It's been over an hour on a Saturday evening. Hello BFV server is still down. It crashed when an admin Flight was playing with us, so I'm sure senior admins are aware of the issue by now. Rbilly and I went to EPD server and 7 other players couldn't get back on. We were gaining players when the crash happened as you can see below.

 

[TKO_Flight447]

It's been over an hour on a Saturday evening. Hello BFV server is still down. It crashed when an admin Flight was playing with us, so I'm sure senior admins are aware of the issue by now. Rbilly and I went to EPD server and 7 other players couldn't get back on. We were gaining players when the crash happened as you can see below.

View attachment 3189

View attachment 3190

There was an issue today with the BF1942 and BFV servers "overlaping" so to speak. When I got on today around 2PM CST, I noticed Gametracker and the server list were showing 0 players, when in fact there were 3 playing. Ice was made aware ASAP and he worked some magic to get the servers back on track and showing the right player count and maps. Because I didn't want to see a Saturday wasted, I went back in and seeded the server, along with @Mir, so others could see it was active and join in as well. Really should have been doing other things today but alas, I am dedicated to this game and the community, along with all the other admins and Hello staff behind the scenes. So lets be grateful we are able to quickly rectify issues as they arise with a fantastic group of people working on this almost 20 year old video game.

As for the later crash, I was AFK but remained in server to keep numbers up. No clue what happened but I know Ice and others will be looking into it. A minor hiccup every couple of weeks/month for a game this old is nothing to get worked up over.

 

[TKO_Flight447]

It's been over an hour on a Saturday evening. Hello BFV server is still down. It crashed when an admin Flight was playing with us, so I'm sure senior admins are aware of the issue by now. Rbilly and I went to EPD server and 7 other players couldn't get back on. We were gaining players when the crash happened as you can see below.

I would also like to add that there is nothing stopping the regulars that frequent the EPD server almost nightly from playing on Hello server instead. The server is up and running perfectly fine 99% of the time and no reason players choose EPD over Hello. Al, since you are showing initiative to play on Hello later into the evening like today, I look forward to seeing you seed the Hello server at night to attract other players. It will be greatly appreciated and will ensure other players join in when they see people active.

 

[htn]

Respectfully, this change IMO and in hindsight was unnecessary and so far failed to accomplish the objective. I wish I would've been in a position to give some input before this step was taken. I would have kept the old server alive by running BFV or it's mod on it, and moving BFV All-Maps to the new server as a trial. Then run an auto message on the old server broadcasting the new trial server IP address on it.

The new server has been crashing frequently and sometimes the recovery takes so long that all the online players have stopped trying to get back on the server by the time the server is restored. What was the point in deleting years of the old server's Gametracker history and player stats if the new server is even more unstable and crashes all the time?

Also, we may have lost several regular and occasional Game-Spy enabled players who simply didn't know how to find the new Hello BFV IP address because they are not registered on the forum. They must be under the impression that Hello BFV server is gone and BFV is dead because nothing shows up in their game browser.

Again, I understand the effort was to stop the alleged attacks on the old server and I appreciate the effort.

There was no choice. We had nearly no support of the provider, responses took weeks. The server itself was destroyed, we only had a recover boot available fortunatly, to export our data and setup the new server.

So we had to switch the provider, there was no choice. Otherwise the game server would have been down at least for weeks, and then we would have lost more people, than the switch of the IP Address.
Unfortunatly with the provider change we also switched the IP Address.

It has nothing to do with the attacks. The attacks continued directly on the new IP as well.

If we had a real chance to keep the IP, we would had keep it for sure.

 

[IceSkater]

I think my colleagues have spoken very well about the situation and I don't really need to rehash it.

But, I will say this. I spent my Birthday trying to fix this community. I lost sleep because people couldn't play. HTN & I were throwing ideas to one another all the time and if it wasn't due to his assistance, we would have taken longer to get back up and running as well.

Our move had nothing to do with server attacks.
Our move had nothing to do with any agendas.

Our move was forced. We had no choice.​

The old provider didn't know what they were doing and could not help us. Quite frankly, their support sucked when it was given and otherwise was non-existent.

I tried, HTN tried, and I even roped SK out of retirement to also try. We couldn't get it working and the host was literally NO help at all. It was genuinely stuffed. Kaput, finito, klaar, finished.

We are the only ones that technically sorted things out for this community. We are the only ones that choose to endure. We could have left it as it was, and saved so much headache but we were not giving up on this community and what we built.

HTN was able to draw our old server files and I have them all backed up on my PC, but that was all we could do. Which thankfully is why our databases were not lost, hence our forums were reasonably easy to restore etc along with our customized maps on our servers. Also understand that HelloMiners was affected by this as well as their email services etc was on that server too. Furthermore, that server was extremely old and cluttered, it was also heavily outdated on top of everything else.

I would never have done what had been done if there was an option to keep the old server. It was a lost cause and we needed to move before we lost more interest. I, above everyone else here, know that the move was bad enough yet a necessary evil for our continued future. A more secure future.

---

With that said, on to our current stage of things;

The server was mostly fine until we tried running bots and now its being dramatic even though all the files are restored and modifications removed. Which by the way it was crashing a bit more with them on. As I typed this I'm doing a reinstall of the BFV server with HTN to hopefully sort things out once and for all.

Battlefield Vietnam's files are so nitty gritty that even additions to them can cause them to misbehave, it's really so finnicky that you can't sneeze near them or they'll blow up in your face and I'm not exaggerating that.

Flight disconnected around the time of the crash, so he didn't know. Again, please do not assume the worst of him. Most of us were asleep or AFK. I saw a message posted on Discord and pinged the Admins at 5:30am to start the server if they could. I contemplated getting out of bed, booting my PC starting the server and going back to bed. I choose to sleep thinking it would be okay until I got up and then sorted it all out. Clearly this is route was not liked.

Mir thankfully was an early riser and started the server for us a little bit later.

This is a reminder to use the correct channels to report server issues please.​

What was the point in deleting years of the old server's Gametracker history and player stats if the new server is even more unstable and crashes all the time?

As for this, I did try copying / moving it over but it didn't do it and I am sorry I didn't manage that.

90% Of the time it does happen, which is not as often as you're making it out to be but I understand you're frustrated, I am around to sort it out and the other times other Admins are around. This time was just unfortunate and I do apologize for that.

With the re-install done, I'm hoping that our bugs have been squashed for now.

And Al, the point was so that we didn't outright die. HelloClan was doomed if we stayed on that server, wracking our minds and seriously sleepless nights for me because this all affects me so much - which it shouldn't but it does - to try somehow bring life back to it. I chose the better path, albeit right now it may not seem it. But it was the better path.

We chose the better path.

 

[x4|Al Gore]

Al, since you are showing initiative to play on Hello later into the evening like today, I look forward to seeing you seed the Hello server at night to attract other players. It will be greatly appreciated and will ensure other players join in when they see people active.

I went to EPD yesterday because Hello was down. It wasn't only down in Gametracker but also not showing in the game-browser. On other nights I go to EPD late in the night when there is no chance of Hello to be populated because Europe and North America are mostly asleep. I have successfully populated (seed) Hello server on numerous occasions and as recently as a few weeks ago, and long before your arrival on Hello. I remember several times when I was the first player all alone and then one more joined and within an hour we had 20+ players. Then there have been times when I have tried to seed the server all alone and waited for an hour or more but nobody showed up especially during the late night hours. EPD is perfect for night time BFV gameplay as the number of available players willing to join are very low, so a bot server is better with such low numbers.

So lets be grateful

I am always grateful and in fact I mentioned it in my comment. Lets also be grateful that in spite of our short comings, our senior admins overlook them and constantly give us the green pass.

There was no choice. We had nearly no support of the provider, responses took weeks. The server itself was destroyed, we only had a recover boot available fortunatly, to export our data and setup the new server.

So we had to switch the provider, there was no choice. Otherwise the game server would have been down at least for weeks, and then we would have lost more people, than the switch of the IP Address.
Unfortunatly with the provider change we also switched the IP Address.

It has nothing to do with the attacks. The attacks continued directly on the new IP as well.

If we had a real chance to keep the IP, we would had keep it for sure.

Thanks for taking the time to explain @htn and @IceSkater . Had this been on a regular post and not on a blog, I would've been better informed about why the IP was changed.

Thanks @IceSkater @htn @Mir @HeiligWahrheit for keeping the server alive.

 

[TKO_Flight447]

I went to EPD yesterday because Hello was down. It wasn't only down in Gametracker but also not showing in the game-browser. On other nights I go to EPD late in the night when there is no chance of Hello to be populated because Europe and North America are mostly asleep. I have successfully populated (seed) Hello server on numerous occasions and as recently as a few weeks ago, and long before your arrival on Hello. I remember several times when I was the first player all alone and then one more joined and within an hour we had 20+ players. Then there have been times when I have tried to seed the server all alone and waited for an hour or more but nobody showed up especially during the late night hours. EPD is perfect for night time BFV gameplay as the number of available players willing to join are very low, so a bot server is better with such low numbers.

I am always grateful and in fact I mentioned it in my comment. Lets also be grateful that in spite of our short comings, our senior admins overlook them and constantly give us the green pass.

Thanks for taking the time to explain @htn and @IceSkater . Had this been on a regular post and not on a blog, I would've been better informed about why the IP was changed.

Thanks @IceSkater @htn @Mir @HeiligWahrheit for keeping the server alive.

Hi Al, you just described the very scenario that you use as a reason to not play on Hello during the late evenings

"On other nights I go to EPD late in the night when there is no chance of Hello to be populated because Europe and North America are mostly asleep"

You came onto this thread yesterday to complain about the server crashing and how you had to go to EPD to continue playing with 7 others. EPD easily gets 7-8 players, if not more, on a somewhat normal basis throughout the week during USA late evening times. I often see you in there too on Gametracker along with a few of our other usual players.

So...I propose you this: Try seeding the Hello server next time you're on during the late evening. You, @Hopper , Rbilly and any of the other late night crowds should seed the server. If you're willing to continue playing on EPD with 7 players, why not just play on Hello? Our server often has that many or less during certain times on the weekdays and people stay, enjoy the intimate gameplay and have a great time. Why should this be any different for USA late nights? You're a good player Al, I know you don't want to mindlessly blow-up bots with a Huey for hours and hours.

Al, you make so, so many suggestions and complaints towards all aspects of the Hello server that are often unsubstantiated and borderline insulting to the head staff who dedicate so much time and effort into keeping this game alive. I am asking you to actually put that same enthusiasm into simply seeding the server at night when you are on. All it takes is one person to create a habitual trend, then all the others will start to join over time and viola, we have an active US population at nights on Hello. If I didn't work evenings, I would be in there seeding.

Another thing that doesn't help at all with keeping the Hello server alive is the constant poaching of players to other servers via the in game chat by other players. We get it, at the end of the day, the player numbers start to dwindle and others tell others to go to "xyz" server to keep playing. While thats normally been fine and had no real bearing on affecting the Hello server, its began to recently be a slight issue. With the advent of a few new servers (no names being mentioned) popping-up rather suddenly, there has been an increase of instances where certain players will come into Hello, tell players to "go join me in xyz server" and then take those players away. This has to stop. Unless officially affiliated with Hello, it is against the rules and only further hurts the community. A particular other server often has their events coinciding with Hello's peak server times, and sadly many of our regular players can be seen in those servers. Same said players then complain about Hello player count and other issues related to staff, server, etc. I will wager a large bet that a person will find non-existent admin or server support relating to any issues with those other servers. Makes you think...

 

[DiscoMagpie]

If I may add to this, I think yesterday was a really good example of what's been going on recently in Hello's server.

I checked once I think on Saturday when the Pirates event in the 1942 DC server was taking place, and I think the player count was something like 12? Which is rather low for a Saturday night.

Yesterday I saw 20+ players so I popped in and when I mentioned the player count Para called me out because I joined after seeing that there's a lot of players in. I have to say it wasn't the nicest of things but he does have a point. Usually players start to leave when it gets later in combination with maps others consider very long right?

Guess what happened yesterday, we had a extremely long Hue game that I decided to skip (I saw I wasn't the only one, Flight was the first to pop into spectator mode right as Hue began, and Al followed soon afterwards, I myself played for half of it before deciding to wait it out). Can't help the fact we had like 6 vs 6 player count, and a very even one at that in terms of strength so it made Hue even longer. When the next map, one of my personal favorites Quang Tri 68 (72 isn't any better) came in, guess who it was that left? Yes you guessed right, it was Flight. I played for another 20 minutes if not more, and when a few more players left the game basically died, so I decided to leave as it was getting late for myself as well.

Then immediately afterwards I saw in the log that someone invited others to go in the server whose name is not to be mentioned.

I'll ask the following question, what's wrong with that? The person who talks about seeding so much and advocates against playing on other servers set a good example with his inactivity in a notoriously slow map like Hue and outright leaving on an arguably even slower map that is Quang Tri.

I don't really want to make a problem out of this but hypocrisy is one of the things really ticks me off, and honesty is but rare nowadays. I admit I haven't been engaging in seeding the server, when I join there's always at least 4-5-6 people already playing, but that's early in the day/night when I know more will soon join. If you ask me, seeking alternatives when the game is very slow and players are no longer joining in is something natural, and we already saw pretty much everyone do it too.

If we're gonna make a stand for something, I think we should all do it, or not do it at all. Players have the administration to look up to and hence they need to set a good example. When the exact opposite occurs, but suddenly it's the players that are responsible, I see nothing but long term trouble and more friction between the 2 "factions".

Lastly, something I want to add: I've been monitoring the same issue with an online comic that's been going out for years, with the reader base having complained multiple times about the pacing and general writing, yet the story writer wanting to hear none of it because "he's creating this for himself, not for others". This attitude chased out pretty much all of the prominent mods and admins, plus a good chunk of nice people from the small community, and it is now but a shell of it's former self. Yet the comic's still going on, because as the writer said, it's his work so he's not dependent on fans.

But Hello's not like that, it's a server for people to play and have fun in, and it won't end up like the comic, if the same attitude continues.

I myself have only went in the bot server only once, and I don't intend to play there because if I want bots, I can launch a single player map, I don't find fun in that. I only play on Hello because I want to play with other players and have a multiplayer experience. But seeing as now there are other alternatives, I might help myself with them if things continue like this here.

 

[x4|Al Gore]

If you're willing to continue playing on EPD with 7 players, why not just play on Hello?

Here's why:

1. First of all EPD mostly gets about 3-4 players max on weekdays and maybe more in weekend nights if we are lucky.
2. 3-4 players on Hello server without bots is not exactly exciting.
3. 3-4 players in Hello server with default bot settings is also not exciting especially after experiencing bots on EPD server.
4. EPD has customized bots tailored to each map with years of tweaking done by their admin. That is why, EPD is fun with just a few players when Hello is empty during USA nights.

Why am I telling you this? You already know this because you joined us several times on EPD and even +1 in the past few weeks. Don't you remember? Did you forget how you singled out and targeted Fragga @Blueheeler there among countless bots? That was impressive! We talked about it after you left.

Flight, you are new here so let us educate you that it's always been this way for years. We play on Hello all day and even evenings and when Europe goes to sleep, and Hello becomes empty, and only a very small number of players are available to play, we go to best bot server in the history it BFV which is EPD.

 

[TKO_Flight447]

If I may add to this, I think yesterday was a really good example of what's been going on recently in Hello's server.

I checked once I think on Saturday when the Pirates event in the 1942 DC server was taking place, and I think the player count was something like 12? Which is rather low for a Saturday night.

Yesterday I saw 20+ players so I popped in and when I mentioned the player count Para called me out because I joined after seeing that there's a lot of players in. I have to say it wasn't the nicest of things but he does have a point. Usually players start to leave when it gets later in combination with maps others consider very long right?

Guess what happened yesterday, we had a extremely long Hue game that I decided to skip (I saw I wasn't the only one, Flight was the first to pop into spectator mode right as Hue began, and Al followed soon afterwards, I myself played for half of it before deciding to wait it out). Can't help the fact we had like 6 vs 6 player count, and a very even one at that in terms of strength so it made Hue even longer. When the next map, one of my personal favorites Quang Tri 68 (72 isn't any better) came in, guess who it was that left? Yes you guessed right, it was Flight. I played for another 20 minutes if not more, and when a few more players left the game basically died, so I decided to leave as it was getting late for myself as well.

Then immediately afterwards I saw in the log that someone invited others to go in the server whose name is not to be mentioned.

I'll ask the following question, what's wrong with that? The person who talks about seeding so much and advocates against playing on other servers set a good example with his inactivity in a notoriously slow map like Hue and outright leaving on an arguably even slower map that is Quang Tri.

I don't really want to make a problem out of this but hypocrisy is one of the things really ticks me off, and honesty is but rare nowadays. I admit I haven't been engaging in seeding the server, when I join there's always at least 4-5-6 people already playing, but that's early in the day/night when I know more will soon join. If you ask me, seeking alternatives when the game is very slow and players are no longer joining in is something natural, and we already saw pretty much everyone do it too.

If we're gonna make a stand for something, I think we should all do it, or not do it at all. Players have the administration to look up to and hence they need to set a good example. When the exact opposite occurs, but suddenly it's the players that are responsible, I see nothing but long term trouble and more friction between the 2 "factions".

Lastly, something I want to add: I've been monitoring the same issue with an online comic that's been going out for years, with the reader base having complained multiple times about the pacing and general writing, yet the story writer wanting to hear none of it because "he's creating this for himself, not for others". This attitude chased out pretty much all of the prominent mods and admins, plus a good chunk of nice people from the small community, and it is now but a shell of it's former self. Yet the comic's still going on, because as the writer said, it's his work so he's not dependent on fans.

But Hello's not like that, it's a server for people to play and have fun in, and it won't end up like the comic, if the same attitude continues.

I myself have only went in the bot server only once, and I don't intend to play there because if I want bots, I can launch a single player map, I don't find fun in that. I only play on Hello because I want to play with other players and have a multiplayer experience. But seeing as now there are other alternatives, I might help myself with them if things continue like this here.

Please read my previous replies to Al above.

Disco, please refrain from making inaccurate assumptions. We've had a long PM about this with the other head staff having to debunk things you are alluding to. You are now doing it here in public so now I must spend more time with a retort.

I play most every weekend for the past 8 months. I'm usually one of the first players on (if not the first) and one of the last players off. I spend 4-5 hours, Saturday and Sunday, playing this game, often time getting on during Friday as well. Please do not talk to me about setting an example for seeding. The very instance of the server having issues on Saturday, and working with Ice to try to get it fixed asap so we could get players in the server and then myself and Mir sitting there waiting for players to hopefully join is a perfect example. It's sad I have to write all this out and explain every breath I take. If you decide to join late in the day when there is already a full server, then complain publicly on here when I decided to take a break from one or two maps after playing for hours, then I don't know what to tell you. I am one person. I can not be an active player 24/7/365. Nor can anybody. But, someone can take up the reigns during different hours when convenient to their timezones if they really want to try and make change and keep Hello active at most times.

 

[TKO_Flight447]

Here's why:

1. First of all EPD mostly gets about 3-4 players max on weekdays and maybe more in weekend nights if we are lucky.
2. 3-4 players on Hello server without bots is not exactly exciting.
3. 3-4 players in Hello server with default bot settings is also not exciting especially after experiencing bots on EPD server.
4. EPD has customized bots tailored to each map with years of tweaking done by their admin. That is why, EPD is fun with just a few players when Hello is empty during USA nights.

Why am I telling you this? You already know this because you joined us several times on EPD and even +1 in the past few weeks. Don't you remember? Did you forget how you singled out and targeted Fragga @Blueheeler there among countless bots? That was impressive! We talked about it after you left.

Flight, you are new here so let us educate you that it's always been this way for years. We play on Hello all day and even evenings and when Europe goes to sleep, and Hello becomes empty, and only a very small number of players are available to play, we go to best bot server in the history it BFV which is EPD.

Al, I generally agree with you regarding low player count is not exciting. That is not the point being made here. The point is that if none of the late night BFV regulars want to even make the attempt to seed Hello and play here, even as much as a week trial run at night, then there is very little room to have an overall opinion of leaderships decisions how to run the server. You come onto this months-old thread, saying how the new server is a failure and unnecessary, without having any of the actual knowledge of why the server was changed. You've done the same thing with me as an "admin report" even when I was explicitly telling you in game what had happened (server crash few weeks ago). But no, you're convinced I was doing something and wasted the time of many of the staff having to tell you exactly what I had told you.

Al, this isn't your server. Nor is it my server. We are guests here with free admission. There is a tactful way of bringing up issues outside of the in-game chat such as on this forum. A certain decorum is welcomed and will gain better responses rather than starting posts with complaints and accusing leadership of making failed decisions. Just...why? When you make public posts like that, it totally undermines the Hello staff for any other new or less-frequent players who read it, and then have questionable ideas of what the server is really like. "oh, this Al guy says the server is crashing a lot? Maybe this game isn't stable. I'll download BF 2 instead."

Yes, I've joined the server you mentioned along with another one a few times. Without saying a single word to anybody in either instances, I was immediately called a "flight the wanker asshole" multiple times by your boy Fragga, and told to "go screw yourself" & "he a hack noob" "cant beat me without cheats" by Toxic. You were there Al in one of those cases, do I need to post the screenshots of those pleasant things? You see it Al, and you wonder why I am constantly on the defense with being strict with certain players.

Al, I've enjoyed playing with you. We've had some great teamplay kills and I've never had an issue with you. When your boy Rbilly got removed from being an admin, you are now convinced it was my doing and now I can do no right in your eyes. Join the club big man, the Flight Hater Club stretches around the block. You, Disco and a few others think Fragga can do no wrong either. He repeatedly broke the rules, was warned and given sooo many chances to improve but still chose me to be the fall guy for his antics. Fragga has had a long history, well before me, of having questionable behavior in intervals. Do not for one second put any onus on me for Fragga's bad behavior on the server. Being a "long time player" is not an excuse to act badly and break rules. That goes for anybody. Ironically, these players DO receive copious amounts of leniency due to their long tenure on the server and often times promise to improve their behavior. Alas, many times they relapse and we have to keep playing this game and explaining staff decisions on the forum to people who only have a one dimensional view of the entire problem.

 

[toxic2]

Oh, I think he knows. He's a sharp sneaky one that Flight.

Be careful what you say fellas... The insults will lead to big ban times.

I literally shake my head reading this, as this exact scenario was discussed months ago.

"One drop of oil contaminates the entire well"

I love me some HELLO server game time, just gotta hit them other servers too nowadays.

"Can't beat me without cheats by Toxic"

Gee, isn't it just a bit strange that other people take notice in your "uncanny" ability to pick them out in random corners, and buildings of maps repeatedly?
I'm decent player. My KDR speaks for itself on the Player stats page that Ice made years ago. In fact it's much better than yours Flight (no surprise).
Yet you always just seem to have that instinct to somehow be able to zero in on really any player you dislike.
Ima leave that at that.....

But isn't that strange?

I'm outta this convo.

 

[IceSkater]

Clearly it is impossible to constructively argue a topic. It must degrade into name calling and dredging names through the mud. It's not on.

Not on from any concerned party.

I'm locking this topic to prevent further soiling of what's left of our public image and ALL the players we allow to play on OUR servers.