-= Gametoast.com =-

Great News everyone! if you haven't heard aready that multiplayer for SWBF II is back.

Link to Steam Announcement: http://steamcommunity.com/games/6060/an ... 9730776315

WARNING

Back up your modded game of BF2 before installing the latest GOG update for Steam BF2, I know it readds multiplayer but it breaks a lots of mods (1.3, Dark Times, Conv Pack, Legcay, Skin Changer, Fake Console, Custom Eras and Ultimate Pack)
Some people will just say reinstall the mods but the new multiplayer is completely broken for most players atm, meaning in the future there will be lots more updates which will continue to break them, also validating game files will now have a strong chance of breaking these mods again as well as the new master server apparently has anti-cheat which also attacks mods, or so I've been told. Basically this is a huge blow atm to bf2 modding and I cannot stress how important disc copies and back-ups are right now.

Please be aware.

Personal recommendation: Back up a copy of the Ultimate Pack version since it's the disc version and comes with lots o mods.

GOG and Steam just updated SWBF2 to re-enable multiplayer. However, there are reports that this update doesn't play well with the v1.3 patch, and therefore, will break most large mods.

DO NOT update your Steam or GOG copy if you wish to use mods that rely on the v1.3 patch.

We had same idea, my post does share a little bit more light on it and a slightly better and easier solution: viewtopic.php?f=25&t=33248

It appears that the SWBF2 update replaces shell.lvl which is a vital tool in the 1.3 r129 patch.

What does the shell contain that they'd patch it?

SG-17 wrote:What does the shell contain that they'd patch it?

Quite a lot actually, they updated a lot of the interface, renaming Gamespy stuff and changed a lot. If you play the update the changes are easily noticeable.

AnthonyBF2 wrote:It appears that the SWBF2 update replaces shell.lvl which is a vital tool in the 1.3 r129 patch.

Is it possible for us to just backup the shell.lvl file specifically? Or even to just have a copy of it on gametoast/moddb that we can download and exchange out whenever we want mod functionality? Or, even better, just add the exchanging to mod loaders such that there is a choice upon launching the game between having mods and having multiplayer?

Not asking this rhetorically. I have no idea how modding functions and need legitimate clarification

ArtIsPaperView wrote:Is it possible for us to just backup the shell.lvl file specifically? Or even to just have a copy of it on gametoast/moddb that we can download and exchange out whenever we want mod functionality? Or, even better, just add the exchanging to mod loaders such that there is a choice upon launching the game between having mods and having multiplayer?

Not asking this rhetorically. I have no idea how modding functions and need legitimate clarification

Unless the updated BattlefrontII.exe requires certain things like function calls or something that are located in the updated shell.lvl, it *should* be fine to just swap out the shell.lvl files like you said.

Anyways, we need to find out exactly *who* made the changes to shell.lvl so that we can hopefully (but unlikely) obtain the updated assets in order to resolve everything.

EDIT:

It seems GOG is the one responsible for the update. Many of us should try reaching out to them like I have done so here: https://twitter.com/AaronGilbert5/statu ... 8376000512

How would I backup the game? I only have it through steam:/

I have a plan that would incorporate the 1.3 r129 patch with the online patch by GOG. I won't begin this today but I will try as soon as I have the time and energy.

Will you be posting updates here or to a new thread?

asdfjkl wrote:Will you be posting updates here or to a new thread?

If I have success I will post update here and a new thread in the released mod subforum.

asdfjkl wrote:How would I backup the game? I only have it through steam:/

Copy your steam app folder for battlefront, and rename it (like C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Star Wars Battlefront II-original), then let steam install over the originally name folder.

I was excited that the online was added back through official means until I found out that it broke mod compatibility with almost all of my mods. I wish I had seen this sooner, thankfully I have it installed on another pc so I can back that bad boy up. This is quite a shame since it seems disney wanted to do more than just add online, I notice some of the lvl files were updated as well so who knows what they did in this 3.2 gig update. I would hate to think they did this on purpose so that modding was limited and would make people go play thier shiny new version when it comes out.

TWINKEYRUNAWAY wrote:I was excited that the online was added back through official means until I found out that it broke mod compatibility with almost all of my mods. I wish I had seen this sooner, thankfully I have it installed on another pc so I can back that bad boy up. This is quite a shame since it seems disney wanted to do more than just add online, I notice some of the lvl files were updated as well so who knows what they did in this 3.2 gig update. I would hate to think they did this on purpose so that modding was limited and would make people go play thier shiny new version when it comes out.

This worries me as well

Back when KOTOR 2 was re-released on Steam and GOG, they contacted the Restoration mod team and integrated it with the base game.
I'm more than sure that things like the conversion pack and patch 1.3 are just as popular (if not more) with respect to SWBF2...here's hoping that GOG gets to hear the modding community's perspective.

Wait, how would it breaks mod compability?

I mean my custom Shell.lvl is fully working for me, as well as the patchs 1.3 r117 and r129. I just reinstalled them. Same for my full mod, everything works fine.

I`m using the disk version so I can`t play multiplayer even if I wanted to. But there is a rumour of disk versions becoming compatible at some point

can't we just change the server address via hex edit, just like we did previously? Because i still have the DVD version.