The DD

A musical tribute to the Devil-Dogz clan. From BASH Special Edition I.

BASH Intro

The intro theme to the BASH Call of Duty webcast.

http://cod2_bash.podbean.com

You're busted, punk!

As mentioned in the first few editions of BASH, Call of Duty 2 uses Evenbalance's Punkbuster technology to prevent players fraudulently gaining the upper hand during online games. Servers are trying to combat continued cheating by tightening up Punkbuster settings, so this is a good time to learn a bit more about this great technology.

The addition of Punkbuster, at Cod2 patch 1.2, has definitely stemmed the tide of cheating - although it did not stop it - and it gave the cheaters something to think about: a global ban! Yes, hackers and cheaters can be prevented from playing CoD2 on any Punkbuster enabled server. Violators are written onto a master ban list (MBL).

The following is taken from a Punkbuster press release on planetcallofduty.com

1) Cheaters detected by Punkbuster software from all of our admin member servers, are collected, sorted and updated to the Master Ban List (MBL) automatically.
2) Your server's ban list is automatically updated and kept current with our automated download feature at a time and period of your choosing. A cheater caught today will not be playing within hours on all servers using the MBL, Period!
3) The Auto-MBL FTP updating software is available for both Windows and Linux-based servers. (Or update manually, if the auto-updating feature is not possible with your server operation directly).
4) Screen shot MD5 checksums and timestamp are automatically stored in our repository, so that there will never again be a doubt as to the authenticity of a PB screen shot. It eliminates accusations of fake screen shots. PunksBusted's repository will verify it's integrity without question.

As mentioned in Episode 3 of BASH, PB does seem to create annoying lag spikes when it attempts to call home as it reports on how honest a player you are. These spikes can be reduced as follows:

To modify the number of times punk buster calls home create the following file, pbcl.cfg in the following subdirectory.

C:\Program Files\Activision\Call of Duty 2\pb

Use Wordpad (Windows OS) and copy the commands I've typed below.
There are 5 lines in total you have to include in this file.

pb_sleep 500
PB_SsLog 1
PB_SsSave 0
pb_LogToFile 0
pb_logmd5tool 1

The above settings are suggested in Evenbalance's Tech Support link:

PB Tech Support

If you are having problems with PB - you have been kicked off servers but you've not done anything wrong, you might try checking if you have the current version of the code. Sometimes, if the download is interrupted the software might get corrupted or not updated properly. You can upgrade manually here:

PB Download Files

these files have to be installed manually, if you do not think you are up to the task you can try downloading the manual installer:

PBSetup

The Punkbuster Player Manual is a must read here is a link:

PB Player Manual


The latest versions of Punkbuster allows player variable monitoring. From the Punkbuster Server-side Manual we have this definition:

PunkBuster provides the ability for Server Admins to specify a list of acceptable player cvar value ranges while playing on the Game Server. When each player connects to a PB-Enabled Server, the PB Client will download the list of acceptable cvar ranges from the PB Server and will check all of the player's cvars for compliance. The player is warned about any cvars that are unacceptable to the Game Server. The player then will have a few seconds to make any necessary corrections before the PB Server will begin methodically and regularly checking that player's cvars against the list of acceptable ranges. If a player is found to have a cvar that is outside the acceptable range for that cvar, then that player will be removed from the game immediately.

Just recently I found myself with a problem when logging into a server that had tightened up it's cvar policy. I was booted from the server due to a "cvar com_maxfps=0" issue. This "tweak" has been known for sometime and has never been considered a cheat. This variable can be set from [0 - 1000] - It determines the maximum frames per second (fps) possible. If set to 0, it disables the framerate cap. Any value higher than 0 though, caps your FPS to that level. The main reason to use this command would be to smooth framerate fluctuation, as framerate spikes can cause jerky gameplay.

In my opinion, this tweak is a known quantity in the gaming community and should not be considered illegal; however, the server wanted to standardize player variables for competition reasons and thus used PB to enforce their regulations.

I quickly modified the cvar (client variable) by editing the file in which it is found:

Program Files/Activision/Call of Duty 2/Main/Players/"Your name"/config_mp.cfg file.

I simply opened the file and re-wrote the variable to "cvar com_maxfps=85" which rectified the issue. Here is more information on PB's cvar monitoring:

Why do I get messages on some servers telling me that I have cvar violations and what should I do about it?

A cvar is a game setting. Cvars can be used to customize the game, but cheaters sometimes abuse cvars to exploit holes or bugs in the game in order to cheat. Admins of PunkBuster Servers have the ability to add specific recurring checks for players' cvar values during gameplay. If you have downloaded or written game scripts to automate tasks, then those scripts almost certainly will add and/or change cvars in your system. You will receive a warning if a cvar on your system is not in the range allowed by the Admin of the Game Server to which you are currently connected - the warning will also include the allowed range of values for the specified cvar. If you do not heed the warning, then after a few seconds or minutes, the PunkBuster Server will raise a violation and remove you from the Game Server. To change the current value of any cvar, press the tilde (~) key to bring down the game console, and then type the cvarname followed by a space and the new value, then press the Tab key and then the Enter key. For example, entering "cg_shadows 0" as a command will set your cg_shadows cvar to the value of 0. The Game automatically saves most cvar changes so that the next time you play, any changes from a previous session will still be in effect. You may request a list of all checked cvar rangess from the server using the "pb_cvarlist" command. You will see all checked cvars, the allowed ranges and also any of your cvars that are currently set outside the allowed ranges.

CVAR VIOLATIONS REFERENCE LIST

---

Here is a list of Cvar violations and there numbered catagories:

Remember not all violations are hacks or cheats,

Technical Violations: (Resolution: Reinstall PunkBuster from the latest game update patch)
#101 - Communication Failure
#102 - Communication Failure
#131 - Initialization Failure
#132 - Protocol Error
#141 - Distress (This indicates a problem trying to update to the latest version of PunkBuster - it may indicate a problem reaching one of our Internet-based Master PB Servers which can be caused by firewalls, router problems, etc.)

Miscellaneous Violations:
#111 - Bad Name (Resolution: Change player name or play on a different server)
#112 - Too Many Bad Names
#113 - Too Many Name Changes (Designed to eliminate name change spamming)
#114 - Protected Name (Resolution: Change player name or play on a different server)
#121 - Negative Score Too Low (usually from Killing Teammates)
#151 - Extended ASCII Characters in Player Name (Resolution: use regular letters, numbers and symbols in the player name or play on a different server)
#9001 - CVAR value failed range check (see the FAQ for more info)

Integrity Violations:
When PunkBuster is unable to verify that a player's gaming environment is functioning properly and/or has not been alterred, an Integrity violation is raised. This also involves the detection of modified game or PunkBuster files. These violation numbers are between 10000 and 29999.

Cheat/Hack Violations:
When PunkBuster detects a cheat or hack by repeated positive identification on a player's computer, a violation is raised. These violation numbers are 50000 and higher. Families of cheats are listed below. Resolution: Remove cheats and hacks from the computer.

I have included some links to videos showing what the hacks look like. Click on the links.

#50000s - Aimbot
#60000s - Wallhack
#70000s - Multihack
#80000s - Gamehack
#90000s - 'Cheat' Video Drivers
#100000s - Speedhack
#110000s - Autofire
#120000s - Game Hook
#130000s - Attempted PunkBuster Hack

Also see:

Tweaks

Hate da Playa

Here is Hate da Playa from Episode 14 of BASH

Hate da Playa

Episode 14 of BASH features the codrap song "HaTe dA PlaYa (Cod God)" by Jock Yitch and DJ X.

The song strikes out against the few players on the COD servers who cause all the problems. You know who you are!

Here are the lyrics:

What's your reaction to this?

Here at BASH we have talked quite a lot about tweaking your system to maximize the speed of both your computer and your Internet connection so as to get an advantage when playing Call of Duty on line.

One thing we have not talked about is the last and probably most important interface to COD ... you!

You could be set up on a multi-threaded, multi-CPU computer with an overclocked video card and plugged into a T1 line, but if you are inattentive, tired, ill or simply untrained to respond to stimuli, you probably will find yourself constantly losing when you go up against a fresher opponent.

The best measure of this performance parameter is player Reaction Time.

What is Reaction Time?

It's the time it takes for the player to respond to a stimuli. In the case of COD, the stimuli is typically the sight of an opponent player, an immediate threat - or opportunity.

You can measure it here:

Why do some people have lower or higher Reaction Times than others?

Well it has to do with your own internal wiring.

Some of this wiring is set in your nervous system (hard-wired so to speak). Your nervous system is divided into two, with a central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and a peripheral nervous system (all the nerves that deliver signals to the spinal cord). Both parts are at work here.

First, the nervous system must recognize a stimulus (an opponent with an MP44 for example), then neurons (cells in the nervous system) relay the message to the brain, muscles and other nerves.

Then, the peripheral nerves comes into play: the message travels from the brain to the spinal cord and is finally delivered to your hand. The motor neurons tell the muscles in your fingers to fire your weapon.

Clearly, the speed of the signals making their way through all these paths varies from individual to individual.

For about 120 years, it has been accepted that the average Reaction Time for a college age individual is about 190 ms (0.19 sec) if the stimuli is visual or 160 ms for a sound stimulus.




A learned skill?

The interesting thing about reaction time is that it apparently is a learned skill. Here is an article from Reuters news service, quoting the respected Acta Psychologica which reports that gamers are able scan their environment and acquire a target more quickly then their non-gaming peers.

"Video game players may spend a lot of time on the couch, but when they're ready to go out they can find their keys quicker than the rest of us, a study suggests. Researchers found that gamers who devote much of their free time to Grand Theft Auto and Super Mario may be able to scan their environment and spot the target of their search more quickly than non-gamers can. In experiments with college students who were either hard-core video game players or novices, the researchers found that players were quicker to detect target objects on a busy computer screen than their peers were." July '05

The good news is that we might be able to improve our reaction times!

In an article by R.J. Kosinski from Clemson University titled: A Literature Review on Reaction Time, Kosinski summarizes what affects Reaction Times:


Men vs. Women

Scientists have shown that in almost every age group, males have faster reaction times than females. In one study, the average response time to press a key in response to a light flashing "on" was 220 msec for males and a whopping 260 msec for females.

In response to sound, the difference was 190 msec (males) and 200 msec (females).

Tests done last year indicate that the gap is shrinking compared to tests done in the 70's. This may be due to the fact that more women are becoming involved in sports or gaming and they are training themselves to react faster.

The difference in the times is primarily accounted for by the lag between the presentation of the stimulus and the beginning of muscle contraction. Note that muscle contraction times were the same for males and females. Clearly men and women are wired differently.

Interestingly, dehydration caused a longer reaction time for women but a shorter reaction time in men!

Also, it was found that while men reacted faster, the women were more accurate.

Young vs. Old

Reaction time shortens from birth into the late 20s and then increases slowly until the 50s and 60s. It then gets much slower rapidly as the person gets into their 70s and beyond.


Intensity

The stronger the stimulus, the faster the reaction time! This is true for both sound and light stimuli.

Arousal

The amount of attention you are paying to what is going on will affect your reaction time. So will the amount of tension in your muscles. Reaction time is fastest with an intermediate level of arousal, and drops when you are either too relaxed or too tense.

Left vs. right hand.

It is known that the left and right side of the brain are specialized for different tasks. The left side is regarded as the part of the brain that specializes in logic and speech. The right side govern creativity and can deal with three dimensional spatial problems.

The right brain hemisphere controls the left hand, and the left hemisphere controls the right.

For this reason, scientists think that the left hand should be faster at reaction times involving spatial relationships (such as pointing at a target).

Tests have shown this to be correct.

Left-handed people were faster than right-handed people when the test involved the left hand, but there was no difference between the reaction times of the right and left handers when using the right hand. That is, left-handed people have an inherent reaction time advantage.

Right-handed people are faster with their right hand over their left, but left-handed people are equally fast with both hands.

Direct vs. Peripheral Vision

The fastest reaction time comes when a stimulus is seen by the cones in the eye (that is, when the person is looking right at the stimulus). If the stimulus is picked up by rods (around the edge of the eye), the reaction is slower.

Practice

Studies show that reaction times decrease with practice.

Fatigue

Reaction time gets slower when the subject is tired. Mental fatigue, especially sleepiness, has the greatest effect. Muscular fatigue does not increase reaction time.

Fasting

Eating or fasting does not affect reaction time.

Distraction

Studies show that distractions increase reaction time. Background noise lengthens reaction time by inhibiting parts of the cerebral cortex.

The reaction time to sound stimuli seems more susceptible to distraction than response to visual stimuli.

Warnings of Impending Stimuli

Reaction times are faster when the subject is warned that a stimulus will arrive soon. A great reason to use the HUD on your screen more often.

Alcohol

Tests have shown that females who drink one to six cans of beer did not suffer delayed reaction times the next morning, although they made more errors on a choice reaction time task.

Subjects who had drunk an impairing dose of alcohol reacted faster when they were warned that this was enough alcohol to slow their reaction time. Unwarned subjects who drank suffered more decreased reaction times. However, the warned subjects were also less inhibited and careful in their responses.

Even subjects who drank some nonalcoholic beverage and then were warned (falsely) about impairment by alcohol reacted faster than unwarned subjects who drank the same beverage.

Breathing Cycle

Reaction time is faster when the stimulus occurs when you breathe out than when you breathe in.

Personality Type

Extroverts have faster reaction times than introverts.

Exercise

Physically fit subjects had faster reaction times. Subjects had the fastest reaction times when they were exercising sufficiently to produce a heart rate of 115 beats per minute. The effect only seems to occur while you are exercising - not afterward.

Punishment and Stress

Shocking a subject when they react slowly shortens reaction time. For example, scientists have found that soldiers told that they were deploying to Iraq caused them to have shorter reaction times.

Stimulant Drugs

Caffeine has often been studied in connection with reaction time. Moderate doses of caffeine decreased the time it took subjects to find a target stimulus and to prepare a response for a complex reaction time task. The amount of caffeine in one cup of coffee reduces reaction time and increases the ability to resist distraction, and it does so within minutes after you drink it.

Intelligence

Among people of normal intelligence, there is a slight tendency for more intelligent people to have faster reaction times, but there is much variation between people of similar intelligence.

Conclusions:

Here is a summary of ways to improve your reaction time:

Tense your body - but not too much and keep up your heart-rate.

Ideally have sex while you are playing (who said gaming is a lonely hobby?) because you'll be aroused and your heart should be pounding faster - both decrease reaction times.

Apparently you can do drugs or drink to the point of impairment - but just make sure someone tells you that you're reaction times will suffer as this will apparently actually decrease your reaction time! (We're kidding about taking drugs, or drinking - remember kids, just say no).

Play dehydrated if you are a man or drink plenty of water if you're a woman.

Get plenty of rest.

Crank up the sound as you react faster to sound than what you see on the screen.

When you are getting ready to enter into a fire-fight, breathe out.

Trends: March

In our tracking of the popularity of COD2, we have been comparing it against Battlefield 2142 - probably its biggest rival. Here's the latest Trend History from Google.

Trend History is a total of the searches done on a particular topic on Google, worldwide, over time and is a good indication of popularity.


As you can see the popularity of both COD and 2142 have stabilized. The remarkable thing is that COD2's popularity has not waned for almost a year now!

That's great news for all the COD devotees and especially for clan leaders and web server hosts who have dedicated so much time and money to their COD hobby.

There is some bad news, check out the Amazon.com sales rankings:

COD2 PC: #773 in Video Games (was 447th last month)
BF2142 PC: #4,590 in Video Games (was 14,946th last month)
COD3 Xbox: #81 in Video Games (was 54th last month)

See past trend articles by clicking "trends" in the index on the right or see this article:

trends-february.html

COD Astrology

The all seeing, all knowing soothsayer, Jock Yitch, predicts your COD2 future!




More COD funnies:

why-do-you-play?
sociological-underpinnings-of-meanieface >:<
cod2-weapons-choice-and-valor

The DD

The lyrics to "The DD", a COD2 raptactular that selected DJ-X as the new BASH audio engineer:



Here's what BASH fans are saying about the hip-hop episode:

I'm also sorry to have heard Rapper DJ-X, I'll never get that out of my head! (I was practically crying while listening to it!)
- LT

What up B!! OMG!!!! I couldn't stop laughing. I just listened to Bash: Special Edition 1. That was hilarious!!! Nuff props for even trying to rap.
p.s. I'm gonna go listen to Run DMZ right now! lol
-RB

Let me console you

This post is for those of you who have never used the in-game console in COD2. You have undoubtedly heard about it, but probably thought it too difficult to mess with.

Well let's try and give you some examples on its use and we'll see if you get the hang of it.

NOTE that all the modifications you do here will be lost as soon as you quit your COD2 session. To remember these changes you will need to modify your player configuration file. We will discuss that in a later post.

This will be the first post in a series, I'll be labeling these under "tweaking" so that you can find them. There's not much here that you cannot find on the net; however, I hope that I can explain some of these things so that even the most non-technical of you will be able to understand.

The Console

The console is a program that runs when you are running COD2 in multiplayer mode. It let's you change your game configuration, monitor your framerate, check your download/upload speed, even connect to a different server.

This is all heady stuff, unfortunately, the user interface consists of typing text comments (direct entry) and is not at all intuitive. For that reasons, many players ignore the Console. Hopefully, after you have read this, you won't as it can be quite useful.

To enter into "Console" mode, when in COD2 and logged into a server, you must first type the tilde symbol: ~

Console Commands

Now that you are in Console mode, here are some of the things you can do:

1. Change your name

Let's say you decide that you would like to change your current screen name from Jock Yitch to Cap'n America (may he rest in peace). Then, type the following (after entering into Console mode).

/name CapnAmerica

Colors in your screen name are all the rage, you can add colors in this command by simply using the caret symbol (^) as follows:

/name ^3CapnAmerica

This command will make CapnAmerica yellow - which was just the opposite of his character. Poor, brave Cap (RIP).

2. Connect to another server

If you decide to connect to another server, mid match, bring up the Console mode and use the /connect command. This allows you to manually connect to other servers without having to back out into the COD2 server menu screen. Here's an example. Say you are in a server and your clan tells you there is a scrimmage at 181.12.1.300. You can quickly head there by typing the following in Console mode:

/connect 181.12.1.300

If that server is password protected (for example, say the password is "scrim") then use the password command THEN connect to the server as follows:

/password scrim
/connect 181.12.1.300

The password must be set before connecting.

3. Frame rate check

How many frames are being drawn on your screen? Well this is an important question as it really affects your gameplay. Although there are many factors in this equation, your in-game reaction times will be better the faster your framerate is.

When in Console mode, use the /cg_drawfps command to have COD2 tell you your framerate. The following sets the framerate display on:

/cg_drawfps 1

This sets it off

/cg_drawfps 0

The framerate is in frames per second (fps). Tweak your system to keep that number above approximately 60 fps and you will be doing well. Let it fall into the 30-50's and you will notice perceptive lagging.

4. Game Lag

We will be discussing lag in another post, in the meantime you can see if you or the server is causing your gameplay to slow by using the /cg_lagometer command. Turn the lagometer on by typing:

/cg_lagometer 1

Turn it off by typing:

/cg_lagometer 0

You will see two graphs on the right side of your screen. We'll talk extensively about the lagometer in a future post. For now, the bottom graph is roughly representative of your ping. The lower the green line on this graph, the lower your ping. Red lines mean dropped packets.

The top graph is a measure of your graphics card. Video performance can be affected by ping - but not the reverse. If you have a connection interruption, or are dropping packets, or your ping goes high, you will likely see the top graph go up as well.

5. Recording mode

To record your play in the game, you can set COD2 to save your game like you were using a VCR. This is done with the /record command. The following example labels the name of the file "game1":

/record game1

You can use this feature for training purposes, demos, bragging rights, or even to catch cheaters! Remember, if you don't use a name for record mode - COD2 simply gives you a default name. If you look at the bottom left of your screen you will now see a "game1 xxK" title - this means you are recording! Use the following command to stop recording:

/stoprecord

To play what you have recorded back, use:

/demo game1

6. Binds

You can set "binds" in Console mode. For example if you want to set the "[" and the "]" keys to turn off/on the framerate viewer, you can type the following commands while in Command mode:

/bind [ "cg_drawfps 0"
/bind ] "cg_drawfps 1"

The keys will be "mapped" for the current session only. The bind will be lost the next time you log in. A better way to always have these commands set is to add them to your configuration file. We showed how to do this this earlier, in the post "A brighter day in COD2". A future post will show you how to permanently bind the above commands onto your keyboard.


Related posts:

A brighter day in COD2

Cinematic COD influences MOH?

The cinematography of Saving Private Ryan (Janusz Kaminski) and Band of Brothers (Remi Adefarasin, BSC, and Joel Ransom, CSC) continues to impact the gaming industry.

Call of Duty has been heavily influenced by this "look".

Now it seems to have permeated another popular FPS WWII game franchise: Medal of Honor.

Check out EA's Medal of Honor: Airborne.

http://www.ea.com/moh/airborne/home.jsp