Unreal.Tournament.2003 Multiplaying

**red_avatar** · 2nd October 2002

**MarcusAure** · 2nd October 2002

I don't know if anyone has already mentioned this, but...

Maybe Epic did this on purpose? Wouldn't it make sense to not have authorization up for a week, and a few thousand pirates try the game online, get hooked, then are cut off?

Think about it, it's like giving someone their first hit for free. The second hit is going to cost you.

So at the end of the first week or so, they implement a secure cd key authorization and only legit keys can play.

Might make sense.

**gunhero** · 2nd October 2002

its called "smart marketing" =)

**red_avatar** · 2nd October 2002

Hmm I was thinking about this - you might be right and I would find it quite a good thing actually. Hell, why don't they just released the full game for free and then disable the cd key? Bit like those online MMORPG games where you have to pay a monthly fee.

But something tells me that they won't add more security. For one, Epic has NEVER protected any of their games well. Both UT and Unreal could be installed after which you no longer needed the CD. This cd key in UT 2003 is dead easy to circumvent too. Well at least it beats the BF1942 which takes ages to load because of the copyprotection.

**gunhero** · 2nd October 2002

Originally posted by d. bAser
^^blinG blinG++

ut_ sux ass, always will

you must be on of those counterstrike players that cant handle speed

**twistedps** · 2nd October 2002

Originally posted by MarcusAure
I don't know if anyone has already mentioned this, but...

Maybe Epic did this on purpose? Wouldn't it make sense to not have authorization up for a week, and a few thousand pirates try the game online, get hooked, then are cut off?

Think about it, it's like giving someone their first hit for free. The second hit is going to cost you.

So at the end of the first week or so, they implement a secure cd key authorization and only legit keys can play.

Might make sense.

Nah, i think it was a mistake on their side... cause they didnt know it was going to be pirated. I dont think any company would take chances on supporting pirated software... Where i work if we have something working before setting up security, we usually leave it up, and since it was on the weekend, it probably took epic longer to get someone in there to change it, but then again, we may never know unless if they tell us.

**Zander** · 2nd October 2002

excerpt from trying to setup a server 2nite...

Code:

Log: MasterServerUplink: Connection to ut2003master1.epicgames.com established.
Log: MasterServerUplink: Master server rejected authentication request.  Check your CD key.
ScriptLog: Master server connection failed
ScriptLog: Master server connection failed

argh. oh well. Now we know we can't spoof as a server anymore to try the client browser. Ideas?

Z

**Antos** · 2nd October 2002

That's genius on Epic's part. It's the video game equivlent of a movie teaser (ok, sort of like a "full game" demo that is time protected

The people who truly like the game, will go out and buy it as soon as server side-master checking is implemented I already downloaded it out of sheer boredom, but haven't even bothered to burn it; I'll be buying this one as soon as I can get a ride to Best Buy

Anyone willing to bet that this will become the next big 1v1 CPL game? Or will that still be Quake?

**Zander** · 2nd October 2002

Man, it's like there is two completely seperate threads going in this one thread. Skitzo.

Z

**Naraku** · 2nd October 2002

True enough, I think one big factor why UT got so popular was because it wasn't protected.

I remember I was preoccupied waiting for Q3 when UT was released several days before...well I like UT more than Q3...without RA3.

**venom4911** · 2nd October 2002

hmmmmmmmm...found this today

Support for 3rd Party Server Querying Oct 1, 2002 - by Jack Porter

We have made server lists available via HTTP for both demo and full version UT2003 servers so that 3rd party server query tools can add UT2003 support.

http://ut2003master.epicgames.com/se...t/full-all.txt
http://ut2003master.epicgames.com/se...t/demo-all.txt
These URLs contains a tab-separated list of server IP, game port and query port for all servers in our master server. The query port is the port number the server is listening on for UDP queries. The query format and response is exactly the same as UT 1. The source code to the game server's query responder is in the UdpGameSpyQuery UnrealScript class. To launch the client, use the command line:
ut2003.exe unreal://ip:gameport

- Jack

**Zander** · 2nd October 2002

Hehe, while not exactly as good as the in game browser, this means all 3rd party browsers will support the game independant of any cdkey checking.

It's only a matter of time now for ASE to update and query the .txt files and parse 'em for us. Hell, if I was a programmer I'd do it myself.

Excellent news.

Z

**Zander** · 2nd October 2002

I have a request, someone with a sniffer app and some knowledge, please do a packet trace on a UT2K3 server that has been setup, then have one client join, and watch the traffic that comes out of that game server. I would like to see if a game server attempts to query a authorization server. I keep hearing rumors of a supposed authorization server but I'd like proof. Watching what a game server does when a client connects could prove/disprove this rumor.

I would do this, but I don't have 2 PC's that can run the game, only 1.

Z

**Hellkeeper** · 2nd October 2002

The server never tries to authenciate any CD Key besides its own. As opposed to other games like NWN or Battlefield which require a cracked server.

I think I have an idea however to solve most problems, I will look into it later today.

**fRiJeC** · 2nd October 2002

Is there a way to make your UT2003 look up in that http://ut2003master.epicgames.com/s...st/full-all.txt
... That would be great ! Can anyone with more knowledge than me do a research, bring us the answer...

**Mc-manic** · 2nd October 2002

played on gamespy arcade yesterday afternoon without any trouble,stuff Epics main servers.

**Thrash** · 2nd October 2002

For those who hasn't noticed yet. The All-Seeing Eye now supports UT2k3!

**venom4911** · 2nd October 2002

yes and it works good.....i just got done playin...i owned both matches...well...4 of the 5 players in the server were bots and the actual "real" player had a 200 ping but i STILL owned!!

heh

**ZephryX** · 2nd October 2002

it would be cool to have a little proggy that parsed that list and inserted the servers as favorites in ut2003.ini

**Guybrush** · 2nd October 2002

Originally posted by ZephryX
it would be cool to have a little proggy that parsed that list and inserted the servers as favorites in ut2003.ini

you can just make a simple script like i did:

Code:

set f [open "full-all.txt" r]
while {![eof $f]} {
  set line [gets $f]
  set ip [lindex $line 0]
  set port [lindex $line 1]
  set qport [lindex $line 2]

  puts "Favorites=(ServerID=0,IP=\"$ip\",Port=$port,QueryPort=$qport,ServerName=\"Unknown\")"
}
close $f

this is a a tcl script, just run it with "tclsh" and make sure the full-all.txt is in the same dir.