AIRWAR F.A.Q.

How do you get in the Enemy Titan?

There are three ways:

First, is to get in an APC (Armored Personel Carrier), and drive over there, and then press F2 through F6 to switch seat positions, and then your ALT-FIRE key. The APC is the funny squarish boxy looking vehicle with 6 wheels; each side has their own version of APC's. You can switch seats in other vehicles and aircraft too, if they have multiple seat positions, with the F1 through F6 keys.

Second, is to spawn on your Titan by click on its white dot on the spawn map screen, and then getting in a gunship or air transport and flying over.

Third, is to join a squad that is already over there, and spawn on the squad leader who is already in the enemy Titan.

How do you use the parachute?

While you are falling through the air, press "9" on the top row of your keyboard.

On my server, you can go up in my paragliders, by pressing "D", your backwards button.

Since "9" is a very hard key to find in an emergency without looking at your keyboard, I strongly recommend you go into your game Controls setting page and define an alternate key that is easier to find on your keyboard without looking.

Are you really a girl?

Did you go around your school, asking every girl you see, are you really a girl? Half the human population is female. I get this question asked a million times a day.

No, I'm not. Don't ask me again. Thank you.

Someone is hacking your server... or, OMG, there are so many cheaters/hackers on this server...

Nobody is hacking my server. The only hacker on my server is me. Most of you guys couldn't hack your way out of a paper bag.

Airwar is a heavily modified version of BF2142, which means, I have changed many things, and things are different and may work differently on my server than on a stock BF2142 server, and you will see things you won't see on any other server.

Airwar is a aerial dogfighting server, for hardcore expert players. I have done to this to make the game more intense, more violent, more brutal, faster, and more entertaining.

If you are a purist and have an issue with this policy, click the "Advanced" tab and you will see 40+ other bone stock servers you can join and play a standard BF2142 game, just like it came out of the factory.

Nobody is holding a gun to your head to play Airwar. If you don't like my server, pick another.

I am not a bitch, you are free to play anywhere you want to play, and there are many alternative servers to play on than mine, and chosing a different one is a simple affair. Do not come on my server saying it sucks or telling me how much you hate it, you are free and welcome to play elsewhere. When you are ready for hardcore intense in your face gaming, you are equally welcome to come back to AIRWAR.

How do I drop the bombs in the air transport?

Honking the horn on the air transport drops carpet bombs, which will glide track enemy aircraft around them if present.

Likewise, honking the horn on the jeep drops explosive poison gas pellets.

What other weapons or vehicles have been modified?

My 3060 gunship missles track air targets with smart technology.

The mini guns on the air transport are fixed to work, and are a stronger defense against gunships.

Air transports deploy paratroopers, not pods.

The top turret guns on the tanks fire different ammunition.... anti-aircraft emp or gas pellets.

The engineer handheld rocket launcher shoots starburst anti-aircraft missles.

The sniper rifle is one shot - one kill 50 caliber.

The pistols are much stronger for close range work; the stock ones were useless.

The grenades are much stronger; seek shelter behind a wall.

The knife has an emp effect which can stun vehicles.

The sentry gun 'shoot through walls' problem, though not entirely fixable, has been improved.

The parachutes are now paragliders, and you can catch a thermal and go up, by pressing the back key.

All the vehicles multispawn, and go about 50% faster.

Vehicle fires last longer.

Vehicle wreckage is more persistant and creates a junkyard battlefield environment.

Helipads resupply and heal soldiers, as well as fix and resupply aircraft.

Pod lauchers launch you further with more power, which may make you scream from the G forces.

You can eject from the pod, but only do it as you near the apogee or you will die.

Sometimes, the anti aircraft and anti vehicle guns, are switched on to be auto controlled defensive systems.

I have added generally more bounce and rumble into the game, from explosions, to make it more of a rough and tumble brawl.

What other changes did you do to the game?

Airwar has the best kicker script in the world. My computer code manages my server tirelessly, 24/7/365, to mod out as much stupidity from the ocean of players as possible, so the gaming experience is improved for all, for players that want to play the game the way it is meant to be played.

I've written hundreds of thousands of lines of code to improve the game in other ways. If you play the game long enough, you will notice these differences, as compared to a stock server.

For starters, players are kept informed via a HUD message above their crosshairs, as to the number of Missle Silos their team currently controls, or the number of tickets the team that is doing the worst currently has... so that when the game ends because of a team running out of tickets, it is no surprise to the players.

Over 800 custom game banner images greet player when they connect, at random, as well as a scoreboard that lists high scoring players since the last server reboot, and for the last game. These high scores are also displayed inside the game.

A Violence thermometer tells players how violent the current or last game was.

Player's IPs are reverse DNS looked up, and their Country Code is attached to their name in the scoreboard.

If a there are less than 14 players online, the server runs Ground War maps with bot players to pad out the server. As soon as the server gets more than 14 human players online, it switches to Titan maps.

Mr. Foo kicks players that are sleeping, have a high ping, or are the worst player on when the server is full. Like, tell really bad Ancient Chinese Wisdom jokes ocassionally.

How come I'm not earning new unlocks?

Airwar does not use the EA ranking servers, but runs its own private ranking system that does not interfere with the EA system. As such, points earned on AIRWAR do not go towards earning EA unlocks at all or to increasing your EA rank. By now, expert players should have plenty of unlocks that it doesn't matter. Can I or will I change this? No. My server is a "modded" server, modded for more fun and intense gameplay, and not to collect trinket virtual medals or stroke your ego with ranks. The only thing that you bring to my server, or leave with, is your skills.

Why did I get kicked, I was doing nothing wrong...

If the server was full, and you haven't made at least 3 points in the first 10 minutes you've been on, the server will kick your loser ass off my server, to open up a slot for a better player to get in.

Its really easy to make 3 points, just stand by an enemy silo. This rule keeps noobs from clogged up my server who conenct when its most full and just stand around and stare at the sky.

You may have also been kicked if you were idle (you walked away from the computer), or because your PING was really, really, really bad (over 500). Having a really bad ping slows down the game for everybody, so in the interest of everybody's sake, I kick off really bad pings that indicate you have some serious network issue going on. Either you are trying to play over a wifi connection (don't), or you are running torrents in the background, or you have a bunch of other stupid programs in your tray bar or open, like Yahoo Messenger.

Can I be an admin?

Airwar does not need any admins, as my computer code ("Mr. FU" (as in Fuck U) or "Mr. Foo" (as in Code Foo)) handles that job tirelessly, fairly, and without complaint. Would you really want to be logged in 24/7/365 staring at the computer, kicking off players for stupid reasons like being idle? No, you just want some power to kick off other people you don't like. It's not going to happen. If someone kills you and hurts your feelings, I suggest you hunt them down and kill them back.

Someone is Ramming me / Mining the shields / Titan Roof Camping / Grenade Spamming / Bunny Hopping / et cetera...

There are no silly rules regarding tactics or combat on my server. For every possible attack, there is a defense or counter attack

If someone is Ramming You, get out of the way. Ramming has been used as a method of attack since ancient naval warfare. Also, have you ever heard of Kamikazi pilots? Yes, sure, its a low blow tactic, but you need to keep it in mind at all times and be ready to dodge out of the way. More often than not, someone is not ramming you, but just crashing into you by accident because of an aggressive attack. It happens very often on my server. Just par for the course.

If someone is Mining the Titan Shields, exit out the pod bays, or deploy your shields as you fly off the Titan

If soemone is Roof Camping, pod up there and kill them, with a sniper rifle, or fly up there and blow them off the roof with a TV guided missle or rockets.

If someone is Grenade Spamming, you need to wait for a window of opportunity, come up with a clever way to kill them, or destroy the Titan via some other way. Remember, those missle silos on the ground? Try capturing one...

If someone is Bunny Hopping, shoot them. Its that simple.

If someone is Tea Bagging your dead body, reflect upon what a worthless piece of human garbage they are, and then when you respawn come back, hunt them down, and kill them with a vengeance. Really. Tea Bagging is in very poor taste and only makes you look like a douchebag uncouth idiot.

What is a __________ ?

You can find pictures of all the weapons, unlocks, and vehicles in BF2142 at Whitecats.

Extended F.A.Q.

Can I be banned?

Yes you can, although I do it infrequently.

I am a staunch advocate of free speach, and you can talk trash and call me fat and stupid, and I'll support your right to do so, no matter how stupid it makes you sound, but if you continue to do it over and over and over and over again ad nauseum for no apparent reason, I will ban you because it is distracting to me and all the other players. The same goes for Command Rose Chat spamming. You are welcome to swear and smack talk in the game, but try and keep it down to a minimum as it just reflects badly upon you to all other players. If you have a personal grudge with some other player, better to shut your mouth, and hunt them down and put a bullet in their head.

If you use aimbots, hacks, commander hacks, or wall glitch, I will ban you. These do not fit inside the paradigm of the game, and by using them, you are not increasing your skillz at all, but just padding your ego and risk crashing the server with your purile stupidity by running someone elses poorly written script kiddie exploits. If I suspect you are doing any of those, and its usually easy to see, I perm ban you without question.

You should be aware, just about all game hacks and aimbots out there are distributed loaded with viruses. If you don't beleive me, upload one to VIRUSTOTAL.com and scan it, preferably before you run it. Because once you run it for the first time, that's all she wrote, your PC is infected and screwed, and my best recommendation is to reformat your computer and reinstall. Live and learn, but you got what you deserved. They usually contain virus downloaders, that don't install just one virus, but download and infect your PC with a host of viruses, and its impossible to stomp them all out.

What better way to distribute a virus, than to target young people who are stupid, that want to download something to cheat, and don't care if it comes from a dubious or disreputable website, because they think its going to give them some advantage? Think about it. You are being played for a sucker. Don't fall for that trap.

As a general rule, don't download software, unless it is on a website direct from the publisher that made it. If you don't know who publishes something, wiki it, and then go directly to the publishers website to download it from. Anywhere else, and its very possible its been infected. Definately don't download executable software from piratebay.

I have a clan XYZ, how can I run my own server?

You are stupid kid. Seriously. Stupid. Nobody gives a damn about your clan. Wanting to get your clan name out there is not a valid reason to run a server. Now that I've said that rubbish, I'll give you a more usable answer. There are no stupid questions, only stupid players.

On the face of it, it is deceptively simple. You can run your own server by renting a server from a game company (bad idea, unless you want a bone stock server you can not mod, with minimum maintenance, just to get your clan name out there up in the server list), or by downloading the dedicated server executable, and double clicking on it. Or you can even run a multiplayer game, from inside the game client itself. You will have to "port forward" a list of ports on your router to allow other people on the internet to connect to your server.

If you rent a server, it will cost you about $35/month, month after month.

If you run your own server off your own cable modem, it will cost you a high speed cable bill month after month (mine is $67/mo) plus electricity, plus whatever ocassional hardware you have to replace (power supplies, harddrives, fans, etc). Do not expect to do this on your main computer - you will need to run your server on a second dedicated PC just to run the server alone, that you keep for the most part, hands off of, and do not do anything interactive on. Its only job should be to run the server, because there are XX number of people on there using the computer (like 24, for example, at one time), highly sensitive to latency at any given time.

My recommendation, is if you want to have a private server for your clan to play on, to just "adopt" one of the many pre-existing empty servers someone else has set up. The admin will perhaps be happy to have some new dedicated players on his server, and you don't have to pay anything at all or do any setup work at all to play on it.

Running a game server is very expensive, in both time and money. In the final analysis, there is only one reason, and one reason only, to run a game server -- to play the game, the way you want to play. Which means running a modded server and investing an assload of time in modding it.

Otherwise, renting or running a stock server out of the box, you are just paying for bandwidth to run a stock server to support EA/DICE (or whatever publisher) making money, so they don't have to pay for running the game servers themselves. These guys that rent Battlefield 3 servers that can't be changed or modeded, for example... all they get to do, is chose the name they name the server and which map to play and change a few other piddly settings. They are stupid, yeah stupid. They are paying to run servers that EA/DICE should be paying to run to support their game, and all they get in return for a hefty monthly cost is their name on a server name.

How much did it cost to build and/or run AIRWAR?

Nobody's going to ask this question, but I'm going to answer it anyway as my final F.A.Q. question.

How much did it cost to design and develop Airwar? The biggest cost, obviously, was time. It took over 5 years of work, and over 3000 hours of programming over those 5 years. I probably spent more time on it than that, but I'm too embarassed to admit it. Even if you calculate a minimum wage of $7, that's $21,000 in labor. If you calculate a very low end programmer pay of $20/hr, it cost about $60,000 in time and labor. If you calculate with an acceptable Python programmer rate of pay of $35/hr, that's about $105,000. I suspect the true number, is somewhere in the middle. So yeah, AIRWAR easily cost at least $50,000 to build, and 6 years of my life, that I could of been working some other job, or getting a college education.

In that same time I spent developing Airwar, I watched my smarter friends go off to college and graduate, and my less smart friends, get jobs at Walmart and McDonalds. Meanwhile, I programmed away on AIRWAR. I did it because I was passionate about hardcore gaming, and because I was passionate about development. Airwar is my baby. Nobody can really explain, in the end, why we do the things we do... they don't always make the best sense. But there it is. I present to you, the world, AIRWAR. My vision of hardcore brutal in your face FPS gaming, the best Battlefield game in the world.

It costs me about $100/month U.S. to run AIRWAR; $66.95/month of that is a Comcast High Speed Internet cable bill; another $30.00/month goes to electricity; whatever is left is for buying ocassional powersupplies/harddrives/fans that wear out and die on the server. Again, the largest cost is time and labor. Even when not developing new code or fixing things that break, you have to babysit, check on, and maintain the server.