We mentioned last week that DICE would be releasing a new server update this week, it appears now that it has been moved to next week, with some added fixes, including a client update as well.  Details weren’t released, but according to DICE’s Barrie Tingle, they are in the process of testing the Server R9 update — with no word on the client update.

The next Bad Company 2 server update is scheduled for next week, but there’s already a preview of the new fixes and changes, as posted on the EA UK forums by a server admin (we assume, as this is not an official DICE post):

• admin.say command implemented
• admin.yell to squad has changed (you need to specify both team and squad)
• squad numbering has changed – the “no squad” squad has ID 0, and real squads are 1 and up.
• Autobalance improved, it shuffles people both during and between rounds now, and does a better job. No way to turn it off via admin interface yet I think.
• mapList* commands reworked
• banList* commands reworked
• listPlayers command added
• admin.listPlayers command reworked (GUID, kills, deaths, ping and score added)
• Players have non-PB GUIDs now (these are distinct from PB GUIDs)
• onChat event reworked
• player.onAuthenticated added (it’s triggered when a player receives GUID)
• player.onSquadChange, player.onTeamChange implemented
• Couple of crash fixes
• Support for “region” setting

As mentioned earlier, the new update will be released next week. No news on when a new client update will be released, but expect at least one minor update this month.

DICE has released a new Bad Company 2 dedicated server update, which fixed a few issues.

• Workaround for the “player manages to join server twice” crash. Now the server detects this and refuses the player entry. Client might hang but it will not take down the server as well.
• Workaround for the “cannot join player to any team” crash. Teams might get uneven, most notably SQDM sessions with 5v3 players, but the server should no longer crash.
• Game sends PB output to pbucon (so pb webtool can be used to run PB commands and see their results)

As you can see, most of these won’t affect your gameplay, but it’s good to know that even the smallest things that can be fixed will be fixed.

After a few weeks of unstable online gameplay, disconnects and server shut downs, EA has finally completed Bad Company 2 server maintenance, according to a Tweet from the official BC2 Twitter account. However, the official Battlefield blog states that some players may still experience stats issues, where stats of over the last few days are not updated accordingly.

EA says that from now on, online gameplay will be stable and ready to “serve your BC2 needs”. We sure hope so, as many gamers, including us, have been frustrated due to the lack of stability on the online front.

DICE is still having problems with the servers and serverload — if you’ve played BC2, you’d know that by now. DICE was recently rumored to have asked server providers to shut down idle servers because they stressed the network and EA master server too much. DICE has now clarified that they only asked Multiplay.co.uk, one of the largest game server providers in the world. DICE said,

We did not make this decision lightly but as an attempt to temporarily lower traffic on EA servers that is caused by the game server browser while we work on a client fix for the browser here at DICE. After previously shutting down all EA Public servers which accounted for approximately 40,000 player slots we have actually gained approximately 50,000 more player slots from new rental servers. We currently have enough server capacity to allow over 150,000 players to get in a game server at once and that is just on PC.

You can read DICE full statement and explanation here.

While DICE has released the official tools for admins and server owners of Bad Company 2 game servers (PC only), there are now other tools on the market as well. The new Admin Tool offers pretty much the same features (+ a few more), including:

• Banlist sharing between selected servers
• Auto-kick teamkillers
• Ingame commands
• Ip/guid log
• (i)Phone support
• More detailed Access flags
• webversion
• Retrieve PB screenshots (still checking if this is possible)
• Autopatch BFBC2admin client and daemon
• API (both in C++ as well as a Scripting option) to extend our client/daemon

The team plans to add even iPhone support in future updates. Server owners can download the tool for free at bfbc2admin.com.