Community Update: BF2 Server released

Battlefield 2 Retail Server Files Available: In anticipation of next week's launch of Battlefield 2 at retail, we are releasing the Unranked server files for Win32 and Linux. Be advised that, as with the demo, servers that are caught allowing users to play with the unlock weapons using the python workaround will incur a one week ban from the server list. While we encourage mod teams to discover cool things to do with the python scripts, we reserve the right to de-list servers that find ways to undermine the core features of the game using these tools. We will be sure to update the community when we do begin punishing a tweak that falls into this category.

If you are going to tweak the Python files and you are unsure whether you might be doing something that DICE and EA would consider undermining a core game feature, please feel free to send a note to BFHQ@ea.com and ask for our feedback. We want to re-affirm that for the most part anything goes on Unranked servers.

Battlefield 2 Launch Party: On June 21 in San Francisco, EA will be celebrating our Battlefield 2 Launch in conjunction with NVIDIA at their GeForce LAN event. Among those attending this event from the Battlefield 2 team will be Executive Producer Scott Evans, who will be taking the opportunity to speak about the Battlefield 2 development process and the Battlefield franchise?s strong relationship with NVIDIA.

Also at the event, NVIDIA and EA will be running a huge, day-long 64-player LAN tournament of Battlefield 2. On hand to cover the event will be representatives from the #BF2 IRC Channel (irc://irc.gamesurge.net/bf2/) on irc.GameSurge.net, and Team Sportscast Network (TSN). The crew will be giving away prizes all throughout the day, including free copies of Battlefield 2, ZBoard Keyboards with BF2 Key sets, and more. Various guests will also appear on #BF2 and www.tsncentral.com throughout the day including representatives from Battlefield Production, Even Balance (makers of Punkbuster), Ideazon (makers of ZBoard), and various members of the Battlefield community.

If you are in the San Francisco area and are a huge Battlefield fan, we look forward to seeing you at the party! If you can?t be with us, make sure you tune in at TSN throughout the day on Tuesday, June 21 or are in the #BF2 channel for coverage (irc://irc.gamesurge.net/bf2/). Also, for more info on the event, visit the GeForce Lan Site for more info.

Editor Coming Soon: With the launch of Battlefield 2 on June 21, many members of our community are looking forward with great anticipation to the subsequent release of the Battlefield 2 Editor (aka, the Mod Development Toolkit). While our goal was to release the entire tool in Open Beta format on June 22, we are scaling back our release slightly due to some complications that have occurred as we continue retrofitting the Editor for general release. We still hope to release the Editor itself on June 22, with the available functionality allowing users to create new Battlefield 2 levels from start to finish with content used in the retail game. At the same time, we will also release the first batch of Editor documents (written by our technical writer Dan Davis) and tutorials (created by our Mod Support Coordinator, Lawrence Brown).

We then plan to follow up at the end of the week with a few additional tools that will enable users to move forward and create entirely new art assets for Battlefield 2 and import them into the Editor, enabling more extensive Modding work to begin. The Battlefield 2 Editor will then remain a work in progress, as we periodically incorporate fixes in response to community feedback and also enhance the Editor with content and features as additions are added to the core game through updates. Watch for more info on the Editor in this space early next week and then stay tuned in the future for information on our future web home for Mod Tools Updates and Editor Forums.

Account Names Notes: Many of you out there have noticed that users are prevented from creating account names that include any of a wide variety of vulgar or offensive terms. The filter that we have implemented in the Account Creation, while strong, is not perfect, and we are sure some offensive names will slip between the cracks. Please note that you accepted EA?s Terms of Service in creating your account (specifically, you agreed to not create vulgar or offensive names). EA and DICE reserve the right to rename any accounts that have been created (or will be created when the retail game launches) which are found to contain vulgarity or offensive language. We will also send an explanatory message to the e-mail account associated with the address as needed. Please note that you MUST have used a valid e-mail address in creating an account if you wish to dispute the revision of your account name.