End of CFS1 & CFS2

[DrRedskwirrell]

http://zone.msn.com/en/general/article/ ... otify2.htm

Amongst others, you will see that M$ have officially announced that CFS 2 will no longer be supported on their Gaming Zone after January 31st.

As a matter of interest, after hearing this earlier today, I tried out Gamespy's CFS host with _SS_MyKill_ and found it to be much better than the Zone's providing noticeably smoother gameplay even for Dial-up users. It was so good I also noticed the handling of the aircraft had changed as well. Probably for the same reason. You can have up to 32 players in a game.

You have to subscribe to the service but you can do this for free under the terms of the subscription (remember to say a rousing "NO!" when asked if you would like to receive extra mail from them ad-infinitum though. If someone hacks your membership they can sign up for services within Gamespy which you are liable for under their terms (good excuse to go out and buy that new firewall).

It looks like they also have a very effective way of controlling the detritous which has / had free reign over the lobby's in the Zone.

When Jan 31st rolls around, I'll try it and see how long it lasts. Nothing more to lose.

I hope M$ will do the decent thing (after the HUGE petition that was submitted to them to retain CFS) and post a referral page to Gamespy on the page the game cd links new players to. But, actually, I doubt the thought has ever entertained the merest shaft of light in their tiny corporate light-bulb brain.

[Padser]

Our revels now are ended. These our actors
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like the insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind.

Such stuff as dreams, eh...?

~S~

[Bombardier101]

*#%&* it MS! :-/

[DrRedskwirrell]

Sorry forgot to update this CFS2 thread with my Gamespy experience;

Unfortunately, later that night, I checked my system and found NINE adware viruses, 3 of which were included in the .exe install files Gamespy uses to run on your system. All nine had Gamespy tags.
There is an option to pay to remove these if you wish (apparently).
I don't wish for either so I've un-installed it, cancelled my subscription, and removed the adware from my system.
Thanks, but no thanks.

[Padser]

~S~

(From related thread in CFS1 forum)

Just received a notification from a message I sent to one of the Hyperlobby Forums ages and ages ago - it appears that the news of the Zone shut down has prompted some to ask if it may be possible for HL to support CFS again.

Don't know if anything will come of it (I suspect not - the chap that runs HL has his hands more than full enough with current games), but it may be worthwhile expressing interest if you're looking for a free stable and well-supported online arena in which to continue to fly CFS.

Forum thread here: http://hyperfighter.sk/modules.php?name ... =5809#5809

~S~

Pads

[4_Series_Scania]

Sad to hear of the Zone dumping CFS,  :( I really miss the old "SimV Dogfight" days.

That said, for me, the Zone & CFS died once I ditched Internet explorer for Firefox, the Zone just won't work via that browser... (unless I'm doing something wrong!)  :-/