Killing Floor update - 30 Sep 2009

[[TW]Wilsonam]

We have just released a small update for Killing floor, following the Beta testing.



The details:

• Fixed surround sound crash with Audigy cards and Vista (this enables users with Audigy cards, Vista, and the proper drivers to now have surround sound)
• Added Universal Plug and Play(UPnP) support for hosting Listen Servers. The game will now attempt to open the proper ports on your router when you host a Listen server, thus making matchmaking easier. Please note, UPNP must be enabled on your router.
• Improved Map White Listing system to get maps onto the list faster
• Fixed exploits on each official map

As always, this should update automatically through Steam. If you are unsure, just exit Steam and restart it!

Server admins please note – you’ll need to update through HLDS for this one.

[rckrdude]

Nice. Thanks TWI!!

But how exactly does the faster whitelisting system work?

[Yoshiro]

All you need to know is that now it can be updated at any time without a new KF build being rolled out for servers and clients.

[luislinx123]

I been a fan and this is the coolest game I ever played.thxs

[Nanostrike]

Originally Posted by [TW]Wilsonam

Fixed exploits on each official map

This is all I needed to hear. Keep fixin' the bugs and we'll keep reporting 'em!

Maybe now I can find a legit game on Manor for once!

[Zips]

I, for one, welcome our new whitelist overlords!

[omarfw]

A small but important update. Thanks for the new whitelist system! woohoo more new custom maps more often.

[rallfo]

So for this improved whitelisting system what sort of new network activity can we expect server side?

In particular are there destination IPs we should be whitelisting for egress in our firewalls or are there some more open ports required?

Thanks

[HeatSurge]

Originally Posted by Yoshiro

All you need to know is that now it can be updated at any time without a new KF build being rolled out for servers and clients.

So, can/will this updating happen without shutting off the server, and running a "command-line update"? Like, are the updates going to happen on map change / seamlessly? Do we need to restart our servers?

I'd really like to maintain ONLY whitelisted maps on my server, and I test them as they come out, before I put them on there, so I need to make sure that my server's "white list" is also up-to-date (as well as my client which auto-updates from steam anyway, if that is required).

[Yoshiro]

Do not believe servers even have to restart now.

[JakeSoft]

Adding UPNP support seems to have broken my ability to serve games. It was working just fine with the port forwarding set up on my router before, but now the game hangs forever and never starts the server. Is there any way to disable UPNP and go back to the way it was working before?

[Yoshiro]

You can turn UPNP off on your router. (Alternativly, you could check to see if it is off, and turn it on). You might also want to back up your manual port forwarding if your router allows it and then remove it and see if UPNP will do all the work for you.

[PrimeEvil]

I'm having issues now as well. I run two instances on my server. The first server which uses the standard ports is no longer showing up in the in-game browser. However it is up and running and people can connect manually. The second server is running perfectly normal. It displays in the in-game browser with no issue. Both servers use the same install directory. Please help!

[rallfo]

Perhaps what they want to know is:
How do we completely disable UPNP in the server configuration?

I too would like to would like to know this!

It's generally good practice to disable such unnecessary services on public facing servers for both performance and security reasons and also those of us in datacenters may find our providers don't like hosts spewing out such traffic onto their upstream links*.

As a point of information in the meantime, blocking UDP port 1900 (i.e. blocking SSDP) effectively disables UPNP which is what we're doing to resolve this.

* Particularly if you are lucky enough to have a connection to the MBONE, in which case your multicast UPNP traffic, an insecure protocol intended for LANs that has seen more vulnerabilities than you can shake a CERT advisory-stick at, would actually be bouncing about the globe

[[TW]schneidzekk]

Have you actually seen any UPnP traffic in your network when running the dedicated server from the command line?

I am pretty sure you did not.

[rallfo]

Saw previous poster and assumed he knew what he was talking about!
Just attempting to help find a solution / give some general input...

We wouldn't have seen any anyway since unnecessary egress is blocked on our machines.
But this is good to know - I automatically mentally substitute "UPNP" with "MITM attack"

On that point though what egress should we allow for the whitelist updater?
Definitive answer would be really great!

[NitroBullet]

Can you guys PLEASE add a stat tracking system...

[omarfw]

totally I would love to see a stats system like what they have in CoD2, BF2142 and UT2004.

[dextronaut]

Originally Posted by omarfw

totally I would love to see a stats system like what they have in CoD2, BF2142 and UT2004.

i wish there was one for KF the first day it came out! but now its kinda pointless unless the game somehow stored secret archives of my atrocities.

[Nanostrike]

Originally Posted by dextronaut

i wish there was one for KF the first day it came out! but now its kinda pointless unless the game somehow stored secret archives of my atrocities.

Atrocities? Teamkilling on FF servers, trader blocking, and welding folks out are the only real atrocities in this game. The rest are TRIUMPHS!