5 years ago, the worse news arrived to FEAR Combat: The FEAR Master server was Shut Down.
Servers restarting couldn’t come back online. Players searching servers got no response.
The FEAR Community team, by then moslty <eAu>Phreeze and me, =MXT=Fred.cpp were getting ready for this scenario for some time, but we were still not ready.
This nightmare scenario, or like I use to call It, the Ultimate FEAR Fate Event, was previously predicted by Phreee to happen before 2012 end, we were not sure when. Maybe De 15th, we hoped.
I was very optimistic, because I had the FEAR Combat Launcher almost ready, but with important features missing and had to work fast. He was already working on a new Master Server; something that exceded my wildest dreams, but I was condifent he could do “something”.
When that 5/12/2012 day we lost the official master server, lot of people quit. They didn’t know we released, that night the FEAR Combat Launcher, that allowed people to connect to the still running servers.
During the next days Phreeze, that already had made the SEC2 servers support both old and new CKeys, made SEC2 allow new servers to start, without the old master server.
Finally only a month later, he released a Patch that allowed both client and servers go back to normal, making the FEAR Launcher not needed anymore.
A huge task that I want to acknowledge today. Without It, It’s almost sure there would be no servers running.
here is an extract of the about page of this site.
Eventually, more people joined this effort. Thanks for continue with us, to all players, server admins and supporters.
See you ingame.
New users registration issues.
In the previous days, we have had some reports of players failing on creating/activating new accounts.
If this is your case too, please use the contact form ( http://fear-community.org/contact/ )so we can help you with the process.
Looks like the anti-spam process is being a bit too strict. The game is active and running.
SEC2 2.0.5 Beta 3 Server update is available
A full changelog will be provided later, but for now, mostly includes fixing exploits and bugs, as well as antihack meaures for the latest available hacks, specially those focused on crashing servers and kick out other players.
As usual, we encourage server admins to update and provide feedback to avoid when possible, false positives and keep servers clean.
As usual, get them in the Downloads section:
Provisional Changelog:
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2.0.5 Beta 3 (2017-08-01)
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Added: INVISIBLE_PLAYER_HACK fix (RODRIGUEZ Mode).
Added: IMMORTAL_PLAYER_HACK new version fix.
Added: IMMORTAL_TEAM_PLAYER_HACK fix.
Fixed: Basic Respawn Bug.
Fixed: False positives when picking up mines and remotes.
Known issues: Some votes can cause false positives for VOTETYPE_HACK; we are researching his one.
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2.0.5 Alpha 6 (2017-07-05)
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Added: CRASH_SERVER_HACK Fixed.
Added: SERVER_CRASH_HACK at login fixed (Thanks to Vityacv).
Added: CRASH_ALL_PLAYERS_HACK detection.
Added: VOTETEAM_HACK detection, used to kick players with no need for other’s votes.
Added: TEAMID_HACK Detection, for players switched to invalid Team.
Added: IMMORTAL_PLAYER_HACK Detection.
Added: DAMAGE_PLAYER_HACK and it’s variants detection.
Added: ADD_WEAPON_HACK detection.
Added: ADD_AMMOBOX_HACK detection.
Added: ADD_MOD_HACK detection.
Added: ADD_GEAR_HACK detection.
Added: CHAT_SPAM_HACK Detection.
Added: SOUND_SPAM_HACK Detection.
Changed: PICKUP_HACK logic and details on the type of pick up.
Changed: TELEPORT_HACK logic.
Changed: VOTETYPE_HACK logic.
Fixed: Exploit that allowed hackers to ban other players.
Fixed: %s exploit that allowed to crash servers.
SEC2 2.0.4 + Server Update
Final Update: We have included the latest versions in the download section. Currently Beta 2 and 3 for Linux and Windows. We will just continue uploading the latest dev versions, but they are stable enough for use and include patches for latest hacks availables; we focus on the more damaging ones, like Crash, immortal and invisible players. Check them periodically.
Update 2: Windows version updated to 2.0.5 Alpha 3; fixing more false positives and adding detection of more hack events.
Update: Windows version updated to 2.0.5 Alpha 2; fixing false positives and adding a couple extra features under test.
Server admins should unban DAMAGE_PLAYER_HACK detections caused by a bug int the previous 2.0.5. Alpha 1 testing version. (sorry, my fault).
We are happy to announce the inmediate availability of the SEC2 2.0.4 and 2.0.5 update for FEAR Combat Dedicated Servers.
There are open beta testing versions, so we encourage server admins to keep an eye on their servers and report issues.
- Recent changes:
- Several Hack detection features.
- Sound spam.
- Vote type spam
- Weapon Spawn (Can cause false positives for connections losing packets).
- Kill Player Hack.
- Immortal Players
- Ban other players
- Go Into Invalid Team
- Crash all other players
- Vote Kick players on any Team
- Others.
Some features may not be available in Linux version. We should release an update for It in the next days.
We want to let you all know we continue the development of the antihack support of SEC2, as long as new features (Some, are related to mod support!).
Also, @Holland released a IPBan tool, perfect to deal with crashers and persistent hackers.
You can find these in the downloads section of the site (Registered users only).
4th GameSpy Master Server Shut Down Anniversary
4 years ago, 5th December 2012: GameSpy shut down the FEAR Master Server. 
That day (late night), we released the FEAR Launcher as a temporal workaround to continue playing.
One month later, the updated SEC2 version was launched, connecting to the new FEAR Master Server (hosted by FEAR-Community.org), and fixing the ingame Functionality to host, search and connect servers.
“We continue working in the maintenance, bugfix and promotion of the game, by providing downloads for the gamefiles and Game Keys, tutorials, tips and support.
Our goal is to keep this free game alive.”