Battlefield 2142: how to play in LAN with 1 copy

Emanuele_Ciriachi asked

on 2007-05-14

Computer Games

9 Comments

1 solution

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Last Modified: 2013-12-26

Hello, I purchased a copy of BF2142 and I was wondering: is it possible to play at home, in LAN with my friends, with only 1 legal copy of it?

So far I discovered that:

-it is possible to make it run without CD, creating an Alcohol 120% image, disabling CD drive, restating PC, and opening that image with Daemon Tools;
-if I am connected to Internet, it will allow only 1 PC at a time to log in - even if I choose Single Player or Local Multiplayer mode. Otherwise, it will log me off whenever someone else logs in with my data, Windows Messenger style.
-If I disable my Internet connection, I can login offline with two or more PC at the same time, and play together. BUT, I can only create up to four player for every account; can I edit (offline) the profiles in order to change their names and play with more than 4 characters with a different name?

Thanks for your answers.

Commented: 2007-05-16

No. You won't be able to do this. EA tried to get clever with their licensing for BF2142 and attached the login account to the product key then encrypted the information in the global.con file. It is also tied to their login server so you can't change your login for that Key. The other restriction of 4 "soldiers" per account is not changeable either. So for you to be able to play with more, you'll need new keys.

Legally, you should have 1 license per user. I own a gaming center and I have to manage my licenses using a special application that I wrote. This game has been by far the most challenging game to manage licenses. I had to create "InHouse" soldiers on each account and also force the login to occur on startup automatically. It's a big pain. My recommendation is to get more licenses or venture off to your local gaming center that has the game already working.

Hope that helps save you some frustrations.

Emanuele_Ciriachi

Author

Commented: 2007-05-16

However so far, I have been able to play locally with 2 players in LAN, with the same copy (I was offline).

This evening, in preparation for this weekend's LAN party, I went to a friend's house and installed the game on his two PCs; after installing, I logged in with my details, then logged online with some of my characters; after logging in at least once, I noticed I become able to use those chars in offline mode, ONLY WITH THE ONES WHO HAVE BEEN LOGGED AT LEAST ONCE. I created an offline server (using Alcohol's image), and he has been able to connect to it using another of my chars.

Even more: I replaced the third character, deleting his profile and replacing it with a copy of the first profile, changing its name: it worked.
I will try when I will have more than 4 people, if this technique will allow me to play in an offline LAN with more than 4 different soldiers' names.

Emanuele_Ciriachi

Author

Commented: 2007-05-25

I've found a way, and it's the method described above:

-you need to install it with the CD on all the computers you are going to use in the LAN;
-you need to supply all PCs with an image created with Alcohol 120%;
-you need to log in with at least one character in each account (this will create the local files on each PC, under %Documents Folder%/Battlefield 2142/Profiles)
-you must duplicate one of the folders 0001, 0002, or 0003 in the %Documents Folder%/Battlefield 2142/Profiles directory, and call it with the next available number (up to 0004), or, if you already have all 4 characters, delete one and replace with a "fake" character (you will not lose it, as it is stored in the EA server)
-access your "fake" profile folder, open the file "Profile.con" and edit "LocalProfile.setName" and "LocalProfile.setEAOnlineSubAccount", putting the name you desire;
-turn off internet access in the LAN (this is very important, or you won't be able to login with all your computers together) and launch the game: you will be prompted to insert user & pass, just click login and after a while it will ask you to use the offline mode;
-voila! You can now create a local server and play in as many you want.

Anyone else checking this and writing "the method described above works" will win the points (as I cannot accept my own answer) .

Emanuele_Ciriachi

Author

Commented: 2007-05-25

Oh, I forgot: in order to access the game, you must disable all your DVD/CD drives, RESTART your PC, and then create a single virtual drive with the latest Daemon Tools. This way, it will accept the image to start the game.
Or, you can login with the real DVD on each and then take it off after you are in. Yes, it is that simple.

Emanuele_Ciriachi

Author

Commented: 2007-05-30

...anyone? Just write "the solution posted by the author works", even better after testing it yourself, and the points are yours.

jphifer

Commented: 2007-06-06

I will give it a try and let you know. It may be a little bit before I can get to it tho :)

Emanuele_Ciriachi

Author

Commented: 2007-06-06

ooooooooooook.

Emanuele_Ciriachi