Talk:Red Faction

The information added in this edit is incorrect, and was accurate before this edit - this edit should simply be reverted. I can't edit the page currently, so I can't correct it. I'll circle back once my account passes the edit threshold and fix the error if no one else already has.

Multiplayer for this game doesn't rely on a centralized service to function. The official update distribution mechanism (in the official launcher) definitely doesn't work anymore (and hasn't for over a decade), but that's not necessary, especially since using Dash Faction is effectively a requirement nowadays.

I believe Plok may be referring to the multiplayer game tracker? That's a bit more of a mess - the publisher let the domain the game points to (rf.thqmultiplay.net) expire many years ago. A community member bought the domain and has run a somewhat reliable tracker on it ever since (but has had a bunch of downtime). That said, that tracker isn't used much. The de facto standard community tracker (rfgt.factionfiles.com) has been online for over a decade, is very reliable, and is what effectively the entire community uses for multiplayer. Dash Faction also defaults to the this tracker when installed.

Also just to add, the game's multiplayer component doesn't even need a tracker to function. The tracker gives you a list of public servers, but if you know the server's IP, you can join it anyway regardless of whether a tracker exists.

So... changing "online play" to false is entirely incorrect - online play in Red Faction works perfectly fine, just 99% of it happens on the community tracker. Saying "the official multiplayer service was shut down" is literally semi-accurate if referring to the tracker, but in effect it's still entirely inaccurate, given the game doesn't rely on that service for multiplayer to function.

Update: My account passed that threshold when I posted this on the talk page, so I just went ahead and reverted the edit in question. All good now, leaving this here as full explanation for why the edit was reverted.

Online play being set to False is what we do when official master servers go down. The community tracker you posted warrants it being set to Hackable as it's not set by default when you install the game from any official distribution.

Ah ok, yeah that is a much better way to list it. Thanks!

Hi,

I've protected the page to only allow signed in users to edit it. This was done in an attempt to enforce constructive discussions (and subsequently editing) through this talk page.

If you have any issues/concerns/etc, raise it and discuss it here instead of performing edit warring on the article.

Hi there, I will test my point regarding necessary settings with the latest version of Dash Faction, however as of the last time I checked (which wasn't very long ago), the settings I mentioned absolutely had to be configured for the game to launch when performing a manual installation. The only fair way to test this would be to purge all Dash Faction and Red Faction related registry keys and attempt a manual installation of Dash Faction at that point, which I will do on a VM shortly.

Could you kindly explain why immediately after locking editing, and without any obvious rationale, you removed the link to the only active community for the game - which is quite literally the only place on the internet that provides general assistance and troubleshooting with the game aside from writeups on PCGW? This change appears quite unproductive and entirely at odds with the stated purpose of PC Gaming Wiki.

Additionally - since I can no longer edit the article for reasons that absolutely escape me given the years I have spent maintaining it, I'll reply to this change here:

→‎Dash Faction: replacing a launcher with another launcher means the replacement launcher launches instead. who could've guessed?

While this passage could definitely have benefited from some rewording, this is a relevant point to mention. Without selecting the option to which this passage is referring, launching the game via Steam will continue to launch the base version of the game even after Dash Faction is installed, which is almost certainly not desired behavior. This option resolves that issue.

Perhaps a better way to word it would be something along the lines of:

If using the Steam version, the Replace the Red Faction launcher with the Dash Faction launcher option during the install process will open the Dash Faction Launcher when launching the game from your Steam library.

> Could you kindly explain why immediately after locking editing, and without any obvious rationale, you removed the link to the only active community for the game - which is quite literally the only place on the internet that provides general assistance and troubleshooting with the game aside from writeups on PCGW? This change appears quite unproductive and entirely at odds with the stated purpose of PC Gaming Wiki.

Because PCGW does not allow for community Discord servers to be listed as per our editing guide, and as I had already removed it a few months ago, and made clear why in Topic on User talk:156.57.56.220 - Re: Red Faction, I instantly removed it without any further consideration since the point mentioned back in August still stands today as well. As I mentioned when this was raised earlier, I am explicitly making an exception to our editing guide lines for the Red Faction Wiki as it serves as a convenient hub for all other community pages beneath it -- including the aforementioned Discord server.

> While this passage could definitely have benefited from some rewording, this is a relevant point to mention. Without selecting the option to which this passage is referring, launching the game via Steam will continue to launch the base version of the game even after Dash Faction is installed, which is almost certainly not desired behavior. This option resolves that issue.

If the point of that bullet was to tell Steam users they need to enable "Replace the Red Faction launcher with the Dash Faction launcher" to have the game launch the modded version of the game and not the unmodded one, it belongs in the fixbox instructions and not as a separate bullet point.

I'll add it as the final step.

Thanks - the point about the launcher passage makes perfect sense, and while I entirely disagree with that element of the editing guide, your action on that point also makes perfect sense with the editing guide as it exists.