An Unusual Request

posted on March 8th, 2013, 5:38 pm

As you all know I think, about a year ago Break Media introduced a new policy on Filefront: They block file access from several countries, including most of Eastern and Northern-Europe. That means that people like me can't upload or download files and images from the site. They didn't exactly tell us what was the reason, from all I could gather it may has something to do with copyright policies, which makes no sense in modding, as all mods must be free to use.
Anyway, for a long while now, I'm wrestling with Break Media about this, I asked them via several channels to lift this policy or give some chance to get access to the site. In the end, they have chosen a noble solution and decided to ignore me in the future. Some even mentioned something about pushing this issue any further would be considered as the violation of the terms of service and so it would cause a ban....

Well, this is the situation. I don't have access to Filefront since early 2012, but I still love to mod and play Amrada II, Bridge Commander and Starfleet Command (and several other games too). I would like to ask someone to help me and download some things form Armada's and BC's FF site. What? Well... EVERYTHING since 2012 January, because I have no access to the files or screenshots, so I have not the slightest idea what the new contents have, and what is worth to download and play and what not.
If someone could help me out and download the new contents of the last year and would send them to me, or upload them to mediafire or some similar site, it would be highly appreciated

posted on March 8th, 2013, 5:52 pm

so, i went and looked at a2files and bcfiles. i looked at all files ordered by date, and it's not listing any files uploaded after march 2011. see screenshots attached/inline below

a2files.PNG (245.08 KiB) Viewed 1084 times

bcfiles.PNG (203.29 KiB) Viewed 1084 times

two equally likely reasons:

1) there actually haven't been any uploads since then

2) I failed at internet and have egg on my face. i don't see how i would've messed this up, but i don't regularly browse filefront so it's possible i'm just a moron.

posted on March 8th, 2013, 6:01 pm

Sorry Myles, you fail at intervvebz - not sure why though...

failatinterwebz.png (119.24 KiB) Viewed 1080 times

posted on March 8th, 2013, 6:02 pm

I can see files for 2013, filefront's often just an ass like that. Sometimes they show, others they don't.

posted on March 8th, 2013, 6:36 pm

I can't download or use the models from the Armada2 files. It's something with the Server and they let peoples to download only from some parts of the world and I'm not there :-)

posted on March 8th, 2013, 7:59 pm

I can see files for 2013, filefront's often just an ass like that. Sometimes they show, others they don't.

so it's a2files being broken and not me being a twat? i don't think my ego could take that beating. i'm pretty sure i was looking at the same thing dom was. go to a2files front page, push the "latest files" button.

i just did it again, now i see the entries dom sees. filefront really is a special breed of "special".

i'll download all the files in the latest uploads section for you. dunno how long it will take. a lot of my bandwidth is already being used by cats who am i kidding we all know it's porn.

holy crap filefront does not make anything easy. get so many invalid id errors. 100 monkeys at typewriters could write a better site.

posted on March 8th, 2013, 8:45 pm

ok, so i downloaded everything i could from a2files and compressed it using 7z (you'll need 7z to decompress). then i forgot to note down the password and had to compress again.

currently uploading it. adsl is terrible, so this'll take a while.

totally not guaranteeing i got everything for the reasons i am now about to explain:

1) I fail at internet
2) filefront fails at internet. honestly, 2 files had broken links. they deleted the file without removing the file's page. also some people uploaded a single raw odf without a readme. unless the readme is commented out in the odf. also the latest files section on the front page didn't exactly match a date sorted search for all files. i now hate filefront.

i came very close to downloading a file that was clearly uploaded by you (op - kmerse). that would've been fun, me giving you a copy of your own file.

posted on March 8th, 2013, 9:26 pm

For FileFront, its always broken now, you have to refresh the page a lot to get anything new. If its an old Romulan ship (the TNG Romulan Ship Pack by Pepperman) for the file of the week, that's a broken page, normally if it isn't broken, the mod of the week is the Ambassador-class starship by Aad Moerman, but that's been the file for sometime.

And of course for mods if its broken the latest uploaded mod is: "Shield Remodulation", looks like its for the Premonition.

Of course the only thing right at the time is the Picture of the Day, but they aren't changed daily anymore.

If you have any of these signs you have a broken page, just keep refreshing it until you see the Ambassador-class starship (as of this posting). A2Files is broken even on the iPad/iPod Safari Browser.

Hope this was helpful.

posted on March 8th, 2013, 9:29 pm

Sorry to double post can't edit on an iPad, hopefully that will be fixed.

The same problem occurs for new mods sometimes if you get a page that says:

The following error has occured:
Invalid File ID!

This could mean the File you are looking for has been deleted (and possibly replaced by a newer version). Please use our internal search engine to try and find the file you were looking for!

You have also reverted to an old/broken A2Files page equal to the time of the old mods I mentioned earlier. Just refresh the page as well, eventually it switches to the mod you are after.

Anything new seems to do this with A2Files and other FileFront pages.

posted on March 8th, 2013, 9:32 pm

<snip>
Hope this was helpful.

i notice this annoying behaviour as well. that's what was happening when i was only seeing really old stuff. that romulan ship pack by pepperman was file of the week. when i can see new stuff its an ambas. thanks.


k_merse, a2files is done uploading, check your pm

posted on March 8th, 2013, 11:27 pm

Thanks Myles! Downloading right away

posted on March 9th, 2013, 11:11 am

new file up for you kmerse, check your pm again.

posted on March 9th, 2013, 3:46 pm

last file up, check your pm one last time now.

posted on March 11th, 2013, 5:50 am

I don't know if this would work, but OP have you tried using a proxy, like HotSpot Shield (which is free), to make your computer appear like it's coming from somewhere else? I think 'Seattle' is an option.