Some of you might remember --> long ago there was a bug in BF2 where you could make your name big, orange, or both big/orange by adding changing your "prefix" to have special characters. Well they fixed it in a later patch, but with Luigi's gs_login_server application you can make your name whatever you want in games such as BF2, BF2Demo, and more.... so the bug still exists and is quite amusing. I was bored the other day and decided to try it again, and discovered that it still works... but there are some quirks so here is what I did:
1) Locate your profile.con file. This will vary depending upon your OS and game that you're playing (bf2, bf2 demo, etc..), but it should be located in your "My Documents" folder under the game you wish to spoof your name in. Here is where mine is located for the BF2: C:\Documents and Settings\user\My Documents\Battlefield 2\Profiles\0001
2) You want to add a prefix onto your character's name (which will depend on what you want your name to look like in game). Here are the known prefixes:
BF2:
----
Big Name:
??3SomaFM
Orange Name:
??C1001SomaFM
Big and Orange Name:
??3??C1001SomaFM
BF2 Demo:
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Big Name:
??3SomaFM
Orange Name:
|ccc|-SomaFM
Big and Orange Name:
??3|ccc|-SomaFM
With both games, I found that the ??3 prefix makes your name big. But to make it orange, it differs between the Demo and Retail game. For the demo, you need |ccc| and then any character you want. I use a dash, but it doesn't matter because it's invisible as the tag hides it for some reason. So you just need some character after |ccc| but it doesn't matter. For the RETAIL game, it's just ??C1001 to make it orange.
3) So now my profile.con looks like so:
LocalProfile.setName "??3??C1001SomaFM"
LocalProfile.setNick "??3??C1001SomaFM"
LocalProfile.setGamespyNick "??3??C1001SomaFM"
LocalProfile.setEmail "??3??C1001SomaFM"
I decided to make my name big AND orange, since that's the coolest. You probably don't need to change all fields (like email), but I do it anyway just to be sure it gets changed. Luigi's gs_login_server tool doesn't seem to mind what you send it anyway, as long as you use the correct password ;)
4) Now save your profile.con file and make it READ ONLY (right click, properties, check the read only box). I do this because I remember the game taking off my prefix before (I think this is one of many ways they try to stop this bug). So just make it read only.
5) Start up your game, and login. If you read the README for Luigi's gs_login_server tool, and have it set up correctly (by changing your hosts file), you should be able to login and join a server with your big/orange name!
Notes/comments:- Some retail servers have the tenancy to kick players for "extended/illegal ascii characters". I think this has something to do with Punkbuster since the message is a PB error...but I'm not too sure because some retail servers work just fine. It may be a third party mod too, like bf2cc.
- I haven't come across a BF2 DEMO server which auto-kicked me.
- I think this works for BF2142 as well (just follow the BF2 guide).
- Admins have kicked/banned me for doing this without warning. They are ignorant, and think you are using a hack/cheat. So be careful!
- People have been creating gamespy names with |ccc|- in them on the demo for a long time now, so you will see lots of orange names on the demo. But since you could never use prefixes, or create names with ?? in them, I haven't seen anyone with a BIG name yet. I'm always getting asked how it's done when I goto a BF2 demo server now :P
- There may be more prefixes that alter how your name looks, but I don't know them. I have tried many different characters/combinations and haven't been able to find anything new.
Sample pictures:
- Soma
