How to connect to the new community master server

As you may have heard, Epic Games have decided to disable the master server for ut 2004.

As a result, the community has decided to replace the master server with one of our own, and this guide will show you how to connect to it.

Introduction

As you may have heard, Epic Games have decided to disable the master server for ut 2004, as well as a bunch of other games, as well as removing the storefront.

As a result, the community has decided to replace the master server with one of our own, and this guide will show you how to connect to it.

I'll also go into detail about what a master server is, and what this means for multiplayer in general, but its not important and you can skip that section if you aren't interested.

How to connect

This information is copied almost vertabim from https://ut2004serverlist.com/

Unreal Tournament 2004 NEW Master Server
On December 14th 2022 Epic Games published a notice that they will be discontinuing their master servers for quite a few of their online titles, and Unreal Tournament 2004 is one of them.

As you may guess the community that is still around this game is very strong and tight-knit, meaning this was a dagger to us. As a server operator we call ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on them doing this. The maintenance involved on a master server is not that much, and considering they were taking the money for the game still this December that is very disingenuous of them.

That being said, they are a company that can do what they want. Epic Games has pivoted a lot since the release of all these titles, and the world of gaming has changed a lot too. The great news is there are plenty of people who want to preserve history and keep games playable.

Originally we started working on a solution but thank goodness, OpenSpy supports UT2004 and allows people to just change the server address in their game and everything will continue working.

How do I update my game / game-server to connect to OpenSpy?
It's super easy. Make sure the game/server is not running first. Then go to where your game is installed and open the system folder.

You'll find a file in there called UT2004.ini, which a section that looks like this:

[IpDrv.MasterServerLink]
LANPort=11777
LANServerPort=10777
MasterServerList=(Address="ut2004master1.epicgames.com",Port=28902)
MasterServerList=(Address="ut2004master2.epicgames.com",Port=28902)

Change the master server list items to look like this:

[IpDrv.MasterServerLink]
LANPort=11777
LANServerPort=10777
MasterServerList=(Address="utmaster.openspy.net",Port=28902)

Save the and relaunch the game and/or server. You will now get the master server list from OpenSpy.

Please spread the word!
More Info:
http://beta.openspy.net/en/howto/ut2k-engine/ut2004
http://beta.openspy.net/en/server-list/ut2004

Page provided by PWC-Gaming & Llama Punter UT2004 Firewall

What is a master server anyway? How does this impact multiplayer?

The master server is basically a list of all available game servers. When you open the server browser in game, the list of servers there is retrieved from the master server. When a new game server starts up, it connects to the master server to add itself to this list.

Without it, the in game server browser doesn't exist. However, the game servers are still there, and you can connect to them directly if you know the IP address, without needing to use the master server at all. Its mostly a matter of convenience - without it, you have to find servers by finding communities on websites, discord and social media etc.

By setting up a new master server, and connecting to it via the above method, you regain the server browser's functionality.

[toocoolhenpoo]

cantfind UT2004.ini

[Dyslogix | 2024 so far sucks.]

NOICE :)(

[Chiabe]

Yet again the users doing a better work than the multimillionaire company. Ty very much.

[TheFigofWarDescends]

Love this. Thank you so much.

[Phul]

Thank you!

[M — K ♿]

well done

[FreaksFireShows]

thank you! i have not played this game in ages, jump in, get highest kill and my team wish the onslaught.

[FlakLord]

The fact that epic did this to the game that took them the route they are is just appalling.

[ericmci]

Thank you!

[Lunakrypt]

Thank you!