Many of the NA servers (servers with no ping listed), are running mod packs or sometimes just a modded map.  You cannot join unless you have the expansion pack or particular map that the current server is using.

Exactly, no point spending money to rent a server, when you can host something from your house or business, that has good bandwidth and is no additional cost.  It is nice to have some choices while playing online!

This is cool.  I am going to try it.

Here is a related thread at Tom's Hardware.  Users talk about how much FPS they are getting with their CPU/GPU in BF4 here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1825501/cpu-bf4.html

There are several places online where you can pick your pc parts, and they build it for you.  You get a much better price and product than the pre-built systems out there.

Here is a link to a AMD FX 6 core PC (part configuration), that fits the minimum requirements for BF4:
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/AMD_Six_Core_Configurator/

Selecting the a minimum video card requirement (that they carried) was +25 (GTX 650), I de-selected 1TB HD for 500GB and that was -10.  Price in the low $600.  And you can always add more to your system if you have money to spend. 

You have to remember, summer 2015 is a long time away, and if the requirements for SWBF3 are similar to BF4, the prices on graphics cards and processors, etc, will have gone down. 

Also helpful, here is a GPU(graphics card) hierarchy list, to see where your current card ranks, etc;
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

A Death Star Map seems to be a must have in the new Battlefront, but what improvements could be made in a Death Star map??

I think one thing that could be improved, is to have at a minimum 2 levels or floors.  That is 2 floors stacked, one on top of the other, accessible by a large set of stairs or ramps in one area, and just an elevator in another area.

Imagine having an elevator that you have to take to get to the detention level.  And if on the detention level, you blast the elevator controls, the door freezes shut, and can only be opened by blasting it open with a weapon.

They could have a larger trash compactor, with a trash monster in it, that gobbles up 1 out of every 10 that pass thru, haha.

Governor Tarkin would be a good hero for the imperial side.  For the rebels they could have Han Solo with a stormtrooper disguise kit.

Perhaps they could have the throne room from ROTJ's Death Star.

Another interesting option would be to allow troops to move inside the Death Star cannons' firing chamber.  As of now, if you go down into the chamber you die automatically.  But if they make running through the chamber as some sort of short cut, you could have battles there, and then have the cannon fire every 5 minutes or so, wiping out any troops left in the area.

The Death Star map seems too small and bland in SWBF2, but even at small and bland, the Death Star map is one of the best.

Multiplayer SWBF1 maps on SWBF2 would be fun.  The standard SWBF2 maps get boring.  Some of the old SWBF1 maps are the best.

I don't think anyone plays 1.0.  Especially all the thousands of new people that have bought the game from steam in recent times.

You can still play netplay for PS2 SWBF2.

The article says you have to be online once every 24 hours to even play single player games.  Sorry, I will never buy that piece of junk.  I rather play Atari 2600.  I already got burned when I bought a Xbox360 years ago that never even booted up once (I returned it for refund).

Gameranger wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't locked a 30fps framerate no matter what you do.  But for those who can't use tunggle it is at least an additional option.l

I play AOE2 on Gameranger, but if you want to add me to play SWBF sometime you can.  My Gameranger account # is 325757 and I use the name deadmeow though I often change it on gameranger.

I play SWBF1 & 2 with a gamepad, as this is how I first played them on consoles, and now PC.  Are there any other simple FPS/TPS out there, that have good gamepad support???

A new patch won't give you a new master server, but the only way for SWBF to recognize a potential new master server is to have a new patch.

The end result of all of this means that to play online with SWBF1, you will always have to install an extra piece of software, either Tunngle, GameRanger, or any future patch to allow a new master server.

Right now Tunngle is the best option, but perhaps if one day we had a new "1.5" patch with a new master server, this would be an easier option for a lot of people. 

Openspy cannot replace gamespy, as they do not have gamespys master server ip address.  What it does is serve as a replacement for gamespy, _after_ you edit your PS2 game's specific internet setting to look for the master server at a different IP address (openspy). 

For PC games you need a specific patch written for each specific game, to redirect  from the dead-gamespy to the openspy master server.

Unless SWBF is patched to work with openspy, the internet(gamespy) option will never work again.

At this point, tunngle is the best option still.