Automatic Mod Downloading

[rye1 21]

Hi, im againist the 'Automod download' thing. Let's C ya

This man owes no explaination. You sir, are boss.

[Shinko47 1]

I am for automatic mod downloading because i am incapable to install mod :butbut:

[tacticalnuggets 24]

This man owes no explaination. You sir, are boss.

You do kind of owe and explanation, unless you want no one to take your opinion seriously.

[rory_pamphilon 16]

Although I go into alot more detail in the first few pages il sum up here why I'm for built in mod downloading...

1. people of all IT skill levels would be able to enjoy mods, currently there is no real official documentation on how to install mods & its not exactly straight forward.

2. No more ghost town servers that are running mods, automation would allow any patient veteran/noob to join once arma 3 downloads the mod for him/her.

3. No more garbled unintelligible error messages when joining a mod server without the correct mod. Just a nice progress bar showing mod download progress.

4. An explosion in player numbers due to the accessibility of online arma 3 gaming and an explosion in the modding scene due to mods being downloaded tens of thousands of times instead of a few dozen.

5. Other games have been doing it for years, COD, halflife, cs etc all of which have enjoyed success long after release, partly because server hav such variety due to some small mods downloaded upon joining.

BIS please make it so :-)

Edited January 27, 2012 by rory_pamphilon

[norsu 180]

I just feel Mods are other's problems, not the original and standard vanilla game.

If it only were that simple. Reality is however that ARMA 3 will get tons of mods starting from the release day. The surge of mods will no doubtly cause problems again in multiplayer, especially among new players. There simply needs to be some kind of system that will ease mod management.

this is the main reason why a lot of people don't use mods! because they don't know how to install them or even bother taking the time

I believe most of these people can't be bothered because they just want to play the game they have just bought. And when they ask about mods, they realize that it's not going to be just as simple as downloading an installer and running it.

Edited January 27, 2012 by Norsu

[onlyrazor 11]

The moddability of Real Virtuality is a cursed blessing. Modding's always good, but the amount of servers running different mods would really require an automatic downloader. If I'm not mistaken, Source games automatically download the mod files from the server they're connecting to.

[demonized 20]

Didnt bother to read through the entire thread.

Im for automated mod downloading.

What i imagine would be the best way:

Server has a file with URLs to download all of the modules from their original website, Armaholic, clan, private etc...

Server list ingame is as is now, but server is greyed out if you do not have the correct mods installed, click on grey line and a box named download mods appear.

click download, arma starts its own download manager downloading the mod from wherever the server url files showed, and runs a auto install program created by the mods author or the server admin.

grey line in server list is changed color or have a mark making player aware of its in download queue.

when finnished, and mods installed if in game a popup box appears asking if you want to restart game with required mods and autojoin server in question.

choose cansel or if not ingame when download finnishes to start game with your own armalauncher or modlines...

[bzbzb 1]

What i imagine would be the best way:

...

I think I would adapt that and throw in a bit of Battlelog.

A central site/database exists. Modders/scripters etc register on that site and publish their work through it/provide links to obtain it. The idea being that you can easily and correctly/uniquely identify the correct files and have some ability to verify the person who uploaded it and scrutinise what they uploaded.

The server version of the game either internally or externally publishes its ip/current mods etc. to the central site.

The client uses the central website as a server browser, with a plugin of some sort that can scan what mods they currently have installed and then interact with the central site to establish what needs updating generally or downloading in order that they can join a server selected from the list provided.

If the client doesnt have a mod it can be downloaded and installed with the full scrutiny of their systems security features as with any http style download.

When they are ready to join the plugin launches the game with a custom argument to send it straight to the server.

There would be a huge advantage in not having anything complicated inside the game as any auto download type system would inevitably be abused, a system that is external to the game would be a lot easier to maintain and could potentially be managed by modders.

Strangely the sort of thing that Java would be quite good at.

[the_antipop 10]

Maybe just in the server browser, servers that have mods on it that you aren't running are just not shown? Or there are two settings in filters, vanilla, mods or all servers. Therefore new players who aren't familiar with arma will only, by default, see vanilla servers.

[wipman 1]

How can you be against an optional dialog that comes up on server join offering to download mods for you?

Well man, knowing the game series as i know it... i can ensure you that each mod or single addon requires alot of readme.txt with classnames etc, i download and use the mods and addons mainly for the editor and without that info they're useless to me; i like the order, i want the info files in their folder and not in another one, i like the precission and not the randomess, i like the freedom of choice with all my heart, but without an order it seems to me as fuckin' chaos and ain't like the fuckin' chaos; it delays the things and make 'em harder wizout a reason, even with a reason i dislike the chaos.

I don't want a mod saving the .pbo's on a folder together with the info/doc/txt files telling you how to use the thing that you didn't knew that you needed it... until a random server told you so; ain't like the order of others, i like the alphabetical order. I don't want to have to select where to save the addon .pbo's and where to save the rest of the files, no matter if they're useless images, .txt files or damn thing that comes with a .ogg just to annoy you and show you how sucker the addon maker is.

I don't want nothing or no one to download things for me, i like to do it on my own, with my style, when and where i want because i want; not because a sucker thinks that X mission requires X bullshit that he thinks that's pimp when in fact it adds little or nothing to the game's mechanic other than the visual thing for dick suckers and fuckin' assholes. I'm againist the 'Auto-Download' thing. Let's C ya

[crazyjake56 10]

Well man, knowing the game series as i know it... i can ensure you that each mod or single addon requires alot of readme.txt with classnames etc, i download and use the mods and addons mainly for the editor and without that info they're useless to me; i like the order, i want the info files in their folder and not in another one, i like the precission and not the randomess, i like the freedom of choice with all my heart, but without an order it seems to me as fuckin' chaos and ain't like the fuckin' chaos; it delays the things and make 'em harder wizout a reason, even with a reason i dislike the chaos.

I don't want a mod saving the .pbo's on a folder together with the info/doc/txt files telling you how to use the thing that you didn't knew that you needed it... until a random server told you so; ain't like the order of others, i like the alphabetical order. I don't want to have to select where to save the addon .pbo's and where to save the rest of the files, no matter if they're useless images, .txt files or damn thing that comes with a .ogg just to annoy you and show you how sucker the addon maker is.

I don't want nothing or no one to download things for me, i like to do it on my own, with my style, when and where i want because i want; not because a sucker thinks that X mission requires X bullshit that he thinks that's pimp when in fact it adds little or nothing to the game's mechanic other than the visual thing for dick suckers and fuckin' assholes. I'm againist the 'Auto-Download' thing. Let's C ya

So basically you're against it because there's no .txt's or the fact that you can't handle something NOT being unnecessarily complicated.

[maddogx 13]

That post very nearly gave me a fuckin' aneurism. It read like the lyrics to a really, really bad rap song.

I don't even feel like trying to write a rebuttal. Somehow I feel happier just not thinking about it...

[Nicholas 5]

Well man, knowing the game series as i know it... i can ensure you that each mod or single addon requires alot of readme.txt with classnames etc, i download and use the mods and addons mainly for the editor and without that info they're useless to me; i like the order, i want the info files in their folder and not in another one, i like the precission and not the randomess, i like the freedom of choice with all my heart, but without an order it seems to me as fuckin' chaos and ain't like the fuckin' chaos; it delays the things and make 'em harder wizout a reason, even with a reason i dislike the chaos.

I don't want a mod saving the .pbo's on a folder together with the info/doc/txt files telling you how to use the thing that you didn't knew that you needed it... until a random server told you so; ain't like the order of others, i like the alphabetical order. I don't want to have to select where to save the addon .pbo's and where to save the rest of the files, no matter if they're useless images, .txt files or damn thing that comes with a .ogg just to annoy you and show you how sucker the addon maker is.

I don't want nothing or no one to download things for me, i like to do it on my own, with my style, when and where i want because i want; not because a sucker thinks that X mission requires X bullshit that he thinks that's pimp when in fact it adds little or nothing to the game's mechanic other than the visual thing for dick suckers and fuckin' assholes. I'm againist the 'Auto-Download' thing. Let's C ya

Gossamer said "Offering". The definition of "Offer" - "Present or proffer (something) for (someone) to accept or reject as so desired"

You would still be able to manage mods as you so wish. Having this option would make it easier for new people and people who do not have the time to sit and organize their mod folders.

[ProfTournesol 956]

Gossamer said "Offering". The definition of "Offer" - "Present or proffer (something) for (someone) to accept or reject as so desired"

You would still be able to manage mods as you so wish. Having this option would make it easier for new people and people who do not have the time to sit and organize their mod folders.

No need to argue. He didn't even try to read the word "option", and prefers spoiling his post with suck... or ass... words.

[Pulverizer 1]

I do get Wipman's point about servers forcing useless gimmicky addons on you if it was made almost transparent to a connecting player to download them.

It's actually quite annoying in some games, when every other server has their own little balance adjustments, and especially the funny sounds or christmas hats etc. While it's their server and they have the right to run it as they please, it is not their game and a game dev has the right to not make such annoyances "too convenient" to use.

I trust BIS to not allow mod and addon switching on the fly though, even if they add some sort of mod downloader.

Edited January 28, 2012 by Pulverizer

[Bee8190 10]

I do get Wipman's point about servers forcing useless gimmicky addons on you if it was made almost transparent to a connecting player to download them.

It's actually quite annoying in some games, when every other server has their own little balance adjustments, and especially the funny sounds or christmas hats etc. While it's their server and they have the right to run it as they please, it is not their game and a game dev has the right to not make such annoyances "too convenient" to use.

I trust BIS to not allow mod and addon switching on the fly though, even if they add some sort of mod downloader.

I still don't get it.You can disable auto updates in windows 7 and instal them if or whenever you deem fit.

The case with automatic mod management and downloads don't need to work any different, beit server side or even for the PC user?

[wipman 1]

I still don't get it.You can disable auto updates in windows 7 and instal them if or whenever you deem fit.

The case with automatic mod management and downloads don't need to work any different, beit server side or even for the PC user?

Hi, another of the things that make me be againist the 'Auto-Download' thing, is that if the server have or use an older version of an addon, a not updated one... it'll require you to download it or will force you to do so in order to play; and the thing is as simple as this: You have it = You play. You don't have it...? = You don't play... .

I preffer to see documentation about an addon and it functionality aside of screenshots of it too and then decide if i want to download it and after try it, i'll decide to keep it or not; with an 'Auto-Downloader' you could end with 4Gb of M4s packs or with 3Gb of units retextures as this ones are addons and not mere skin packs that you donload and they get activated if the mission require 'em. I see more cons than pros on the 'Auto-Downloader' thing and that's why i'm againist it. Let's C ya

[tacticalnuggets 24]

Hi, another of the things that make me be againist the 'Auto-Download' thing, is that if the server have or use an older version of an addon, a not updated one... it'll require you to download it or will force you to do so in order to play; and the thing is as simple as this: You have it = You play. You don't have it...? = You don't play... .

I preffer to see documentation about an addon and it functionality aside of screenshots of it too and then decide if i want to download it and after try it, i'll decide to keep it or not; with an 'Auto-Downloader' you could end with 4Gb of M4s packs or with 3Gb of units retextures as this ones are addons and not mere skin packs that you donload and they get activated if the mission require 'em. I see more cons than pros on the 'Auto-Downloader' thing and that's why i'm againist it. Let's C ya

Thats why there is such thing as a software engineer. They problem solve. Besides, right now you would have to set up the old mod yourself anyway, so what is the difference?!!! Its called hit the cancel button, contact the server. Servers that choose not to update there mods will continue to be empty just as they are today. We are trying to save the servers that do update their mods all the time.

Drugs are bad, enough said

[Pulverizer 1]

I still don't get it.You can disable auto updates in windows 7 and instal them if or whenever you deem fit.

The case with automatic mod management and downloads don't need to work any different, beit server side or even for the PC user?

Yeah, you really didn't get it. "Optional" could easily become "practically necessary", and when the process is too convenient it will get abused for really useless stuff.

To over-simplify, let's say every host thought it would be funny to have their very own xmas hats addon that is only available via their own auto-dl. Then you either "opt in" auto-downloads, or you "opt out" of all those servers.

[Libertine 1]

THIS FEATURE WOULD BE HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!

especially for casual players.

[tacticalnuggets 24]

THIS FEATURE WOULD BE HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!

especially for casual players.

Thats what i've been trying to say. Casual players is where all the money is made, and with a feature like this, we would not have to sacrifice realism to gain more players!

[[aps]gnat 28]

Thats what i've been trying to say. Casual players is where all the money is made, and with a feature like this, we would not have to sacrifice realism to gain more players!

Agree.

This community general consists of people with;

a) patience

b) time to work out WHERE to find all the various user content

c) time to READ the instructions or a thread to find the current version

d) time to FOLLOW the specific instructions and get the addon working

e) time to work out if theres any conflicts with stuff they already installed

Most people who BUY and play all the mainstream mega sales hits, couldn't get past (a).

So, a server OPTION to have Auto mod DOWNLOAD and SWITCHING (at users end) along with a USER option for auto-download to be either OFF / Semi-Auto / Full-Auto ..... could open a HUGE player demographic.

..... pretty sure thats along the lines Libertine was going ;)

But, I must say, the community (all 10 years of it) will likely never be the same.

BIS deserve becoming BIG TIME developers, but one wonders, would they still be the same amazing'ness they are now ? .........

But with a game thats simulates RL, i.e. one shot = kill ...... some of that demographic won't stay long :p LOL

Some maybe BIS won't be that huge :rolleyes:

The good ..... and the potential not-so-good I see.

[Madus_Maximus 0]

Gnat;2097872']Agree.

This community general consists of people with;

a) patience

b) time to work out WHERE to find all the various user content

c) time to READ the instructions or a thread to find the current version

d) time to FOLLOW the specific instructions and get the addon working

e) time to work out if theres any conflicts with stuff they already installed

Most people who BUY and play all the mainstream mega sales hits' date=' couldn't get past (a).

So, [b']a server OPTION [/b]to have Auto mod DOWNLOAD and SWITCHING (at users end) along with a USER option for auto-download to be either OFF / Semi-Auto / Full-Auto ..... could open a HUGE player demographic.

..... pretty sure thats along the lines Libertine was going ;)

But, I must say, the community (all 10 years of it) will likely never be the same.

BIS deserve becoming BIG TIME developers, but one wonders, would they still be the same amazing'ness they are now ? .........

But with a game thats simulates RL, i.e. one shot = kill ...... some of that demographic won't stay long :p LOL

Some maybe BIS won't be that huge :rolleyes:

The good ..... and the potential not-so-good I see.

I remember all the whining that came from the "join in progress" feature being added, most of us got over that, so I'm sure we can get over automatic mod downloading lol. There just needs to be a good way to handle the loads and where the content is actually downloaded from. The best way would likely be to have the server set up with a list of links so it pings that rather than the server it's actually running the game on at the time.

[Pulverizer 1]

(IMHO) JIP did pretty much destroy public co-op and replace it with some mini-rpg game with endless respawns. So that's really the perfect example on how an improvement can have a large negative impact. The whining has only stopped because there just isn't any point in it after the damage has been done.

Edited January 29, 2012 by Pulverizer

[Nicholas 5]

(IMHO) JIP did pretty much destroy public co-op and replace it with some mini-rpg game with endless respawns. So that's really the perfect example on how an improvement can have a large negative impact. The whining has only stopped because there just isn't any point in it after the damage has been done.

Funny thing is that Bohemia Interactive themselves have been incorporating RPG elements to the campaigns.