Seriously BIS.... ingame addon downloading. Here's how...

[enforcer4100 10]

Read first post. OP means that files are downloaded from general server (just like Armoholic is currently linking to for mods), not from game server already stressed by players. As for some other points, it has been a while since we had 56k modems. People with fast internet connections are no exception. Torrents of 10+ GB are no problem to download for anyone. Problem would be that url is linked to only 1 server, although it is just as easy to share download among other users also downloading as peer-to-peer download. It has a reason Napster (predecessor of torrents) became popular, cloud-sharing isn't that difficult. But if we go back to original suggestion, just directing players to a link of mod and enabling automatic download is already much nicer than simply saying a bunch of files are missing and leaving new players behind in confusion.

And who is going to pay for that central server?

And what about private mods? If they are stored on a central server everyone can download them.

[sickboy 13]

I've been suggesting and hoping for automatic mod enabling for both MP and SP for a while now.

One problem I think with PwS is that it doesn't list all servers. Even though we can add them manually by IP, it still doesn't show the server name or running mods, whereas using the in-game server browser I can find the server by name.

If you could please report these server ip's etc then we will have a look again.

Gamespy doesn't make it easy on us with 500 server limit on queries for arma2oa :P For arma3 the limit does not seem the count right now though and all servers should be available.

Are you referring at ingame (non dedicated) servers? Because indeed these are not fetched at this time. In any case, all these things we should be able to fairly easily improve, with the right feedback.

The in-game browser also shows which mods are running, whereas PwS requires the server to provide a yml file listing the required mods. Imagine a server where the mods might be changed throughout the evening and you can see that PwS needs to be able to get this information the same way as the in-game browser, so that players can restart and have the currently running mods enabled/downloaded.

This should be incorrect. The required mods are listed in gamespy. Both SIX Updater since forever and Play withSIX read these mod lists from the server, and automatically enable matching modfolders on join (if either available on our network, locally, or on an active custom repo). The database also contains a list of known aliases like mod cpp's to improve the accuracy of this.

You only need yml's if you want to deal with private custom mods or running alternative versions (something we're working on as well), and the integration of this will be much enhanced in the near future. (Think about registering your server and repo with SIX etc :))

If mods or server name don't show up, even after manually adding the server, then there could be issues with connection (perhaps you need to lower the Max concurrent server connections setting), or by bug.

I see no reason why the game should have to always restart after downloading/installing new mods, it just needs to not load the engine until a mission/server is selected. It shouldn't necessarily unload the engine when returning to the mission/server screen either because the next mission/server selected might use the same mods, only if the mods are different would it need to unload/reload the engine but that could be done in the background, leaving the GUI showing.

Agreed - realtime loadable mods would be nice but it is pretty complex, hence they haven't implemented that I suspect. Edited April 2, 2013 by Sickboy

[doveman 7]

If you could please report these server ip's etc then we will have a look again.

Gamespy doesn't make it easy on us with 500 server limit on queries for arma2oa :P For arma3 the limit does not seem the count right now though and all servers should be available.

Are you referring at ingame (non dedicated) servers? Because indeed these are not fetched at this time. In any case, all these things we should be able to fairly easily improve, with the right feedback.

I'm not sure at the moment, I just recall not being able to find certain servers in the past. I'll let you know if I come across any in future. It's possible some of them were in-game servers I guess. I didn't realise gamespy had that limit, I can see how that makes life hard for you.

This should be incorrect. The required mods are listed in gamespy. Both SIX Updater since forever and Play withSIX read these mod lists from the server, and automatically enable matching modfolders on join (if either available on our network, locally, or on an active custom repo). The database also contains a list of known aliases like mod cpp's to improve the accuracy of this.

You only need yml's if you want to deal with private custom mods or running alternative versions (something we're working on as well), and the integration of this will be much enhanced in the near future. (Think about registering your server and repo with SIX etc :))

If mods or server name don't show up, even after manually adding the server, then there could be issues with connection (perhaps you need to lower the Max concurrent server connections setting), or by bug.

Ah, sorry then my misunderstanding. It's obviously tricky to know if a server is using a Six yml or not but I just tested with one I know isn't and it did indeed see the running mods and launch with them enabled (well the ones that are available on six/locally anyway).

[Millenium7 0]

And who is going to pay for that central server?

And what about private mods? If they are stored on a central server everyone can download them.

There would be no need for a central server. Please reread my original post concerning a "Server URL field"

It would be mod/addon specific, entered by the mod maker, to elect any server of their choosing to be used for distribution. Thus, there is no need for a central server, of course the option to have some sort of central server is still there.

Again BIS dev's, where does the problem lie?

You already have the capability of multiple concurrent connections through Squad .XML files. Add one more to download files from another server which is passed to the client from the game server (which is read from the addons)

It would be nice to have the engine load/unload addons on-the-fly but again its not necessary. Even a simple 'You must restart to join this server' option would be good, not great but it doesn't require any new code to be developed, just a simple restart of the game client with the appropriate -join= and -mod= parameters

None of my suggestions violate the current game engine limitations or require 'new' sections of code, only modification to some dialogs, checks, file reading and establishing 1 more connection

edit: If i'm wrong about the multiple concurrent connections, it's still not a problem. Upon encountering mod files that fail the validation check (or are missing), still kick the client but before doing so, pass them a URL. This will trigger the client to begin downloading. Once its done, reconnect to the server, simple no?

Edited April 2, 2013 by Millenium7