Armed Assault Mod Management

[CANADAVE 14]

My biggest complaint with OFP was mod management. There wer 10,000+ mods made by every clan, fan etc etc.. all over the servers. To play on a serve one had to download hundred megabyte mod packs, search the web for that 'fire mod' to play on a server. It was a pain in the but.

Is Armed Assault any different / better? I already see a mods out there for uniform packs, unit packs, tree packs, water packs, sky packs, sound packs... it appears that its starting all over again.

Any comments? Updates from those playing online now?

[raedor 8]

Nope, that didn't change. But ArmA has a huge advantage: JoinInProgress: That means you don't have to wait for someone who's still gathering the addons.

[Rg 0]

I thought I heard mention of BIS putting "good" addons into a addon pack (optional) or in patches. Is there any truth to this?

This would be a GREAT idea to enhance the vanilla version of the game with out having a free for all, because people WILL eventually download a bunch of addons and doing it this way will keep things in order if a BIS addon pack(s) is(are) installed on servers.

[blackdog~ 0]

I totally agree with you Windsor and am seriously concerned with this problem.

Raedor, JIP still doesn't make one's internet fast enough to find and download the 267 required addons before the mission's end... at which point another mission will load requiring 194 more addons...

[jantenner 0]

best for public servers would be to only include big proven mod packs which are downloadable in one piece like FDF, csla, ffur or similar. otherwise some auto redirect download function would be good.

[charliereddog 9]

I'm watching this with interest, as I already see some people are working on the same things, ai/invisible targets as an example, and it won't be long before we end up with 4000000+ M4 reskins etc. I really think that those people who want to produce addons should get together, and more importantly work together to release individual work. Project management if you like. Not having been in the modding community, i'm not sure how true this is, but my perception of alot of the individuals (rather than the teams like BAS and RHS) is that they're interested in releasing *anything* so long as it is easy to do, and gets their name in lights. I'm sure there's a fair amount of one-upmanship as well.

Having said that, alot has to be said for the mission creator sorting his stuff out before hand, and thinking about what addons he's planning to use. There's absolutely no need for many of the addons you find in public server missions, most aren't in the mission, the creator was just too lax to check his .sqm

[sickboy 13]

With OFP I just made an addon pack of all the stuff we wanted to use, and configured our 1500+ coop missions to that, so I managed the addons and the missions together and made both compatible to eachother. It's a little much work, but in the end there is a uniform addon pack of which all missions make use

With ArmA i'm going to do a similair thing, but im thinking about setting up a good distribution method, automatic patch checking and updating as nececairy etc. etc.

Didn't ofpwatch have a server version aswell that could auto stream needed addons etc? Hope the maker makes something similair but maybe we need something more advanced, and unified ... work together with different programmers to make some nice feature and option rich program with multiple distribution methods etc?

[colligpip 0]

Its a shame that theres not a built in opwatch style thing that will auto dl addons needed for the mission, or a ftp:/ redirect like unreal 2004 had for maps that worked really well.

[-CS-SOBR-1st-I-R- 0]

An organized team for Addons and Mods ....

That does not sound too bad. I think that volounteers could form such a commuity to sort all addons, make official post and handle the flood of all this.

As I kow the OFP/ArmA community this will happen sometime in the future.

[hoak 0]

This is something I hope BI addresses in a future patch or feature release.  ArmA's 'join in progress' feature is hardly revolutionary (or even a particularly smooth implementation) as it has been offered in other mission driven games for nearly a decade -- though I do laud BI's efforts here.

Ghost Recon offers a superlative example of an excellent integrated mod manager, that's also very easy for a Developer to implement, make everything easier for the entire mode community from Mod Developer to end User...

Sleek, low drag, low effort, and low knowledge overhead interfaces are marketing essentials that can just as easily be applied to certain features of game design as a sales portal where a business needs to make their products as effortless to buy as possible, as at every additional step customers are lost.

Features like this that make the game easy to use, easier to learn, and that make it easier for Fans to quickly find, add, mix and match content that really excites and holds their enthusiasm, and servers easier to join -- will only benefit BI and sales via more content, second party Mod marketing (worth literally millions of dollars/euros), and more satisfied Fans playing, joining games and having fun rather then drilling through a morass of mods...