Addons - How to let joiners know?

[satexas69 0]

One thing that always made OPF and now ArmA a serious pain in the ass was Addons outside the default ones for people trying to join a mission that didn't have them.

OFP seemed better than ArmA, because when you joined, it at least told you which one(s) you were missing. In ArmA, using the Sara-Lite island, people joining mine get a really retarted "some file previously deleted" type error.

Does anyone know if BIS has plans to fix this serious black eye or if there's a auto-menu joining script of some kind allowing people to download the addons as they join up? Can that even be done?

[Mabes 0]

I am also interested in this, especially if theres some way to make it possible for users to download the addons, I mean, they can already download the mission, why not the addon?

[5133p39 16]

I am also interested in this, especially if theres some way to make it possible for users to download the addons, I mean, they can already download the mission, why not the addon?

i don't think that downloading addons right from the server would be good idea.

It would affect the bandwidth in bad way, resulting in big lags for the others who are already playing.

Of course it could be done that the downloading client couldn't take more than certain bandwidth, but then it would take too long before all new players would get these addons.

It would be much better if there could be a configurable message which would be shown to the player trying to join, and which could contain links to the FTP/HTTP downloads of the required addons.

Some console-like window would be very nice for this, so the user could be able to review X previous pages comfortably in a big window.

[Monkwarrior 0]

Downloading content from servers shouldn't be such a big issue.

Most major games have some sort of redirecting mechanism in which the players downloads the content from another file-server during connecting to the gameserver.

I'm sure BIS must have thought this over.

Let's hope they'll implement something similar soon.

Monk.

[UNN 0]

Quote[/b] ]I'm sure BIS must have thought this over.

Well you would have thought something as simple as a URL, via the MP interface, could have been provided for mission designers and server admins......

[nephilim 0]

how bout just not using addons for a mp mission that arent really needed??

eg do i need that reskin of that and that soldier for my mission so badly that i cant use a core one?

or do i need that single flower put just right there to make the mission ultra real?

apart for mission design

i think it could be listed in the server name?

(im no mp gamer to so i dont know :/)

[BraTTy 0]

I thought OFP watch lets you download the addon before joining the map?

I haven't actually ever used it tho

[Vulture2k1 0]

how bout just not using addons for a mp mission that arent really needed??

So no one should use Addons in MP Missions? o_O

How about the Mapfact Apache or the Zombies for Zombiemission based Servers?

Well.. today broadband is spread wide and i think some "mpaddonscache" would be nice :>

I'd love to have a cache for everything :< Sucks to play Coops all night long, then you have a CTD and need 15 minutes!!! to join back ingame just to see the coop is over.

"MPCustomfaceCache" and "MPSquadCache".. maybe free to enable in the Options.. i have lots of disc space and would lofe to cache everything

[5133p39 16]

just now i got this idea:

a special TXT file in the "mpmissions" folder, named exactly as the mission pbo (so if you have a mission which file is named "co12_operation_kingkong.pbo", then the TXT file would be named "co12_operation_kingkong.txt"),

and in the TXT file would be list of addons and URL to download from - something like this:<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">addon="BAS_weapons1_2"

url="http://someserver/somedir/download?12345"

url="http://otherserver/somedir/addons/bas_weapons1.2.zip"

url="ftp://anotherserver/arma/addons/bas_weap1.2.zip"

addon="MORS_Psycho_1_0"

url="..."

url="..."

......could be XML instead of plain TXT, whatever.

Now, in case the client is missing some addons, it will send a request to the server for this little TXT/XML file, and try to download the addons from the locations listed there.

But this wouldn't work with sources like filefront, so for these cases there should be something in the TXT/XML file which would make the game to show a message to the player, that this addon needs to be downloaded manually - of course these downloaded TXT/XML files would be allways saved in the mpmissions cache so the player could lookup these addresses.

...it looks simple

But i don't think that BIS would be wasting time with implementing anything like this - let's be honest, it isn't really needed. Anyone can use google, right?

[Mabes 0]

But i don't think that BIS would be wasting time with implementing anything like this - let's be honest, it isn't really needed. Anyone can use google, right?

Yeah, if the ****ing game would tell you what addons the server is running...

I don't see what the big deal about allowing you download from the server, its no different then downloading the map from the server, just make a limit of how much the server will upload (just enough where it'll download with some speed, but still not lag the server). Most addons aren't THAT big.

At least tell us what addon(s) is/are being run.

[colligpip 0]

Ofp had ofp watch which would dl addons - i think kegetys arma luancher is planned to have this feature. If it worked in ofp i dont know why bis couldnt have put it in i spose they were busy.

I think it would be ok to dl from server even if its trickle. Perhaps an alternate dl could be listed somewhere incase its too slow for you. But if there was a standard place for all addons then a ftp redirect would be really good.

[5133p39 16]

But i don't think that BIS would be wasting time with implementing anything like this - let's be honest, it isn't really needed. Anyone can use google, right?

Yeah, if the ****ing game would tell you what addons the server is running...

I don't see what the big deal about allowing you download from the server, its no different then downloading the map from the server, just make a limit of how much the server will upload (just enough where it'll download with some speed, but still not lag the server). Most addons aren't THAT big.

At least tell us what addon(s) is/are being run.

well, most addons arent, but some are - FDF anyone? WGL? ECP?

Also, bear in mind that you could not be alone, there could be more users downloading some addona from the server in the same time, and in case the addon would be of medium-to-large size (50 - 100 MB or even more) then even if it wouldn't LAG the server, you would wait hours for the download to complete because it would go really slow (so it wouldn't lag the server).

Why wait 5 hours for an addon which could be downloaded from any OTHER web/ftp server within few minutes ?? ...i wouldn't want to wait, especially when i came to PLAY that mission right now.