Best way to manage add-ons for a community server

[Yuka 0]

I run a community server that features add-ons that are required by players to join. We've been running into problems with some of our players who aren't tech savy not being interested in playing because of the know-how required to set up the add-ons. The community keeps asking for more but some players just don't know how or honestly don't want to deal with checking add-ons.

I've used Yoma's Add-On synchronizer and I love it to death. Some of our players use it, but some think it is too hard to use, and others don't want to use it because they want to handle the add-ons by themselves.

I'm thinking about converting over from a multiple add-on folder layout to a single add-on folder layout via Yoma's tool. I'm also considering offering that same add-on folder for download on my website that has a single add-on folder that has all of the mods required to play on the server with detailed instructions on how to set up their shortcut to run the game with the mods contained in the download. I'll still offer a way for users to join using their own methods (IE tradtional setup with one folder per add-on).

What are your experiences? Any "best practices" for such a dilema?

[sickboy 13]

I personally use nsis installer script to generate setup's and update packages. I dont let my users do anything manual.

They install, click shortcut, play.

When I create an update.

People click update, click shortcut, play.

Works best for me and costs the least work for me in terms of support etc.

No experience with yoma's addon synchronizer though.

[Yuka 0]

I personally use nsis installer script to generate setup's and update packages. I dont let my users do anything manual.

They install, click shortcut, play.

When I create an update.

People click update, click shortcut, play.

Works best for me and costs the least work for me in terms of support etc.

No experience with yoma's addon synchronizer though.

That's an interesting idea.

I'm going to check it out. I'm still going to keep the option there for my tech savy users to manage their add-ons manually. I don't want to take that away from them.

Definitely check out Yoma's Add-On synchronizer. It verifies that a player has all the add-ons required to join a selected server, if they are missing a file or it's not the right version it downloads it automatically.

I just wish there was a "lite" verion of it. One that you double click the icon... it verifies that the player has all the add-ons required and up to date, downloads any that are missing or wrong version, and then launches the game and automatically connections. Currently you have to start the app, select the server you want to join. Tell it to check the add-ons list, tell it to download. Go select the add-ons that you want to load, and tell it to launch the game.

As described above... I wish they could just double click the icon and go get a cup of coffee or something and come back to their computer being connected to the server and ready to go. Less user invention = more interest in the system.

[Enixj7 0]

A quick talking through Teamspeak and using some guides found around the web. One question I've always wanted to ask; with Durgs Vegitation mod how do you install that as a server? And would all the players need it?

[Yuka 0]

I just thought about this... what about a simple batch file to download all the add-ons and do some sort of version control.

Here's what I have so far...

Requirements

FTP server

FTP account with directory full of current client-side required add-ons.  Directory also contains a "version" file that has a number that increments each time a change is made.  Also has an FTP command set for each version, named as the version number.  The command set is a simple file that has the FTP commands to be fed into the command-line FTP client on windows computers.  Each command set will instruct the FTP client what add-ons to download from the FTP server to get it from the previous version to the version that the command set is for.

Method

Batch file starts up, checks for a simple file that has the "version" number of your add-on package.

If the file exists, it opens it and finds the number.  It then connects to an FTP server and downloads a version file on the server (which managed by the admin, contains the latest version number).  The batch file then compares the two, if there is a difference, it connects to FTP again and downloads all of the command sets to get it up to the latest version as per the version file on the FTP server.  It then runs through each command set sequentially until it is done.

If the version file does not exist, it downloads the version file to figure out what version it has to "download" up to and then downloads all command sets from version 1 to the current.

The batch file then launches ArmA with the required mods loaded and maybe even have it connect to the server automatically.

Projected problems

If a file is removed from the add-ons package in one version and then readded later, the updater will download the file once, delete it, then redownload it again. Basically, not every efficient in that case.

While the directory of addons will always have the current addon files... if an addon is updated, the client will end up downloading it twice, even though it downloads the latest version of the update the first time and could technically use that.

I can't find a way to have it analyze filesize or date without actually downloading the file. I'd like to figure out a way to do that, which would get around the problem associated with the above problem.

One question I've always wanted to ask; with Durgs Vegitation mod how do you install that as a server? And would all the players need it?

Just install it on the server and load it on the server.  Any AI that are not being controlled by the players will have the fix applied.

If players want the AI in their group to have it applied, they have to have the durgs vegetation fix installed.

[tomcat_ 0]

personally i think it's something it needs to be sorted out...and especially on the in game browser you should be able to see if server uses any addons and which ones.

now for specific addons for missions...it's a different story...

on a different note i always thought the the mods/addons of this game is a mixed blessing....cause most of the players don't really want to bother install anything on their game...just want to install the game and jump into a server...and when they cannot join because of this mod or another addon..then they are getting discouraged....

[Yuka 0]

I'm working on a batch file that checks for add-ons on the local machine and checks with the server, downloads any differences and 'patches' up to what it should have and then launches the game, perhaps even connecting automatically to the ArmA server that the add-ons are for. This process is a one-step process in order to make it easy as possible for the non-tech savy players.

It's pretty much done, but I just need to do some testing. Once I confirm that it works great, I'm going to reconfigure it so the community can use it and configure it for their servers and then I'll release it.

Screen shot of just how crude it looks (and how efficient it is)...