How to get people to download Island Addon?

[NightHawk2009 10]

Hello All.

I'm new the editing scene, I've become really interested in editing since meeting up with XR Clan and Benny (Creator of Warfare).

I've been reading alot and also watching all youtube vids I can get my hands on. I've spent a good few days thinking of the project I want to create and narrowed it down to 3 things. Most likely I am going to make all 3 missions.

1. New Island With Warfare Mode & CRCRTI mode.

2. New Island With Domination Mode.

3. New Island with Warfare + Domination + Advanced AI Extream Edition.

I can't say anything more about the above as I don't want my idea's leaking out into other people's projects however I am willing to work with people to make the above release to the public quicker.

I have just 1 problem which I need help. It's a common problem that people who make new MP missions using Islands other than Default don't get the exposure they need for their mission to be popular, popular in comparision with Benny's Projects. I have found a map that someone has made and I want to this Island for my projects but it will require people to download the addon if they wish to play. Is there a USER FREINDLY way of getting people to download the addon they need? E.G someone new to a server wants to play. In a clan situation its easy to fix this issue but visitors it aint.

Maybe something like a message coming up when they connect saying that In Order To Play You Must Download This Addon. Click Here for more info. Whcih then takes them to a webpage were they can seea full tutorial writen and video (which I'll make) explaining how to install and ofcourse the file needed.

I'm guessing this is an issue which many people have faced and now it's time to come together in order to reach a solution because people have no doubt made some excellent islands etc but no one uses them :(

P.S I wish BIS would download addons automatically like they do with the Missions.

Thank You.

[kylania 567]

That message does come up, but it's in the error report file. :)

Maybe put Map Needed: see www.blah.com for details in your server name or something?

Custom AddOn Public servers are not really popular, especially if the addon is some obscure island and not something more commonplace like ACE or LittleBirds or something like that. I know I won't download a whole new island just to play on some server.

[JDog 11]

Nothin helpful to say at all but Kylania... did you mean to direct to blah.com lol or was that accidental lol?

[Snake Man 403]

I have found a map that someone has made and I want to this Island for my projects but it will require people to download the addon if they wish to play. Is there a USER FREINDLY way of getting people to download the addon they need?

User friendly method? I really don't understand what you mean...

I mean if you are hungry, the food doesn't just magically appear in your mouth just by you snapping your fingers, you must cook it in the kitchen first before ready to eat.

Its rather simple; if people want to use addons, they have to download them, put them into a proper dir and load arma 2 up with -mod dir parameter.

There is no easier way to use addons.

[.kju 3241]

Look into Yoma Addon Sync 2009.

[Defunkt 431]

Its rather simple; if people want to use addons, they have to download them, put them into a proper dir and load arma 2 up with -mod dir parameter.

There is no easier way to use addons.

Not in ArmA but other games like Half-Life, Call of Duty and I'm sure many others allow clients to auto-download (or opt out at any time) required content. Given how modded and moddable ArmA is it seems nuts that there isn't an equivalent facility.

[icebreakr 3136]

Defunkt: BIS has enough problems with creating lag to players on just syncing to a game already in progress and downloading the mission file ;)

[[aps]gnat 28]

Well, client download of a 300MB island file LOL ... nar, not going to work.

Nighhawk,

This problem has been around since OFP and it hasn't really been a problem.

- Regular players know if they get booted from the server as they joined, they were probably missing an addon.

- If they dont know where to go to get/check addons and they can't be bothered to find out, you probably don't want them to join your server!

- Servers will either use their web site to store copies (sometimes zipped) to be downloadable (with Forum details etc) or they use a tool like kju suggested, where clients have a copy and "sync" to required addons and updates.

[Defunkt 431]

Defunkt: BIS has enough problems with creating lag to players on just syncing to a game already in progress and downloading the mission file ;)

That's likely in part to downloading the mission files off the gameserver, other games support http redirect so the server just tells the client where to find the resource elsewhere on the Internet.