I was just notified by Skunk Monkey of SES about this thread, and I think it is about time the OFP community has finally started thinking about a name convention. Vetserver has had its name system since 2 weeks after OFP was released in the US over a year ago. We have had no problems with our name system and many people have commended us for a great job.
I have a few things to say about what you guys have been discussing. The symbols @ and & and spaces I would never use in a file name no matter where it will be used because you never know where it will be used in the future. For instance, I offer the entire collection of OFP maps on our server as downloadable files from our website and most browsers do not like using & @ or spaces in file names because those are very specific scripting commands for ASP, Javascript, and would make it very difficult as a programmer or web designer to combat the scripting on top of the symbols in file names. Keep it simple. Get rid of the symbols and replace the spaces with _ underscores since they work on all operating systems and internet browsers.
As far as addons are concerned, what if I go play on SHOP, download thier addons, then download some map called coa25_beachhead.pbo... now I know it has an addon from the 'a' in the map name, but since I have 1000 maps, how will I know the addons required are from SHOP and not from addons from SES or from Fraghaus? I think it is agreed that every server has a different collection of addons other than VS and SES who have almost identical addons at the moment. How will you know which maps need which server's addons since there is no way every server will ever agree to comply with 1 set of addons. I think this is at the very heart of this name convention issue because the point here is to get map names to be the same. Once someone emails me new maps, especially maps with addons, I will have no idea which addons are used unless this person happens to be the map maker himself/herself. If you guys are going to seperate your lists with an addon indicator, you might as well give some type of indication which server addons you will need. At VS, we use the letter v in front to indicate VS addons. It sounds complex at first but at least we know the addons are in there and its compatible with the VS addons. For a more universal map name system, you might want to use 2 digits or 3 digits to signify the servers addons. For a SHOP map with addons, how about SHOco24_mapname.pbo, that way you know its a map with addons since it starts with SHO instead of co, ct, or dm. This will sort all the SHO maps into 1 big group, subdivided into the ususal co, ct, dm of course. This will make it easier if a SHO addon map was to be considered used on another server, such as SES. SES could contact SHO and find out what addons are needed and consider adding them to SES. SES finds out its only 1 small addon to make that map work, so they add the 1 small addon to thier collection and inform thier regulars to add it too with a new MOTD.
To help you guys out, I will paste the name convention from the Vetserver website:
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Here is a breakdown of how to name your maps:
[MapType][PlayerSlots][AuthorInitials]_MissionName.IslandName.pbo
note: do not include the brackets [ ] in the name.
Here is an example of a coop map with 20 player slots made by Lolsav and named Homer:
co20LS_Homer.Eden.pbo
How do I name my new map?:
The 3 acceptable map types are "co" for coop, "ct" for capture the flag, and "dm" for deathmatch.
If your map has less than 10 player slots, put a zero in front of the number, like 07 for 7 slots.
Author Initials must only be 2 digits. If someone else has your initials, then modify your initials. If your map was already on the server, and I could not determine who created the map, I will give the initials ZZ to represent an anonymous author.
Mission Names can have no spaces, no underscore symbols_, no periods., no commas, no symbols.
Use an uppercase letter in front of each word, and keep the name simple so that they can be read easy by the admin. Do not use map version numbers. If the map is beta, then give it the final name and each time you submit the map, the old map will be erased. This will eliminate having 20 beta versions of each map on the server. Do not name your map with the map type or playerslots as part of the name, such as 24CTF. We already know the map has 24 player slots and that it is CTF by the new name system. If you cant think of a name, then ask someone else to pick a simple name for you. I will rename your map file name if it is too long.
I am using VS Add-ons, how do I name my new map?:
If you use the Official VS Add-on pack in your map, you will need to change the first letter of your map name to v to indicate VS add-ons are being used. So if your map was co20LS_Homer.Eden.pbo and you had VS add-ons in it, you would rename your map to vo20LS_Homer.Eden.pbo to conform with our name system. The 3 acceptable map types when using VS Official Add-ons are "vo" for coop, "vt" for capture the flag, and "vm" for deathmatch.
Map Creators:
Vetserver is happy to accept any maps created by anyone and will be added within a day or two of sending but In order to ensure that no map will crash the server and to make the job of being an admin very easy, we have established a set of rules and a map naming system. Here is the set of rules, and below you can find everything you need to know about how to name your maps.
Why did you rename all of the maps?:
When an admin had a room full of loud and crazy guests, it became nearly impossible to pick a map that could #1 fit everyone and #2 be a map type that the masses wanted to play (coop, CTF or DM). So we came up with a logical naming convention that could be easy to use and yet not fill the entire name up with extra symbols. Now that admins dont spend 15 minutes looking through the map list trying to decipher hundreds of misnamed and random name conventions just to find out that the 26AirSuperiority map actually has only 2 player slots and not 26... the admins and players will be able to spend that time playing the game instead of yelling and being pissed off.
I am on a 56k modem, will I have to download every map all over again?
If you do not rename the maps in your mpmissions folder, then you will download every map brand new with the new name right along side the old maps. I suggest you rename the maps above 500kb just to make things easier on you. If that is too much work, then you should at least rename the few maps above 1MB. You can use this page to help you rename your maps by locating the old map name, then selecting the new map name and copy it to the clipboard then rename the new map by pasting the new map name in. This way you dont have to spend time typing in each name correctly.
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A bunch of you will probably gawk at the vo, vt, vm, but we use it so that the masses of new visitors dont mistake those maps for non-addons. I respect that some servers want people to click on addon maps by mistake so they will learn to download addons. The reality I have seen is the opposite. Someone will click on an addon map and crash out most of the people including the admin, leaving only a few regulars if they happen to be playing then. Most of those people will be pretty pissed they got kicked. I think addon maps should be played only when you have a majority of server regulars present. Otherwise all you do is piss off new visitors making them not want to come back. The vo,vt,vm maps auto sort to the bottom of the maps for each island making them less seen by non-regular voted admins. Since they are massed into 1 big group, they are visually seperated from the co,ct,dm, making it clear they are different even if the newbie admin doesnt know about the addons. If we had used coa to designate coop addon, and cta for ctf addon, the maps would be mixed together making it hard for such newbie admins to see a visual difference in the map names. What if your a regular to the server, only regulars are on the server who have the addons, and you know you want to play with an addon map? Simple! All you have to do is scroll to the bottom and there you have every addon map ever created in 1 nice group. If we all use server initials to designate which addons are being used, I may consider changing the addon maps on Vetserver to VSco24ZZ_MapName.pbo
As far as author initials are concerned, I think it is extremely important to include them. This is because many maps have the exact same name or very similar names yet are made by different people. How many BlackHawkDown maps are there? 20? 30? If you start renaming your maps for a name convention, you will end up killing any new blackhawkdown map every time someone sends you a new one. Unless you designate the author initials or change each name slightly. Changing the names without a name convention will result in many different names for the same map from the same author. I choose author initials for the author unless the author is in the VS map team and they tell me what they want to use. If the author is unknown, I use ZZ to designate him/her which will sort the unknown author below the known authors for maps of the same name.
To avoid unecessary length in map names, I use uppercase letters each new word in the name portion of the map name instead of spaces which are not compatible with most web browsers. For instance:
co12HK_ReconEscape.Eden.pbo
co10JU_TheGoodEscape.Cain.pbo
I am glad to see the OFP community is finally working on this problem. It wouldnt be a problem if the in game map browser would auto sort the maps for us by co/ct/dm/addons/playerslots/author/mapname/island
Could you imagine how easy it would be? We wouldnt need to rename anything since the game would pick up the mission name instead of the file name, the spaces would not be a problem, and the symbols @#%*& s would not be a problem.
Also the game map browser would be less cluttered if the name didnt include co/ct/dm/addons/playerslots/.. you would just click on checkmark boxes to see all the coop maps or all coop maps with addons.. maybe the game could even highlight specific maps in red if the map doesnt have enough playerslots for the number of players waiting in the lobby, and even highlight specific player names in red if they do not have the addons installed for the map you are about to load. Oh well, I guess its too much to ask for in OFP1. I hope they see this and consider adding it as a feature in OFP2.
