Downloading of Mods for Clients?

Rothgar

Hi All,

Does anyone know if there is a way to have multiple Mods on a Server but only have clients download them if it's required? i.e. using the MapCycle.json and specifying the mods per map?

Currently I think you need the "mods" option to download the mods on Server start but I think this also makes the clients download all maps on connect as well?

So if you have 15 custom maps, it has to download all 15 before they can get into the server which is a bit crazy?

Vitdom

Yeah, add it like this:
<!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->{
    "time": 23,
    "mode": "order",
    "maps":
    [
        { "map": "ns2_summitcombat", "mods": [ "4fd7fd4", "5f41e38" ] },
        { "map": "ns2_co_faceoff", "mods": [ "4d41f11", "5f41e38" ] },
        { "map": "ns2_co_Core", "mods": [ "57f5f9a", "5f41e38" ] },
        { "map": "ns2_assault", "mods": [ "54da949", "5f41e38" ] },
        { "map": "ns2_pulsecombat", "mods": [ "57c685f", "5f41e38" ] },
        { "map": "ns2_chuteout", "mods": [ "55e90a3", "5f41e38" ] },
        { "map": "ns2_co_down", "mods": [ "5faeac4", "5f41e38" ] },
        { "map": "ns2_co_veil", "mods": [ "6033b34", "5f41e38" ] }
    ]
}<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->

You don't have to put the mapmod-ID on server start, it's enough to just put it in here. The server will download the map if there are updates to the map on mapchange, but the Steam Workshop has a nice bandwidth so I'd not worry about delays.

Rothgar

<!--quoteo(post=2041943:date=Dec 8 2012, 11:35 PM:name=Vitdom)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Vitdom @ Dec 8 2012, 11:35 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2041943"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Yeah, add it like this:
<!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->{
    "time": 23,
    "mode": "order",
    "maps":
    [
        { "map": "ns2_summitcombat", "mods": [ "4fd7fd4", "5f41e38" ] },
        { "map": "ns2_co_faceoff", "mods": [ "4d41f11", "5f41e38" ] },
        { "map": "ns2_co_Core", "mods": [ "57f5f9a", "5f41e38" ] },
        { "map": "ns2_assault", "mods": [ "54da949", "5f41e38" ] },
        { "map": "ns2_pulsecombat", "mods": [ "57c685f", "5f41e38" ] },
        { "map": "ns2_chuteout", "mods": [ "55e90a3", "5f41e38" ] },
        { "map": "ns2_co_down", "mods": [ "5faeac4", "5f41e38" ] },
        { "map": "ns2_co_veil", "mods": [ "6033b34", "5f41e38" ] }
    ]
}<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->

You don't have to put the mapmod-ID on server start, it's enough to just put it in here. The server will download the map if there are updates to the map on mapchange, but the Steam Workshop has a nice bandwidth so I'd not worry about delays.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Yeah that looks to work, just the issues of the Mod Download Timeouts currently causes a bit of a problem.

The other problem you have is that if you want to start the server on a custom map, using just the MapCycle.json you need to have the custom map first.

i.e.

I had in my server startup "-map ns2_chuteout"

But it must not have checked the MapCycle.json to determine it needed to download the map and so it just threw an error that the map did not exist.

It would probably be easy for UWE to fix though, might report that as a bug. Otherwise that method of downloading Mods is working great. Once the timeout bug is fixed I'll update my Server guide.

I really hope that UWE will make develop different ways to run Modifications though or better yet provide a secondary option like MetaMod/SourceMod where you can hook into functions without causing errors with file modification overwrites etc. If MetaMod was able to integrate to NS2 that could allow for a lot of flexibility, that will be a separate discussion though.