another suggestion

[Ac/dc]

It would be extremely conveneiant if when someone joins a game where they dont have the map, that they could download it off the server. Starcraft does this and its great.

[bigbadbogie]

Forget it. BZ2 has enough issues without that... and it would be a huge hassle for GSH now.

You could always hope for it in pb5.. if there is going to be a pb5.

[Feared_1]

I think you can using the "Join IP" button. If not, try putting "+connect ip:port" temporarily into your BZ2 shortcut.

[Steeveeo]

I think you can using the "Join IP" button. If not, try putting "+connect ip:port" temporarily into your BZ2 shortcut.

That wouldnt solve the missing map problem IIRC

[Feared_1]

Well it works in 1.2, which is why I was sure to add "I think" 

[Ac/dc]

Well it works in 1.2, which is why I was sure to add "I think" 

What I mean is, as soon as you join the server, you start dl'ing the map immediately. is that what it does?

[lucky_foot]

It would be extremely conveneiant if when someone joins a game where they dont have the map, that they could download it off the server. Starcraft does this and its great.

Convenient yes, but it would have trouble like storing the map somewhere so it could download, a way that the engine would know when and where to download it from. the problems if the map wasn't there two years later because someone didn't update the new location, etc.

It's a cool feature, but I don't think it'll be done because of the problems. The best thoughts on my side is to put a link in the server information since that still can be read (the last time I was on) by the player without the maps o they can go get it.

[Axeminister]

You don't want anything running in the background on Battlezone II, and you especially don't want to be downloading/uploading things while your game is running. Any host will tell you this. I ban people on my servers when they join with too high of a ping, because once they join it messes up the whole world for everyone already there.

[Ac/dc]

You don't want anything running in the background on Battlezone II, and you especially don't want to be downloading/uploading things while your game is running. Any host will tell you this. I ban people on my servers when they join with too high of a ping, because once they join it messes up the whole world for everyone already there.

my suggestion is already carried out in starcraft and works fine.

[Warfreak]

Because Blizzard's Battle Net grabs from the host.... which im surprised doesn't take so long......
Any Source Ded Server actually pulls off grabbing from a cache from somewhere on the internet and then throws it at your face wit halmsot an hour of downloads sometimes.

The Reason WE CANNOT AND WILLNOT do this IS BECAUSE (this is mostly a recap if anyone didnt read the entire topic):

1. We have no where to keep all the files in one place accessable by the bzone.exe if it where ever placed into effect.

2. DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH CODING THIS WOULD TAKE
-this would result in redoing the Bad assets check so maps dont get checked
-the loading bar would haveto be updated, server configuration files would have to be made AND readable by the bzone.exe,
-bzone.exe would have t obe made to pull out maps and put them in your maps folder,
-lastly servers would have to update their stuff every once in a while......
THATS ONLY WHAT I CAN THINK OF OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD.

3. what is so hard for one to jsut go to their favorite BZ place to get maps, install the maps , and then join a server.....

4. BZ2 ISNT made to be running 500 things in the background, Starcraft and other NEW games are.

Until you can convince The Dev Team (er... 2) of the need and benefit of this, it won't happen....... (and if it does, you will be waiting basically for pb10, as the entire code that runs MP will probably need to be redone in order to make this work..)

[Nielk1]

I was trying to make a list of all the maps in BZ2 into my wiki but I burned out doing that after just 1 day. It was cross linking the names and bzn files.

[General BlackDragon]

I wonder what GSH has to say on this idea.

It's a good idea, I just don't know how hard it would be to add. (Probably fairly difficult)

[Nielk1]

The problem is the way bz2 maps work, I mean, even if he sends the map files and directory info over, he has to send the correct textures, and used objects, meshes, etc. Some maps may be in pak files, or the assets they use, turning the entire thing into a horrid mess. The best we can really do is be sure to have a perfect step by step install guide out there to ensure everyone has every map. I started to make some guides but they are horribly incomplete. I myself have not ventured into the crazy ZST maps cause of texture conflictions I have heard about.

[bigbadbogie]

I dont really like this idea much.

What if a modder was testing a new map and then 10 people suddenly decide to join and all get their hands on his map.. then they send it out to the community and claim that they made it.

[Steeveeo]

Hypothetically, you could go Quake 3 p2p style map downloading, as in sharing between two comps instead of storing the map on a server (and not having to worry about a move). On Q3:A you can disable map downloading with a single server setting, so that would also help.

If this were ever to go into effect, I would suggest having a couple new fields in the Start Server dialog or on the lobby Options pane:

Enable P2P Map Downloading: [Yes] [No] (Choose whether or not to allow computer to computer map downloading [bold is default])

Map Location (nonlocal): [<url>] (Added this in hindsight as it seemed like a good idea. Specified by map INF. If both this and P2P downloading are enabled, it would make sence to resort to this first, and if the map is not found, go to P2P mode and use the below settings)

Max P2P Transfer Rate: [<number>] (prevent the P2P from hogging up so much net traffic that the game itself bogs down, default 25kbps for Broadband)

Max P2P Ping: [<number>] (Keep people with high pings from downloading from your game and jamming up the works)


Again, that was all hypothetical, I doubt that the feature ever WILL go in, but if it does, those settings would help keep the latency and network traffic jams to a minimum.