Custom Map download time a killer..

[hoRRex]

I have a feeling there is going to be allot of community created maps made for fortress forever in the future. What i feel might have hindered the popularity of community created maps in other fortress games such as TFC was the time it takes the average user/noob to download these maps from the server. The average player doesn't like waiting half the map or even longer in some cases staring at a blank screen as the map downloads, so they simply disconnect and join a server that they don't have to download first.

If there was something that could be done to decrease the time it takes to download these custom maps from the server in FF i think it may benefit the popularity of custom maps. Id enjoy it if custom maps were more popular as its fun for me to play new maps more often rather than the same old over and over again for 10 years.

Or another approach may be to create or use an existing mini game that can be played while a map downloads from the server, this might keep the interest of the map dowloadee long enough for the map to finish downloading.

Another idea could be to show a series of random FF images or if possible a sideshow of images from the map actually being downloaded which could include the maps strategies, game play style and tips on the maps layout (made by the maps creator) This is probably not possible but it would be a nice addition if implemented.

I thought id put forward my ideas on this matter as i enjoy playing custom maps and i would like to see them played on a regular basis or to just increase the availability of custom created maps to everyone.

[Ihmhi]

Good idea. It would be nice to implement something like this, but it would probably be a post-release feature if it can even be implemented. I do not know for sure if the devs can screw around with the GUI code related to downloading and stuff.

[IvaQuaL]

any server worth its salt redirects map downloads to dedicated sites

[pizzahut]

And also compresses the maps on the dedicated site. (Specifically you can compress *.bsp and *.nav in the maps folder and *.ain in maps\graphs.)

But still the map downloads can take a while, so good idea.

[Vendicator]

Originally Posted by hoRRex

Or another approach may be to create or use an existing mini game that can be played while a map downloads from the server, this might keep the interest of the map dowloadee long enough for the map to finish downloading.

Another idea could be to show a series of random FF images or if possible a sideshow of images from the map actually being downloaded which could include the maps strategies, game play style and tips on the maps layout (made by the maps creator) This is probably not possible but it would be a nice addition if implemented.

As far as the mini game goes, that would be a good idea - let it be in a future release or someone make it on their own time after FF is finally out

For the images of the map your downloading - that would just require the downloads of those files first... depending upon your connection, size of those images, and size of all the files - it could make everything just take longer!

[CatzEyes93]

...and also have a mappack available on the website. I used to join a server on a regular basis that was constantly changing the map cycle. I never minded though cuz they always put available map packs up on the website to download and unzip. So if ever there was a map I didnt have and it started going into download mode, I would kill it, go to the website and grab the mappack and be up and running and in the server in a quarter of the time it would have taken me to sit there and wait for it to finish.

At first glance this would seem unpopular... to disconnect and go to the trouble of getting it off a website. But it really did seem to work for them.

Downloading custom maps usually doesn't have to take forever. If it's going slow from the server, disconnect and find a server whose map downloads are redirected to come from a real file server, not the game server.

If another server can't be found, tab out of the game, open google, and type "<mapname>.bsp download" or something of the sort. This usually brings up a site you can download it from.

Don't be lazy and play 2fort (all the time), be resourceful!

[MikeQuist]

I think this. It's a great idea for post release! To include a whole new type of file for ff maps...called...FF Infos or something, such as .ffi or something like that, that consists of like 4 pictures and an information section. Kind of like battlefield 2.

This way, if the mapper included it, before the map loading begins, the user downloads this relatively small file, and can see pictures and read information while they download or load.

[Pixel]

There should be a zip of all the common custom maps

[Beetle]

that will end up being huge, wouldn't you think?

[gizmofo]

Originally Posted by Beetle

that will end up being huge, wouldn't you think?

God doesn't like it when you make sexual innuendos
I hope they do find a way to make one large download though.. It would be much easier.

[luminous]

Originally Posted by Beetle

that will end up being huge, wouldn't you think?

depends on the textures, if a lot of them are FF of default ones then it shouldnt be too huge

[Contempt]

You whine excessively.

[iMpi]

If it takes a long time to get a map from a server then the server owner is to stupid set up a dedicated map download. And I doubt the team wants to recode the loading screen just so someone can play pong for 2 minutes. Also I'm sure playing games like that when a game is loading will probable not work on some systems.

[Teh Hwoling Manz]

The only solution is to play a short video clip of the Tom Cruise underwear dance from Risky Business while we wait for maps to load.

I like that old time rock and roll...

[Ihmhi]

Uh some of you may not know this but there are like half a dozen mapping sites in various forms setting up to hold Fortress Forever maps... and that is not including the flagship site (this one), which we do not know what it will be having available for download in relation to the game (aside from the game itself, of course).

[AfterShock]

I don't think downloading from the server directly is gonna be possible / feasible, FF maps are a lot bigger than TFC maps. However, it would definately be cool to automatically reroute you to a random mirror mapping site and download from that in-game.. I don't know how hard that would be, tho. And then yeah it would be nice if you could do stuff while it downloads... like play a little training map and snipe a load of bots, or something.

[Ihmhi]

Could work like this:

1) Connect to server with the map ff_fragger.

2) The game checks if you have the map, and you do not.

3a) The game checks a centralized server (likely run off of the FF website) that has an up-to-date inventory of all of the major and minor mapping sites. It randomly directs you to one of them to begin downloading. The server will store the root URLs of all of the active major and minor mapping sites and save it to a system file in the FF folder.

3b) Should the tracking server be down at any point (or offline forever, in the worst case scenario that the site dies forever for some reason...), a button will pop up on screen which will allow you to quit the game and automatically open a HTML-generated list in the FF folder. The list will contain all of the mapping sites where one could manually search for the maps. (This portion, IMO, while not likely necessary to be used (as I expect the devs to do a fine job of keeping the site up for a looooooong time, and subsequently, the map site tracker under my system) would future-proof the system of finding maps for Fortress Forever.

= = = = = =

Aside from this, I would also like to suggest that FF makes "map packs" for torrent files and forever seeds them (so they can always eventually be downloaded by someone). So long as there is one seed online, the download process will gain a lot of seeds once the map pack is released and thus the speed will increase for all.

As an incentive, you could set up a custom tracker via the Fortress Forever website (tracker.fortress-forever.com:1337 perhaps? d: ) that would be used solely to track ratios of uploading/downloading of files. The files would not have to be limited to map packs, of course; you could torrent the videos, custom model packs... hell, even the game itself, and save a nice chunk of money on bandwidth. Hell, I would take the extra time to download FF from a torrent to save you guys some bandwidth. d: But yeah, aside from that, you could like rank the lifetime upload/download ratios of people tied to their forum account, so it would show stuff like:

1) Ihmhi UP: 5.00GB DOWN: 1.00GB RATIO: 4.0

This would awaken everyone's "inner statwhore" and get them to share their asses off so that they may move up a rank. d:

Just some random ideas before I pass out from being up for a ridiculously long time. Woo! Insomnia~!

[l2ampage]

I have dual monitors, so I can play games while its loading anyway. :P
Even if you didn't, couldn't you just Alt+Tab out while its loading and forum troll/play games/irc/etc.? Thats what I used to do before I got my second monitor, I would have Newgrounds or Youtube or something up in the background and would just tab out until it was done. :P

[paranoidkirb]

Alt+tab can be really frustrating with Source though.