A thought...

I went over to the game server that Jarg was raving about with the strangelove stuff, etc. I gave up after the 4th version mismatch. The guy running that server mentioned that he likes to mod, so apparently he bastardizes other peoples work and then doesn't even extend the courtesy of re-naming the files so other people won't have problems. As you can tell from the tone of my words, that sort of thing really pisses me off.

Unfortunately, a lot of people do this, so pissing and moaning about it isn't going to fix the problem. What a surprise that people just don't think about what they are doing, huh?

Well, it did get me thinking (gasp). Imagine a server that you could go to other than your own where you never got a version mismatch or any other sort of problem. You'd add that server to your favorites if it was the 1 in 10 that you could reliably play on. I would too. I am wondering how many people over the time we had our servers bailed on us because of version mismatches. It's not our fault since I will only add a map or mutator from what I believe to be the official source. For example I have had version mismatches with bunnyfoofoo (our spawn protection) many many times in the past. I know our version is the correct one because I got it from the author. So every time I get a version mismatch I know it is because the server admin is an asshole who modified the mutator and then did not rename it. The same applies with a mutator that we run on the redeemer server

So I started thinking a bit more. Could there be a way to make it so that no matter what, when someone comes to a DOU server there is absolutely no chance for a version mismatch? If so, then traffic would pick up as all those people who got version mismatches that we never saw because they bailed would come in and play. I bet traffic would really pick up.

So I continued thinking and came to the conclusion that this is in fact entirely possible. The bitch is that there will be a lot of work involved. But I don't think it will be hard work.

The first thing I would like to do is rename every mutator that we use to something unique while at the same time do it in such a way that if the original author of the mutator saw it he / she would not be pissed off about it. Thats simple. The file could just be changed to throw a DOU at the end of it or something. Then on the website we could explain what we did. Also, for everything modified, we will host the original non-renamed file on the nuke site. That way if someone likes the server and wants files for their own they will take those and leave our stuff alone. They can go bastardize the original stuff like everyone else 🙂 As far as the mutators are concerned, with the exception of UTDC this will work (and UTDC can't be modified or it won't work so there is no problems there). If we do this, nobody will ever have a mutator version mismatch with us ever. All those people who connect to our server will be able to play. Traffic will pick up.

I am definitely going to do this. I will talk to HappyFnCamper about it to see what is involved. It will be a bit more that just renaming the files. But with his help, I believe this portion of of the project will be easy and fast to do (we don't run a lot of mutators).

Now comes the tougher part. I thought about the maps too. I was over at Jargs buddies server and I got a version mismatch on a BBST map texture pack. I was like "Fuck!" I got the map originally from the BBST home page so I know my version is correct. So somebody modified the texture pack and then didn't rename it. So if someone goes to that server and gets the texture pack before anywhere else, every server in UT land that didn't fuck with someone elses file will be unplayable for that person. Thats just rude.

So here is what I am thinking now. Understand that I know absolutely nothing at all about mapping so I may be way off base here (or right on base but it won't be as easy as I thought). What about taking the map and editing it slightly to first embed all it's components, and then slightly rename the map (Maybe put a [em] on the end to indicated embedded). Of course I'd have to be more careful about this too and get permission where I can from map authors. But I think half the maps we have are candidates for this already (map author is gone and map is abandoned already). I would leave that task to myself. So the question to the mappers (Charger and Talon, I am CC:ing this post to him) is, is this doable and easy? Can one easily just change a line or 2 so that once recompiled the supplemental files will embed? Or is this whorific work? If so, I would recommend trying massivebedroom as a test map. I choose that because it is played a lot and it uses the bed texture pack, what I believe to be the most problematic texture pack out there for mismatches.

So tell me what you people think about this idea. I think it might be really good for traffic and would cut down on a lot of stress and other bullshit.

Tommy