Does a new .TER mean clients must download ??

[Lexor offline]

Hey, I am putting the finishing touches on my first completely new map but I am a bit frustrated...

While testing I've noticed that download and installation of the map is required for clients to play. We even tested a dedicated server.

Anyone know of any way to prevent a client-side download ??

Or, does Shifter, or a future T2 upgrade promise auto-download of .TER files ?? I can swear I've seen completely new terrains in Shifter without downloading the maps...



Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Alex Golitsis [Lexor]

[Nefilim offline]

Nope, I can garauntee you haven't played a map with a new .ter file online without downloading it. Alot of maps out there you would never be able to tell that it was an existing terrain. Go look at my map "Wetlands" That is from the Quagmire .ter file... You can do alot of stuff using the existing terrain. SUPPOSEDLY the DEV team will be implementing an Auto-Download feature soon, but as it is now, you can only alter the .mis file and the .spn file if you want it to be a server-side map. (And the .nav file if you want bot support) Here's hoping the |DEV| team will give us Auto-Downloading soon, there is only so many maps you can make using the same Terrains over and over agian.

[Lexor offline]

DOH !

thx much for the info..

I kind of needed the new terrain for this map as the terrain is really the basis of the project.

By all accounts my 1st all-new T2 map looks to be really fun with lots of peepz playing, but who is gonna bother downloading and installing it ?!?! Geez, I can't even get a test team organized...

Guess I'll whine to the T2 dev team (might as well shout at the wall)

Thx for the info and regards,
Lexor

[Nefilim offline]

Lex, I know what you mean man, I have had SO MANY awesome ideas that I just scrapped because no-one will download the maps... It is hard enough to get a server to play your server-side maps, and almost no server admins will put up a custom client-side map. The .ter files are not very big at all either, a whole map with custom terrain and all only weighs in at about 1 mb if it is a big map... So there is absolutely no excuse for not making an Auto-Download program. *sigh* Maybe if we pester them enough, they will get off their arses and do it for us... (I know they are busy squashing bugs and stuff, but if they have enough time to add vehicle-teleporting and crap that no-one asked for, they have time to give us an auto-d/l too!)

P.S. Sorry about the rant, but why the awesome terreformer and stuff when no one will play your map anyways because they have to download it manually?

[Lexor offline]

yep, I agree.. if they have the time to pander to newbies they should be able to follow-through with this old promise of having maps auto-download... esp since the .ter files are puny.

but who knows what's motivating the T2 dev team now ($$$$$$)

the terrain editor and terraformer are pretty good. however unless I get a commitment from the dev team on this I'm gonna stop making new maps.

Regards,
Lexor

[ArmyMage offline]

ArmyMage

[Zear offline]

No, making holes in the terrain will not make the map client-side.

[ArmyMage offline]

ArmyMage

[Lexor offline]

Armymage, there is a post in Misc. forum that addresses your question about hole-punching.. to summarize you should match your building up with the hole !! place the base first, checking to make sure no hole exists... a good tip was not to rotate the bases...



(one thing I didn't mention there... if you copy-and-paste your bases, good luck with base 2 )

wow, reading through this thread brought me down memory lane

I sure was critical of the DEV team, and I guess I still am... 3 beta patches later... and the official rels still locks-up most computers...

regards,
Lexor

PS that new map I was working on became Martian Assault, a fight for the Face on Mars !! I based the terrain on actual NASA images... and as I expected I've never seen it on a pub server once.