Why this new -mod crap in v3?

[tdw-socke]

Why in heavens name do you use this new -mod parameter and the changed gui- and menu-classes in v3? Didn't the old-style versions in v2 do the job?

the reason why i'm complaining:

theese -mod style starting of a server allows no voting tools and is only usable for standalone mods, but who will switch his quite expensive gameserver to a funmod only ?

We use ut2vote to switch several mutators and mods. Some new (-mod style) mods work, if we add the new paths to the standard-ut2004.ini, and some don't... chaos-ut is a case, which works, but fhi v3 doesn't... And evan if it did, the standard-client has to download all the packages, so if one gets it working, he has to vote for fhi v3, shut down his client, start the fhi-client and reconnect to the server...

in fhi v2 all this was no problem, it worked and still works very well with ut2vote, so we and lots of other admins can offer fhi besides some other mods and of course the standard games.

Most servers out there belong to clans, and clans play standard-games or league-mods like frag-ops in first place. FHI is a fun-mod and there is and imho never will be an FHI-League... So knowing this, configuring FHI as standalone only is imho a suicide for this funny mod

epic leads the modders into a dead-end with this new -mod style configuration. It's easy to setup, but who cares, if there are no servers out there? some guys like me, who have their own webserver might offer it as a standalone (with password and only a few slots of course), but no clan will offer his expensive servers for a standalone mod...

my 2 cent, i hope, you'll rethink your configuration... We will stay with v2 (on 5 servers!) and if the next patch makes it non-working, we will drop it... very sad

 

[[CD]Icedude]

erm, v2 also uses the -mod setup

 

[tdw-socke]

yes indeed... , and i tricked it around, by installing it like an old-style mod by copying everything to the standard-folders, and afair it didn't have it's own gui-controller-class.

even in that case standard clients had to download everything, but it wasn't that much with the v2...

no matter, this -mod-style config is a pain for admins, who want to offer different mods... why not offer it the old way plus a mutator or gametype to extend the standard-classes?

is it only, to please epics rules for the mod-contest? why not configure in a way, so it can be voted besides the standard mods?

 

[tdw-socke]

ok, i see, the reason, why it doesn't work, like it did in v2 is the same as posted here:
http://forums.beyondunreal.com/showthread.php?t=139029

but nevertheless, the problems with a -mod-style mod are still there, meaning that a client has to copy things / add paths for the standard-client, or use the mod-client. connecting with the mod-client to the server running a standard-mod and then voting fhi also is no solution (works with alienswarm and troopers), as the fhi-config substracts the standard-pats, and so the fhi-client has to download the standard-packages...

as i said, this -mod-style is nice for quick and mindless setting-up a server/mod, but not ideal, if you want to offer a (fun-) mod besides standard-games...

 

[[CD]Icedude]

i don't know really, i'll have to ask parser when he wakes up

 

[tdw-socke]

ups, and what i forgot:
if the client connects via standard-client, like he did before with the v2, chances are there, that he will get conflicting packages, as the FHI.u is still called FHI.u without a revision in it's name. Tested that yesterday and infact i got conflicting packages...

 

[tdw-socke]

another problem with not renaming files in new versions is the redirect. e.g. i'm running 2 servers on the same machine. One runs standard ut2k4 with ut2vote and lots of mutators/mods incl. fhi v2. The other one is a standalone mod-server, running only a few mods via ini-switching. atm it runs fhi v3 and/or alienswarm.
Now mod-files have of course to be redirected/compressed for faster downloads, and here comes the problem, as bothe servers use the same redirect... which FHI.u.uz2 is the right one? if it doesn't fit, the client will either get a mismatch error, or the download will run till the end of days...
Ok, i'm in a good shape, as it is my own server and i can setup a seperate redirect for the mod-server, which only costs me "a few" hunderd mb, but it will do the trick (if the client doesn't get one of the problems mentioned above)
But what about rented servers which all use one big redirect? We have 6 rented servers from a big isp which offers hunderds if not thousands of servers to rent, and all use the same big redirect. Now often enough, they don't know, which version is on the redirect... And the problem gets even bigger, if admins use ffa-redirect-server...

imho not giving unique names for mod- or map-files is a very big problem, and it's a known problem since the first maps and mods came up for ut99.

 

[tdw-socke]

just a quick question:
i'd like to know, if you don't see the mentioned problems, or if you don't care, or if you are working on a solution...
I'm thinking about editing / recompiling the affected files and renaming them.
But if you already on that one, i'd wait for it...

affected files are afaik:
FHI.u
FHIX.u
UWM.u (why are there no textures/sm in the v3 for uwm?)
FHITex.utx
FHIsmeshes.usx
FHI-EasternLands.ut2
FHI-GaliantHarbour.ut2
FHI-Goroland.ut2
FHI-GreenTower.ut2
FHI-HillFort.ut2
FHI-IceRegions.ut2
FHI-Manison2.ut2
FHI-MegaRigs.ut2
FHI-Reestablishment.ut2
FHI-Ruins.ut2
FHI-Sanctity.ut2
FHI-Skorcher.ut2
FHI-Underground.ut2
FHI-Wasteland.ut2
FHI-Watchtower.ut2
IntroFHINV.ut2

all these files have the same name but different sizes, which will result in package mismatches, if not played via the corresponding client and of coures if not using seperate redirects.

I'm sorry, but imho this is a fault and should be changed quickly...
If you need help, eg with ut2vote-tests, please tell me, I'm part of the UT2Vote-Beta-team and in this case i mostly know, what i'm talking about