Allow Servers to server flies directly to clients
ZEROibis
Join Date: 2009-10-30 Member: 69176Members, Constellation
Join Date: 2009-10-30 Member: 69176Members, Constellation
Now that the filter on modded servers has been removed there is clearly no reason to rely on the workshop for serverside mods. The reason for this is simple, the server users are playing on will be able to serve users files they need 100% of the time without issue while as with the workshop this is not the case. Ideally we want users to ALWAYS be able to get the intended files and relying on an unreliable external system that is not under the control of the server operators does not provide a good experience to players.
Therefore I ask that the developers please consider adding the ability for us server admins to serve mods directly to clients independent of the workshop system.
Therefore I ask that the developers please consider adding the ability for us server admins to serve mods directly to clients independent of the workshop system.
Comments
When I make programs for my servers in cs:s I click and drag 1 file to the directory and load up the server to test and when the file is ready click and drag it to the real server and I am done after I tell the server to load the mod up.
In ns2 I would need to create a workshop item for the test. Then find out wtf the secret code for it is by downloading it to my client now download it to the server. Now finish testing it and make a new release item upload that to workshop. Then locate the code for that by downloading something my client does not need to my client b/c why just tell users the dam number on the workshop page(no that would be too easy). Now turn the live server off enter the code and turn it back on.
If for example my wcs cs:s server used a system like the workshop there would be over 300 workshop items between the live and test server. A lot of them would be duplicates of existing workshop mods where I changed 5 or 6 lines of code to fit the needs of my server.
So I fail to understand how the workshop is better than what we had before for lets say amxmodx which is same model as sourcemod. I see that things are MUCH MUCH easier to mod for games like cs:s by not using a workshop.
I do think that the workshop makes sense for things like CLIENT SIDE CONTENT. However, when it comes to real mods and largely server side content it is a very bad system.
Also take for example this page: http://www.sourcemod.net/snapshots.php in the workshop all of those links would be an individual workshop item all of the same thing with different versions b/c sometimes you do not want to be using the latest version, you want to be running an older version. Now think if every version prior to just those were in there too.
I know that there are much much more important things for the developers to be working on right now but that does not change the fact that the workshop in the case of server side mods does not help make server side mods easier but instead makes things much more complicated than they need to be.
Lets even take the case of updates, as a server admin I not the app creator wants to decide when I get updates for a given mod. This is because sometimes an update adds new features that are on by default that I want off or introduces bugs. However with workshop we have no choice unless we copy the mod and then create our own workshop name for it and use that and then update our personal workshop item with the updates of the other workshop item on our time. Does this just not seem like a bad system to anyone else!?
You are aware you can install server side mods without going through the workshop, right? Your arguments against the workshop so far seem to consist of 'I don't like the workshop, so you shouldn't use it'
That's a bug in the NS2 interface to the workshop. It has nothing to do with the workshop itself (the workshop servers use the Highwinds CDN. I'm pretty confident Highwinds can manage to have better uptime then your machine)
Again, it's unreliable due to issues with the currently implementation. There's no guarantee that if they added a download-in-game system that it would be any more reliable then the current system. Bugs happen, bugs relating to downloading files over the internet happen more often.
Great, that simplifies installing them. I don't have to read through any (terrible) documentation from the plugin developer.
Nope, I see no problem. Not only do we not have maps get lost when they become unpopular, we can ensure that people aren't playing on old, buggy maps. We also don't have the absurd version numbers that get added to all third party maps.
You're already forced to update to the latest version of NS2. So now, your mods update to the latest versions as well. I don't see a significant problem here
If you have any idea how to develop mods, you are not among 95% of server owners. A significant portion of server owners cannot even manage to FTP SourceMod plugins to their server. They remain mystified why a large update by Valve breaks all their plugins. They do incomprehensible things to their servers trying to upload plugins or maps.
Your average server owner is not modifying the plugins/mods they install. They aren't testing upgrades to them before they upload them. They don't want to have to maintain their files in a separate location, just so clients can download them at speed (lets say ingame downloading was added, your next request would be for sv_downloadurl).
Basically your arguments seem to be based in the theory that everyone that runs servers is like you. This is not the case.
Also for uptime if the game server is not up then they logically do not need to be getting content from it. Thus if the server was serving files by logic 100% of the time the server is up the client can get files. When the client is dependent on an outside system to get the needed data the uptime is logically not 100%.
As for the server admins that do not know what they are doing do you think they could figure out which version of DAK is real if I posted up a bunch of fake ones in the workshop? Only by going though the forums and locating the developer directly can you be sure your getting the proper program even with the workshop.
But I really wanted to release ns2_scardymap_v14_RC7_alpha3!
Actually that map comment once again brings up one of the problems with forced updates for somethings. In many cases I have found that for example ns2_scardymap_v14_RC7_alpha3 may be better according to my players than ns2_scardymap_v15_RC7_alpha4 and therefore we need to change back to the old version b/c the new one has problems or is imbalanced. If the workshop perhaps saved old versions and allowed admins to revert to a prior release that would be great but instead we got to keep archives of every revision to save in the event that players do not want ns2_scardymap_v15_RC7_alpha4 but instead ns2_scardymap_v14_RC7_alpha3 lol.
The biggest issue though is you can't make mods private and have them available to the server. Unless I'm missing something. That is kind of a pain to the whole process. Especially when I have people subscribing to it for really no reason. (since it's a server side only). Is there a way to make a server subscribe to a private mod?
If it's a server-side only mod (i.e. nothing needs downloaded to the client for it to work) and you're concerned about people gaining access to the code, just bypass the workshop and run it via the -game launch parameter. You could also try making its a friends-only mod and friend the steam account you use to update your server (haven't actually tried this, but it may work).