[quake3] Re: Auto Downloads

[monk at rq3.com]

> Thilo Schulz wrote:
>> Stuff about security
>
> But wouldn't it be nice to at least have a button to enable/disable it
> at install, or when a map is missing. And when someone clicks it, do a
> pop-up which clearly states the risks etc. ?

I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments in regards to user experience.
 But you'll get no interested parties from ioq3 developers.  Think of ioq3
as an engine developer.  They want a static, bugfixed base that other
people can use as a launch point for other projects.  Yes, some of the
devs here use it for their own projects as well, but the really neat stuff
will never make it into ioq3.

ioq3 is not really an end-user release.  Once you realize that, you'll be
more content with the universe.  If you want features newer than 5 years
old, you'll need to look at some of the derivative projects like Evolution
Q3 or XreaL or some of the standalone games made from it like Urban Terror
and that star trek thing Thilo wrote, Elite Forces I think it is.

ioq3 is a framework for other people to use.  It'll add stuff like ipv6
support and support for some esoteric media formats, but not so much
modern formats and graphical goodies.

If you want a Q3-based free game that just "works" with autodownloaded
content, look at Enemy Territory.  I guess that's not a huge security
problem for them.  Or looking at UT2K4, pretty much every server I connect
to I can get custom content without batting an eye and I don't recall
having to explicitly set that up, though I may have long ago.  But ioq3? 
Naw, it's a security risk that's non-trivial to fix and make safe enough
for being enabled by default.

ioq3 is solid and good at what it provides.  Just don't expect the core
developers to want to extend it too far.  Heck, even stuff from some of
the core developers is listed as optional modules.  They just don't want
to break anything.

Q3 still is the 10th-most-played online game according to Gamespy's stats:

http://archive.gamespy.com/stats/
http://archive.gamespy.com/stats/mods.asp?id=22&s=1

1790 servers, 2947 players

http://www.serverspy.net/site/stats/
http://www.serverspy.net/site/stats/mods.html?g=2

11th by ServerSpy, that's 1.4% of all online play!

Now how many people still use the old Q3 client because it supports
PunkBuster?  Looking in ServerSpy, the top 4 mods account for the majority
of Q3 play.  I'm not too deep into Q3, but do OSP, CPMA, and UrT players
tend to want to have PunkBuster ability over ioq3?  For competitive online
play?  Or does no one use PB anymore?

In that context, just how many baseq3 players DO end up using ioq3?  I
don't know the answer.

But that line of thought is why it makes sense to me that ioq3 is
positioned as a "game engine" project rather than an end-user project. 
And that's why I don't really expect anything besides the occasional
bugfix--though if downloading content could lead to exploits, I'd have
thought that'd have been mitigated by now regardless of the default cvar
value.  Eh, security through obsecurity/disabling default value works too,
I guess.

Anyway, I'm done ramblin'.  And again, while I completely agree with your
sentiment about things that (in one's opinion) help the players and
overall community, I think it's a waste of time to address this here and
all it does is get people needlessly worked up.

Monk.