I can't seem to join any games w/maps I don't have

Tom Emerson osnut at pacbell.net
Mon Sep 27 11:02:04 EDT 2004


whenever I go to a server offering a game for which I don't already have the 
map, the system dutifully begins a map download.  Originally, this worked OK, 
but after I've applied patches [3270 and 3323], once the counter reaches 100% 
I get part of an error message:

   failed to download package <x>; server refused to

and that's it.  Obviously there was more to the message, and equally obviously 
some nimrod in the coding section forgot to apply the "wordwrap" style on the 
"message box" ;)  What gives?  [better still, where can I download these 
"offline" so I already have them to begin with?]

Other than the obvious suggestion [fix the word wrap], I'd like to suggest a 
couple more items that would make this sort of thing "flawless"

   1) resumable downloads -- since you control both the server and client side 
of the comm link, this should be trivial.  As an end user, I don't see any 
reason why I should have to "start over" if I obviously received "100%" of 
the file already [ok, a presumes 100% -- someone already mentioned that there 
was a bug regarding the fact that the counter can easily go to 200-300% or 
more...]

   1a) sign the maps with an MD5 or similar hash, so that you know you're 
resuming the same map, even if from a different server

   2) background downloading.  Since a game can take 20-30 minutes or more, 
the client can/should get the "rotation" list and download the next map 
during the game [at a throttled pace, of course]  If done correctly, this can 
even be done from a different server while the game is playing [perhaps this 
is already the case?]  This way, when the current map finishes, clients don't 
have to wait for a 3-5 minute download [hey these maps are getting BIG, 
don'tcha know...]

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