IMPORTANT: MANY COD servers are dying!! COD players read!!

[mosszaphod]

Fellow COD Admins,
As some of you may know, if anyone is running a MODDED server and wants players to be able to play on it, but not download their code there is not many options. For example...I have a personal MODD that is a realism mod that is not public and I do not want people to AUTO download it so I set the server's Auto Download to ZERO. Well, the problem is when people try to connect it tells them they cannot find file zzcustom.pk3 and need to look for it elsewhere. Well, all they have to do is turn AUTO DOWNLOADS OFF, but if they don't have it off the server prompts them to look elsewhere for the file and download it. How is the average player going to know where my file is which isn't available for download? I heard this problem is killing many.many once populated servers....is there any solution someone can give? We used to have a VERY, VERY busy server now we are lucky if the regulars even play on it anymore....I would really like to figure a way to fix this...from what I understand it's being a HUGE problem! Any ideas are appreciated!

Zaphod
Leader of MOSS
Custom COD Realism Server: 209.240.4.253:28960 :x

[imported_Corporal Punisher]

This is the time when we find admins who are serious about this game. People game from all types of games to play CoD and quite frankly I think this errorful patch is good in some wierd and wonderful way. All the people who ran a server to be cool, or to run it because it's a popular game will easily get fed up and move onto the next big thing, leaving the people who care about the game behind to enjoy it.

That being said....

Modding isn't that hard. No matter how hard your idea may seem you can mod it. Our server has our own custom mod and were not too proud of our work that we dont want people to get their hands on it.

I contribute to the modding community by giving out idea's, or even code itself. It can only benefit the communty if we do this. Look at Crow King and Poolmaster, they release their mods to the masses knowing fully that their work is now PD.

I think you should put a little less stress into keeping your mod private if your serious about this game.

In all honesty, no matter what our mod does, someone else out there is capable of having a similar or (wait for it...) BETTER mod.

I guess the point of it is this.... that you allow dowloads and take the resolution, giving your mod to the public and not be so secretive thinking you got something no one else has.... cuz you dont. If you love the game and you love playing with you mod, then obviously having it PD wont bother you.

I was the first one out there with a jamming mod and an anti-camping mod which makes the attackers have to move 10ft or fire their weapons every x amount of seconds.... we were the first and prolly the only ones in their class right now.... Our shellshock was the first successful SShock to run live and actually keep players coming back when the others who copied the code and didn't know what to do with it simply had an effect that hurt gameplay. We were the first to have individual weapon limitations as well.

Being first is great aint it.... not to us, I sent the code to forum-land and helped others get theirs running, our mod is freely available to anyone to visits the server, and we dont care.... because we love this game and we want to see it prevail, not cry like a little girl and go back to mohaa or cs or the likes.

[mosszaphod]

I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting to have a fun and unique server that gives me a slight 'edge' over the rest...has nothing to do with ego or not helping the community...if anything it helps more because once someone tries our server they usually like it because of the features and how our admins treat everyone....I appreciate your views on what you 'think' the
mod community' should me like and do but that doesn't help my situation or others in my shoes as well. I posted here to get help for myself and many. many others like me not to get critized about having a private mod...I do commend you in your quest and talents of coding which has seemed to help the community and there is nothing wrong with that at all....I just would like to have a server that has a 'unique' reason players want to come back and have fun and I don't feel I should be punished because of that.....I am sure many will agree with that as well...and again I will ask...anyone else have any suggestions?

Zaphod
Leader of MOSS
COD Custom Server: 209.240.4.253:28960

[MPowell1944]

Corporal, so what you are saying is, he should share his mod with the community for the sake of the community and to avoid this problem. Honestly, that sounds like a crock. You try spending most of your free time coding a mod, then tell me how you feel about sharing it with others, when all you want is a server with it's own special touches. I can understand where he comes from, and honestly, if everyone and their brother has this unique code, what would make it unique? Something for thought.

[Rammer_DD]

too begin with here im not saying any thing is wrong here

but you must also think that if i were too try and join a server that
told me a pk file needs to be d/l but not from your server and not too be found any where else on the forums

now what with all the talk of cheats in cod ---what do you think most of the average players will think here

it dont take long for some one to jump too conclusions

again im not saying anything is wrong you asked and that is simply the way i see it---as the emotions in COD are quite bad at this time

things in cod will not calm down till punkbuster gets here
and i think the servers will all fill again

i have took all but 1--1.2 server down----and left 1 server on 1.1 too wait and see what happens with the next patch

[imported_Corporal Punisher]

I'm not saying he has to give the mod out to the masses to keep me or the community happy. All I'm saying is that you should weigh the situation a little more.

On one hand, your unique server runs quietly 24/7 and is mostly empty, on the other, your server runs full and you've lost nothing really.

Most modders like myself dont just look at your code and copy/paste it... they add to it, modify it, make it more to their taste so they can build on your uniqueness to create something even more unique.

The Division Realism (SShock, Jamming, Anticamp, and Weapon Limiting) has prolly been picked apart many many times in the past, there's probibly even servers out there that are running it to be honest with you.... but for the most part, our server survived these slow weeks and is full 16 hours a day.... not like it used to be but a heck of a lot more fun than empty.

Honestly I wasn't bashing your right to do whatever you want, there's a million ways to do something and none are the "only" way with my reasoning. I just wanted to point out that if you want a full server, maybe the way to do it would be to allow downloads and get on with it. Sure your mod becomes PD, but as I've said before that ANYTHING any server out there does as far as uniqueness is concerned... can be recreated by many a talented modder. If they like what your running theyre going to rip it regardless of whether they got your source or not :)

Anyways I'm sure it's all good and understood now, I meant no hard, just wanted to show you an alternative that your against without maybe exploring the pro's and cons.

[Jedi_Pimp]

hey,

im having the same prob..and all the mods running on my servers arent unique and they are only server side....and clients with auto D/L on dont join since i got allow D/L set to 0 . Ive put D/L off cause clients dont need the files !

so im coming back to what mosszaphod asked:

is there any solution someone can give to fix this ?

[imported_Corporal Punisher]

The clientside determines the outcome unfortunetly, and of course setting allow download to 1 is the only way to allow clients to connect with it on and off.

So regardless if the client needs them or not, allowing download serverside allows both sides of the farm to connect :)

[Jedi_Pimp]

darn...i gues ill have to work it out by allowing D/L ....hope the next patch fixes this tho :dis:

[thejerk]

LOL These replies are hillarious.

Not to pick apart anything anyone has said, but with all that modders claim to have acheived, then why not try to figure out a way to help? If you can code so damn well and are happy to help the community, then don't you think that this sounds like a cry for help?

Unless it's beyond you....

Of coarse, that whole statement is going to be construed as an insult, and all I can say is that you're looking at it the wrong way. So many modders out there, but still people can't get beyond what they want for themselves to help others out, and therefor the questions that so many people ask go unanswered because the modders in the community could care less.

Actually, it's kind of funny. I asked a simple question over and over on several forums, and instead of someone trying to figure out why the problem existed (which would lead to the solution), I got the answer that the problem was mine for wanting to run so much on a server. Hmmmmm... did you even look into the problem? Did you even read about how the problem was recreated? Nope... because you don't care.

And so... the moral to this story is that if you have a problem, don't expect modders to want to help you unless they have the same problem.

[imported_Eroc]

Your name fits you well.

[imported_Corporal Punisher]

LOL These replies are hillarious.

Not to pick apart anything anyone has said, but with all that modders claim to have acheived, then why not try to figure out a way to help? If you can code so damn well and are happy to help the community, then don't you think that this sounds like a cry for help?

Unless it's beyond you....

Of coarse, that whole statement is going to be construed as an insult, and all I can say is that you're looking at it the wrong way. So many modders out there, but still people can't get beyond what they want for themselves to help others out, and therefor the questions that so many people ask go unanswered because the modders in the community could care less.

Actually, it's kind of funny. I asked a simple question over and over on several forums, and instead of someone trying to figure out why the problem existed (which would lead to the solution), I got the answer that the problem was mine for wanting to run so much on a server. Hmmmmm... did you even look into the problem? Did you even read about how the problem was recreated? Nope... because you don't care.

And so... the moral to this story is that if you have a problem, don't expect modders to want to help you unless they have the same problem.

Well your sure fun to hang out with. Here's the general idea here....

MODDING stands for modifying what exists, meaning that we can only change what the developer has given us access to. No modder out there can change the fact that running a modded server sucks... only a patch from the creators can fix it as they are the ones with the source code for the underlying functions that control the functionality of Pure, and Allowing Downloads.

If you want that fixed and are sensible and have read all of the community forums on the topic then you will know who to address your complaint to.

Dont blame the modders or even try to insult them by claiming this is something anyone other than IW can control, because they cant.


Actually, it's kind of funny. I asked a simple question over and over on several forums, and instead of someone trying to figure out why the problem existed (which would lead to the solution), I got the answer that the problem was mine for wanting to run so much on a server. Hmmmmm... did you even look into the problem? Did you even read about how the problem was recreated? Nope... because you don't care.

Of course we care, this is why we,as a community, give as much feedback to the developers as we can. I can tell you for sure that if I read your post right, that modders are telling you that your running too much rubbish and to cut some of it out..... I would say the same. The developer has only provided so much support for mods and it's safe to say that your complaing should be forwarded to them, as us modders only change existing structure of the game on a limited basis.

I found your post amusing, someone who really thinks that modders should be able to take the game and "mod" a fix for all of the shortcomings of the game... well it wont work that way... read some forums right here on this site and you'll get that same answer.

[imported_Eroc]

Well said CP !

Eroc

[Daffy]

During a given 6 hour period when I'm on, I see 6-8 mysterious disconnects by players trying to join. I havent enabled developer logging to check if these are being rejected because of auto-dl (don't know if the reason is even logged). But I dont think Auto-DL has as much to do with Server traffic drops as the other in-game browser issues.

Assuming those mystery drops were from auto-dl not enabled on the server, I can do without those 6-8 players. They represent a small fraction of 240-320 players I get on a 'busy' nite. If they can't discern from the err message that having auto-dl enabled is the prob...boohoo noob. :cry:

I do wish the err message told them explicitly to turn off auto-dl and come back. Only cause I feel sorry for them. :P

[pair]

I run Crow King's CKR and my own (really simple) mod to limit grenades to 1 per spawn.

CKR is freely available from CK's site, and I would have no problem at all with players downloading my grenade "mod."

The problem is purely one of server bandwidth, and my host's policy of disallowing auto-download.

I don't want to allow auto-downloads, since I would rather use the bandwidth for gameplay than to give clients files they don't need and can't use (but which will probably keep them from subsequently joining pure servers which don't run these mods.)

But even if I did want to allow auto-downloads, I can't, since my host forbids it.

The modders and admins on both sides of this issue have valid points, but from my point of view, the problem is simply that the default state of the game after the 1.2 patch is to enable auto-download on clients and to display a confusing and misleading message when a client tries to join a server with server-side-only mods running.

This does not seem like rocket science. It seems like (once again) the patch code made changes with unanticipated results.

There is no question that traffic to our server fell off with the release of the 1.2 patch, and I have had at least one fairly sophisticated player contact me outside the game to ask where he could get the "one-nade" file so he could get onto the server.

He was surprised when I told him all he had to do was turn off auto-download.

It seems to me that the file test ought to come after connection, not before, but clearly, IW felt otherwise (perhaps because it was simpler to code it that way?)

[AADiC]

Your name fits you well.

More important member of the community than you will ever be.