[split] Map discussion

[Apollo{TyD}]

But we should also push out more MediaPack-s ... but for some maps this will be the only sensible form of release.

Well, this idea isn't that new. Back in 2009 - of course after a long discussion - The "official map pack" project has been started. In the corresponding readme file you can found

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This is version 1.0 of the AssaultCube Map-pack. The map-pack provides a place where good maps by the community can be found in one easy download. It's perfect for maps that need some custom content to be played.

After 19 months there is still no release of this map pack available. Therefor a lot of people started to collect maps (with all relavant stuff like textures, sounds etc) and released them to the community for oneself. Also a few mappers started to do a compilation. So this is is already happens.

The described solution in the wiki means to do a lot of re-editing the files and also needs some organisation.

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To get your index-number (the xx bit) please speak to a member of the development team, but you can also just assume the number following the last released one - unless someone else is bundling one in parallel (and get's there first) that number will be correct.

From my POV and experience all this will become again the work of only one dev team member (RK), who will be flooded then with requests of all the mappers. Considering the result of the last project (no offense) I have doubts that we will see such a media pack in the near future.

See - a simple map doesn't bloat our package size in any significant way, even 10 won't. But the issue to watch out for is the requirements a map has on textures, models and other media. Those are the files that have pushed AC from ~20 MB to now ~50 MB .. I know, it's still a puny download-size compared to other games - but we're getting close to having tripled our package size from the humble beginnings, so I hope you see my point that we should carefully consider each addition.

Beside the fact that I have doubts that we have now (2011) the same technical situation regarding internet connection speeds like 4 or 5 years before (and there a lot more signs for that to get) - the main reason why a mapper is often dependent to get his map into the official package is unchanged: AC is still unable to transfer additional stuff like textures, sounds and mapmodels from the server to the client (to see a working example: play UrbanTerror). And that's the true reason why the official package is now that "big".

Well, worse things happen at sea. Years before we haven't have any kind of auto-getmap (is someone else remembering this annoying sendmap/getmap-stuff ?); in the meantime the player gets also a hint that he is playing a different version (nice stuff).

So what would a mediapack change? Not much. The mediapacks have to be installed on the client side (so the packs have be promoted very well). Otherwise you will see wrong textures and some wrong mapmodels flying in the sky again, cause the server is still able to send cgz- and cfg-files only (mediapacks installed on the server doesn't change that fact). So if someone want a smaller official package and a lot of full working new maps a new technical solution is something which should be considered.