Map Distribution

dredhorse

L1: Registered
Feb 5, 2008
10
0
Hi,

I'm working atm at a faster way to distribute the maps to the server admins, but this is a task which goes far beyond the work one person can master in his spare time.

To give you a general idea how I thought it could work:

1) A central repository for the latest versions of maps, accessible automatically for the main server admins via rsync or semiautomatically by ftp / http via maplists based on category
2) A mailing list which sends out notifications to server admins which participate in the "program"
3) People adopt a specific category of maps... like small maps, big maps etc. They make sure that those maps are always current in the central repository and that the maplist for those maps is also current. If there is an update the make sure that the old map is removed, the new map added and that a mailing is send out to those people wanting the mapcategory
4) Mappers would upload their maps incl. some additional information to a central place with a STRICT naming standard which makes it easy to track versions.

A lot of this is already in place here..

Questions are:

would the mappers take up such an idea?
would the server admins take up such an idea?
would tf2maps take up such an idea?
would we find volunteers to take up the work and support the infrastructure?

I'm happy to supply some infrastructure behind it, incl a tf2 server.

I have atm 1.9 GB BSP files from maps on that server but I can't keep up the work hunting for maps, categorizing them etc.. on my own, plus I don't have the skills which would allow me to automate a lot of the tedious task.

What do you guys think?
 

Dox

L8: Fancy Shmancy Member
Oct 26, 2007
588
62
3) People adopt a specific category of maps... like small maps, big maps etc. They make sure that those maps are always current in the central repository and that the maplist for those maps is also current. If there is an update the make sure that the old map is removed, the new map added and that a mailing is send out to those people wanting the mapcategory
Categorizing maps would be hard, how small does one have to be before its lumped in as a "small", it would also be like categorizing art, its been done but it wont be perfect

4) Mappers would upload their maps incl. some additional information to a central place with a STRICT naming standard which makes it easy to track versions.
Thats going to be a pain in the butt to make mappers who havent heard of us catch on to, it would even be a pain for those of us that are here.
 

drp

aa
Oct 25, 2007
2,273
2,628
i like the idea, but it would be a challenge to implement. would a metamod source plugin work for this?
 
H

Haas

how ae you gonna pay for the bandwith?
You could use a p2p software for it then it is legal for once :)
Also we can shout see we use it for legal purpose :)
 

dredhorse

L1: Registered
Feb 5, 2008
10
0
I have 1 TB bandwith to spare...

and you could loadbalance the load by using dns round robin so that one dns name.. like maps.tf2maps.net would go to several www servers or rsync servers.. plus we would ofcourse bzip the maps

naming standarts are quite simply.. mainly maptype_mapname_releaselevel_number

releaselevel would be a for alpha b for beta etc..

that would allow for a script to probably delete the old version automatically and add the new one.. on the other side that would not be needed if we would have enough people jumping in and being able to access the filestore via ftp for example..

map categorization... somebody adopts the small maps and what he thinks is a small map is a small map... small map would not probably be only size but also amount of players where it plays well..

this would be cool as beetlemod for example allows different voting and mapcylce list based on numbers of players..

my problem is that I can't code the stuff and that I don't have enough time to figure out the maps.. and it is not only categories.. some maps are so unbalanced that they can't really be labeled fit for pub playing....

but leaving this automatic and distribution part aside... even when we would just get some mailing lists running which would announce new versions once a day or so that could help the serveradmins a lot.. I don't have time to hunt down all the maps all the time on fpsbanana, steamforums, here and other places.. load them up integrate them and only than to figure out that the map is unplayable (which is the worst case really) or that I forgot which is the current one as I have a cp_mymap_final and a cp_mymap..
 

Armadillo of Doom

Group Founder, Lover of Pie
aa
Oct 25, 2007
949
1,228
Funny you should bring this up. I just sent a pm to drpepper about bringing down the server for awhile. Fact is that noone uses it, which means drpepper is just wasting his money. Although if we could find an alternative to ftp, it might be better. Right now we're stuck with like 4 maps, no voting, and the timelimit for each is 40min. regardless of # wins. The server needs a restart to implement the initial BeetlesMod I set up, don't think that's happened yet. Point being however, I don't think a server is really doing us much good atm.
 

MacNetron

L5: Dapper Member
Dec 12, 2007
203
47
@dredhorse: You basically want an other website where ppl can upload their maps but with some new/extended features so admins stay up-to-date on new maps and revisited ones.

Not a bad idea, but the "problem" will be point 3. You need to think of some good categories the mapper can select (mapsize, big, medium, small; style: tf2, orange, rat/toysoldier...; class-specific: sniper, ...). That is the most important and making a good list will give you headache :)

And then you need some (web-)admins who can change those after playing, because some ppl just select everything to get lots of exposure.

For the rest, it is just implementing a web-app/site.
 

dredhorse

L1: Registered
Feb 5, 2008
10
0
hi mac... I don't want mappers to select the class.. I want to have the people who adopted a class to put the map into that class.

That would also make it easier on the frontend.. and I think tf2maps would be a good place to start, instead of creating another website.
 

Brandished

L5: Dapper Member
Jan 19, 2008
234
311
What you're suggesting sounds similar to the set-up they use over at anidb.net. Different subject matter, I know, but the site is worth looking into for an example of how this might be implemented.