General Discussion

[notman]

I'm not sure if requests should be here or in support, but I thought it might be an interesting discussion also.
I've got a bit of a request, that I hope is possible now. Would it be possible to have Tribes2 offer downloadable content? Personally, I'd like to see it available for the modding community, but skins or maps would be another great option. It was the one hope I was having for T:V, since it was built on the UT engine. Unfortunately, it never happened in T:V either.
Anyway, if at a minimum, the server could offer a location to download the files, then direct the game to do so, it would be a great help to mods, like TAC, where custom content is required, and helps make the mod unique.

[Shizuka]

You mean like an autodownloader that grabs any missing clientside resources the server might use? It's on the drawing board, I think, right after the devs hammer out the remaining features.

[thebeaz]

Hi notman! Yeah, it's a heavily requested feature and Thyth does plan to implement it at some point. I agree that it would really help the modding community for this game.

Honestly that single feature could really enhance the Tribes 2 community tremendously. It would make it as easy to get into as modern days games and their modifications.

[notman]

Ok, cool. Glad to hear it's on the list. I knew there were still plenty of other things getting attention now. I just wanted to pile one more thing in there

[mystic_1]

So, what's the consensus about malicious or malformed scripts etc?  If a bad script gets auto-downloaded and auto-installed, might not your T2 install become auto-fubar'd?

mystic_1

[Blakhart]

aye, there's the rub

[Demoncard]

Thyth should be getting paid for all the stuff hes doing.

[thebeaz]

So, what's the consensus about malicious or malformed scripts etc?  If a bad script gets auto-downloaded and auto-installed, might not your T2 install become auto-fubar'd?

mystic_1

He has discussed working out a way to on-the-fly scan the downloaded files for any non-kosher files. Many other games already have this functionality, he just has to allow only certain filetypes to make it through.

[mystic_1]

Sure, that makes sense, but doesn't address the problem if a valid script file that's just poorly coded or contains intentional badness.  You'd want to prompt the user, I think, before simply downloading and installing things, and some means of easily rolling back would be a necessity.

mystic_1

[notman]

I think that would be a given. Even if we could limit it to just downloading maps and skins, I'd be happy. While that still wouldn't eliminate the need to download custom models, it would at least allow people to download new map additions to our mod.
But I do agree that it should involve asking the user if they'd like to download the mod. Even if it's a clean download, it may be bigger than the user wishes to download.

[thebeaz]

notman - Another Torque engine game (Blockland) allows downloading of models and all sorts of information from the server. I don't know what protection is built-in to the downloader or what, but it doesn't appear to be a problem for them. Maybe Thyth would be interested in sending Badspot (coder for that game) an e-mail about it.

*shrug*

[Blakhart]

An update channel needs to be secure for one, and for two I think it's reasonable to include the Dynamix final map pack in all installs. The rest (scripts. maps, etc) should be left up to the client, perhaps selectable via a menu from the autodownloader.

[TheOracle[xXx]]

Thyth should be getting paid for all the stuff hes doing.

Probably so, but I doubt he wants it to appear that he's profiting from the continued life of the Tribes 2 engine. As that would put him in legal hot water, and god only knows there's enough tards already that think installing Tribesnext is against the law.