Need for a more sophisticated version matching for MP mods?

[Kinniken]

Hi guys,

 

This had been discussed in my Millénaire thread in this forum but I want to make it its own thread. This was the discussion so far:

 

I was thinking of expanding that to something a bit more complicated (NetworkMod.checkModMatch(String)), but nobody has shown any interest in this particular aspect.

 

Lex, any chance of that happening? Thinking more about my future update plans I realise that what I really need is asymmetric compatibility - basically, when I add new features such as items or blocks, I can have the new client be backward compatible with older servers, but obviously not the reverse. With the toString() method this can't be done in any way I can think of. My only "solution" would be to keep the strings the same and then do my own check on start-up.

 

Would anyone else feel the need for this? It could of course be made completely optional and backward compatible with the current system just by providing a default implementation of checkModMatch that does the same check as today (that toString() returns the same string on the client and server mods).

[Kinniken]

Well, looks like I'm alone on this...

 

I'm surprised, how do other mod makers with client/server mods manage? Just force all the users of a server to upgrade whenever there's a new version, even a small one? I'm afraid that if I do that it will just annoy people needlessly.

[Zero]

But would people actually be forced to update? Or only when the person hosting updates? If that's the case, then they wouldn't be annoyed at you as much as they would be the host. That, or what you're actually trying to say has completely gone over my head.

 

But I personally feel that nobody who enjoys your mod will be annoyed at you for updating things. Even if it's only slight. If they are, they're clearly not enjoying your mod enough. However, I don't see that being the case. I update pretty much every time you release one. I'm a Millénaire fan. Also, I'm going to be trying out your multiplayer beta with my girlfriend soon. We've been so looking forward to it for a long time. Please keep up the great work.

[nado]

But would people actually be forced to update? Or only when the person hosting updates? If that's the case, then they wouldn't be annoyed at youas much as they would be the host. That, or what you're actually trying to say has completely gone over my head.

 

But I personally feel that nobody who enjoys your mod will be annoyed at you for updating things. Even if it's only slight. If they are, they're clearly not enjoying your mod enough. However, I don't see that being the case. I update pretty much every time you release one. I'm a Millénaire fan. Also, I'm going to be trying out your multiplayer beta with my girlfriend soon. We've been so looking forward to it for a long time. Please keep up the great work.

 

You did misunderstand him a bit

[Kinniken]

But would people actually be forced to update? Or only when the person hosting updates? If that's the case, then they wouldn't be annoyed at youas much as they would be the host.

 

Well, that's true. Though it would still leave players having to make sure they get the precise update required by their servers. If they play on more than one it might not even work.

 

But I personally feel that nobody who enjoys your mod will be annoyed at you for updating things. Even if it's only slight. If they are, they're clearly not enjoying your mod enough. However, I don't see that being the case. I update pretty much every time you release one. I'm a Millénaire fan. Also, I'm going to be trying out your multiplayer beta with my girlfriend soon. We've been so looking forward to it for a long time. Please keep up the great work.

 

Glad you enjoy the mod so much However I feel that with MP I shouldn't assume that every player does so much. There are bound to be users on a given server that do not care much about Millénaire, but need it to play on that specific server. So I want Millénaire not to bother them more than needed.

[OvermindDL1]

Actually what I would do is set up enough components to be used as scaffolding on the client and let the server determine how to mix and match.

Or be super-lazy and just use lua or something to script up new functionality without needing to bump the client to match the server.

Better matching would be useful though.