I notice that almost every time a custom map is on a server, its population drops dramatically. This seems to happen even on good custom maps. Why?
dunno why. first u think something like "omg, all have to dl ..." but most of them simply leave the sever.
Happens in every single game, half of those that leave are "I can't be bothered to download" and the other half are "I don't want to play a crappy custom".
It is sometimes misleading when a custom map starts and theres only a few people on each team. Most peolpe dont mind actually waiting a couple of mins to get a new map, a lost of the time it seems the server has emptied when really people are downloading/quit to google a download so they can get back in the game. Ive noticed that even though games on custom maps start slow the server soon fills back up to almost the same population it had before the map changed.
There is also the times when your map doesn't match the servers maps. I get that at times. I also don't like smokies. It's a hard map to get used to, and I don't want to get used to it.
Ewwwww Smokies... So many places where infantry shouldn't be able to go, easy ot get lost in, worst minimap ever. It's horrible.
Crap programming. Counterstrike you only have to suffer thru the download once. Empires you have to download it a billion freaking times.
LOL. Downloads are handled by the source engine, and has nothing to do with the mod code or Countersuck. When you "download it a billion freaking times" you aren't really downloading anything. You are trying to download a file that the map uses, and so it appears on the loading screen, but the download server wont give it to you for one reason or another. Typically this happens with the node graph files. Other than making server operaters fix their problems, you can fix it by running each map on a listen server to generate the node graph files. In reality, those files that you can't download don't slow you down at all. The game just doesn't update the loading status until it gets to "Sending client info"
wrong. Both of you. You know on regular maps, or in CSS on maps you already have... You know that "recieving server info" part? ever wonder why it takes fucking forever to recieve server info the first time you connect to a server / loading a custom map in empires? Its actually because valve is too fucking lazy to report what is going on. Once you've recieved the "server info", you then have to load all the game programming and resources into memory, and build the world. That takes time. But since it has nothing to do with the networking going on, valve decides its not worth reporting to the user. That "Recieving Server info" is not even reported when you check consistency of downloaded files on your custom empires maps with the server. why? Because thats exactly what you are doing. Valve assumes you have a brain, and when it looks like youa re downloading, what it actually does before it downloads is check to see if you have the file, and if so, skips the download. So you are receiving the "server info" about the files in use by that map, and checking to see if you have those files (downloading if you dont). Again, once you check all the files, then you have to load them into memory and get ready to play before you send client info. SO NEXT TIME, BEFORE YOU BLAME THE SERVER OR THE MOD, BLAME VALVE NOOB! However, empires still got something wrong in the mod, at least relative to CSS. Empires regular maps, seem to only need to spend all that time loading resources and building the world the first time you open the game and connect to a server. Then all the maps afterwards load pretty easy. Whereas with custom maps, empires seems to want to reload every resource and rebuild everything from scratch like you just started the game (and this takes longer on custom maps which are probably more fancy, less optimized and larger than regular maps). Empires needs to fix this, and then custom maps will be fine. I KNOW its not the download time, I have bzipped all map files on the training server FTP and my FTP can handle transfers up to 5 mb/sec (practical, I'm talking I've actually gotten that rate of transfer from a network in california that had that fast a connection, and thats halfway across the country).
You're feedback is highly important. Good thing you took the time to talk about these issues on the right part of the forum. In reality, if you don't even put the bare minimum to put feedback in the correct mappings thread, don't whine about it in other areas. That being said, yeah issues are known about. Almostttt finished RC2. (Metal Smith, I am also looking at you.)
What, you think I didn't know that? Thats why the message stays on "downloading somemap.ain" for so long, because valve didn't update the message during content loading. Hell I'll quote myself. "The game just doesn't update the loading status until it gets to Sending client info" What the FUCK are you going on about? That has nothing to do our comments. He is under the impression that the map has to re-download every time it comes up. I'm telling him about what he is really seeing (the node graph file) and how it is not affecting the load time in any significant manner. I think YOU are under the false impression that each file that is checked appears on the loading screen, when they do NOT. Only files that the client tries to obtain from a server will show up on the loading screen. If the client is unable to retrieve a file, then it will keep showing up every time that map loads again, till the client finally gets the file. These failed attempts to get the files will not slow the client down for more than 1 frame per download attempt. When a fast download server is used, there are 2 attempts per file. Again, what are you going on about? That is irrelevant to my comment. I never once mentioned the training server specifically. Seriously, did you even READ our posts?
I think another reason why people dont want custom maps is because you have to learn the maps to be good. Empires is not deathmatch where you can run around and kill stuff from start. You need to know what to do from the very first second and if its a new map its rather improbably to make stuff right.
IIRC, the CSS beta updated the info during connection, so VALVe must've had a good reason for disabling the continuous update system, such as bandwidth usage, useless CPU cycles, etc.
This is why I say the devs should release a quick 'new official map' pack release (call is Empires 2.13 with the only change being the new maps). There are plenty of good custom maps out there to choose from.
I would rather play some of the customs then some of the crappy officials(badlands, money, urban chaos). Silk has some good maps and shadows is fun..
