Downloading the map

[Revan]

Every game I host with friends we have to redownload each others maps, is there a particular reason for this? Sometimes it can take anywhere from 5-10 min for some maps. For saved games I can understand it though the download times on that perplex me.

[tom_mai78101]

My assumption:

1. It's unpredictable for maps to have the same saves across multiple PCs.
2. It's possible maps may be corrupted on the clients' end due to said nature.
3. It's always a good idea to have 1 consistent map shared across multiplayer clients from the host.
4. US network sucks.

[Revan]

Originally posted by tom_mai78101:

My assumption:

1. It's unpredictable for maps to have the same saves across multiple PCs.
2. It's possible maps may be corrupted on the clients' end due to said nature.
3. It's always a good idea to have 1 consistent map shared across multiplayer clients from the host.
4. US network sucks.

Yeah but this doesn't explain having to download the same map that all players have. I'm not talking about saved games, I understand downloading the hosts copy of that, but fresh games redownloading the same map we should all otherwise have seems silly and I can't understand it.

[Uncle Trev]

Yes this is retarded to say the least. We're playing copies of the map that are production copies. These aren't user made maps lol. If there is corruption then the error should be detected easily. That being said they can revalidate but forcing a download over and over is ridiculous. To top it off I don't know what US network you've ever hard or what your experience is based on but I've never had any issues travelling across the web due to a poor network..

[tom_mai78101]

Because your local ISP is much better than ours. But I digress...

What I am assuming, is the maps aren't digitally signed. This means, there's nothing in the map file that the game can quickly check for validation for both clients, without worrying about any differences whatsoever. Note that any slight differences will break multiplayer games, so this validation has to be as perfect as it needs.

And you know how digitally signed maps are. If you tweak the map, even simply opening it, then saving it (changing the modified date), you break the map's validation, and that would needlessly complicate a lot more matters than they already have.

The developers are encouraging players to view the official maps via the in-game World Editor, so they can take inspirations from the official maps, and put the players' twists on their custom creations. (Mentioned in a prior livestream.) So, they don't put validations into the map, which means, simply letting the client download from 1 source will always be "perfect" for validation.

Hence you have to download maps every time.

[Uncle Trev]

Disregarding the topic directly, the networking code is pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥ then. It took 5 minutes between a buddy of mine and myself to download a production map. Mind you were on our local corporate backbone which is gigabit all the way around. Sure as hell was easy to copy down the game from one pc to the other though. Less than 2 minutes. I sure as hell hope the map size isn't larger than the game itself.

[tom_mai78101]

Originally posted by Trev:

Disregarding the topic directly, the networking code is pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥ then. It took 5 minutes between a buddy of mine and myself to download a production map. Mind you were on our local corporate backbone which is gigabit all the way around. Sure as hell was easy to copy down the game from one pc to the other though. Less than 2 minutes. I sure as hell hope the map size isn't larger than the game itself.

Ah yes, the Unity Networking Services... We had lots of complaints about the Unity multiplayer services, and that's not unique to this game. It's part of the development on the Unity forums there.

Hopefully the developers address this.

[Revan]

Originally posted by tom_mai78101:

Because your local ISP is much better than ours. But I digress...

What I am assuming, is the maps aren't digitally signed. This means, there's nothing in the map file that the game can quickly check for validation for both clients, without worrying about any differences whatsoever. Note that any slight differences will break multiplayer games, so this validation has to be as perfect as it needs.

And you know how digitally signed maps are. If you tweak the map, even simply opening it, then saving it (changing the modified date), you break the map's validation, and that would needlessly complicate a lot more matters than they already have.

The developers are encouraging players to view the official maps via the in-game World Editor, so they can take inspirations from the official maps, and put the players' twists on their custom creations. (Mentioned in a prior livestream.) So, they don't put validations into the map, which means, simply letting the client download from 1 source will always be "perfect" for validation.

Hence you have you download maps every time.

There should be no need to redownload default maps if they're displayed as separate of user generated content.

[Uncle Trev]

Apparently Unity causes most of the problems. :P On a side note not being able to validate the production maps or sign them is poor design in itself. I can name a number of games that have solved this classic feature. There is also the other course of action.... finish with a working game before you tackle giving editing privledges to your fan base. :D

[tom_mai78101]

Originally posted by Trev:

Apparently Unity causes most of the problems. :P On a side note not being able to validate the production maps or sign them is poor design in itself. I can name a number of games that have solved this classic feature. There is also the other course of action.... finish with a working game before you tackle giving editing privledges to your fan base. :D

Like I said, they are all assumptions. I have no idea what's going on behind the scenes, so you should take my assumption with a grain of salt.

[Shatojon]

Hey,

This is a known issue. Sorry about that. We're looking into a fix now.