Installer changes

[Tobi]

Starting at next release we'll drop all mods/games from the installer and distribute solely a bare bones installer featuring Spring and a/some lobby clients and/or other tools, but no maps nor mods/games.

Modders can then build, distribute and market their own installer with whichever content they want, or just dump a .sdz/.sd7 on jobjol.

The motivations for this are mostly organisatorial/technical problems faced with the current installer, in particular LordMatt not having sufficient time anymore to maintain it, occasional problems being caused by incorrectly/not served files, people not checking any checkboxes for content anyway, it being a pain to test/maintain/whatever anyway (compared to small offline installer) and possibly also the fact that some company might start selling OTA again.

I'll see if I can reduce the current installer into some template installer which can be used by modders to build their own custom one.

[Agon]

That is a good idea.
I suggest to include some links to mod/map downloads on the "Download"-page to find the content for players easier.
Also the Linux part should be extended with some packages (rpms and debs) or repository links.
And some tables should be easier to browse than this badly formated text.

[imbaczek]

+0, springdownloader can help with that; except that IMHO some maps should stay.

[Otherside]

imo at least package spring downloader if nothing else the rest seems fine

[Agon]

+0, springdownloader can help with that; except that IMHO some maps should stay.

Starting at next release we'll drop all mods/games from the installer and distribute solely a bare bones installer featuring Spring and a/some lobby clients and/or other tools, but no maps nor mods/games..

SpringDownloader is a tool, right?
It can download the maps/mods and even widgets faster than an install script due multiple downloads at the same time.

What about AIs and the AI interfaces?
Oh and the base content?

[[Krogoth86]]

While I think the idea itself is good I think we shouldn't create the next noobie trap / annoying thing for new players. The way I understood this is that each mod gets its own Spring installer and that's it. Not too bad but imagine a newbie firing up this website and downloading / installing lots of mods (each one in its own directory of course). Apart from having superfluous files that way there'll be annoying stuff like he once again has to update the Lobby client in that folder because that one wasn't updated yet and copy maps to this folder as he just had that map in another directory in the first place. Not talking about engine updates which would make him install all of this once again...

Having a different folder for each mod of course is stupid but it's better to assume that someone who never has heard of Spring will end up this way in the first place. That's why I'd vote for a clean Spring installer which just installs a "blank" Spring engine and then additional mod-installers which read out where Spring's directories are and install their modfile and maps automatically...

That would be more safe & clean and doesn't have this "noobs use the installer" and "pros get the sd7 files and push them into the right directory". Everyone would just download the installer and it's done (well or they use SpringDownloader which is kind of an installer anyway when it's about mods & maps)...

[Hoi]

...

There's no need to do anything else than install the engine if springdownloader and a lobby is included, becaus it'll automaticly download the mod/map when you join a game.

[Auswaschbar]

...

There's no need to do anything else than install the engine if springdownloader and a lobby is included, becaus it'll automaticly download the mod/map when you join a game.

nuff said!

[Noruas]

Kernel Panic as a demo mod please...

[Sheekel]

Kernel Panic as a demo mod please...

+1, and a map for it as well

[Pressure Line]

A map and a mod are needed for TASClient (don't know about SpringLobby) to even start. agreed, include KP and 1 or 2 of the maps so that new players dont get driven away by the fact that they cant even get into the lobby when they dl the engine.

[lurker]

It only needs it with SD off. Which is still a bad idea. Unless satirik removed that annoying thing recently.

[hoijui]

i would also say that this rather needs a fix in TASClient (if it still happens) and not adding a mod and a map by default.
Not to mention that it would be unfair to all the other mods (there are even other small mods aswell).