[REQ] A way to play/upload custom maps not on the server

[aardappel]

I understand that such a feature could be problematic with players uploading random crap and/or even a "security problem".

That said, this is a tiny community and most uses of such a feature would be beneficial.

Ways in which maybe "uploading random crap" can be mitigated:

• Maps not votable/completable/listable by standard map command, need special command or mode.
• Only map uploads by authenticated users, shows user that uploaded on map vote/load.
  • Max N maps uploaded per day per user.
• Uploaded maps cleared after 24 hrs, or some other mechanism to clear cruft if any.
• Some kind of "map verifier" that checks data is not going to crash server/clients before accepting. That sounds like a lot of work but may be nice to have anyway.

I am guessing this would need a corresponding feature in ezquake since it may not already know how to upload maps (@meag). But since it is likely more contentious on the ktx side, I'm starting here :)

[aardappel]

An alternative feature would be for ktx servers to be able to pull lesser known maps from a central server that has a massive map collection, with an easy way for community members to add new maps there. That would reduce the amount the server needs to trust the new map, but more complicated in other ways.

[ciscon]

as a recap of previous conversations:
having servers pull from maps.qw.nu if requested by clients would probably be the safest option, assuming the admin enables that feature, as it could be assumed that there has been some sort of sanity check on the map before it made its way there.

[tcsabina]

Hoi aardappel!

I personally don't really see the added value of this. There are like 3-5 new maps per year that needs to be uploaded to servers, so what do we really want to solve here?

Additionally, I like that the current way of doing it requires interaction between the community members. A map developer has to contact a server admin for the testing of a new map. And I like that they need to interact!
Indeed this is a small community, so let's have people talk to each other!

I agree that at least the map sync from the central repository should be automated in some way. I guess some server admins have some sort of script to do it, but in any case, a new cronjob for the nquakesv package would be my preferred direction, instead of a feature in KTX.

So don't have too high hopes for this ;).
Of course I won't close the ticket, because if there is someone who comes up with a relatively clean PR, we can merge it, but for me this is very low priority, at least for now.

[aardappel]

@tcsabina

There are like 3-5 new maps per year that needs to be uploaded to servers

That is certainly not my perspective. We want to try out new maps fairly often. We want to sometimes test versions of maps before they're "final".

On top of that, in NA at least, pings are so high that choice of server comes before choice of map, and plenty of servers that have the same old basic set of maps from many years ago, even though there's maps that are on plenty of other servers (and even appear in tourneys) that are not on there.

Any way to add new maps to a centralized place that would automatically percolate to all servers would certainly be a big improvement over the current situation, though it would not help with the "trying/testing new maps" scenario.

[dsvensson]

I can see cutting the delay, together with mainstreaming version suffix after 1.0 release of map (mymap_v42), lead to the living maps other games enjoy where the mapper continues to evolve the map over time. Doesn't require that many mappers and that frequent releases for something like that to become a pain point. Would however hurt the map alias list at some point unless some filtering is added, or ofc some proper way of versioning as per previous discussions.