Well I've always been positive about Quake 4, but I haven't played a single MP game of it for at least one and a half week, simply because the few times I tried to find a server (using Q4 echelon), all servers I tried I have been unable to connect to mostly because of missing custom pk4 files.
It's just utter bollocks.
Quake 4 online too much of a hassle
Re: Quake 4 online too much of a hassle
LoL it was you defending Q4 against the 'vortex of whinage'.Eraser wrote:Well I've always been positive about Quake 4, but I haven't played a single MP game of it for at least one and a half week, simply because the few times I tried to find a server (using Q4 echelon), all servers I tried I have been unable to connect to mostly because of missing custom pk4 files.
It's just utter bollocks.
Just wait till autodownload is fixed with the next patch.Agreed.. I dont play because every other server i goto is a DM spamfest with to many people, or it has custom content that i cant find.
[size=75][i]I once had a glass of milk.
It curdled, and then I couldn't drink it. So I mixed it with some water, and it was alright again.
I am now sick.
[/i][/size]
[img]http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/3631/171164665735hk8.png[/img]
It curdled, and then I couldn't drink it. So I mixed it with some water, and it was alright again.
I am now sick.
[/i][/size]
[img]http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/3631/171164665735hk8.png[/img]
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Tormentius
- Posts: 4108
- Joined: Sat Dec 14, 2002 8:00 am
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Tormentius
- Posts: 4108
- Joined: Sat Dec 14, 2002 8:00 am
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D'Artagnan
- Posts: 468
- Joined: Sun May 14, 2000 7:00 am
One thing is for sure, this game needs a HUDGE point release...because everybody will stop playing and go back to Q3...
Like i'm starting to do allready...
Like i'm starting to do allready...
[url=http://powerquebec.forumpro.fr/][color=red][b]Fast and furious_[/b][/color]That's what it's all about...[/url][img]http://pages.infinit.net/oldman/rank14.gif[/img]
godlike, whats different is in q4 it doesn't work. 
I hear you eraser. I have only one server I go to regularly so I don't need a browser or anything else that can break. Too bad the browser can't tell you when its got custom maps.
serveradmins can config to send the client to a webaddress to get custom pk4s. But as noted there's lots of crappy servers out there...
I hear you eraser. I have only one server I go to regularly so I don't need a browser or anything else that can break. Too bad the browser can't tell you when its got custom maps.
serveradmins can config to send the client to a webaddress to get custom pk4s. But as noted there's lots of crappy servers out there...
Okay, so it doesn't work but you CAN configure redirect to an URL? Cos if that works.. then it "works", yes? Or does URL redirection (similar to D3) actually not work? Anybody really tried?Hex wrote:godlike, whats different is in q4 it doesn't work.
I hear you eraser. I have only one server I go to regularly so I don't need a browser or anything else that can break. Too bad the browser can't tell you when its got custom maps.
serveradmins can config to send the client to a webaddress to get custom pk4s. But as noted there's lots of crappy servers out there...
I knew it; taking away the quaker's freedom to tweak his config in order to have a more even battle field is SHIT. It means more segregation within the Q4 community - experienced players only playing with experience players and noobs only playing with noobs, because knowledge of Q4 server settings is required in order to setup a decent server. With Q3 it's more straightforward (dunno if it was right after it's release).Eraser wrote:I know but sheesh, it's just so hard finding a decent server. 90% of that is because of crappy server admins
GODLIKE wrote: Or does URL redirection (similar to D3) actually not work? Anybody really tried?
Right it doesn't work. It asks you just like D3 - "you need to download some files" and then you say yes and no files get downloaded. The serveradmin can make it send you to a webpage. eg: it says "the admin has offered a webpage, would you like to go there now?" and when you click yes it closes q4 and opens the webbrowser to that web address, where the admin should post some clickable links to download the pk4s. It doesn't auto download anything in the game engine.
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Tormentius
- Posts: 4108
- Joined: Sat Dec 14, 2002 8:00 am
Wtf are you babbling about. There has always been a difference between a well-tuned and managed server on a good connection and something someone threw together in a few minutes :icon27:.Oeloe wrote:I knew it; taking away the quaker's freedom to tweak his config in order to have a more even battle field is SHIT. It means more segregation within the Q4 community - experienced players only playing with experience players and noobs only playing with noobs, because knowledge of Q4 server settings is required in order to setup a decent server. With Q3 it's more straightforward (dunno if it was right after it's release).
Thx again.. this is actually a more useful response. I wonder if the server admins have been adding Pk4 as a MIME type? The game engine may have certain expectations about how http handles the file transmission... Okay, I'll test this tonight; I'm starting to be interested.Hex wrote:Right it doesn't work. It asks you just like D3 - "you need to download some files" and then you say yes and no files get downloaded. The serveradmin can make it send you to a webpage. eg: it says "the admin has offered a webpage, would you like to go there now?" and when you click yes it closes q4 and opens the webbrowser to that web address, where the admin should post some clickable links to download the pk4s. It doesn't auto download anything in the game engine.GODLIKE wrote: Or does URL redirection (similar to D3) actually not work? Anybody really tried?
I meant that difference is bigger in Q4 because a server with a cheap config doesn't only make the server suck but your client as well (forced client settings). In Q3 that was only the case with bad PB configs.Tormentius wrote:Wtf are you babbling about. There has always been a difference between a well-tuned and managed server on a good connection and something someone threw together in a few minutes :icon27:.
Well, good luck. Let us know if you get anywhere. I and many others have been through it. It's just broke.GODLIKE wrote:test this tonight
the best you can do is to set
set net_serverdownload "1"
that makes the server say something about "server has provided a webpage for downloads.."
then if click yes, the client's browser opens to whatever you set si_serverURL to, as below:
set si_serverURL "www.mhgaming.com"
Cheers!
Okay.. Here's the skinny: Yep, it's broke... kinda.
As Hex (and others) have cited above, there IS a way to make it sorta/kinda work, so that players aren't as frustrated when a server contains custom maps:
These options need to be on the server (I'll use mine as an example, even though no custom maps are running on my server yet.)
// Download settings
set net_serverDownload "1"
set si_serverURL "http://www.kilnet.org/download.html"
This sends users to an HTML page where presumably, they can download the file. This fundamentally works, although users have to quit the game (happens automatically if they click "yes), download the game in a web browser, and save the .pk4 files in their q4base directory manually. Not a lot of work for the seasoned vet, but probably confusing to the l33t newbie.
A BETTER option (if it works, which so far.. I can't make happen) would be for the game to automatically download the pk4 file and save it in the current mod directory (q4base, in this case). Here's what I tried to do:
// Download settings
seta net_clientDownload "1"
set net_serverDownload "2"
set si_serverURL "http://www.kilnet.org/download.html"
set net_serverDlBaseURL "http://www.kilnet.org/"
set net_serverDlTable "q4base/firstmapname.pk4;q4base/secondmapname.pk4"
Note that the first option, (net_serverDownload "2") has been changed from 1 to 2. The "2" means that the server will attempt to transmit the pk4 file to the client via the game itself (should be a good thing).
Now, when I connect to the server with these settings, what actually happens, every single frigging time I tried to make this happen, is that I get a message saying "the download failed or was cancelled." In the console, the following error appears:
WARNING: Unknown String id #str_107214
WARNING: Download failed for http://www.kilnet.org/q4base/mapname.pk3.
So, I decided to drill into this somewhat, and see how this goes.. While I was not able to fix it, I did discover some interesting things:
1) The server definately does PARSE the information in the variable net_serverDlTable. Because, if it's not written correctly, the server will say "Cannot connect to the pure server: no downloads offered."
2) The game client is NOT querying my web service. At all.. There's no point just yet in fretting about directory browsing or MIME types on the web server, because there is literally NO activity in the logs representing an HTTP query from my gaming computer... Which suggests that maybe the OTHER variable is different/flawed/buggy: "net_serverDlBaseURL" is either not being used appropriately, or I'm writing it wrong, or the actual name of this variable has been changed to something else.
Good luck, everybody.. for now, once I have custom maps, I'll be using the "Please go to the web link and download the file" method.
As Hex (and others) have cited above, there IS a way to make it sorta/kinda work, so that players aren't as frustrated when a server contains custom maps:
These options need to be on the server (I'll use mine as an example, even though no custom maps are running on my server yet.)
// Download settings
set net_serverDownload "1"
set si_serverURL "http://www.kilnet.org/download.html"
This sends users to an HTML page where presumably, they can download the file. This fundamentally works, although users have to quit the game (happens automatically if they click "yes), download the game in a web browser, and save the .pk4 files in their q4base directory manually. Not a lot of work for the seasoned vet, but probably confusing to the l33t newbie.
A BETTER option (if it works, which so far.. I can't make happen) would be for the game to automatically download the pk4 file and save it in the current mod directory (q4base, in this case). Here's what I tried to do:
// Download settings
seta net_clientDownload "1"
set net_serverDownload "2"
set si_serverURL "http://www.kilnet.org/download.html"
set net_serverDlBaseURL "http://www.kilnet.org/"
set net_serverDlTable "q4base/firstmapname.pk4;q4base/secondmapname.pk4"
Note that the first option, (net_serverDownload "2") has been changed from 1 to 2. The "2" means that the server will attempt to transmit the pk4 file to the client via the game itself (should be a good thing).
Now, when I connect to the server with these settings, what actually happens, every single frigging time I tried to make this happen, is that I get a message saying "the download failed or was cancelled." In the console, the following error appears:
WARNING: Unknown String id #str_107214
WARNING: Download failed for http://www.kilnet.org/q4base/mapname.pk3.
So, I decided to drill into this somewhat, and see how this goes.. While I was not able to fix it, I did discover some interesting things:
1) The server definately does PARSE the information in the variable net_serverDlTable. Because, if it's not written correctly, the server will say "Cannot connect to the pure server: no downloads offered."
2) The game client is NOT querying my web service. At all.. There's no point just yet in fretting about directory browsing or MIME types on the web server, because there is literally NO activity in the logs representing an HTTP query from my gaming computer... Which suggests that maybe the OTHER variable is different/flawed/buggy: "net_serverDlBaseURL" is either not being used appropriately, or I'm writing it wrong, or the actual name of this variable has been changed to something else.
Good luck, everybody.. for now, once I have custom maps, I'll be using the "Please go to the web link and download the file" method.
Umm, I don't think my problem has anything to do with Quake 4's configurability.Oeloe wrote:I knew it; taking away the quaker's freedom to tweak his config in order to have a more even battle field is SHIT. It means more segregation within the Q4 community - experienced players only playing with experience players and noobs only playing with noobs, because knowledge of Q4 server settings is required in order to setup a decent server. With Q3 it's more straightforward (dunno if it was right after it's release).Eraser wrote:I know but sheesh, it's just so hard finding a decent server. 90% of that is because of crappy server admins
The custom pk4 thing is obviously doesn't function as intented, but when I notice 3/4 of all servers being password protected and empty and at least half of the remaining 1/4 of servers being DM servers with space for 12 - 16 people then I'm fairly certain that server admins don't know what they're doing. A Quake 4 server (with the exception for CTF) should have 8 player slots as a maximum. I actually find anything over 6 players starting to get crowdy.
1) I can't play FFA vs more than 6 players on most Q4 maps, unless you start dragging in the CTF maps.. it IS too crowded. Good DM is 3-5 players, most nights.. Those guys running 16 player servers shouldn't use most of the stock maps; they're too small. And, in most cases.. they haven't calculated bandwidth, etc... so the servers suck.
2) Many server admins for Q4 DO suck.. in fact, I suspect I'm one of them... we need more resources for server admins to share information... then maybe more Q4 servers won't suck.
2) Many server admins for Q4 DO suck.. in fact, I suspect I'm one of them... we need more resources for server admins to share information... then maybe more Q4 servers won't suck.