ok,the whole time ive ever played uo up until a week ago ive always sniped at red skies (awe mod) played base at ax (anarchic mod) played base at 355th undy (awe? mod) our servers includig barb and tf different vehicle paks and since joining the custom maps i now have to re download everytime i go to any of these servers.

just this morning - played red skies had to delete the pak for barb to join took 5 minutes to dl (my comp is fast too) then whent to royal battalion but had to delete the file for red skies and re dl the rb to load base assault.their server crashed so i saw people in 355th and had to delete that file and dl the awe AGAIN, then for kicks i tried to dl our stocks and UNPURE CLIENT AGAIN which means i would have to delete the awe and reload our stocks. i know this is confusing but if i didnt ever have to do in the last year and a half -why now,is there a fix???

Dont delete any maps or mod files in your uo folder, just remove and put them in a new folder that you make and name it whatever and that way you still have the files.

I have maps in my folder that wont let me join the new custom server so i just remove them and put them in a folder where i can get them if i need them. So dont delete files just remove.

This may or may not help but...after being on the new Best Custom server I can't go back to any other server until I restart CODUO. Works every time but had me spooked the first time. Wonder why that is?



-Pain

I'm having crazy issues trying to play the Bet Custom server. It loads the maps then gives me the wrong CD number BS. I've encountered this before and usually get it to work but not this time.....any suggestions? If Barb is going to empty in favor of the new map i'm screwed for playing. PLEASE HELP!!!! By the way i'm on a MAC. Thanks

Shazbot

Shaz when you are joining first go to your UO file and remove the file z_ahz vehicles.pk3 and pull it to your desk top, then start up your game and see if you can get into the Best Custom Map Server. The next time you go to play Barb, just drop it back in your UO folder.

Try that out and see if it works, let us know.

I'm not sure if you guys want to understand how this works, or just the down & dirty on what to do to make it work for you.

When you boot up coduo, what happens is that your game first goes into the Call of Duty folder and executes coduomp.exe (perhaps a bit different on a mac, I don't know anything about this game on a mac). Coduomp.exe tells the game to load some files from the same folder and do some other stuff, and then to go to the /uo folder and load everything that is in it, in alphabetical order, into your computer's memory and basically run it from there.

The pk3's that are in your /uo folder are compressed files containing scripting and pictures that define certain chunks of your game. If it is a map pk3 it will script how the map looks and runs but it could also define vehicles or weapons too, it's a grey area for mappers, how much to mod the game itself from within a map. If it is a mod pk3 it will define weapons, vehicles, and/or could be any or all parts of the game, even a new splash screen for your coduo, and/or music.

The thing is, when your /uo folder is done loading, this is now how your stock game looks, how each aspect is defined, and how it is going to run on your computer.

As you can see, if you have mod pk3's or custom map pk3's in this /uo folder, your coduo could be a very different game than the real stock coduo.

When you go into a server, a bunch of stuff is going to happen. Depending on how that server's punkbuster is configured, it's going to check what it knows as its version of coduo against yours, and how deeply it does this is up to that server's admin's configuration files. It may not care that you have mp_uo_barbarossa.pk3 and the z_azh_vehicles.pk3 in your /uo folder as long as they don't interfere, or it may see them and kick you out for having an unpure client (meaning modded files in your /uo directory). In the latter case, you won't be able to play until you exit your game, remove the offending files from your /uo directory, start up the game, and try to go back into the server again. Lather, rinse, repeat until you get into the server you desire.

If this server uses mods, if the server has been designed correctly, it will download its mods into its own folder inside your Call of Duty folder. For Modern Weapons Custom Maps, if you have played on that server, you will find its files in your Call of Duty folder, in a subfolder called mwcm. If you have played on Best Custom Maps, you will find its files in your Call of Duty folder, in a subfolder called bestcust. The beauty of this is that these servers will not cause you trouble getting into other servers, except that you may have to remove one or more custom maps from your /uo directory when you go to other servers.

If the custom map(s) were never going to change, then the custom map(s) should also be put inside the server's own folder and not into the /uo folder. If I had made the Barbarossa server, the barb map and the vehicle mod and any other custom files it uses, would be in it's own folder but the way it is now, you have to live with removing these things when you go into other servers if they interfere with playing on the other servers, and put them back when you want to play barb again. Same goes for Tuchola Forrest and any other server that's put mod files in the uo directory (same goes for cod2, except it's the Call of Duty2/main directory that you want to stay stock and clean).

So, let's say you go into Best Custom Maps and play. When you come out of that server, or any modded server, you should disconnect from that server, exit your game and then restart your game before going into another server. If you wanted to be squeaky clean about it, you might want to go into your /uo folder and take out all of the custom maps before restarting your game. Your game is going to run the smoothest and cause you the least trouble when your uo directory is completely stock before you boot up your game, always, period, full-stop.

The thing is this, if you play on servers that put their mods in a separate folder under Call of Duty, and that server only runs stock maps, you're probably not going to have much difficulty moving around among servers, because that server will never be putting anything into your uo directory. If you play on servers with custom maps, you are going to have to be aware of what is in your /uo folder and keep it cleaned out, and know that you may have to remove maps and/or mods when travelling among servers running custom maps. Think about what's in your /uo folder too before you complain to an admin about lag or your game running poorly; remember that whatever is in that /uo folder is loaded up into your computer's memory and is what your computer assumes is the stock game of coduo.

And if you go into a server that puts any mods directly into your /uo folder (like Barb and Tuchola do, and both use the same mods so that's why they don't conflict with each other), these servers are going to give you the most grief. Oh, not when you play on them, but when you go to other modded servers, especially with custom maps. You're going to get stuck in a download loop, or get in but be kicked for unpure client, or all sorts of trouble. You will have to remember to remove Barb and Tuchola and the vehicle mod and anything else that's gotten stuck into your /uo directory. You must exit your game (to clear the files out of memory first), remove the offending files, reboot your game, try to get in again.

I've only scratched the surface of this subject. But bottom line is, if you keep your Call of Duty/uo directory stock, you will be fine. For Cod2 players, you need to keep your Activision/Call of Duty2/main directory stock.

Wow! Thanks Steel, tons of info to digest but i think i got it. Let me see if i got it - remove that file that 6Pak (z_ahz vehicles.pk3) to play our custom map then put it back in before i play Tuch and Barb? I'll give it a try. Wouls you recommend trashing all extraneous mods and maps? Even if i can't get it to work i want to thank you/everyone for the help. This truly is a great clan to be a part of.


Shazbot

Yipeeee I'm not a spaz afterall. Thanks people it worked, well at least on my work computer.
Thanks again.

Shazbot

Wow, thanks Steel for making a user friendly version for the complicated tech info that many of us would have never understand. If you write a book, I will definately buy it!!!!
One more question from a tech dummy, how do I know which files should be stock??
T/A6Pak

The easy way to do this is to go get the cod multi-fixer and let it clean your cod directories (for cod, coduo, and cod2) for you. http://callofduty.filefront.com/file/;67336

If you want to clean out the unwanted pk3 files yourself, basically the ones you want to keep are:
localized_english_pakuo00.pk3
localized_english_pakuo01.pk3
localized_english_pakuo03.pk3
pakou00.pk3
pakou01.pk3
pakou02.pk3
pakou03.pk3
pakou04.pk3
pakou05.pk3
pakou06.pk3
pakou07.pk3
uomappack00.pk3 - this came with the 1.51 coduo update but lots of folks delete this because it sometimes conflicts with custom maps.

Now be clear, these are the pk3 files that should be in a stock uo directory. But there are other types of files that are in the uo directory and you should leave them all there unless you know specifically why you want to remove them. For instance version.inf, hunkusage.dat, uo_ui_mp_x86.dll, and etc -- these need to stay right where they are.

See why it's easier to get and use the automatic multi-fixer?!

im getting what your saying steel but wondering ,heres a ss of my uo folder and main . question is ,if i go to play ax ,the anarchic mod has its own file as does aweuo if i play 355th undy-why is it if i snipe at red skies and they are awe all the maps and their pak 3 go into my uo folder? from a tech dumber dummy than 6 ,i hope im atleast making sense.

Like I said above, "If this server uses mods, if the server has been designed correctly, it will download its mods into its own folder inside your Call of Duty folder." The key words here are "DESIGNED CORRECTLY."

Any server that puts its mod files into your uo directory instead of their own upper level folder, is poorly designed and destined to cause you, the player, grief when going to other servers. 'Cause you may have to take their mod files out of your /uo directory before you can play on other servers. Or, you may be able to play on other servers, but get strange game glitches or lag like crap, and etc.

BTW, it may help you make more sense of your files if when you open a folder, go under View and select Details. This will give you a neat listing of your files. Then you can click on the columns and order your directory alphabetically, or by filetype, or by date, etc, all at a click of your mouse. The way you are looking at them, with all those icons, is kinda not intuitively helpful, at least to me.

that makes sense ,and i know its a mess,hehe-thanks for your advice steel.