There are a number of features which would be great to incorporate into future Launcher updates. Here are some I feel would be useful and some suggestions:
- The holy grail is that when a user subscribes to a mission - associated addons are acquired automagically from either Steam or AH in the background and automatically updated in the Launcher. Active missions - i.e. those that have acquired all necessary mods need to have an active 'green light' condition showing ready to be played.
- Content/Mission submission flags need to be set automagically based on the uploaded content. i.e. mod, addon, single mission, multi-mission/campaign etc. This will prevent content makers abusing the flag system - to get extra hits whilst at the same time messing up the SW category listings. This is an important issue since it devalues the SW since it becomes increasingly more difficult to find the content type users are looking for.
- The Launcher needs to be able to integrate with Armaholic - I know this requires AH to provide additional d/l functionality. Tough nut to crack! Related to point 1.
- Steam WS needs to support multiple files for episodic scenarios. The content creator must therefore be able to add additional entries to the multi-mission list. Or in instances where a single mission has a second episode added the flag needs to be adjusted. (see point 2 and 8).
- Mod compatibility and stability is checked and flagged. Tough but very important issue imo since unstable mods often create significant frame rate / performance degradation issues for Arma3 - contributing to a significant portion of the unfair performance criticism levied at Arma3.
- Expansion menu in Arma3 should imo be used only for official expansions/DLC's thus forcing the use of the Launcher for all non standard content.
- The definition of what constitutes a mod or addon needs to be more clearly differentiated. At present it is unclear what constitutes either resulting in many mission makers checking all flags. See point 2.
- Steam Workshop needs to add a feature to allow content providers to adjust incorrectly set flags - alternatively and a better solution see point 2. Point 2 becomes more essential when one considers SW database re-indexing caused by flag changes.
- The Steam voting system needs to have a mechanism to stop abuse 'down voting' to adjust relative queue position of the SW player's mission. I have noticed that many mission makers down vote competing missions in order to push their submission higher in the SW listing. This is currently causing lag on SW listings. Suggest force users to subscribe to the mission they are voting for and a cool off voting 'period' of 30 mins since the user subscribed to the mission. In reality - a subscriber should not be in a position to vote on a mission until he has downloaded and played it.
- Log spamming is becoming an increasingly important issue particularly with certain mods and resultant significant slow down in Arma3 load times. By default logging needs to be off imo requiring user intervention. See point 5.
- The use of CBA and mod/addon dependencies needs to be addressed.
- Slightly off topic but related in terms of Launcher usage - Arma3 must shut down reliably - after exiting to the launcher. At present Arma3 often stays resident after closing Arma3 and exiting back to the launcher - this may relate to active mods/addons - cannot replicate reliably and I have seen Arma3 stay resident with no mods running. Tickets 0022389 and 0021921
refer.