New mod updates will be pulled automatically

Till now there was not really I way to update mods. There has always been a system to upload new versions but no way to update them. The update process only happened when u joined a game with a newer version. To make sure that players do not play old outdated versions the client will beginning from the next update pull the newest version when hosting. Updated is only what is currently selected for the game being hosted.

The corresponding change: https://github.com/FAForever/downlords-faf-client/pull/2255

It can be turned off but is on by default.

For modders that means:

• Be aware that if you push new version that should be working because now ppl acctually get to play them.
• If you have a mod that has a huge download size, you should consider bundling changes so you maybe update at most once a month to avoid traffic for users(there is almost no mod that this applies to)

I mean u could make a second mod call it ****-beta . So ppl could use that for beta versions. Not that I think that will be necessary

thank you very much for this change, much appreciated!

Actually I've been wondering about that. Is there any rules on having a prerelease version of a mod present on the vault?

Can this be used to automatically distribute malware?

Not more than you could do in any other map or mod.

All files are just loaded by the game in a structured way. Let's assume somebody packs a malicious exe file into a mod, the client and the game would ignore it and never open it.

@reckless_charger said in New mod updates will be pulled automatically:

Can this be used to automatically distribute malware?

Not possible. All mod/maps are using LUA that is executed from the game engine.
The LUA version available inside the game has no io. or other DISK commands and you can't write anything to the disc or execute someting.
We (developer) can't even save data to a textfile from LUA for debugging reason.

@relentless not aware of one but good question. If there should be one that should be thought over now...

There used to be a mod that claimed to fix lag, but instead it would randomly give cheating buffs to random players so other players report them as cheaters