Why do players need to repeatedly download the same map every lobby?

Steam Version
In game name: PoppingOff

I host a custom scenario, and every time players join, they have to download the map. Even if they have joined and downloaded the map before and are even subscribed to the map mod.

The download takes about a minute per player, the download must be triggered by the host readying up, and rarely can multiple players in the lobby download at once.

This causes lobbies to take about 5 minutes minimum before a match can be started every time.

Youtube video showing this:https://youtu.be/duV_YlWPen4

And yes, they are downloading the same version of the same map, over and over. Even though they are subscribed to the map mod.

Please fix.

Also the added kicker of the lobby still having a chance to bug and close when launching still exists, see thread: Unranked Lobbies Crash and Players Drop - Encountered Unexpected Error and Lobby Has Been Closed.

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To my understanding, the map is being downloaded from the host so it might help to let someone with a faster upload connection host the game.

I’ve also raised a concern about unnecessary retransmissions of mods here:

Developers, please consider hashing scenario files on both the host and all clients, and only transmit them if there’s a difference.

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If players are going to have to keep downloading the same map over and over, can the maps at least be compressed better, or increase the download speeds?

Having to wait in each lobby for over 5 minutes for each player to load is crazy.

Last week, I checked that a 2MB file (savegame) took approximately a minute to transfer, most likely peer-to-peer over a proxy (just my guess), which translates to roughly 250 kbit per second. That was around 1% of the suspected limiting upload speed. Also, it transfers or uploads the file separately for each download. It would be much faster if it were uploaded temporarily once to the cloud, and heck, even that is mostly unnecessary since the maps are from the workshop. So, I’m really curious why it’s throttling so much. With smart design and proper code, there’s potential for up to a 1000x speed increase. I really wonder what it is doing, or not doing, to be so abysmally slow.

Bump, please fix.

Players subscribed to a mod should not need to repeatedly download the mod they are subscribed to.

That, or dramatically increase the download speed in lobbies.

Thanks.

its not the uplaod speed thats the issue. map size being 1-3 MB at most would take very little time with 2025 connection unless they are still sub 1mbps upload speed.

the issue is the old game code, iirc it checks every bit thats transfered and adds extra time/delay. it is the same reason why save game files taking forever to download even though the same files already exist on player’s computer, they still need to download from host, which is a load of crap

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