The perfect amount of Addons

[klavan]

I'm not sure this is the right place to post this question...
However....

As I'm currently editing a campaign, wich will requires a quite considerable (I think) amount of addons to be played, a question came up in my mind often: what's the perfect number of beautifull stuffs should a campaign need, without risking that it would be ignored by potential players for it's load of additional Megs?
This is the list  of the addons (it should be definitive…) that my campaign will need:

BAS 448 RusOPFOR v1.3
JAM2
BAS DeltaRangers v1.55
KegetysEditorAddon
Coc Combat Divers
CWKZodiac
USMC LAV 25
RAD F18
SA-11 Gadfly
USS Nimitz
Mapfact Call Signs

I'm not 100% sure, but all this stuffs should give a total of about 50 Megs…It's too much for a campaign??
What's your opinions and exerienced about this?
Thanks.

[nominesine]

For me it's too much. But it doesn't have to do with megabytes. I simply don't download things that are based on so many addOns (unless it's a mod). Too many addons usually messes up either ofp or the mission itself.

[macguba]

As with so much in life, size doesn't really matter.    With addons, what matters more is

1)  Are the addons good quality, commonly used, easy to find and so on?

The answer here I suspect is yes:   most people have BAS stuff so if you are calculating how much folk will have to download you could almost exclude it from the calculation.    28 and 56kers are not going to touch a campaign like this anyway, (unless they are addon fanatics) so you don't really need to worry about them.

IMHO 50meg is not a problem per se.   nominesine is right, you're as concerned with the number of addons as the total size.     For me, that list would be fine for a campaign.    (I've seen much longer lists for a single mission.)


2)  Are the addons used well?

Nobody likes to download something and then not see much of it.    Don't overuse, but I would say in a campaign you should strongly consider using each addon at least twice.


And don't forget that mission design is fundamentally about having fun mission designing.   Sure its nice to get a good score and lots of downloads, but that's pretty much worthless if you didn't enjoy making the mission in the first place.     Your primary concern is to make the campaign that you want to make:   things like addon size are important, but ultimately secondary.

[klavan]

To macguba

1) this is the first consideration i made when I add an addon in a mission. The list should be explanatory about this...

2)Effectively I'm considering the opportunity to delete a couple of that stuffs for this reason, but mostly depend on how the next mission will come up....

The gameplay/design are the most important things for me too: even only betatesting a mission 50+ times helped me very much in clearing my ideas about this....


To nominesine

This is not a SP mission, but a campaign that will include at least 10 fully playable missions. I agree with you about too many addons in a single mission sometimes have bad result: I don't DL missions with more than 3-4 addons for the same reason...
But for a campaign I think it should be quite different...

[CameronMcDonald]

I usually just use 3-4, and I try to not use them unnecessarily (for example, not using a weapon where it is only used once unless it's pivotal).

I also take size into consideration. If it's too big, and I can't remember where I got it from, I just punt it out. However, if you absolutely NEED an addon in a mission, 'nuff said - just do it.
C"G"McD

[Commando]

yeah i agree with macguba, make links to where to download the addons and maybe some instructions to them also how to install and stuff like that, i meet my piece of people that didn't even know how to install a addon   but hey there is a first thing for everything  

i try to not pass the 15 addons used limit i have put on myself  
i once made a mission with 20 addons and the mission file was 40 mb with scripts n music and stuff and when going to play it in Multiplayer it CTD'ed ofp  ;D  

well anyways i have learned that big addons packs like bas tonal works better than the old winter vehicles and troops packs that had like 10's of pbo files scattered and i suspect that the more pbo files required the bigger risc for lag and other mishaps can occure while playing the mission.

 :gunman:

[XCess]

How about the compromise? Heavy and lite versions, maybe even a medium one.

One version with all addons.
One version with only the most important addons.
One version wiith no addons.

[macguba]

That is appropriate for some missons and not for others.   The Missions Depot is happy in principle to accept different versions of missions with different addons.

Always consider WHY you are making a mission.    If it is for the pleasure of making a mission, then addon requirements are irrelevant.    If it is to offer a fun mission that you hope will be played by lots of people, then the situation is different.