Well, first of all providing a textfile makes it easier for the users to get additional informations about the map. Authors tend to provide a way to contact them and include additional informations such as known bugs etc. Maybe some of you read the mvdsv-kg.txt I wrote to accompany my little map? I included links to the source for the map, to 24bit textures, credited the creators of the textures and provided my email address to contact me. Is this not useful?

Many mappers include a variation of following text: This level can be distributed in any way, on any medium, so long as the .ZIP file is not altered. The full text file must be included.
What does this mean? It means the mapper would be delighted to have his map distributed and he grants you the permission doing so if you simply keep the ZIP file as it is.

People to used to distribute the plain BSP files nowadays so sadly there is no point asking them to distribute the ZIP files instead. Hell, I doubt most have ever seen the ZIPs of their collected maps. What is possible however is a) an integration of ZIP support into ezQuake (it's already there in some kind I think), b) have the servers allowing download of ZIPs instead of BSPs. Or as an variation, make the clients download mapname.txt when getting mapname.bsp from a server.

I mean, at least the people who are actively working on the map distribution could abide that "rule".

Why I am writing this rant has an easy explanation. After seeing Empezar not wanting to include the text files into nQuake we had a heated discussion in IRC that went ridiculous immediately:



Spirittt: fnu[Empezar]: wtf about not adding the textfiles
Spirittt: have you ever read one of them?
Spirittt: no? you should
fnu[Empezar]: i have
fnu[Empezar]: there's absolutely no point adding them to nquake
Spirittt: there is
fnu[Empezar]: tell me then
Spirittt: how about "Include this text file untouched and give me credit."
fnu[Empezar]: "created using gtkradian. took me 20 hours."
Spirittt: or about "You MAY distribute this BSP, provided you include this file, with
Spirittt: no modifications. You may distribute this file in any electronic
Spirittt: format (BBS, Diskette, CD, etc) as long as you include this file
Spirittt: intact."
fnu[Empezar]: oh, so servers should not allow downloading of bsps
Spirittt: oh, now you are evading
fnu[Empezar]: this is silly
Spirittt: yes, silly not to abide the simple wish of the mappers and include ~10KB of textfiles
fnu[Empezar]: nquake is used to play multiplayer
fnu[Empezar]: it shouldn't
fnu[Empezar]: shareware license forbids it
fnu[Empezar]: should i shut down nquake now?
fnu[Empezar]: simple wish of creators
fnu[Empezar]: they spent tons of hours and money on creating quake
fnu[Empezar]: more so than map makers
fnu[Empezar]: if you want to whine about a thing like this, be consistent
fnu[Empezar]: ask me to shut down nquake
Spirittt: fuck you
burps: don't shut it down unless you are told by "the creators"
Spirittt: should i get the mappers to tell you to include them or what do you want with this stupid "comparison"?
fnu[Empezar]: i'm not shutting anything down
fnu[Empezar]: i could include the text files, and then have nquake remove them after installation
Spirittt: give credit where it is due
Spirittt: what is so hard about including them?
Adde|: or dont include maps
Adde|: and let them dl them
fnu[Empezar]: it's a pain though adde, if they want to start playing against bots
fnu[Empezar]: finding a server where the map is played
Adde|: u can include them in the fb pack
fnu[Empezar]: doesn't matter in what pack i put them, everything gets downloaded
Adde|: well
fnu[Empezar]: Spirittt, if it's about credits, i could write a credits.txt and include that in nquake
Adde|: if u include them in the pak .. then it doesnt really matter .. it is there and it isnt altered
Adde|: but not actually in plain sight
fnu[Empezar]: or just put credits at the bottom of the soon-to-be readme.txt


I can't see any disadvantage in providing text files and thus beg you (everyone) to do it.