Feature/Roadblock: Backwards Compatibility

[jitspoe]

sv_minclientbuild.

[ashkenaz]

sv_minclientbuild.

[lekky]

but not with map formats...

[KnacK]

sv_minclientbuild.

That's all fine and dandy but you will still have those server admins that won't do this.

But if you are *fine* with this, and you don't think it will restrain you from advancing the game, then it is ultimately your decision.

[webhead]

i think i'll give a +1 for this.
for any that might be against breaking backward-compatibility, i would draw your attention to the fact that technically, this game is still classified as in ALPHA, the stage of program development where all the serious work gets done, where ideas come and go, and things change - a lot. as such, i don't think breaking bw-cmp is a bad thing.

[KnacK]

Jits,

If backward compatibility were not an issue, could you implement new features or improve existing features?
Or, asked another way, is backward compatibility hindering the advancement of the game?

[jitspoe]

I think it might be more of a hindrance to abruptly remove backward compatibility.  If nobody could connect to new servers with the old clients, the servers wouldn't update, and if the servers aren't updated, nobody will want to use the new client because they can't connect to the old servers.  There would always be rough transitions which would severely decrease the player base.  It would also mean I couldn't test the new client on old servers or update my test servers with the new version as none of the current clients could connect to them.

[webhead]

true, true, and i'm not saying keep compatibility strictly to the latest version only ... i don't think older clients should be disabled just for the sake of doing it... but if advancement of the game would break, say, clients of build 18 or earlier, that might not be something to worry about too much... as they should be more up-to-date than that.

like knack indicates, bw-cmp is only an issue if it impedes development.