a way to batch download all addon content?

[yoshi314]

Hi all, i've recently attempted to download all newgrf's into my openttd installation. as it turns out, it's not very convenient.

first of all, openttd addon manager does not have a multiple selection feature, nor you can select entire category for download. you cannot even select everything for download. you just have to click one by one.

also, bananas.openttd.org doesn't provide category packs for convenient download.

so, i can either select addons one by one in openttd, or download them one by one from bananas.openttd.org (i know it can be scripted, but it's still a bit of work).

is there a way to download all addons or whole category of addons in one archive, for manual installation ?

[planetmaker]

There is no such way.

As server you can exacute the content download command and select 'all available' (check the exact syntax and spelling, I can't remember by heart), but of course also that will only give you those which are indicated by the authors as suitable for that paricular version of OpenTTD.

As client you usually have an idea of what you want to play with and you don't need 90% of the content in terms of NewGRFs and 99% of the overall content (including scenarios and heightmaps). And a "download everything" would generate a lot of totally unneeded traffic. After all you have everything at the fingertips for download whereever you configure it.

[kamnet]

Agreed, you don't want to download all the NewGRFs. It is much better to read through them and learn what each one does and how it works before you download and use it. There are many NewGRFs which will not work well, or at all, with each other and if used together can cause utter chaos, ruin saved games, and make your installation unstable.

NewGRFs are not just a mere add-on or game pack. They can significantly alter the game play and the operation of software.

[Zuu]

There is also no reason to download all for joining multiplayer games. Just click on a server with yellow status in the game. Go click on the NewGRF-button at the right and then look for missing NewGRF through online content. That will let you fetch just those NewGRFs that you does not have but is required to join a server.

If you like to play the nightly OpenTTD versions on Windows and keep up do date on, you might be interested in a stand alone program called OpenTTD Auto Update. It does however not update Bananas NewGRFs for you as that is supported within OpenTTD itself.

[yoshi314]

There is also no reason to download all for joining multiplayer games. Just click on a server with yellow status in the game. Go click on the NewGRF-button at the right and then look for missing NewGRF through online content. That will let you fetch just those NewGRFs that you does not have but is required to join a server.

If you like to play the nightly OpenTTD versions on Windows and keep up do date on, you might be interested in a stand alone program called OpenTTD Auto Update. It does however not update Bananas NewGRFs for you as that is supported within OpenTTD itself.

my intention was mostly that i'm setting up a computer that's going to be working _offline_. so i wanted to fetch all available addons, so that the user has a wide range of addons available (but not enabled by default).

[Eddi]

that's called "wget". the url is http://binaries.openttd.org/bananas

[Zuu]

that's called "wget". the url is http://binaries.openttd.org/bananas

That one seem to only offer the last version of AI Libraries. Thus it will fail for all AIs that require a non-last version of a library. So for AIs and Game Scripts, it is a good idea to use the ingame downloader as it makes sure to get all library dependencies even if they are of a previous version to the last one.