PAK rulesets?

[Felderin]

So what is the advantage/purpose for doing a ruleset as a PAK file? Is there any compelling reason to do it? Any specific method for setting it up?

[Doswelk]

Not sure if it's changed, but the main limitation of a pak ruleset was that each person needed a copy of the Pak to be able to play.

The advantage was that each person had a copy so the first connection download did not occur (well other than anything the GM had changed that was not in the PAK).

As I say this was the case before Doug bought FG, and was the reason Digital Adventures did not go this route at the time as each player would have had to had to buy a pak file (technically the GM could share but this then could have been a breach of copyright)

[Griogre]

There would also be some advantages to having a pak ruleset if a ruleset was made so local characters could be made ahead of time on lite versions of FG when not connected to the GM's server. Very few rulesets fully allow lite versions to build local characters, though - its an awful lot of effort for very little benefit.

[StuartW]

In recent FG versions, players no longer need to have the PAK installed to connect to a game: it will be downloaded like a directory-based ruleset. If the ruleset is large, then having it PAK-based willstill speed up first connection times if the player already has it installed. The WoD uses this feature to prevent having to download the ruleset (which, for some reason, is bugged for that ruleset).

Stuart