The main reason of all this problem are the wrong installation of the maps and bad IWD files from mappers.
Here the right way to install maps into Frontlines, ModWarfare and any other Mod that follow the ID Tech basic rules. That's how IW says to use custom maps, and this is the right way to setup them...
All the map files must have his own folder and be inside the usermaps folder which is at your COD4 root.
the final structure must be something like this:
[CoD4]\usermaps\mp_yourmapname\mp_YourMap.ff
[CoD4]\usermaps\mp_yourmapname\mp_YourMap_load.ff
[CoD4]\usermaps\mp_yourmapname\mp_YourMap.iwd
and that's all that you need to do aside setup the auto-download at your config file.
follow this link to know how to setup the auto-download
In all the servers that are complaining about problems I don't know why are moving the IWD files from the maps into the Mod's folder, and this is VERY wrong!
This may and will cause many problems into your server/game, how many more maps you have, more problems you will have.
When you load the mod, the game will load EVERYTHING that is inside the Mod's folder, first the mod.ff and then all IWD files in alphabetic order like always was in any Quake Engine.
That's why people put their files starting with "zzzzz" to make sure his files will be loaded in the last and overwrite the previous ones.
In these IWD files are in most cases images, sounds, textures, etc... used by the respective map. And in some cases have some logical stuff too, that only work into this particular map, and of course sometimes mappers put some useless trash into them.
per exemple, if we have 3 maps, and put their IWDs files into the Mod's folder:
map1.iwd (altered images A and B)
map2.iwd (altered images B and C)
map3.iwd (altered images A and with a new logic file)
since this is the order that the files will be loaded, the map2 will overwrite the image B of map1, the map3 will overwrite the image A of map1, and with that new logic file could make all the other maps doesn't work anymore, even the mod could stop to work... but if you have enough luck and the mod still working after that, when you load the map1 he will have the image A from map3 and image B from map2, because they were overwrited by the next IWD files on the folder... so map1.iwd in the end is ignored in this exemple.
This can also cause crashes if these files aren't compatible with some of the maps in the server by several different reasons.
In the end you gonna have a merge of all the IWD files into your Mod's folder, and that's why sometimes a map can work, and sometimes not...
if you add/remove a single new IWD, could make older maps that were working to stop to work... or maps that wasn't work and like magic start to work.
If the map didn't work or having errors messages if you don't put the the IWD file into the Mod's folder?
This means the Mapper did something wrong, probably with the path of the files, adding some stuff not allowed to the IWD, or something worst...
then you should report the mapper to fix this aside to try to fix his error doing another bigger error that may cause the crash of your server sooner or later...
Aside to avoid the problem of crash of your server, configuring the maps in the right way will make the auto-download start ONLY when server load the respective custom map, then the clients will download ONLY the actual map.... when in the wrong way when you connect to the mod the server will think that all the IWD files are part of the Mod, not from different maps, then will download all of them together, even if they are out of rotation, then sending a lot of useless trash to all your clients, and making a mess in their Mod's folder, which may cause future game crashes to him even if he connect later to a server very well configurated.
So in resume there's only 2 rules to follow:
1. Put all the map files into the respective map's folder under usermaps dir
2. NEVER put map IWD files into the mod folder
have fun!
