I want to play the game but the downloading drives me insane every time I join a server

Are there any servers I can just join without downloading

Look for ones that say “original maps only” in the title or something to that effect. That said, the more you play the less downloading you’ll need to do as you’ll eventually collect the maps/mods and not need to download them again. I’d stick with it if I were you as the vanilla game can get boring after a while and there’s some great user made content out there.

it depends on the map and the mod being played. If you already have the map and the mop downloaded you won't download.

If you want to not download at all you'll need to limit the servers you play on to stock maps and no mods and that's probably gonna result in a list of eligible servers to play on to basically zero.

As you get more maps you'll download less frequently

Yes, but those servers probably won't have anybody human playing. The majority of the servers that remain populated mostly run custom maps. Some downloads can be avoided with cl_allowdownload 0. Also, if you don't have cl_wwwdownload set up to 1 downloads will be extremely slow. Don't remember if those are the correct settings, but they can be found in options

I don't mind the downloads. It was fun playing this past weekend. I wish more people played.

Downloads should not take too long though..maybe try et legacy client and see if quicker

Your best bet is to pre-download the Maps and put them in your ETMain folder, or dlcache for legacy. That way when you join the server, they’re already there and won’t need to download.

Unless you want the plain vanilla ET with no custom maps and no bots you will be downloading extra pk3 files.

And good luck finding plain vanilla ET servers with any humans on it.

Play the same server - like find one you like and after a few plays you’ll stop having the downloads

They all vote for the same few maps constantly anyhow

Out of curiosity, what servers do most people play on now in days? I jumped on the other day after not playing for years but most of them are dead sadly

https://et.trackbase.net/serverlist/

the red number in parentheses in players column is bot count, the white number is humans

https://et.trackbase.net/stats/
human count stats across servers

Install ET through Steam. It doesn't support mods. But barely anyone plays vanilla servers anymore. You'd be in luck to find a server were real people play, instead of bots.