[Discussion] Alternatives to current server finder system

[ItzSwirlz]

Currently, we check for a specifically crafted input and warp the user to the server based on that. However we could also

a) put it into a yml/json file
b) do a and then use a json downloader and parser

The issue with B is that I've tried doing something similar before; I think I used HttpURLConnection in https://github.com/ItzSwirlz/PitPandaMod/blob/main/src/main/java/com/github/itzswirlz/PitPandaMod/api/APIFetcher.java but it causes the game to basically freeze for some time as it downloads. Also, if GitHub is down then the mod would not work. A local file would be ideal but it is probably easier to just leave it to a switch statement.

[SmylerMC]

I can tell you how Terramap handles map styles, maybe that can give you some ideas.

1. When the game starts, it loads a basic set of backup styles from the jar.
2. It then looks-up the domain name mapstyles.terramap.thesmyler.fr for a TXT record, and if that record exists and is a url redirect, it downloads the file from the said url using Terra++ async http methods and loads styles from there.
3. It then loads a user config file from the config directory.
4. Servers and proxy can latter send additional configurations, but is irrelevant in your case.

[ItzSwirlz]

We use a json file now