Does it normally take forever to load a server?

[Alecdude]

I'm joining one, and it's been at downloading for about 13 minutes. Is this normal?

[Ad Bot]

[Falcondude]

You obviously don't have the add-ons, and there are a lot of them. It'll probably load faster next time.

[Alecdude]

That makes sense. So, it's like a 'run more - faster load' situation?

[Antallion]

More of a run - more - you then have the same add-ons situation. Also, try tuning off download music so you dont have to download ogg files, they usually take a while.

[Falcondude]

When you join a server, you have to download all the add-on models, etc. If you already have them, you won't have to worry about downloading them.

Also if it's some map like NYC then you can throw another half hour in there: maps can be pretty big downloads sometimes.