Patches / Splitable client downloads

[Foxtrick]

Hey, to the staff that support L2 in the western world,

As in any I.T primary based business its evident how important Service Delivery is, I realise patches are likely translated by Koreans(?) and perhaps directly sent via post to your offices to download, though possibly via a secure FTP.

My query is, the Lineage 2 client is becoming awfully big compared to the C3 version where it was half its current size.

Though internet connections are getting better and faster these days, I think a portion of people are on a 100-200kb download connection. Which is pretty slow for the now-current file installer size.

So my suggestion is to simply split up the client into atleast 2-3 chunks. Or a minimalist client that will download most of hte game content into the installation folders. Reason being to allow flakey connections or people who don't like leaving their PC overnight a chance of managing getting Lineage II in a more manageable way ?

Ofcourse people can manually chip apart certain folders etc and move a client via USB several times but for the mainstream customer who isn't so aware of download accellators and are happy enough to use the internet explorer 'download' route which is at risk of a connection drop and starting ALL OVER.

Just a suggestion.

[Krissa]

Originally Posted by Foxtrick

Or a minimalist client that will download most of hte game content into the installation folders.

Such client is called LineageII.exe. It's what you run every time when you start the game.

NCsoft's problem is that their network doesn't allow them to deliver the updates fast enough for as many customers as they still have, that's why they put full game copies for download on external sites.

Ah, and it could become even worse when Aion is released.

[Foxtrick]

Originally Posted by Krissa

Such client is called LineageII.exe. It's what you run every time when you start the game.

NCsoft's problem is that their network doesn't allow them to deliver the updates fast enough for as many customers as they still have, that's why they put full game copies for download on external sites.

Ah, and it could become even worse when Aion is released.

If I was a starting player, how would you singularly obtain LineageII.exe without friends currently playing the game? You seemingly have ignored the initial problem, think of the perspective of a genunine new or returning player.

Again from a I.T infrastructure perspective, this is about budget and costs of gigabytes of bandwidth used per day,hence L2 not being used directly as a download host. It's a easy managerial decision to offload the content of to another host that is making its money from advertisements or as a gaming hub itself, such as Gamer's Hell.

Maybe staff should host the L2 executable and pre-requisite files(root folder) or such into a .msi and allow people to download the core files at their leisure ?

[Krissa]

Originally Posted by Foxtrick

If I was a starting player, how would you singularly obtain LineageII.exe without friends currently playing the game?

Without friends playing the game, you can download it from here (the "PTS to Live Conversion" link). However, as a starting player, you aren't expected to do it, because it would be a strain to already slow/lagging L2 resources. Just download the Gracia Final client from the same Gamer's Hell or whatever and start the updates. You won't be able to start running the game faster than that anyway.

[Foxtrick]

Still a large download though. Eventually I'm sure that, the client that is available, will be replaced by a more recent client, stigmatising the problem more so.

[Edge]

Originally Posted by Foxtrick

Still a large download though. Eventually I'm sure that, the client that is available, will be replaced by a more recent client, stigmatising the problem more so.

External sites can break up their files as they think best using any archiver application, nothing NC can do about it really.

If you send them a mail, they may consider it.

[Cabbie]

At first I thought you were talking about the weekly updates, then I realized you were talking about downloading the entire game not patching.

I think this is a good idea since if your only way to get the game to download is from one of the approved sites, it can take a very long time, and if for some reason your internet drops the signal you have to start all over again.

[Krissa]

Originally Posted by Cabbie

and if for some reason your internet drops the signal you have to start all over again.

Nope, you don't have to. If you use a decent web browser or any download manager.

[populus]

many major gaming sites that provide L2 downloads do no support multistreaming and as a result you cannot use download managers to properly resume a download if your connection resets. But try it anyway, I'd suggest Flashget since i've used it since forever

another way is to just bloody copy WoW and use a customized BT client... ofcourse they should leave a download link on their update servers to prevent users who cannot use BT properly (firewalls) to download it

[SneezingTiger]

Do you realize this has to be made in Korea first?
Your only chance of getting anywhere with this suggestion is to learn Korean and talk to the real devs.

[Foxtrick]

Originally Posted by SneezingTiger

Do you realize this has to be made in Korea first?
Your only chance of getting anywhere with this suggestion is to learn Korean and talk to the real devs.

Wrong.

The problem is stemming from ownership of the actual issue. Because the hosting team are no longer as such actively managing the downloading of the game. It has been become self maintaining via 3rd party sites. In other word's, it's not given any thought otherthan it's saving money, and it can continue to save money albeit they should consider splitting the installation files or core files.

Anyone can make an installer package and link to multiple other installer parts. A rudimentary build of this would simply be copying sections of the installed game directories. They may need permission to do so, but something that is meant to help the subscriber base(ie revenue) could only be considered a plus when it costs nothing additionally.

And Krissa, download managers albeit can resume(though can still correct the end stub), are something alot of users/players do not consider as a primary method of getting their game otherthan downloading through the readily and widely available Internet Explorer.

[SneezingTiger]

Originally Posted by Foxtrick

Wrong.

You're talking about a modification of the client to make it run with part of the data instead of needing all of it, right? The client has to work for that, has to know what to do when it needs content that it doesn't have.

and since there is no dev team in NA to do that, it has to be made in Korea.

[Judas]

if there is one thing WoW has done right.. it's their torrent download system which flies reguardless of the connection you've got and it never had given a hint of issue.

[Zerberus]

Originally Posted by populus

another way is to just bloody copy WoW and use a customized BT client... ofcourse they should leave a download link on their update servers to prevent users who cannot use BT properly (firewalls) to download it

Aion Client can be downloaded that way - links to host site plus torrent by ncsoft [Source] .... hopefully we'll get the same thing soon™ for L2

PS: I know that won't happen in a near future ....