Updates as a separate Download for Windows users...

[wildsprite]

okay this is both a suggestion and a question, why not make FFXI Updates available as a separate download for windows users? it would clear up a lot of congestion and allow people who have multiple PCs to update them on a single download


pardon me if this has been suggested but most MMOs on Windows allow you to download separately or at least save the updates for later use, so why not FFXI as well?

[bungiefanNA]

Someone on BlueGartr has posted how to interrupt the update process so you can keep the files and drop them into another PC to shorten the update process. They've also kept a batch of links to the update files so share with the community.

[Alhanelem]

why not make FFXI Updates available as a separate download for windows users?Because it would be a good idea, and we all know how much SE loves good ideas.

[Mifaco]

Because it would be a good idea, and we all know how much SE loves good ideas.

This will get about as much support as saving the Square-Enix password on POL login instead of having to type it in every single time.

[Juilan]

@Mifaco I'm sure thats enough to rival the population of the entire game.

@OP They did it with ffxi, shouldn't be too hard...

I for one would LOVE both, and on the topic of BG, can't you get the tmp2 or w/e files from a link there as recent as like march or april? Most of the work is already done for them!

[wildsprite]

can we get a community rep to run this idea by the devs please?

[Elexia]

Because it would be a good idea, and we all know how much SE loves good ideas.

Romancing Saga
Secret of Mana
Final Fantasy
Kingdom Hearts
Dragon Quest
The Bouncer
The World Ends With You
Chrono Trigger.

I agree, we do know how much SE loves good ideas.

[sc4500]

It square untill they accept high speed internet on this game then out of luck, there is know way on a pc or xbox it should take a hr to download 200mb when got 50mb download connection this my speed test connection in soul korea since japans not showing up http://www.speedtest.net/result/1956754715.png and this my speed from washington state to los angles http://www.speedtest.net/result/1956761394.png. Until they go global and fiber optic game to a server to the usa were all f out of luck. hope the links work part me want to complain to square on speed other part you'll can see why online game so big in usa or local areas.

[RAIST]

There is a lot that comes into play here, some of which SE doesn't have control over. At best, SE could send the updates as a complete package, or groups of packets instead of all the individual tiny files involved. Because they are being sent as thousands of tiny flat files, it opens the process up to all kinds of issues that can crop up with the individual network segments those packets are running through--SE has no control over what happens once those packets are on the wire.

Having a large pipe on your end has no impact on download speed if someone else is clamping down due to congestion and traffic shaping, or if the source is on a smaller pipe in the first place. This DOES happen a lot over there. I have run benchmarks to other JP servers when experiencing heavy choking from SE, and the speed from those servers will choke down as well (3-6Mb down to 1Mb when SE drops from 2Mb+ down to @500Kb). You can also witness this during Windows Update as well. They are capable of streaming ISO's at a full 10Mb stream, but if you have a lot of small WinUpdates, it can be remarkably slow to download/verify each of them in comparison. FTP a bunch of MP3 files at once, then pack them up as a single ZIP file and send them--you'll be surprised at the difference in the actual transfer rate.

They could provide the download as packed files instead of the flat files, but then they'd have to revamp the whole update process with an unpacker/installer process. IDK if they're ready to undo all that spaghetti code to inject a new update process. They're having a hard enough time keeping it somewhat stable as they pare down POL as is.

Alternatively they could pack all the ROM's into a zip archive and let it be mirrored at their partner sites or (or even put it out as a torrent for that matter--so long as it's not the crappy one they used in 14's early beta)...essentially what the guys do at BG. SE would probably have a laundry list of conerns about that though...the issue of people not properly unpacking the files manually into the proper directory structure, issues with mixed versioning that might even lead to some sort of exploit somewhere... They may even be concerned if they put their files out there openly like that, other legal/monetary concerns could come into play too I guess--user sites could suddenly have their bandwith spike from mirroring patches, and all kinds of issues could crop up like compensation and such.

So, from their perspective, it's probably more attractive for them to continue with the file-by-file verification during the update process. If you have modded a DAT, they may detect it and replace it with their version. It's a way for them to safeguard against inconsistencies I guess....but it injects a lot of lag with all those verifications bouncing back and forth. Ideally, I'd like to see it actually be a patch package that downloads as a single file, launches, and unpacks all the files. Just not holding my breath for SE to get with modern times after 10 years of doing it this way....maybe if they one day actually manage to strip POL completely down?

[wildsprite]

having packed files that could be run to place the files in the correct directories would be best, 7zip allows you to make installers, a script that would search for the correct directory would be possible since all it would need is the correct region's registry entries for that

it would not be as difficult as you make it seem RAIST, its a matter of how lazy the programmers are or are not, after all, it would not take even that much for SE to make a entry so that the update files would go into a directory in your "My Documents" directory and the game would search there and update from there, that would only take a small POL update to make that work



There is a lot that comes into play here, some of which SE doesn't have control over. At best, SE could send the updates as a complete package, or groups of packets instead of all the individual tiny files involved. Because they are being sent as thousands of tiny flat files, it opens the process up to all kinds of issues that can crop up with the individual network segments those packets are running through--SE has no control over what happens once those packets are on the wire.

Having a large pipe on your end has no impact on download speed if someone else is clamping down due to congestion and traffic shaping, or if the source is on a smaller pipe in the first place. This DOES happen a lot over there. I have run benchmarks to other JP servers when experiencing heavy choking from SE, and the speed from those servers will choke down as well (3-6Mb down to 1Mb when SE drops from 2Mb+ down to @500Kb). You can also witness this during Windows Update as well. They are capable of streaming ISO's at a full 10Mb stream, but if you have a lot of small WinUpdates, it can be remarkably slow to download/verify each of them in comparison. FTP a bunch of MP3 files at once, then pack them up as a single ZIP file and send them--you'll be surprised at the difference in the actual transfer rate.

They could provide the download as packed files instead of the flat files, but then they'd have to revamp the whole update process with an unpacker/installer process. IDK if they're ready to undo all that spaghetti code to inject a new update process. They're having a hard enough time keeping it somewhat stable as they pare down POL as is.

Alternatively they could pack all the ROM's into a zip archive and let it be mirrored at their partner sites or (or even put it out as a torrent for that matter--so long as it's not the crappy one they used in 14's early beta)...essentially what the guys do at BG. SE would probably have a laundry list of conerns about that though...the issue of people not properly unpacking the files manually into the proper directory structure, issues with mixed versioning that might even lead to some sort of exploit somewhere... They may even be concerned if they put their files out there openly like that, other legal/monetary concerns could come into play too I guess--user sites could suddenly have their bandwith spike from mirroring patches, and all kinds of issues could crop up like compensation and such.

So, from their perspective, it's probably more attractive for them to continue with the file-by-file verification during the update process. If you have modded a DAT, they may detect it and replace it with their version. It's a way for them to safeguard against inconsistencies I guess....but it injects a lot of lag with all those verifications bouncing back and forth. Ideally, I'd like to see it actually be a patch package that downloads as a single file, launches, and unpacks all the files. Just not holding my breath for SE to get with modern times after 10 years of doing it this way....maybe if they one day actually manage to strip POL completely down?

[RAIST]

having packed files that could be run to place the files in the correct directories would be best, 7zip allows you to make installers, a script that would search for the correct directory would be possible since all it would need is the correct region's registry entries for that

it would not be as difficult as you make it seem RAIST, its a matter of how lazy the programmers are or are not, after all, it would not take even that much for SE to make a entry so that the update files would go into a directory in your "My Documents" directory and the game would search there and update from there, that would only take a small POL update to make that work

Easy for windows yes, but the consoles are a different animal. That is the problem. Hell, I used to embed a simple .BAT file in a standard .zip that would stop webservices, update all the apps, purge the cache, and reload tomcat....made it a standalone .exe with Winzip and pushed it out to our sales team to update the demos. Would take me all of 15 minutes to push out a new series of Java Demos to the whole division that way.

But, they have this thing about keeping certain components consistent across all supported platforms....would expect this would surely be one of them they would insist on because of their limited support options.

[Zumi]

Most mmos including FFXIV use bit torrent to distribute patches and its usually fast since you're downloading from so many people.

All they really would have to do is put it in Playonline program. But I think SE is past the point of reprogramming the POL client to use bit torrent protocol. Due to how old the game is.

[wildsprite]

they really should consider it since they basically made POL viewer a framework with a chat program that allows you to log into FFXI, at least make POL a bit more useful than news most people barely even look at because they already saw it somewhere else, and age should not matter honestly as long as POL still makes them money they should work on ways to make it more efficient