SoA or any future boxed collections

[Toadie-Odie]

Or better yet, allow us the means to make a back-up hard copy of our game. I know it could be done with the PC, not sure how feasible this would be for console games though.

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

I know it could be done with the PC, not sure how feasible this would be for console games though.

You can't buy burnable discs that have the proper copy-protection keys for the console's lock-outs. Many consoles will flat-out refused to read burned media in gaming mode.

[Toadie-Odie]

You can't buy burnable discs that have the proper copy-protection keys for the console's lock-outs. Many consoles will flat-out refused to read burned media in gaming mode.

Oh that sucks, so that's not a solution at all.

[bungiefanNA]

Discs are evil and shouldn't exist. I can't really understand how anyone likes to torture themselves like that.



That may be ignorance on my part. I wasn't aware (and I'm still not) that limited bandwidth plans still existed in this world. Unless you're playing on your mobile phone, that is, but I doubt it has a disc drive either.

Many Canadian ISPs limit monthly bandwidth usage to 2 GB per month, with overage fees. Most of Alaska doesn't have unlimited usage internet either, and the ISP in the largest city has a 2 GB/month usage plan with $5 per GB over. It only goes down to $1/GB over if you spend about $150 a month on a 22 Mbps connection with a 200 GB/month limit, which you can hit in 22 hours of use. 1 Mbps is the most common speed available here, and that takes me usually 10 hours to patch on a fresh install.

Monthly usage limits are also standard in Europe.

Discs avoid the biggest part of the download of a fresh install, the 10+ GB of data to download. Patching is usually just about 1 GB. Also, discs let you reinstall when you may not have a stable connection, without having to wait a long time for the download to finish so you can start the patch. Storing a disc in ISO file format to quickly reinstall with Daemon-Tools is also a plus.

Heck, less than a year ago in the US, Comcast finally started ignoring their 250 GB/month usage limit, and are now considering reinstating it at 300-600 GB/month. (FYI I use about 300 GB/month on my unlimited 1 Mbps, but that's not available all over my city, much less my state) We are having more and more devices connect to the internet to update themselves (TVs, game consoles, computers, BluRay players, smart printers) and the software they run, and so we are using more bandwidth. Also, services like CrunchyRoll and NetFlix use a lot of bandwidth, especially if you use them as a replacement for broadcast and cable TV, and Skype/Google Voice to replace a land phone.

As far as minimizing reinstall though, you can copy your FFXI folder to an external hard drive, and then when you reinstall from disc, just install the core game and copy the backed up folder over it. You'll have all the expansions, your local data, and all the patches up to when you backed up your game folder. When I get a new friend into the game, I give them an install disc and loan them my external hard drive with my patches applied. They install and copy the folder over and have the game up and running in under an hour. BlueGartr also maintains a Zipped patch thread with much faster download speeds than the SE servers, and you can store the patch files on a flash drive.

[Arcon]

Many Canadian ISPs limit monthly bandwidth usage to 2 GB per month, with overage fees.

A brief comparison of Canadian internet service providers shows 15GB/month to be the absolute lowest of any providers, some even offering unlimited data plans (in their lowest tiers). I don't know where you got that number from. Maybe mobile connections, as those are usually lower.

Monthly usage limits are also standard in Europe.

Personally I know of no European country where that is the case. The UK has several unlimited plans, and others are in a high range. In Scandinavian countries, Germany and some surrounding countries almost no provider imposes a usage limit (I'm not aware of any such plans in Germany, and haven't been any for the last decade or so). What countries in Europe follow that standard?

Discs avoid the biggest part of the download of a fresh install, the 10+ GB of data to download. Patching is usually just about 1 GB.

Not true. Most of the complete install from the original discs needs to be redownloaded with a current install of the game. This would be somewhat remedied with a newer installation on CDs, at least for about a year or so.

[Afania]

A brief comparison of Canadian internet service providers shows 15GB/month to be the absolute lowest of any providers, some even offering unlimited data plans (in their lowest tiers). I don't know where you got that number from. Maybe mobile connections, as those are usually lower.

I'm not 100% sure what's my bandwidth since I'm not the one who pay for it, but just 1 year ago my ISP cut off our internet access because we used too much bandwidth(again, I share internet with like 10 ppl in same house, and slow as fuck with this many ppl sharing internet), and my landlord(who's paying for internet) is unwilling to pay more for better service, it's fact that not everyone is convenient to download 10GB worth of file everytime they install the game.

[oliveira]

Guys, I have an JPN PS2 disc which install the whole game up to ToAU (FFXI ONLINE PACK 2006 SLPM-66393) and it's 2.69 GB of data in it, including the POL client.

Then there's a standalone WoTG expansion disc (SLPM-66894) which adds 1.90 GB. The files in them are not compressed, btw.

We're quite short on files in them, right ? Face it whenever you guys dislike it or not, the installers from the "Collection" versions only have half of the game data and you have NO CHOICE but download the other half of the game from POL using the update function.

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

We're quite short on files in them, right ?

Is there a 1:1 relationship between the size on install media and the size on the HDD? Does the footprint on the HDD increase between installation and the first update?

[oliveira]

Is there a 1:1 relationship between the size on install media and the size on the HDD? Does the footprint on the HDD increase between installation and the first update?

I know that after a clean install the PS2 downloads something around 23000 files... -_-l;

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

Answering my own question, using PS2 discs:

PlayOnline Viewer & Tetra Master: 183 MB
Final Fantasy XI and Rise of the Zilart: 2.66 GB
Chains of Promathia: 2.00 GB
Treasures of Aht Urhgan: 1.45 GB
Wings of the Goddess: 1.69 GB

Vana'diel Collection 2008: 2.95 GB

It's clear that there is a great deal of overlap between the discs. I'll see what the footprint is on the HDD after installation and update on Tuesday, when I get my PS3 back from being serviced.