SoA or any future boxed collections

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

I don't? Quote where I expressed this belief?

Oh, little grasshopper...

Vana'diel Collection 2008: 2.95 GB

If the collection disc is smaller in data size than the original discs, then more data must have to be downloaded through the updater.

Do you know what the capacity of a DVD is(?)

1 side 1 layer DVD-5 is 4.37 GB

Uploads are priced per bit. DVDs are priced per disc, no matter how many or how few bits are on each disc. If you shift bit delivery from uploads to DVD (bits that would have to get from S-E to the player regardless), you reduce the cost of the former with no change in cost of the latter; this is a net cost savings.

Even if DVD bits might have to get overwritten by upload bits at a later date, there is still no cost in including those bits on DVD anyway; at worst it puts off the cost of pushing the new upload bits until a later date (letting S-E do more profitable things with that money in the meantime).

Executive summary:

• Pressing redundant data to otherwise empty DVD = free
• Uploading data = $$$

Now, did you "state" that...

you believe that S-E would both pay to ship DVD's that are (at least) half-empty and pay for the bandwidth to upload thousands of copies of the information that could have been pressed onto said half-empty DVD's?

No, you did not. But did you actually believe it? Either you did or you hadn't gotten there yet. If the collection disc was near capacity you would have had a case, but as it stands now, this is the only possible terminus to your train of thought.

[Alhanelem]

• Pressing redundant data to otherwise empty DVD = free
• Uploading data = $$$

You forgot one thing: Pressing the disc at all = $$$. No, the amount of data on it doesn't impact the actual cost, though technically you are wasting at least small amounts of money by not fully utilizing a disc. However, I can not claim to know if there is a real measureable cost difference in different capacity DVDs/CDs/Blurays. That being said including data on the disc just for the sake of filling it up when people will have to download that data again anyway may be "free", but it's also useless. Even if they press the disc to contain 100% of the game data up to the minute accurate right this second, it will still be out of date as soon as the next patch or hotfxi rolls out. This means they either need to release new discs every several patches just to update the installers (more $$$), or just make everyone download the update data as they always have

Either you did or you hadn't gotten there yet. If the collection disc was near capacity you would have had a case,

You forgot that I agreed and admitted that there is some redundant data amongst the individual expansion discs- There has to be, in case you install the expansions out of order or don't install all of them. But since you're not forced to install everything on the collection CD (unless I'm mistaken? I could be) that redundant data would still need to exist multiple times for each expansion installer, unless they bothered to program the installer scripts to read the same files for each expansion (which wouldn't be hard to do, but you don't know, maybe they're stupid and don't know how to do this?)

I don't know if you think I'm opposed to the original idea of this thread or not, so I'll just spell it out, I'm not. However, I'm a realist and I think hell will freeze over before SE actually does this. All we're really fighting over here is the likely reasons why.

I'm not sure why you're being so agressive and borderline insulting towards me, when I"m not even really against the premise of the thread.

[Teraniku]

Checking my FFXI folder on my PC the game takes up around 11.1GB right now.

[Demon6324236]

I'm not sure why you're being so agressive and borderline insulting towards me, when I"m not even really against the premise of the thread.

Because earlier you seemed to be coming off with an aggressive tone, also, aggressive tones of conversation often gather more attention. If he believes you were ignoring his points, or you were being aggressive, its only natural to become more aggressive yourself in an attempt to be paid attention to and at the same time, show the other person how they were coming across.

I wont act as if I remember the rest of this or how you seemed in the 1st bit of this ongoing debate, however if you were in fact aggressive, then this may be how you seemed to him, in which case it should serve as an example to you of how you should better revise the way someone may read and take in your post. This is mostly just explaining why I think he may have the sort of aggressive tone he has right now. If its right or not I cant say, but it would make sense, and if I remember correctly you do at times seem to come off more aggressive even if you mean to or not.

[Okipuit]

Whenever we release a new all-in-one collection we make sure to include as much of the recent updates as possible. As for installing all the expansions at once, unfortunately because of the way that the data is installed, it's not possible to do at this time.

[Alhanelem]

Whenever we release a new all-in-one collection we make sure to include as much of the recent updates as possible. As for installing all the expansions at once, unfortunately because of the way that the data is installed, it's not possible to do at this time.

I don't know, I can just copy my entire FFXI folder somewhere, delete the game, copy the files back, and re-create the registry keys and it will work just fine. I don't see why you can't have just one installer that goes through all of the expansion's data in sequence without having to do anything in between each one. All you'd have to do is set up the installer script to install the base game, then install the data for one expansion, then the next, etc. Then the added bonus of this is the game only shows up once in add/remove programs.

[Economizer]

Whenever we release a new all-in-one collection we make sure to include as much of the recent updates as possible. As for installing all the expansions at once, unfortunately because of the way that the data is installed, it's not possible to do at this time.

Question: Will the non-collection versions of Seekers have all the expansion data for players needing to reinstall?

This is particularly important for the Xbox version.

[Byrth]

Unless they want to release a 3 DVD set, it probably will not. That is likely what they're avoiding with their 24 hour download/update time.

[Chocobits]

Whenever we release a new all-in-one collection we make sure to include as much of the recent updates as possible. As for installing all the expansions at once, unfortunately because of the way that the data is installed because of the way we package the installers and the monstrously outdated packaging software we are using, it's not possible to do at this time.

Seriously, migrating our FFXI installs to another PC has been popular since 2006. In fact, once I took the time to repackage all of the installers into 1. Here's a hint: each expansion does NOT need to be a separate program. It makes no bearing on how the game runs or with using registration codes for expansions. If we can literally copy paste the FFXI folder and run a batch to register all the dlls and run a simple registry hack to move the entire game, including all of our PUB folders from one machine to another.. Quit packaging each expansion separately. We only need 1 line in our Add/Remove programs. In my case, I don't even HAVE an entry for FFXI in my Add/Remove programs. Game runs hella good. Probably better than a normal install, somehow.

PlayOnline doesn't need a separate installer either..

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

In my case, I don't even HAVE an entry for FFXI in my Add/Remove programs.

Yeah... that's not something a professional software house is going to emulate.