Installation and Version Update Takes five hours?

[KHFan13SR388]

I finally got the game in the mail aroun 11:18 put it in hit install... its 4:35 and im still waiting! any ideas?

[micke]

This game is so slooooow.
Everything is slow, install, updates/patches, information etc.
Get used to it.
But after some years we will get our patches and content but around that time we will all be playing SE newest mmo.
Anyway welcome to Eorzea.""

[VydarrTyr]

The updater stinks. Every time there's an update, there are threads on the boards about how long it takes to update. The last version update took me 8.5 hours. And since every update apparently includes all previous updates, it's probably only going to get longer.

There are apparently a couple things you can do to improve download times.

1) Port forwarding. Look up some of the updater threads. There are links in there for how to forward your ports, and which ports to forward.

2) uTorrent. Fair warning -- this is apparently against the Terms of Use. But you can apparently download the updates in like 30 minutes, instead of hours and hours. Again, there are posts on how to do this in the "Updater Stinks" threads.

I'm sure SE is aware of the problems with their updater. I believe there have been moderator posts saying they're working to improve it. But beyond that, I'm not aware of any timeframe or suggested improvements. Hopefully they'll come before the next patch, since it's supposed to be huge.

[Xatsh]

The updater vary between people. I had people in my ls download the patch in like 10-15mins, other it took 6+hrs.

Make sure your ports are open if you are behind a router (depending on your router if you do not do this you will take days to download). If that fails try utorrent it.

[Zenaku]

Took me 40mins open your ports can't open your ports? then i guess you have to deal with it too they fix there issue.

[SiruDrawoh]

I agree the updating sucked, but it's nothing compared to what a fresh install has to do for Final Fantasy XI... <shudder>

[Khalus]

2) uTorrent. Fair warning -- this is apparently against the Terms of Use. But you can apparently download the updates in like 30 minutes, instead of hours and hours. Again, there are posts on how to do this in the "Updater Stinks" threads.

How is using uTorrent against the ToU when SE provides everyone with the torrent file and if I'm not mistaken are the ones seeding the file for each new patch to begin with!?



Anyway, I never use SE Downloader because it takes forever, while with the torrent file you can get any patch within 10-30min. {based on your connection}

There is no such "Updater Stinks" thread that I could locate, so here is how you get patches via torrents. {This guide is only for Windows 7, so if you use another ver. the paths of these folders may be different}:

• C:\users\<your PC name here>\My Documents\My Games\Final Fantasy XIV\downloads\ffxiv

There will be two folders in here, each one is in correlation to the type of update of which the patcher will display in red or blue to distinguish them. And inside each of those numbered folders will be a \metainfo & \patch folder.

• Client Update{red} ~ \2d2a390f
• Game Patch{blue} ~ \48eca647

99% of the time its blue and just a game patch, so I'll focus on just that, because the method is the same when its a client update, just different folders where you place the file DL'd via torrent.

When you start FFXIV and there is a patch to DL, check the file name, it'll look like this ~ D2011.06.10.0000 ~ then navigate back to the path as shown above \48eca647\metainfo ~ inside the metainfo folder you'll find torrent files of all the previous patches. The newest patch will be the one at the bottom of the list, the dates make it easy to choose:

• D2010.09.19.0000
• D2010.11.25.0002
• D2010.12.13.0000
• D2011.02.10.0000
• D2011.03.01.0000
• D2011.03.30.0000
• D2011.04.13.0000
• D2011.04.21.0000
• D2011.05.19.0000
• D2011.06.10.0000

You will need a .torrent program, and I highly recommend using uTorrent or Vuze, I have used them both for many years now and they work great. They're not very difficult to setup, though the advanced configuration may take a bit of patience if you're new to the torrent scene. They should still work well enough right after install with minimal tweaks.

After you have a .torrent program running, just double click on the latest patch file, if it doesn't auto detect your .torrent program, it'll ask you to navigate to the .exe to open it, usually found in C:\Program Files (x86). Now I forget what the exact path is for the .torrent save folder, as I've long ago changed mine, but it shouldn't be hard to search your PC and locate where the file is being DL'd too. You can change this path in the settings though.

Be aware, that sometimes you may get an error saying it can't be DL'd with this tracker. Just stop the DL and restart it, or delete it from the program and reopen it. It will pick up within a try or two if you get this error...its rare though.

After the DL is complete, find where the file was DL'd too, then copy or cut it entirely, and then navigate to the path displayed above, but this time go to \48eca647\patch and paste the file in there. You will be prompted to overwrite the existing file since starting the DL previously with the SE patcher, do so. Then restart FFXIV, the patcher should instantly locate the file if you placed it in the correct location and will begin to update the game.

If you have a good connection and this isn't too confusing, you can get patches very quickly and bypass the very horrible SE downloader ~ enjoy! See ya in Patch 1.18...

[VydarrTyr]

Thanks for the info, Khalus. Very nice.

Here's just a small sampling of the threads complaining about the downloader. This is certainly not a complete list. Just the results of a quick search for the word "download":

Slow download, am I the only one?

Does the patcher suck for you all too or is it just me.

Updater still terrible.

SE sort out your updater.

Issues when downloading patches.

Downloading update patches -- Extremely bad.

Patcher -- A few things for SE to consider.

Exceptionally long update times.

Why is the patch update system still broken? (includes dev comment)