Topic: Dave, a civil request about the patch for sfc3 (Read 6811 times)

Rod O'neal · « **on:** February 10, 2003, 10:23:40 pm »

I was reading in one of the other threads on the patch that it is going to be released as one BIG patch for all versions. I'm on dial-up. It would be much more convenient if it was split between the US and other versions so the DL won't be any larger than it has to be. At 10meg/hr I'd really rather not have to DL stuff I don't need, if at all possible

Thanks

Subspace · « **Reply #1 on:** February 10, 2003, 11:04:02 pm »

Bummer sry about your dial up ..... The beta was about 12mb I dont think it will be alot bigger ,,,, but i dont know ..

Rod O'neal · « **Reply #2 on:** February 10, 2003, 11:16:03 pm »

Quote:

Bummer sry about your dial up ..... The beta was about 12mb I dont think it will be alot bigger ,,,, but i dont know ..

Well, if it's 12meg, that's not too bad. It'd still be nice if it were smaller, but an hour or so is do-able. I'm figuring it's gonna be 30+ though, with my luck

Vysander · « **Reply #3 on:** February 10, 2003, 11:30:19 pm »

it's called 'getright' and putting a big ol padlock on every phone in your house

I feel your pain. It would be nice that if it excedes 15 megs, to chop it up into two files to download instead.

Semper · « **Reply #4 on:** February 10, 2003, 11:30:52 pm »

I don't think that it would matter much in size, splitting it up...

The versions ain't, from what I can understand, not that different, other than the language use (and something in the exe-file). Most of the parts fixed, in the patch, are more to the game-engine, than anything else.

I would guess the gain, would not be worth the trouble (read money)

Which all in all, brings me back to the real question ! ! !

Why did they make more than one version of the same bloody game ? ? ?

One US, one UK/Europan and to top it off one German version, if I remember right (anyone know if they made an asian version)...
Not what I would call a good way, to run a business. Doesn't this kinda loose the money part, by doing something like this.

Alexander1701 · « **Reply #5 on:** February 10, 2003, 11:36:36 pm »

I see, we talk like kirk. No, seriously now, grammar asside, that's just wrong. First off, only 2 of those versions are english. That's difficulty there, considering they are repairing single player missions. US and UK version would have to be slightly different, because of spellings. I mean, it was just the best way to provide support at the time, I'm sure.

It's been months. Will a few more days to make the patch good for the rest of the world really ruin it that much for you? Be fair. What if the UK version worked and YOURS didn't? Should you have to not play for 2 weeks online while taldren finishes up, because all the servers will be 1.2? Of course not!

Taldren is doing the fair and equitable thing waiting. Good on them.

Alexander

Pestalence · « **Reply #7 on:** February 11, 2003, 01:25:21 am »

The different versions covers language in the game engine, scripting, the actual game file translations / programming code, different hardware drivers, different keyboard configurations, etc, etc.... it is not that easy to compile all those differences into 1 small patch.... the universal patch (again I state this as a Maybe, not as a definate.. it is just rumored) would most probably be all 3 versions compiled together to be launched and auto detect version and apply appropriate patch.. that would make it 3 times the size of just 1 version of the patch... say just about 15 Mb for a fully compiled patch (including the Borg missions that are being added for the patch) * 3 making it roughly about 45 Mb...

again, this is a maybe not a definate.. but i can see the reasoning for it due to bandwidth, cost of hosting, ease of accessability for everyone (as in not having to hunt for the proper version) etc...

If it was me who had to release a patch, I would do it as a single patch instead of 3 separate ones... Just so I can avoid people across the world asking over and over "where is X version of the patch"...

just my $.02

Subspace · « **Reply #8 on:** February 11, 2003, 07:20:47 am »

oyea i forgot about borg missions it mite be large then

Blitzkrieg · « **Reply #9 on:** February 11, 2003, 08:08:52 am »

Dosnt really matter what size it is to me, I have cable and a good ISP (like anyone cares) So my advice is, get a friend who has braodband to download the patch for you if you have problems. If its still a big problem and sending over MSN or ICQ isnt possible with a large file (ICQ is better as you can resume FTP's) you can get them to use an archive program (zip, rar, ace etc) and have the file truncated into smaller files (called spanning).

In essence you break up files and send them one at a time, if need be. One patch for all is a good idea, no question about that. Also make sure you back up your downloaded patches especialy narrowband folk, use a ZIP disk or burn them onto a cd meaning you dont have to download again!

Hope the 2 suggestions help

Vysander · « **Reply #10 on:** February 11, 2003, 08:50:36 am »

ok ok ok... point of clarification....

When I mean split it into several chunks I don't mean split it up by language.... I mean to just take the complete, overall patch, and chop it into managable portions (like 1 hour downloadable segments on the slowest reasonable connection playing this game). File corruption is a concern when someone picks up the telephone and sometimes the rollback by getright or other programs like it isn't enough.

We shouldn't have to 'find a friend with broadband'. Too many of those microsoft patches released are HUGE things that take me all night to download.... and it's not uncommon in the morning to see that the connection was interrupted or some other failure with the file when it's done.

Blitzkrieg · « **Reply #11 on:** February 11, 2003, 09:27:54 am »

Yes thats what I said, spanning not releasing by language.

You dont have to download via ftp from a friend who spans the file for you, you can leave it runnig over night or somthing. When I first came online I paid by the minute and so had it set on auto cut out. I often left it downloading somthing, when it was finished it disconncted. There are quite a few unlimited plans for dial up connections, not that long ago I used to be on a dreaded AOL dial up connection, yet I still managed to download all the time. I'm sorry that its such a big problem for you (sincear) but before I knew of the internet I used to play games buggy or not out of the box or not at all.

I would be quite happy to host this patch if within my size restrictions on my site and span it into small hdfd sized bits for anyone on 56k.

Vysander · « **Reply #12 on:** February 11, 2003, 09:44:08 am »

have unlimited here, but it's the fear of someone picking up the telephone

I can't tell for sure, but I think call ins also kill my connection

Rod O'neal · « **Reply #13 on:** February 11, 2003, 09:45:50 am »

Well, since I don't see anyone else chiming in with the same concern as me, I guess I'll be doing a 4 to 5 hr. DL

As long as it's resumable, and I'm sure it will be, then it doesn't need to be broken up. I have an SFC3 CDR that's allready been started for "official" releases to back it up to so I only DL things once. When they start counting cattle in the census maybe the DSL providers will consider providing service in Wills Pt. Tx. LOL It's the price you pay for the "peacefull country life".

NCC2012 · « **Reply #14 on:** February 11, 2003, 09:53:03 am »

Either I'll start the download at 1am when I get home from work so no one needs to use the phone, or I'll have a friend of mine download it with his DSL connection.

David Ferrell · « **Reply #16 on:** February 11, 2003, 12:29:44 pm »

Activision is handling the patches.

I would hope they would be of managable size (the beta patch was about 16 megs), but
I haven't seen them yet.

Thanks,

Dave

RHC-Star Dagger · « **Reply #17 on:** February 11, 2003, 01:13:13 pm »

Greetings,

This is a problem that plagues many people in online gaming. Namely the slowness at which you download. You misery will just be beginning with the slow download of the patch. You won't be able to play alot of long or complex games (more than 2 players) without extreme difficulty.
Broadband is usually somewhere around 40-50$ per month, you have to already be paying 20-30$, go the extra 20$ a month and enjoy online gaming as its meant to be with Broadband. Barring that please id your rooms on Gamespy as "Non-broadband" as a courtesy to everyone else.

Thanks in advance,
RHC-Star Dagger

P.S. make sure you get a firewall program AND configure it properly

News:

Topic: Dave, a *civil* request about the patch for sfc3 (Read 6811 times) var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};

Rod O'neal

Subspace

Rod O'neal

Vysander

Semper

Alexander1701

Rod O'neal

Pestalence

Subspace

Blitzkrieg

Vysander

Blitzkrieg

Vysander

Rod O'neal

NCC2012

Pestalence

David Ferrell

RHC-Star Dagger

Subspace

Rod O'neal

Topic: Dave, a civil request about the patch for sfc3 (Read 6811 times)