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Downloader from Hell?
jaubourg
Member Posts: 21
So I decided to give AOC another try and get this new & shiny expansion. I was there when the game opened back in the debacle days, so you can imagine how cautious I may be in re-approaching the game. Yet, I go to my account, buy the extension and get the downloader for the game + the extension (seeing as it is live now, I figured it would save me some time).
I'd like to be polite but, seriously, who's the frakking moron who designed this motherfrakking piece of shit? It's basically a completely ill-configured torrent client that sucks all of your bandwidth while downloading at 60k/s. Let me clarify: you fire the downloader, it starts using all your bandwidth instantly (something like 1.2 - 1.3M/s for me) then decreases just as quickly until it's far below 100k/s. Then it will bump randomly between 10k/s and 150k/s (and when I say randomly, I do mean randomly).
Anybody who toyed around with torrent clients knows the trick here: too much bandwidth given to upload, too many concurrent connections opened. The downloader completely crushes your bandwidth (good luck surfing while having it opened) while downloading at a ridiculously low rate. Oh and, of course, when it comes to tweaking the settings just so you can adapt the downloader to your config, it's a big no-no: no option panel, no sliders, just a pause/resume system and be done with it.
So what now? I have to pause the download whenever I wanna do something on the web (which pretty much means all day long given I work from home) and resume when I sleep (granted I think about it before going to bed). So it's been 4 days I started downloading and I'm at a glorious 37.5%: the only way Funcom could make it more painful to install their game would be if the downloader was sending electric discharge in the mouse everytime you checked your download progress.
Let's be honest: I didn't like AOC when it came out. It was beautiful but completely unbalanced and BO-RING passed Tortage (and BO-RING when entering Tortage IV, "woops I rerolled again", the sequel). It also lacked DX10 support and well, do I need to talk about the bugs? An then, bam, Funcom thought it cool to let the intern make the downloader because, heh, you know what? It's not that important right? Not like it's the very first contact with the game, right? So? Am I to conclude the downloader is a good reflection of the overall software quality I am to expect from the game itself? Because, well, I don't have good memories of AOC software-quality-wise to put it midly.
I had this 3 day week-end... but since I couldn't download the game, I couldn't play it of course.
So I'm pissed, angry, even more anxious about the actual quality of the game and, if I wasn't an old, patient, dog, I would simply have given up approximately 2 days ago. Anyway, since I've been coding for a quarter of a century now, I'll give a little avise to all MMO devs (sorry for upcoming bold caps but it has to get out somehow)...
PROJECT MANAGERS: DO NOT, EVER, GIVE THE TASK OF DEVELOPPING YOUR DOWNLOADER TO A FRESH, OVER-CONFIDENT, YET COMPLETELY INCOMPETENT MORON WHO HASN'T LEARNED ANY SINGLE PIECE OF NETWORKING SOFTWARE NEEDS TO BE STRESS-TESTED WITH AS BROAD A RANGE OF SIMULATED NETWORK CONDITIONS AS POSSIBLE AND THAT ITS BANDWIDTH AND CONNECTION HUNGER NEEDS TO BE CONFIGURABLE (BEING GREEDY IS CLEARLY NOT AN OPTION).
THE DOWLOADER IS THE FIRST CONTACT YOUR CUSTOMERS WILL HAVE WITH YOUR GAME. JUST STOP AND THINK ABOUT IT FOR... I DUNNO... SAY THREE SECONDS, THEN YOU'LL REALIZE YOU NEED A REAL, EXPERIENCED, PROGRAMMER FOR THE TASK.
That being said, maybe someone in this here forum could point me to another download method?
Comments
I wish I could help you out but I'm actually downloading the game now (never tried it before), and I'm fluctuating between 600kB/s to well over 1400 kB/s. Im downloading directly from the AOC site. I'm surprised how much it's fluctuating and how frequently it's doing so, but I'll be done by the time I reach the 6 hour mark.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
I downloaded this weekend as well and had no problems. I did notice that the Return of the Godslayer trial client does not download correctly, so you might want to ensure you are using the correct downloader. Other than that, I'd look into routing issues with your ISP (sounds like that is probably the case).
It is a bit premature of you to instantly flame without a little tech research beforehand. In future, I'd suggest looking into things technically before you throw a tantrum.
I came back for a free trial a little over a month ago, from what i remember the game was 13gb download, and quite certain it took less than 2hrs. No problems for me but I do have 50mb BB. I was watching TopGear on Iplayer at the time, so it didnt seem to eat up all my bandwidth, Maybe it is capped somewhere? I downloaded from the main site. Could it be something to do with location?
Core i5 13600KF, BeQuiet Pure Loop FX 360, 32gb DDR5-6000 XPG, WD SN850 NVMe ,PNY 3090 XLR8, Asus Prime Z790-A, Lian-Li O11 PCMR case (limited ed 1045/2000), 32" LG Ultragear 4k Monitor, Logitech G560 LightSync Sound, Razer Deathadder V2 and Razer Blackwidow V3 Keyboard
I tell yeah..The downloads today with the tech we have should only take a few minutes or how ever your pc can handle it..It feel like were back to way we were years ago called Dial up..
Some people rob you at gun point..Others will rob you at "Ball Point Pen"
Oh, you mean like what I had to do to have proper torrent downloads back when I came in the flat I'm in? That is realizing that for 10K/s upload bandwidth used my ISP was castrating 100k/s from my download bandwidth and that things where getting out of hand with more than a hundred concurrent connections?
You do realize then once I tweaked my torrent client settings, I had no issue at all anymore?
I'm not "throwing a tantrum" because the default config for the downloader is killing my bandwidth. I know my ISP has its specificities (so must have a lot of others). I'm "throwing a tantrum" because:
I can't change / tweak said default settings
I'm a professional developper and I can recognize a Greedy algorithm blind-folded: the downloader takes as much as it can as soon as it can, hoping for the network to auto-regulate his own behaviour (that is capping bandwith and refusing connections). Thing is, if the ISP has some subtle dependencies between upload and download bandwidth (as is the case with mine) then this Greedy approach does not work. This kind of approach is not only extremely lazy (as in, you can code a "downloader" in a matter of hours) but it's also completely wrong when dealing with network resources.
You talk about the "correct downloader". I saw 2 download options in my account page:
AOC
AOC + ROTGS
I assumed it was better to start downloading the game + the extension right away. Was I wrong in this assumption?
Hey there sorry your having issues with the patcher, but it is not like a torrent patcher like WoW's. It is a direct DL. There is no upload. DL speed is reliant on your ISP plan, and the quality of the game server.
As an example an average person should be comfortable on their 3mb plan, patching and using the internet at the same time. If you go and run other tasks such as DL'ing torrents then ofc it will affect your patcher speed. But for regular internet browsing not much so.
There should be an option in the patch part to DL parts of the game first and not whole of the game to begin with.
What is your ISP plan?
Most people spoken to in game have DL'd the whole lot inside 6-7hrs, usually leaving on overnight is the best tip.
What I was using was a downloader that was not the patcher. It was an install that would launch a little "download" window (not the game patcher) and start downloading the whole 15gB experience... with the technical difficulties I mentionned. I'm positive this downloader is pear to pear, not configurable and badly designed.
I'm now getting the game from the base installer (no included extension), so it installed the game and started the patcher right away. I'm currently downloading the first bunch of approx 7gB data (should take 2 to 3 hours to get those in total). No problem at all. Dunno how much I'll have to download next but I'm guessing approx 8gB?
As you can see, this has nothing to do with my ISP plan. The combo downloader (AOC + extension) is a piece of crap that sucks my network bandwidth dry, the main AOC install (extension non-included, downloading through the launcher patching mechanism) works wonders (a nearly constant 1.2mb/s).
The probability that someone returning to the game because of the extension going for the combo installer is high. Too bad the downloader in question is as crappy as it is.
took me almost 3 days to download the client - the torrent as awful as it would suck up all my bandwidth.
Had no choice as I couldn't find my install discs. What happened to just having a small client install that then downloads all the files you need?
i downloaded AoC 3 times via a torrent, went with 1-3mb/ps didn't take long for me :S