Absurd File Amounts

[Alerith]

Ok, I have been out of the game for a while. Not im heading back in and I need to update the POL viewer. No problem. Took about 5 minutes.

I go into FFXI, and i have 14069 Files to download. @_@

I know this is same old same old. But eventually, wont it get to the point where there will be so many files to download, it will take new players DAYS to dl it all?

On my grandmothers Dialup computer, it took 26 hours.

On my own cable computer, it only took 22.

COME ON SE.

 

[Kire]

thats why you are meant to buy new CDs now and then, so they make more money.

 

[Mokk]

what'd you expect from a game that's running 11gigs or heavier at this point on the client side?

Seriously, SE had absolutely no idea wtf they were doing when they planned this and never thought twice before releasing it.

course there's two groups of people who love that kinda load on their games of choice:

Dataminers
DAT editors

cheers!

 

[Tagrineth]

what'd you expect from a game that's running 11gigs or heavier at this point on the client side?

Seriously, SE had absolutely no idea wtf they were doing when they planned this and never thought twice before releasing it.

course there's two groups of people who love that kinda load on their games of choice:

Dataminers
DAT editors

cheers!

Er... it's nearly impossible to run an MMORPG much smaller.

What, do you think they can fit the entirety of Vana'Diel + Al Zahbi - EVERY SINGLE ZONE, EVERY SINGLE MOB, EVERY SINGLE NPC, ALL THE GEAR, ALL THE DIALOGUE on one CD? Get real!

 

[Bajaratt]

Ok, I have been out of the game for a while. Not im heading back in and I need to update the POL viewer. No problem. Took about 5 minutes.

I go into FFXI, and i have 14069 Files to download. @_@

I know this is same old same old. But eventually, wont it get to the point where there will be so many files to download, it will take new players DAYS to dl it all?

On my grandmothers Dialup computer, it took 26 hours.

On my own cable computer, it only took 22.

COME ON SE.

When they release expansion disks they probably contain some of the updated information on them to lessen the ammount needed to download, which in turn lessens the strain on their servers for updates.

Your connection sucks, get a better one or don't install the game more than once; 22-26 hours is beyond horrible. I reinstalled my copy of FFXI a few days ago. It was 5 hours start to finish, it's not that bad with a decent connection.

 

[Bajaratt]

what'd you expect from a game that's running 11gigs or heavier at this point on the client side?

Seriously, SE had absolutely no idea wtf they were doing when they planned this and never thought twice before releasing it.

course there's two groups of people who love that kinda load on their games of choice:

Dataminers
DAT editors

cheers!

Making the game client-side lowers the amount of loading that you'd have to do when you zone and lessens the ammount of info they have to send to everyone, which lowers the strain on the server. If they made the game mainly server-side then lag would be more than doubled since they'd have to send every single .dat file for every single piece of gear people are wearing. Client-side is much more efficient and works better for everyone.

 

[Mokk]

Er... it's nearly impossible to run an MMORPG much smaller.

What, do you think they can fit the entirety of Vana'Diel + Al Zahbi - EVERY SINGLE ZONE, EVERY SINGLE MOB, EVERY SINGLE NPC, ALL THE GEAR, ALL THE DIALOGUE on one CD? Get real!

Let's take a look real quick....

WoW - 5 gigs

CoH/CoV - 2 gigs

EQ2 - 6 gigs

Guild Wars - 500MB

Eve - 1gig

L2 - 2.2Gigs

i could keep going...

Keep in mind many of these games offer more content not only playable but also nonplayable CSs, audio tracks, etc. Meanwhile they manage remain more stable for play to the client.

Anyone who knows anything about game programming can easily note that the game puts far too much client side and suffers for it. Argue it till your face turns blue, it's a fact.

 

[Mokk]

Making the game client-side lowers the amount of loading that you'd have to do when you zone and lessens the ammount of info they have to send to everyone, which lowers the strain on the server. If they made the game mainly server-side then lag would be more than doubled since they'd have to send every single .dat file for every single piece of gear people are wearing. Client-side is much more efficient and works better for everyone.

lol

ok, in it's current form sure, but it's obvious that they could have gone a more efficient route.

But i'll make sure to think on this some more when the next POL-ZOMG error thread pops up or next time someone comes on bitching about how they disconn every 5 minutes to the carcophony of responses to the tune of "sure, it happens to everyone .. and has since day one"

FFXI is the LAST game that can claim rank on server stability on the market.

 

[Bajaratt]

lol

ok, in it's current form sure, but it's obvious that they could have gone a more efficient route.

But i'll make sure to think on this some more when the next POL-ZOMG error thread pops up or next time someone comes on bitching about how they disconn every 5 minutes to the carcophony of responses to the tune of "sure, it happens to everyone .. and has since day one"

FFXI is the LAST game that can claim rank on server stability on the market.

I'm not saying that FFXI is the most stable game, but if they had to send a lot more information to the players than they currently do the server would be that much more unstable, the lag that much worse.

 

[Mokk]

I'm not saying that FFXI is the most stable game, but if they had to send a lot more information to the players than they currently do the server would be that much more unstable, the lag that much worse.

Which is exactly my point.

Instead of engineering it properly they put it all on the client side for the sake of making a buck. Had they taken the time, or more to the point had this not been their first MMO, they'dve probably gone a different route. Instead they load up your HD with a bunch of useless shit they could have accounted for by not only designing the content properly but having servers that could handle the load in the first place.

What boggles my mind is how it's been out there for so long with all this content on someone's HD and no one's even come close to an emulator.

I forgot to mention to tag earlier; it's not what's on the CD that i was commenting to, it's what stays on your HD. There's tons of other games out there that offer more complex content with less room being taken on your HD that turn around and offer a more stable environment connection-wise as well as content-wise. Had SE taken a couple MMO history lessons they could have saved themselves as well as you folks some serious headaches.

 

[Arctyrael]

I would absolutely LOVE to create an emulator, but please - tell me, where in the world will I get the time to look through 11 gigs of data, re-implement more efficient means of processing, and then release it without SE breaking it.

I think the level of complexity is comparable to Microsoft. Microsoft wants no one to know how Window's works - so they make it incredibly difficult to follow what it does.

 

[Mokk]

I would absolutely LOVE to create an emulator, but please - tell me, where in the world will I get the time to look through 11 gigs of data, re-implement more efficient means of processing, and then release it without SE breaking it.

I think the level of complexity is comparable to Microsoft. Microsoft wants no one to know how Window's works - so they make it incredibly difficult to follow what it does.

A. 11gigs + what's on the server side, you're probably looking somewhere in the ballpark of 25-30gigs total (ack)

B. You can't reimpliment, it's already a done deal, you get it as is when making an emulator for such a thing unless you'd like to make one from the ground up, but that wouldn't be an emulator at all.

C. You don't release it, you keep it and covet it like the precious ... run your own server and only let on a handful of trustable people to go about bashing NMs and whatnot with you ... or tell no one and run about as a GM .. one hit Vrtra till you get bored XD

D. Back engineering a MMO isn't all that hard, it's been done before. I can't imagine FFXI presents too horrible a challenge save the info what comes from the server. Collecting, analyzing, and recompiling incoming packets is teh suck.

 

[Bajaratt]

Where are you getting 11 gigs? My FFXI folder says 7.63 gigs, that's including playonline and all 3 expansions. WoW according to your post is 5 gigs, EQ2 is 6 gigs, and neither of them have an expansion. FFXI started at 4 gigs on my harddrive, and it's almost doubled in size with the 2 expansions released along with periodic updates. When the WoW expansion comes out and maybe the EQ2 expansions(are any even announced yet?) come out, they'll be even bigger, maybe even larger than FFXI is now.

Also, WoW and EQ2 are both apparently lazy and horrible MMO's using the same logic you're applying to FFXI. They are both huge client-side, so obviously they must suck; too bad no one really cares.

 

[Mokk]

Where are you getting 11 gigs? My FFXI folder says 7.63 gigs, that's including playonline and all 3 expansions. WoW according to your post is 5 gigs, EQ2 is 6 gigs, and neither of them have an expansion. FFXI started at 4 gigs on my harddrive, and it's almost doubled in size with the 2 expansions released along with periodic updates. When the WoW expansion comes out and maybe the EQ2 expansions(are any even announced yet?) come out, they'll be even bigger, maybe even larger than FFXI is now.

Also, WoW and EQ2 are both apparently lazy and horrible MMO's using the same logic you're applying to FFXI. They are both huge client-side, so obviously they must suck; too bad no one really cares.

11 gigs was the size i had before uninstalling with CoP, going from memory more than anything. WoW expansion has been announced but not sure on the date. No clue on EQ2, don't play it.

On the the second paragraph's comments. I never said that a large portion of client side stuff makes a game infaticly suck. I was simply stating in my experience FF leeched my hard drive worse than any other game i've played with little to none of the benefits you mentioned earlier, and they could have done quite a bit better both on HD space and stability had they attempted to go a different route or at least poured a little more time in to developement.

As is I'd take WoW's or any other games HD space, which is half that of FF if not more, any day of the week by comparison when considering not everyone has a huge HD and broadband as a developer. That's just my common sense take on it tho, i'm not out to trash one game over another, just simply pointing out something relative to the OP.

The game's friggin huge and doesn't neccessarily need to be so. This could be said about any game on the market really but holds especially true with FF.

 

[Kelyon]

Ok, I have been out of the game for a while. Not im heading back in and I need to update the POL viewer. No problem. Took about 5 minutes.

I go into FFXI, and i have 14069 Files to download. @_@

I know this is same old same old. But eventually, wont it get to the point where there will be so many files to download, it will take new players DAYS to dl it all?

On my grandmothers Dialup computer, it took 26 hours.

On my own cable computer, it only took 22.

COME ON SE.

When i put FF on my 360 it took 2 hours


sucks fo yous

 

[Bajaratt]

11 gigs was the size i had before uninstalling with CoP, going from memory more than anything. WoW expansion has been announced but not sure on the date. No clue on EQ2, don't play it.

On the the second paragraph's comments. I never said that a large portion of client side stuff makes a game infaticly suck. I was simply stating in my experience FF leeched my hard drive worse than any other game i've played with little to none of the benefits you mentioned earlier, and they could have done quite a bit better both on HD space and stability had they attempted to go a different route or at least poured a little more time in to developement.

As is I'd take WoW's or any other games HD space, which is half that of FF if not more, any day of the week by comparison when considering not everyone has a huge HD and broadband as a developer. That's just my common sense take on it tho, i'm not out to trash one game over another, just simply pointing out something relative to the OP.

The game's friggin huge and doesn't neccessarily need to be so. This could be said about any game on the market really but holds especially true with FF.

I don't know how your game is so much larger than mine, but now I can understand where you're coming from. Your game is 50% larger than mine, no idea why but it is. From my perspective though, XI is comperable in size to WoW so I don't see it as that big of a problem.

 

[Mokk]

I don't know how your game is so much larger than mine, but now I can understand where you're coming from. Your game is 50% larger than mine, no idea why but it is. From my perspective though, XI is comperable in size to WoW so I don't see it as that big of a problem.

Only thing i can think of is the windows drive compression thinger, i swear to all things holy that bugger was 11.something gigs before i got rid of it tho -.-

Was a real pisser on a 20gig HD.

 

[Bajaratt]

Well, if you're playing on PS2, did anything even use the hard drive? I could understand the problems with size if you actually need the space but since that was the sole use of the hard drive I don't see as much of a problem with it.

 

[Mokk]

PC onry.

Console MMOs usually spell out teh suck IMO; whether multi-platform or not, PC just gives me more flexibility and usually better performance.

 

[Kelyon]

PC onry.

Console MMOs usually spell out teh suck IMO; whether multi-platform or not, PC just gives me more flexibility and usually better performance.

on my 360 better controls graphix are teh secks 360>PC