Server file size issues

[predrag]

Heya .

I recently did a clean reinstall of the game on my pc , and boy was it painful .

Took me over a week to download the 23 GB of server files , which are mostly haks , with the speed being caped at 60kB most of the time .

Not sure if this is a glitch of sorts on my side or intended , but if intended I have to urge this is a firewall against new players that might want to try the server .

I know NWN2 doesn't get many , but a few do appear from time to time .

I love all the nifty stuff we got in the haks but there is a time when one has to wonder the cost of storage and recycle a few unused or rarely used things .

[Rhifox]

There has not been a server update in a long time, due to the split bottlenecking things. Ergo, this patch is larger than usual.

[LivT]

I think it’s not so much the size of the update, but the game files in total for the server. One download or patch can be a lot but installing from scratch is admittedly a massive download for first timers, and if internet is sketchy... makes it a week long effort, like it did for Sane.

I’m not certain what would be the best way to go about decreasing the file sizes; I’d love to empty out a lot of older content that isn’t used but there’s always an issue or other with it. When we cleared out the unused/broken/unpopular hairs for instance, still ended up with backlash problems. There’s likely to be the same problem with faces and outfits.

If there can be a general consensus to empty out some model caches, I’d be glad to spring clean, though.

EDIT: Alternatively... any new outfits or models I media team puts in, we can try overwriting older unused stuff first. Love to make the game prettier but week long downloads aint okay.

[predrag]

I think it’s not so much the size of the update, but the game files in total for the server. One download or patch can be a lot but installing from scratch is admittedly a massive download for first timers, and if internet is sketchy... makes it a week long effort, like it did for Sane.

Yes , this is the issue , maybe my post wasn't clear enough , should have specified a clean full reinstall of all game and server files .

Internet speed is 5MB for me but for some reason the download of server files dropped to a consistent 60kB for most of the week .
It finished this morning as it finally jumped to 600kB per second .

It was a time consuming and frustrating experience which may daunt many along the way that know not the awesomeness of this game world .

[Winterborne]

Are you using the client extender by chance? It helps download speed a huge amount. Took me from a full reinstall taking many hours to about a half hour.

[predrag]

Are you using the client extender by chance? It helps download speed a huge amount. Took me from a full reinstall taking many hours to about a half hour.

Yeah , I always use it .

[Kitunenotsume]

PWs with file-loads larger than the base game are rather common, particularly with content heavy settings like BGTSCC. On other and previous servers, I have been observed that the speed by which NWN2 downloads is often lower and slower than a pure download, due to overhead from interface and validation.

If it would be possible to get a hosted zip of the haks and primary client downloads (mostly the haks since that is the big stuff), players would be able download that without the game running, and often receive either faster speeds, or able to do so where the internet is better and move it over. Hosting to a dropbox or a goodle-drive is often sufficient, and can be made generally accessible.

[LivT]

A hosted zip should be helpful. I know it was much faster for me to install the new patch by getting the files direct from Athorn. Updates should be smaller after that so the hosted zips shouldn’t have to be updated that often.

[predrag]

Even better , a hosted and slightly compressed .rar archive .

If this can be done it'd help a lot , especially during slow download times from the main server .

Though I'd still consider some options to avoid the larger increase in size as more thingies are added .

Up to you all , just had to point out that the issue exists .

If no one else has any suggestions , can consider it resolved for now .