Comprehensive Undate?

[BadCompany]

I would really appreciate a comprehensive update that covers everything in one file. It's irritating downloading and installing 6 different files to update the game.

Please Devs, I will pay for it if you want me to. Just don't make me download 100 different files just to get the game up to date.

[Imp]

Just a point this is only ever helpful when you first install so just bought the game.
The only other time you do it is putting on another PC so very rare.
If you want multiple installs just patch one & copy it which also carries your user settings over as a bonus.
When a new patch comes out you just apply it as you already have the others.

[BadCompany]

No need to get all defensive, my computer just died(again, argh) and it was annoying having to re-download the patches. Thank God for CD version though.

[S.R. Krol]

I play a lot of old games and since tracking down patches for them can be a PITA I've found that picking up a cheap jump drive and simply dumping all the patches onto that can be helpful for emergencies.

[iCaMpWiThAWP]

Originally Posted by S.R. Krol

I play a lot of old games and since tracking down patches for them can be a PITA I've found that picking up a cheap jump drive and simply dumping all the patches onto that can be helpful for emergencies.

That's what i do, For an even easier way, install the game and patch it in there, so you can take the game everywhere, have backup though, constant reading tends to kill it faster than usual

[reverend]

Comprehensive updates are pretty much the norm nowadays. SP is one of the few games I know that still require the user to manually download all patches and manually check to apply them in the correct order.

[Panzermeyer]

Back in the day, small patches were preferred so that people didn't have to make the full download at 56k every time there was an update. Since SP is such an old game platform, maybe some of that mentality is carrying over.

[reverend]

Yes, well, it's now 2010 and download bandwidth is measured in Mb/s pretty much everywhere...

[DRG]

Anyone who's been playing the game awhile will have patched the game as it's been released and would have ( should have ...) copies tucked away either on a CD or a USB stick

Anyone starting from scratch has, as of the 4.25 release 7 patches to install ranging in size from 1.8 MB up to 17.6 MB for a total of 52 MB.

A consolidation patch that would upgrade the game in one go would be somewhere around 41 MB

For anyone with high speed internet access the difference between a 52mb DL and a 41mb DL is trivial which leaves the only reason for complaining about this that it requires you open 7 files instead of one.

Despite the assertion that "it's now 2010 and download bandwidth is measured in Mb/s pretty much everywhere" This is NOT true everywhere. There are lot's of people who still rely on dialup service and I'm one of them and for me 46.6 kbps is as good as it gets and file transfers are more typically 36.5 kbps making a 40 MB upload a three + hour chore.

I know I am not alone in still having dialup and I have no intention of forcing everyone to DL a 40+MB file when the actual patch might only be a couple of MB just because a tiny handful of people with high speed access may find it inconvenient to have to open more than one patch when they are first setting up the game



Don

[reverend]

Fair enough. I don't keep patches around precisely because bandwidth is cheap.
I was just stating that of all the people I know, I'm among the slowest in having only 3MBit DSL. Even extremely rural areas have high speed access here, not to mention that even mobile internet is currently up to 7 MBit (with a few offers at 14 MBit).

How about at least offering an all-inclusive update to the latest major version (in this case, 4.0) for re-installs?

Even in the world of Shrapnelgames, SP is the ONLY game that requires users to download a bunch of patches instead of a single one.