Game Engine: Update While Playing?

[Hyncharas]

Due to the nature of many major patches being between 2-8GBs, a number of MMOs have incoporated a feature where you are able to update the game whilst playing, and then restart it once the update has fully downloaded to install those improvements.

With this in mind, I was wondering how other people on the forums would feel about this, and whether it could be a topic of dicussion for the next AGN Squad Beacon?

[MrMak]

So what eaxactly hapenes when you play without installing pap changes new weapons new vehicles etc. I dont see that working at all.

Just imagine what would happen if you played without downloading the update that added Harassers.

[Hyncharas]

A lot of people in the USA have a good connection speed; unfortunately, if you live in the UK, a supposed 8Mb line is capped to a quarter of that in 90% of the country, especially at peak times. For example, at that speed it took Update #9 a total of four hours to download, if not longer. Most of us won't even have fibre optic yet to offset fast downloads for another three years!

I just feel there should be an option available for players who have yet to update their game in response to, say, a double XP weekend, and would prefer download it as they are playing - otherswise they sometimes spend half their day updating due to the size of some patches.

[MrMak]

You still havent answered my question. How the hell are they supose to play without their game being up to date?

Especialy after a big update like the last one. How are they supose to play withpout having the updated map or the stuff ascociated with max abilites or the lattice. And if it were posible to play without that why have clientside updates in the first place?

[Hyncharas]

Originally Posted by MrMak

You still havent answered my question. How the hell are they supose to play without their game being up to date?

Especialy after a big update like the last one. How are they supose to play withpout having the updated map or the stuff ascociated with max abilites or the lattice. And if it were posible to play without that why have clientside updates in the first place?

The way it works is you are receiving the update whilst you're ingame, downlowding it as you play. Then once the download is completed, it would inform you the applciation will now exit and update the game to the latest version, reopening the launcher once the update has been performed.

I really don't understand what your problem is... all I'm suggesting is there will be people out there who are happy to play the game and download the update at the same time, instead of spending a few hours doing something else! If you don't want to do it that way, however, the devs could make it so you simply uncheck an option for it in the Advanced Tools panel.

[MrMak]

and you STILL cant explain how exactly would playing without updated files work. How exactly do you imagine playing without GU9 downloaded?

IT

IS

NOT

POSSIBLE.

[Aiden]

Originally Posted by MrMak

and you STILL cant explain how exactly would playing without updated files work. How exactly do you imagine playing without GU9 downloaded?

IT

IS

NOT

POSSIBLE.

Of course it's possible. There are currently MMOs (WoW) that let you patch while you are playing. Big updates, too--several gigs each.

The way it works is that it downloads the absolutely necessary data first--presumably number changes, interface changes, and the like. After those are done, it lets you log in and play--and it dynamically downloads new stuff as you encounter it. So say a patch adds a new zone on the other end of the continent. It'll download it in the background, slowly, unless you try to fly there, and then it'll download it full speed.

However: WoW didn't get this ability until 4+ years after its release. WoW is a much more graphically simplistic game. WoW can afford to download its low-poly models on the fly.

PS2 is a much more graphically intensive game, and patch-while-playing is not something they can just add in a month. It's almost certainly a pretty big overhaul. Don't expect it to happen.