Istaria - Files and Directories

[Aaelefein]

First I noticed it when I copied the initial directory for dual log-ins. Then after this weeks patch and an inordinate number of crashes it got me to wondering...

The patcher checks just over 39,000 files for patching yet when I checked the two directories I found this:
Istaria 1: 4.55GB - 93,778 Files - 7,191 Folders
Istaria 2: 4.60GB - 97,079 Files - 7,269 Folders

Maybe it is just me, but this seems excessive in the extreme and last week I had both launchers do a world cache clean and yet, more so since the patch, I seem to be downloading even more information when porting/recalling - even to frequently visited locations. (Also couldn't help notice that both instances were using over 1.5gb of system resources according to task manager)

What can be 'cleaned'? And is there a download for each alt or are the files shared regardless of which alt is logged in (prefs not withstanding)?

[Guaran]

As the worldcache loads, the file count will go up. This is normal, and I do not recommend frequent world cache clearing. It should be very rare that something happens which requires a world cache clearing.

A few years back I believe there was an initiative to package the world cache files in zip files, which would reduce the overall number of files, but I do not believe it ever happened.

Also, the prefs files add to this count. So the more characters you have, the higher it will go. Screenshots also add to these counts.

My game folder is 5,493,457,179 bytes, 182,219 files, 6,293 folders.

If I skip, prefs, screenshots, and logs, I still get 5,129,407,995 bytes, 176,186 files. I have mappack and icon pack in my override. Also, blight world cache, order world cache, and chaos world cache are separate, and I have all three. A full world cache itself approaches 100,000 files, 1.3Gb.

[Pharaxes]

This is how my istaria folder looks like the master file list counts 40025 files to patch/download on current blight patch

My logs I always move away from the logs folder into a separate one. Just counting the chat logs, I have 1854 files with 292MB (counting back to 2008-07-31)

The worldcache folder only has order in it.