I have to download how much?

[Death-knell]

Hey guys and girls at Tulga,

Would it be possible to start burning disks with the game as is. I have an original CD and when I want to do a new clean install I have to download my behind off. I would be more then willing to pay a few bucks for it and pay for shipping....(that is as long as you don't put it in those $#%^#&#* paper sleeves again).

Pretty please?

[Fridlekh]

I don't think Atari made any more boxes after the initial run... so I don't think you will find any disks with the game that's up to date... I'm not sure exactly how the trial is distributed, but that should certainly be kept up.

I don't see people's desire to ever re-install the game though... the patching process will fix any of the files needed for the game to run if they're broken.

If you're having problems, and think a re-install is in order, just delete your world_cache and prefs directories and do a full scan.

[Death-knell]

I regularly trash (read low level format) my hard drive periodically to get all the trash off. And trusting the patcher to fix fubar'd files is like playing russian roulette wit a .38


stray thought, if the 7 day trial is kept up to date. Why not put a link in the character page after you log in to download the latest version of HZ. That way I could download it and burn it to a CD myslef?

[Brassandyn]

i just built a new computer (Athlon 64, SLI motherboard with Gigabyte's dual SLI board) and thought, what the heck, let's install with the new 34 mb version of the trial that's on the company's web site.

Took nine hours to DL and patch all the files (seriously) after installing the client, and with the new Multithreated patcher. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 35,000 files.

And yes, I have Framework.NET installed and Active X and all that other BS that Microsoft likes to throw at us.

Yeah, I'd take -- and pay for -- a new CD with the latest version of the game.

As an added note, I still get the same framerate in the game with the new video. EQ2, however, looks beautiful anjd runs at about 40-50 FPS.

[gusi]

That's when you leave the computer on overnight to patch :D.

[Brassandyn]

That's when you leave the computer on overnight to patch [img]/Web/emoticons/emotion-2.gif[/img].

I did.

[Fridlekh]

1) the patcher works. The full scan checks file size and crc32 of each file in the master file list and downloads any files that are missing.different. It's maybe not the fastest way possible to patch, but it's very effective.

2) If you're doing regular formats, the onyl thing you need to do besides archiving your HZ dir is exporting the ArtifactEntertainment key in your registry so the game will think it's 'installed' again later. -> HKLM\SOFTWARE\ArtifactEntertainment

3) If the trial download is 30some megs, the only reason I can think of for it to be that large is if it came with the .NET framework incase you don't have it already... from the sounds of it, it just patches to a full install by downloading zipped copies of each file individually. (see #1) This takes a while, but so would downloading that much data as an ISO, and this way there's no extra lengthy install step.

[Hal`cyon Sskyler]

I'd be willing to seed a bittorrent of a more recent image of the game. If there was just an official iso or installer to seed I think it'd be more than possible to get the community to help spread the bandwidth love. Just distribute and seed a new image of the game whenever there is a significant amount of change to it all.

[Fratricide]

Well.. I would say just do like I did for a friend of mine the other day.... just burn that full download (approx 1GB that you can DL from the website) as well as a current working copy of the game (horizons) directory onto a DVD. Then when you do your fdisk/LLF you can always load the game off that 1gb downloaded file (full running version of the game). After installing from the DL game, just copy the whole HZ directory over to where you just installed the game too. Doesn't take more then 15-30 mins or so on mysystem to install and copy the files over to the HD. Then you just run the game and let it patch itself... shouldn't be more then 15MB specially if you try to keep the thing updated, or burn a new copy before you do your format. Just my suggestion that Ive done myself... cause I reformat about every 6 months myself.

[Death-knell]

Well honestly, I think the best way for them to accomplish this would be to just put the full version on a link on your character page. That way you can download it if you want.

[Entilzah]

I have created a RAR file which was the result of a comparison between an unpatched installation, and a fully patched installation. It is a little over 120Mb. I decided it was worth making incase I ever need to reinstall Horizons, I would love to share it but do not have anywhere to host it. Not exactly a bit torrent fan either so I'm afraid I can't use that option for distribution. Any offers to host it would be greatly appreciated, please send me a PM if you can help with hosting. [:)]

Edit : I originally wrote "a little over 150Mb", that's the size of the assets uncompressed. Corrected it to the size of the RAR file.

[Lancalderon]

When I downloaded the trial it was slightly over 1 gigabyte so I am unsure about the size that is being referenced here.

Also I recently had to reinstall becausethe patcherwanted to download the ENTIRE game again (approx 1.9 Gigabytes) (also this was before others told me what was probably wrong). So I reinstalled from the download I had and I only needed to download approx 200MB.

So is there a different trial download now?

[Sarpedos]

I have an idea.... Entilzah, check your PMs.

[Dale2112]

Make a clone of your hardrive after you get it built.
Install the back up drive when you want a fresh PC.
Make a new clone.
Wash repeat...
Will also save you all the building hassles like vid drivers, windows update files, fire wall settings ect...

[Death-knell]

actually I don't like cloning, all the trash is still there. Plus when rebuilding from scratch I don't miss checking for any new drivers because I check for each one as I install the program.

[Brassandyn]

Make a clone of your hardrive after you get it built.
Install the back up drive when you want a fresh PC.
Make a new clone.
Wash repeat...
Will also save you all the building hassles like vid drivers, windows update files, fire wall settings ect...

Windows XP Professional won't boot from a clone if you have:
New CPU, different manufacturer
New Video Card(s), different manufacturer
New Sound Card, different manufacturer
New motherboard, MANY different drivers

You can try the boot-up repair option and get a new XP number from Microsoft, but then you have to get rid of all those old drivers.

So, not a bad idea, but I like a fresh new install on a new computer.

[evilkarl]

I think the best option is to burn a copy of your hz dir to a dvd as well as an export of your HKLM\Software\ArtifactEntertainment from your registry.

When you rebuild your system copy the files to the same directory or a new directory and restore the registry entry then off you go and play.

[Ulkesh]

hmm, what i do is,
put my os files and such on a smaller partition, and split off the rest for data. or two or more hd's.
if i ever have to format one of my drives i just drag off what i want to keep to another drive, format and copy back. pictures/docs etc...

or like previous suggestions just burn the hz dir to a dvd.
i wouldnt worry about keeping clutter if all you are copying is the hz folder.

and might i ask why you are using a low level format? generally those are reserved for last ditch efforts for a hd, do you mean high level format? ie dos command format c: etc...

the only time ive ever used a low level format was to physically resize an old hard drive to squeeze a few more megabytes out of it. it actually worked, but this was a 250 megabyte hard drive, hehe a few years back.

[BKBanzai]

Anything been done with this? Is there a more efficient way to reinstall the game from scratch?

Does every patch from the dawn of time (game introduction) have to be downloaded/patched?

[Entilzah]

Go to the downloads page on the community website (http://community.istaria.com/default.aspx?pg=downloads) and download the post install update package. If you are concerned about executing a binary on your computer then you can use WinRAR to open the archive without running the install script. The archive is approximately 100 megs in size now, and includes all updates from launch through to the latest version on Unity. This archive will be updated whenever there are significant updates to the client.

Install Horizons from the CDs or the large download. Once installed, run the post install update package and point it to your Horizons directory. Then log into the launch site, and run through a relatively quick patch process.

I am currently waiting for the content and client updates on Blight shard to be pushed to the live shards before I next update the archive.

Tulga may be stretched for time, but an updated installer is certainly on their to-do list. In the meanwhile I hope that this update package will help alleviate any concerns over lengthy patching from a fresh CD or downloaded installer.

Take care,

Entilzah