N00b question...

[edyzmedieval]

I have M2TW Collectors, but in my stupidness, I never played it. Why? I only have 512MB DDR2, and I want to play on very high, but it's slow.

Back to the point. What's the second update they mention on TW.com??? 650 megs?? what's that???

[JCoyote]

Well your RAM probably isn't your problem, it's more likely processor or slow graphics card. At any rate, the graphics in M2 are nice, but the gameplay's why you should play. You'll have a blast at low settings; it's not an FPS or something.

Also, 650 MB is the size of the download for the next patch. It's a big one... one of the biggest patches I have EVER seen (outside updating a clean install of a MMORPG).

[edyzmedieval]

Very High, everything full. Intel 4, 3,2 Ghz, ATI Radeon X700. Runs kind of slow, and I don't like it. It's the RAM, because when I zoom in, it runs perfect and the graphics are superb. Not enough RAM to support sprites.

Ahh, so it's a patch. Awesome, this must mean bug fixing and possible new content.

[sapi]

Yes, we hope so

And I think you're pushing it to run on high on that system - if I was you i'd turn the graphics down to medium (maybe leave the units on high and put everything else down if you want) and just enjoy the gameplay.

As for the patch, it's not that big; but that said it's by far the largest patch I've ever seen for a rts game, so it's got to fix something

[TevashSzat]

Yeah, the 2nd patch is pretty big, but that is nothing compared to trying to redownload everything for Guild Wars after I replaced my hard drive....took me a few hours with a fast cable connection

[JCoyote]

Well, everyone with a dial up is absolutely forced to get a 3rd party download manager to get it. And even then, a lot might never get it.

Another lesson about releasing incomplete software: it costs in bandwidth, and when the size bloats too big you're just about giving the finger to anyone without broadband.

Not that I'm unhappy we're finally getting the patch, but just saying... when it's the size of a whole CD, the original game was shipped to soon. This doesn't sound like a patch... it sounds like a major revision.

[sapi]

/shrugs

It won't take that long even for me, and i've got the curse of the australian broadband connection

I'll just have to request that a local server hosts it, and use dap ;)

[TevashSzat]

Most of the size comes from the new editors though so the actual patching doesn't count for that much of the packet

[Xehh II]

Well, everyone with a dial up is absolutely forced to get a 3rd party download manager to get it. And even then, a lot might never get it.

What is a 3rd party download manager because I only have dial up.Do they increase speed or something?

[sapi]

No (well, at least not for people on dial up) but they allow you to pause and resume the download, from different sources if necessary, to ensure that you don't have to leave your comp on for hours.

That said, trying to get this patch on dial up is just mad

It'd take over a day straight

56/8
7

650*1024
665600

665600/7
95085.714285714285714285714285714

answer/60
1584.7619047619047619047619047619

answer/60
26.412698412698412698412698412698

[JCoyote]

What is a 3rd party download manager because I only have dial up.Do they increase speed or something?

No, well sometimes but not over dial up very much. The advantage is it lets you download in more than one session. So if you get disconnected, etc, it can pick up the download where you left off. So you don't have to get it all at once, you can do a little at a time til it's all done.

I like Gigaget, I use it on my broadband to download files into the multi gigabyte size.

[Xehh II]

Well that is just annoying, looks like I won't get the patch.

[pike master]

i have dsl it wont take long for me to download it.

the problem to me is a person has a computer(not as cheap as a box of donuts) spent 50 bucks for an incomplete game, cant afford dsl or cable and people ranting on them.

thats a bunch of garbage, not everyone has the funds to spend spend on their gaming experience. 650 megabyte patch isnt that big because of editor such and such. its a major rewrite because they fumbled the ball.and now people with dial up will have to spend valuable time babysitting their connection moving the mouse every so often all day long just to get it downloaded.maybe they should get payed for all that time they have to babysit their computer.

sega should send out a copy of the patch on cd. its the least they should do in my arrogant opinion.

furthermore i think they should pull the game from the shelves and come out with an updated post 1.2 version so people wont have to go through what we have. it would really be a major pain to go buy the game, come home install it, jump on net and download the latest update. i bet those peoples jaws will drop when they see the size of it.

but at least they are going to fix the game. i think they should send out a copy of the patch to everyone who bought the game and registered so you can have it on hand to keep with the game whenever you have to install it on another computer.

[TevashSzat]

pull the game from the shelves? No videogame company will ever do that since they lose horrendously large amounts of money because the fact is if a game a fundamentally good enough, people will download and do whatever so they can play it.

[KHPike]

i have dsl it wont take long for me to download it.

the problem to me is a person has a computer(not as cheap as a box of donuts) spent 50 bucks for an incomplete game, cant afford dsl or cable and people ranting on them.

thats a bunch of garbage, not everyone has the funds to spend spend on their gaming experience. 650 megabyte patch isnt that big because of editor such and such. its a major rewrite because they fumbled the ball.and now people with dial up will have to spend valuable time babysitting their connection moving the mouse every so often all day long just to get it downloaded.maybe they should get payed for all that time they have to babysit their computer.

sega should send out a copy of the patch on cd. its the least they should do in my arrogant opinion.

furthermore i think they should pull the game from the shelves and come out with an updated post 1.2 version so people wont have to go through what we have. it would really be a major pain to go buy the game, come home install it, jump on net and download the latest update. i bet those peoples jaws will drop when they see the size of it.

but at least they are going to fix the game. i think they should send out a copy of the patch to everyone who bought the game and registered so you can have it on hand to keep with the game whenever you have to install it on another computer.

Whoa, that's kinda drastic. CA'd have to track down every person who got the game before mailing em', if that's what you meant...they'd lose lots of dollars. Although if they did that it would be a powerful display of customer support

What CA could do in the future is not to pull off its current unpatched version and instead release a patched one in the future, like Windows XP with SP2...although this could mean those sneaky people could up prices. They can also sell a CD containing only the patch for a few dollars for those without the internet capability to download. While I have broadband it can take me hours sometimes to download giant patches because I live in Asia and the proximity slows downloading...unless a local game webby hosts the file.

And besides, this large patch is just a prelude of more big patches to come, since 1.2 doesn't fix everything and since 1.2 could also bring about a whole slew of new bugs.

Ah well, I guess while downloading the patch I could revisit RTW for a while...

[Zatoichi]

I'm pretty sure that this patch will be available on the cover disk of various computer game magazines as well - it'll be cheaper to spend £4 on a magazine than run up a 26 hour phone bill for the broadband-challenged.

I on the other hand will sneakily download it on my work's 8mb broadband and copy it to my usb stick.

*slinks away smugly hoping the IT Manager isn't an Orger*

[sapi]

@Zatoichi - you beat me to it - there are plenty of local means through which you can get the patch.

And i wouldn't snigger at your IT manager not being here - on another forum I visit, that happened

[Whacker]

Another logical suggestion would be to use the "get it on cd/dvd" from fileplanet or another service. Failing that, you could always write Sega/CA and politely request they mail you a CD with the patch on it.

[JCoyote]

It doesn't cost that much in local phone charges to be online for 26 hours... well, at least here in the US.

I've used download managers to download full movies from the archive. And I've done similar long download manager files on dial ups. You don't have to move your mouse for most to keep the connection open, you just need packets coming and going. Downloads do that. So it's a 24 hour download. Let's say you sleep at night (a stretch for some gamers...), that's upwards of 8 hours there where the file can download without interfering with using the computer. Let's say you go to work or school. There's another 8 hours you can't be at home on the computer. So that tremendous 26 hours of download time comes out to a pretty reasonable 2 or 3 days that doesn't impact your computer gaming/working/web usage at all. But only if you can stop and restart the download. Hence, a download manager.

I've downloaded lots of files in that size range in the past over a dialup. All it takes is realizing your computer can do things while you aren't there.

[stealingjoy]

512mb ram is really low for pretty much any game nowadays, let alone one as graphics intensive as MTW2. I'd recommend 2 gigs.