Dial-up friendly release?

[Revfan9]

Now, I was thinking about the MP3 encryption thread, and I remember the growing size of the 2.11 betas due to new features. How much larger will the 2.11 final version be over 2.10 (5 megs) !?!?! Not to mention the inclusion of Neofirst.qst, which uses the DoR tileset, bringing its filesize up to 1.98 megs by default! So, if the 2.11 final version is 5 megs like 2.10, then adding in Neofirst will bring up the file to 7 MEGS!!!!!!!!! For those of us who are stuck with Dial-up, we would be kicked off (anyone who has used dial-up knows this, it sometimes disconnects for no reason) before that would ever download!

So I propose that the 2.11 final is released in 2 versions: Full and Neccessities versions.

Full version:

All of the neccessary files for 2.11 to run properly.
The example quests.
ZIP format.

Neccessities version:

All of the neccessary files for 2.11 to run properly
7z format

I say 7z for the Neccessities version because it is more widespread than Ace and superior to ZIP, but is less widespread than ZIP. And, in a test, I packaged the neccessities version with 2.11b10b, and the 7z version came out at 2.99MB, and the ZIP version came out at 3.71MB.

It should also be noted that in the downloads section, the 2.11 full version should be labeled, in big bold letters, as the "main" version of 2.11, while the neccessities version is inferior and is only for those who want a shorter download time.

[ShadowTiger]

I'm pretty sure that NeoFirst will be a seperate download anyway, since it's more of an "Example quest" for 2.11 than anything else, I'd suppose.

Perhaps the Support Package can be individualized as well, with each item able to be downloaded seperately?

[Revfan9]

All compressed of course. The point of this is so that Dial-up users won't have to tie up their phone lines for 3 days just to get 2.11.

And I do remember someone saying that Neofirst was going to be included with 2.11, but that person might have just been false. Could a developer please confirm this?

[ShadowTiger]

... ... I am the developer. (I guess.) Downloading things in excess of 3 MB (OMG!) is going to be a problem, apparently, so why shouldn't it be a seperate donwload?

[Revfan9]

Yes, but not everyone is on dial-up. I suggested this so that the people that are on dial-up don't have to put up with incredibly long download times, as well as DSL/Cable users being able to get the full package at once.

[Gerudo]

it'd be just as well to easily put up one download package, be it split or unified. (one package can be a set of files kthx)

alot of users who have dialup have download resuming programs such as Getright (i myself have this).

as a former highspeed internet user, it would not irk me at all to have to download multiple files to form one package.

[Nicholas Steel]

im pretty sure the 2.11 beta 10b exe files arn't compressed with up-x. compress them yourself and see them shrink to like 500k each.

[Revfan9]

I have. They are around 2MB uncompressed.

[DarkFlameWolf]

personally at this point, since cable and dsl and other fast internet services are offering their services for just as much as dial-up if not cheaper, there is no reason why people should be using dial-up anymore.

[ShadowTiger]

Sure there is. DSL was never available in our area. o_o We had to spring for the super-expensive Cable package. A lot of people can't even afford that. Even WE can barely afford it.