Launcher question from returning player....

Discussion in 'Tips, Tricks, FAQs, and New Player Discussion' started by Tatanka, Nov 16, 2022.

  1. Tatanka New Member

    So, trying to patch up EQ2 so I can log in, first time in a few years. Fired up the launcher, had ~28G of "pre-load assets" to process, or something like that. Let it run overnight. Came back, and saw that my PC going into sleep mode interrupted it, so it didn't get close to finishing, and didn't continue from there. So I closed it, and went to start it again a few hours later. Was surprised that it was starting over from the beginning (said ~28G to go), so just closed it down, since I figured I'd just lose progress to PC going to sleep again.

    Brings me to now, I turn off sleep mode on the PC. Launch EQ2 launcher, and now, it doesn't show (in the lower left corner, right below the progress bar) what it's doing, or how much is left. Progress bar and PLAY button are dark brown, so I assume I can't start the game yet. Task manager shows ~4MB/sec disk activity for EQ2, so I presume it's doing whatever it needs to do.

    So, does this sound typical, or do I need to delete and re-install? Or are there some other steps I need to perform to get everything going?

    Thanks!
  2. Tatanka New Member

    Update: I did find a ../EverQuest II/assetcache directory, and there are files being written there, so I guess it is working, just don't know why the notification on the launcher window isn't there, to tell me how much is left to download.
  3. Tkia Well-Known Member

    Sounds like you may be running the launcher in streaming mode which is the default behaviour. Go into the version screen and click the box for full download if so.
    Twyla likes this.
  4. Tatanka New Member

    Thanks, I may try that later.

    Saw disk activity/downloading had stopped. Tried to launch the game, failed like last try. Killed the launcher. Then saw EQ2 still had a process running. Killed that, restarted launcher. Now I see the progress text again. So that's likely what was causing the issue. Failed process stuck in task list.

    When I first started playing EQ2 (well, after they went with the revamp, around 2010), streaming downloads was one of my favorite features. I love that you can DL just the basic game, and then as you play, it can prioritize and load what you need to play, and let the rest keep DLing in the backround while you play.
  5. Tkia Well-Known Member

    It's a great concept. Unfortunately beyond initially getting you into the game faster it tends to cause more problems thaN it's worth.
  6. Sigrdrifa EQ2 Wiki Author

    Sometimes too Launchpad can seem to be stuck. Just close it down and start it back up. It will review its manifest vs what you have downloaded so it doesn't redownload a bunch of stuff.
    Twyla likes this.
  7. Tatanka New Member

    Final update: Checked file timestamps, DL finished after ~7 hours. Curiously, progress bar and PLAY button stayed dark brown. Coulda swore I remember them going yellow/green as progress was made back in the day. At any rate, it let me in the game, so all is well. It was just the stuck process from previous try that caused my issue.

    May see some of you back in game soon :)
    Twyla and Sigrdrifa like this.
  8. Tatanka New Member

    Another dang update. Didn't have time to actually go ingame early this morning, so did now after I got back home.

    I'll be a son of a gun, when I started the launcher, it was trying to DL all 28 GB AGAIN. So WTH did it do for those 7 hours last night? I see everything downloaded, so no clue what's actually going on.

    Fortunately, it did let me log in and do what I needed, but the launcher definitely seems to have some issues.
  9. Tkia Well-Known Member

    Just check your settings and get it on full download.
    Twyla likes this.
  10. Arandar Well-Known Member

    There is virtually no reason to use the "streaming" version, and client performance with it is markedly worse. It is essentially a broken marketing gimmick to try to get new players into the game quickly, and all it does is give them an awful experience.
    Tkia and Sigrdrifa like this.
  11. Grumpy_Warrior It's a KILT, dang it!

    Agree with the others, streaming is not optimal if you're planning to play long term. I've also noticed that the patcher will say it's going to download some huge amount of data, but then it finishes quickly and says "saved xxx bytes with delta patches." So it probably wasn't really trying to download all 28 GB each time.
    Twyla likes this.