Can the eq2 team increase the streaming speed to 35Mbits or 4MB/sec. Whatever it is currently, it's really slow. It looks to be 100-200KB/sec. I don't want to do a full download, which I think is in the region of 50GB. Most zones should finish in a few seconds on a 74Mbit down/18Mbit up fibre connection. At the moment, Antonica is 10 minutes in and still loading 5-30MB chunks and constantly freezing the game (and sometimes crashing it). Blizzard's streaming tech never gives me anything lower than 9.2MB/sec. I don't think DBG have to save that much to get this up to speed.
If you want to play EverQuest 2 in a reasonable manner, streaming is not your friend. You will have to do a full download, or deal with the massively subpar performance. A lot of other games that offer a streaming option manage not to have this problem, so the question becomes - If a full download is not optimal, or not an option, how attached are you to the idea of playing EQ2. Because at this point, it's unlikely to be something DBG will change, given it's been pointed out and complained about for years.
Fully installed: 21.3 GB (22,942,605,312 bytes) I'd suggest downloading it at least once, then saving all those files to an external drive.. now you can reinstall the full download in just minutes without having to download the entire game.. Just start the installer, get the launchpad up and running, switch the game to full download (over streaming).. Exit launcher.. Copy game files over.. Reload launcher.. and back playing quickly.. Just did this myself yesterday.. Works fantastically.. The game is even small enough to run off a Ram Drive if you have 32GB system memory.. But that's another subject..
If it's 21GB, that's a completely different story. Is it definitely 21GB and not some weird 50GB full download- and then when you install it, it's 21GB... not sure how all those expansions even fit in 35GB... The streaming was convenience; and fibre (I've got FTTH and 1ms to the Fibre cabinet) makes it an easy option. I'm just trying eq2 out. I didn't want GBs downloaded. I used to use Ram Drives (LOTRO). Lotro is a completely different game on a Ram Drive. Top-end SSD's are fast enough now (I use PCI-e NVMe.2) with a 0.039ms response time on just about any size file from 4kb. I should probably start the full download...
I'm stuck at the rear-end of nowhere, with a really dodgy wifi signal, and I've always streamed because the download would take forever, and never had any problems at all with catching/pausing/freezing. Until recently that is, when a few people had problems logging in and the suggested fix was download the whole thing. So I spent a day without EQ2 while it did a complete download. There is no noticeable difference in play now, nor in zoning times or anything else, just the log-in problem got fixed.
It's definitely hitting the maximum speed of my connection for the Full Download option. It's just hit 3.6GB in 5-7 minutes watching it. Would have preferred streaming, but I don't want to make a fuss if it's about cost on DBG's part. Eq2 should've died a horrible death, but they saved it and need to make money out of it. I never understand why people use wi-fi if their house does not have the dimensions of a large estate owned by Vampires.
When streaming, and if you hit all the same zones.. it already downloaded said zones.. if you hit a lot of zones. your effectively downloading the entire game.. heh.. you'd just save on zones you never visited. Downloading then saving a copy on an external drive saves a ton of time if you ever need to reinstall. I just copy/pasted the number right off my drive. 21GB.. Unfortunately no NVMe's here..
Right now, there's some odd backend problems happening. Kander and Roxxlyy have responded that they are aware and actively working on the problem:
Personally I got switched unexpectedly from full download style to the streaming one, I want back to the full download format, but how the heck do you do that? Can someone tell me?
Can someone tell me how to switch from the streaming format back to the full download one? My game was corrupted and had to uninstall it and start fresh, but it started under the slow dinosaur download via streaming style, I don't want that slow annoyance so how can I switch back to full downloading?
Bring up the main launcher and take a look at the lower left corner. You'll find an icon looking like a little gear/tool there. Click on it and in the options choose the full download. And then go outside for a little while and enjoy the sun / watch a movie / do the laundry .... and when you're done the launcher hopefully is too.
