Mod download speed/updating mod

This should probably go under discussion, I will post it here for now.

Been looking into a few things but aside from the existing bug (download very slowly for big mods, or due to special characters in windows’ user account name), the primary causes for “slow” download/updating mod are of below:

  1. MS mod server, slow bandwidth allocated to different area of the world. Me being in North America took me less than 1 minute to “complete” a mod download of ~150MB in size (compressed) but someone who has 1 Gig internet speed from Asia/Australia would take upward 4-5 minutes. (more examples preferred)

  2. Stated above “complete”, means entire process of download: MS checking the mods, then extracting the files, moving them from TEMP folder to User\Game*******\mod\subscribed folder. Download time itself for me was less than 30 seconds, rest are all game doing it’s thing and moving files.

  3. due to reason 2, someone with low spec computer, duo cores, with hard drive will take FOREVER to complete this process (loading circle forever). This is because hard drive is extremely slow when extract files. Low spec PC, 1GB extraction would between 3-5 minutes, including file moving afterwards would be somewhere between 5-10 minutes. if you do not have a SSD and at least 4 cores processor, even without current issue, you’ll have a hard time with any large mod.

  4. This part is uncertain, but I personally think MS/game is checking downloaded content. If thats the case then it is a repeated process as uploading process already gets checked once.

@DodoNotDoDo is it possible for anyone on dev team to check if the mods are checked again when downloaded? and perhaps allow players to download difference between each mod update so it’d complete this process much quicker?

  1. There’s no specific bandwidth allocated, it’s just a combination of how fast your internet is, how close you are to the download origin and how recently the file was downloaded by someone else in your region. When a file is downloaded, it get’s cached at the nearest POP (point of presence) so if someone in the same region downloads it before the cache expires it will be faster than the original. So testing download speed can be inconsistent, but it should generally get faster on multiple download attempts. But yes, if you’re the first person to download a 1gb download in Australia vs in Arizona, there’s likely going to be a speed difference.
  2. ok
  3. From my testing the extraction process is also quick, like the download (usually). Yes, it would be slower on a lower spec computer but I wouldn’t expect it to take many minutes.
  4. It’s not re-doing the checks it does on publish, though any virus scanner installed would likely be checking the files as they’re extracted unless you exclude the mod folders.

I think the overall issue with the perception of slow mod downloading/install is that there are a couple outstanding bugs in this area that make it look like it’s taking longer than it is or failing when it’s not. Unfortunately, I don’t have an update on when those fixes will be pushed out.

And doing a diff install would technically be possible but will take a lot of engineering to implement, taking away from other game improvements. So I’m not sure if/when such a change would happen given the performance impact to the majority of the Age community would be relatively small.

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do you know if the new sld graphic format on how it’ll impact on extraction? its good to see a smaller compression size though