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Why are download speeds so slow?

Discussion in 'Release 41 Feedback Forum' started by Dismayven, May 12, 2017.

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  1. Alley Oop

    Alley Oop Bug Hunter Bug Moderator

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    this is a matter of getting other people (with fast connections, not me!) to seed the file. which they should have made a public push for before starting a free trial. maybe this is a way the hospitallers can help new players: helping to get the file in the first place.
     
  2. Wintermute of CoF

    Wintermute of CoF Avatar

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    It doesn't, it was an answer to the question posted by @Lord Halvard Fimbultyr

    Each file linked in the XML is a torrent file for use in a BitTorrent client. The filenames indicate what version that torrent will download. For example StandaloneWindows_0_602.torrent will download all the files to patch the game from version 0 to version 602 (the current release) on Windows.

    In the past some people have found that using a standalone torrent client can download faster than the torrent client built in to the SotA patcher.
    @Chris did apply a fix for this recently (some bad maths in the bandwidth limiting), but it could be that it's been broken again or there is a different bug with a similar impact. Either way, attempting the download with a standalone torrent client will help determine if there is an issue just with the patcher or whether your ISP is in some way throttling torrents.
     
    Last edited: May 12, 2017
  3. Hermann von Salza

    Hermann von Salza Avatar

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    I think some of them earlier patches are just slow for some reason. I cant put my finger on it, but I havent noticed any bottle necking slow downs as of the last few patches.
     
  4. Ravalox

    Ravalox Chief Cook and Bottle Washer Moderator SOTA Developer

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    @Fionwyn Wyldemane There may be an issue with the patching client (there have been issues in the past, but they had been sorted out for the most part - always possible a new issue has been introduced recently).

    You can use a standard torrent client to download the patches if the speed is slow. This will tell you if the issue is in the patcher or an issue with the Net or something else remote. The easiest thing to do here would be to go into the game folder and use the torrent file you will find in the downloads folder in there.

    If you don't have a torrent client I recommend qBittorrent; otherwise you can try to install via Steam to bypass the Torrent patcher.
     
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  5. Fionwyn Wyldemane

    Fionwyn Wyldemane Avatar

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    I am downloading via the SoTA client the way I always have.
     
  6. Onyx

    Onyx Avatar

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    Never played with a torrent client so I can't comment on how it works. I just let it download for a minute or 3 then if haven't gotten an acceptable (1+mb/sec) download I just start it over. Usually within 6-10 attempts I'll get the 1+mb/sec I want.
     
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  7. Alley Oop

    Alley Oop Bug Hunter Bug Moderator

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    i use an external torrent client because the files are generally available a long time before the patcher actually sees them as available, so i can get a head start.
     
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  8. CrandalltheFoole

    CrandalltheFoole Avatar

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    I use qBittorent as all - I find it almost twice as fast as Steam. I can even start the Steam DL, find the torrent, DL through qBittorent, open Launcher, let it do its thing, and have the game running before Steam is half way through.
     
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  9. majoria70

    majoria70 Avatar

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    All kinds of scenarios here depending on the system people have, the internet connection reliability and in general what works for them and in some cases what does not work. For me download speed has improved a lot. It only takes moments to download a patch. I do have a newer computer as well if that helps and I do not use steam but Sota direct as I always have.
     
    Last edited: May 12, 2017
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  10. Elwyn

    Elwyn Avatar

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    There are, of course, problems with this. First is that when the patcher is actually patching, it is not sharing the file. This causes a noticeable dip in sharing just as the first downloaders finish on monthly patch day. Then when it comes back, it does not by default stay open when starting the game, thus causing more loss of sharing.

    The other issue is that while most people may be using incremental patches, first-time downloaders, people coming back after not playing for a few weeks, and people for whom a patch previously failed will download the zero-based (aka from scratch) patch file instead of the incremental patch. Now there is a completely different file and set of people sharing it.
     
  11. Wintermute of CoF

    Wintermute of CoF Avatar

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    No-one is using SotA direct, everyone is using either bittorrent or Steam.

    If you are using the SotA launcher you are using bittorrent, you are downloading from everyone else who has the SotA launcher running with sharing enabled and has downloaded the patch you need (should be fast) in addition to the Port server (likely to be slow if that's the only option available).

    If people wanted to help with this and have a computer sitting around doing nothing (and no bandwidth caps) they could use the torrent files linked previously in a torrent client to speed things up a bit for everyone.
     
  12. Halvard

    Halvard Avatar

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    Just did, only 100Mbit upload connection but "många bäckar små som man säger" ^^ some swedish for you since I cant remeber all dem english words :p
     
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  13. Emile Layne

    Emile Layne Avatar

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    NoNo No! I want to download from the server direct at a decent speed. NOT mess around with Steam or anything else. This is a joke. I am getting 70kbps on my mega connection. Why should I have to do the work when its a paid for game?
     
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  14. Fionwyn Wyldemane

    Fionwyn Wyldemane Avatar

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    I feel bad for the Op and any new players who try to download the game via the client. As for a separate torrent program, due to the fact that this laptop is my work laptop, I am forbidden from using a separate torrent program.
     
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  15. Elwyn

    Elwyn Avatar

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    You don't have to use the torrent program on the same computer. I do my torrents on a computer that I don't play games on. You do need to know where the downloads folder is, however, and which files to download.
     
  16. Berek

    Berek Portalarian Emeritus Dev Emeritus

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    Moving thread to R41 Feedback and consolidating other posts about the slow download speed. All, please keep replying here instead of creating new threads. We hear you. Thanks!
     
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  17. Mugly Wumple

    Mugly Wumple Avatar

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    The Launcher front end suffered horribly with slow download speeds. It was fixed a handful of releases ago. It may be that you only need to get the Launcher updated to get the fix applied and see reasonable download speeds.
     
  18. eli

    eli Avatar

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    If you are behind a firewall (if you use a router, this is probably a yes), it will prevent you from discovering most peers who are also behind a firewall. If you are not behind a firewall, you can peer with other clients, even if they are behind a firewall.
    Some ways to fix this are:
    1. Windows has a built in software firewall which may be getting in the way, you can disable this through the control panel
    2. You can set the NAT (network address translation) type on your router to OPEN, this will allow inbound peer requests to be routed to your computer.
    3. if that option is not supported by your router, you can set up manual Port forwarding or port triggering, these are basically the same thing and will route all of the inbound peer requests directly to your computer.
      1. You will first want to configure your computer to have a static IP address instead of a dynamic one, otherwise this setting will get lost next time you restart
      2. then you will set up port forwarding/triggering rule to point port 55721 toward your ip address
      • 'ipconfig' from cmd will tell you your ip address on windows
      • You can double check that port by going into the configuration menu in the patcher, as it may change
    4. This one might be placebo effect or peers who have changed their configuration, but i also set the default bit torrent ports to forward. these are 6881-6889 and 6969
    Also, a chatty protocol like bittorrent can suffer more than other services from using wifi, using a wire will usually help.

    I used to have really bad speeds too, but now I get up to 4Mb/s on windows and up to 6Mb/s on linux. I run 4 computers and R41 patched faster on all of my native clients than the steam client.
     
    Last edited: May 12, 2017
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  19. Mugly Wumple

    Mugly Wumple Avatar

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    EDIT
    FWIW, I'm not seeing any upload activity from my SotA Launcher.
     
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  20. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    I just did a test locally and saw somewhat slower downloads than I would expect, as in 400k-800k/sec, but not seeing what is described here just yet. When I first saw this thread my guess was it was due to a large number of trial user downloads but I think we currently have about 15gbit/sec total download from torrent seeds we run and they definitely are not saturated.

    Let me know if this continues and I'll try and pull some more data on what might be wrong.
     
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