If I leave the launcher running to seed it should download patches

There should be a setting somewhere on the launcher to "Keep Game Updated".

I come home from work and have to wait for a 3.8 gig patch. I typically run thru Steam because it seems they have figured out how to keep a game updated.

Dont want to sound flippant, just annoyed.

 

The way that the updater works, it won't download a version that it doesn't know about. It can't be told about a new version before the server is taken offline to upgrade to the new version. Usually the next version is advertised to the client for downloading half an hour or so after the 0900 close, but this time it happened almost immediately. And I make a point of downloading and seeding the patch the night before, manually placing a copy in the updater's download area, then starting the updater after the server closes.

But that's not the point here. I agree that it would be nice if the updater could check regularly for a new patch, like maybe one per hour, maybe just a simple "is there something newer than patch 123, yes or no?", and automatically start a download. Sure, that wouldn't be fast enough if you walked in at 1030 to race into the new version on patch day, but it would help if you simply aren't there, and don't want to wait half an hour once you do get home.

If you know how to use bit torrent and can figure out the versioning scheme, you can usually get the big patch the night before. It is polite to then leave it up for seeding to 100% ratio or until the big rush is over a few hours after the patch. Then drop it in your SotA Downloads folder where the updater can see it. Note that this is returned as a .xml document, which your browser may or may not handle properly. I think all Mozilla-based browsers will show it properly.

http://patchserver.shroudoftheavatar.com/sotalive/torrents/SotATorrentFeed.xml

 

i thought they did make an attempt at having it do that, thought it was long enough ago that i can't find it in the forum.