I’d like to propose a stepped install plan to get new players started with the game more quickly.

From the full install, extract the barest minimum files and assets needed to get the game up with the Login Screen and Character Generator and Tutorial. By this I mean just that map, the dagger weapon, the air glyph, the iron ore art, the races plus the rat, one client skin (instead of 3) plus the client base, a subset of files from the data folder and the client core DLL files. I may have missed a bit in that list but you get the idea.

Distribute to the mirrors this package as the smallest download you can make, and distribute the rest in a 2nd package also to the mirrors.

The concept is to let a player get the small package first, install and run it. When it runs, it gives them something to do in getting their account logged in for the first time, creating a character, and playing their way through the Tutorial. While all this is going on, a separate spawned process with a progress bar is running minimized that is downloading and unpacking the 2nd package.

By the time a new player gets through Character Gen and Tutorial, most of the rest might be downloaded. At this point the progress screen would be brought forward so they can see how much is left (if any) and as soon as it finishes they can reload the client into the full game.

Obviously this means reworking the end of the last Tutorial quest a bit to just update the server with their new load POS and (magic happens here) determine state of 2nd package and go from there.

Not entirely thunk through, but you get the idea.