First, let me say that my name has nothing to do with god or jesus... (Everyone asks that on my first post.)
(I Saw Him, Is A Whim), Long story, multiple answers, don't ask... (One short answer: "I have ADD, everything is a whim.")
Now, "Concept, possible or plausible..." This is sort of a question and a statement. (See the ADD now?)
For years I have been studying the inner workings of many games. My interest still holds more towards the structure of communication and data-pushing, while playing with the concept of mutual-processing from remote locations. (In short, "I like playing with things that normally twist other peoples minds.") At the moment I am downloading, yet another, outrageously large file. I am quite sure I will not be able to see it for about another 10 more hours and I doubt that I will see all of it within the following 10 hours that I will play it. But hey, I test a lot of these things, and I am use to it by now.
In light of my, and other future testers/clients sanity, is it possible to "Bundle" only the content which might possibly be used in the first hour of play?
Now, I ask that under the tone of the title of this post. As being a concept, possible or plausible. I know it is possible to do, just not sure if it is something that this can do. I also know it is plausible, just not sure if it is plausible within the scope of the program.
The concept, since I hate to just say "Do this", would be something similar to this...
Assume that every new download is a "New Player". The first hour, after what I will assume will be a character selection stage, will be learning the GUI and controls. This will be followed by a little bit of reading the lengthy story-line dialogs, and possibly some near-by exploration. Traveling a whole 1/4 game-mile in a four to eight hour period. With a good majority of them starting all over, before they get too deep into the game, with the name "Joe34273482934" or "TheExterminator", playing with a race/class they thought might be cool, but have exposed every weakness in the last four hours.
Ok, that leaves us with a potential 1/4 to 1/2 game-mile traveled. What I imagine is only 1/50th to 1/100th of the files we downloaded. That turns this 335.8MB file into a 6.7MB file, or a 3.4MB file. (I'll be generous, and say that a LOT of graphics are recycled, and CORE files are large. Lets bump that up to a full 33.5MB at most.)
33.5MB is still only 1/10 of the final file size. Now my 10 hour wait just got reduced to a 1 hour wait. Followed by 4 hours of dead-time, possibly playing with myself. (In the game, while learning the controls... perverts!)
In that 4 hours, the game will have a rather good idea where I am headed next, or it should. Even in a non-linear game, I will not, and should not be able to span the entire globe from original creation, within the next four hours that follow. If the player is creature-bound or script-bound due to inability to join higher levels in a party... or even just bound by physical location, as the underground tutorial or menial tasks that are required for completion before open-leveling... The bits and pieces of the next required graphics and scripts and world could be slowly rationed in stale time. With big 10 minute bumpers just after loading, and possibly after exiting the game. (User option download choice only. Once done playing... "Would you like to resume game downloading?")
Things that can be done to stall the user for some forced "Stale time"... Introduce them to the chat. Provide a sleep/rest option which has a forced minimum pause-time of 30 seconds to 2 minutes, where the inventory or other elements are introduced, only in the early game-play. Have some personal-areas where the clients "Seem" online, but are actually "Stale", as the non-important server-side portion of the game is played out fully on the client-side. (Like a long stretch of dungeon, where you either make it to the end of the NPC-enemies, or you don't and quit that personal area. Only the end-result is important to the server.)
I know this seems like suggestions, or like a giant wish-list... but it is not. The topic "Question" still stands as the single question. The rest of the post is just food for thought. If only to spark more creative thinking, or a better approach to bring possibility or plausibility into the light of being a reality.
I have seen this done in many programs, and MMORPG's are already designed in the required sections for this style of segregation. Using existing things like WAD's and ZIP's but segmented, as opposed to creating a giant ISO or a single WAD/ZIP. It is just a matter of constructing the packs into zone-packs, and determining when each needs to be loaded. With the client-side determining the best, "Time ration". (Not saying it is easy, or "Do it because they do it." I am suggesting it because this is not a CD or DVD to install. This is an internet dependant game, which may ultimately be killed by the same things that kills all the other great "Large games" that took years to create content for. Size, not ego... Yes it matters!) LOL.
If this game is not 100% complete... (Which it has already been stated that it is not.) Imagine how large the file will be at the time of completion. It will take us a week to download a game we might not like, might not work with our hardware, might not be able to finish downloading, might not have enough room to store, and will surely never-ever-ever see all that we actually downloaded.
This also leaves a good window for non-dependant update control. Where the actual game can update elements in the pack, on the fly, when the updated info has been completely downloaded.
Ok, my novel is complete.
