I've just switched the beta server to send out a distribution of SiS that's much closer to the version we're going to be distributing on Steam. This means that 1.7gb worth of extra art will be downloaded by the updater, rather than being generated locally, as had been the case in prior installs.

I've temporarily upgraded our Amazon server to handle the extra load, but even so, the average download time will probably be around 30 minutes. It may be worth knowing that:

1) You can launch the game without triggering the updater by running with the commandline option -noupdate.

2) Partial downloads from the update server will be saved, and it should be safe to quit / restart the updater as needed.

Took about 10 minutes for me to update.

For comparison purposes, I have a 100 Mbit internet connection. Looks like I was getting around 30-40 Mbits while downloading, pretty good!

SilasOfBorg wrote:Took about 10 minutes for me to update.

For comparison purposes, I have a 100 Mbit internet connection. Looks like I was getting around 30-40 Mbits while downloading, pretty good!

That's better than Arioch and I got

Only took 15 minutes for me.

What's next? EA? Do we get Steam keys?

Devildogff wrote:What's next? EA? Do we get Steam keys?

Everyone who preorded back when we had a preorder system will get a Steam key as soon as the EA launches. Otherwise, the plan is to keep the private beta running up until release.

It's very helpful to have a smallish group of testers who are getting new (likely buggy) content a bit before everyone else. And right now, the non-Steam distribution of SiS is working well as a small bleeding-edge testing group. So my expectation going forward is that I'll be posting patches here a day or two before the same content migrates to Steam. Hopefully you guys can help me catch some of the bugs in new features before the build goes out to the rest of the EA.

Of course, if we need to, there are ways of creating a similar "bleeding edge" distro of SiS inside Steam itself, but right now, my guiding philosophy is "if it's not broken, don't fix it."

sven wrote:the plan is to keep the private beta running up until release.

I hope you keep it after release too. Don't have a Steam account, don't plan to.

sven wrote:

Devildogff wrote:What's next? EA? Do we get Steam keys?

Everyone who preorded back when we had a preorder system will get a Steam key as soon as the EA launches. Otherwise, the plan is to keep the private beta running up until release.

It's very helpful to have a smallish group of testers who are getting new (likely buggy) content a bit before everyone else. And right now, the non-Steam distribution of SiS is working well as a small bleeding-edge testing group. So my expectation going forward is that I'll be posting patches here a day or two before the same content migrates to Steam. Hopefully you guys can help me catch some of the bugs in new features before the build goes out to the rest of the EA.

Of course, if we need to, there are ways of creating a similar "bleeding edge" distro of SiS inside Steam itself, but right now, my guiding philosophy is "if it's not broken, don't fix it."

I never got a Steam key, by the way...