Available to purchase on disk or download?

[wbdavison]

I would like to get an idea if Realmworks will be available on a disk at release or will it be available by download only?
What is the expected time beyond release that a hard copy will be available to order?

[liz]

Our plan currently is that Realm Works will be available via download through our website. If that ever changes, we'll definitely announce it on our website.

Out of curiosity, any reason why you'd prefer the hard copy?

[wbdavison]

Slow internet speeds make large downloads difficult. It is nice to have backups of software for when bad things happen and you need to get up and running again.

[Mead]

Slow internet speeds make large downloads difficult. It is nice to have backups of software for when bad things happen and you need to get up and running again.

I'm in Montana. We have the slowest internet speeds in the country. I can tell you now there is no issue.

[Dracarius]

I'm in Montana. We have the slowest internet speeds in the country. I can tell you now there is no issue.


You should try out our company network. a 2.5mb download has taken us 24 hours to download. And that's on what they claim is a T1 line. Oh, did I mention I work at a high end electronic store. (Ironic isn't it?) :D

[Maidhc O Casain]

I'm a fan of "owning" my own hard-copy as well, and for programs that aren't in need of update all that often (e.g. Campaign Cartographer) it works well. For a program like HeroLab, on the other hand, a hard copy would be completely useless as there's some sort of update - either from Lone Wolf or from the community users - about every other week.

So for me, I guess the value in this would depend on how often Realm Works will need an update or have new material coming in. With all the features on the drawing board to be added in post version 1.0, I'm guessing that sticking with the current model will be the way to go.

[JackOfAllGames]

You should try out our company network. a 2.5mb download has taken us 24 hours to download. And that's on what they claim is a T1 line. Oh, did I mention I work at a high end electronic store. (Ironic isn't it?) :D

If you guys really have a T1 line, I'd say that you're having other problems. For instance, if you're connecting to a computer with slow internet, it doesn't matter how fast yours is - the bottleneck may not be on your end.

If that's a typical problem in your workplace, you're either moving A LOT of data or you guys should really look at your network security - something isn't right.

On topic: I do tend to forget that there are still many areas of the country that lack decent internet...but for a one-time download, I'd think that people could go through that initial setup pain. You WILL need to have some form of internet to use the program (at least, as I understand things, never having actually USED the program).

If the demand is high enough, perhaps Lone Wolf could charge a premium for the disk - get someone to burn a hundred disks and ship 'em out. You'd just have to charge enough additional to pay for the time, materials, and shipping cost.

[Chemlak]

Jack is correct. To be more specific, you will need an internet connection to create a new realm, but once that realm is created you may alter it without ever connecting that machine to the internet again.

The reason for this is fairly simple: the server has to be aware of a new realm so that it can correctly allocate resources to it on the assumption that even if you never intend to use the cloud features of RW, your needs and wishes might change, and the server needs to be ready for your realm to synchronise.

In other words, if you (somehow) created a new realm without telling the server about it, and you decide to sync it later down the line, the server will say "huh? What realm is this? Don't recognise it. Bye!" So LWD have wired RW to require that first connection on realm creation so that the server knows about the realm (and, just as importantly what version of the software the realm was started in).

[wbdavison]

I see your point. I am accustomed to using design software like Adobe, and office software like Microsoft Office. Last time my computer went out, it was a life saver to be able to reinstall and be up and running again.

Of course, most of these are going to a cloud service as well, so my thinking was a bit dated I guess.

Looking forward to kicking the tires and taking this thing for a drive!

[lifer4700]

You should try out our company network. a 2.5mb download has taken us 24 hours to download. And that's on what they claim is a T1 line. Oh, did I mention I work at a high end electronic store. (Ironic isn't it?) :D

A T1 connection is limited to only 1.5Mb/s download, which is horrifically slow by today's standards.

Modern-day ISPs (Comcast, Wide Open West, etc) now provide 15-50 Mb/s standard. (2-6+ MB/s)


However, JackOfAllGames is correct, 2.5Mb should NOT take that long, even on old-school 56kb/s dial-up!

Unless, of course, that poor T1 is being tasked by many people downloading simultaneously. If you have the entire bandwidth to yourself, then I would say around 2 minutes would be ideal.






Also of note:
Mbps = Mb/s = Megabits per second.
MBps = MB/s = Megabytes per second. There are 8 bits in a byte.

Many people get confused when they pay for 15Mb/s internet, and only get around 2MB/s when they download something. It's the same.

[JackOfAllGames]

A T1 connection is limited to only 1.5Mb/s download, which is horrifically slow by today's standards.

Wow, I wasn't really thinking of that. :p I still remember a T1 being the dream. I guess it really isn't anything special nowadays. Good point.

[mirtos]

that was in the day when we had 14.4 or worse modems :)

[Fox Lee]

I'm in Montana. We have the slowest internet speeds in the country. I can tell you now there is no issue.

On topic: I do tend to forget that there are still many areas of the country that lack decent internet...

You guys, you maybe need to think a little bigger than "the country". Gaming is an international hobby and RW is an international product, even if limited to audiences who speak English (I have no idea what translations LWD do or don't have/plan). There is quite the variety of internet speed and quality to be had out there.

[mirtos]

You guys, you maybe need to think a little bigger than "the country". Gaming is an international hobby and RW is an international product, even if limited to audiences who speak English (I have no idea what translations LWD do or don't have/plan). There is quite the variety of internet speed and quality to be had out there.


Obviously everything I'm mentioning here is theoretical, as I'm not associated with the company. With that said, here are my two cents: If LW wants to make it easier for other people, mirror sites and streamed downloads are probably the way to go. International presents a bigger issue if you wanted to talk about software and shipping media. Download makes much more sense for software these days. Since the money is made from the registering and not the cost of the software (if im correct) then there are plenty of places that downloads can be put to make it more mirrored) and allow updates to happen through WL's site. (I hope updates are done via patches and not full size downloads)

[Mead]

You guys, you maybe need to think a little bigger than "the country". Gaming is an international hobby and RW is an international product, even if limited to audiences who speak English (I have no idea what translations LWD do or don't have/plan). There is quite the variety of internet speed and quality to be had out there.

I can guarantee Montana is slower than most places in other countries too. The speed here is barely useful for anything. It's funny, we are not technologically backward in the least... sometimes we put GPS on our llamas ;)... but that is one of the things we really have poor quality of. I live in the 3rd largest urban area of the state, and my old internet in Florida several years ago makes this look like 56k.

The fact is I have had no problems of that end of things despite that. Downloading new updates to Hero Lab.. that can be an issue at times.

[Mead]

You should try out our company network. a 2.5mb download has taken us 24 hours to download. And that's on what they claim is a T1 line. Oh, did I mention I work at a high end electronic store. (Ironic isn't it?) :D

They seem to have something going on with their lines. Yeah, that is just horrible.

I loved moving here. I never want to live anywhere else. I can see Glacier National Park from my window, and I go the 8 miles to the park on a regular basis to read with my iPad... but man... internet speeds here just suck. Sadly, the gaming situation here also sucks. So generally I just read and do things outdoors.

I have an acquaintance that moved to Ghana. He talks about how bad the internet is there. But even he says it is a bit better than Montana.

[liz]

sometimes we put GPS on our llamas ;)

This made me laugh aloud. Thank you for that. :)

[Mead]

This made me laugh aloud. Thank you for that. :)

Heh, this is off-topic obviously... but when I moved up here I had no idea llamas were so common. Apparently they breed like rabbits, so people give them away rather than sell them. I am actually getting two this summer. Our local police blotter is chock full of escaped llama articles. :p Alpacas too... we have tons of alpacas here.

Back on topic. My point is while there is nothing wrong with having a disk version... Lone Wolf does a pretty good job of making the download a snap.