Arcen should seed a valid torrent.

[Buttons840]

I'm downloading and installing AI Wars manually.  Previously I had used Impulse for the install, and I bought my keys through Impulse.

I wish there was a valid torrent to use as torrents are a great technology even if they are abused in many cases.  I thought about searching the torrents any ways, but decided anything I found might be broken, illegal, viruses, etc.

It would be nice if Arcen could see a valid torrent and provide a md5 sum.  This would ease the burden on your mirrors and for many users allow for faster downloads.  Although I suppose without many people to seed the official AI Wars download it wouldn't work well.

[Lancefighter]

the newer torrent programs can do an http seed - you plug in the torrent, and /all/ of the mirrors can contribute, along with any other seeders.
Of course, that wouldnt exactly lighten the load, itd just distribute it better.

[Kjara]

Well if you had some users seeding as well, it might help the load slightly.  The main problem is I doubt most of the mirrors would let you http seed that way, since they all want their ad revenue and to force you to jump through hoops to try to get to you pay to not have to jump through those hoops.

[Buttons840]

Is Arcen paying for these mirrors?

If it costs Arcen for every download then this is really worth considering.  Otherwise not so much.

I know many open source project like to seed a torrent to keep the load on the mirrors to a minimum.

[deMangler]

If Arcen published official MD5 hash (or something better) info somwhere for the game files and updates, that would be a good idea anyway. (sorry if it is somewhere and I have been missing it). I have got used to downloading files for Windows without being able to verify them, but I don't really like doing it. It is a bad habit.
Also, if people did start their own torrents they could say "Check these files MD5 hashes with the ones on the Arcen website" or whatever.
As it is, there are quite a few sites you can download AI War from, so not having published official hashes is an omission I feel.
dM

<edit>
What am I saying? Sorry. I have broken one of my personal rules which is "Why, oh why, bother sticking to a point of principle when it makes no difference, unless it is funny or educational?" (I have lots of rules like this....)
It would make me feel better if there were published MD5's, especially as there are lots of sites you can get AI War from, so an official MD5 would seem to be necessary. But, personally, it really makes no difference to me given that I am running Windows in the first place. Even if it is in a nicely contained VM.
So I retract my comment that it is an omission.
I leave the above ridiculous post as a testament to my everlasting shame and to remind myself not to be so irrelevantly principled in future....
However, I do think that an official torrent would be nice, as, technically and practically, the BitTorrent protocol is a superior way of distributing files for lots of reasons.

 <edit>

[Lancefighter]

A) College campuses often will automatically ban someone if they are using p2p software, even if it is legal. (see: UF. One of my friends got a 5 day ban from campus internet for updating wow or something like that)

2) Not everyone is a fan of installing a program to download a file. Yes, there are web based torrent downloaders or some crap like that, and yes, 'lets just make it optional!'. Everyone loves that phrase, but doesnt understand how much more work the developer has to do to do that.

c) How many people do you know that check md5 hash thingies on a regular basis? I know I dont..

IV) by now you shouldve realized that i havent followed a coherent numbering convention..

[Kordy]

IIII ) Torrents kinda evoke negative responses from ISP's. Wouldn't want to have problems.

[deMangler]

A) College campuses often will automatically ban someone if they are using p2p software, even if it is legal. (see: UF. One of my friends got a 5 day ban from campus internet for updating wow or something like that)

2) Not everyone is a fan of installing a program to download a file. Yes, there are web based torrent downloaders or some crap like that, and yes, 'lets just make it optional!'. Everyone loves that phrase, but doesnt understand how much more work the developer has to do to do that.

c) How many people do you know that check md5 hash thingies on a regular basis? I know I dont..

IV) by now you shouldve realized that i havent followed a coherent numbering convention..

A) I assume that is because it has been mis-used, I don't understand, but why bring college rules into it?

2) I don't know how you could download a file without installing a program, even if it is just a browser, or wget.

I don't understand the reference to developer work.

c) Lots. Genreally speaking, you don't release software without some form of verification. Usually MD5. Obviously with Windows this is less important. But it still happens in the background of a lot of installers.

IV)

IIII ) Torrents kinda evoke negative responses from ISP's. Wouldn't want to have problems.

?
Not any ISP I know oh, unless it is for illegal file sharing, and even then, the ISP doesn't care - they like good protocols. It is other agencies or whatever that want to control illegal filesharers who often use bittorrent.
I think we live in different universes. Lots of software is distributed using bittorrent protocol. Out of the P2P protocols it is the most widely used and recognised as the most ISP friendly way of distributing large files because it is easily analysed, there is little icmp overhead (if properly used), it takes care of it's own traffic management and is easily shaped.
<edit> I seem to rmember an American ISP, Comcast, being in the news about it.  I think they were alone in that though - generally the protocol is widely used and respected as it is easy for ISP's to shape and respects and complements the other protocols. <edit>

[Lancefighter]

A) I assume that is because it has been mis-used, I don't understand, but why bring college rules into it?

Yes, its been misused. thats the POINT.
As a college student myself, this is what I think about. I can only assume that a number of us here are college students as well - It is not something to really be taken lightly.

2) I don't know how you could download a file without installing a program, even if it is just a browser, or wget.

I don't understand the reference to developer work.

what did you use to type out your reply?
I'm guessing you have a browser you use, and you use that to browse forums, download stuff, read email...
See what I'm getting at? you ALREADY HAVE the means to download something via http (and probably FTP... but that comes in command lines nowadays).
Not everyone already has a torrent program installed on their computer.
Not everyone WANTS to have a torrent program installed on their computer.
Giving a choice of using either a direct download or a .torrent download simply means that whoever put up the downloads has to take the work to set up both the direct download and the .torrent download, as well as distributing both to the mirrors. Asking for options (liek omg! it should be easy just to make a checkbox for this.. everyones done it, seriously) is basically saying 'Ok i see your point, but instead, lets make the developer do more work so we both can be happy.

You can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you cant please all of the people all of the time.

c) Lots. Genreally speaking, you don't release software without some form of verification. Usually MD5. Obviously with Windows this is less important. But it still happens in the background of a lot of installers.

Lets stop for a moment.
Yes, I realize that installers tend to check their md5's (i have seen a number that do), I personally do not check it myself when downloading things. And this is even with a firefox addon that I can merely copy/paste it and it will check it for me as it downloads..
It is just not something i worry about. As it stands, downloading anything straight off the developer's website is fairly safe to do - thus, practicing safe browsing practices tends to negate the need to check other things.

[deMangler]

Well, we live in different universes.
I am not going to debate this any more here. I do not know how to begin to respond to your post.
It is up to Arcen how they distribute thier software.
I was simply talking about different methods of software distribution and their uses.
I do not know how you and your friends use their computers and I meant no offense.
Peace.

[NickAragua]

What the hell is all this internet rage going on here? It's not like anyone's suggesting bittorrent as a requirement for downloading AI Wars. If it's an option, and you don't want to use it, don't use it.

Is Arcen paying for these mirrors?

If it costs Arcen for every download then this is really worth considering.  Otherwise not so much.

I know many open source project like to seed a torrent to keep the load on the mirrors to a minimum.

That pretty much sums up my view on the subject.

[Collic]

It might be nice to have as an option, but given how small the game is, and that people can already download from steam, arcens site, or a few other places, I don't see a huge need for it.

The other thing is this makes far more sense for much larger, always online game clients (such as mmos) than for games like this, since there is a natural way to provide peers to speed downloads.

[Ozymandiaz]

I really like torrents.

I use torrents a lot, for leagal stuffs. But my ISP does not like it.

I am going to change my ISP soon. Since they claim that "I am actually using the bandwith I am paying for, and thats bad so we decided to reduce your bandwith while you dl stuff". Apparently "downlaoding stuff" is bad thing to do, for some insane reason, since its not like they know what I am downloading, I am simply using the bandwith I am paying for. Stupid ISP, if they got a problem with me using my bandwith, why the heck did they sell my it???

Oh well, good ridance to such an ridiculous noobish ISP.

Would be nice with AI war as an option on torrent as well, but its not really that large I see it as any huge benefit.

Had it been 4 or 5 Gb however it might be a differnet matter.

[Kjara]

Well, from the isp's perspective, torrents are usually much more expensive than normal web browsing even given the same bandwidth consumption due to the inability use things like Akamai servers to provide popular content from local rather rather than distant (or worse transcontinental) locations(especially if you are located somewhere other than the us).  Add to the fact that people who use torrents usually are much heavier downloaders as well, and there is at least some justification on the isp's part to dislike torrents.

[deMangler]

Well, from the isp's perspective, torrents are usually much more expensive than normal web browsing even given the same bandwidth consumption due to the inability use things like Akamai servers to provide popular content from local rather rather than distant (or worse transcontinental) locations(especially if you are located somewhere other than the us).  Add to the fact that people who use torrents usually are much heavier downloaders as well, and there is at least some justification on the isp's part to dislike torrents.

Absolutely.
Akamai servers are very useful where on-demand or low latency is required, like dynamic content or streaming media.
Quite often these users are heavier users than torrent users, but - as you say this is dealt with by using services such as Akamai servers, not to mention the asymetrical service favours dowload.
I think that there is a mis-understanding that ISP's shape torrent bandwith because they don't like it. That is simply not true.
They shape it in that way because that is what it is for - high latency software distribution that is suited to off peak times. It is bad when people mis-use the protocol by using UDP tricks or whatver (That is what I mean by mis-use) - because then low latency traffic suffers because the ISP's cannot shape the traffic properly. ISP's HATE that.
My ISP does not throttle torrent traffic at all during off peak, a little in during the day and totally kills it down to a few k at peak times.
That is as it should be.
The problem is, end-users want their content NOW and they think that if thier torrent is being throttled then it is because the ISP hates them, not because the ISP is doing their job properly and the user is simply having unrealistic expections.
It would help if ISP's educated people instead of treating them like idiots (like Comcast did).
Hurrrrumph!