Can we get a torrent exe installer like we used to have?

[BigWyrm67]

Like back with beta 2 we could just download the game via torrent and install it directly, without having to rely on a patching server to download the game.

Hear me out on this:

If EA all of a sudden decides that Renegade X is cutting into their C&C Remastered profits (which is a possibility knowing EA) they can shut down this game, this website, and the servers with a single cease and desist letter. However, EA cannot shutdown a P2P torrent because it is self sustaining and non centralized. EA might be able to shut down creators/projects but they cant shutdown players. I love this game and I just want this game to have some plan of continuity because I don't want to see it crushed the way EA have crushed many other games/studios. With the possibility of a Tiberium Sun Remastered on the horizon I can see EA viewing Ren X Firestorm as competition and shutting it down.

I understand releasing a new torrent for every hotfix is to tedious but can we at least get one for each major release? Maybe a torrent for the big one-point-oh?

I love this game to much to see it shut down. What are your thoughts?

[HIHIHI]

One of the great things about Renegade X is that the development team has an agreement with EA allowing them to develop Renegade X. So Renegade X (and Firestorm) are being developed with EA's permission. So I believe there is not nearly as big a chance of the game being shut down as you may have (legitimately, not knowing of the agreement) worried.

[roweboat]

Yes, this project isn't something like AM2R or Crono Trigger Resurrection, it isn't being made in secret. 

 

Someone was hosting torrents or other full downloads of the betas, but I don't think those are being kept up anymore.

[Gex_str]

2 hours ago, roweboat said:

Yes, this project isn't something like AM2R or Crono Trigger Resurrection, it isn't being made in secret. 

AM2R was known to public and Nintendo for a long time, but yeah, when Chrono Trigger Resurrection became known, it was shut down immediately.

 

2 hours ago, roweboat said:

Someone was hosting torrents or other full downloads of the betas, but I don't think those are being kept up anymore.

Itweek was hosting full downloads, but he hasn't updated it in a year or so.

[BigWyrm67]

13 hours ago, HIHIHI said:

One of the great things about Renegade X is that the development team has an agreement with EA

So do you have a physical contract or just a verbal agreement? One is enforceable in court the other is not. Your view of EA seems a little naive. Mega corporations like EA, Bethesda, Activision, Ubisoft, etc. do not have friends, they have financial goals and if they perceive you to be standing in the way of those goals they will stomp you out. You may have met a few nice people working for EA but when ordered to they will shut you down or be fired themselves.

It is not a stretch to see how EA might believe Firestorm is drawing attention away from any future Tiberian Sun Remasters.

Other game studios before you thought they had an "Agreement" with EA, and many of them found out what that means the hard way.

https://heavy.com/games/2017/10/studios-ea-has-killed-visceral-games/

[BigWyrm67]

12 hours ago, roweboat said:

Someone was hosting torrents or other full downloads of the betas, but I don't think those are being kept up anymore.

It wasn't "Someone", it was the RenX dev team themselves who uploaded the torrents and posted those links on the downloads page. There are no seeders for those torrents anymore mainly because they are 5+ years old and there is currently no demand for them.

Edited July 14, 2020 by BigWyrm67
Spelling Error

[limsup]

1 hour ago, BigWyrm67 said:

So do you have a physical contract or just a verbal agreement? One is enforceable in court the other is not.

While your concerns are understandable, fortunately we do have a written agreement which provides us with a framework. As for the torrents, those were always intended as a temporary method of transmission until we managed to set up a proper distribution network of our own, capable of maintaining the game with regular patches. Thusly any such torrents one might find are obsolete.

While we understand how several people feel more comfortable with standalone downloads, there are several reasons why we have chosen a different path.

First of all, there is the matter of installing the game. One would expect from a standalone download to merely be extracted to a folder and be able to run the game immediately. That, however, would not be so simple.  The RenX Installer performs a variety of actions during install: create registry entries for the game, create its folder structure with appropriate read/write/execute permissions, install separate components necessary for the game engine to run (see: UDK runtime components). Even with the Launcher in place tasked with these important functions, we run into odd cases time-to-time when one or more of the aforementioned steps fail due to a variety of reasons (client's own software/hardware environment, network issues, etc.).

We also need to keep the games installed on our players' machines up-to-date. The Launcher automatically checks for patches and applies them in the most efficient manner possible, downloading only the necessary changes, so one would only need to download (on average) a few hundred MegaBytes, instead of needing to re-download multiple GigaBytes. Quite a few people play the game on metered connections (4G LTE) to whom this approach is proven to be especially beneficial. In addition, the Launcher also provides integrity checks for the game, ensuring that the game download process (or later the patches) have been completed free of transmission errors.

In addition, the digital delivery system maintained by us is quite capable - moving dozens of TeraBytes on a weekly basis ensuring a swift installation and patching experience for all.

It is in my hopes, that I've managed to shine some light on the decisions which lead to the current system we employ. Should you have any additional questions, please feel free to ask