Launcher Glitch Points to Phaseout
As we first officially heard in December, plans are afoot at SOE to reduce the number of “launchers” currently being supported and move everyone to a single codebase for their patcher. From Amnerys:
Sometime after the launch of DoV, we will be discontinuing Launchpad 1 and moving everyone to Launcher 3. But don’t worry, it’s not the Streaming Client so you won’t be forced to do the streaming thing.
Our support teams (the dev team doesn’t make the launcher clients, it’s another team) can’t keep supporting so many versions of launchers…they also support all the launchers for the entire SOE portfolio of games. So in the interest of saving everyone some time and eliminating outdated elements that they can’t keep running at 100%, we’ll be moving all games to the Launcher 3 launchers.
All EQ2 Launchers do roughly the same thing — Update the contents of your EverQuest 2 or EQ2 Extended folder by comparing the files on your computer with the server’s expectations, and then downloading a “manifest” or list of files to be updated which will bring everything into sync. At this point, there are actually 4 launchers for EverQuest 2:
- EQ2.exe aka Launcher 1, which shipped with EverQuest 2 back in 2004.
- Station Launcher, which allowed players to use in-game chat and voice chat outside of the game, as well as share friends among SOE games.
- Streaming Client, which allows players new to EQ2 (or who have lost their CD and all backups of the game) to download a small portion of the game and start playing, with additional downloads signified by a jogging Dragon graphic.
- Launcher 3 (available as both regular and streaming) which is apparently a web-based launcher and requires Flash.
Original Launcher 1
Many EQ2 players I have spoken to prefer the simplicity and straightforwardness of the original launcher. All files are downloaded in their original format, and so if a file is corrupted, we can simply delete and redownload it. It has also allowed us to copy EQ2 from one computer to another, or easily back up the game.
Pros: Lowest overhead of the patchers. Fast downloads. Does not require Flash, Internet Explorer. Simplest downloader and stores all files in native format.
Cons: The entire game (currently 12.5GB) must be downloaded before play is possible. Password must be entered each time the launcher is started.
Station Launcher
Introduced later, the Station Launcher was supposed to tie all of SOE’s online games together, sharing friends, voice chat, and text chat inside and outside of games and even across games. It was an ambitious project and saw some rapid adoption early on.
Pros: Chat outside of game with voice or text chat. Manage friends from outside the game. Keep your EQ2 and other games up-to-date even while away from your computer. Remembers your password and agreement to Terms of Service (if selected).
Cons: Unattended updates did not always work, with many users being greeted with an error screen (rather than an updated game) upon returning home from work. Station Launcher seemed to download slower and be more of a resource hog than the classic launcher. Promised but never offered cell/mobile call-ins to voice chat.
Streaming Launcher
The Streaming Launcher has been hailed as the answer for new players who wanted to try EQ2 but had no interest in downloading 10-12.5GB of data before being able to “trial” the game. Players have noted some issues, with patching loops on the same file, or missing geometry/textures as these were loaded from the server.
The walking dragon animation which indicated background downloading of zones and assets has become the bane of some player’s existence, but the Streaming Launcher offers a real alternative for those on slower bandwidth or just wanting to try out the game.
Pros: Allows players to jump into the game after downloading approximately 1GB of data.
Cons: Long delays when switching to a new zone which has not been downloaded. Sometimes missing geometry, textures, and other assets even in zones which are supposedly loaded. Repetitious downloads of the same assets. Downloaded files are stored in a globular ‘assetcache’ which cannot be easily disassembled into paks files, potentially making backups more difficult.
EQ2X Launcher / Launchpad 3
We will confess that we have not used either of these launchers, so can only draw from player feedback. The first thing we notice about these launchers is that they require Flash to do anything, and launch an instance of Internet Explorer. This has the obvious security concerns of unpatched software. They also make use of the ‘assetcache’ which is a series of blobs of data, rather than the individual pak and other files.
Pros/Cons: The verdict is still out.
As someone heard from a Customer Service rep today:
I must be clear that Station Launcher support has concluded. The product is being phased out in hopes of transitioning everyone to our LaunchPad 3 which can be downloaded using the link at the bottom of this post. We will not be making huge developmental fixes to a product we no longer support.
Zoltaroth fixed this morning’s issues with the older launchers, but had this to say:
Currently all 3 (4 if you count SL3 vs Steaming) are being updated (SL2 having an issue today was a fluke) but the CSR is exactly right, we are in the process of phasing out LP1 and SL2. There will be official announcements about this in the coming weeks, but for now all 3 (4) should work.
Your Feedback
• What patcher do you use?
• Have you tried out Launcher 3? What do you think of it?
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Comments (31)
Samous
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I moved my game over to launcher 3 about a month ago; Launcher 3 was coded so you can no longer run more than one instance of EQ2 at a time on you system. Few other minor things that you cannot do with it, but its not bad as far as launchers go.
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Feldon
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That’s going to be a major problem for boxing.
Can’t you start multiples of Everquest2.exe after patching?
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suzita
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i’m using the streaming launcher on laptop and launcher 3 on my pc (both due to not being able to run station launcher for some obscure reason).
Both seem to work fine, not had any problems aside from characters not showing up on launcher screen and so having to select in game. The other niggle is that one is installed under program data and the other under users/public/soe rather than under program files (not a techy so that just seems… strange and confusing)
I guess moving to one launcher for all should theoretically be a good thing. I’ve been playing for 4 years and it was frustrating trying to figure out the launcher problem and then which launcher to download and from where – for newer players it must seem even more offputting.
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Michael Patterson
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Wow please look into that multiple instance thing. If it really stops 2 instances from running that’s gonna really suck for many of us.
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Samous
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after I start one instance on my system and try and log in one of my other accounts on same system the launcher’s “play” button displays “playing.” Even with my wife’s account that is not tied to my name etc.
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Samous
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Seems that I can work around by installing in a different folder. ex Program files (x86) vs Program Files (x64) or Program Data. This new client defaults to users/public.
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Eschia
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I use station launcher because i like to know who of my friends are online before i log in. If they are phasing this out without listening to our opinions on it then this takes away 1 more reason why i continue to play this game…
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Loredena
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I only use station launcher, and while it is occasionally glitchy I’ve been happy with it. I’m not particularly keen on a flash and IE based launcher with all their potential issues.
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Loredena
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Also, my husband 3 boxes — he’ll be less than pleased if they force us to a launcher that prevents that. Guess he’ll have a couple of accounts too many at that point….
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Lathain
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launcher 1 for me, nothing else.
Tried other, and i will keep the launcher 1.
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Lathain
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but i hope some fan from eq2interface will continue to support launcher1, cause i will not use something else…
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milliebii
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Who wrote this rubbish?
The streaming client “….offers a real alternative for those on slower bandwidth” what arrant nonsense if you have low bandwidth the last thing you want is a streaming client to introduce massive load times in the middle of a game.
“…. and launch an instance of Internet Explorer.” I have removed IE from my computer because of the inherent security threat it represents. Jury still out? not for this little black duck. I will never use this client.
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Steve
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I’m kind of curious as to where the term “boxing” came from and why it means what it means today. It used to mean that people had multiple computers running an MMO that they were playing at the same time. When did it change to mean that someone was playing multiple instances of the same game on the same computer. Why “boxing” if you are only using one box (PC)?
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Claviarm
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I’m using the streaming client because Extended has no other option. I have not attempted to launch a second instance through the launcher, but I have done so by directly running the client (EverQuest2.exe).
The second instance will attempt to stream all the game’s resources again (apparently it’s locked out from the first set of assetcache data?) but otherwise works fine. Having a second copy of the game in a different folder avoids this issue but has its own drawbacks. In either case, it is significantly more troublesome to multibox with the streaming client.
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Ghouti
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Never tried anything but the original launcher
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Drumstix42
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Their own fault for offering so many launchers in the first place. I’ve use Launcher 1 forever, play more than 1 account, and really don’t care what Patcher I’m used to play through. I’ll get in to game one way or another and I’ll sleep just the same each night. Promise!
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Calain
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1st if they remove the Station Luncher from the game I’m gone for good. I will never ever use the Launcher3 again.
I tried the streaming client in Beta and it was the worst EQ2 experience I ever had.
– I could not play longer then 10 minutes before the game crashed.
– I did fall through the world every few minutes due to not correctly rendered resources.
Yes I’m still using an old WinXP system with a slow hard drive, but the game was unplayable.
I tried Launcher3 on live and one important fact, they state is wrong:
It uses the streaming version of the EQ2 client, as the old client does not understand the new file format.
They may say as much as they want, that it is not the streaming version, but I have seen “the dragon” with this version of the client and I had the same crashes and not rendered resources as with the streaming client from beta.
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Caernarvon
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In reply to Steve’s question about ‘boxing’ and the terms origin, it refers to a games’ physical box i.e. its packaging. The term probably predates EQ2. If you are boxing / multi-boxing a game you own more than one copy of the box of the game/account.
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Feldon
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I think boxing refers to multiple computers, but it’s sort of been bastardized to also encompass running multiple copies of the game client on 1 computer.
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Michael Patterson
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I don’t want to go back to using 2 desktop computers and a laptop to 2 and 3 box. Having 2 desktop installs is also silly as custom UI’s, eq2 maps, and other approved addons will have to be done in both. not to mention act constantly having to be changed to find the correct log file for each toon.
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Greg S
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Launcher 1 is all I have used, and all I want to use. Allows me to caopy and back up the file I want, and lets me load and run the game from where I want.
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Llenwyn
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Using Station Launcher for quite a while now. Noticed a big improvement in patching speed over Launcher 1 so never went back.
When Velious was released, there was an issue with Station Launcher. The advised fix was to use Launcher 3 for the time being. Biggest drawback of Launcher 3 (and reason I went back to Station Launcher afterwards) was that the launcher did not seem to recognize my install. Although it did update my current install and allowed me to play, it insisted on downloading the entire game which I had to manually cancel every time.
I they truely intend to terminate all other launchers except L3, they’d better come up with a way to keep supporting the classic file structure along the assetcache method.
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Azzaroth
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Using Orginal Launcher 1
also Using Stion launcher on Notebook.
The big patch disaster on start of velious was a result of soe not even testing older launchers in Beta. Only launcher tested was the streaming client.
Anouncing support for old launcher has been canceld was trying to push people toward streaming Client or Launchpad 3.
Main Problems of Launcher 3 are the new file architecture wich dosnt allows to delete single files and you cant see wich data pakets contain them.
Also it makes use of the new Windows System architekture wich at least seperates a part of the data in the Windows Profile of the user.
This makes it difficult if not impossible for an normal user to host seperate
To make this Launcher3 usefull it needs at least the following features:
– Possibillity to host multiple Client on same Windows. If not being able to start same Client more then one time as possible under Launchpad 1.
– Possibillity to backup and copy client in a single directory and keeping the client startable from this single directory.
– Possibillity to clearly set the path of wich installation will be patched from the launchpad to avoid downlaoding whole client new or not recognizing existing installations (was a hugde problem in Station Launcher)
Otherwise Launcher 3 is not an option. And it would be a knee jerk reaction from SOE to force people the problems tha follow from using Launcher 3.
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Kaarkula
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They better fix launcher 3 so that you can load more than one account – otherwise they are going to lose a lot of money from people canceling a ton of accounts.
They obviously have to have people smart enough to realize this.
Don’t they?
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Dethdlr
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Since they plan on phasing out Station Launcher, shouldn’t they stop offering it for download? http://launcher.station.sony.com/ That would seem to be a reasonable first step to me.
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zerigo
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I prefer the original, however the only other one i have used is the station launcher. They should have ponied up some cash and got hooked up with steam. At least they would have gotten some publicity, and a working launcher/updater. As well as a place to purchase the game.
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Einina
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Well the original creates endless entries in the Windows 7 “Games” menu. I tried LP3 but the My Characters section doesn’t work so you have to log in to character select every time and there is no link to the update notes..
It starts quicker though and you can save your password and don’t have to accept 2 EULAs every time.
I don’t know, none of them work well really 🙁
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azaroth
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pros: the only one i see is that test/beta/extended/live/seperate accounts should no longer download seperate coppies of the game for each
personally i dont like this idea i dont even use the patcher unless theres a patch i play on both live and extended and found that by copping th ip out of eq2-default on extended then deleting my extended folder i can play both from my live folder by pasting the extended ip into the eq2 default live folder and launching w the everquest2.exe file this has freed up 48gb of space on my hard drive and drasticly improved the playabilty of extended, fyi when u use the patcher to update (i use launchpad 1) it will automaticly change the ips back to the 5 live addresses so u just have to change it to launch to freeport
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Naithlos
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I installed and tried out the new launcher today in a new copy of the game install I normally run from just to see what issues I might have to deal with in the future. So far it seems functional.
@ Azzaroth
To make this Launcher3 usefull it needs at least the following features:
– Possibillity to host multiple Client on same Windows. If not being able to start same Client more then one time as possible under Launchpad 1.
It allows multiple launches from the same client install.
– Possibillity to backup and copy client in a single directory and keeping the client startable from this single directory.
No idea. Would guess this will work based on looking at the directory structure, looks just like the old, haven’t tried any sort of diff on it yet.
– Possibillity to clearly set the path of wich installation will be patched from the launchpad to avoid downlaoding whole client new or not recognizing existing installations (was a hugde problem in Station Launcher)
Works. It did warn me that the directory would no longer be usable with older launchers. However it did recognize all the data I had copied into the new directory and only downloaded a small amount (about 1.7GB as I didn’t copy the full directory over, only paks/music and a couple others).
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Swagems
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Ok so i downloaded from here http://launch.soe.com/eq2/ I hope this is the new L3
so i made a copy of my eq2 and put it on a different HardDrive Ran the new L3 it patched my game took like 3 min ,Then I ran the game but i noticed that i had no player in the player box .The I open up a 2nd and 3rd Client and i was able to muilt box.
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Liftik
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I’m like many here it seems. If they remove the ability for me to run 2 instances of EQ2 on my machine, I’m going to cancel my 2nd account. Less revenue for them. Ya hear that SoE?
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