Request for Steam pre-download 1–1.5 days before 0.5 league start

Hello dear devs and community!

My internet speed is about 7 Mbps. It's fine for playing – ping and stability are okay. However, large updates before a new league are a problem. A typical 35 GB patch on Steam takes me about 12 hours – that's half a day. Because of this, I always start the league late, even though I'd love to join everyone at the very beginning at least once.

Important: I only play through Steam – I don't use the standalone launcher.

The 0.5 league starts in 4 days. My request: please enable pre-download of the update on Steam in advance, at least 1–1.5 days before the servers go live. That would allow me (and many other players with slow connections) to finally start together with everyone.

I understand this might be technically challenging, but maybe you can enable early pre-download on Steam, as some other games do.

Thank you in advance for any response!

"

TemkaStew51#3356 wrote:

Hello dear devs and community!

My internet speed is about 7 Mbps. It's fine for playing – ping and stability are okay. However, large updates before a new league are a problem. A typical 35 GB patch on Steam takes me about 12 hours – that's half a day. Because of this, I always start the league late, even though I'd love to join everyone at the very beginning at least once.

Important: I only play through Steam – I don't use the standalone launcher.

The 0.5 league starts in 4 days. My request: please enable pre-download of the update on Steam in advance, at least 1–1.5 days before the servers go live. That would allow me (and many other players with slow connections) to finally start together with everyone.

I understand this might be technically challenging, but maybe you can enable early pre-download on Steam, as some other games do.

Thank you in advance for any response!

They're not going to do that, sorry.

Maybe play through standalone at launch and when Steam update is done, then switch to Steam.

They will not do pre-download through Steam.

"

SkalicFin#0667 wrote:

Maybe play through standalone at launch and when Steam update is done, then switch to Steam.

They will not do pre-download through Steam.

standalone is roughly the same download size as steam...

"

TemkaStew51#3356 wrote:

Hello dear devs and community!

My internet speed is about 7 Mbps. It's fine for playing – ping and stability are okay. However, large updates before a new league are a problem. A typical 35 GB patch on Steam takes me about 12 hours – that's half a day. Because of this, I always start the league late, even though I'd love to join everyone at the very beginning at least once.

Important: I only play through Steam – I don't use the standalone launcher.

The 0.5 league starts in 4 days. My request: please enable pre-download of the update on Steam in advance, at least 1–1.5 days before the servers go live. That would allow me (and many other players with slow connections) to finally start together with everyone.

I understand this might be technically challenging, but maybe you can enable early pre-download on Steam, as some other games do.

Thank you in advance for any response!

Hi again.

Just a quick correction – I posted the original thread less than an hour ago, so GGG hasn't had a realistic chance to reply yet. I'm not complaining about a lack of response. I just want to clarify my situation in more detail and offer a constructive suggestion.

The "just use standalone preload" advice doesn't work for me.

Several people suggested I should use the standalone client's torrent preload instead of waiting for Steam. I looked into this. Here is the problem.

The standalone torrent method for updates like 0.3.0 and 0.4.0 requires downloading the entire encrypted Content.ggpk file. That is typically 100–110 GB – the full game. At my 7 Mbps speed, that means 35–38 hours of continuous downloading. The preload window is indeed days before launch, but I physically cannot complete a 100+ GB download in that time.

The Steam patch method – what actually happens on launch day – downloads only the patch. That is typically 35–40 GB. At my 7 Mbps speed, that is about 12 hours. But the patch only becomes available about 2 hours before servers go live.

Either way, I miss the league start by half a day.

A concrete suggestion for GGG.

I understand Steam has strict policies about preloading for Early Access games. This is well documented. Multiple forum threads confirm Steam does not allow preloads for EA titles, and GGG likely has no control over this. I am not blaming GGG for that.

But here is something GGG could do within Steam's existing framework.

Allow Steam players to pre-download ONLY the encrypted asset files – textures, models, audio – ahead of the league start, even 1–1.5 days in advance.

Why this helps:

Textures alone typically make up 30–50 percent of a modern game's total install size. The actual league patch code (game logic, balance changes, league mechanics) is usually much smaller. Most of my 12-hour download is waiting for the same asset files that do not change much between patches.

Steam's preload system already supports encrypted downloads that decrypt at release time. The encryption key is stored server-side and only given to the client at the official unlock time. This encryption is secure – preloaded files remain completely inaccessible until release.

Even reducing the download by 30–50 percent would be a massive improvement for me. Instead of 12 hours, I would wait 6–8 hours – and finally start the league together with everyone else for once.

What I am asking for:

First, consider asset-only encrypted preload for Steam users for 0.5.0, if there is still time to implement something.

Second, at least add this to your roadmap for future updates.

Third, if neither is possible, just an official acknowledgment that you have seen this suggestion would mean a lot to me.

To other players with slow connections:

If you agree this would help, please reply and show GGG that this matters to more than just one person. The more voices, the more likely they will notice.

Thank you for reading.

I'm not sure GGG has power over this, you might want to ask Steam dev instead.

"

Druidenjoyer#0031 wrote:

"

SkalicFin#0667 wrote:

Maybe play through standalone at launch and when Steam update is done, then switch to Steam.

They will not do pre-download through Steam.

standalone is roughly the same download size as steam...

Oh yea. Was thinking the torrent file but it won't patch it :D Thank you my dear adhd brain :D

++++++++++++

this is a steam problem, they need to plan and reserve the bandwidth for that window
just imagine that there are millions of games and millions of patches going on

the only fix is for you playing standalone client and download the torrent GGG makes available earlier

this has been a hot topic since the game went to steam since 2017 or something i believe