Why the convoluted patch process?

[phil180]

I've been wondering this for a while, and may as well ask.

*Why* does Battlefront have this convoluted patch process? E.g., "I need to reinstall CMSF and one (or more) modules. How do I do that?" (http://www.battlefront.com/helpdesk/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=181) and "I have CMSF and a module, patched to the latest version. Now I want to buy another module. Do I need to do anything special?" (http://www.battlefront.com/helpdesk/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=182)

For example, if someone buys the base game today, do they still get a version that needs patching all the way up to 1.32? Why not just be able to download the up-to-date version? Similarly, after buying a module today, it should be just a case of installing that module, and not having to reapply old patches.

(Surely this would make the overall support problem easier?)

[Schrullenhaft]

I'm not sure of the details involved in patching all of the module installers to 1.32. It would be time consuming to update each module installer to the latest patch level and I don't know the issues/costs of uploading newer files to the third party file hosting service (they have to replicate throughout the network).

The one advantage to having customers patch to specific patch levels was to allow customers to play at different patch levels if there was something broken with the latest patch or to finish a long running game that may have started with an earlier patch. Since the 1.32 patch has been released for quite awhile now and is now the last patch to CMSF, this seems to be less of an issue/feature.

[phil180]

I can understand people wanting to play with an earlier patch version to avoid bugs. Shame that the different patches don't play nicely with older instance of game versions.

But it's got to be one of the messiest, unfriendliest installs of a game I've ever come across.