Might be the difference between active and passive FTP, I don't recall for sure... But I recall it is possible to get it to work, by adding/changing some proxy settings and shit, done it before...

But the thing is, the current GOG Downloader client requires none of that. It connects fine to GOG servers without any fiddling, no matter from what kind of network or connection I try to connect.

Then again, my past experience is that if the internet connection is slow and flaky, so is the GOG client. Like recalling when I tried to download a bit bigger GOG game over a mobile 2G GPRS connection when I was in Thailand, it just kept failing at some point and had to restart the whole download several times (before giving up)... But as soon as I got to a speedier ADSL line there, no problem whatsoever. No idea.

FYI the way the GOG downloader works seems to be partly modelled on bittorrent. The major difference, of course, is that the pieces are all on GOG's servers and not distributed amongst other users.

whoah, It took me roughly 20 hours to get witcher (1) & that was -good- for me

Sorry but I just can't agree with this at all. Much less clicking? Look how many finger strokes you took to type your message just now. I doubt you exerted much effort, but that's still more effort for your fingers than the few mouse clicks to download 6 or 7 files. And once it's downloaded, you just run the one .exe file, and that's it. It couldn't be simpler.

Forcing a certain 'directory structure' on me sounds terrible. What I would end up doing is manually moving the files afterwards to where I "actually" want them to go. Like manually moving the soundtrack files afterwards to my normal mp3/flac folder, or manually moving the wallpaper files to where I normally save desktop wallpapers. Simpler to just download directly to where I want it (that is if I even want to download the bonus content, which I usually don't).

Yeah but that kinda kills it, it's like downloading a torrent with 1 seeder permanently. If every user that downloaded via the downloader had the option to become some kind of seeder to help others with the packets they try to download and ease it on gog's end i think the system would not only be more stable but more faster as well - the more we help each other, the more stable and faster we would download in a sense. But it may be too good to be true or impossible to do, i dunno.

That's because you're not part of the Romanian master race like I am .

That's more multi-part FTP or even usenet than Bittorrent really.

Does the GOG downloader install games BTW?
I've only ever used it to download games and manually run the installer, thus always installing where it's supposed to go.

Good point. :D

Good to know. I thought it was due to my Sat connection all this time

'Murica, just to dang big

It just auto-runs the installer by default.

It does however automatically create a root download folder (which you can optionally choose) for all your downloads (including extras) and it then automatically creates sub folders for each game downloaded (which you can't choose).

EDIT: Here's an example of the GOG downloader folder structure

GOG.com Downloads
--\arcanum_of_steamworks_and_magick_obscura
----\Arcanum_Artworks.zip
----\Arcanum_Wallpapers.zip
----\setup_arcanum_2.0.0.15.exe
--\battle_realms_winter_of_the_wolf
----\setup_battle_realms_complete_2.0.0.9.exe
--\beneath_a_steel_sky
----\setup_beneath_a_steel_sky_2.0.0.9.exe

It all adds up, for example back when I downloaded several _hundreds_ of my GOG games, for archiving purposes. Suddenly a couple hundred clicks becomes thousands of clicks without the client, plus having to manually create a separate download directory for each installer (hundreds of times), unless I like to keep them all + extras in one directory (no thanks, especially with file names like "patch_heroes_of_might_and_magic...exe", which will not be grouped by default with the other HOMM3 files which start with "heroes_of_might_and_magic..." or "setup_heroes_of...").

But yeah, when I just feel like playing some small old GOG game I haven't downloaded yet, it feels simpler to just download and install it, without the downloader client.

(Interestingly, Steam client seemed pretty poor too for trying to download/install lots of games at the same time. It seems to be designed to download only few games at a time, trying to start e.g. a couple dozen Steam game downloads is a pretty frustrating experience. GOG client handles downloading of lots of games in one swoop better, IMHO.).

GOG doesn't give you an option for the download directory structure, but I'm been happy with the default one. It is descriptive and coherent, something that e.g. the installers downloaded from Humble Store are not.

Except it isn't "1 seeder", the downloads (and parts of the website) are hosted by a CDN - Akamai, I think - that's pretty capable at pushing massive amounts of data from datacentres all over the world (automagically picking the closest one to you). I'm quite uncertain that a peer-2-peer solution would benefit the data speed in a noticeable way.

Well I guess that they'e changed a bunch of stuff than, all I remember s putting in a download directory and it would just dump stuff in it. Oh and it did a CRC/Hash check to verify the download.
I quite liked that simple system.
Perhaps something like the Desura client wouldn't be that bad, I think you can still download the games without the client but the client also informs you of updates to your games.

I'm really sorry you had this bad an experience with GOG, and since I'm but an unemployed philologist publishing indie alt-lit books in a small publishing house, out of love, not getting paid at all, I'm absolutely not the person to give you tech advice and support, as you most definitely know how computers and the internet work better than I do. What I can say, though, is that you should give GOG another try. If you're that interested in Ultima VII, I think you should give it a go -- it's a very small file, and I doubt you'll have any checksum errors when downloading it, like you experienced with The Witcher. Adding to that, GOG's library of classics tend to work flawlessly under most modern OSes, overall, the Ultima series being part of those optimized good old games.

Not that it matters much, but I've never had any issues downloading from GOG, even with large installers... I generally use the GOG downloader and it never let me down thus far.

It strikes me as odd that a CS/Math major prefers the automated system of Steam over the control GOG allows over their files, but to each their own, I guess... personally, my slight paranoia tends to favour GOG's approach over Steam's; I like having to manually update my files, I feel "safer" having to install them myself and knowing where all my backup files are stored, in case anything goes wrong with the installation (especially when trying out mods). I installed the Steam client once, in order to redeem a code, and uninstalled it right away, as I didn't enjoy having that semi-DRM software installed on my machine, but that's just a matter of preference and taste, I guess (I'm aware Steam supposedly doesn't "spy" on us nor collects data we don't want it to collect, but, still, it felt strange to have a launcher for games connected to the internet, dependent on an online connection).

Amazing feed back from everyone. Definitely answered some of my questions and I am impressed with the community responses to say the least.

I have absolute sympathy for software devs and engineers and understand the constraints, but if we don't voice our concerns and desires in the proper avenues we can not expect change hence my post.

I did get the game downloaded and functioning and I am having a blast rocking out with the witcher 1. I have played through the second extensively and wanted to see some more of where the game got it's start.

All that being said, I like a stream lined download experience, something intuitive and though GOG has great support and community, I think with as long as they have been around, and as much volume as they sell, they really need to put more love into their software.

CD PROJEKT is not some no name company and regardless of whether or not my expectations are fair or not I have them! If I thought they were less capable than I wouldn't care. It was stated in an earlier post that not all user experiences are going to be the same and getting things to perform the same on different systems is a major challenge.

This is very true but it is the companies responsibility to educate it's consumer base if it wants to succeed. Thus if CDP wants a bigger market share the system should both be overhauled regularly and continually offer new functionality.

I completely made the mistake of thinking the path instructions in the downloaders settings would be for the games rather than for the down loader. The question that needs to be asked is why would a down loader have a path instructions for it self with in it's settings? If I can access that menu it means it is already down loaded and installed otherwise I would not be able to access said menu. The settings Tab reads as follows: Save downloads to:

In that box I have f:\GogGames a Folder I created just for continued use of the site, yet the download was placed under C: documents. For me this is a touchy issue I don't want anything but my favorite content on my SSD and as a consumer that is my right. In the end not asking me my permission to place it there or ignoring the instructions is a violation of my consumer code that's all. I'm not mad bro, I am just particular maybe even a bit anal about my file system.

In the end I gave them another shot it put the file in the wrong spot and it only took two seconds to cut and paste it where I want it no biggie. I also checked around the site to see if there was something I could change on the settings at the browser and no dice. Here is the last note though, I shouldn't have to look. If GOG's service was intinuative I would have known where it was going the moment I tossed them my money! Take it for what you will. Thanks for the feed back for sure :D