I tried gogrepoc.py yesterday and right now, and with four download threads, I am getting constantly maybe around 12 - 15 MBytes/sec download speed, which is fast enough for me even if it doesn't fully utilize my 400 Mbit/s connection. So at least I don't feel GOG is currently throttling my non-Galaxy downloads...

Too bad I seem to have run out of HDD space yet again for my GOG installer collection (seems I have bought so many new big games since the last time I downloaded my GOG games). Either I need to add a third USB HDD to the mix, or replace the smaller 2TB USB HDD with a 5TB one, so that I'd have 2x 5TB USB HDDs for them...

Honestly I'm still familiar with 5k/s downloads from dialup...

Have a laptop set up to always run, be it for media or other things; Then set said system to download large games overnight...

Though when the GoG Downloader was working that actually was pretty good at queuing the next game/chunk to download...

I suppose the alternative might be to refuse to buy games over a certain size, and maybe companies will actually notice and either

a) Have a simplified version of the game as default with a downloadable replacement for larger chunks (reducing said 10Gb games to say 3Gb)
b) Optimize games and packing better so you save a gig or so
c) Start offering games in physical media and shipping core game to you...?
d) Modularize the games, so you get part1, part2, part 3 etc. So the core game would be downloaded (music and shared files) and only what's needed for said part will be included. (On the other hand they would be complete so you wouldn't be replacing them later).

Tell me about it. I seem to be constantly getting a new larger drive and moving files around. I have my games spread over a number of drives now, not just from GOG, but also IndieGala, Itch.io, Humble and ZOOM Platform etc. I guess it doesn't help that I also grab the Linux versions where I can.

Here's a rundown of one of my drives, that doesn't even include the majority of my GOG games.

Elements_5TB
------------
(Various Games) (paired with TOSHIBA_2TB)

Biosys - 219 Files, 17 Folders 940 MB
Desura - 290 Files, 24 Folders 1.51 GB
Extras - 5,213 Files, 154 Folders 7.45 GB
Falco Games - 176 Files, 14 Folders 527 MB
Flash - 290 Files, 24 Folders 43.6 MB
Freebies - 12,978 Files, 790 Folders 98.8 GB
GamersGate - 53 Files, 7 Folders 860 MB
Giveaway - 8,383 Files, 416 Folders 37.7 GB
GoG Classic - 2,093 Files, 114 Folders 170 GB
GoG Demos - 7,998 Files, 450 Folders 204 GB
GoG Excess - 16,860 Files, 742 Folders 1.17 TB
GoG Freebies - 6,796 Files, 354 Folders 222 GB
GoG Linux - 790 Files, 316 Folders 482 GB
GOG Mate - 5,537 Files, 266 Folders 276 GB
GOG Videos - 432 Files, 27 Folders 134 GB
Humble - 7,769 Files, 204 Folders 51.9 GB
IndieGala - 14,609 Files, 661 Folders 123 GB
Itch.io - 14,483 Files, 1,474 Folders 236 GB
MODS, etc - 11,178 Files, 599 Folders 14.2 GB
Steam Bonuses - 397 Files, 32 Folders 3.86 GB
ZOOM Platform - 1,027 Files, 58 Folders 17.0 GB

Yep, I don't expect any of us who lived with dialup will ever forget the slowness or the sound of the modem connecting.

I could certainly do that if I was real desperate, but I prefer to have my PC off when the house is asleep, and have it resting.

The good old simpler days. Don't ya miss em.

I can't see companies bothering, especially as they tend to be the ones calling the shots we have to generally accept or go without.

I have Raspberry Pi4 just for that purpose. It uses so little power that I don't mind keeping it on even 24/7, and as it is fanless too, it makes no sound whatsoever (besides the little humming that the old 2TB USB HDD makes which I've connected to it, and is its main (OS) drive).

Too bad my RPi4 is now on "vacation". There is some issue now on it that if I leave it running for several days, even doing nothing, at some point it will end up in a "stuck" state where I might still be able to move its mouse, but I can do nothing, and the only remedy is to give it a cold boot.

When it reaches that state, the CPU graph on the task bar shows that 100% of its CPU capacity is used, even if it wasn't supposed to be running anything, just sitting there idle. I even set up a timed (cron) job that it logs once a minute for me which processes are using the most CPU time and memory, just so that I could see which, if any, process or program has been eating it all before it reaches that state... but even that didn't help. For some reason that doesn't seem to show anything specific before the system apparently just decides to go berserk, and even that logging script starts working worse at that point, not logging everything and then stopping.

Either there is something seriously wrong and corrupted with its Raspberry OS installation now and I need to reinstall it from scratch, or that 2TB USB HDD itself may be giving trouble now, breaking down maybe. I've tried to inspect those too but didn't notice anything... RPi4 works fine when it hasn't hit that problem, EXCEPT that there is some odd issue with the AnyDesk client on the Raspberry Pi4 now, that I can't open its config screen. AnyDesk works, but I can't now change any of its settings. Tried to reinstall it etc...

Shit, better just start from a clean table, maybe try some other RPi4 OS like Manjaro or something...

With gogrepo and my GOG installers, I've already moved to the model where I divide the downloads to two different (USB) hard drives, a 5TB and a 2TB one... but adding a third or fourth or fifth one to the mix just complicates things too much maybe, as I then have to surgically divide the GOG collection to sub-libraries which fit into those separate hard drives.

Always buying a newer bigger HDD to replace the perfectly working one that just got too small for archives is an endless and too costly way. It has to be a system where I can just add several hard drives to the mix, into the same pool, which the OS then sees as one big volume. And I don't mean hardware RAID either because it is so limited, like all the hard drives in the pool have to be the exact same size etc. I rather want a pool that doesn't care what size the newest hard drive is etc...

I know something like that is (possibly) feasible with the btrfs filesystem on Linux, but apparently in Windows 10 you could do something similar too, with Storage Spaces:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/storage-spaces-in-windows-10-b6c8b540-b8d8-fb8a-e7ab-4a75ba11f9f2

But then you have to think about parity, do you want to "waste" space in such a pool so that single HDDs can be replaced without losing all data in the pool, or are you ok with such idea.

Either way, I want to find some sane way to reuse all older, retired 1TB or 2TB etc. hard drives that I have lying around, to create a bigger storage pool with all of them.

Big powerful PC Yep i agree. I don't need 500 watts on 8 hours to download a file.. that's why i suggested laptop or lower powered machine, maybe one that you happen to do torrents to seed Linux distros so it's not wasting time/energy anyways...

If there's a big enough movement i'm sure it would cause an effect. Then someone might get a brain and say 'Wait they don't want to take a week to download a game to play it? They might want to be able to burn their games on a DVD and have it all fit? What a novel idea!!'

who knows.

Big heatsink i assume? I got one but haven't added it to my second pi4 yet, haven't had the need...

As for it getting in a stuck state i'm not sure how to help. Use top to determine what is using the cpu cycles? I'd wonder if it's an bad state from a very rare yet not impossible occurrence to happen. I'm reminded of Walter Bright, he commented on cases the FPU can get into and how NAN returns false when compared, so you can get every comparison a false state ending with an infinite loop if you weren't looking for it. The Android sometimes does something similar called 'Rapid Battery Drain Syndrome' or something where i'm sure something similar happens.

I've well and truly moved beyond a small number of drives, and yes like you suggest, I have to separate GOG games etc into categories, which you no doubt noticed in my last post list.

Also note at the beginning of the list it says - (paired with TOSHIBA_2TB). That 2 TB drive is full almost of the rest of my GOG games, in alphabet folders. In fact it is so full, that most new purchases from GOG, go into that GoG Excess folder on the 5 TB drive. I have one large AC powered 4 TB drive, that has all my GOG games except Demos and Linux versions, as well as no GoG Videos or GoG Movies. That is almost full, but the closest currently that I get to accommodating my whole GOG game collection. I've got other drives paired to other drives, and even that 4 TB drive is paired to another for those above listed media not contained on it.

A brief break down of a few of the GoG category folders.

GoG Excess - Basically my overflow folder for GOG games that won't fit with any main grouping drives.

GoG Freebies - That contains every GOG game I got for free from GOG or via a gift code from someone or somewhere else.

GoG Mate - This is for games I've bought from GOG, that have a related game in the GoG Freebies or GoG Demos folders.

GoG Classic - This a group of older GOG games. Just another way to divide my GOG games up to spread over more than one drive. This for instance, contains all the Doom and Quake and Wolfenstein etc games, and many other oldies. By oldies, at least one in a series has to qualify as that.

GoG Videos - These are movies sold by GOG that relate to games.

GoG Movies - These are movies sold by GOG that don't relate to games.

Unfortunately, I have not hit upon a better solution, not one I can afford anyway.
I've moved beyond NAS, back to individual drives. Some will see that as backward, but honestly the logic says otherwise ... unless you have big bucks to truly do it properly ... that includes storing offsite. NAS really isn't ideal for the home user unless your collection is small or you have plenty of money to do all that is needed.

Personally I am always juggling and re-purposing drives. Once I stop buying though, I should be ok. Currently I keep four physically separate copies of my games (on many drives) ... then there's the GOG servers for a fifth. That spreads the risks fairly well in my view, though a bit troublesome to handle ... bit of work anyway.

The benefit is, that I don't have all my eggs in one NAS basket, or indeed one location.

Alas I think that ship has sailed.

Not enough, think like you and me in that regard.
You only have to look at how many buy AAA games when they first come out or are even prepared to buy games here for big bucks.

If most gamers had more sense than money, gamers would have some control over gaming conditions in regard to purchase and updates, bugfixes etc. The way things are now and have been for a long time, we have bugger all power, and I don't see that changing any time soon, and its the same for all forms of media.

The gaming industry needs to be taken away from the money makers and given back to those who legitimately care about games, not the money made. That's not to say reasonable profit money and recompense should be excluded, just that it needs to be done in a more caring fairer manner.

This (bolded bit) sounds fair, but one thing (that you likely already know): civil criticism (I mean actual examples of such) isn't bullying.

Btw: since you're (seemingly) trying to be fair, will you be removing the false things/personal info re: me in Post 40?

Seeing as the rep is worthless, and easily abused by others, imo there's little point to such.

Musing: If GOG removed that system, there would be no rep loss to worry about, as there would be no rep.

Tbf we only have your word that you're doing all of this. Still, if you actually are making some positive changes, then it's some improvement on your part and I commend you somewhat for doing so.

Side note: I have actually uprated several of your posts ITT that I found to be informative/civil/etc....hasn't done much good, however.

Agreed 100%