Improvements made to SOE's Station Launcher beta
by James Egan 
Oct 18th 2008 at 3:00PM
Filed under: Betas, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Bugs, Forums, News items, Star Wars Galaxies, Vanguard
If you're a fan of SOE games, you may have noticed some big changes this week to the Station Launcher beta. Similar in function to the PlayNC launcher for NCsoft games, Station Launcher manages games, updates, and downloads, but it also allows you to chat with your friends across the SOE titles. While the idea of it is appealing, there have been problems with how the Station Launcher functioned. Dan Kinney, Senior Director of Platform Client Applications at SOE gave a rundown of the changes they've made based off of player feedback:
• Preferences are now saved - There's a fix for a "Lost Settings" bug that was commonly reported and caused many players to lose their saved preferences.
• Improved Network Resiliency - The update enables Station Launcher to be more resilient to network fluctuations and reduces the need for players to retry file downloads.
• Improved Auto Launch behavior - When clicking on a shortcut to a game, the customer will immediately be presented with the Game Update screen for that game. The "News" pane will also be opened automatically. Previously, players were taken to the Game Select screen and forced to wait for 5 seconds, before being allowed to proceed.
• Game Update screen now includes "Show All Games" - There's a button on the Game Update screen that's now labeled "Show All Games," instead of "Back to Games".
• Ability for Vanguard players to enter a game with selected character - There's now an "Enter As..." support for Vanguard players; a menu on the Game Update screen allows a customer to enter the game with their character already selected. This is also supported within EverQuest II and Star Wars Galaxies.
• Automatic Directory Location selection - When you switch to a different server version, Station Launcher will create a directory based on the name of the new server. Previously, you had to manually choose a directory location.
• Multi-Instance Support - Players will be able use the application to play more than one instance of a game. This does require additional setup steps and is recommended to be used only by advanced users.
• We want to know more about your Station Launcher experience - We want to make it the best experience possible for you. We want to know how its functionality is working for you, and understand what you think can make Station Launcher even better. When you click on the "Station Launcher Feedback" button, you'll be taken to an online survey to share your experiences. Be brutally honest with us.
There are known issues that remain, however, such as interrupted downloads, update scanning getting stuck, and the inability to copy text from chat although you can paste text in. Kinney writes that they're working to resolve those issues and hopes players will continue to let SOE know what needs to be changed in Station Launcher.
