Illarion.org

...a USB drive? Using campus computers, I /could/ download the game (it's not big), but I don't want to have the files or the game itself on the computer for long. Would a USB drive function, and would it be safe?

this can be done as far i know as far security and other issuse like that are concerned..
But using different computer might make it difficult for paths to be named i guess. you might want to check that out and confirm.

Better solution would be copy to computer---play---- copy back to usb.
I used to do that at first because i was using 3 different computers.
but never tried to play from usb itself.
I just copied it to My documents itself everytime so there was no Path confusion

I would wonder that also.. borrowing another computer when I visit someone. Of course you would still be required to have Java if not automatically have on that computer.

Partially it can be kept on a USB drive.

The entire installation of the applications currently are located at 4 spots on the local computer.

1. The downloading application is located in the java webstart cache. You can't change that.
2. The directory location file is located in the home directory of the computer (C:/Users/<username>/ or /home/<username>/) and is called .illarion
   This file stores where the data and the user directories are located. Those directories are chosen upon launch of the downloader. The downloader will task you again in case you delete this file. Its not possible to change the location of this file.
3. The user directory is located where ever you chose to at the first launch of the downloader. Its possible to place this path on a USB drive. If the downloader notices that the directory is not present (because the USB drive is not around) it will ask you again. This directory stores the error log and the character related information (map, logfile)
4. The data directory is also stored in the same way as the user directory. It stores the actual client data and the majority of what needs to be downloaded. Can be placed on a USB drive too.

The new downloader (that is currently in development) will provide a considerably better support for portable devices.

Nitram