I would appreciate it if anyone could tell me if there exists an alternative method of acquiring the latest patches other than through the loader. If one does exist, is it possible that there would be a quicker way to download the patches? I ask because the download speed for my connection is downright awful, and I'm looking for a work around. Besides the obvious "get a better ISP", anyone got anything to help?

No, that is the only way we offer our patches at this time.

Only thing I can suggest is if you know someone else with STO who is already patched up - copy the hogg files from their computer to yours via DVD or something.

..maybe someone can start a private torrent of the current hogg files, and just change it every patch.

Naturally it would come with the "This is not officially supported by Cryptic" subtitle, as well as the "download at your own risk" and instructions on the official method if people are really concerned.

I know that I for one would keep such a thing seeding straight from my Program Files folder just so people can patch faster from a clean install, or they fall behind on patching.

The problem is that you would have to use that permanently. The hoggs aren't canonicalized, so they can be "the same" for two different people but not be binary identical. They are similar to zip files in that they are archives with lots of files inside them, and the same files can be written in differrent orders (just depending on which ones the patcher finishes first). Makes it tricky to make stand-alone patches :-/

Thank you everyone for your replies.

I found another, more unique solution to my situation: Sit in my car outside in the freezing cold parked in the library parking lot. While not ideal, it works! And yes, obviously I can hang out in the library when it's open.This most recent patch took about 60 seconds to download, it was great.