Sending bulk data: how much is too much?

[Zelek]

I realize this is a pretty subjective question, but I'd really appreciate anyone's opinion.

I've created a very large world in which the server keeps track of each player's exploration. Ideally, I'd like to send all of this exploration data to the player when they log in, and in the worst case scenario, it could be around 500-600 integers sent at once. Is this "way too much" to be sending for each login, a relatively trivial amount, or somewhere in between? In the grand scheme of things, it's around 4 or 5 KB of data, and even if you have 10,000 logins or so a day, that's only 40 or 50 MB of total bandwidth, right?

I'm just curious if I'm starting down a dangerous path, or if maybe I'm being overly cautious about bandwidth concerns.

[Lapo]

No, you're not starting down a dangerous path
A 4-5KB message is perfectly normal, there are times in which it can be much more than that. Additionally you have to take in consideration the protocol compression which will trim down those 4-5KB quite a lot.

Cheers.

[Zelek]

That's great to hear . Thanks, Lapo!