if you update via impulse, the game is always automatically patched up to the latest version (which is 1.17 at the moment, yes).

so if you "only" have 1.04 right after the installation, i am afraid that yes, you will have to download the whole patch.

i am not sure about incremental patches. since the whole patching is done via impulse, there seems to be no downloadable "soase_1.04_1.07.exe" or something

well, you can D/L the 1.05 patch of over solar.filefront.com (a miniscule 10-15 MB). After that, it's like a 300 MB patch D/L through Impulse to get 1.17. Unfortunately, there are no patches after 1.05, as 1.05 was released when Impulse was still being set up.

Now it is, so that's where you get your patches. Luckily, it seems to be quite rapid.

Thanks to all for help, so i will go always on impulse hoping it will do a good work

Many thank to all again and have a good holiday!