is there any reason to install two GW campaigns?

I don't mean buy the access codes -- I mean installing the actual disc that comes when you buy the game. I bought Nightfall first, and recently got Factions. It seems I can play Factions just fine w/o installing off the disc. Is there any reason to run the installation? Faster load times, etc...?

You might get slightly faster load times for a little while, but you'll probably have better luck if you run guildwars with the -image command line option.

Some thing like "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -image

what -image does is tell the client to goto the servers, download and uncompress every update to every location, and then shutdown. After a fresh install you're looking about probably an hour+ of time to complete so it's best to do some night when you goto bed.

-image is a better option than installing from the cd's because the cd's will only have what was available when the game was released, it's been around 9 months since factions was released, quite a few things have been updated in that time that won't be on the cd's.

OK, thanks a lot!

That is good advice, but if you install from the cd/dvd first you'll have less to download. Saves bandwidth and -image will be quicker.

besides, the campaigns are all part of the same game... Whether you install from the online installer, the proph/factions/nightfall cd/dvd or the installer that comes on some magazine cover dvd's with a trial key, its the same

basically, someone just playing a trial has the full game on thier system, the game just only allows them access to the particular content the key enables

You're way off.
Each chapters disc only contains core and chapter data. If you only install from the Nightfall disc and then travel back to Prophecies you will have to download a huge amount of content.
And the online installer has even less, it basicly only contains the login and character data untill you connect to the server, and then it only downloads content for areas you visit as you go. (unless you use the -image switch)

Umm, no, at the log in screen the system will download any information that is currently missing from the game, meaning EVERYTHING... this is what the image command does before it decompresses it aswell

Its for this reason that i can play on my account after a friend has installed the game and tried the key to show him what he can't play to tease him...

I'm pretty sure the Nightfall disc includes all data, for all campaigns, at the time of it's release.

I recently installed my laptop from the NF DVD and it put 2.6GB of data on the system. A further 800MB or so was added by an "-image" update, but that's likely the "Domain of Anguish" and other post NF updates - since it doesn't seem enough to be both Prophecies and Factions (both of which I've visited, without further downloading).

Interestingly the GW.dat on my desktop system is almost 2GB's larger, but I assume that's from festival data.

Your bang on, thats how it works...

and your desk tops is larger as it doesn't always dump things that aren't relelvenat anymore... personally i monthly uninstall, reinstall and image from the nightfall disc and then will do it from the chapter 4 dvd after its released and so on

My dat file is 3.40 GB. Why is there such a huge difference?

like i said above, uninstall, reinstall and image and it'll be at most 2.6 gig like mine currently is

There is a bit of missinformation here. When you use the install disc to do an install it only contains the player client and basic map data. All the other data that is needed is downloaded from the servers when you need it. If you have a fast connection you may not notice the downloading in progress. I am not entirely sure what the .image switch does but it seems to work for a lot of players.

Mega Mouse

Nah, I'll just take your word for it.

hey mega, you don't know so let me explain


When you use the image tag, it opens the startup client to check for updates, it then downloads all the relevant parts of the game you don't already have (maps, skins, etc) and then decompresses them aswell so that the game doesn't have to decompress everything as you load into an instance

It aids loading times aswell as hard drive reading and memory loading, so a good thing for your machine aswell (just make sure after you do it you do a disk defrag too to make sure it hasn't moved the DAT file miles away and makes it even quicker)

OK, but getting back to the original question... :P

The answer is: no, I don't need to install the Factions disc at all if I already installed Nightfall, correct?

Correct. Extra text because of text limit.