56k - Loading core files, towns, etc.

I bought Guild Wars on Monday and it arrived yesterday. This morning I decided to go ahead and install it, but I noticed the first thing I was greeted with was a prompt to download files. I'm on dialup and have no patience so I went to the library and it downloaded those files. Great, time to play. I let it install the files off the CD, and then it prompted me to let it download more files. How fun. Close to 80MB of files, 4000 files or something, too. I let it (slowly) download them at the slow speed of 100kb/s that the library's broadband could let out and went to play it. When signing up for my account, it needed the access key, which I didn't bring so I went home, entered the access key and was really excited to play. I made my character and all that and when it was finished, it wanted to download 12,000 more files for the first city.

Seriously, does it ever end? No way I can do that with a download speed of 4kb/s. I can't make a thousand trips back and forth to the library either. Can't I just let it download everything it needs first all in one giant file and then actually play the game? Any comments appreciated!

P.S. - I live in the middle of nowhere (actually 3 miles from the middle of nowhere which is 30 miles from somewhere) so broadband isn't an option.

yes you can...

use the -image in the desktop shortcut and it will d/l ALL GW files

so you right click on the gw desktop short cut and where it says target enter a space and -image

and it will dl all

Cool! It works too... I think. Downloading 21kB (3kb/s) 88340 files remaining. I'll have to bring it back to somewhere with broadband to do that.

What about if updates are released in the future? I'll still have to download them, right?

Take a break...
Step 1: Right click on your GW shortcut icon. Click on "properties".
Step 2: Locate the target. It's a line in properties where you can see something like "my computer/shitty programs/Gw.exe".
Step 3: Add -image to the end of this line (so your target is like this:"my computer/shitty programs/Gw.exe" -image).
Step 4. Click on Okay or apply.
Step 5: Double left click on the modded shortcut. It will download EVERY FILE on one big donwload. It is advised to do thos before going sleeping if you have a 56k.
Step 6: Play and Enjoy. With a 56k though, it is unadvised to play with people in PvP. You numerous lags/disconnects will really piss off some guys.

Yep, if there are updates then you'll need to dl them. doing the -image will give all town etc details, usually the updates arent to bad, occassioanly there will be bigger ones so you're dial up should handle the updates ok

Yes you will have to download any new updates.

I have dial up as well and I always read these forums to try to get advanced notice on how large the updates will be, usually its doable on a 56K but when a new expansion or chapter comes out I always try to do a -image at a high speed location.

Also for dial up users I recommend making a backup of your GW.dat file (around 3.5GB) because if you get a new comp or you decide to reformat or whatever happens, its nice to not have to start completely over.

Can the -image download be paused and resumed in the event that it's not done before the library closes? I'll have about 4 hours (I think) to do it or less and I don't know if it can download all 88340 files at 60-100kb/s within that time.

You won't have a disc big enough to hold all the gw dat files. They guys were telling you about the -image so you could do it at home, while you sleep.

Another good idea, instead of modifying your gw shortcut, make a new one. Just copy and past next to it. Add the -image to the target and then change the shortcut name to image downloader or something. That way you can do it on a regular basis without having to change your gw shortcut.

You didn't get what I meant. I want to download all 88340 files as soon as possible but if I don't get them done in time and there are some left but I have to go, can I just stop the download and let it start again some other time from where it left off?

Gw.dat is 3.5 GB, easily under the 4.2 GB limit of a DVD-R. A 1 GB USB thumb drive is also under US$20. And yes, the download is resumable, but not ideal. I don't know if GW has error checking for the DAT file, so you may run the risk of corrupting files if you do that. Having said that, I've done it a few times without a problem.

Yes, I do. You're a in a big freaking hurry to play and you don't want to spend all day and all night downloading the game to your computer. If you go home right now and start downloading it, you would probably be able to play tomorrow. Copying the dat file to move to another computer runs the risk if corrupting it and then you'd have to do it all again on your computer anyway. So save yourself some time and just do it at home.

That's assuming his library has a dvd burner. And what if it does get corrupted? A friend of mine, who knows what he's doing has had problems copying the dat file to new computers and he ended up just starting over and downloading it the right way. It takes some time but it's less time then doing it twice.

Actually I meant taking my laptop to the library and using my own computer there. I won't be transferring it from computer to computer.

Like I said, I'm doing it on my own laptop using the library's connecting. I have a DVD burner in my laptop too.

Alright, thanks.

One last question: Any idea on how big the 88340 files are? Are they 3.5GB or does the 3.5GB include what I installed off the two CDs?

All those files are stored in a single file (called gw.dat) which, when fully up-to-date, is ~3.5GB.

Yeah, right now the total size of GW.dat is around 3.5 gb, included the files from the install cds/dvd.

My current Gw.dat file is 1.17GB so I still have another 2.33GB to download?

If I download part of it and then take the -image command off the shortcut, can I play the beginning of the game? Or would that corrupt it?

I know that you can stop the download and restart it again just by closing the window and running it again, it will pick up where it left off. As for actually starting the game when only half the updates are done, I've never tried it, and I wouldn't reccomend it as it might cause the dat file to corrupt.

I would suggest have some patience and wait for the entire update to finish, or else you might cause yourself more frustration if the dat corrupts and you have download it all over again.

Some people posting have serious reading comprehension problems.

To answer one of the previous questions, if you close GW.exe while it's downloading and open it later, it'll automatically resume downloading the files you have yet obtained. It won't start from scratch again.

I don't think leaving your laptop at the library would be a good idea.

Oh, ok. You didn't say that in your OP. Good idea!

Why not? I'm in the extended family of the librarian so she's not going to do anything with it.

In answer to your last question, while you can use -image to download part of it and then stop it relatively safely, there is no guarantee the files downloaded will be for the beginning of the game rather than the end.

Also, the amount you will be downloading will be less than 3.5GB because the files are downloaded in a compressed state.