Unwanted Re-downloads(?) of Explorable Areas

Ok, I have no idea why this is happening.

Since about a week before GW:EN came out, I've been experiencing re-downloads of explorable areas for no reason I can fathom. First guess would be Anet updating the areas, but this theory goes out the window when the area outside Piken Square re-downloads itself twice in a freakin' row within the space of five minutes (went out, download... went back in to pick up something from storage, went out again. download...) .

Now I'm waiting for Marga Coast to re-download (made ten times as annoying because I'm on dialup... yeah, yeah...).

*insert more b*tching and moaning here*

So my question is... when did this start happening? Is anyone else experiencing it? Probably won't matter to high-speed connections, but at this point I'm only wondering if my problem is a) unique, b) avoidable.

*bites the bullet after four one-after-the-other downloads of Etnaran Keys and sends a support ticket to Anet.*

before you go to bed try adding -image after your gw shortcut, then run it to d/l all content you may be missing.
(your shortcut will look like) :
"c/program files/gw.exe" -image
first part may differ depending on your installation, but make sure you put a space after the quotes then -image.

Actually, to more accurately put it, it should look like this: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\gw.exe" -image

Thanks guys... I know about that trick, but haven't used it before. Mostly because I don't see why it would help after, say, Etnaran Keys re-downloads itself at the start of four consecutive Alliance Battles in the space of under an hour.

(I mean, what was the first version of the map missing that the fourth needed?)

I may yet try it though, as the best Tech Support has to offer (so far) is delete GW.dat and redownload the entire bloody game. o_O

Being on dialup, and a non-permanent connection at that, is deterring me from trying.

You're not re-downloading the same area.

It's incremental download of entire content.

When you zone, the game checks if you have all the content downloaded. If not, it downloads a small part (~100kb) of what you have left.

Use -image, or leave the game running at login screen.

It makes no difference, either you download entire content once, or small bits every time you zone.

So is 5+ megabytes at a time is incremental? Because that's what I was getting.

Seem to be yeah, maybe it's time for a better connect? If you can that is.

'Seems to be' isn't convincing enough for me. :/

If I'm entering a PvP area, I'm not interested in 'entire content'--only 'immediate content'. I'm interested in joining the match before it's three quarters of the way through. If I wanted 'entire content' I'd use -image.

(And for the record, it did not download *every* time I zoned. It has not re-downloaded outposts, just explorables/arenas. You know... the areas where you want your character to be mobile ASAP.)

So no, I don't buy this incremental download notion, if the increments are so hefty (and the response I got from Tech Support does not support this notion either). I've been playing GW on dialup for over 2 years and this re-download problem has only cropped up in the last 2 weeks or so.

Bleh.

The argument is moot, anyway. I'm doing the -image thing (been downloading for 24 hours now... 57% done... 9177 files to go...), so time will tell if it ends up fixing the problem or not.

*fires up Space Quest 4*