How to download all maps?

How do u download all maps so I don't have to download them each time I join a map.

Is there a reason for the download, why is it so big?

make a new shortcut, a copy of your GW shortcut.

Then go in and change teh target of the shortcut to the following...

"c:\program files\guildwars\Gw.exe" -image

That is if that is you path... If not, make sure your path is there.

Then that Shortcut will download all 3.26gb of the Game.dat file. at one time.

I normally then make a DVD of that dat file so I can have it stored for other machines at a later date. However please note every major update, if there are anymore, you will need to do that again to get all the files again. And remake your Backup DVD each time... the nice thing is the -image switch will download what you need, without downloading the full 3.2GB+ each time. so thats the best part...


And why is it so big? well.. it is 3 campaigns, 2 bonus addons, all of PvP, and an expansion now. Each campaign had a lot of material each, so yea, the total image for GW is quite large if you do not have a DVD backup.

-image makes you download everything you do not have.

Mine is 3.6GB.

Having had my hard disk crash and need replacing, I found having to reinstall from scratch a hassle.
Now I back up the data file about once a month or after a big update, if I lose the game again I recon it will save a lot of time.

It also decompresses all those downloaded files. Not all of the initial loads times into new maps are caused by downloading lag.

Yea I recently defragmented the Dat file. it helped the load times and the file size a little.