downloading question

hi again

i decided i will try to play the trial to get a better feel for the game. now my question is, if i do end up buying the trilogy, will all the game info come on the disks, or will i need to wait till the areas download like in the trial.


thanks again

You can get it both ways, if you buy the disks from a brick and mortar building, you will get the cds with most of the data on it already.You will still have to download some stuff (stuff that was added/changed to the game after the cd was written), but that wait would not be long. 5 or 10 files when you go to a new area and maybe a few hunderd when you go to a big town.


If however you buy it from the In game store, the only thing you would be getting is the account key, which you add to your trail ( if you wish to continue from it) and that's it.

The key is the only thing you need anyways, because the data you can download from their site.

If you do not wish to wait a long time downloading the game, then you want to buy it from a physical store.

There is a command you can add to download all the files that you need in one ( or multiple if you choose) go. just add the trigger -image to the end of the target location


Properties > C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\GW.exe -image

Be sure to remove it after when you want to play, otherwise it will keep trying to update the game, but close when there are no new files.
The download can take a while, so if you can/want let your computer on trough one night and download it while you sleep.

ok, thanks for the answer, cause having to download all the maps would kill my bandwith

Dude that shouldn`t trouble you. Even if you start to download the game from the website it will take you up to 20 mins to have all the info stored. You`ll have to dl 20-22k files but it doesn`t take that much time to complete this task. After you download those files you`ll continue to dl files in backgrownd. That will slow your connection probably but it wouldn`t matter really. I don`t understand how it`s not acceptable to wait lets say 30 minutes to have the full game. After that you will dl only some files after every update. You wouldn`t even notice that you are downloading something.

I don't think people mind waiting 30 minutes to start playing, the issue is , that whenever you go to a new map your gonna be waiting for 5/10 minutes for that map to download.that happening every 20 minutes (when you get to the a new map) can be pretty annoying.

There will of course be some downloading even after installing from disks.

No matter which game you buy Prophesies Factions or Nightfall the disk will contain the data for all 3 games.
Your installation code will limit your play area to whichever game or games you buy.
So you only need to install from one set of disks, the game files will then update because there will have been updates since the disks were created.

There will also be periodic updates in the future, best advise I could offer would be to install from the most up to date game disks you buy.

Prophesies came out first so are likely to be fairly out of date then Factions then Nightfall then eye of the north.

I strongly suggest you find someone who has a full DAT, or download on a connection you can spend some time on to get it downloaded, otherwise you'll be waiting 20 minutes in between most zones.

At one point I installed from the CD's and I still had to wait a long time in between zones of that CD's coverage.

I say the best method is to download the 3.8 GB (approx) DAT before you begin to play so it is done and over with, no downloading again. The only downloading now would be only updates after your -image or a problem where you have to re download (so backup the dat file).

1. www.guildwars.com/download

2. Install GW and let it finish. It will then start up, once it does.. close it.

3. -Image - do what Xenex Xclame suggested, run the -image command.

well what i was thinking, once i buy the trilogy package, then download the patches and contiune after that.

i don't mind patches, but my bandwith is limited.

There are no 'patches' to download. You will always download the most recent version automatically. Downloading it all at once with -image only saves you time every time you enter a zone you haven't been before. It is not necessary to download anything before you can play, however. It is just convenient. If you're on a limited bandwidth plan and don't mind waiting a bit when you zone, there's no need to run -image.

If you just mean that your internet service is not high-speed, then do the -image command download while you are sleeping or away from home for the day. It does take hours to complete.

If you mean that you are on a limited bandwidth usage service, then you will need to do the as-you-go method and play the game slowly so you don't max out your bandwidth allowance.

If his internet is limited, I'm sure it would be a hell of a lot more then 4 GB per month... 4 GB is around the size of the dat file (rounded off). Though, I cant say for sure because we don't know how limited his monthly bandwidth is. If he is referring to dial-up i'm not positive he'd fill the dat file with -image until next year ...O.o

my speed is suppose to be 512 kpb per second, though tops it gets to 60 kbps. my bandwith is 10GB a month, and a $1.50 for each additional GB, but i just don't want to have to download everything even though i bought the trilogy. but as i understand it, the trilogy disks does contain the cities and maps

You should contact your ISP and ask them why you aren't getting the "512kbps" you SHOULD be getting. The Dat file being 4 GB shouldn't hurt your monthly limit if you haven't capped it, and playing GW dosen't eat up much bandwidth either, even so..if you go over, that DAT file would cost you $6.

I think what is best for you, though, is to install from the disks, and -image the rest of it, I believe that'll save you a gig or two.

Hmm, from what I read of what masterbreti is saying, the fastest they are downloading files at is 60 KB/S.. fact is, you'd expect to max out @ ~64 KB/S with a 512 kb connection.. so based on that, they are getting the speed they are paying for.

If however they mean they have done speed test's (say via www.speedtest.net using server's close to them) and it indicates the connection speed is only 60 kb and not 512 kb... then they really should contact their ISP regarding that

masterbreti - I concur with Bob, install the game from the install CD's and then let the game update itself (either using the -image command or slowly as you play the game). This should save you ~2-3gb at least.

The trilogy CD's would contain the game client and world as of the time they were made - thus any game updates and changes made since then would still need to be re-downloaded, but by installing off the CD's you should have the main game world for each campaign, the cities, the graphics, etc needed to play already installed.

If you add the Trilogy key to your trial account, you won't need to re-download any of the stuff you already have, plus you can keep playing your trial character(s).
Beyond that, you can either keep downloading as you go, and/or use the -image command, and/or copy a gw.dat from someone else, and/or install from the CDs (if it's a store bought hard copy). You can combine the different approaches - you could, for example, install from the CDs and download as you go until you have the opportunity to use the -image command.