Game downloads while Idle..

Hiye,

There is that electricity/bolt sign on top right when you're in outposts..what is it?

Also say I get my cd-key of Factions from plaync if hopefully they provide it for sale, like so if I leave my *sob Sob* 56 k conenction on all night and say I idle in Ice Tooth cave...will the client automatically start downloading the updates for Factions and its contents? becuase like I dont want my 56k to load new maps forever on the day Factions is enabled.

Thanks.

I can't find the link, buit i'm sure an article with Jeff Strain stated that updates a downloaded over a period of time, streamed, then activated when considered to be live, hence the download sign, possibly a future update being streamed, or something similar along those lines. He also said that most of the code for factions will be streamed before then, you already have some of it from the PvP event! These, as Jeff explained, were key elements in the design, along with the fact they like to keep files small and compressed as it saves them money on the bandwidth. I don't believe you should have too much of a problem......

The bolt in the corner of your screen is a download rate for character models, terrain textures, and animations, and also tests whether your computer is still connected to arenanet. Data for new updates isn't downloaded until you reopen the game.

Not true, updates are downloaded while the game is open (usually nonmap content, so the op's idea wont work). Only the client is updated when you reopen the game(usually to take advantage of already downloaded content).