56k to do or not to do... whats the answer..

lol sorry for the title.. but anyways im trying to get my friend off a stupid game called runescape.. probably a few of you have heard of it.. but anyways.. i suggested him to buy guild wars.. but where he lives is IMPOSSIBLE to get adsl or cable..because there phone lines are old and cant handle the connection rates... so.. to get to the question.. i told him ive seen a few people around on 56k and they say it isnt too bad.. but i understand the downloads speeds will be slow.. but i want to know what the gameplay is like? could someone post something about it or anything like that thanks for ur replys to whom replys.

I would suggest not to. I had dsl down for a few days once, and it took me like 2 hours just to load forge.

people actually do it. i think some people on these forums use 56k...just downloading new places like Sorrow's furnace will take a while.

ROFL!! and u waited the 2 hours? but was that because it was downloading those annoying little updates between screens... or what... because i beleive 2 hours is impossible.

28.8k here

Its not that bad, sometimes when you load towns like lions it takes a while, or you freeze. But when inside pvp or whatever it doesnt lag - even with ts on.

I happily play on 56k, from Australia. Sucks if I want to interrupt anything, but PvE play is a-ok.

lol also.. anyone tryed WOW on 56k? just curious...

ive tried WOW on 56k... bad idea, big time lagging, my latency goes above 1300.
i attack once then the screen freezes and about 1 min later either im dead or the enemy is.
also i start gliding across the map instead of waling normally.
but with 512k broadband i get no problems.im also from australia maybe it lags abit more to aussies

Guild wars was designed to be playable with 56k.

Wow was made with a broadband assumption.

I play on 56K modem as well. It's no major problem, just the occasional (spelling?) lag spike here and there (that I suspect is caused by my ISP). Only time's things get slow is when they update the client and I need to d/l the updated files for it or when I hit an area that's been updated and there are lots of files to download.

It will take a long to download on dialup if you buy the CD-Key off the web and install the web client - this is because the web client just provides you the basic client to play the game, it does not come with any files for any of the area's. So this means everytime you hit a new area you will have to download all the files for the area.. which takes a lot longer that if you have the base files and just need to download updated files..

So if you can, install the game off CD's. If you have the CD's and he doesn't want to buy a box, then let him buy a CD-Key off www.plaync.com and you can install the game off your CD's - this way all he'll need to download are updated files (which will still be a fair chunk the first time he enters the game) rather than everything. And don't worry, this is perfectly legal - you can install the game with the same CD's on as many computer's as you want, you'll just need 2 different accounts (with their own CD-Key).. so he can quite legally and safely buy his own CD-Key, create his own account and install the game using someone else's game Disc's..

but yeah, the game is playable. Lag isn't that much of a problem - except in cities/district's where there are lots of people.. and maybe some lag issues in huge battles.. but it's usually not a problem.

if he has a good computer then 56k is fine

Other than Downloading and load times between areas. Dial up is just fine to play this game. I have cable broadband at home, but I have to use dial up to play at work. (God I love being a Firefighter.) They designed this game with the worlds inability to be on broadband everywhere. I've had connection rates as low as 26.4kbs and still played flawlessly.

The only suggestion I'd give is that if you are in a mission town. Enter the mission to get the files first before going in with another group of players. This way they aren't already halfway through the mission while you're back at the starting point, lol.

Note: I agree about having a good PC. I got a top O' the line machine which I'm sure helps a bit too.

I played on dialup before I got my dsl, one thing you might have your friend do.

Whenever he goes out with a party, make sure they know he is dialup. i went out with several full parties and whenever I (finally) zoned in I was all alone because the party did not wait on me and had run off and died or they all just left.

Hrm. I've been using Guild Wars on my 56k comp when my dad needs to use the main computer. The only times I lag is when I need to download files. So yah, it's playable. I feel the only thing that will create problems is the processor, vid cards, etc.

Negative I have no idea what 56K you used because I have 56K and no map ever takes two hours to load. In fact most of my maps load pretty quickly.

A few things however.

- You must have a modem that connects as MINIMUM at 50.2K (mines connects at that or 54.6, only rarely does it go below that but because most of my maps are loaded already I suffer no consequences)

- You MUST have a GOOD 128 or more M video card.

- Your procesor should at least be 1.5gHz or more.

- You MUST have 1G or more of mem.

EDIT:

- INSTALL FROM CD's AND PRE LOAD as many maps as possible before playing with anyone. This increases the speed of map downloads since the map base format is available and will only take time downloading updated files as a previous poster explained.

If you meet these requirements you will load rather quickly and move about rather well.

Cable internet doesn't run over a phone line.

anyway...I would suggest not doing it...it won't be the greatest gaming experience...I didn't even know people still had dial-up. Does his family cook dinner over an open fire too?

Zhou: stop listing off hardware specs...they can only process data as quickly as it is coming in. Memory, processor and video card have nothing to do with how quickly the packets of data are being retrieved and are therefore irrelevant when discussing modem rates.

I use dialup and it works just fine. There's a bit of a lag (like 5 seconds) when you load areas and sometimes you get disconnected (neterr = 7 grrrr), but for the most part it moves very smoothly.

Negative again. This game pre laods maps. The worst your hardware the harder it will take time dealing with what was loaded. I could post my whole support from ArenaNet when I was having lag BEFORE I got a mem upgrade to make my point across. Unlike other games this game pre loads maps, after pre loading you will hardly get slowdown unless the game is streaming an update (which I ever hardly notice)

I dont have Cable because I have other more important debts to attend with, Im the only one who works and I attend the house and two more family members. Therefore the money goes for more important things. No to mention where I live getting a job is an accomplishment by itself. I will be getting Cable later on once I know Im more economically stable.

In the meantime I have no problem whatsoever with 56K, but I did before the mem upgrade.

that has nothing to do with your internet connection. Even if you have Cable or DSL you'll experience the same problems if your hardware is on the low end. It's not relevant to a topic regarding connection speeds. Hardware has nothing to do with internet latency.

Im aware of that I was saying that this game works diffrently.Instead of simply constantly downloading information which is what caused the lags as you so eloquently put it, this game pre loads maps, after they get loaded the map will be available allowing to play with almost no lag on good performance machines. Therefore it downloads the information to a base line (if you installed from CDs) making this game more accesible for 56k users. Otherwise I wouldnt be PvPing a lot.

To summarise: 56k is fine, as long as there's no dropouts. Any further problems you have are due to your computer, not the connection.

Higher than 56k is preferred for PvP play, though, unless you enjoy only seeing things half a second after they happened.

well... you are completley ignorant... in australia it is very rare to have cable in small towns and so on and dsl was the one i was realy refering to... cable still runs through some lines but just not phone lines.. so realy u gotta get ur facts straight before u start typing and also hardware does affect the game, with ur statement you would be saying that a person with a 8 meg video card could play and ur wrong... i have a friend with a lap top and it has a 32 meg video card and a 256 megs of ram... 56k people load faster than him.. so you are wrong.

Rome.

I live in Adelaide, Australia, and i only had 56K un til recently. I never experienced any issues playing GW at all, obviously updates and paches take a little longer. I have a 256mg video card, and it played well. I have 1.5K ADSL now, as i have moved and the only difference is i get to zap into new areas quicker..