Curse

Miss Persephone · Oct 26, 2006, 07:00 PM // 19:00

Massive updates. I am about to throw my lovely new CE edition of Nightfall in the bin because it is useless to me; I can't play the game. I am sick and tired of looking at the Guild Wars startup screen 'Downloading XMb (4k/s) 1600 files remaining. Yes that's 4k/s.

I am on 56k dialup because of where I live. There is no broadband avaliable in this area. If there was broadband, I would get it because its not only faster but cheaper than dialup.

The most recent update is apparently new features from Nightfall that are being made avaliable to all. That's lovely, but why couldn't ANet include them on the installer DVD I payed for?

When I tried to install Nightfall using the DVD in my box, it added NOTHING to my computer. The box says minimum of 3Gb hdd space required; nothing like that amount of content was added to my computer. Am I going to have to download the entire Nightfall game? The minimum connection requirements specified by on the Nightfall box is a 56k connection. That's a joke. My experience of huge updates and patches recently is that ANet has no interest at all in their narrowband users. Players weren't ASKED if they wanted to download the Nightfall preview weekend content; we just couldn't login until we had downloaded that massive update.

Ever tried viewing the GuildWars.Com website on a narrowband connection? I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a lot of time to burn. Sure it looks nice, but its terrible if you aren't on a super-fast connection.

What I will add, is that when there aren't any updates, I have no problems at all being on dialup on GW. Areas load up as fast as anyone else, I don't experience serious lag issues and I can fully participate otherwise. But I'm tired of not actually being able to play the game, because that ugly grey downloading screen is staring at me.

ARENANET PLEASE TAKE NOTE (I know you read GWGuru forums, I saw it featured on the 'Making Of Nightfall' DVD):

Why can't you ask players if they want to download non-essential updates, such as preview weekends? Why didn't you have the new Nightfall features on the installer DVD? Why do you publish such huge updates? Why can't you have an alternate version of your website for people with slower connections?

Aejorii · Oct 26, 2006, 07:03 PM // 19:03

Feels like other mmorpg's with "patch day" and stuff. What happen to streaming content in weeks ahead of time?

Phoebe · Oct 26, 2006, 07:07 PM // 19:07

Did you try to repair your installation after the content update went live?

Former Ruling · Oct 26, 2006, 07:12 PM // 19:12

This is about the...4th time or so that huge updates have came in, and its the 4th time threads like this have popped up.

As for your questions:
1) You cant pick what you want to download since the game servers are the same for everyone (You cant be in an un-halloween Loin's Arch and others be in the decorated version). Well you COULD, but it'd require seperate space on the servers which would make the Server Load so huge everyone in GW would lag and rubberband around and such.

2) Dont know WHY it wasnt on the DVD :\ You got them there.

3) They have to...To add the new features?

4) This you can help alittle. You can Disable stuff like Flash, and Javascript. Flash is what makes the GW website so hard on you.

logan90 · Oct 26, 2006, 07:18 PM // 19:18

Just use the -image switch and leave it on over night. Thats what its for. It isnt ANet's fault your internet is slow, and they cant always add a new download system just for those on narrowband connections, which are a very small percentage of the GW fanbase. Also about the huge updates they do.. Would you rather they did no updates at all? All online games have large updates. If the updates were not large, there would be no more content or features.

Tachyon · Oct 26, 2006, 07:24 PM // 19:24

Get a friend with Guild Wars and a fast connection to download it for you and then send you the gw.dat file on a DVD. We had the same problem in ther Flight Sim community, a freeware 600MB Crimea Campaign was released and due to the size we started up a CD swap program.

At the time I was still on dial-up so a guy in the Flight Sim community burned a copy and posted it to me, I'm in England and he was in Puxallup,WA. So it even works Worldwide.

Painbringer · Oct 26, 2006, 07:43 PM // 19:43

I feel your pain. I know it took me 2 ½ hours to download one night after Factions came out, and I only had Prophesies. I had to dedicate one night a week for just for the weekly patches. This was the main reason I switched to the cheapest broadband I could find. But on the bright side (minus downloads and loading times) you can play one of the best online games out there

Make sure you contact family members before you start the download so they know you are alive and don’t start worrying about you because your phone rings busy all day.

Omega X · Oct 26, 2006, 07:46 PM // 19:46

I remember those days on Dial Up. I'm glad that DSL came down into my price range or I would still be there.

Tachyon · Oct 26, 2006, 07:57 PM // 19:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omega X

I remember those days on Dial Up. I'm glad that DSL came down into my price range or I would still be there.

Tell me about it. I don't know what I'd do without my MaxDSL line. This morning I got the new content at a stable 700kB, took no time at all.