Reinstall & Friendlist issues etc with retail version.

Ii was thinking about what happens when i get my retail disks.

IS it better to uninstall beta client and reinstall the client from the disks (that i assum will be a new version anyways)?

OR should i reinstall from the disks over the top of the beta client?
OR should i ignore the disks and put in the retail key (somehow) and carry on playing with the beta client with a retail key??

Im assuming that the retail disks would have more "info" on them then the beta client ever had such as more music maybe and large files that were not included in the beta due to there size... altho like i said this is an assumption..

ALso will my "friends list" from beta be intact after doing one of the above installs, is there a way to keep it from getting wiped? IE being about to export it to a txt file or something... or is it kept server side with my account??

I would hate to lose friends on my list becos i could not remember the spelling of there name etc.

beta client and the retail client are the same. the only thing on the discs will be more resources, which you will automatically download if you need them. that is how the streaming technology works. if you are on broadband, this is a non-issue. you do not need to reinstall or install over what is on your computer. if you are on dialup, you may consider it.

friends list info is kept server side. however, it may be erased with the impending character wipe. i do not think mine was erased from the last wipe though.

im planning to do fresh install when retail comes out.
so i'll probably uninstall beta before installing full version(keeping 1 day early access in my mind).
whether you install top of beta....or do fresh install...i dont think it will make any difference.
i just prefer everything "fresh" thats all.

so lets hear what other people has to say...and then you can decide

cheers for the info, heres hoping friends list will be intacte

What Bgnome said is correct. The retail and beta clients are the same. If you are a pre-order then the day before, when we can access, the client will download the necessary files of the retail version to your computer. As for the friends list I think mine got wiped, but that may have been a fluke, as I was also demoted by the system from guild leader.

The beta client and the "retail" client will be the same. The retail client is just a snapshot of the files in the beta client when it goes gold. Both will have the latest patches streamed to them when the client is launched. Even if you can't log in prior to the release date, you can still launch the client early and stream the patches to you to avoid the bandwith rush.

Regarding friends list, these seem to be tied to accounts as well as characters. You see the character you "friended" as primary, and the currently played character from that account if different. What happens to a "friend" of yours if the character you "friended" is deleted by them? Do you still see them as your friend when they play other characters? If so, it's likely that (for preorder people anyway) these friends will be retained.

IDEA

how about simply reading and following the game box instalation instructions?

It will likely be a good idea to install from the CD's that come from the retail version. All of the maps should be included in that version, including the maps that have been locked for the Beta Weekends. Since you're only downloading the content that you need via streaming, you haven't downloaded a large amount of the content. If you have broadband it's not a huge issue, but it will still save some time once you get past the beta content, seeing as you won't have to do those downloads.

Lol. That's why you're the "Ministry of Knowledge," Loviatar. I think I'll follow your instructions.