Downloading Full Client??? [not wanting to get game in 20MB pieces while i play]

I bought an account online [same price as box @ playNC] and thus all i got was a key and the 72KB client setup. Everything works and i can play, but now the game downloads 10-50MB on -every- new area change. This is very disruptive and annoying. Does anyone know where i can at least semi complete .dat file or installation so i can just put it through the night and play in peace the next day??

Yea, afew of my friends have the same problem. I suggest you write in to Guild war support and hopefully they will add a full client download for ppl who bought the serial key online when there are many people who request for it.

Perhaps someone would be kind enough to put an torrent up of the iso.

Good idea.

Even better, try to find someone in the area who has the game and borrow their CD. No CD key is required to install, so it shouldn't be too hard.

Try the downlaod client at the guild wars homepage?

That is what i'm using. It is only a small file which downloads bits and pieces of the game as you go along. Problem is , if i'm in a group and we enter a new zone then they need to wait 10-20 minutes for me to download the entire area first. Not quite what i had in mind. I rather turn it on, and let it download 2GB all at once through the night than taking a coffee break every other area.

But yea, i guess i'll look out for a torrent, or just copy it from someone.

Obviously it's a great way to add new content i assume. They can slip in a new zone 'on-the-fly' . That i won't mind, but the entire game streamed to me in this manner is a bit much :P

enter the game area before your friends
have them do something else for 10 minutes and when it is done you can all jump together

@Loviatar

When you are in a party with someone and when you transfer to a different area the others follow with you and are automatically transfered as well. At least that's how it works when I adventure with other people

I bought the game so I don't have a problem, just curious that's all

Did this issue ever get resolved?

I have the same problem (I am downloading an area as I type) and it's really wearing thin.

This is for all the newest of us to Guild wars. When you install the game whether it be from the online store or from a cd, the only info put onto your computer is the main client and maybe the maps for the particular chapters cd you used to install. Now when first start Guild Wars it will have tto get several dozen (even more sometimes) updates from NC-Soft pertaining to the client on your computer. Here is where it gets tricky. The servers do not load everything that Guild Wars has to offer, they only load what you need at the moment to play, that is why when ever you go into an area that you have never explored you get to download more content. The servers are updating on the fly what you need at that moment. It has been this way from the start and can get rather funny when in a group their may be one or more players that do not immediatly load into the map, speculation can run rampant at the cost of the player downloading the content. usualy it is meant as fun jestering and I have been in several groups that joked the whole time on who has the fastest connection, but this was all in good fun. Pretty much we all wish that there was a way to get the whole game downloaded onto or computers to alleviate the Downloading, but I feel this is the best way to do it as it can conserve the limited bandwidth available.

Mega Mouse

Even if you install from the cd, you are still required to download a majority of the content. The best way to do this is to add the -image switch to the end of the command line. This will download all files and fully update your client. The process will take over an hour for a fresh install, even moreso if your internet connection is slow. To add the switch, just right-click on the shortcut to GW, and in the target line type -image. Once the download is finished, you need to remove the switch in order to run the game.

To force download all files, he target box should read:
"C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -image

Wrong!

If you install the client, it then downloads ALL map/skin/model/texture information for all chapters, wether you have the chapter or not...

If you only have prophecies, you have on your client all the data from Factions and nightfall aswell, you just can't get to it as its locked until you enter the right keys

i had this problem on my laptop, and there is a very simple solution. leave your GW client running overnight. you dont even need to be logged in. it will decompress and download all the files you are missing.

Sorry, but MegaMouse is right; When I bought Prophecies last March, it only installed less than a meg from the disk, and needed to download everything else when I needed it. As in, whenever I entered an area I hadn't been to before, or I loaded an area with someone who had a skill or a weapon that I hadn't seen before. Took me about a day to download Pre-Searing, then another several hours to download Post-Searing Ascalon City...after that loads were fairly short, usually at most 10-20 minutes...

Then I got Nightfall, and it had to load a ton of stuff for a few hours. Then I hit the Consulate Docks, and again, another hour of downloading.

So uh, yeah...maybe the -old- clients from the old CDs had a fair amount of content, but what they're selling now on both the CDs (I got two CDs and all it installed was 700kb from them! >_>) and online is the bare minimum for the client.

The FASTEST way to eliminate download waits when zoning:

"C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -image

Do this once and go do something else for a while. before bed, work school etc.

LET's not make this complicated.

-image as stated in an earlier post will force all data to be updated your client. Once that's done: NO MORE Extended load screens.

Firstly, heres the Client

Download and install that, then when installed, make a copy of the desktop icon

On the copy icon, right click and goto properties and in the Target box, you'll find "D:\Games\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" or similar

now add -image on the end of that so you have
"D:\Games\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -image
and then click apply and OK

Double click this icon and it will open the download client and start to download all the information your missing and then decompress it all so you can access it quicker

This will download ALL the game information, even for chapters you don't have, so that as soon as you enter other chapter keys you can hop to other chapters straight away

There you go, I knew copying and pasting this info into a notepad file was a good idea

Npe, i'm sorry but he's wrong!

If you image the game it will download everything straight away, however, when you goto the log in screen, it downloads the bare essentials for ALL Chapters, then when you first goto a new location downloads the textures, etc for that map, but the information is already there, it just needs to download and decompress the textures for you then, but the information for ALL areas in the game are downloaded at the beginning on the character selection screen

but the client ALWAYS downloads ALL game information and that includes all chapters! This has been confirmed by Gaile and Alex on many occasions!

if you do the image thing, then yes it will download everything.

but if you just download the client,install it, it will then install the game mechanic and stuff, it will download core content like skills, pvp arenas, etc.
if you move from one chapter to another, without using the -image, you will be downloading the areas as you move. the client will download most of the areas, but it wont download urgoz if you only have Nightfall, unless you do the -image, then it will download urgoz

Don't worry- the download sizes get smaller every time with the exception of towns. I wouldn't use a torrent-may contain viruses/spyware.

Right click on your GW icon, and change the Target command line to have -image at the end. You'll download and decompress EVERYTHING in one sitting. It'll take a lot of time to complete, but it'll stop the downloading inbetween areas.

NOTE: I'd suggest creating a second GW shortcut and naming it Update because it's easier than removing/adding -image from/to the command line for every update.