Guild Wars 2

In a patch tells me nothing. I have no idea why Anet does this but it’s super annoying. Some people are still trying to manage data caps and telling us the number of files is just….pointless.

Particularly this week with the beta dl. I got 1/3 of the way thru then accepted that I didn’t have enough data left this cycle for the whole thing. I would have rather known that from one look, saved that 1/3 to just play the game.

Just another reason why I’m not jumping on the hype train for PoF, so much stuff that’s poorly thought out or flat out ignored. Oh btw thanks for fixing the grandmaster trait on my necro after 3 freaking months….

About 20GB will be added to the game from current estimates. That will be distributed over the one and a half months, is that more helpful ?

But yes, we really need: 1) a percentage meter, 2) a size meter.

Sure, there’s a percentage meter already but it goes by the number of files so you can spend most of your patch time at like 50% and then have the rest of the bar quickly fill up because all the remaining files are small.

Pro tip btw, don’t patch the game at home, do it in public.

Not trying to bump this thread but you have made me curious. I’m unable to wrap my head around how I could do this in public? Because I would do it at my local library. Atm I’m imagining dragging my desktop there but I’m sure they wouldn’t be into that.

But ya 20gigs of auto-patching, I’d just stop playing. I’m yet to be convinced to buy PoF, definitely don’t want to burn up my data downloading a patch for an expac I don’t plan to pay. Basically I’ll be paying more than the cost of the game in data fees. kitten , I just had an epiphany… I’ve been paying a lot to play this game. I really need to rethink that.

You use a laptop, netbook or similar device, and connect to public WIFI hotspots. If you don’t have one then a friend can do it for you and then you can copy the patched game data file onto your computer without having to use your quota.

Ah well thanks. I lack those technologies so that’s out. But really thanks!

Or bring a portable HDD to a friend’s place a copy his/her .dat file.

You can set, in Options, Streaming – On Demand, and only download those files you need for the content you are playing at the time.

On Demand asks the game to download content only when the game requires it. This setting is useful for those who have data caps to worry about.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Options#Streaming

Good luck.

Right there with ya..I have a capped 50GB per month data plan, that’s the highest plan I can get. There’s 140 families out in this area that only have satellite for their internet, cable companies said sure we can come out there, but it will cost 400, 000, to take our cable five miles to where you are at, come up that, we will be there. So that is not an option, WiFi is available about 15 miles away, however, its not unlimited either. We have an additional 50GB (bonus they dare call it) between the hours of 2am and 8am per month. See if your internet provider is the same, and try to get the updates at night if so. That’s what I do, I get up around 3am and downloaded the data for the beta weekend. If you are not THAT interested in the expansion, don’t waste your data on the updates. If you are, download it, then buy the physical copy of the expansion, but be warned it too will need large downloads. Sucks when you have no option for unlimited data and I think people who do forget about those who don’t in rural areas such as mine.

It doesn’t tell you the size because it doesn’t know. It knows the total size of the files, but that number is absolutely useless to you unless you’re downloading the game for the first time. Patches to existing files are a small fraction of that total, and this is where ArenaNet can’t know, since they allow you to patch from any version to the most recent. What they could do however is include an estimated size, but it’d only be valid for those who were up to date.

If you really want to, the total size can be discovered by downloading the headers of each file, which costs approximately 600 bytes per file. I already wrote an alternative patcher basically for this situation, which allows you to download patches manually from any computer, then feed them back into GW2. It’d be trivial to simplify down to only showing the size.