Guild Wars 2

I’ve just bought a GW2. My download speed is only 120KB/sec. I am calculating that it will be downloaded within about 45 hours (if it’s 20GB). I am patient, I was playing GW and I believe (hope?) it’s worth to wait. But not just me have such problem.

Why couldn’t we play while downloading?

Because you are downloading what you need to play the game?

That’s like asking why you can’t watch the film you ordered on Amazon while it’s still being shipped…

Although I have to admit, I like SWTOR’s system of letting you play on starter planets while the initial download isn’t finished yet… mhmm…

(I feel you, though, I downloaded for 9 hours straight, and that was on release day… I’m dreading Tuesday’s feature patch already…)

Unlike GW1, GW2 is not instanced at all. This means you need to have everything downloaded for the game files otherwise things can be problematic for you if you try playing with 1/2 the client files downloaded (you dont know WHICH half was downloaded).

It’s nothing like GW1, at all.

After it went Free to Play, CoH had this as well. It downloaded the stuff you needed to start, and then while you played it would work on downloading the rest of the game files.

However, it struck me as a lot of effort for something that you only really need once. This is one of the (increasingly rare) areas where I think the ANet devs made the right call by not adding in a feature.

milo.6942:

It’s nothing like GW1, at all.

They didn’t mean in game, they meant the backend of the client is not the same, in GW1 they could push small updates while you played because zones etc where instanced, GW2 its not possible as you can jump from 1 place to another instantly.

Ok I Did It.2854:

milo.6942:

It’s nothing like GW1, at all.

They didn’t mean in game, they meant the backend of the client is not the same, in GW1 they could push small updates while you played because zones etc where instanced, GW2 its not possible as you can jump from 1 place to another instantly.

I understand but he said he was hoping the game was worth the wait based on his time with GW1, I was just forewarning him.

People that say it is not possible probably never downloaded any game from Blizzard or Rift.
There you can download just aroun 1GB of game and rest will download while you play. Files needed to play game are prefered. If you manage to get to area that is not downloaded yet transparent barrier will stop you and then disappear in few seconds becouse game will immediately download what you need to continue.
Naturaly this should happen only when you get to some area you never visited before and you get there very quickly.

daros.3407:

People that say it is not possible probably never downloaded any game from Blizzard or Rift.
There you can download just aroun 1GB of game and rest will download while you play. Files needed to play game are prefered. If you manage to get to area that is not downloaded yet transparent barrier will stop you and then disappear in few seconds becouse game will immediately download what you need to continue.
Naturaly this should happen only when you get to some area you never visited before and you get there very quickly.

But with Rift, this was a more recent change. When the game first came out, you could not.

But the GW2 is more than 2 years and 6 months old. I think it is enough to improve download process. How to imagine, when after next 2 years new player join and have to download all these files?
As daros said I thought about something like Blizzards solutions. (And following by Red Queen; I compare play while downloading rather to watching streaming film. )

Istvan.4653:

But the GW2 is more than 2 years and 6 months old. I think it is enough to improve download process. How to imagine, when after next 2 years new player join and have to download all these files?
As daros said I thought about something like Blizzards solutions. (And following by Red Queen; I compare play while downloading rather to watching streaming film. )

Uhm, it’s only 1½ year old.

…okay, if you put it that way, I think I know where you’re coming from. Until three months ago, streaming here was like watching a stop-motion film ._.

But I still don’t think they’ll ever make it possible to play while downloading; fast internet connections are becoming more widespread, and that means download times on average will become shorter and shorter. Doesn’t help those who don’t have access to this kind of connection, but it’s a sad truth.

This kind of thinking seems to be pretty common these days. Steam, the PSN and similar ways of purchasing games are very popular, even if download times are a pain sometimes. And don’t get me started on Titanfall’s 28gb for the download version; that right there is why I won’t buy a next gen console any time soon… T_T

Uhm, it’s only 1½ year old.

Oups, right. My mistake. But i think it’s not such big innovation that we have to wait for years.

It’s kind of neat when a game lets you play while it’s still partially downloading, but that’s still not exactly a standard feature across the board. And in my experience, the game doesn’t really run very well while it’s doing that.

It’s understandable you don’t want to wait for a big download like that, especially if it’s going to take the 45 hours you say. But, it’s not like you’ll be facing a download of that size all the time, it’s essentially a one-time thing. For most people, it would not take nearly that long — and update patches are usually pretty trivial download times.

Palador.2170:

….it struck me as a lot of effort for something that you only really need once. This is one of the (increasingly rare) areas where I think the ANet devs made the right call by not adding in a feature.

I agree with this and think this is why it hasn’t been added/changed, along with a few other reasons, such as ArenaNet’s handling of the files; they are encrypted and compressed as a chunk, versus separate files all over and accessible once installed, like other companies/developers have done (some of them not even compressing or encrypting their files at all).

For the most part though, you will also only ‘want’ this feature the first time you install it, then after that, you can’t even use it – as with any reinstall afterward, your characters have explored the lands and have waypoints that you can jump to – you will really need to have everything ready and at least accessible then. So, they just leave it as is, as ‘legacy’ as it might feel…

I just wish I could fiddle with my inventory and sell stuff on tp while I’m waiting the ICE-AGE it seems to take for zones to load.

I have ‘rural’ broadband that’s comparable to a piece of string with a tin can at each end. And I too am dreading the feature patch. I’ll be lucky to play before Thursday >.<

Istvan.4653:

My download speed is only 120KB/sec.

This is the unfortunate reason behind the slow download speed as well. Luckily (for me at least), my download speeds are on average 10 times faster. I had GW2 downloaded and installed in about 3 hours at the outside.

Thing like Blizzard downloader could work perfectly for GW2 since the world is a separate zone, instanced for players inside and not connected with rest of the world.

However, ANet is not Blizzard, it’s a small team (350+ including all testers, CC managers etc is arguably minimum for a competitive game of it’s size) and should focus on way more important in-game stuff atm. Downloader like this could come with next feature patches"

Welcome to the game (when download is done), Istvan!

I have long thought that it would be neat if we could have a Character Creator separate. If it were possible to somehow save the settings and move them to the real game, one could create the character(s) ready. It could also work as advertising tool: Let people create characters for free and they might take enough interest to want to see them walking around.

I’m actually really curious how blizzard and swtor pull it off. Playing the game when it’s still downloading.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Unlike GW1, GW2 is not instanced at all. This means you need to have everything downloaded for the game files otherwise things can be problematic for you if you try playing with 1/2 the client files downloaded (you dont know WHICH half was downloaded).

Meanwhile, WoW has allowed you to play while downloading for years. Heck, I maybe downloaded 1/4th of the necessary files to play WoW, and I was still able to play it while it was downloading.

Also: Instances/no instances have absolutely nothing to do with being able to play while downloading.

45 minute wait time. Gotta love those 1st world problems.

Greyhound.2058:

I just wish I could fiddle with my inventory and sell stuff on tp while I’m waiting the ICE-AGE it seems to take for zones to load.

I have ‘rural’ broadband that’s comparable to a piece of string with a tin can at each end. And I too am dreading the feature patch. I’ll be lucky to play before Thursday >.<

I have rural broadband too. Sigh. The last patch took me 6 hours. The original game at launch took me 3 days.

Not looking forward to when my computer wigs out and I need a new one.

Sort of along this topic, it would be nice that if you are playing the game and an update comes you can download while playing, then be given the option once it is done to re-log and be in the new patch. This doesn’t sound like much effort as long as the download does not take more then an hour (because you can continue playing after an update has hit up to an hour before being forced to log out and download the new patch.

Galtrix.7369:

Aidan Savage.2078:

Unlike GW1, GW2 is not instanced at all. This means you need to have everything downloaded for the game files otherwise things can be problematic for you if you try playing with 1/2 the client files downloaded (you dont know WHICH half was downloaded).

Meanwhile, WoW has allowed you to play while downloading for years. Heck, I maybe downloaded 1/4th of the necessary files to play WoW, and I was still able to play it while it was downloading.

Also: Instances/no instances have absolutely nothing to do with being able to play while downloading.

Haven’t you been paying attention to the forums? Anything from WoW is evil and bad, no matter how much it might improve this game. #sarcasm

Astral Projections.7320:

Greyhound.2058:

I just wish I could fiddle with my inventory and sell stuff on tp while I’m waiting the ICE-AGE it seems to take for zones to load.

I have ‘rural’ broadband that’s comparable to a piece of string with a tin can at each end. And I too am dreading the feature patch. I’ll be lucky to play before Thursday >.<

I have rural broadband too. Sigh. The last patch took me 6 hours. The original game at launch took me 3 days.

Not looking forward to when my computer wigs out and I need a new one.

Back it up. You can get a 32GB Flash Drive for under $20. Then you just have to copy it to the new computer. GW2 doesn’t need to be “installed”, once you have it you can just copy the folder anywhere and create a shortcut to the GW2.EXE file and run it.

Alternately you could get an external USB drive (1TB – 3TB) for $50-$100 and back up most of your entire computer to it.

Aidan Savage.2078:

Unlike GW1, GW2 is not instanced at all. This means you need to have everything downloaded for the game files otherwise things can be problematic for you if you try playing with 1/2 the client files downloaded (you dont know WHICH half was downloaded).

Except GW2 is instanced. It’s not a seamless world where you can go from one map to another without the game requiring to load files, thus it should be possible, simply by having the downloader download all of the basic files (assets, character creation, starter map enemies ect) and the starter maps, and then prioritise the next set of maps, lower level dungeons and so on.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Haven’t you been paying attention to the forums? Anything from WoW is evil and bad, no matter how much it might improve this game. #sarcasm

Where did they say it was a bad idea because WoW implemented it?

Get a better computer and internet connection?

Zeivu.3615:

Get a better computer and internet connection?

Yeah, because that’s so totally possible for everyone. Until a few months ago I couldn’t have gotten broadband if I had paid them triple digits every month. It simply wasn’t there.
And I’m sure everyone can just shell out the money for a high-end machine at any given time.

This kind of comment is both depressing and a sign of priceless ignorance…

Zeivu.3615:

Get a better computer and internet connection?

Wow. Well, I guess you don’t know what it feels like to be Welsh. My house is the only house in my entire neighbourhood that has ANY internet access at all. We must all seem like quaint-but-stupid country folk to someone as urbane and sophisticated as you. I can’t wait for your next comment – my guess is something along the lines of ‘Let them eat cake’.