Guild Wars 2

Hello,

It’s really annoying not to know how long it will take to download a patch for Guild Wars 2. I live in a village with very slow internet so it often takes me serveral hours to download one of the bigger patches and for example if i want to play with my friends in the evening i want to be able to tell them in advance if i’m able to log in or if we have to delay this to the next day because i’m still patching.

Yes, the launcher displays the number of files but this number is of no use, because not all files are of the same size. Sometimes the first 100 are downloaded in 10 seconds and the last 10 take an additional hour. It can’t be so difficult to give a value in MB – everyone else around the internet does it.

Also you should consider sticking to a fixed “patch day” because those patches of unknown size usually appear out of thin air when they are most unwanted. I remember checking for updates in the morning to make sure everthing is ready when i come home from work but still had to apply a new patch in the evening.

Last but not least you may display the patch notes within the launcher or give a link to them so we have something to do while waiting for the download to finish.

Thank you in advance

Putting MB or KB or GB on it wont change how fast you download them. 1024 KB = 1 MB I believe and the same goes on for MB to GB.

I don’t mean to troll you just saying the size of the file will be the same regardless of how it is presented, the rate you download will be the same regardless of how it is presented. If you download at 1 mb per a second then your downloading 1024 kb a second.

Although I agree with you on displaying path notes would be nice.

If I know the DL is 200MB, for example, I know that I can go put the kettle on and make a quick snack. If it is 10Mb, I can blink a few times and log on. Knowing this would be helpful.

Also, why the kitten can’t the game automatically update itself, like Steam, so I don’t have to come home and wait for a DL?

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robinsiebler.3801:

If I know the DL is 200MB, for example, I know that I can go put the kettle on and make a quick snack. If it is 10Mb, I can blink a few times and log on. Knowing this would be helpful.

Also, why the kitten can’t the game automatically update itself, like Steam, so I don’t have to come home and wait for a DL?

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Well, I guess adding an option for people to make some GW2 DL manager to check for updates automatically and launch that with the computer would be nice. Well, I usually remove those kinds of processes from starting with the OS, but I can see how this would definately be a good thing for people with not-quite-as-fast-internet-as-I-have. (I’ve never patched for longer than a few minutes.)

Also, displaying the total MB and MB remaining would be rather nice.

I have a fast connection, but when the DL is 1GB, it still takes time.

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Kaimick.5109:

Putting MB or KB or GB on it wont change how fast you download them. 1024 KB = 1 MB I believe and the same goes on for MB to GB.

I don’t mean to troll you just saying the size of the file will be the same regardless of how it is presented, the rate you download will be the same regardless of how it is presented. If you download at 1 mb per a second then your downloading 1024 kb a second.

Although I agree with you on displaying path notes would be nice.

Not sure if trolling for real…….

If you know the size, and your download rate you can guestimate a time it will take to download. Patch is 100mb, you download at 1mb/s you know in 1.5 minutes roughly you would be done.

Currently being in number of files you have no idea how long it will take.

I agree with OP, change it to a size.

Felicela.2810:

Kaimick.5109:

Putting MB or KB or GB on it wont change how fast you download them. 1024 KB = 1 MB I believe and the same goes on for MB to GB.

I don’t mean to troll you just saying the size of the file will be the same regardless of how it is presented, the rate you download will be the same regardless of how it is presented. If you download at 1 mb per a second then your downloading 1024 kb a second.

Although I agree with you on displaying path notes would be nice.

Not sure if trolling for real…….

If you know the size, and your download rate you can guestimate a time it will take to download. Patch is 100mb, you download at 1mb/s you know in 1.5 minutes roughly you would be done.

Currently being in number of files you have no idea how long it will take.

I agree with OP, change it to a size.

A: it tells you when you first start it how large it is, the latest path was 13456 KB I believe regardless it tells you how large it is when you first start it and before it goes into he progress bar.

here is the conversions it is not hard to figure out from there, I mean I guess having it in MB would be a nice touch but it wont make you download it any faster.

8 Bits = 1 Byte 1024 Bytes = 1 KiloByte 1024 KiloBytes = 1 MegaByte 1024 MegaBytes = 1 GigaByte 1024 GigaBytes = 1 TeraByte

that was a 13.14 mb patch we had this morning or the most recent one

hope this helps cause to me it is simple conversions is all I can easily figure out how many MB I will be downloading and roughly how long it will take.

No one is having issues with conversions, and maybe in the 6 months I have been playing I have never noticed the size right at the beginning. If you are referring to the size on Loader, that does not represent the size of the entire patch(as in it runs through 1 small download then usually less than 10mb, then starts the update) because I have had several that only download a few MBs and it will be a 200mb patch.

Regardless of all of this, they could put 44 files / 200MB remaining, it doesnt hurt anyone

Besides, Kaimick, do you think people really want to do Math for a game? Guess again. They don’t want to do math at all.

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robinsiebler.3801:

Besides, Kaimick, do you think people really want to do Math for a game? Guess again. They don’t want to do math at all.

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Yeah, let’s all just roll the Microsoft way of a progress bar that moves while the remaining time goes up.

And honestly, basic math skills are necessary. Sadly, most people lack those and that’s why people like me, who enjoy math, get weird looks.

Basic math skills are necessary. Are they necessary in a game downloader? Ab-so-lute-ly kitten not.

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Kaimick.5109:

A: it tells you when you first start it how large it is, the latest path was 13456 KB I believe regardless it tells you how large it is when you first start it and before it goes into he progress bar.

Sadly this is not true. The Launcher first loads an update of unknown Size (usually less then 10 MB, sometimes up to 40 MB) and unknown purpose (maybe updating the updater). After this there is quick download “search for updates” (usually in the KB-range) and then the real patch is downloaded.

Also i know that displaying the size won’t make the download faster but as someone said i would be able to estimate the time needed which i can’t at the moment. And to know if it takes 15 Minutes or 5 hours would be very helpful for planing my evening if you know what i mean…

This should be a very simply change for ANET. They clearly know which files need to be downloaded, as it is necessary for the number of files to download. They must know the size of each file, as the file is sitting on their servers. They know how much you have already downloaded as they display it.
Getting the file size remaining should be very simple. So why don’t we have it ?

Instead we just have the number of files remaining. Which annoyed a lot of people in GW1, but still remains unchanged.

Kaimick.5109:

A: it tells you when you first start it how large it is, the latest path was 13456 KB I believe regardless it tells you how large it is when you first start it and before it goes into he progress bar.

Two problems:
1 – That size isn’t the total size of the update. Never has been. In fact, from watching how fast the number grows, it looks like the size of something that needs to come down before you learn how many files you need to get.
2 – Even if the size was accurate, it only stays on screen for a few seconds. Look away at the wrong moment, for example by logging into your guilds TS server, and you will miss it. So even if it was accurate, it would still be useless.

I agree with OP, this is fking BS, “Files remaining” doesnt mean squat. If anything have Size remaining. duh fking rtrds, whoever sticks up for this and thinks its good cus u can figure it out by the size of a mb and ur dl speed can f off… oh goody, it’s done

I have only just received the hardcopy version because my internet is quite slow. “Fast” broadband here in NZ is around 80kb/s in my area….

I have installed from the disc and after five hours of downloading files, I have only arrived at 7% with over 72,000 files remaining. I agree that it would be so much better to know how many GB I still need to download. I would love to know whether I will be able to play tonight or whether I have to wait until tomorrow.

I know it’s normal with MMOs to have many patches but this is a bit annoying. How hard can it be to show the file size in the launcher? It would be very helpful, also with cost calculations for some people…. Internet in NZ is VERY expensive compared to Europe where you can get unlimited internet for little money.

+1 For download size being shown

from Felicela.2810 :‘’Regardless of all of this, they could put 44 files / 200MB remaining, it doesnt hurt anyone’’ I like the idea