Guild Wars 2

Hi Staff and Developers of Guild Wars 2,

they are many years that i try MMORPG and Guild Wars 2 is the first that involving all players in all the events of the game.

You got volunteered help and at the same time i volunteered offer help to others, this particular I have never found in other online games, where players, on the contrary are very opportunistic and cold with the other players, finding myself playing completely alone..

Going at the point of question, i not have ADSL at my home, so i play Guild Wars 2 with 3G limit data mobile connection and upgrade the game in a internet point that have unlimited data ADSL internet connection.

My request, I ask to you to divide the file “Gw2.dat” in parts of 6GB and create also the “service packs” standalone for future update of the game client in off-line mode, if I made a specific request, it is because of the current way of installing and updating ( command : -image) of the game client that is not comfortable for me.

Thanks in advance.

Best Regards.

It’s not super-likely this is going to happen, but there is some good news: if you copy the gw2.dat file yourself that will just work™. Might be easier to just grab a cheap 64GB flash drive that you can fit the whole file on in one shot.

(Technically, you can even keep a full copy of the entire game on there, since gw2.exe is “portable” and all, making it even easier to get the updates in place.)

SlippyCheeze.5483:

It’s not super-likely this is going to happen, but there is some good news: if you copy the gw2.dat file yourself that will just work™. Might be easier to just grab a cheap 64GB flash drive that you can fit the whole file on in one shot.

(Technically, you can even keep a full copy of the entire game on there, since gw2.exe is “portable” and all, making it even easier to get the updates in place.)

I do not like it when someone does NOT READ what I write.

I repeat, “and upgrade the game in a internet point that have unlimited data ADSL internet connection.”

Easy, just read.

Plain & simple this request isn’t going to happen as it cost the dev’s time and money to do this while taken away from their already in place streamlined patching progress.

Spectro.6910:

SlippyCheeze.5483:

It’s not super-likely this is going to happen, but there is some good news: if you copy the gw2.dat file yourself that will just work™. Might be easier to just grab a cheap 64GB flash drive that you can fit the whole file on in one shot.

(Technically, you can even keep a full copy of the entire game on there, since gw2.exe is “portable” and all, making it even easier to get the updates in place.)

I do not like it when someone does NOT READ what I write.

I repeat, “and upgrade the game in a internet point that have unlimited data ADSL internet connection.”

Easy, just read.

Uh, I’m sorry if I upset you, but … I’m really, really not clear in what way this process fails to do what you asked:

1. Buy 64GB flash drive.
2. Place full copy of GW2 on that flash drive.
3. Go to ADSL backed unlimited internet location.
4. Run gw2.exe and patch gw2.dat on the flash drive.
5. Return to home.
6. Copy gw2.dat to hard drive.
7. Home copy of gw2.dat is patched, no need to download files!

That avoids the need for you to have gw2.dat split into 6GB chunks (which is a very oddly specific size), and/or the developers to change their release process (which, honestly, isn’t likely to happen.)

So, uh, yeah. I was exactly recommending a strategy that will address the situation you requested, and allow you to patch somewhere other than at home, to take advantage of the cheaper bandwidth.

This is the “offline update mode” that you can implement yourself. If you add `—nopatchui` to the launcher shortcut at home you can even ensure that it will never patch over 3G, no matter what.

If you add `—nopatchui` to the launcher shortcut at home you can even ensure that it will never patch over 3G, no matter what.

your last part here isn’t correct. even with nopatchui, the game will still patch before running. the difference being that you don’t see it happening.

The Gw2.dat file is a compressed archive that is manipulated dynamically and updated dynamically.

The Gw2.dat file, contains at least about 80% of files that are not updated by the first initial build of the game client.

The solution of the division into parts of the Gw2.dat file, allows to developers to update only a part of the file Gw2.dat, for example Gw2-part1.dat or Gw2-part4.dat, for apply events as Super Adventure Box.

The solution of having the “service packs”, allows to you to use a USB flash drive to smaller than 64GB, because not all gamers are rich and and can afford to waste money unnecessarily.

Furthermore, the solution of having the “service packs”, allows to you to download only the update file directly from official web site of Guild Wars 2, WITHOUT INSTALL THE GAME CLIENT IN THE INTERNET POINT, because not all the Internet Point allow you to install programs on their terminals.

We do not ever talk to someone who does not know what he says, for example me.

Well, one can purchase a 64GB flash drive on eBay for 8 dollars. That doesn’t seem like very much to pay for convenience.

Good luck.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Well, one can purchase a 64GB flash drive on eBay for 8 dollars. That doesn’t seem like very much to pay for convenience.

Good luck.

From my bad personal experience, eBay is the worst place for buy any product, so the minimum price for a 64GB flash drive reliably buying online is about 15 dollars, excluding shipping costs.

Anyway, I live in Italy, where the economic content is much lower than the United States, why even 8 dollars have a high value in my country, why you not earn it so easily and you have to work hard for 1 hour and 30 minutes to earn 8 dollars, if you have a lucky work.

Furthermore, leaving aside for a moment the division of the file “Gw2.dat”,
at least my solution about “service pack” is very easy and cheap for the developers, why enough divide and extract the source code by the file Gw2-64.exe (and for 32bit, of course) for create an specific exe updater that have the only objective of the update the client game and nothing else, naturally that contain only update files AND NOT A DOWNLOAD OF 30GB OF DATA.

I had made this request through ticket, because I know in the forum there is always someone who tries to find solutions that I have already tried and use, but is not comfortable for me.

The final decision is up to the developers of the game, no to negative and defeatist people that not belong to the development staff and say always “no”, or "isn’t going to happen ", etc.

I’m sure my income is much lower than yours.

Suit yourself.

Good luck.

Hello,

I understand this completely! I am a university student doing an online program and have numerous life struggles. While studying I do not work full time. Keeping GW2 on a flash drive works for me – I am just getting back into the game, although on my laptop I’ve kept it on a USB 3.0 flash drive (128GB) just because the laptop I lug around for my studies to various coffee shops and libraries has an internal SSD and I do not want to fill it up with games.

I was with Verizon Wireless, I am in the USA. It became expensive and there is drama with those share plans I wanted to avoid. For what I was paying, I switched over to T-Mobile. $70 a month for unlimited data, I got an iPhone 7 Plus 128GB – monthly fees for that are $30/mo, so I pay $100/mo, put down $250 down (I did pay for overnight shipping), but after 24 months its $70/mo. Right now they have a promotion going on that you can still likely get in on, normally its $15/mo more for this. Unlimited HD quality streaming and 10GB of 4G speed mobile hotspot. After the 10GB you are down to 3G speed.

You state that your using 3G cellular. I was in the hospital for 5 days, and they block ports. I used my 10GB of 4G data, and just moved down to 3G.

This plan permits tethering. I plugged my iPhone into my laptop with a USB cable (Can also use wifi hotspot!) and I can get online anywhere I need to. It is not sold as a replacement for your home broadband, but I know a woman who does this and hasn’t had issues.

I can only imagine that if your using 3G internet then you also have a cell phone. If the two devices are separate, this may save you money. If not, this may be a little investment. If you have the time to look into it, and perhaps credit to put down money for a phone, and this is still in the range you pay for limited data… I’d suggest it.

I’m a computer science major, studying to be a network engineer. I do understand why ArenaNet has the game designed this way from that perspective. And it seems like it would be hard on their end to modify something for a small amount of players. I can see how it eats through your data / resources easily, likely just by having many of the update systems in place. If you’re on a laptop, maybe your library or a book store like Barnes and Nobel may be good when you know an update is coming? I game there at times and use it as an excuse to get a snapple and cheese cake.

This indeed would be a nice thing on the to-do list. A low-bandwidth / bandwidth cautious mode. I would love to see this too, as I take my laptop with me for studies. I’d also love to see a native Mac client, but that’s another story.

Not so I know the English language, even with the Google translator I had several difficulties.

However, synthesizing, I understand that you pay $70 a month for an “unlimited data” and an iPhone included in the offer, and there is another promotion with 10GB data limit, then you are down to 3G speed.

Before I answer, it is correct ?

There cannot be a “service pack” file that updates gw2.dat to the current version because of the structure of the gw2.dat and its update process.

The gw2.dat is something like an image of a filesystem. Or a zip file. It contains an archive of compressed files that are copied together to save space, and it contains an internal directory of all contained files.

If you start the game client, it connects to the update server and asks the server for the list of files of the current game build. That list also contains the required files for each map of the game.

There are essential files that are required globally, and local files that are only needed for some maps.

Now the game client builds a list of files with the difference of the essential files and the files already in the gw2.dat file. Then it downloads the essential files that are missing. This is what happens when a game update is released.

Next, when the player enters a map, the game client builds a list of files with the difference of the required files of this map and the files already in the gw2.dat file. Then it downloads the missing files, and after this has been completed, the game enters the map. This is what happens every time a player enters a map.

You see, you never need the complete game. You need the essential files and the files required by the map you visit. For every player, these are different files, because they visit different maps.

So any “service pack” required to update any game client to the most recent data must contain all essential files, because you never know how old the client is you want to update. And it must contain all map data, because you can never know which map players used to visit whose game client you want to update.

So this “service pack” must contain the whole game. Every bit of the data that is stored in gw2.dat file. So you essentially don’t need any service pack – you can transport a complete gw2.dat instead, and replace any older or smaller gw2.dat with it.

I know, you are asking for the difference of a complete gw2.dat of the current game build and the next game build. Not any game client, but only the last and the current. This is what you call “service pack”.

This is a very narrow thing. Sometimes, game builds come 2 hours after the last. Such an archive is only good for people who store the complete gw2.dat, and only for people who login almost daily and keep their client up to date. How many service pack files do you want to keep?

Then there is the thing with the sound files. You only download the sound files of the language you set, even if you download with the -image parameter. Nobody ever has a really complete gw2.dat because of that.

You can resolve all this of course, but it’s work the dev’s don’t really have to do. We already have an update mechanism over the network that works. We can already transport a complete gw2.dat and copy it to a different PC. Development time on a third way is simply wasted and better invested on new interesting things that are not already present in any other form.

Answer for Braxton.3926 : Sorry for you and your prejudices, but in Italy, mobile connection are very expensive and only profit for mobile operators not for the customer need, infact not exist unlimited mobile data offers, and over the data limit that you consume (example 2GB) you go at 32kbps “speed” until next month. Also, I do not have credit cards and because of my precarious economic status i can not do subscriptions of any kind, i pay always without subcriptions, only for a single month at a time.

I have Windows 10 completely OFF-LINE, infact I am proficient for disable Windows Update and Windows Defender updates, i see all movement of my internet data transfer and i not have stupid programs that download file in background. For big data download i go always in to Internet Point.

Answer for Jon Olson : I not have bandwidth restrictions, i have mobile internet data restrictions, so the On Demand setting it is completely useless to me.

Answer for Silmar Alech.4305 : I understand how working the gw2.dat file before you , because I’m not a stupid child.

I inform you that, sooner or later, the gw2.dat file will become of 30GB whitout that you can prevent it why it happens also in background while playing entering in maps as you say, so your reasoning is mistake why it is not update of files for last event, but only download of files about last expansion of the game and i see it with my eyes.

Which is why, I preferred to download the entire game in one shot, but i not have the control about future updates, why the Gw2-64.exe file not have a system for lock updates and show only a notification.

So, I see that you can not create a “service pack”, because you want to play right away without waiting for the game to be fully downloaded.

Ok, at this point I ask at least that in Gw2-64.exe file and 32 bit version, there must be a way to block automatic updates completely even when you are inside the game, showing only a notify and the amount of data to download (example 100MB, 300MB, ect.).

I’m confused. Are you under the impression the the bi-weekly (or so) updates are the entire .dat file each time? The whole 20-30GB? The updates (patches) are anywhere from 50MB to maybe 400MB (I don’t think I’ve seen one more than 400 or so, except, of course, for the expansion).

The Streaming Client isn’t concerned with bandwidth (unless that means amount of data up- or downloaded), but with the amount of data downloaded per play session. It only downloads the files needed to play in the maps you choose (except for the 50MB required for each patch).

Maybe it’s a language barrier, I’m not sure.

Good luck.

Spectro.6910:

Ok, at this point I ask at least that in Gw2-64.exe file and 32 bit version, there must be a way to block automatic updates completely even when you are inside the game, showing only a notify and the amount of data to download (example 100MB, 300MB, ect.).

You can block updates by using the option:

Gw2.exe -sharearchive

It’ll crash instead of downloading patches.

Answer for Inculpatus cedo.9234 : No Language barrier, just do not read what I wrote, or i am with mobile 3G connection with limited data, for more details just re-read what I wrote.

Answer for Healix.5819: Command -sharearchive : Opens the Gw2.dat file in shared mode so that it can be accessed from other processes while the game is running. So theoretically you suppose that will have that kind of effect, but I do not trust, i prefer a specific command created by developers for disable officially the download and show only a notification about the update.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Well, one can purchase a 64GB flash drive on eBay for 8 dollars. That doesn’t seem like very much to pay for convenience.

Good luck.

Well, I understand if people don’t want Ebay stuff, as it can be quite sketchy relative to other vendors.

That being said, I think having some kind of backup medium to be an essential thing to have with a computer because data loss is probably going to be quite problematic. Even if not, it’s good to have to transfer to another computer, as those things aren’t immortal.

Of course, even a portable version will still need to update. There’s really nothing that can be done about that as fixes can come at any time and it would be impossible to make all the downloads standalone.

And, the Streaming Client addresses limited data by allowing you to choose when to download data. Except for the required ~50MB.

Otherwise, you will have to watch the forum’s Game Release Notes page (or other sites) to determine when a patch is available, and choose either to download the minimum amount of files, or wait to play.

Good luck.