Downloading Factions instead of buying it

[RisseN]

Hey everyone,

Its been months since I played guildwars and ive decided I want to get back into it again. I use to play Prophecies mostly, and then a bit of Nightfall (never really got into Nightfall though). Anyway, I want to get Factions since its the only one I dont have but nowhere seems to have stock.

Im thinking I should just buy and download it from https://secure.plaync.com/cgi-bin/Store.pl Have any of you downloaded guildwars before as apposed to buying the CD/DVD? How big is the initial download and is it reliable? What exactly gets downloaded?

I already have an account so I presume once its downloaded I just install it as if it was from a CD. Then I can write the downloaded file to CD for backup?

Also, final thing,...is Factions busy these days? I presume most people are playing Nightfall? I dont want to bother buying it if no one is playing.

Thanks,...see you all online soon. (hopefully tonight if I end up downloading Factions)

[James]

Factions is still pretty busy in the eve's. I am about to finish it again and there always seems to be people.

If you have an account, don't pay again, just download the game and log in with your details and it will auto update accordingly.

[RisseN]

But I only ever had Prophecies and Nightfall. Ive never owned Factions,...so surely I have to pay for Factions?

[Lydon]

Yes lol. Have you tried ordering it online? It's far easier and saves the bandwidth :) Also useful should you ever need to reinstall that game. It's quite strange that the shops don't have it!

Good luck with playing again :)

[dakeyras]

Like the man said, just buy the license. Ask around on these forums for someone close to you that can then burn the gamefiles (including the updates) for you. That way you dont have to waste your cap.

[RisseN]

Thanks for the suggestions. Ive gone ahead and just baught the licence online. Good to be back playing again, its been ages. Im having a go at being a ritualist/monk. hmmm :)

[lilDeath]

Hey RisseN! Welcome!
It was nice to see you online again!
Enjoy! :)

[diabolus]

Im thinking I should just buy and download it from https://secure.plaync.com/cgi-bin/Store.pl Have any of you downloaded guildwars before as apposed to buying the CD/DVD? How big is the initial download and is it reliable? What exactly gets downloaded?


I bought Prophecies like that when Guildwars launched, from the same store.

Basically, all you get is a Key/Serial . If you already have an account, you just
enter the key [when you login as usual] . From there it starts downloading "on demand" . With prophecies there was about a big 100MB initial download which includes all the "opening data" like the character screens/ settings and movies and items. From there it downloads areas as you enter them [usually about 10MB-20MB per area] .

This works fine if your connection is good, i had alot of trouble with it at the time because it would download that 10MB+ when you zone [i.e. when you start a mission with a group] . When you finally zone your team dropped you because they thought you lost link [10MB takes awhile to download afterall] . So recommended strategy was to enter all areas alone first for the download , go back and then join a group.

Other annoying part is, you need to ensure you make backups...if you loose your data and need to re-install you need to do it all again! .

At the end of the day, you can play just fine without waiting for something to arrive in the mail. At one stage i asked if i couldn't download everything one-shot , but all response i got was to copy someone elses' files . I doubt that changed, so it's 10Mb chunks with a 20MB-30MB thrown in with every big city you hit. Same thing with arenas .

[lilDeath]

I bought Prophecies like that when Guildwars launched, from the same store.

Basically, all you get is a Key/Serial . If you already have an account, you just
enter the key [when you login as usual] . From there it starts downloading "on demand" . With prophecies there was about a big 100MB initial download which includes all the "opening data" like the character screens/ settings and movies and items. From there it downloads areas as you enter them [usually about 10MB-20MB per area] .

This works fine if your connection is good, i had alot of trouble with it at the time because it would download that 10MB+ when you zone [i.e. when you start a mission with a group] . When you finally zone your team dropped you because they thought you lost link [10MB takes awhile to download afterall] . So recommended strategy was to enter all areas alone first for the download , go back and then join a group.

Other annoying part is, you need to ensure you make backups...if you loose your data and need to re-install you need to do it all again! .

At the end of the day, you can play just fine without waiting for something to arrive in the mail. At one stage i asked if i couldn't download everything one-shot , but all response i got was to copy someone elses' files . I doubt that changed, so it's 10Mb chunks with a 20MB-30MB thrown in with every big city you hit. Same thing with arenas .
It is relatively easy to download all the content in one shot.

Just launch GW with the -image switch and it downloads all the latest content of GW and all the relevant chapters to your desktop into the gw.dat file.

The first time will be lengthy but after the first initial sync, it will be all good. :)
No need to wait for downloads when going into zones you have not been in before.

Hope it helps! :)

[RisseN]

Hey RisseN! Welcome!
It was nice to see you online again!
Enjoy! :)


Yeah it was cool seeing you again too lilDeath. The addiction is back! Dont know why I stopped playing :)

[Glordit]

Its not like the "WOW" addiction :P I had Factions and sold it after getting about half-way through now for some reason I want a MMO and GW came to mind! Going to get Prophecies & Factions :) also going to purchase Eye Of The North in the future along with Nightfall!

Only problem with me is I have a 64k wireless connection so I have a nice ping fest 40% of the time... you will be tacking on a Boss creature and.. B-O-O-O-M! LAaaAAa44aaG! *whoops got to wait for server to catchup* Oh! you died, you see the beasty got the last punch in while you where frantically pushing buttons to get some damage done :)

Also like the no fee involved to play! it cost about R300 for 2 months of WOW in turn = 1 new copy of GW every 2 months :) Prophecies/Faction/Nightfall/Eye Of The North

[lilDeath]

Ye, I agree, GW is awesome! :D