34 replies to this topic

[Brizna]

GW2 Patching system is annoying, so I try to log in and behold Halloween is here so I am looking forward to about 30 minutes of downloading, and this is with a decent internet connection (downloading at 0.5Mb/sec) I pity all of you who have worst connections.

I have no problem with the weekly patches, those take less than a minute most of the time, but when patches of this size are coming there should be a way to predownload them so customers don't get stoped from playing the game and as a side bonus I am certain Anet would have a much easier time servicing the download to everyone if downloads are spread on a broad time.

[Andemius]

Brizna, on 23 October 2012 - 03:42 PM, said:

30 minutes

Go do something useful while it patches, or get a faster connection. 30 minutes is not a big deal.

[Brizna]

Thank you for such great sugestions, so instead of Anet improving the game they make a proffit of, customers should pay/work/live with to get issues fixed.

To be clear I like this game, I play it, but I really don't understand fanboys who always place responsability on anyone but Anet.

1st: 500Kb/s is good connection and probably more limited on Anet's capacity than my end.
2nd: I had an hour to play of which about half of it was denied, when simply warning about the patch and allowing to predownload would have fixed the issue, actually people predownloaded the game before it was released so it can be done...

[Draycon]

Took me around 15 minutes at most, the only reason GW1 was quicker was because there were a lot less files ot download.

[Paken Kai]

Brizna, on 23 October 2012 - 03:42 PM, said:

GW2 Patching system is annoying, so I try to log in and behold Halloween is here so I am looking forward to about 30 minutes of downloading, and this is with a decent internet connection (downloading at 0.5Mb/sec) I pity all of you who have worst connections.

I have no problem with the weekly patches, those take less than a minute most of the time, but when patches of this size are coming there should be a way to predownload them so customers don't get stoped from playing the game and as a side bonus I am certain Anet would have a much easier time servicing the download to everyone if downloads are spread on a broad time.

While I agree that it "would be nice" if they had allowed us to pre-downoad, the fact remains that they still would have made you download the same amount of content, using the same loader, just at a different time. You still wouldn't be "playing" the game during that time so I see no reason for it.

Plus, if I recall, they had the same issue with the large events in GW1 when they were first released. But the following year everything was pre-downloaded from the previous year (except for the additions, obviously) so in the long run it worked out.

Brizna, on 24 October 2012 - 02:20 PM, said:

... actually people predownloaded the game before it was released so it can be done...

You could predownload the game before it was released for the same reason you can predownload most Steam games. it's just a toggle to activate the content to your account when the time comes.

It's unfortunate that you only had about an hour to play and a lot of it was taken up by the patching process, but the large download should have been a foreseeable step. This was, after all, advertized as the "first major content addition" since launch.

[Beta Sprite]

I started it in the morning, got breakfast, read the update notes, and it was ready by the time I finished eating.  Efficiency.

Edited by Beta Sprite, 24 October 2012 - 03:39 PM.

[Takato]

I don't have the best internet by any means and it only took 2-3min, dial up is so last millennium you know >_>

[Al Shamari]

You should just be lucky Arenanet actually uploads some of the background content pertaining to large event patches such as this one through previous weekly patches. It would take a lot longer if they didn't know what they were doing.

It sucks, I know, but it's rather worth it when it comes to the content you're getting. Sadly, I don't think it's something that has a loophole around it. It doesn't work the same as downloading the game pre-release. This sort of stuff is on live servers.

[Lordkrall]

You do know that more or less every other MMO puts down the whole servers for most of the day when they patch stuff right?

The speed problem lies with you, not ArenaNet.
I easily got around 2 mb/s downspeed with the patch, and that means it goes by very fast.

[kontrol]

This is a serious request?

Amount of time the game is down when there is a patch? None... * coughs * D3.
Amount of downtime since the game launched? Not much
Amount of time it takes to change world? Not much

Amount of game that can claim such result? Not much...

I can live with a 15 minute download time for patches while reading patch notes. Sorry for the sarcasm, but I'm seriously feed up with people crying for such "issues".

[Al Shamari]

Also, not to mention, you could have "pre-downloaded" the patch before playing. The release date of the patch had been out for awhile. You could have opened the client far earlier in the day, downloaded the patch before you after had the chance to log in and play. Come back after work or school or whatever and been able to play without any load time. Or even better, the night before, etc seeing as you didn't try to log in directly as the Halloween content was being released.

Not trying to put the blame on you, but Arenanet does a pretty damn good job as expediting their patches to the public as quickly as possible. Even large scale content updates such as this one.

[Strife025]

Out of all the things to complain about... this dude has to be like 12.

[G L J]

You know what's awesome? Their rolling updates.

They don't kill the servers for hours on end whenever there is an update. That is pure win.

[Relair]

I would kill to even have 500kb/s internet. Not everybody lives in some metropolis with 10mb/s or whatever. If you live in rural areas or small towns, comcast and whoever dont feel like servicing your area. You're lucky if some local 100kb/s broadband is there at all T_T  . I know I know, just move right. It would be nice to be able to pre-download the night before and have them just 'unlock' it at a certain time.   Nobody is whining about 15 minute patch downloads, they're whining about 5 hour patch downloads lol.

Edited by Relair, 24 October 2012 - 04:29 PM.

[Dosearius]

Takato, on 24 October 2012 - 03:41 PM, said:

I don't have the best internet by any means and it only took 2-3min, dial up is so last millennium you know >_>

it may well be, but there are still thousands upon thousands of people that live in areas with NO internet access through any other means.  If someone were using dial-up by choice then I'd scratch my head...but many people have no choice other than to not go online at all.

[tatsuo]

Yeah look at other games. If they make a patch, they turn servers for half a day to apply a patch. Also 0.5MB/s is not a decent Internet connection at all.

[Alesthes]

Did it ever occur to you that maybe the patch wasn't ready that much in advance? Their are constantly developing this content and fixing bugs, when the patch is ready, they deploy it.
When it comes to improving the patching system, I gently point you to the fact that GW2 has the best patching system available of all MMOs I ever played, with no downtime for server update (which is almost crazy, if you think about it). But I am sure that pointing to this simple matter of fact will label me as a "fanboy". Apparently nowadays on these forums pointing to simple evidence which gets blatantly ignored makes you automatically a "fanboy"... Interesting.

Edited by Alesthes, 28 October 2012 - 09:46 AM.

[ayraswag]

This makes me mad. Did anyone play wow with the way it use to be? Every patch the game would be down for 12-24 hours with little to no news on when servers would go back up.

GW2 does is awesome tbh i think you just have shit net because it took 2mins for me with a decent connection.

[Brizna]

Aren't a few of you guys going a bit too far??? If you don't like a sugestion just ignore it or simply say so but geting into personal attacks makes me wonder were moderators are or what type of people some of you are.

Now before you keep bashing my petition think about what ANET did with GW1 patchign system. You could actually play that game while it was downloading content. I couldn't care any less about WoW or its likes, never played them, I just bought GW2 becuase it is done by Anet, and I have certainly noticed a decline in a few great thigs GW1 did much better than GW2.

Patching system being one of them.
Ability to customize interface.
The unending expasion of the "gem" shop, GW1 actually didn't have one deserving the name for years and ANET never went bankrupt. And no, GW and GW2 are not free to play, the fact that WoW is a rip-off compared to GW1/2 doesn't make a game you pay for "free".

Guess I'm an ANET fanboy too, I just keep rational about it unlike some (not all) who posted in this thread.

[Gilles VI]

Brizna, on 29 October 2012 - 04:57 PM, said:

The unending expasion of the "gem" shop, GW1 actually didn't have one deserving the name for years and ANET never went bankrupt. And no, GW and GW2 are not free to play, the fact that WoW is a rip-off compared to GW1/2 doesn't make a game you pay for "free".

• GW2 vanilla costed multiple times more than all of GW1 combined.
  
  
• The amount of people working on GW2 since GW1 has been multiplied by 5.
  
  
• NCsoft has given them loads of money, NCsoft is still a company that wants profit.
  
• They still hold true to their "no P2W" cash-shop, so no worries there.

Edited by Gilles VI, 29 October 2012 - 05:02 PM.

[Paken Kai]

Brizna, on 29 October 2012 - 04:57 PM, said:

You could actually play that game while it was downloading content.

In my seven year stretch playing GW1, I don't recall ever playing the game while the patch was downloading.

I also seem to recall many hours (combined total, not at once) of watching a little grey loader displaying a progress bar downloading content after a patch.

[Lordkrall]

Paken Kai, on 29 October 2012 - 05:02 PM, said:

In my seven year stretch playing GW1, I don't recall ever playing the game while the patch was downloading.

I also seem to recall many hours (combined total, not at once) of watching a little grey loader displaying a progress bar downloading content after a patch.

You could play the game and download pieces of updates when entering the effected areas. The parts that effected everything in the game could not be downloaded that way however and had to be downloaded before playing.

[Paken Kai]

Lordkrall, on 29 October 2012 - 05:04 PM, said:

You could play the game and download pieces of updates when entering the effected areas. The parts that effected everything in the game could not be downloaded that way however and had to be downloaded before playing.

Oh, right, the loading screen downloads. I forgot about those (obviously).

I still don't consider waiting in a loading screen while it downloads content to be "while playing the game" though. In fact, I think I prefer having it all front-loaded with the patch to keep my loading screens shorter.

But that's just personal preference, of course.

[Brizna]

Lordkrall, on 29 October 2012 - 05:04 PM, said:

You could play the game and download pieces of updates when entering the effected areas. The parts that effected everything in the game could not be downloaded that way however and had to be downloaded before playing.

Not only when you went in, when playing in unaffected areas you were also downloading, using Halloween as an example as long as you stayed out of the Halloween areas like Lion's Arch you could keep playing in other areas and it downloaded slowly potentially reducing downloading "down time" to an small percentage of the total download (not to mention GW1's texture weighted far less). The fact that Paken Kai didn't notice in years is a proof of how wonderfull GW1 was in that regard. Which I think absolutely justifies my disapointment.

In reference to no Pay to Win items, I'm sorry but the gem shop in GW2 is full of them: XP, speed, magic find, power... boosters while mild compared to true FREE TO PLAY games are clear examples of P2win items that weren't present in GW1's shop, that said I complained about the patching system not the cash shop, I am just mentioning I don't like it but  I'm more understanding with it than other issues, like BUGS.

[Paken Kai]

Brizna, on 29 October 2012 - 05:25 PM, said:

snip

I think the fact that I didn't notice means that it didn't actually happen.

Now that I remember the loading screen I also remember having to load LA during halloween and other events for a long time AFTER I had farmed seared gargoyle skulls and other items for hours to turn in for event-exclusive items.

I honestly think you may be looking back with rose-tinted goggles because I don't see anything different between the two games in terms of patching.

[Soki]

Brizna, on 24 October 2012 - 02:20 PM, said:

Thank you for such great sugestions, so instead of Anet improving the game they make a proffit of, customers should pay/work/live with to get issues fixed.

To be clear I like this game, I play it, but I really don't understand fanboys who always place responsability on anyone but Anet.

1st: 500Kb/s is good connection and probably more limited on Anet's capacity than my end.
2nd: I had an hour to play of which about half of it was denied, when simply warning about the patch and allowing to predownload would have fixed the issue, actually people predownloaded the game before it was released so it can be done...

My only problem with the patch system is that they don't have patch notes right there in the launcher. Come on, ANet. At least make bulletpoints.

Edited by Frozire, 29 October 2012 - 07:34 PM.
Language.

[Lordkrall]

Paken Kai, on 29 October 2012 - 05:32 PM, said:

I think the fact that I didn't notice means that it didn't actually happen.

Now that I remember the loading screen I also remember having to load LA during halloween and other events for a long time AFTER I had farmed seared gargoyle skulls and other items for hours to turn in for event-exclusive items.

I honestly think you may be looking back with rose-tinted goggles because I don't see anything different between the two games in terms of patching.

Keep in mind however that most of the data did actually download while you were playing. They did apply it when loading though.

[Brizna]

Paken Kai, on 29 October 2012 - 05:32 PM, said:

I think the fact that I didn't notice means that it didn't actually happen.

Now that I remember the loading screen I also remember having to load LA during halloween and other events for a long time AFTER I had farmed seared gargoyle skulls and other items for hours to turn in for event-exclusive items.

Wrong "after hours" you had to unpack already downloaded content which took <1 minute while if you went right into LA it took several minutes becuase it was actually downloading.

Edited by Brizna, 29 October 2012 - 05:51 PM.

[GrandmaFunk]

Brizna, on 29 October 2012 - 04:57 PM, said:

I couldn't care any less about WoW or its likes, never played them, I just bought GW2 becuase it is done by Anet, and I have certainly noticed a decline in a few great thigs GW1 did much better than GW2.

See the thing is that while you're free to not care about the rest of the industry, ignoring how they do things means you lack perspective.

[dazza64]

Brizna, on 23 October 2012 - 03:42 PM, said:

GW2 Patching system is annoying, so I try to log in and behold Halloween is here so I am looking forward to about 30 minutes of downloading, and this is with a decent internet connection (downloading at 0.5Mb/sec) I pity all of you who have worst connections.

Wow having a download of 500kb/s must be so hard for you.

Try living with a download of 190-200kb/s even with this slow connection I'm not blaming ANET because of it or saying the patchers need changing, instead all I do is start the update and go do something in RL.

I for one am looking forward to your post when the wintersday content needs to be downloaded.

Edited by dazza64, 29 October 2012 - 05:58 PM.