Please allow us to update the game without active subscription

[Eli85]

Assuming your friend loses the maximum of 3 days play time, it would result in a net monetary loss of $1.29 USD (assuming the $12.99 entry level subscription). So, just to be clear, your friend is lamenting the loss of a $1.29? If this is the case, maybe your friend shouldn't be gaming at all.

[JWag12787]

Have they played before? Trial accounts are awesome if they aren't above the trial level limit. If so, create a burner trial and update that way.

[Felis]

Unless he has existing character, which the trial account won't see. Still, this is a good idea if you can install the trial to a different folder, then after it's downloaded and updated, copy the updated files into the active game folder. (Assuming you can find out which files to copy.)
One the updated game with original characters is up and running, close and uninstall the trial.

different accounts don't need different clients.
Create a trial account -> login to the trial account -> the launcher start to download the missing patches -> relog to the normal account after paying the sub -> all patches already downloaded

[Crystal_Raven]

So I know a friend who commented that they wanted to buy 30 days of subscription to try out ShB, but they lamented that they are going to lose out on 2-3 days of subscription time just trying to download the simply massive update (they've been away for awhile).

And that brought me to an idea -- why is it we cannot update the game and then sub up so we're not wasting a lot of our subscription on days we can't even play because we're still downloading?

2-3 days?

I'm sorry but is he on borderline dial-up?

[Maeka]

2-3 days?

I'm sorry but is he on borderline dial-up?

Many people have 10Mbps or lower. At 10Mbps, downloading 12GB takes easily 3h during which time it is nearly impossible for you to do anything else online with your PC at the time. And some people have jobs, and a lot of times you don't even get the full potential of your download speeds. So maybe one such person might log on and have an hour or two that they could put into downloading.... and then the next day another hour or two, etc.

Not everybody can leave their computer on 24/7, some people have laptops that they need to take with them on the go, etc.

There could be many reasons.

Heck, I remember before I got comcast last year, I was stuck on 6Mbps. That would take almost 6 hours of downloading to get 12GB.