Guild Wars 2

I’ve noticed this happening the past 2-3 weeks. I often do multiple node runs in the same area with different characters. It’s just more efficient that way.

Lately I’ve noticed node locations changing much more often than they previously were. I’ve noticed the locations changing even if there isn’t a patch/update.

I like to guest to other servers if the node distribution is more convenient, and this change is making that impossible to do reliably.

Is there any info on this change or is ANet just kittening with us?

A zone resets (and nodes change) every time it is unloaded and then loaded again. Now, this always happens when the servers are down for patching/maintenance/whatever, but a lot of people also suspect it happens whenever the zone is completely empty of players. So if a zone has exactly zero players in it, the server unloads it from memory to save resources, and reloads it when a player enters it again.

I’ve noticed unstable node sites beginning with the start of the LA events. I am assuming its because that event pulled high numbers of people to it, including the people who would normally be out farming. Once people get back to doing the farm runs the nodes should stabilize again.

Edit: the map I noticed it on is Frostgorge which is where I do most of my ori/ancient wood farming on 9 characters.

I’ve noticed the changing node locations as well. I currently use 6 characters for resource farming at Frostgorge, Southsun and Orr. I normally do my farming during non-peak hours.

I first noticed the node locations changing on Southsun several months ago. Sometimes the nodes would be at different location for each character and sometimes the nodes would relocate after the 2nd or 3rd character run. It wasn’t until recently that I’ve recently seen the same behavior on Frostgorge and Orr.

The theory that Tom Gore suggests that the server dumps the map when no players are present and reloads on player entrance might be correct. It would explain why the nodes are at different locations for multiple characters during the same server cycle.

Tom Gore.4035:

A zone resets (and nodes change) every time it is unloaded and then loaded again. Now, this always happens when the servers are down for patching/maintenance/whatever, but a lot of people also suspect it happens whenever the zone is completely empty of players. So if a zone has exactly zero players in it, the server unloads it from memory to save resources, and reloads it when a player enters it again.

The sad part of this theory is that it means GW2 is losing a fair amount of players.

Morsus.5106:

Tom Gore.4035:

A zone resets (and nodes change) every time it is unloaded and then loaded again. Now, this always happens when the servers are down for patching/maintenance/whatever, but a lot of people also suspect it happens whenever the zone is completely empty of players. So if a zone has exactly zero players in it, the server unloads it from memory to save resources, and reloads it when a player enters it again.

The sad part of this theory is that it means GW2 is losing a fair amount of players.

Or they are doing the big zerg events instead of doing boring farming runs. Since I kept on being thrown into overflows with the LA events, this shows a lot of people were doing that, getting their blade shards for the ascended backpieces for example.

I’ve noticed this even when guesting on Blackgate. Frostgorge there is never empty. This only started just recently.

I do the same thing on all my toons. I, like many, stopped for the LA Events for a little change of pace. As soon as they were over, I started back on my Orr Runs, and that’s when I noticed this Node issue. I use gw2nodes.com, and often I am the one now who ends up mapping the locations it seems. I thought I was loosing it, but even reported this as a bug twice, no response. Glad to know I’m not alone at least, but it’s killing my time I have for gathering. I work about 55 hrs a week, lead my Guild, full time father and husband. This not being the way it has been for the last year I’ve played the game is really throwing a wrench into my gameplay : )

Thanks for the responses, folks. Good info to have.

I also posted here, after no clarification was given via ticket as to whether this was a game update or a bug.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Orr-Top-Tier-Harvesting-Nodes-Moving-Randomly/first#post3794399

Anet plx. I legitimately work my kitten off collecting in this game. Every single day.
You have made it 10x harder and even more time consuming, without any guarantees at all now.
Collecting is the relaxing way that I spent time making money, enjoying the scenery, & the only reason I spend time in pve at all…
This hits home for me hard. If I can’t collect reliably on all of my toons, then I could care less about finishing fully equipping them with perm harvesting tools.
Plz give us back our reliable T6 nodes.
I actually DO want to buy more harvesting tools, but it doesn’t seem worth it now with this change.

Node locations have changed more often lately, now its at least once every 24 hr. Earlier it used to stay the same for a week or two. Malchor Leap change for every character, and finding the nodes for every run is somewhat time-consuming.
The coming changes to dyes will make these runs even more boring for me. Finding a new colour every once in a while was a nice thing.

That’s why i just do my normal 1 Hour Platium Run in Sparkfly before Teq and are done for the rest of the Day.. It’s 3-4g more per Teq run and that’s totally enough.

What you are seeing is an indication of lower population access to that particular zone on your server. As mentioned above, nodes reset when a map is generated and maps only generate when a player enters a previously empty zone.

There is NO timed reset on node locations (this is set by a map being reloaded per above). The timing on node refill is I think 8 hours for lower level resources and 24 hours on the highest tier.

I’ve definitely seen an occasional bug that causes certain orichalcum/ancient wood nodes that I’ve harvested on one character to appear “used” for a different character that I know for a fact has not used it yet.

And before someone doubts that the character hadn’t used it yet, I’ve noticed this happening to nodes in areas that were previously unexplored for that character. The map clears, I get the “new area” text, XP, and audio clip, and then I run up to a used node.

But then again, this is probably unrelated.

RoyHarmon.5398:

I’ve definitely seen an occasional bug that causes certain orichalcum/ancient wood nodes that I’ve harvested on one character to appear “used” for a different character that I know for a fact has not used it yet.

And before someone doubts that the character hadn’t used it yet, I’ve noticed this happening to nodes in areas that were previously unexplored for that character. The map clears, I get the “new area” text, XP, and audio clip, and then I run up to a used node.

But then again, this is probably unrelated.

I think that has more to do with the placeholder function of Ori / Ancient Wood nodes.

For example there are 2 Ori Nodes in Frostgorge. Now you harvest the first of them, then after 5 or 6 hours you can harvest the same node again, however if you go now to the second node that one is also used.

Glad I found this thread, kept wondering why wood and ore have been harder to mine, and nodes that I haven’t used not accessable, the node maps being wrong or not having reliable or empty data. Seeing used nodes that I haven’t accessed. It was such a change for me, I wondered if I had missed something in the various updates and their notes.
Happy to know it’s something off aon Anets’ side and I wasn’t going crazy. LOL
Now we have to get Anet to respond and fix it.

Brother Grimm.5176:

What you are seeing is an indication of lower population access to that particular zone on your server. As mentioned above, nodes reset when a map is generated and maps only generate when a player enters a previously empty zone.

There is NO timed reset on node locations (this is set by a map being reloaded per above). The timing on node refill is I think 8 hours for lower level resources and 24 hours on the highest tier.

Before this ‘change’, Frostgorge AND Orr node locations only changed if there was an update/patch/ninja patch or maintenance. Period. Been doing this for a year & a half every single day, on multiple 80’s.

Naz.2607:

Before this ‘change’, Frostgorge AND Orr node locations only changed if there was an update/patch/ninja patch or maintenance. Period. Been doing this for a year & a half every single day, on multiple 80’s.

The maps, after all, are instances. When all the people leave the instance, the instance disappears. When someone enters the instance then it reappears and the nodes are set into their new spots.

I can think of 3 possible reasons for this suddenly happening.
1) low general population.
2) lower amount of farming in FG and Orr. People are making money somewhere else.
3) guesting. People are looking the mats with the best layouts and going there to farm. Leaving the other maps to empty out.

So, with the new ‘megaserver’, say goodbye to this altogether?
I have used this as a legitimate way to make money in-game for over a year now.
gg
I’m guessing anet wants more ppl flipping the TP for gold?

Naz.2607:

So, with the new ‘megaserver’, say goodbye to this altogether?
I have used this as a legitimate way to make money in-game for over a year now.
gg
I’m guessing anet wants more ppl flipping the TP for gold?

It may still be possible. Maps will have less chance to despawn because there will be more players per map after the merge.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Naz.2607:

So, with the new ‘megaserver’, say goodbye to this altogether?
I have used this as a legitimate way to make money in-game for over a year now.
gg
I’m guessing anet wants more ppl flipping the TP for gold?

It may still be possible. Maps will have less chance to despawn because there will be more players per map after the merge.

That’s distinctly possible. The apps showing the layouts of different servers may no longer be possible though if they are going to be condensed down to a few severs. And it sounds like you don’t be able to select one map that has a good layout but will get whatever map the computer puts you on.

Astral Projections.7320:

Lord Kuru.3685:

Naz.2607:

So, with the new ‘megaserver’, say goodbye to this altogether?
I have used this as a legitimate way to make money in-game for over a year now.
gg
I’m guessing anet wants more ppl flipping the TP for gold?

It may still be possible. Maps will have less chance to despawn because there will be more players per map after the merge.

That’s distinctly possible. The apps showing the layouts of different servers may no longer be possible though if they are going to be condensed down to a few severs. And it sounds like you don’t be able to select one map that has a good layout but will get whatever map the computer puts you on.

Yeah.. this is the problem.. and I doubt Anet will let us choose a map when there are multiple instances available.

Naz.2607:

So, with the new ‘megaserver’, say goodbye to this altogether?
I have used this as a legitimate way to make money in-game for over a year now.
gg
I’m guessing anet wants more ppl flipping the TP for gold?

Could be the deal breaker for me.

Been wondering how this will be with node farmers as well. I can see some mat prices change. There are some mats I feel a lot of people server hop to gather more. Like Platinum and Lemongrass off hand. I would think there are a few more people do that with as well. We should know more about how this will work today.

It’s really not that hard to find the orichalcum/ancient wood nodes in Cursed Shore (and to a lesser extent Malchor’s and Frostgorge), they seem to always spawn in a handful of possible locations.

Hyper Cutter.9376:

It’s really not that hard to find the orichalcum/ancient wood nodes in Cursed Shore (and to a lesser extent Malchor’s and Frostgorge), they seem to always spawn in a handful of possible locations.

I believe that applies to all T6 nodes in general (or at the very least orich, wood, and blooming passiflora, haven’t harvested enough truffles and such to know that for sure).

I know every single spot that Orich and Ancient Wood nodes can spawn on Southsun by this point. I still use the node maps to save time, but if the maps are wrong I can always find them on my own. Thankfully Southsun being a small map, it doesn’t even take that long if I have to find them myself.

As Malchor leap has changed a lot lately (for me at least), I find that it takes a lot longer to gather stuff there. If I wp to the last known location and it isnt there, I “have” to wp again because I think its easier to start the search in an end of a map. Not a big thing, but maybe I already have wp’ed twice to get there when they have broken the map.
But as it seems champ/worldboss farming is taking a hit, theres maybe more people around gathering, wich can hold maps open forever and nodes never change. Depends on how this we-dont-have-population-issues-so-we-dont-need-server-merge actually works.

I think we can all say ‘good bye’ to the node map sites once the megaserver hits the T6 maps.

Even if you know where the possible spawn sites are, do you really want to waste time exploring for each node? Frostgorge is a big map with many possible spawn sites and few wp’s. You will spend a lot more time swimming and running around trying to find these.

For those using multiple toons, there is no guarantee you will be placed on the same map each time you log in on a different toon.

I think it will be less about the maps completely respawning more (in fact, they are more likely to respawn LESS if the system works as ANet describes) but players will be unable to uniquely identify the maps they are on to mark locations on the web pages AND players NOT being able to able to select which map you want to travel to. Until we get more details about map naming and potential player control of what map you load into, everything about this issue is pure speculation.

The only thing I can say for sure is that attempt to do resource “runs” will be quite different than now.

Now that I think about it, even if the maps despawn less frequently, there’s zero guarantee that a character you’ve parked will log in back to the same map (unless there’s only been one instance the whole time, I suppose).

So even if you do take the time to find and record all the nodes on a map, it’s very possible that the next time you log in, you’ll be on a different instance of that map.