Guild Wars 2

If you say “there will be a new build in 1-2 hours” release the new build in 1-2 hours, not 45 minutes later. I don’t understand why it’s always so ambiguous and incorrect. You’re a big company, figure it out

agreed lol….
Figured I had time to do a dungeon path real quick
10 minutes into it we all got dcd for the build
(5-10 minutes after the message popped up)
so 15-20 minutes

Server F.A.

Ya, it’s just a bit of a shock. I just started playing Gw2 a few months ago, and came from SWTOR… the first time I saw a “we will be releasing a new build in a couple of hours” message I thought – “seriously? a couple of hours? That’s incredibly unprofessional”. It’s like you don’t care enough about YOUR gamers to set a time and stick with it.

I know we’re not saving lives here, but if you have a new build set to release – tell us it’s being released at 8:00pm, and release it at 8:00pm!

Ya… Guild Wars 2 is a little behind the 8 ball on that…
I can assure you though that Guild Wars1 was actually on time for the most part though, so its not a bad tradition that made its way through the cracks.

It is a little strange. Don’t they know when a build is coming out?

A bunch of us were doing the Jormag event and got the warning of I or 2 hours. No problem, lots of time. Got the dragon down to a sliver of health then new warning, “new build in 3 minutes”. (We got it done but darn, it was close. About 30 seconds to grab chest then booted).

My understanding is that the build isn’t released worldwide at the same time – though I could be wrong. Through I’d read that somewhere as how they manage bandwidth issues.

They should just change the wording to “A new patch will be released within 2 hours”. Then it wouldn’t be an issue.

Wolfey.3407:

agreed lol….
Figured I had time to do a dungeon path real quick
10 minutes into it we all got dcd for the build
(5-10 minutes after the message popped up)
so 15-20 minutes

Server F.A.

When you’re in a dungeon you get 3 hours when the rest of the server receives the ‘3 minutes’ message.

Total crap. Just had a message ~30 minutes ago saying “a new build will be available in the next hour or two” which is vague and lazy enough as it is, but then to not even make it within 1-2 hours?

Seriously poor customer experience. Really, really bad.

I can’t honestly believe that a game so great could have developers that send out a game-wide message, and then don’t even stick to it.

Really terrible.

It is pretty annoying. I’ve had several times it’s dc’d me (in less time than it said) and come back dead on login. (FYI no I was not in wvw, but open world pve).

It would behoove the community to actually release it on time. If it says 1-2 hours then stay to that 1-2 hours and give a 15 minute warning, not just a 3-5min warning. Or even better, if it was 7pm and rather than say 1-2 hours say “releasing at 8pm” and have it at that, so everyone is aware that around 8 it goes down.

I’d probably come down on the side of set a time and stick to it. Use Engineer Scotty’s logic if you have to and overestimate the time, then delay the patch until the announced time if it’s finished before then. That would allow people to make informed decisions and stop frustration from missing out on something from a unluckily timed patch.

If you set a time and it looks like it’s going to be overshot, post an announcement resetting the time to whatever it’s going to be.

draxynnic.3719:

I’d probably come down on the side of set a time and stick to it. Use Engineer Scotty’s logic if you have to and overestimate the time, then delay the patch until the announced time if it’s finished before then. That would allow people to make informed decisions and stop frustration from missing out on something from a unluckily timed patch.

When it’s a hot fix for an exploit they’re not going to push it back, that would be kittened.

Most new builds aren’t hotfixes for exploits, though.

Even when they are, the message could be “A new build to fix an exploit will be applied at (time). See patch notes for details. Anyone found to have used the exploit between receiving this message and the implementation of the fix will be banned.”

Then, people can’t complain when they get banned that they didn’t know it was regarded as an exploit, and innocent players don’t get punished by being booted during a world boss event, the second half of a dungeon, or any other large-investment-large-payoff-but-only-at-the-end activity.

Sorry folks, I am just not feeling your pain here. I so very much prefer ArenaNet’s method of patching over every other MMO I have ever played. ArenaNet warns you that at some point, between now and 2 hours, you will need to log out of the game. But until that crippling horrible moment that you must exit the game and spend 5 minutes downloading the updated files, YOU ARE STILL ABLE TO PLAY THE GAME!!! As opposed to every other MMO I have played from EQ to WoW, RIFT and SWTOR, where they announce they will be bringing the servers down for the next 2 hours and you get to go find something else to do because the game is shut down.

Electro.4173:

They should just change the wording to “A new patch will be released within 2 hours”. Then it wouldn’t be an issue.

I am actually quite certain that that IS the wording. At least I have seen the whole “within the coming hours” at least once.

Lyric: I understand what you’re saying, but it’s of little comfort when the first warning you have of the patch comes when you’re already committed to a dungeon or a meta event chain, and then you get booted before you can finish it. Other companies generally tell you well in advance when they’re going to have scheduled maintenance so you don’t get caught by surprise that way.

I think the basic consensus is ‘at least give us an hour’s warning’. Still sucks for some things like Arah runs, but most things an hour’s warning will stop you from being caught in the middle of something. A “within the next two hours” warning that proves to be in half an hour, though, can catch a lot of people out.

I’ve always understood it as the build will come within 1 hour, or in worst case within 2 hours.

Within isn’t with. I remember seeing within.

Agree with draxxynic – I like that you can log right back in, but it’s a pain in the kitten if you can’t plan accordingly, and get booted from a fractal or something when I was supposed to have enough time.

To make it simple do one of two things:
1. Either make it more ambiguous by saying: “there will be a new build in the coming hours”
or
2. Stick with your actual announcement of “new build within the next 1-2 hours” AND ACTUALLY FOLLOW YOUR OWN TIMELINES

Even better, option 3 – say a time it’s going to come down, and take the servers down at that time.

It’s total crap that you don’t follow any of these 3, but rather:
1. Give a vague time of new builds
2. Don’t even follow your own timelines
3. Give minimal warning (2-3 minutes??) when you’ve clearly just lied about your timing

Folks – again, I don’t believe that it downloads worldwide at the exact same time – I could be wrong, but I KNOW it didn’t in gw1.

The reason for the ambiguity is probably that.

12 minutes this time.

“new build will be coming in the next hour or two” and it was 12 minutes.

Total crap.

Seriously, it’s just lazy and inconsiderate.