Guild Wars 2

Today I had an odd experience I haven’t had before and after asking around, no one really seemed to know about anything like this.

To describe what happened:

I duo’d a arah path 1 with someone, without anything being weird we got to the end and we set up so we could sell it, got fillers like any sane person would and gathered a few crystals. After we put up the lfg, we waited a little bit. Someone joined, entered the instance and then left the party almost right away without a word. Didn’t seem to weird so far. Shortly after that, another person does the same. Getting bored of waiting I decide to run around a bit and get some more crystals. Weirdly enough, I ran into one of the people that joined and left instantly, inside of the dungeon. They then dissappeared in thin air.

A bit suspicious of things, we keep waiting for buyers, we get one, notice that another lfg is selling for a lower price but we decided to wait more instead of lowering ours. Shortly after this, we suddenly see the two people that joined and left our party earlier walk up to the boss with some crystals, starting and finishing the boss. There wasn’t really anything we could do whilst this was happening.

After they killed the boss, I asked our buyer if he got any of the rewards (I already ran the path so didn’t know) and he did. Later, at the entrance of the instance we discovered another person that wasn’t in our party, after talking to him we found out that apparantly he was a buyer of the two people that invaded and finished our instance, he got none of the rewards.

I think that in the end there were 6 or more people in the instance at the same time, divided over 2 parties, which to me seems not really intended. Here’s a screenshot with their names partially blacked out, but you can see that they’re in our instance without being in the party: http://i.imgur.com/cDRlrBg.jpg

A little bit later, after having them in my friend list so I’d remember their names and looking a bit, they seemed to have done the same to someone else’s instance as well almost right after they did it to us. Both of the account had notable low AP as well.

I don’t sell dungeons often at all so it might just be me not being aware of anything like this, but if it’s really uncommon then I think more people should know about it. Obviously I also wrote to support about this.

I have experienced that bug a few times now, mostly random people being in our instance without being in our group. Usually the 5th person can’t join the dungeon because of a “World is full” error if that happens.
I myself was in an instance of a complete random group I wasn’t a member of in CoF p1 once, but that was already more than a year ago.
I never thought you could bug an instance out like that intentionally, but I hope if so it gets fixed, especially since you can’t do anything about it.

I actually have no idea how they could’ve done that. The way the picture is makes it seem pretty obvious they did it intentionally… that’s creepy.

I’ve experienced some odd things with the LFG lately so if I ever discover whatever they did I’ll pm you ingame, OP. I don’t think sharing it on the forums is a good idea because it will just give people the opportunity to grief the living daylights out of people, so if anyone figures out what caused it I would suggest emailing it to exploits@arena.net instead of posting it anywhere.

Last time I emailed them I didn’t get an automated response, so I trust it enough to use it.

That sounds like a very severe exploit I suggest you to report it to ANet directly.

I’ve experienced a similar issue a couple of times so far. The first time was 7 months ago, you can see the second screenshot here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/General-Dungeon-Discussion-Thread-Part-1/page/79#post4379437

If I remember correctly, there was a problem with the login server – you know how sometimes you get a popup saying that the client failed to connect to the login server but you’re still logged on. I’d assume that if the connection to it was bad, then those people managed to hop in and leave the party, letting them stay within the instance without the game server being able to detect the presence of other people within the same dungeon.

Of course, this is just speculation, and when we encountered the issue, we were already in the same party for a while. Finding out how to use this as an exploit though, is a bit nasty.

encountering a non-party member in dungeon must be so creepy

Had the same some days ago when we trio fotm 40 and want to sell it. same two persons appeared in our instance and trolled us with back to mistlock observatory button. we couldnt sell anything because the instance was full and had to finish it for them….

Yea this bug has been around since the new instance ownership system (maybe even earlier). Nova and I unintentionally found out how to re-produce it and I’m pretty sure he was streaming at the time even.

This really should also go into the the bug forums….

I know how to reproduce it, if any dev wants to ask, please pm me

Wasn’t it addressed that using the LFG system to “sell” anything, including home instances and dungeons was not-allowed?

Turk.5460:

Wasn’t it addressed that using the LFG system to “sell” anything, including home instances and dungeons was not-allowed?

No? It was said “gentleman agreements” are accepted within the game

Using the LFG for any type of group such as selling home instance access or dungeons is allowed. Using the lfg to sell items is not allowed. Because thats not finding a group.

So it’s also fine for ERP?

spoj.9672:

Using the LFG for any type of group such as selling home instance access or dungeons is allowed. Using the lfg to sell items is not allowed. Because thats not finding a group.

Not sure if home instance selling is permitted, there’s a response here which seems to imply it’s not.

When people were selling precursors in LFG. One of the devs made some clarifications. They said selling home instance was fine because its the formation of a group to do so. Its no different to dungeon selling.

So either they changed their policy or Gaile has a slightly different interpretation. Although i would say the no advertising portal access is rather contradictory to the group formation comment. Which is why I would still stand by and say home instance selling is ok.

This is the problem – Gaile’s post created more confusion. Instead of answering yes or no to simple question she made a general statement that actually means nothing.

tramwajarz.2369:

This is the problem – Gaile’s post created more confusion. Instead of answering yes or no to simple question she made a general statement that actually means nothing.

Hmm, what this reminds me of?

Wethospu.6437:

So it’s also fine for ERP?

Why wouldnt it be?

Well, kitten.

Happened to us today. We were selling Arah ez pz swaggerony, then suddenly, our last buyer is like “Boiz plz can’t join, world is full”.

Then I look back at the logs. Weirdly, I got P2 end dialogue while doing P1 mmh… Then second weird thing : a guy who never popped in our party was written as —-——— left the instance. Interesting again.

So I did what all sound people would do : I threatened in map chat. No answer. So we finished the path with one buyer. Then, before triggering end reward, we split to find the guy. He stood at the spiders at the beginning, completely hidden if you were at spawn. Outside of party.

Got his name, account name and I even know how he did it. It’s lame.

Harny.6012:

Wethospu.6437:

So it’s also fine for ERP?

Why wouldnt it be?

Looks like it happens.

I enjoy getting free Arah paths C:

If someone finds you, which isn’t the hardest thing ever, you can be sure the only free thing you’ll get is a ticket to tempbanland :/

Fewix.4250:

I enjoy getting free Arah paths C:

Hmm, troll, or just dirt?

khani.4786:

Harny.6012:

Wethospu.6437:

So it’s also fine for ERP?

Why wouldnt it be?

Looks like it happens.

Somebody probably posted that one just to screenshot it for this thread… :P

That said, the first I thought when I saw that screenshot was "oh, we’re supposed to show up as thieves and engineers with names like “Doc” and “Earp” all in leather trenchcoats and dual it out?"

On the list of common LFG terminology… what does “AP” stand for?
I thought it referred to your power score… as in “Attack Power”… but as far as I know, that’s a stat you have to ask someone about in order to know it…

If you get the world full error although only 4 people are in the instance, one person needs to leave the instance, then both can join again. I guess the server refreshes the player counter every time someone joins or leaves only.