Guild Wars 2

I have a lot of patience. I didn’t complain about bugs for the first month. I mostly remained quiet the second month. My thinking was that these are complicated issues, so they require time to fix.

But it’s been more than two months now. On Darkhaven, the Balthazar, Melandru, Grenth, and Arah chains are all bugged. For the Balthazar and Melandru chains, the escort NPCs just stopped moving. For Grenth, the NPC that’s supposed to build the cannon just disappeared. For Arah, the chain just won’t start; it hasn’t started all day.

Plinx also bugged Thursday. Plinx just fell to the floor and never moved again. Only a lucky server reset the day after fixed it. I can’t imagine what would have happened if there was no server reset and the other events bugged as well. Cursed Shore would have been practically useless.

None of these are new bugs. They’ve been around since day one. These important chains have constantly broken.

So when will these be fixed? I appreciate all the content that came with Halloween and might come in Nov. 15, but if I have to chose between those additions and these old events finally working, I’m leaning on the latter.

They have no reason to care, we already payed. It’s a lot easier to market “look at all the cool new things we’re doing!” than “we actually fix game breaking issues” because swarms of people will just call you an entitled basement troll for wanting a working product.

There is no prioritizing. They have two teams: one for developing new content, one for fixing bugs. This is because, someone who fixes bugs can’t necessarily make new content, and vice versa. They require different methods, and different skillsets. Making new content does not slow down bug fixing, and bug fixing doesn’t slow down making new content.

I was about to make a post about this. I thought they got fixed for a little while, but turns out my server just got lucky and now all the major chains are bugged again.

It’s really frustrating to see this happening every week. Cursed Shore is the only 80 only zone, and it’s packed even with everything working. So when one thing bugs, let alone 3 major event chains, everyone is crammed into one spot, and it becomes totally worthless to go there cause you can’t even tag a mob.

I got really excited to see new stuff coming up on the 15th. Now that I see these same bugs again, I’m actually frustrated that new stuff is coming before these bugs are fixed.

This is just one kind of bug type too. HotW’s path 2 boss doesn’t even seem tested. But I don’t even care right now! The non-instanced world should be your top priority!

Lopez.7369:

I have a lot of patience. I didn’t complain about bugs for the first month. I mostly remained quiet the second month. My thinking was that these are complicated issues, so they require time to fix.

But it’s been more than two months now. On Darkhaven, the Balthazar, Melandru, Grenth, and Arah chains are all bugged. For the Balthazar and Melandru chains, the escort NPCs just stopped moving. For Grenth, the NPC that’s supposed to build the cannon just disappeared. For Arah, the chain just won’t start; it hasn’t started all day.

Plinx also bugged Thursday. Plinx just fell to the floor and never moved again. Only a lucky server reset the day after fixed it. I can’t imagine what would have happened if there was no server reset and the other events bugged as well. Cursed Shore would have been practically useless.

None of these are new bugs. They’ve been around since day one. These important chains have constantly broken.

So when will these be fixed? I appreciate all the content that came with Halloween and might come in Nov. 15, but if I have to chose between those additions and these old events finally working, I’m leaning on the latter.

You do realize that the people who would be fixing the bugs in the game would be an entirely different group of people than those that would work on the actual game content right?

They can in fact, do both at the same time.

Seems like bugs fixing are only temporary. It could be the next day or maybe another update and the same bugs surfaced again.

Why keeping rolling out new contents (and they probably come with more bugs) when the current bugs are not fixed totally?

I mean what is the use of reporting skill bugs in these forums when none or maybe just 0.1% of them are being fixed between a few updates. Most profession bugs are still around since thay were reported months ago.

Each time I login, I see quite regular updates begin downloaded but nothing much is being done on profession bug fixing. I rather have my bug infested Ele fixed than having these new events. Really.

I don’t think the fixes are really temporary. I just think some servers get lucky and fail to see the brokenness before too long. After all, it seems like these events just have a chance to break at any given moment. Throughout the week, there’s more chances for it to break, so the longer the server goes without reset, the more likely events are to break. So some weeks people get lucky and that chance is never seen, but, more often than not, at least one major event will break.

Anyway, I’m sure they can technically work on both issues, but it doesn’t seem like the bug fixes are getting enough attention. There are still so many bugs. Major events being broken in the endgame area is simply not acceptable after more than two months.

As Arius already pointed out, the is NO PRIORITIZING. If you’ve kept up to date with ANet news at all, you would know that their dev team structure is made up for a multitude of cells. One cell is tasked with holiday event content, one with bug fixing etc. Stopping the release of new content will do nothing to speed up the elimination of bugs.

Read Mr.Lizard’s “Why Haven’t They Fixed This Bug?” and see why this is more of a generic MMO thing rather than plain incompetence from ANet.

Well new content is bound to have bugs as well, which means they’ll probably prioritize bugs there since it’s the new “shiny”. But I’m not an expert, so /shrug.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/The-outstanding-Hatchery-Bug/first#post632058

This should be the highest priority right now. If the November event patch happens and this isn’t fixed then ANET needs to massively rethink their priorities.

different teams, different priorities. You dont fix bugs, people leaves. You dont put new stuff, people don’t come/return.

There is your answer, not too much to think.

Everywhere I’ve worked, the guys that wrote the code also fixed the bugs. That includes a gaming company and enterprise software. I’m curious where you guys get the info that there’s actually a separate bug-fix team. Is there an article about the ArenaNet organization structure somewhere?

Sirevanac.3178:

different teams, different priorities. You dont fix bugs, people leaves. You dont put new stuff, people don’t come/return.

There is your answer, not too much to think.

Not exactly true in this case.
The bug mentioned has been:
Identified
Confimred
Fixed (internally they have a working fix)

The only thing that hasnt been done is the QA process where they test the fix and then implement it on the live servers. The reason this has taken over a moth is the QA team is busy with the holiday content (this is of course speculation but there is no other logical explanation as to why a bug that has a working fix and is so game breaking for those effected by it would take so incredibly long to go through testing) and have put this off as a secondary priority.

Ravenblade.7685:

Read Mr.Lizard’s “Why Haven’t They Fixed This Bug?” and see why this is more of a generic MMO thing rather than plain incompetence from ANet.

None of those sarcastic explanations really address my concerns. Unless the developers literally aren’t looking at live Orr, they should know it’s very much bugged. And the bugs are big. The temple events are supposed to be the big endgame events, and the Arah event unlocks a dungeon. They could be very difficult bugs to fix, as I said in my first post; but it’s been more than two months. If they really need more time than that, then something is really wrong.

Knote.2904:

Well new content is bound to have bugs as well, which means they’ll probably prioritize bugs there since it’s the new “shiny”. But I’m not an expert, so /shrug.

Yup. This is a big, legitimate concern.

Enikuo.9205:

Everywhere I’ve worked, the guys that wrote the code also fixed the bugs. That includes a gaming company and enterprise software. I’m curious where you guys get the info that there’s actually a separate bug-fix team. Is there an article about the ArenaNet organization structure somewhere?

I’m curious about this too, but the other post I replied to gives reason to worry even if people’s claims about different teams are true.

With all that said, the point is these bugs are not getting enough attention because they haven’t been fixed after more than two months.

Then I’ll change my statement. New content = new players. More money, more people to hire and stuff. =P

There are 7 different development teams

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/colin-johanson-outlines-guild-wars-2-live-game-development/

Here are the two relevant teams to this dicsussion.

Live Response—The Live Response team is focused on fixing bugs, addressing game feedback, and balancing the game. You’ve seen a lot of their work already in the update notes.

Living World—The Living World team is focused on adding new content to the game world. This team will be adding and refining the types of content you already know in PvE and WvW, as well as developing new features and rewards.

I also wanted to add my 2 cents to the topic. I have run into very few bugs over the past month. A couple halloween ones right off the bat and The Hatchery bug. Then maybe a couple dynamic event bugs here or there. There are way fewer bugs in the game now compared to 1.5 months ago. IMO they are doing a great job, keep it up.

Jemmi.6058:

There are 7 different development teams

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/colin-johanson-outlines-guild-wars-2-live-game-development/

Here are the two relevant teams to this dicsussion.

Live Response—The Live Response team is focused on fixing bugs, addressing game feedback, and balancing the game. You’ve seen a lot of their work already in the update notes.

Living World—The Living World team is focused on adding new content to the game world. This team will be adding and refining the types of content you already know in PvE and WvW, as well as developing new features and rewards.

---

I also wanted to add my 2 cents to the topic. I have run into very few bugs over the past month. A couple halloween ones right off the bat and The Hatchery bug. Then maybe a couple dynamic event bugs here or there. There are way fewer bugs in the game now compared to 1.5 months ago. IMO they are doing a great job, keep it up.

That really is strange to have a dedicated bug-fix team. I’m accustomed to escalation teams that handle one-offs and emergency fixes, but I’ve never seen that.

I can understand the OPs frustration. A lot of the profession bugs seem rather long in the tooth at this point. Maybe they need to prioritize hiring for the Live Response team.

Lopez.7369:

None of those sarcastic explanations really address my concerns. Unless the developers literally aren’t looking at live Orr, they should know it’s very much bugged. And the bugs are big. The temple events are supposed to be the big endgame events, and the Arah event unlocks a dungeon. They could be very difficult bugs to fix, as I said in my first post; but it’s been more than two months. If they really need more time than that, then something is really wrong.

They have several teams, they also have priorities which are assigned to each of these teams. If an encounter breaks it may be because a certain code in the game got altered. I assume they are using scripts for events with functions. If these break because of a bug which previously wasn’t there or in that form then content designers can’t do much. Any fix they have to make post-production would be delegated to a different sub-team dedicated to fixing things but then again that’s based on what they said.

Anyhow I share the concern about broken events especially those being broken for a long time. But I do not know how their priorities are like internally and whether there’s a greater underlying issues which needs to be addressed first. The last thing you want is 10 encounters being fixed then the bug within the engine causing this being fixed as well later – by coincidence – then breaking these 10 encounters again.

The problem is the bugs are the exact same bugs that existed at launch. NPC escorts for the Balthazar, Grenth, and Melandru chains randomly stop moving. The Arah chain has always had problems spawning as well.

Maybe the bugs are happening less frequently. I can’t tell without the internal data. But what I can say is that these bugs happen too often.

At the very least, they should have GMs that can push or reset chains on the fly. Maybe they have this already, but it’s definitely not being used enough.

Whatever the case, there are too many bugs that break the endgame zone.

So when’s the next server reset? It seems no one is going to be able to do Arah on Darkhaven, a “Full” server, until reset. Melandru and Grenth are also still bugged, as far as I can tell.

Bug fixes and new content are not handled by the same teams and do not require the same skillset.

Would you ask the workers building your house to stop and fix your broken car or would you call your mechanic? Eeeeeexactly.

I wanted to do Arah last night – Can’t.
I wanted to do Arah tonight – Can’t.
I want to do Events now, but Cursed Shore is going to be crowded and have only minor events so… Can’t

It’s annoying.

i agree and its plain to see the way they have it set up is a mistake
if the content creators had to fix their own bugs perhaps they will finish what they start instead of just getting it to work once and letting it go live without actually seeing what happens longterm

For the third day in a row, Darkhaven is unable to do Arah, a dungeon that’s necessary to complete a character’s personal story, and most major events are still bugged.

Yeah Lopez we get that and agree—it sucks (I’m from Darkhaven actually, luckily haven’t needed to do Arah). But, as already said, their teams are divided. A content creator does not necessarily have the skills that a bug fixer needs, it’s like using a wrench to tighten a screw—it’s the wrong thing for the job, it help with repairing in general, but it just isn’t made for that sort of thing.

They need to fix bugs faster—fine, but there is no prioritizing. It’s how all MMO’s work.

I guess that ANet is failing BIG in fixing events, even in patch notes says “fixed arah doors”, 3 hours later, the SAME BUG. ANet must remake the way this events works or people will be again waiting WEEKs for make the endgame, the Arah for example.

I may remember in Gunnar’s Hold server, before Halloween = 2 weeks Arah bugged.
After halloween update = Arah working for 3 hours.
After that = Arah only works again when there is new builds, at this momment Arah is bugged AGAIN for 4 days….

And counting… Soo ANet about new content before bug fixes, it’s strange, You said its fixed, we go on happy, it’s bugged, aaand we get frustrated.

Arius.7031:

Yeah Lopez we get that and agree—it sucks (I’m from Darkhaven actually, luckily haven’t needed to do Arah). But, as already said, their teams are divided. A content creator does not necessarily have the skills that a bug fixer needs, it’s like using a wrench to tighten a screw—it’s the wrong thing for the job, it help with repairing in general, but it just isn’t made for that sort of thing.

They need to fix bugs faster—fine, but there is no prioritizing. It’s how all MMO’s work.

I already addressed that in the thread. Maybe the thread is poorly titled, but the point remains.