Guild Wars 2

I have just spent over an hour trying to join a working bell choir instance.
When I try to join I either get a world full error or it places me into an instance which is on the free play phase.
If I decide to wait it out inside the instance for the instance to reset I get a log-in server error and the instance doesn’t reset so I have to leave.

This is getting frustrating – the bell choir has been going for 4 years surely someone could spare a little time to fix it?

They have had those same problems with it for years. It seems like it’s not a priority to fix it. You just kinda get used to it after the first year. At least I did. Doesn’t even phase me anymore.

I waited through the free play, it doesn’t reset the instance, it wants to toss me into another, and I get the ‘its full’ message even though I didn’t actually click on anything when the free play ended. Then, I left the instance, reenter bell choir and get put in another ‘free play’ round. Wash, rinse, repeat. Its a poor implementation of instance management.

Its an annoyance that they’re not going to do anything about.

I’ll add my anecdotal experiences with joining Bell Choir. I rarely get the error message either the OP or Gaile mentioned. I do often run into the issue of joining during free play. I don’t agree with the idea that this occurs simply because free play is the longest part of Bell Choir. If that was the case, I would expect to join Bell Choir at random times during its length. I simply don’t see that. I reliably join within 30 seconds of the tenth minute(right at the beginning) or within 30 seconds of the fourth minute (Free play). I have found no reliable way to influence which scenario plays out. Neither quitting immediately and re-joining or waiting out the free play time seem to change the chances of getting a working instance. It is extremely frustrating to join during free play over and over, repeatedly watching loading screen after loading screen.

I will agree with Blockhead about the chances of seeing a fix. This undocumented feature has been a part of Bell Choir long enough too call it tradition.

theTurkey.2970:

I’ll add my anecdotal experiences with joining Bell Choir. I rarely get the error message either the OP or Gaile mentioned. I do often run into the issue of joining during free play. I don’t agree with the idea that this occurs simply because free play is the longest part of Bell Choir. If that was the case, I would expect to join Bell Choir at random times during its length. I simply don’t see that. I reliably join within 30 seconds of the tenth minute(right at the beginning) or within 30 seconds of the fourth minute (Free play). I have found no reliable way to influence which scenario plays out. Neither quitting immediately and re-joining or waiting out the free play time seem to change the chances of getting a working instance. It is extremely frustrating to join during free play over and over, repeatedly watching loading screen after loading screen.

I will agree with Blockhead about the chances of seeing a fix. This undocumented feature has been a part of Bell Choir long enough too call it tradition.

Since a lot of people leave at the start of Free play, the matchmaking tries to fill these empty spaces. It is much rarer to have people leaving in the middle of the songs, that is why you get either at the beginning or the end.

Gaile Gray.6029:

I’ve been playing a lot of Bell Choir lately. (Love it!) I have worked around the problems you mention by leaving the instance and rejoining if I get the error message. (I get it quite rarely, actually.) I think the situation where you are joining during the free-play is coincidental — I don’t think that is an issue. Free play, after all, runs longer than any particular song phrase, right? If that is true — and it seems true to me — then it would be sort of mathematically probable that you might hit that longer session more often.

Please also remember that if you get a message about the world being full when you try to enter the instance, you should try again right away. I’ve never had to try more than twice to get into the Bell Choir in that manner. (Sometimes I go through the gate, sometimes I accept through the NPC — either will work.)

We’re sorry for the occasional issues that arise, but I hope that the suggestions above will be helpful to you. See you on that magical, musical circle!

Gaile, the problem is real.

Because you get dropped in, most often, during free play (meaning you’re about to be ported to a new map), you can receive the same “Unable to join” message at the end of free play.

The difference between the two is: If you get the issue while you are at the gate (or talking to the NPC), you just try again. If you end up in free play, then you site there, possibly for minutes, THEN get the message when the new map load is attempted. FAR more frustrating!

Also, when this happens in the instance, you are LEFT THERE. You need to exit out, load DR, then go to the NPC or the gate, then try to get in again. You may get a working instance, you may get the error, or you may get free play again, with yet another chance that you’ll get the error when the map reloads.

I have had this happen. Often enough that I now try to play off-hours only so that I am less likely to have the issue.

A simple fix (I know, probably not that simple in terms of coding) they could implement would be to stop allowing people to join an instance if it is, say, 80% – 90% or more complete in songs played. This would stop people joining in on free play time, and help them get into fresher instances where they can actually have a chance of enjoying the activity instead of fighting the sometimes endless cycle of free play/unable to join.

Kreejaffa.3682:

A simple fix (I know, probably not that simple in terms of coding) they could implement would be to stop allowing people to join an instance if it is, say, 80% – 90% or more complete in songs played. This would stop people joining in on free play time, and help them get into fresher instances where they can actually have a chance of enjoying the activity instead of fighting the sometimes endless cycle of free play/unable to join.

or get rid of free to play. People will stop leaving the instance prematurely

loseridoit.2756:

Kreejaffa.3682:

A simple fix (I know, probably not that simple in terms of coding) they could implement would be to stop allowing people to join an instance if it is, say, 80% – 90% or more complete in songs played. This would stop people joining in on free play time, and help them get into fresher instances where they can actually have a chance of enjoying the activity instead of fighting the sometimes endless cycle of free play/unable to join.

or get rid of free to play. People will stop leaving the instance prematurely

True. If people want to just play their own songs, an Unbreakable Choir Bell instrument is only 98 copper on the tp which is less than the cost of waypointing to Divinity’s Reach to play the activity. And it can be used anywhere, any time, and doesn’t have constantly full servers. The free play section is pretty pointless.

The free play section does offer a chance to inventory manage, chat with guildies, stretch, maybe even get to the bathroom real quick. I think it’s fine to have it — so long as you never get put in an instance that is at that stage. Then it’s pointless, since you’re about to get booted out and hope to land in a working instance next time, only there’s a chance you’ll just be in Free Play every time for instance after instance.

Why not let us stay inside for round after round if we want? More instances can be made as more players want to play, no need to boot everyone out each time a round ends. Then if players leave an ongoing round, others can get put in that instance to keep it full.

Maybe there would be some sort of cumulative error, I don’t know, but better to have to occasionally voluntarily depart and rejoin to fix glitches than to have to deal with joining Free Play time after time.

Gaile Gray.6029:

I was wondering: I can check with the team, of course, but perhaps the “free play” period was designed to allow people to get into the map, choose their location, and be ready to start a round of songs. If that was eliminated, might there be complaints about how we players are always joining in the middle of a session, which means we’d lose the ability to get maximum rewards? I’m just speculating here, but it crossed my mind.

Free Play is at the end, not at the beginning. After free play is over you get sent to a new map (or don’t if you get the error message and get stuck). Joining after the session is over is worse than joining in the middle of a session. You shouldn’t be able to join a session when it’s effectively finished already.

Gaile Gray.6029:

I was wondering: I can check with the team, of course, but perhaps the “free play” period was designed to allow people to get into the map, choose their location, and be ready to start a round of songs. If that was eliminated, might there be complaints about how we players are always joining in the middle of a session, which means we’d lose the ability to get maximum rewards? I’m just speculating here, but it crossed my mind.

How about instead of eliminating it, switch it to the front of the game?
Have free to play first.

-Allow’s people ot get organized on the map
-More friendly to new players that may not know how to play
-Longer window for people to get in at the start of things

When I’m in bell choir I always wait for the timer to expire so I get to the next map that starts from the first song instead of joining a mid-point map. I noticed something today and I don’t know if it can help the team. Everyone else left the map when we reached the “play what you want” part, I was all alone. When the timer expired I got the “world full” error and couldn’t proceed unless I got out of the instance and entered again.

It’s possible that the world full error appears when your map doesn’t have enough people to create a new one, when the timer ends. Then players outside in DR that want to get in, might get assigned to the bugged map and then they also get the error.

I noticed when my map was full or nearly full, I never ever got the world full error in Bell Choir, although I got it in the Winter wonderland even with loads of people inside. But never in Bell Choir.

The easy solution is to remove the “play what you want” part, so nobody leaves a map early. Or add some extra final gifts once that part finishes, add an incentive for players not to leave the map early because nearly empty maps cannot create new instances once the timer expire and cause this “world full” error to appear.

This is purely from my observation of course, it might be completely different. But I hope this info can help the team find the real issue and next year we won’t get full instance bugs.

Azurem.9468:

Gaile Gray.6029:

I was wondering: I can check with the team, of course, but perhaps the “free play” period was designed to allow people to get into the map, choose their location, and be ready to start a round of songs. If that was eliminated, might there be complaints about how we players are always joining in the middle of a session, which means we’d lose the ability to get maximum rewards? I’m just speculating here, but it crossed my mind.

Free Play is at the end, not at the beginning. After free play is over you get sent to a new map (or don’t if you get the error message and get stuck). Joining after the session is over is worse than joining in the middle of a session. You shouldn’t be able to join a session when it’s effectively finished already.

Exactly. If it were changed to let the instance start over again, problem solved. Just don’t push us to a new map and tell us its full. Actually find us an open map or start a new one.

Gaile Gray.6029:

I was wondering: I can check with the team, of course, but perhaps the “free play” period was designed to allow people to get into the map, choose their location, and be ready to start a round of songs. If that was eliminated, might there be complaints about how we players are always joining in the middle of a session, which means we’d lose the ability to get maximum rewards? I’m just speculating here, but it crossed my mind.

What about an optional queue to enter a new map? At a high level, if a player is in a trigger volume, prompt the player with a dialogue box to see if they would like to enter a map currently in progress or queue for a new map. Additionally, removing the “free play” period would be nice. I never stick around through that period unless I’m frustrated with finding a new map and just wait it out.

maybe its possible to mark the instance as closed/full if the last event before free play starts so nobody could join anymore until map restarts ?

Gaile Gray.6029:

I was wondering: I can check with the team, of course, but perhaps the “free play” period was designed to allow people to get into the map, choose their location, and be ready to start a round of songs. If that was eliminated, might there be complaints about how we players are always joining in the middle of a session, which means we’d lose the ability to get maximum rewards? I’m just speculating here, but it crossed my mind.

That looks like a confession to never having completed a single full session of Bell Choir in the 4 years that it has been around…

There is already a break between every song to wait for new players.

First of all; Why can’t you make the Bell Choir maps not accept new players after the last song has started? You can’t participate on that map after that point anyway so placing anyone there is just a waste. The Bell Choir is also perfectly soloable so there’s no need to “overfill” the maps to begin with..

Second; It’s frustrating enough just to enter the Bell Choir at the start of the “waste of time session”, without the (now pretty huge, I got it more than half the time I played today) risk of getting “The world you are attempting to join is full” message at the end of it..
It would also be nice the actual map I’m on is more likely to restart than to transfer me to a new (possibly full, this also needs fixing.. if it’s full then make a new map rather than leaving me in the closing instance?).

Third; Why is there even a “waste of time” session to begin with? I mean, it’s not really necessary to have a full minute of time wasted just to show the scoreboard at the end and then transfer players to a new map now is there? If you want to add “free play” for people to freely bash whatever key they like, then add a separate practice map you can join voluntarily or something.

Hopefully this will be less frustrating next Wintersday event. :/

Gaile Gray.6029:

Khisanth.2948:

Gaile Gray.6029:

I was wondering: I can check with the team, of course, but perhaps the “free play” period was designed to allow people to get into the map, choose their location, and be ready to start a round of songs. If that was eliminated, might there be complaints about how we players are always joining in the middle of a session, which means we’d lose the ability to get maximum rewards? I’m just speculating here, but it crossed my mind.

That looks like a confession to never having completed a single full session of Bell Choir in the 4 years that it has been around…

There is already a break between every song to wait for new players.

No confession whatsoever. This year, so far, captured in screenshots. Clearly I play.

oh my completed 10x

sounds like rekt ;D

We don’t need a free play. We need “World is full” fixed. If its intended to allow players to get into maps and get ready it would make sense but its not working this way. As it is free play is pointless when u can buy an Unbreakable Choir Bell for less than 1 silver. Then you can play till the cows come home and your fingers are bleeding. And with friends at that.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Nemo.5609:

theTurkey.2970:

I’ll add my anecdotal experiences with joining Bell Choir. I rarely get the error message either the OP or Gaile mentioned. I do often run into the issue of joining during free play. I don’t agree with the idea that this occurs simply because free play is the longest part of Bell Choir. If that was the case, I would expect to join Bell Choir at random times during its length. I simply don’t see that. I reliably join within 30 seconds of the tenth minute(right at the beginning) or within 30 seconds of the fourth minute (Free play). I have found no reliable way to influence which scenario plays out. Neither quitting immediately and re-joining or waiting out the free play time seem to change the chances of getting a working instance. It is extremely frustrating to join during free play over and over, repeatedly watching loading screen after loading screen.

I will agree with Blockhead about the chances of seeing a fix. This undocumented feature has been a part of Bell Choir long enough too call it tradition.

Since a lot of people leave at the start of Free play, the matchmaking tries to fill these empty spaces. It is much rarer to have people leaving in the middle of the songs, that is why you get either at the beginning or the end.

This makes sense to me, too.

I just ran a test — casual, not official.

Most of the time, I got in before a round started, but occasionally I got in, chose my part, and then went “Ugh, free play.” I think it can be particularly noticeable because if you don’t look at the score, you may think you’re ready to start the first piece, then it’s wait for free play to run out, then wait for the next round to start. The free-play is the longer period, as I said, but there’s also the whole spin-up time for the new one, so it becomes even more noticeable. I mean, I could time it to the second, but I think y’all know what I mean — it’s the larger chuck of time.

As for fixing it, I’m not sure if that’s possible. I’m trying to think how that would work: Would you get blocked at the entrace with a “The round is in session” message? Would you get that message inside the map, if you clicked on the snowman and he told you, “We’re currently in free play; check back later?” I’m wondering what would be the best mechanic, because certainly it’s not possible to spin up a new round when ever a single player enters the map.

The programming that fills an instance in-progress should not add characters if the instance has already started Free Play. And / or have the programming change the status of the instance to “Full” once Free Play starts. (However you want to look at it.)

Gaile Gray.6029:

Khisanth.2948:

Gaile Gray.6029:

I was wondering: I can check with the team, of course, but perhaps the “free play” period was designed to allow people to get into the map, choose their location, and be ready to start a round of songs. If that was eliminated, might there be complaints about how we players are always joining in the middle of a session, which means we’d lose the ability to get maximum rewards? I’m just speculating here, but it crossed my mind.

That looks like a confession to never having completed a single full session of Bell Choir in the 4 years that it has been around…

There is already a break between every song to wait for new players.

No confession whatsoever. This year, so far, captured in screenshots. Clearly I play.

Oh she plays, ran across her many a times on her ranger in Silverwastes. Awesome companion during boss fights! =D

Gaile Gray.6029:

As for fixing it, I’m not sure if that’s possible. I’m trying to think how that would work: Would you get blocked at the entrace with a “The round is in session” message? Would you get that message inside the map, if you clicked on the snowman and he told you, “We’re currently in free play; check back later?” I’m wondering what would be the best mechanic, because certainly it’s not possible to spin up a new round when ever a single player enters the map.

If all the Choir Bell instances are synchronized this might work, or a message like “Free play is in session, do you wish to enter?” when talking to the NPC outside the instance would be fine. If they aren’t synchronized, maybe making instances that are in Free play be impossible to join?