Guild Wars 2

crunchyraisin.6054:

So… as much fun as it is to qq, complain and restate problems…I’m gonna keep trying to think of solutions and post those instead.

Please do! I’ve committed to not making decisions (for myself, it’s not my call, we’re a team and we also have designers get paid to think about this stuff, etc.) until I see the data after the season is over.

That said, been wracking my brain trying to think of potential solutions to the concerns brought up. Maybe even something as simple as winning always awards 1 bonus point might help.

Silentshoes.1805:

Both Ranked and Unranked are about 15 to 20 secs in Q.

Is there any selective matchmaking going on at all? I’ve had nothing but blowouts for two hours.

It’s filtering by MMR only, and it’s being generous about that.

HipposWild.7185:

These matches are so bad!!!! I don’t understand what happened but someone did a terrible god awful job implementing this. Every other match has a 300 point landslide with 5 pre-made dragons versus 5 solo rabbits…. This is the dumbest most enraging state of sPVP I’ve seen since launch. It’s borderline unbelievable.

That’d be me. Sorry. I basically gave the system a lobotomy until we can get in a fix to let it think smarters.

Mrbig.8019:

Without brackets it’s impossible for high rated teams ( or individuals) to get even matches, they’ll get stuck into an ELO hell they won’t be able to escape from unless playing 5x times more then X “random Joe” who’s nothing more than decent.

It’s more likely RandomJoe.5555 Will probably have to play more often to get the same points the higher rated teams will.

Mrbig.8019:

Facts to be told, if u win against a highly more rated team, you’ll get 3 points just like if you were facing a “slightly better” team.

Not sure what you’re saying here. You only get +3 points if you win when you’re expected to lose against by a wide margin. If you play a slightly better team, you’ll only get +2 points if you win.

Check our the table on this page:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/finding-the-perfect-match/

The wiki will also have the details: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/PvP_Matchmaking_Algorithm#Ladder

Mrbig.8019:

We need a huge “point increase per win” and more “point loss” per loss.

Changing the scoring is certainly something that could be done. We’ll be looking at things like that, and for your opinions, at the end of the beta ladder season.

Mrbig.8019:

Moreover the best “point score” needs to be awarded ONLY ( and i mean ONLY) if you play against EQUAL or MORE RATED teams than yours ( or better team average)

That would suck for the more rated team, since you’re lower than they are they wouldn’t be getting points. All lose and no win doesn’t seem very fun, so I doubt they’d enjoy it. Could be wrong though.

Mrbig.8019:

No one cares about lamas.

:( I love my llama!

P.S. MMR != Ladder Points, we use Glicko2 for MMR.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glicko_rating_system

Silentshoes.1805:

Had a couple of Courtyards where my team was crushed 500-0.

Say we had 1% chance of winning. Do we still take a point loss if we lose 500-0?

0 points always awards at least -1 points. It’s more if you’re expected to win.

The wiki page has the exact numbers:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/PvP_Matchmaking_Algorithm#Ladder

My blog post has an easier to read table:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/finding-the-perfect-match/

longbawl.5072:

Meaning what for solo q? Won’t we will always be kitten because of premades? Sounds like solo q is just disappearing then.

Meaning nothing for queuing solo. You can play the way you wish, we won’t stop you. I just meant we want people to form teams and play together.

Silentshoes.1805:

Are the top players farming now that they believe it’s the number of games you play, not your MMR?

They’re partially right. MMR is factored in and skill does matter.

Look at Rank 5 vs Rank 1 NA… Rank 1 has to play ~1.7 matches for every game Rank 5 plays just to keep their lead.

Also, when the ladder starts, the matchmaking system will be able to put more weight on ladder position, so they could end fighting each other more often.

Silentshoes.1805:

Maybe the lesson is “Do NOT play Ranked Q without a team and TS”.

It certainly helps, and it’s something we encourage.

Lopez.7369:

I honestly can’t tell a difference in the matchmaking compared to the previous patch — except now I notice that I fight teams of two, three, or four sometimes. Although that’s actually a good thing for me, since it means I can now queue with one or two people.

Yeah, I put min-potentials down all the way because people were getting long queues. I’ll ramp it back up once the next patch hits and it can scale down by itself.

So the good news is that you’ve got super fast queue, the bad news is that its with the first people we found.

Gobble D Goop.4081:

removal of monthlies and combination of monthly/daily points? Does this mean that the new cap is 15000 AP? Other than that concern, i think i will like these changes.

Yes, combined at 15,000.

Elrey.5472:

GM Talon.8726:

The Quality Assura nce team is aware of the issue and they are working on a fix.

Of course, because only Asura’s can fix that (couldn’t resist xD)

Hah, clever! I think I might call them that from now on xD

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Latency-Lag-for-EU-Players-merged/page/13#post4617165

We’ve been investigating this issue and have something for those affected by latency and disconnect issues to try out.

1. Locate your Gw2.exe file.
2. Right-click on the file and select Create shortcut.
3. Rename this new shortcut to Guild Wars 2 ClientPortTest.
4. Right-click on Guild Wars 2 ClientPortTest and select Properties.
5. Locate the Target line and add: -clientport 443 to the end. (Example: “C:\Games\Guild Wars 2\gw2.exe” -clientport 443)
6. Click OK.

This should help a good portion of those affected by high traffic times where their traffic might be messed with between your computer and our servers. Traffic between the game client and the game server is extremely time-sensitive. If the the flow is disrupted, the client will receive what is commonly perceived as “skill lag” or in extreme cases have the connection dropped entirely (error 7). Other traffic to/from your computer might seem fine, even if its being throttled.

-Bill

edwardroyce.5289:

Last night I created a support ticket because of a gem code that didn’t work. Now I can’t find a trace of that support ticket. Do I have to go in-game to see the result of a support ticket that I created using the website? What?

edwardroyce — If you are still having issues — for example, if you did not receive confirmation that your ticket was created and the tips in the linked article above did not help you find that confirmation e-mail — I suggest you post a question (could be the same asked here) in the Account Support forum. Our agents review that forum many times a day, and that would be the best place for them to see this query and respond to it.

Thanks.

Style.1092:

No comments on a thing that scoring doesn’t work properly ?

¹ Winning will always award a minimum of one point.

http://imgur.com/42a4imT

The leaderboard site was updated sooner than we planned. Since we didn’t think it was going to be visible, we were making changes to the ladder data after the 2nd which caused some players to have data that doesn’t line up properly. This won’t be an issue after the 16th when the beta ladder officially starts and all the data is reset.

Just to be safe though, I just took another look at the code and verified that it will give you at least 1 point for a win. I’ll also ask QA to run another pass on this as well.

Thanks. I already know about this one and I’m busy trying to track it down.

I’ve fixed half the problem already; with the next build you won’t be able to accept if you’re already in a match.

Now I just need to stop it from happening in the first place. -_-

The Quality Assurance team is aware of the issue and they are working on a fix.

nekretaal.6485:

Does this mean that we only have until Tuesday to finish our monthly?

You will have till the end of December as normal to complete this months before the monthly system is retired.

Zaklex.6308:

Ah, but the Priory did send a team of 3 explorers to investigate the area and gather what ever information they could that would be useful: Explorer Amoxtli, Explorer Savio, and Explorer Kitabu. Perhaps the information that they’ve gathered, which apparently they have yet to send any back to the Priory (messenger birds, which they could have but don’t seem to). It would have been perfectly reasonable to have them send a report mentioning the massive changes to what was the Mamnoon Lagoon and suggesting the Priory send someone to investigate as it might be related to Mordremoth. At least it’s a plausible idea.

Heh, I’m familiar with those three, but they didn’t pass north through the Silverwastes on their expedition. Their travels have taken them elsewhere.

Dolphin.2574:

Hmmm, a lot to noodle over. Thank you kindly all for your thoughts and opinions.

I did have a question on an excerpt of Lauree’s statement:

Lauree Akhtar.3205:

Crafting will always give you better gear than drops

Could someone explain what that means?

Is that because you can craft Ascended/Legendary which is always better then dropped exotics?
or
Do crafted items of the say, exotic rarity, have better stats then a similar dropped exotic?

Sorry, let me explain what I mean!

If you’re keeping up with your crafting (so what your crafting level is on par with your character level) you will (and I should say you will /likely/; there are occasional super awesome drops) generally be crafting equipment with better stats or closer level than what will be dropping from mobs. You will also be crafting items with stats that more closely meet your build (so if you want a zerker build you can specify what items you’re crafting to better have that build). This is true for both pre-level 80 and level 80 — though at level 80 the difference can be higher, but for a casual player it really may not feel necessary to have crafted exotics or ascended. Crafting just allows you a more specialized/customized set-up at all levels. That being said, I was very bad at managing to keep my crafting with my level when I started and didn’t feel particularly disadvantaged.

It attempts to take a snapshot every hour. Sometimes it’s busy and doesn’t get one done until a bit later. It’s also not exactly an hour so they stagger a bit and don’t all try to do it at once.

Silentshoes.1805:

As has been mentioned, even having a group of 2 on a team, potentially in realtime communication on TeamSpeak, gives a huge coordination advantage,

We know this is the case.

Looking at the data, and running simulations where we take roster size into consideration during the filter part of matchmaking. Couple of ideas sound good to me at first glance. 1) Adjust their MMR upward so that if they do get paired against lower roster sizes they’ll be against more skilled opponents. 2) A hard filter that just prevented them from being considered at all (at least until a fail-safe kicks in.)

As for TeamSpeak, we can’t reliably detect that to make it a factor.

Sebastian.4610:

seems to me like pvp got the ol casual catering patch. #1 player on leaderboards is a “bad” player that most people think is a bot because of how mindless it runs around and doesnt help the team. #1 player also has a negative win rate .. yet is #1 .. seems flawed.

This logic is flawed. 47% win rate is within the range you’d expect to see if matchmaking is working well.

I’ve looked at their game history… most losses, when they lose, are narrow losses. Maye they’re in some matchmaking sweet spot where they are getting frequent good quality matches. It could also be simply that they’ve been taking ranked serious from day 1, where everyone else hasn’t.

-shrug-

Silentshoes.1805:

Yes, but there was a different system behind that button and it has likely been erased.

I wish! It’s still being used to host custom arenas and activities.

Silentshoes.1805:

If they do what I stated, you as a solo player will always play solo Qers only. So don’t worry about the button.

The new systems can do a solo queue, we just don’t feel it promoted our goals or fit with where we want to take the game.

That doesn’t mean we like people getting into situations like 5 vs 1+1+1+1+1, so we will fix this one way or another. In fact, I think I found the culprit so it may happen less far less often after the 16th. I say ‘may’ here only because there are still situations where it could happen. E.g. it’s 3am and they’ve been waiting in the queue a long time and you’re the only players near their skill level.

crunchyraisin.6054:

Top teams are missing out on points because they aren’t being matched up against equal opponents (because there isn’t one playing at the time).

I agree with this, and it’s something to worry about and must be included in any reasoning about how the ladder works.

It may end up balancing itself out because easy wins take less time. That’s negated right now by longer queue times, but the build on 16th should include a change that will keep queue times shorter by dynamically scaling min-potentials.

crunchyraisin.6054:

Top players tend to play on teams. With this matchmaking system teams tend to win a high percentage.

Ladder points factor in rating, rank, and roster size when predicting odds of victory. I don’t see how that’s a bad thing. If I went against Abjured or TCG and won (hah!), I should get more points than if they beat me.

Maybe the issue is people believe we are calculating odds too generously? That we’ll be giving out +3 points left and right?

Silentshoes.1805:

What puzzles me is that if top players are winning 80% of their matches, then their MMR is not high enough. Shouldn’t they typically be winning 60-65% if they are really good?

Yes and no. With ideal matchmaking, and a sufficient # of players available at any time, everyone should be close to 50%. With random matchmaking, the best players should definitely have a higher win %.

With real world matchmaking it’s somewhere between the two for any number of reasons, so it’s not uncommon to have people with higher than 50% averages.

Factoring in MMR somehow might be workable (though we are already doing that by changing the number of points you win or lose), but adding anything more might awkward since we don’t expose that information.

Using the number of wins, or the win/loss ratio, is asking for problems. The number of wins vs loss does not reflect your skill because it’s not from a large random sampling of matches, and does not include critical information, i.e. 1) who you played against, and 2) how close of a victory it was.

As far as people’s worries about it being number of games played that means you’re at the top, try to keep a few things in mind.

• Seasons will be short.
• A 500-50 record is more impressive (and more statistically significant) than 10-1 record.
• Eventually, we’ll show you the match prediction information and tell you how you need to perform to get X number of points.

The ladder points system already gives players what they are trying to find by looking at wins vs losses, but is also more accurate because it works around the non-random sample by carrying with it the information that is missing from wins/losses. (See 1 & 2 above.)

I’ve looked at the top people, they’re playing games against opponents that are challenging, and they are consistently winning or coming close to winning.

I think part of the issue is that since 1 & 2 are not immediately apparent (we don’t even show it in-game yet), we humans prone to assume it doesn’t exist, is trivial, or is random.

Ben K.6238:

A scholar in the Far Silverwastes sent to examine the place would likely be looking for something that disturbed the water table there. Given the caverns underneath are a likely place for water to drain to, the actual cause of Mamnoon’s drying might be considerably deeper.

That’s an interesting idea. As I see it, most of the Priory members in the Silverwastes have their hands and paws full, preparing for the coming Pact offensive. Other than responding to various Mordrem incursions in the wastes around Camp Resolve, they probably haven’t been able to devote many resources to (re)exploring the area, never mind doing serious scholarly research on the local water tables.

Let us know how we did, when you get there.

As for how we’re doing along the way, keep giving us your feedback.

Thanks!

Well, I appreciate the feedback.

Sticky? Nah, no can do because there are half a dozen or more posts that would call out for the same thing, and stickies push down current topics so we’re trying to keep them few in number. (I’m actually asking team members for a review of stickies to see if we can have fewer.)

Official answer? I don’t see the value of that unless we had the post stickied (see above) or if we had a working #%^&#^ search engine. Since we don’t have a functional search engine, an official post would just slide onto Pg 3 or Pg 4 and we’d see another “Hey, let’s have mounts!” thread.

Perhaps more importantly, I don’t believe there is an official answer on the subject, although sure, I’ll ask about it and see if there’s a way to take advantage of any info on the subject that may be available.

Rip Van Winkle.4859:

Sorry but I don’t like the way the forums are laid out now. Really hard to read the way they are now. I don’t like having to weed through the garbage to see what I find relevent to what I need to read.

Sorry that you don’t care for them. I think with time you will find things more efficient and easier to find in the reorganized format, which has reduced the number of forums while retaining all the content. There’s always a bit of learning curve with anything new, but we’ll be watching for feedback over the next few weeks.

Xiem.4719:

One question, are we really waiting 6 weeks for final episode or there is something more?

Xiem — Have you had a chance to read the blog post? It’s here: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/season-2-returns-on-january-13/

Jaken — I understand your thoughts. I admit I feel the same way with a favorite TV show, where you expect the next episode the following week and learn something else is stepping into the space for a while. Oh heck, I feel the same way at the end of each season, too. Darn that Game of Thrones!

Randulf.7614:

I think the feedback to take when you strip away all the rage, is how rhe schedule is planned for the year. The last episode didnt really end, so people rightfully feel a bit like the episode was only half played.

Maybe next year, as feedback, have a more natural way to leave the story before a break or ensure it ends. Or before wintersday starts. Because of also how close the team keeps things close to its chest, there is nothing apart from another episode to get excited about. Maybe give a teaser to generate exitement?

Thats my feedback.

And that feedback is very productively expressed. Thanks for sharing that — I’d be happy to share that with the team!

mtpelion.4562:

I’m glad the living story and holiday patches are being kept separate. Having them together would be like the boss asking you to work on Christmas.

I laughed. And I agree.

bradldz.3728:

I dont see anything wrong with waiting a little bit, we will have Wintersday to occupy us, just as expected. Why should we have 2 patches at the same time? That doesn’t make sense to me.

Thanks. You said what I said, in far fewer words.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Yes, definitely, Wintersday should be released concurrently with Episode 8. That would both make sense (4 episodes, break, 4 episodes) and would provide more content for the Winter vacation time that all companies have around this time of year (4 week break). This would also be consistent with pretty much every holiday/LS release combination of the past.

While I understand company limitations, staff limitations due to holidays, and so forth, I very much feel that this should’ve been planned for well in advance and that releasing them concurrently would’ve been the best.

May I ask why you feel that way? Why have two conflicting or competing things going on in a time period when many people have a lot going on in their lives — family obligations, travel, parties, events — which leaves them with less time to log in to their favorite game? Why not have each release get the spotlight and the player attention that each so richly deserves? And why roll out content (some are suggesting just days before a holiday break) that would be difficult if not impossible to maintain with holiday travel, developer unavailability, etc.? We pride ourselves on addressing issues as promptly as possible, but if an issue arises over a holiday break, it can be very challenging to take care of a problem. (I know this from personal experience: I worked with a server programmer through a full New Year’s Day to address an issue years ago. He was able to get things back to normal, but it was asking a lot to do that.)

Saying “This is what I want” is fine. But is what you want really logical? In my opinion the decision of the two release dates makes sense on several levels.

Donari.5237:

As unfortunate as the timing of this break may be, it’s not like they have everything in the can and are just picking release dates. Imagine your response if you were working on a large project — say, a term paper, or a mural on the side of a building — and someone said “I know your due date is in six weeks, but I’d really like you to finish next week instead.” You wouldn’t be able to do it, not with any reasonable quality.

Thank you for a reasonable comment that really stands out for its logic and perception. It’s true: The team can’t roll out content a month in advance on request. There is a plan and a master schedule, and with the much-loved and keenly-anticipated Wintersday Festival, Episode 8 will receive its full due in January, as intended. And as outlined in Colin’s blog post, there are other nice things coming, too!

Please, if this thread is going to continue, I ask you to think before posting. This is a forum, sure, but let’s all do our part to tamp down the DramaBeast with his +5-gazillion to Hype Attacks.

I’m not sure where this rumor that the break is to focus on PvP is coming from. The team that works on PvP is very different from the team that works on Living World updates. The break is for the holiday. The 16th is the last release date before people start taking time off to travel or spend with their families. It also happens to be time for Wintersday, which will run from that day until the first update of the new year on January 13.

There isn’t much different between this break and the break we took last year, or the year before, for the same reasons. I understand you’re all excited for episode 8, but it wouldn’t make much sense for Wintersday to happen after the new year.

I’ve merged seven different threads on the subject of mounts in Guild Wars 2. I know it’s not always easy to find threads, since our search engine isn’t working properly, but there really are a lot of them to be found, usually in the first page or two.

If you have something new to say on the subject, you can add it here. But honestly, the subject may have been exhausted, so if you’re tempted to post, please choose wisely.

Rin Taou.2485:

Spider & Pig: Charlotte & Wilbur

Love the reference. (Great book!)

1050369: The recipient existed because the nickname you sent to happens to be a character name. I’ve escalated the issue as a game bug.

Gaile is making a separate post but this behavior is an expected potential side effect of the merges. If it doesn’t auto-resolve in a day or so we’ll repost the info as new threads as a work around.

Did you do the last mission in Chapter 3 with another player? If you accept progress, it will set your next mission to the same as the other player’s, even if they’re in a different order than you are. Once you’re finished with the current storyline, it’ll return to normal (unless you again accept another player’s progress.)

In addition to the normal Forum Code of Conduct, we have set modestly increased expectations for forum members who participate in the CDI Sub-Forum. Those who choose to participate in discussions on this sub-forum should be aware of the following:

• Our moderators will be casting a more critical eye in this sub-forum to ensure that posts are constructive, reasonable, and respectful. This applies to comments directed towards either developers or forum members.
• Posts that are not constructive, that use a tone that is unproductively negative, combative, or condemning, or that make no meaningful contribution to a discussion are subject to removal.
• Those who engage in poor choices as far as what they say or how they say it will be subject to escalated forum moderation, including the possible suspension or termination of forum privileges.
• This means that where you may receive a warning about a particular post in the general forums, you may receive an infraction point in the CDI Sub-Forum; where your post may be ignored in the main forum, it may be deleted or infracted in the CDI Sub-Forum.

We have set these higher standards to keep discussions on topic, constructive, and reasonable. By doing this, developers will be able to get the most value from their time spent reviewing your input on various CDI subjects and players will benefit from increased interaction from developers.

Please note: Forum members will not be able to create threads in the CDI Sub-Forum. Forum members in good standing will be able to respond to existing, open threads that are initiated by members of the Guild Wars 2 Team.

Thanks for your cooperation and for your contributions to our Collaborative Development Initiatives!

No, those were all moved. I’ll let Gaile know.

Thanks for putting grizzweld’s mind at rest and for pointing to the Phishing thread!

The support teams are fully on board with having these threads in the same sub-forum. No worries about attention to the appropriate threads by the right people.

As I posted earlier today, please preface your thread title with [MAC] or [PC] and the correct specialist will watch for those flags. (They won’t miss the others, but they will see threads more quickly with the flags in the titles.)

Thanks for helping us help you.

Ausfer.1853:

I sure hope you devs have a thick skin when it comes to the forums. It seems like no matter what you guys do, there will be people complaining about it.

I have a thick, leathery hide myself.

Seriously, players like you sharing their thoughts means that they care about what we’re doing, and that’s pretty great.

Xiem.4719:

LFG is broken anyway.

Yes, it is not functioning correctly. The team is looking into the situation.

Silferas.3841:

On-topic though, it’d be nice if they added some more variety to the mail carriers. I could imagine an undead hand bursting forth from the ground holding a mail right next to you That’d actually be awesome.

Perfect for a Halloween release, don’t you think?

Thanks for your feedback, everyone.

In development, I’d given the various forts much more nondescript names like Derelict Enclave and Desolate Bastion, but feedback from testing the content wisely suggested renaming the forts so that players could organize themselves by something more distinctive, like colors. By then, it helped that the environment art was far enough along to actually tell what these forts were going to look like and we could collaborate to make the chosen colors make some sense, like “Blue Oasis.”

We went with cardinal directions on the map because we were going to be sending people through a network of skritt tunnels and seeing the option to go to the Eastern Silverwastes seemed easier to understand than seeing something like “Take skritt tunnel to Goosepinch Gulch.”

Here’s a real ‘inside baseball’ story: when it came time to add a sector for the new sector where you plant the third memory seed, I was stumped on how to name that place so that it was easy to describe where to go in dialogue. We already had a “Northern Silverwastes”—was I going to have to send players north of north? Luckily someone reminded me that we have the “Far Shiverpeaks,” and then I had my place name.

I suggest that with the new reorganized forums, those seeking technical support should flag their threads in the subject line with [PC] or [MAC] so that the correct specialist can assist you as quickly as possible.

Thanks for taking this step to help us help you!

Ah!! It happened! I totally forgot! I’ll work on cleaning things up a bit. =)