Guild Wars 2

I was just running along, minding my own business, doing map completion on a new character. Whilst in the Grove, I died, instantly – no jumps, falls or anything untoward involved. I was just running out of the crafting area toward the Vigil/Priory/Secrets encampments. I’d love to know why this meant death!

Have been having random disconnects today, but don’t know if they’re related (if so, this post probably needs moved to that topic).

Sometimes that can happen if you are lagging. Where you think you are and where the game thinks you are can be two different places and it’s where the game thinks you are that counts. Because of lag, the other one will be on a separate track from you and won’t be making the same turns at the same time. So you might run around a ledge or a hole in the ground, common in the Grove, and the other will run off it and die.

It possible to see this in action if you have a mini pet out. It will stay with the game’s char. When you stop running it will be beside it, but several feet over to the side. If you log out and log back in, you will appear where the mini was, not where you were,

While there is some essence of truth here, it doesn’t explain his death. At no point does he wander off a bridge; he is always on safe terrain according to his own viewpoint. Unless he is autorunning, the server shouldn’t be anticipating that he is going to continue moving when it loses track of him.

What I think happens (and it happens to me a LOT) is that when the game momentarily loses connection, it will maintain your map x,y coordinates when it reestablishes, but not your z value. Instead, it assumes you’re at ground level initially and then attempts to reestablish where your client thinks it was. If you happen to be at any elevation, it assumes you fell. Often fatally. This makes JPs a nightmare unless you are on a cliffside or jumping between solid columns (e.g. places where ground level is in fact elevated).

Even better, other players see you at the position where your client thinks you are, but the server only allows interactions with you where IT thinks you are. So no res for you.

@Sariel V not entirely true.
I was once disconnected in the swamp south of TA while running. When i reconnected, i found myself at the border of the swamp, despite never walking there locally.

Yes, if the client disconnects while you are in momentum (walking, running or even falling) the server will keep your momentum until the client regains the control and then your position is updated (the server updates client’s position, putting you where IT thought you were), and apparently it will ignore obstacles at times or keep you “walking against a wall”.

I could prove it myself once while doing evens near that grawl cave at Wayfarer. I crashed while I was walking near the entrance of that cave (near the river) and the game froze for a bit before it closed. I was pressing the forward key when it happened, so it was the last command the server received. When I logged on back I was inside that underwater cave several feet ahead from where I was when I crashed. What was even weird is my position was a straight line from where I was last even though I couldn’t never walk straightly like that due things on terrain like walls and stuff.

I’ve been running along sometimes, DC, and when I get back I’m nowhere near where I thought I was.

The grove has open spots and ramps. If the game thinks you are somewhere else, you could be running on what to you is flat ground and die because your “other self” at another spot runs over one of the holes in the ground or off a ramp.

I’ve died suddenly while on ramps. My “other self” ran off the ramp and died. My rez spot is on the ground below where it is. If someone rezzes me down there, my “self” way up on the ramp above will be rezzed and get up.

It happened often in the Tower of Nightmares…making it live up to its name! =P

Sariel V.7024:

While there is some essence of truth here, it doesn’t explain his ....

Technically hers, but I’m not going to be a pedant today, oh no.

I’ve had a disconnect yesterday where I did log back in further away, so I know that can happen. But the incident which I referred to in my OP wasn’t a disconnect (well, not one that booted me out of the game and gave the error message that seems to be doing the rounds of late).

I had no sense of lag, no sense of being near one of the ramps or anything particularly squiffy - a fence was between me and place I died.

However, given the lag spikes that have been plaguing the game (DDoS fallout, mayhaps), I’m relatively happy with the "game thinks I’m somewhere else" theory. I just have no idea where it thought I was - I’d been in the crafting area, running around in a circle, away from any dangerous bits, or so I thought, at least.

Thanks all for replying; guess there’s no definitive answer here (the above mentioned theory seems the most likely, however), but interesting to hear the possibilities.

Yeah, it’s strange. Lol.

The “other self” isn’t visible to others and I only noticed it from how my mini pet acted and from me dying suddenly for no obvious reason. Or if I’m running along on flat ground and suddenly fall down and lose health for no reason. If I die high up on a ramp, other people can’t see my “other self” lying below. But if I talk in chat my chat bubble comes from that spot. I have to keep talking until so they can find that spot and get the rez option.

Ceridwen.6703:

But the incident which I referred to in my OP wasn’t a disconnect (well, not one that booted me out of the game and gave the error message that seems to be doing the rounds of late).

That’s the point. At times the client loses connection for a few seconds, not enough to force a boot out but enough to mess up with the data synchronization between client-server. I believe there is a “tolerance” time before the client kicks you out due losing communication with server, if client regain contact with server before that time ends it won’t boot you out, but odd stuff like that can happen.

Astral Projections.7320:

The “other self” isn’t visible to others and I only noticed it from how my mini pet acted and from me dying suddenly for no obvious reason.

Yeah it happened to me a few times, people couldn’t ress me and a few times I couldn’t ress others. Good point about the mini, thinking about keeping it always up for when these odd moments happen :P.

shadow.6174:

Ceridwen.6703:

But the incident which I referred to in my OP wasn’t a disconnect (well, not one that booted me out of the game and gave the error message that seems to be doing the rounds of late).

That’s the point. At times the client loses connection for a few seconds, not enough to force a boot out but enough to mess up with the data synchronization between client-server. I believe there is a “tolerance” time before the client kicks you out due losing communication with server, if client regain contact with server before that time ends it won’t boot you out, but odd stuff like that can happen.

Astral Projections.7320:

The “other self” isn’t visible to others and I only noticed it from how my mini pet acted and from me dying suddenly for no obvious reason.

Yeah it happened to me a few times, people couldn’t ress me and a few times I couldn’t ress others. Good point about the mini, thinking about keeping it always up for when these odd moments happen :P.

That’s one of the reasons I keep a mini pet out at all times. I lag a lot sometimes so I keep an eye on it. If I’m running along and see the mini standing still way behind me then I know I need to stop running till it catches up. If I go to a node and can’t harvest it and see the mini pet is standing over to the side by several feet I know the game thinks I’m over there even though I’m by the node and I’m getting the prompt to harvest it. (Weird, I know). Sometimes if you stand long enough the mini will run over to you but it’s usually faster to go to character select and back. That resets the game and you reappear where the mini was standing.