Guild Wars 2

A major issue with WvW is population/coverage imbalance (common to MMO open world PvP). Since Guild Wars 2 already has Server Guesting with immediate but temporary player transfers in its design (though it currently excludes WvW), I suggest enhancing Server Guesting to provide the following WvW Mercenary Guest mechanic:

1. A Mercenary is a player from a WvW winning server invited by a player from a WvW losing server to help in WvW as a temporary Guest.

2. A player who wants to be a Mercenary to help a losing server must first Guest to that server, and then must accept a Mercenary Invite from a player who’s home is that server (this enables WvW for the Guest).

3. Players can only accept a Mercenary Invite while their home server is winning in a 3-way match (in first place).

4. Players can only invite a Mercenary while their home server is losing in a 3-way match (in second or third place).

5. The total number of Mercenaries in WvW is capped (at the cap, Mercenaries can no longer queue for WvW and no new Mercenary Invites can be accepted).

6. The total time a Mercenary has in WvW is limited (Mercenaries are ported to Lions Arch as a normal Guest upon time expiration of their Mercenary Invite).

7. Mercenaries are always last in a WvW map queue (they only enter maps with no queues or a map with only Mercenaries left in the queue).

8. A Mercenary Invite is a level 80 item which is a player reward for WvW and/or is purchased like siege weapons.

9. A Mercenary is tagged as “Mercenary” + their WvW title.

Additional restrictions could also be added such as limiting how often Mercenary invites could be accepted by a player within a given amount of time.

The above mechanic would encourage a controlled flow of players from winning servers to losing servers needing help. It may also lead to interesting cross server temporary alliances.

How could the result of a single match up after a ratings reset produce closer match ups than the current ratings do?

Resetting the ratings is also a dangerous precedent. If reset now, shouldn’t we expect ratings to be reset again in the future for any reason?

The goal of the ratings should be to produce as many close match ups (tiers) as possible so players can enjoy the competition and every server can have a chance at winning their tier and thereby possibly advance to the next tier. A reset of the ratings works against this goal since it throws away all the results of previous match ups as though they are meaningless just because there are no longer free transfers.

ArenaNet should go ahead and change the math so it more accurately and more quickly changes ratings, but the initial ratings with the new math should be the current ratings. By using the current ratings there won’t be several weeks of arbitrary tier blowouts, and continuity will be preserved from previous ratings and match ups.

Parthis.2091:

I think Anet are seriously considering some kind of point scaling algorithm. Hopefully though they implement something robust, and not the over-simplystic suggested implementation above.

Most importantly that their UI team carefully and thoughtfully displays any scaling sensibly to users.

My suggestion is simple (and that was the idea) but not as simple as lowering the 15 minute points for certain time frames as some have suggested to reduce points during “night” capping (time frames are just one cause of population imbalance).

Many players would oppose any point adjustments, let alone a complicated system that would lend itself to being gamed by those that analyzed it. Also, certain point adjustments based on population risk discouraging players to participate in WvW (when fewer players equal more points) which is the last thing anyone wants.

—Dyn

Reduce 15 Minute Points Based on WvW Server Population Imbalance

If server A has more players participating in WvW than servers B and C combined, I suggest reducing server A’s 15 minute points (before adding them to their cummulative points) using the following:

Reduced Points = Points – (Points * Population Difference / Balance Factor)

Population Difference = The number of WvW players server A has more than server B and C combined (at the 15 minute mark).

Balance Factor = A constant which determines the percent reduction of server A’s points. If the constant is twice the population cap then the reduction will be at most 50% (when server A is capped and no players are in server B or C).

By reducing the 15 minute points of the highest population server proportional to the population imbalance, there would still be a benefit from capturing point objectives but the benefit would be less when the defense was less due to fewer defenders.

—Dyn

Two major issues with WvW seem to be population imbalance (common to MMO open world PvP) and night capping. Since Guild Wars 2 already has near immediate player transfers in its design (with planned future Guest transfers), I suggest the following WvW Mercenary transfer mechanic:

1. A Mercenary is a player from one server invited by a different player from another server to help in WvW as a temporary Guest.

2. Only players on losing servers in a 3-way match-up can invite Mercenaries.

3. Only players on winning servers in a 3-way match-up can accept a Mercenary invite.

4. The total number of Mercenaries invited and accepted by a server is capped (say 10 to 20, or population percentage based).

5. A Mercenary invite is a level 80 item and costs coin, karma, or gems (but not supply which may be difficult for losing servers).

6. A Mercenary is a Guest so their home server does not change and their stay is time limited (say 2 to 4 hours).

7. A Mercenary is tagged as a “Mercenary Invader” or “Mercenary Defender.”

In order to help prevent players from inviting Mercenaries to work against rather than for a server (as enemy spies), or to PvE, or to use up a server’s mercenary cap, invites could be limited to guild officers and the number of invites could be limited by a guild’s size. Additional restrictions could also be added such as limiting how often Mercenary invites could be accepted by a player.

The above mechanic would encourage a flow of players from winning servers (especially those with a large lead) to underdog losing servers needing help. It would also lead to interesting cross server temporary alliances.

—Dyn

biggyphool.4831:

I’m coming here out of desperation. I’ve exhausted google. I’ve found other people with the exact same issue as me, but there’s never a stated resolution I’ve found. Let me explain what happens, then I’ve give my spec.

First off, the majority of the crashes happen when changing areas. The more frequently I change areas, the sooner the crash happens. If I went back and forth between Asura portals from lions arch to any city, I’d crash on the 3rd or 4th go around. However, it also happens outside of zone transitioning. Periodically, things will start to slow down, and I’ll notice color issues. The map will show two blocks of yellow and cyan, character abilities will change colors (like a fire shield will become a haze of flickering yellow). In the end, I really think it’s a video card issue, but the thing is I have a pretty good video card, and worse yet, this never happened in the BWE. I’m updated on drivers, and everything is fine there.

Here is my spec:
GForce GTX 550 Ti
3 gb of Ram
Intel Xeon CPU 5150 @ 2.66GHz (4CPUs), ~2.7GHz
Windows 7 Ultimate
5+ gigs left on a 130 gig SSD

If you guys know anything, I would be super thankful for help

It would be helpful if you posted your ArenaNet.log with the crash details. If it is an Out of Memory error (code dump beginning with ……M………), then your problem is the same as mine which I fixed with the following:

1. Ran Guild Wars 2 with the -repair switch (it ran okay and there was no indication that anything was fixed).

2. Changed my in game graphics texture setting from nothing-selected to Low.

I’m running 32 bit Vista with a GTX 260 card off an SSD. I suspect that the memory issue is with video memory (especially if 1024 MB or less) and not RAM.

—Dyn

melaniedawn.6025:

Dyngrin.5738:

melaniedawn.6025:

Every once and a while (hourly- sometimes more often) my game will crash with this error;

—> Crash <—
Out of Memory: arena=Environment, cat=Map, allocBytes=25530520, arenaBytes=45763640, fallbackBytes=8400500, align=0 ,
App: Gw2.exe
Pid: 4508
Cmdline:
BaseAddr: 00400000
ProgramId: 101
Build: 15518
When: 2012-09-14T20:35:54Z 2012-09-14T13:35:54-07:00
Uptime: 0 days 0:19:58
Flags: 0

I had the same Out of Memory crashes and have not crashed at all since making the following change (after running GW2.EXE with -repair):

Changed the Textures quality setting from nothing-selected to Low.

I suspect the memory issue is with video memory and not RAM because other users who have posted their logs with the same error had no more than 1024 MB of video memory (from their logs).

—Dyn

How do i run GW.exe -repair?

Change the properties of your shortcut to the game (right-click—>Properties) FROM path-to-guild-wars\Gw2.exe TO path-to-guild-wars\Gw2.exe -repair

—Dyn

LONGSHANKS.3085:

Hi Guys,

The game loads fine and play fine and can do so for an hour or more some times, but I keep getting this error message…..

—> Crash <—*
Out of Memory: arena=Environment, cat=Map, allocBytes=24958084, arenaBytes=44762176, fallbackBytes=1757840, align=0 ,
App: Gw2.exe
Pid: 1200
Cmdline:
BaseAddr: 00400000
ProgramId: 101
Build: 15518
When: 2012-09-14T17:57:32Z 2012-09-14T18:57:32+01:00
Uptime: 0 days 0:16:50
Flags: 0

This time I was only playing for 16 mins before it crashed! Is anyone else getting this and is there any known solution please???

Thanks

LONGSHANKS

I had the same Out of Memory crashes (I too have a GTX 260) and have not crashed at all since making the following change (after running GW2.EXE with -repair):

Changed the Textures quality setting from nothing-selected to Low.

I suspect the memory issue is with video memory and not RAM because other users who have posted their logs with the same error had no more than 1024 MB of video memory (from their logs).

—Dyn

melaniedawn.6025:

Every once and a while (hourly- sometimes more often) my game will crash with this error;

—> Crash <—
Out of Memory: arena=Environment, cat=Map, allocBytes=25530520, arenaBytes=45763640, fallbackBytes=8400500, align=0 ,
App: Gw2.exe
Pid: 4508
Cmdline:
BaseAddr: 00400000
ProgramId: 101
Build: 15518
When: 2012-09-14T20:35:54Z 2012-09-14T13:35:54-07:00
Uptime: 0 days 0:19:58
Flags: 0

I had the same Out of Memory crashes and have not crashed at all since making the following change (after running GW2.EXE with -repair):

Changed the Textures quality setting from nothing-selected to Low.

I suspect the memory issue is with video memory and not RAM because other users who have posted their logs with the same error had no more than 1024 MB of video memory (from their logs).

—Dyn

No Crashing For Days – Vista SP2 32bit, GTX 260, NV 285.62 Driver, 4 GB RAM, 896 MB Video Ram

With the early access release I was crashing about every hour, more often when in Lion’s Arch or other cities, or when zoning. I rarely crashed in beta but there were far fewer players in the same area. My specific error was typically:

Out of Memory: arena=Environment, cat=Map, allocBytes=31657488, arenaBytes=22264152, fallbackBytes=0, align=0 ,

Physical: 802MB/ 3325MB 24%
Paged: 6821MB/13444MB 50%
Virtual: 198MB/ 2047MB 9%

Since my rig is getting along in age, I figured it was a resource problem. I did not want to update the NV driver since it was WHQL and has been very stable. I doubted it was RAM/Virtual Memory since I had a massive swap file on my SSD drive. So after looking at other folks ArenaNet logs with the identical problem (and matching code dump) I did the following:

1. Ran GW2.EXE -repair just to make sure the archive was okay.

2. Changed my Textures quality to Low (for some reason it was showing nothing selected).

That’s it. It is possible that the repair or the one patch between crashing and not crashing actually solved the problem, but lowering the texture quality should lower the video RAM used which fits the error being logged (especially with only 896 MB of video RAM).

—Dyn

Afterburner.8612:

Is there anything I can do about this crash cause it happens every 30m to 1hr. 306 drivers fixed a lot of the Gfx issues but this crash I haven’t found a work around for.
Also wondering whats up with all the missing models in the error section of the report.
—As an example

—> Error Logs <—
ld ‘0×00cde7’ from parent bone ‘aura’, there’s no bone with that name.
Model ‘0×03b120’: Can’t unlink child ‘0×00e802’ from parent bone ‘aura’, there’s no bone with that name.

I’m putting the full crash report in an attachment.

—> Crash <—
Out of Memory: arena=Environment, cat=Prop Packfile, allocBytes=1901932, arenaBytes=127122016, fallbackBytes=5681420, align=0 ,
App: Gw2.exe
Pid: 3368
Cmdline:
BaseAddr: 00400000
ProgramId: 101
Build: 15502
When: 2012-09-12T15:23:32Z 2012-09-12T10:23:32-05:00
Uptime: 0 days 1:01:45
Flags: 0

I had the same Out of Memory crashes with the same code dump that’s in your Crash_Report file. I have not crashed at all since making the following change:

Changed the Textures quality setting from nothing-selected to Low.

I suspect the memory issue is with video memory and not RAM because other users who have posted their logs with the same error had no more than 1024 MB of video memory.

—Dyn

Agien.9834:

Hello I have been playing and loving the game since the early release. Well loving the game – the random crashing that is happening.

It seems to happen more often in pvp but I have had it happen when just standing in a town or in the middle of a story quest or just running around.

I have crashed quite a few times but its never 1 after the other and they are very random…

I really want this fixed it is keeping me from doing some things people would be relying on me heavily in and I could crash during.

side note I had uninstalled this game and my OS from my HDD installed the OS this game and updated drivers on my SSD then wiped out the HDD to turn it into storage. My drivers SHOULD be up to date as I updated them after the OS install.

O and I don’t know if it is related but some times my music freezes kind of holding a note as if I am going to crash but it kicks back into gear and starts going again. When this happens nothing ells freezes or stalls but the music.

I noticed in your ArenaNet log that you are getting Assertion errors which may mean a corrupted file in the game’s archive. Have you run the game with the -repair switch?

—Dyn

SniXeS.5319:

My game crashes quite frequently and mostly when changing areas or characters or in fights. About once every hour or more if i change characters or travel between areas often.
Comp specs:
Intel Core i5 CPU 760 @ 2.80 Ghz 2.79 GHz
4 Gb RAM DDR3
Win7 32-bit operating sistem
ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series

You have the same Out of Memory error/crash that I was getting and the same code dump beginning with:

0063EA94 e8178eff ff8b4d14 8b95ecfe ffff83c4 ……M………

I have not crashed once since changing my Texture quality to Low. My theory is that the game is running out of texture memory. Please post if the crashes go away with only this change (assuming you’ve already done a repair with the -repair switch).

—Dyn

For those with Out of Memory crashes (see my previous posts), I have now had 2 long sessions without any crashes. Per what I found from other ArenaNet logs and my own log, I did the following:

1. Ran Guild Wars 2 with the -repair switch (it ran okay and there was no indication that anything was fixed).

2. Changed my in game graphics texture setting from nothing-selected to Low (in case it was low video RAM related).

I plan to raise the texture setting incrementally to see if crashes come back.

—Dyn

For some reason the following 2 posts were moved to ‘Need update on fps please’ even though they have nothing to do with FPS and everything to do with ‘Crashing’ that may be helpful to those with Out of Memory errors. So here are the reposts:

POST 1

Guild Wars 2 (gw2.exe) also crashes/hangs on me about once an hour. Like others, it’s most often while porting or in Lion’s Arch. The game hangs with an audio loop but I am always able to kill it with Task Manager and relaunch it.
My ArenaNet log identifies the crash most often as Out of Memory. I compared my log with others that were due to Out of Memory and the following code dump was practically identical:

0063DD94 e8178eff ff8b4d14 8b95ecfe ffff83c4 ……M………
0063DDA4 286a0051 528d95fc feffffb9 05000000 (j.QR………..
0063DDB4 e8170001 008b4dfc 5f5e33cd 5be89a8f ……M._^3.[…
0063DDC4 25008be5 5dc21400 cccccccc 558bec8b %…]…….U…
0063DDD4 45086a00 50e892fd ffff5dc2 0400cccc E.j.P…..]…..
0063DDE4 cccccccc cccccccc cccccccc 8b0db812 …………….

So there is either a bug in the above code or it points to the underlying problem. Is it trying to load textures or something that allocates video memory? I ask this because my video card and the others with the same error and code dump had no more than 1024 MB of video memory.

POST 2

I’d like to add to my above post that while looking at other ArenaNet logs some users had Assertion errors which are different than the Out of Memory error. Some of the assertions seem to be resolution logic related such as:

Assertion: (m_dims.x == highResDims.x >> 1) && (m_dims.y == highResDims.y >> 1)

So those users may want to:

1. Try different resolutions or switch from windowed/non-windowed mode.
2. Run Guild Wars 2 with the -repair switch for archive validation (takes awhile).

—Dyn

I’d like to add to my above post that while looking at other ArenaNet logs some users had Assertion errors which are different than the Out of Memory error. Some of the assertions seem to be resolution logic related such as:

Assertion: (m_dims.x == highResDims.x >> 1) && (m_dims.y == highResDims.y >> 1)

So those users may want to:

1. Try different resolutions or switch from windowed/non-windowed mode.
2. Run Guild Wars 2 with the -repair switch for archive validation (takes awhile).

—Dyn

Guild Wars 2 (gw2.exe) also crashes/hangs on me about once an hour. Like others, it’s most often while porting or in Lion’s Arch. The game hangs with an audio loop but I am always able to kill it with Task Manager and relaunch it.

My ArenaNet log identifies the crash most often as Out of Memory. I compared my log with others that were due to Out of Memory and the following code dump was practically identical:

0063DD94 e8178eff ff8b4d14 8b95ecfe ffff83c4 ……M………
0063DDA4 286a0051 528d95fc feffffb9 05000000 (j.QR………..
0063DDB4 e8170001 008b4dfc 5f5e33cd 5be89a8f ……M._^3.[…
0063DDC4 25008be5 5dc21400 cccccccc 558bec8b %…]…….U…
0063DDD4 45086a00 50e892fd ffff5dc2 0400cccc E.j.P…..]…..
0063DDE4 cccccccc cccccccc cccccccc 8b0db812 …………….

So there is either a bug in the above code or it points to the underlying problem. Is it trying to load textures or something that allocates video memory? I ask this because my video card and the others with the same error and code dump had no more than 1024 MB of video memory.