Guild Wars 2

Well, now I managed to break the launcher. I have no idea if my issue is related to this issue or different.

So yesterday I checked Windows Update and noticed an ATI/AMD update. After installing this, I noticed my screen no longer froze up (or as often) and I could at least play for longer periods without everything locking up – somewhat playable. A Windows Update made things better.

Today, I noticed more Windows Updates and installed them. Now the GW2 download client sits at 0 KB/0 KB. And I can’t close the launcher, I can only crash the launcher. I’ve tried everything suggested here except the CyberGhost VPN, yet, though I’m debating if I should just re-install GW2 from scratch.

Summary: Played GW2 today > installed Windows Updates > Launcher broken. My bad – I know better than to keep Windows updated.

Please pardon me if I should have posted this within one of the other threads; I have no idea which one to place this within.

Lately for me, GW2 starts with lag then just just stops responding altogether. The only way to continue is to log out to the character selection screen and back in the game. Haven’t been working on my personal story because I can’t complete the sections due to lagging off. This situation isn’t consistent, and once in a while I can complete a personal story chapter.

The internet connection I have isn’t the best. I do crash once in a while, sometimes my ISP, sometimes my computer. I’ve been playing GW2 for over a year with reasonably few issues. Since the update before last, I’ve had significant issues. Mostly lag to the point of unresponsiveness. Sometimes I crash off, and sometimes I get an error code:

Error codes yesterday and today:
Code=7:11:3:191:101
Code=19:9:19:1467:101
Code=58:11:5:512:101
Code=42:0:9001:4137:101

It’s not that GW2 doesn’t work, just parts of it are working differently for me at relatively the same time. Yesterday at prevening Kessex Hills was a no go as I couldn’t walk ten paces without crashing/lagging off. Yet, I thought I would try the Mad King’s Labyrinth with the same character. Ended up running around with a zerg for hours with relatively little issues – better than normal actually (normal for me being somewhat laggy). With another character last week Gendarran Fields wouldn’t work for me; today I’ve almost completed the area.

Yesterday I played Containment (Tassi) story section with a friend with no problems. Last night I ran around in the Inquisition having fun, yet always lagging off before the end, 5 – 9 minutes into the game. And late into the evening the Mad King’s Labyrinth became laggy. Tonight I can’t move in the Labyrinth, yet I’m about to try again to see which area of GW2 might be working for me tonight.

What have I tried to fix this issue on my end in the last few weeks (resulting in less crashing, but still lagging to the point of not moving):

• Restarted/Rebooted
• Ensure Firewall/Virus have exceptions
• Change DNS servers
• Uninstall and reinstall video drivers
• Updated everything I could find in my computer that had an update available
• Ping and Traceroute

AMD Video Driver(s): 13-9_win7_win8_64_dd_ccc_whql.exe
Win 7 (v 6.1 SP 1)

Thank you GW2 for what does work; I hope the wrinkles can get ironed out.

Same here. I’ve had precious little time to play GW2 this April, and I managed to get 17 Bauble Bubbles, mostly in the past two days. I thought I had all of today until midnight, and I thought I had three hours left at one point, then the game rebooted (I guess it was three minutes?). Alas. Thought I at least had the back-pack in the bag; another lesson in not counting chickens.

If Moto and SAB are back next year with weapon skins, I’ll hang on to them and use two more storage slots permanently for the next 365 days. Or maybe I’ll just hang on to them anyway as they were the only in-theme thing I managed to obtain this event.

2/2

Mail:
One mail message per event stage is enough: For a three phase event, I had five or more messages (not including Miyani’s penchant for letter writing). One message per Phase with a summarized paragraph for each available event is perfect – I just need something to point me in the right direction, and how much time I have to complete the event. (If I need more information, I would check the wiki/forums/twitter/official page).

Non-issues:

• Not everyone could attend: Not everyone will be able to attend a one-time event no matter what time it is set at, and not everyone will be able to attend even a repeating event all weekend. People have asked for one-time events, and GW seems to offer something for everyone while not everyone can or will take advantage of everything.
• Personally: It doesn’t matter to me if the event is noon or midnight; I’ll sleep during the day or evening and set my alarm for midnight (or 3am, or 6am, etc.); I already do this normally, in order to keep GW updated and available during the day – it’s how I updated GW for the Lost Shores event.

The Karken Chest:
In the Lost Shores end event, I completed it in 2.5 hours and received the chest. Those who participated and for whatever reason didn’t get the chest should receive something; GW has already stated they will do something although that will take time. However, those who participated for fifteen minutes, declared in map chat that the “lame event sucked” and then left, shouldn’t receive anything (just because they found out afterward there was a prize at the end).

Fractals Dungeon:
Fun – I didn’t complete any and didn’t plan to, but going in and taking a look was great fun.

Jumping Puzzles:
Again, being that JP’s have little reward I didn’t complete these yet, in favour of other events. Having found one and looking for the other, I understand these are staying, and I will complete them as time permits. The one I found (Stepping Stones) I thoroughly enjoyed starting.

TL;DR – Fun event; looking forward to the next one.

1/2 (I’ll make these shorter in the future:)

Perspective:
My goal was to have fun, and to come away with a few event trinkets. I had fun and encountered few issues. Yes, I fought the Karken for 2.5 hours, loved it, felt lucky it worked, and collected successfully from the chest. The chest was a surprise; I wasn’t expecting much of anything.

What I liked most:

• Trinkets: The ability to obtain something fun from the event, either as a drop or purchased from the BLTP; if I didn’t get the drop I wanted, I could buy one because a number of in-theme items were not overly rare. (Rare drops are great, but it’s nice to come away with something fun even if common.)
• The Consortium Chests: Dropped in-theme, event only items.
• Yellow Stars: These really helped in understanding who (NPC’s) were relevant to the event.
• Something for Everyone: Dungeon(s), Jumping Puzzles, Scavenger Hunt(s), PvE, etc. (Was there anything for PvPers? I’m not one, so I didn’t notice.)
• Chest: When I opened the chest I was in stunned silence; it was wonderfully unexpected. A couple of nice armor pieces for my guardian, a level 80 accessory my elementalist will adore once she is at level 80, and an awesome 20 slot chest. The in-theme rewards were especially awesome because they were in-theme.

What I consider to be issues:

• Time: Not knowing how long an event would be available (scavenger hunt): 24 hours? 12 hours? The whole weekend? When does the whole Lost Shores event officially end (i.e. when will there be an update that will close all events even if I’m halfway though one)? How long will Lionguard Lyns be accepting tokens?
• Scavenger Hunts It seems there were two. I like scavenger hunts, completed both, but it seems I didn’t understand which was which. I’ve learned from gaming in general (not just GW) to run around and accept everything before something disappears; in my rush I didn’t realize what destination was for which event. Even so, I still had fun. I still have three hunt items in my inventory – because the NPC didn’t take them away, I assume I either missed something or I’m supposed to turn them in somewhere.
• Breaking NPC’s: Obviously, whenever an NPC breaks it’s a problem. In the case of a scavenger hunt it ends the hunt without reward; from what I understand Noll was fixed and the event extended. My solution was to wait until it was fixed, then complete the event; this worked well.
• Lag: In Phase One it was like stop motion, and I know I did hit a Karkan. In Phase Two and Three I was in an overflow and everything was better to the point I really could participate. Of course, no lag at all would be preferable. I found myself wishing for a button to switch off any setting to result in less lag.
• Picking Up Items: Drops and the chest didn’t stay around long enough; I wish the drops during special events, and chest items, were mailed – especially when there is much lag expected. I don’t know if the Karken during the 12Noon events ever dropped anything for me, as I couldn’t see and by the time I noticed a Karken was down it was also gone.

2/2…

When I started using this I didn’t notice any difference. The forums helped with understanding the change. This has helped with Jumping Puzzles because I can look directly above and below (which is something I can do in real life and my brain expects to be able to do in the game). It seems I can simply see better; when something is hitting me, I find/turn/see the direction better. Less often do I see the teeth and eyeballs of my asuran. Maybe it’s just me, but I thought it was better two days ago than yesterday – either that or I’m just testing the limits and trying to see if I can see the teeth and eyeballs with the new view. Also, zoom in/out is a feature I use all the time.

Showing a friend how to try it, she said, “Wow that’s much better!” And looking straight up in Lion’s Arch, I didn’t know all that beautiful artwork was up there. The new view is a wonderful improvement.

All’s fair in PvP. This Jumping Puzzle/PvP example is like griefing, or feels the same as griefing to Jumping Puzzle people. PvPers use Jumping Puzzles and terrain as a tool; others use Jumping Puzzles for fun. PvE and PvP don’t mix; JP and PvP also don’t mix.

Jumping Puzzle people are laughable fodder for PvPers.

Seven of more than nine hundred and ninety nine, and I still didn’t take enough screenshots.

The Mad King barking orders; Mad King dungeon doomed jump for the sake of the Clocktower; brawling in Lion’s Arch; haunting green mists in Lion’s Arch; Candy Corn Elemental in the sewers; plunked into the lake at the Clocktower Jumping Puzzle; and another view of the Mystic Forge cauldron.

P3
Monthly Rewards vs Mad King Event:
Monthly rewards include WvW PvP. In my opinion, PvP and Jumping Puzzles should be optional, not required for just about anything. A tiny jumping puzzle is fine, brawling is also fine. The Clocktower was not required to get the Emissary of the Mad King title; this was perfect. The requirement of WvW in monthly rewards should be either replaced with something else, or X# of Jumping Puzzles should also be required to complete the monthly; either option is fair, as it is the Monthly seems in my view to be in favour of PvP players over the Jumping Puzzle players. I have not completed a monthly yet because of the WvW requirement, and I’m not planning to complete one. The Mad King event was designed better than the Monthly reward.

PvP:
The Mad King PvP events were much fun. Although I don’t play much PvP, I dabble once in a while and I had a great time. While not…intense PvP, the brawling was also entertaining.

Confusion:
There was a sense of confusion at the start of the Mad King events. Later, the in game mail which I received at the start of each phase solved this for me. I solved the clues on the pages for book 1 on my own, but I couldn’t solve the clues for book 2 because I had not been to those locations yet; my friend who had been to those locations was able to solve those clues and we found the pages…with a little bit of “Hey, follow that player!”.

Unique Rewards:
Some players forgot to open or didn’t notice a chest. Unique one-time items can’t be obtained once the opportunity is lost. Perhaps these items, achieved but not taken, should be mailed? The same way the two books were delivered.

Bugs:
In my experience, the bugs I did find didn’t prevent me from continuing. There were so many doors that when one broke there were always others. When I found a way off the game grid, I was able to get back to the world one way or another. I experienced no serious issues; strange fun issues, but not serious (for me) ones. Of course, I reported what I did find, and found the issues to be very much in the spirit of the Mad King’s sense of humour.

Gems:
How much do gems cost when bought with real money? Is it a fixed price or does the price fluctuate? Either way I couldn’t figure out how many gems $10 would buy. Between the fact I bought a costume in GW1 for this season years ago yet not for Wintersday, and the $79 I paid for GW2, I purchased a few treats with in game gold-to-gems. If I can learn at Wintersday the price for gems, I will likely spend a few real dollars on Wintersday.

Next Year, Mad King 2013:
Hopefully all the events return, even if the storyline is a little tweaked; I expect the Mad King will try to escape his curse every year. More Jumping Puzzles, but smaller ones; the position of mega has been filled. A new, additional scavenger hunt would be awesome as well.

tl;dr: 98% fun, 2% issues = 100% wonderful event.

(3 parts, though after writing this all in notepad tonight I didn’t have the heart to edit for length.)

P2

The Clocktower:
It’s beautiful. It was the best amusement ride, yet in my home.
When the ooze came up and the skeletal hands reached, I burst out laughing. After the first few tries, I almost cried because it was so wonderful. And the NPC’s in the waiting room didn’t lie or mislead me. I loved the theme, the clock, the gears, the height, the spiral, the gate, and the colours.

There are, I believe, only two issues with the Clocktower.

1. Speed: The speed was a touch too fast, by three seconds (debatable length). This is only true because a number of people got stuck at the start with a movie icon above their heads, could watch yet not move – this happened to me several times and I saw it happen to others. Seeing as the second level made players wait a long time before the gears assembled., the speed early on didn’t seem necessary. Players with fast internet speeds were fine, players with lag were swamped.
2. Lack of Reward (compared to other events): Jumping Puzzles by their nature do not reward progress. Seconds into the the Labyrinth I mined Candy Corn, I collected Candy Corn during the Scavenger Hunt, Treat bags dropped fighting creatures out of the Haunted Doors plus event completion rewards, and simply entering the Mad King dungeon completed the requirement (thank you). Attempting the Clocktower provides nothing. All the Mad King events provide an armload of treats/rewards one way or another; only the Clocktower did not. Ironically, time was more productive being spent on even attempting other Mad King events, no matter how much I dearly loved the Clocktower.

(Personally, I didn’t find the camera to be an issue or other players in my way. Ultimately the reason I didn’t get very far was because of me; I was tired from all the fun. I know this because I was a klutz when I repeated the Sharkmaw Cavern puzzle to see what might be wrong. However, at the Clocktower there was an issue with some people asking/demanding everyone to get naked – it was like jumping in an underwear catalogue.)

As it is, I know people who want to finish this seasonal Clocktower but can’t. It was suggested that perhaps a much slower (a non Jumping Puzzle friend said 30 seconds slower) optional version with a different reward could be a warm up. Those who complete a slower version could then try the full version. (At least they would get to see the rest of the beautiful Clocktower.) Or perhaps a smaller Jumping Puzzle in a similar style to warm up on next year.

The Clocktower jumping puzzle is an equivalent opposite to sPvP; it’s really not for everyone. I don’t know if there was an additional reward for completing all the Mad King events including the Clocktower, but this would be wrong. The Clocktower should be purely optional. I don’t know if the Mad King slippers were a fair reward either; anyone who wanted the full set would have to complete the Clocktower (I’m guessing, but I don’t know for certain if this is the only event which supplied the Slippers, and the Slippers could be purchased in the TP I think). If equipment/skins can be obtained in a Jumping Puzzle, the rest of the set should be in Jumping Puzzles (I wish there were such armor). Dungeon armor exists and many people will not touch dungeons, and there is PvP armor, but neither are mixed.
…/P3

The whole Halloween event was wonderful. Seriously amazing. So amazing that my original post is too long. P1

Perspective: While I’m not bad at PvP, a PvP’er I am not; PvE is my preference. While I generally despise Jumping Puzzle games (aka Jett Rocket) I’m good at them; for some reason GW2 Jumping Puzzles are fantastic and I very much enjoy them. Halloween is something I really enjoy, therefore I was bound to be essentially happy with the Mad King events. Prior to the start I had zero expectations, high hopes.

What I loved (in no particular order):

1. The Book Item: The wonderful, beautiful book I received in phase one; my elementalist loves the flaming one she achieved, but my mesmer isn’t generally into fire armor and is very happy with her book.
2. The Music: The Mad King theme and the Clocktower; I wish I could buy them on iTunes.
3. The Clocktower: I dearly loved the Clocktower, even though I didn’t get far (this year).
4. Free and Easily Attainable: The Witch Hat and Devil Horns.
5. Voice Acting: The Mad King’s voice was wonderful; also the guy and the girl were wonderful at delivering really good bad jokes.
6. The 10 Slot Trick-or-Treat Bag (MK Dungeon): Really? I’m buying an extra character inventory slot and using this bag forever.

Mad King Dungeon:
Although I was happy to see a dungeon because it really meant content for everyone, I knew I wouldn’t complete this event. I noticed the five people were a recommendation and not a requirement, and my friend I decided to at least have a look. I was thrilled when simply entering completed this in my Special Events list; it was fun from then on. We gave it a try…and almost completed this but became disconnected (everyone did, so this was fine as it wasn’t my fault). Tried again, and inevitably my computer did something and I disconnected (my HP has a personality of its own). My friend was going to try finishing it alone, and I logged on to do something else…and a popup asked if I wanted to re-join my party in the dungeon, and I’m lucky I didn’t pass out. Disconnecting happened again (for me only), and a few times the dungeon slowed to a stop (for me only) so I shut down the client and logged in again…and every time I was asked if I wanted to re-join my party in the dungeon. When can this be added in GW1? I’ve been avoiding all dungeons everywhere until I figure out why my computer is occasionally disconnecting.

Whether or not other dungeons are like this, I don’t know. However, I am now willing to try the dungeons because of the Mad King dungeon. It would be nice though when armor breaks if I could set something to show my town clothes instead of my underwear. At least the second set of lower level armor I had with me came in handy; the Mad King’s realm is a bit chilly.

While I can appreciate people wanting a twelve person dungeon, I can also appreciate a one person dungeon. Not everyone can find someone to team up with, and not everyone wants to find a team. I have one GW2 example which happened to me. At the CM dungeon many people were forming groups. Being in the area because I followed an NPC, someone invited me to their team. Thinking I really should pass, I decided to give it a try as long as no one requested to value my worth based on my skill/weapon choices. Once in the group someone said, “We need a Guardian healer.” I was promptly dropped. I thought to myself, “That’s about right.” On say I stated the fact I wasn’t a guardian was obvious before the invite, and to please not invite someone only to drop them. It was a wonderful experience, and I have not joined a dungeon group since. Thank you for designing the Mad King dungeon so only two, or even one, can complete the dungeon.
…/P2