Guild Wars 2

I’ve tried the Auric Sharpening stone for the Druid, Chronomancer, and Daredevil with no issues. The Reaper is the only one I found that is causing crash. At first, I thought it had to do with having multiples in the stack, but even when I stop the gathering to only get one, it still crashes.

I tried with different characters, in different zones…. Right-clicking the Reaper Auric Sharpening Stone is an instant crash for me. That’s yesterday and today – with the partially downloaded patch yesterday and now after fully downloaded new patch today.

The other odd point is that all of the other Auric Sharpening Stones immediately appeared in their collection as discovered, but not the Reaper.

I had a conversation last night that I wished I’d had record of, and I went looking today to see if there was some way to turn on a chat logging feature that I’d missed. I was surprised to find a long list of posts in this forum from players asking for this feature to be added. I even found a post in the GW1 Wiki. I do not see any response from developers on these, so I was wondering if there is a policy reason why it will not be done, some technical reason why it cannot be done, or if it’s something being considered and no one has communicated this yet.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Chat-Log-or-Copy-Paste-Mechanics
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Personal-chat-logs
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Chat-History-Guild-Roster-TC-additions
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/Chat-Log-Dump
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/Chat-and-combat-logs/first#post268815
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Ability-to-copy-chat
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Export-Save-Combat-Log
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Feedback:User/Lone_Guardian_802/Save_chat_log_to_text_file_feature.

I found one post from a player asking if it is safe to report a player without being able to attach a chat log. This one has a response from Gaile letting us know that the chat logs are saved by Anet. I also found a post where a player asked how to request a log and was told in an official response “don’t build your hopes up about it”.

Reviewing the long list of player posts proposing the feature, it seems that there are many good reasons to add the ability to save a chat log to this game. We know that logs exist, so the question is why the logs cannot be saved by the players, as well, as the participants in the events creating them.

About a month ago, I found a post from someone asking about the recipe for the Superior Sigil of the Night. As we looked into it, we thought that it seemed that the wiki page for the item had not been updated from last year’s recipe. There is now a newer page for the same item giving the updated recipe.

Old Entry: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Recipe:_Superior_Sigil_of_the_Night

New Entry: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Sigil_of_the_Night

Maybe I just missed it, but at the time (and even now), I was unable to find a clear instruction on what to do when the update needed was something more significant than just editing or adding text. It seemed that the title/topic for the page needed to be changed or it needed to be merged with the new entry. I ended up just making a note on the page with a link to redirect players to the new recipe.

There is a newer note on the page now, but I think it’s still unclear, and my redirect to the new recipe was removed entirely. Today I clicked around and finally found instructions using the discussion tab. I’d noticed the tab existed a month ago when I was editing the page, but at the time, it looked like a discussion board spot (I hadn’t found the instructions about using it to discuss edits). It might just be me being in a rush, but if other people have the same trouble, then I hoped there would be a way to clarify the instructions and make them a little more visible.

I know that the wiki is largely player maintained, but I also wondered if there is any oversight from Anet staff to help with fact checking. Also, is there a list given to the team maintaining the wiki of items that will be impacted in an updated? Content management in a wiki is difficult to keep up with and I wondered how it is organized. In the last few patches, I’ve run into a few pages that were missed in the updating, while other pages have notes even before the new release is available for download.

Mark Katzbach.9084:

We seem to have two separate issues affecting search. The first is with indexing, which immediately after the deploy appeared to be working as normal, but shortly thereafter narrowed down to only searching within about the last hour. The second is an issue where search stops functioning entirely after an undetermined amount of time. Currently, we’re only experiencing the first, but not the second.

Mark – Thanks so much for taking the time to post an update. We hope that there will be another soon since it appears that this is still not working.

This morning I was going through the list of thief traits as I was considering the potential impact of the proposed upcoming changes to thief abilities. I was trying to check the forums to see if an old bug on Shadow Refuge had ever been corrected, but I was unable to get “Shadow Refuge” to appear as a search result (screenshot included as attachment). Since there are plenty of posts where it is mentioned at least as a component of a thief build, I’m sure it should have pulled results under that context, even if not for anything related to the bug.

The search has always worked like this for me. I quickly learned to put in the most general search terms possible, but still, the results aren’t coming up. I know database indexing is a pain, but “Search” is a critical feature. I’m sure you can tell by the length of thread that it’s a feature that has value and is worth the effort to correct. I understand from the many references in previous posts that it is possible to use Google, but it’s still preferred for this site to have its own search.

Thanks again! Please, post another update for us – even if only to say you’re still working on it. It’s just good to know that someone is still seeing our posts.

Good to know – I thought they’d fixed this so that players in “dungeons” had more time. Most people think of it as more like being in a dungeon than like being out in PvE and crossing zones into another map. I’ll be curious to see dev input on this one to see if it was a bug or if this is something to watch out for on patch days.

I updated the http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Recipe:_Superior_Sigil_of_the_Night page with a note and a link to the http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Sigil_of_the_Night page where I found the alternative recipes. Bandaid re-direct – It’s too late in the evening for me to figure out how to change the name of the page entirely (or get someone else to change it) to indicate that it’s the Major Sigil recipe now. Hopefully, that will help someone else.

Since most of the wiki is user-created content, it’s always possible to run into information that is inaccurate. It looks like the recipe changed. When I clicked on the link for the candy corn, it listed all of the items that have candy corn, and that led to the link to the new recipe for the Superior Sigil of the Night:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Sigil_of_the_Night

I know that’s way more clicking and research than anyone would normally go through. Hope the information is helpful.

…I had to re-install the drivers for my video card. Everything looked like a bad 3-D movie, and I’m all out of glasses. Now, it’s all nice and perfect again.

@Merlin Dyfed Avalon.5046

I actually think you’re really on to something there. Besides, they’re asking for our input on how to improve PVP, so it doesn’t seem so off-topic to me. I do think we could together make the case that when they ask for suggestions in a forum thread they need to make the threads more targeted to the specific area of development they are working on. If you just open a thread that says “give us suggestions on PVP” it’s bound to get a wide variety of ideas of scattered ideas, whereas if they said “what are you looking for in modes?” “how can we make the maps more interesting?” “how do maps and balancing relate?” – that would narrow the discussion a little closer to what they’re actually looking for…..unless this is just the initial mining expedition.

Anyway, as for the relationship between maps and balance I do have a suggestion. People will have to bear with me here, because this is uber geeky, and it’s not easy to make the connection without seeing it.

Here’s my real world illustration: For a fair amount of time I worked in the test development industry for a company that creates standardized assessments that kids take in school. Every year there are new items on the test and every year there are multiple versions of the test, but the items and the combinations of those items have been tested and determined to be balanced as equal. They are not exactly the same test, but statistically, we worked it out to where each test should be about the same level of difficulty.

Already in game we have multiple classes that are theoretically supposed to be equal. I know we have raging debates on the forums about whether or not they are actually equal, and I know that introducing the idea of multiple maps that are somehow different but balanced in design is asking for the same kind of constant bickering. Map design, however, may be much more simple than trying to determine the subjective difficulty of an item on a test or trying to determine the deadliness of a character build that is also in some way dependent on the skill and playing style of the human controlling it. I have a thief. I haven’t developed the grace under pressure to roll people the way the super-thieves do. If all thieves were like mine, there would not be miles of threads dedicated to ways to kill them and calling for stealth and skill nerfs.

I’m saying – I think it’s theoretically possible to vary the maps in WvW without compromising the defensibly balance. I do think that even if the maps are balanced, the serve that is under-performing will claim that their map is somehow giving them a disadvantage. And I’m saying that as someone who is devoted to a server toward the bottom of the rankings.

For WvW, I’ve seen more issue with the fact that people are playing it like server level PVP, but it’s not really built to reward them that way. The objective on the design side is to capture and hold the points, but what I see mostly is zergs following each other around the map recapturing points. I’m not sure how you inspire people to use strategy when they really don’t want or need to.

Sondergaard.8469:

An example of something I feel should be done is that you are constantly given feedback on how the players feel the Living Story, and Personal Story are lacking in depth. A great way to help you guys get an idea for what kind of story the players are looking for would be to host a fan fiction contest. You could even reward some of the players by bringing the stories they write into the game through dynamic events revolving around the NPCs or characters they chose to write about.

I like this idea. It would be fun for the players to somehow be involved in choosing the winner, but at the same time, I like to be surprised by the story, so I wouldn’t want to know everything about the winners.

Every time there is a discussion on how to improve sPVP, posters ask for more modes and new maps. I’m a story sort of person – I’d like to have more stories in the PVP, as well, to go with the new maps. I don’t really like the fractals and missions that change my characters appearance, but maybe other players would like that in sPVP. If the match had a storyline to it of something in GW lore – maybe something more recent like Lionguard against the Aetherblades and the characters changed appearance based on which team you were on – or the Zephyrites against the Aetherblades and it could be in the sky…..? Do you think people would like that kind of thing?

If we’re honest when we read the forums, there really are threads where the players are selfish and unreasonable. I know I wouldn’t want to have the work I pour my heart and soul into picked apart the way some people do here. As there have been a few large updates recently, and large updates mean more potential for errors, and errors mean more complaints – I can see why we’re seeing an increase in posts from ArenaNet asking players to curb the venom and be more kind and constructive in our criticisms.

At the same time, I’ve seen threads where the angry responses from players are fueled by their frustration at the insufficiency in official communication from ArenaNet when there is an issue. There have been plenty of examples, but the most recent for me was a thread about magic find gear. After the update, people thought it was a bug that their gear was soulbound instead of account bound, and they posted on the forum to find out when it would be corrected. The response that they received from the developer was basically, “This is the way we’re doing it. Hope that clarifies things.” Though there were many posts that followed asking for more information, asking why the plan had changed, citing other ArenaNet sources contradicting this statement, no further official comments were ever made.

At the peak of this verbal riot, I sent an email voicing my concern. I suggested that, if the developers are expected to interface directly with the players in this way, that they need more support. I’m assuming that the developer intend to upset and then ignore the thread. I’ve seen other posts from him, and he seems like a genuinely nice guy. I’m sure he felt that his answer was adequate. The posters on that thread, however, expected more. We understand that things do not always turn out the way they are planned – that’s just life. His message did not acknowledge that there had been a change of plan, and did not offer any explanation or give any instruction on whether or not to expect any further action on the matter. That’s what those players were asking for, and they never received it. His response was quick and precise, but not what they really needed to resolve the issues being raised. The thread was finally closed.

I have to applaud the effort to have an open line of communication between developers and players. The idea of collaborative development is warm and fuzzy and beautiful. Using a public forum for crisis management, however, will only work well for you if you have the resources and the internal lines of communication to support it. A cross-functional crisis management team could be receiving reports on major bugs, investigating and passing information back to the developers so that they can post knowing that they have the buy-in of the entire process chain. I’ve worked in companies that do it this way, and it worked well. Players should be able to get a “Thank you for reporting this. We’re looking into it.” response fairly quickly. After that, it’s a matter of being able to say “here’s what happened and here’s what we can do about it” or “we’re not going to be able to reverse this but we’ve made x changes to make sure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again”. In cases like the magic find gear, some of these bugs cost players items that they invested not just time, but also real-world currency into, so emotions run high, and silence made many of them very angry.

It seems like you’d have your project management structured this way already, but some of the odd communication gaps we can see on our side when people post from different departments at different times – it’s like the “right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing” as they say.

I wouldn’t bother to write at all if I didn’t believe that the people who work for ArenaNet have integrity and believe in doing what is right. I really do think that this is more than a job for them, and I admire that. I’m one of those idealistic people who really believes in this company. I hope that this post is received in the spirit I intended and that something I’ve said is helpful.

The following thread regarding magic find items was closed in error:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/MF-items-NOT-account-bound-but-soulbound/page/5

The closing post states that that the thread was closed because a response was received. The simple existence of a post from a developer on a thread does not constitute a response to the concerns being raised by the thread. I believe that review of this thread will show that there were several issues raised in this thread that were not addressed by the the dev post at the beginning of the thread.

Here are a few of the sentiments from the thread for which players did not receive a response:

1. The original statements from ArenaNet to players indicated that items with magic find stats would become account bound. Several players posted direct quotations with sources and links. They wanted to understand how this misunderstanding occurred.

2. When all magic find items were soulbound instead of account bound, the documentation was amended. Players expressed that they felt that this communication was misleading (some went so far as to say dishonest). There would be no need to state that an item that is soulbound remains soulbound, except that they had been told it would be account bound.

3. Many were counting on being able to transfer this gear when it became account bound, and wanted to know if ArenaNet planned to compensate the players for the now useless gear.

4. Players who had magic find items in their bank that had never been worn by a character found that these items were soulbound to the bank. They were unable to use, salvage or destroy the items. When they submitted bug reports about this, they received responses that the items were soulbound and it could not be reversed. Obviously, this is a bug. Items should not be soulbound to their bank.

I am sure that a careful review of the thread would find many more concerns from players for which an adequate response would be greatly appreciated. This was an issue that caused a lot of stir among the players, and the many responses were not simple “bumps” to the thread. I request that the thread be reopened, or that a more thorough response to the issues raised be posted.

I don’t think they would give a refund for a bug like this unless the price you paid was not the same as the price being displayed on the vendor.

Below, is an example of the kind of message that I expect to see from the representative of a game that I love and play almost daily, from a company I respect and brag about even to my current employer.

“We are investigating the reports that we are receiving from you regarding the binding of your gear. We understand that there were several sources who indicated that gear containing magic find stats would be account bound after this release, and that this is not currently the case. We are looking into all of the factors surrounding this, and we will provide more information as soon as it is available. As always, we are concerned about player experience, and we apologize for the inconvenience this has caused. Once we have determined why these items are soulbound and not account bound as you’d expected, we will be able to determine what steps can be taken to rectify the situation. Thank you so much for your patience and support!”

Empathy, not dismissal. I’m sure that Josh was in a rush to answer, but he really needed to do more research into the issue before just tossing something out there. Obviously, his statement contradicts numerous other statements that should have been viewed as equally “official” (if not more so). Contradicting the previous messages regarding how magic find gear would be handled, especially when the message is not the answer people were looking for, has only caused an outpouring of even more angry frustrated messages – my own included.

Same for me – MF gear is soulbound. I tried changing the stats, even more soulbound. I changed out the useless runes and stared and my monitor for a minute before giving up on it. I really wanted to transfer it to another character. I don’t need a second set of exotic gear for my Necro, I was going to save it for an Ele I’m planning to start soon. That’s at least 12 – 15 gold, and at least they weren’t ascended gear like some. The MF gear on my Guardian didn’t have all of the options, so I had to pick something I didn’t really want. Not a happy camper, and then I log in to see if there is feedback from a ANET, and it’s this . . . .

Just say you’re sorry and fix it. I like you, and I forgive easily.

At this point, I am still at 12 of 13.

1. I did play all 13 individual maps.
2. I did not disconnect, switch overflows or switch characters during any invasion.
3. I did remain for the entire invasion through to the end of the timer until after the meta was awarded.
4. I did participate in not only one, but multiple watchwork minion portal closing events. I killed actual minions and destroyed gears.

I even went back and replayed all of the maps just to make sure. The only one I haven’t done multiple times is Mount Maelstrom (it never seems to come up when I’m home), and I know that I met all of the above criteria for that one the first time. I have to work in the morning, so I can stay up all night to keep trying to make this work. I feel like I’ve done everything I could possibly do to follow the instructions that were given to meet the requirements to finish the achievement.

This is definitely a bug – I don’t know (or care at this point) which of the 13 maps it is that I’m not getting the credit for because I know that I completed all of them. I’m really hoping that they’re planning to just cap this off as completed for us in the update.