Guild Wars 2

After reading most of this thread, i have to agree with myself that i agree with those that are for this change and those that are against it… I am all for more choice for players and thus for more armors, at the same time i am all for ‘exclusivity’ to a certain extend, esp. after playing GW1 and seeing how a district filled with ‘the same look’ has a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ to it (hope I spelled that right).

I liked some of the proposals here, and I think both camps can be satisfied in the following manner.

- Make ‘representing a ’race’ part of the gameplay. Or in some sort ‘plead your alliance’ to a race. This could be done by earning ‘racial point’ by doing events in racially assigned area’s. After a certain amount of racial points you will be called (receive an email) from the racial leader, whom will tell you that your actions as a hero have been noted and that chatter in town has echoed your name…

• Obviously this would happen for all the races.

- Once this ‘peoples hero’ status has been attained, you get the option to ‘represent the race’ in the game. This means that you will be able to represent say ‘sylvari’ as a Norn, in all the other areas of the game. Where you will earn more ‘sylvari’ points.

- As you progress you will unlock parts of a 0-tier cultural armorset, at a ‘cultural attaché’. And at a certain status you will indeed have earned the whole set.

! This would mean that Anet would have to create 3 (weight) x 5 (races) = 15 new armorsets, inspired by the races… as:
!! All the current racial sets remain exclusive to the race.

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It would give everybody access to a certain racial flavour, and together with the dungeon armors would make that 2 flavoured sets available to all, to mix and match. While the races keep their distinct exclusive armors, but with the added pieces to mix and match…

=

In a sense I personally think this whole system could tie in with adding ‘replay value’ to both events and the marked location activities. Mainly, these last could be ‘opened up’ again for as far as earning racial hero status goes. (thus people would not loose 100% map completion ), in the areas that are linked to the races. Then in all the other areas higher in the game, the activity locations could be done for each race. In other words, you could do them 5x for every race once.

I think this would add 5x the replay value, it would give more depth to a character (if the players choses to view it like that, aka. my Charr left the Charr to fight for the humans). While at the same time offering more long term goals. While also opening up that ‘one racial set of each race’ achievement to be obtained on just 1 character.

That is a lot of simply added ‘content’ with a simple system, and a reward that would benefit all players of all races, without meddling with the actual racial armors. And tbqh. it would be even cooler if Anet would mix in some specific ‘personal story’ like instances into the ‘racial representation’. That would also extend the personal story experience, as well as the ‘grind’ the older players would have to endure (aka. it becomes a mix of simply playing, while getting called upon by a certain race to do a racial specific quest.)

While this is a suggestion, i think it’s more suitable to be discussed in here (mods may disagree, but at least the WvW crowd will know about it’s existence now…)

I have been playing WvW only for a short period of time, and while I welcome the WvW event currently running, as it will likely bring more people into WvW… it also brings with it a very obvious flaw, that might drive more people away than it ultimately brings in… Which is off course having to wait for 1,5 to 2 hours just to get into WvW. Now instead of pointing out the obvious problem, and demanding a fix, i thought i best come up with a decent suggestion to fix this:

WvW should have a meaningful overflow and this is how i were to suggest this to work:

1. The ‘location’ selection for entrance to WvW should, in case the selected location is ‘full’, suggest any other location in WvW that is not full yet. OR, the location selection for WvW should look at tat different: The ‘goto WvW’ should be a tab, where it loads the selection window in the main part of the WvW window. Here it should show the population density of the area’s, so people can instantly see where there is room.

2. If all the locations are full (of either of the 3 teams), the Overflow should become an active option in this selection window. There be 3 overflow locations. (see OVERFLOW below)

3. Players can still select a full location, and be placed in the waiting list… When doing so they may still be prompted to be moved in one of the overflow maps and wait there. Consequently it would be possible to sellect a non-overflow section of WvW while in the overflow, and be prompted when there is room in that section (and move to it).

OVERFLOW

- The overflow consists of 3 areas that are positioned in between the 3 server areas. A WvW map gets the ‘shape’ of a 6/6 portioned wheel.

- The overflow maps are ‘owned’ by 3 of the lesser races in Tyria, and when i say ‘owned’ i MEAN ‘owned’. Some other lesser races may ‘live’ there as well..

- The overflow maps ( may ) offer extra passages between server locations ( this is by all means a suggestion that needs scrutiny ) . Meaning that when all the locations on a serverside are full, opening the ‘overflow’ offers new routes to enter another server. Which may potentially mean that the section(s) that are full will empty up a bit.

These passages would be easiest created by having the same sub race live in the area’s where there are already sub races living on the server maps. Winning over such a race, or defeating it, could open up these passages, given one of the servers has reached the limit of WvW players on all 3 server maps.

- Each of the ‘overflow’ maps, would have one major structure in the center of the map (sort of like the Eternal Battle grounds). Winning this over would give the ‘ruler’ of that part of the overflow a bonus/buff, or the opposing teams a penalty/debuf.

Or one could imagine an other sort of reward, for example, defeating the sub-race keep would cause the sub-race to flee into the other server maps, and there behaving as ‘bandits’.

There may be other kinds of interesting WvW subformats, ‘besides king of the hill’, to weave into these overflow maps.

- !! I would NOT like to see a method where one can score more points for the server in the overflow, this will put the lower populated server(s) at an even bigger disadvantage. Thus it would be wise to consider ways that give the overflow fighters a reason to actually fight and contribute. While at the same time, give the lower populated servers some advantages too (one of which would be the extra passageway into the neighbouring homelands).

- IF The server population drops beneath the total limit, the lesser races that occupy these overflow maps should get reinforcements in such numbers and strength that any player be wise to flee. A simple pop-up would list the available maps and players could map there to play on.

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This overflow idea would make it so that players that enter WvW can instantly see that all servermaps are full (by 1). And would still be able to choose to wait in the PvE map (by 3), OR choose to go to the overflow IF the max server population is reached. In which case the overflow opens up for ALL competing servers, offering new ways to enter homelands, and new buff/de-buffs to conquer.

In this system there is room for double the amount of WvW players, while keeping the population condensed when there is no need for an overflow. And more importantly there is no need to introduce a duplicate of WvW which may allow a heavily WvW populated server to heavily score in WvW and totally dominate it (although that may still happen, as there is strength in numbers.

@Vakris “It’s actually 3-4 months (depending on how you count it), since each team takes over the entire month.” regarding the time frame the LS teams have to produce their content

As far as i understood Collin’s video they have 4 teams producing content for 2week interfalls. So that means that ‘at best’ a group has 8 weeks to make their stuff, given that during the 2weeks their content runs, they don’t have to baby sit it. Your information ‘was’ correct prior to this 2weeks change that was mentioned fairly recently.

In regards to your ‘mentioned’ instances of things to come, I did figure some of this was going on, and by definition you may be right… then again, the question remains whether this is actually enough of a lead in to speak of a living world…

Take Halloween for example, or any other big event that you may be familiar with (as there is no guarantee for me that you are from the US and thus are familiar with this event. Perhaps Christmas is a better example… How long b4 Christmas does the world get into ‘swing’ for this 2day event, how many people do you hear about it, how many traders (shops, malls, other vendors) try to get you into the mood for them to sell you their wares.

In a world the size of Tyria, with portals all over the place, a big event like the Dragon Bash would almost be a world effort. The saw mills would be busy sawing the planks for the decorations, depending on the time frame at least 3krews would be busy building the projector, and assuming it was build in Rata Sum it would take another krew to get it to LA. There would be traders of all sorts flocking to LA, and apart from traders the supply lines would be extra busy hauling all sorts of goods to LA, in the form of various specially commissioned items and wares. Think of the amount of Zaithaffee that would have to be made, the amount of coffers, the armors and weapons, fire works, etc etc …

Showing just a tad of that, or at least going over events that may have something to do with all of this and changing the texts to reflect the upcoming event, THAT would convey a living world, not 3people mentioning something somewhere along the lines…

The Bad
- The living content sucks the life out of the rest of the game. And especially when it is supposed to be a continuous flow of content every 2 weeks. People will be playing the LS in order to get the latest rewards, knowing they can ‘always’ do the existing content (and due to the one time nature of various elements of these stories, they will have to), but if the content keeps flowing, when will this ‘always’ be…

- The stories seem to be lacking in details, and their influence in the actual game is close to ‘null’. The content just ‘drops’ onto us, and while parts are situated inside the actual game, there is hardly anything in the game to point towards this content.

And with this I mean that while content is advertised to come on the website, there is no sign of it coming in the game. The buzz/talk in towns is not (at least for as far as I experienced) about the Zepherites being docked. The traders are not complaining about the competition, or cheering on the possible business deals. There is no ’Hear hee, hear hee, the Zepherites are docked by the town-criers.

So while the living story is supposed to convey a living world, the ‘living world’ part seems to be lacking.

- A similar thing seems to go on in regards to how the story is conveyed, by leaving out story steps. For example, it took me quite some time to figure out the link between Flame & Frost and Sunset Cove. Mainly because as the Flame & Frost ended there was no obvious cue that the refugees were being coerced to go there.

There were no ‘consortium clowns’ tricking people into signing the resettlement contract. There was no boat docked where these people were heading. All these things would actually tie the story steps together and as such convey this ‘living story/world’.

- My biggest fear is that 6weeks per team to make content will prove to be to less of time to produce quality content, and i rather have quality then quantity. And by making it every 2 weeks, there is no time to actually play the rest of the game, work on alts. Plus there is no ‘time’ to anticipate content coming… If anything it’s causing more of a ‘content burnout’ than rejoicing for what is to come.

Solution
In my views this can be solved fairly easily by changing the set up and timing of the living story. Make the content have a week in between, and fill ‘this time’ with hints on what is to come, or to tie up loose ends, and or introduce characters. Build and Set the stage…

For example:
- Kiel could have mentioned the Dragon festival during the last stages of Sunset Cove, expressing that a resolve should come fast as she received orders to move to Lion’s Arch to attend the Dragon Festival. At the very end she could have introduced an oversee-er to attend to Sunset, introducing another character for that specific area.

- In the week leading up to the dragon festival, there could have been more workers putting up the decorations. It would also have been fairly simple to either replace Dolyak protection runs, with characters that want to get to Lion’s Arch for the festival, or even simply change the text for these traders to something related to the dragon festival, mentioning they need to get their wares there in time. The Town-Criers would be notifying that Dragon festival was to start in X days.

There could also be modifications to other events, related to the start of the festival, for example the wood mills would have been ordered to supply scaffolding and planks for the decorations. This would only be a change of event text… Perhaps players could even turn in their gathered materials to the workers to help build up the stuff.

These would all be little hints on what is to come, fairly easy to realize by changing some texts, and swap some characters around… It wouldn’t be part of any special event, it would just be ‘the living world’.

As of right now, the lead in to the election thing is also fairly marginal, in my views it would be the council in game that would open up the Elections shortly after the dragon festival, pre-selecting the candidates. Mainly in the week between the dragon fest and the zepherites, when lion’s arch is breaking down the decorations. Traders would be going home, leaving LA… The town-criers would be shouting about the elections and the zepherites comming.

Well i’m guessing this is more then enough to illustrate how the ‘living story/world’ could do with short time-outs in between the bulk of the stuff. How with fairly little things the living-content can be woven in better with the existing world. And how this week would give players some time to actually utilize the build up appetite from the change in spices, and devourer some of the usual stuff in the game

In the latest video I saw, by Collin, he mentioned that Anet would love to hear our feedback. Now I scrolled around here and did find some threads that cover my feedback, but generally only in part, or from a one sided direction. Hence my feedback in a more comprehensive post:

Depending on how you like to receive ‘news/opinions’ either start with the ‘Good’ or the ‘Bad’ and take it from there

The good
- The living story is a nice way to expand on content. Getting something ‘old’ to do with a new angle makes for decent replay value. And tbh. the living story brought me to places I personally hadn’t been to, or only glanced over and decided to keep for a rainy day…

- The over arcing story line is generally enjoyable, getting away from undead and dragons as well as various by now more then familiar foes makes one hungry for more. Like the saying goes, ‘a change in spices stimulates the appetite’.

- The amount of things to do is also both diverse as well as plenty full, and luckely differing slightly from event to event. Big thumbs up to the content team for coming up with new formats for tried and tested activities.

- The rewards are decent to good & The one time only part of various rewards, while it may frustrate some, is good for visual diversity in the game world.

@Zerk, i may not be a hardware specialist (and i do not pretend to be one), but using the method that i been thought to use to look for upgrades for my own system, by people that were experts, has served me quite well over the years… esp. when on a budget…

And just zerking over somebody else’s advice without providing a good or dare i say ‘better’ alternative is not to be viewed as a very trustworthy base to make such a zerk-comment… :p

That is a quite drastic sollution, especially if various parts of the trader do work … as then it becomes a question of why those parts work and others don’t … this more then likely has to do with your network more than your computer… instead of reinstalling i would deffo file a support ticket and let them look into it …

And a more common hint would be, check if you computer is clean on the inside and not clogged up, make sure you have the latest drivers for ALL your hardware (including motherboard, networkcards, soundcards, and what not…)

@Muslum tnx for the info, while i didn’t know for sure i had pretty much already pointed out it would not function optimal. Still though, tnx for the added info

Np, i would like to end with my recommendation though as i got some time to think about it.

Seeing your budget of 130,- quid and the CPU you have now, i would print out the tabs of your mother board specs, and take them to your local computer shop. Ideally you want to get a cheapish new CPU somewhere from the top 10 on the supported list. And hopefully you then have some money left to get a better GFX card as well.

The AMD Phenom II x4 CPU does about 85-120$ on Ebay atm. so they are still for sale and thus obtainable. Thats should be around 70 quid. Which leaves you with 60 quid to invest in a new GFX card. It may not be enough to get the 7770 but checking this list: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpukittenml you could still get a AMD Radion 5750 for like 70$ which is about 50 quid. Leaving you some money to pay the guy/gal to put it all together for you…

Sure it will not be a super duper new computer, but it’s more then likely going to feel that way for you. The CPU is obviously tons better (and the best your motherboard can support) and while the GFXcard is not the best, it is still about 2x as good as the one you have now. Given its indeed the NVidia GF9500

This solution also gives you the best of both worlds, for as far as GW2 goes, you have the best processor (CPU) that you motherboard can master, and you have a better GFX card. Heck and that all for 130 quid, including some of it to pay for the labor…

• given of course you have a local computer shop that has these items for those prices … but even if you drop your CPU wish to the AMD Phenom II x3 it will still be miles ahead of the bottom list supported CPU you have in there now.

That would be my recommendation, given you don’t see any more money coming your way over the next year, which will enable you to buy a whole new system for 500-600 quid. Esp. if you have a local computer shop, you may well be able to salvage various components from your old computer, like: case, power supply, mouse, keyboard, screen, DVD or CDrom player. And thus replace only, motherboard, CPU, GFX card, and RAM, which may be cheaper that 500-600 quid … But that is something i can’t decide for you, and I do not know the likely hood of you receiving more funds, and how patient you are to keep that 130 quid in your pocket and spend it later …

on technical support, not sure how/what you did, but there is a ‘sticky’ topic on how to contact support. Which entails making a support account and filing a ticket with them, the update on that support forum is also e-mailed to the address you used to make the account. You can either mail or use the forum to communicate with them…

Though seeing your issue, for now, seems to be TDR related or a general problem with your system as a whole, i am not to sure whether they can help you. Seeing for the TDR problem they point towards NVidia, as they can’t solve it, and they have a policy to generally only help with game issues, and refer to your local computer shop for general computer issues. Just so you know and are not surprised by their capability to help.

The black screen may well be the TDR problem I mentioned, esp. if you are experiencing this with other games as well.

If you feel confidant enough, and make sure you are not statically charged, you may want to turn off you computer, open it up, and check that your GFX card is fitted properly. Don’t yank it out if you don’t know how to work it, but giving it some gentle pressure may slot it in more properly, it may not be an issue at all, but as long as you don’t go crazy on it, it can’t hurt either…

Another thing i would recommend, seeing the crash comes with loud screeching is to really check your drivers for motherboard and other cards, also check for updates on your sound card and/or sound software.

Then the thread i linked earlier on the TDR problem also comes with some older driver suggestions, if i am not mistaken. Depending on the time and effort you want to put into this, you may also want to go back to an older driver, and check if that causes the same issue. If so, then it’s less likely to be the TDR problem, but there may be something else wrong with your system…

Nopes it can not … that card needs a 1 x PCI-E x16 3.0 Slot … and your motherboard has the 2.0 version. Now it may fit, but i am unsure if it will work, and its more then likely not to work properly…

You can check out the specs of your motherboard here: http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=380#spec

If i check the specs and compare the CPU’s on the CPU-tab for example, i can see that your current CPU is at the bottom halve of the supported CPUs, which means you could actually upgrade your CPU by quite a bit. With ‘you’ i likely mean your local computer shop, unless you have experience in building a computer yourself! Changing your CPU is not like changing your GFX card !!!

- Another thing i would like to know is what GFX card you use now? if not just the ‘onboard’ gfx card. Unfortunately i am unsure if SLI will work between an onboard and PCI slotted card. But knowing your current card may shed some light on that.

- The exact operating system is also still a blank. Esp. if it is WinXP 64bit there are some other limitations. This mainly has to do with the DX-version you need the card to work with. There is no point in buying a DX11 card f/e for as long as you run WinXP that will only work with DX9.

I saw on your motherboard specs that it will support Vista, so you may have 64bit Vista as your OS (operating system) i would have to look into what DX-version Vista supports (if not all, but without knowing your OS there is no way to recommend you)

Hmm weird that it didn’t replace the local.dat, i will have to look into why it did with me, perhaps because i zipped it first so there was actually no local.dat to find on my whole computer. I will keep this in mind for future help…

I am glad to see your issue is resolved now , seeing the TDR seems to not effect everybody with NVidia equally you may not even run into it. Just remember that it is there in case you start to experiencing black screen ‘crashes’ and check the NVidia site every now and then for the new drivers

Not sure if the + 1 is rep or just a way to vote interesting posts up to get them to Anets attention. Usually the latter is the case, and it is a great way to prevent ‘UP 1’ posts cluttering the forum

As far as giving me credit or rewarding me, well i would say what i told somebody else, just enjoy your playtime that is all

Ok, tnx for that … it only helps me with the basics, but if the following doesn’t help, then it is more then likely going to help others trying to help you … btw. your system is indeed more then capable to run GW2 (but now atleast i know for sure, and with some needed details)

Ok, first thing first, seeing you have an NVidia card you may be experiencing TDR issues, this is a known issue with NVidia Drivers, you may want to read this tread, and the comment made in it by ArenaNet: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/NVIDIA-windows-kernel-mode-driver-issue/first#post1751704
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But seeing your issue started with some update mishaps, we will tackle them with the following steps:

1. Locate your Gw2.exe file. The NCSoft advisor report tells me you can find it here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe

2. Right-click on the file and select Create shortcut.

3. Rename this new shortcut to Guild Wars 2 Repair.

4. Right-click on Guild Wars 2 Repair-shortcut and select Properties.

5. Locate the Target line and add -repair to the end.

Example: “C:\Games\Guild Wars 2\gw2.exe” -repair

6. Click OK.

Double-clicking Guild Wars 2 Repair will begin the repair process. The game will launch when it is complete.

Note : Keep in mind that the verification and repair process will run each time you double-click the Guild Wars 2 Repair shortcut. If you would like to play the game immediately without repairing the archive, double-click on Gw2.exe or another shortcut without the -repair command, which would basically be any of the previous short-cuts you used, given you made the new shortcut in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Guild Wars 2\ folder and renamed it.

Please test if this works first … if not, you can try the following as well (though there is no need to do this if the previous thing worked.)

1. Locate the file ‘Local.dat’ , based upon Win7 you are most likely to find it in c:\….\my documents\guild wars 2\ … if it is not there then the next location is most likely in the same spot as GW2.exe is installed. (Or use search to find it)

2. (Re)move the file from this folder. (You can just delete it, but i personally like to hang on to files for the moment, until i am sure they are ‘fixed’ with a replacement, so you may want to just move it to a different newly created folder somewhere on your HD).

3. Starting GW2 will recreate the file, and if you want to you can check if indeed it is remade, and delete the old file from it’s location.

These are the most commonly used ways to fix problems with GW2, seeing your computer should be able to run GW2 without any major issues (except for the NVidia TDR problem, though that tends to create a black screen crash), i couldn’t find any other things to recommend with specific instructions. Some things you could look at are:

If the issue persists it may well pay off to take a good look at your NVidia Controll Panel. You get there (atleast in WinXP) by right clicking your screen and find it in the list that pops up. Perhaps it is set to some weird 3D setting somewhere?

Another place to look for the same is in the GW2-GFX options, the game is ‘indeed’ supplied with a 3D option (at least it was during beta, when i played with 3D glasses at GamesCon) … so perhaps a setting there is making it display the game as it does…

Other than that i draw a blank… so if this doesn’t fix it, you will have to wait for somebody else to drop in, or file a ‘technical-support-ticket’ with NCSoft to get direct technical support.

- Ok 500 watts is more then enough to run a multitude of GFX cards you are most likely to be able to slot.

- Budget seems ok too.

- Still would like to know your exact OS this mainly has to do with the kind of DirectX you can run, and consequently which type of GFX card you should get…

- Also the motherboard would be really nice to know, as the type of slot (or even slots) for the GFX card(s) will also play a part, especially in older type systems.

• You could use ‘NCSoft Gameadvisor’ (just google it) and attach the results in a .txt to the first post. That will give us a closer read out of your system (though i don’t think it includes the motherboard, so you may want to find that out in a different way.

If you run the game advisor program it puts out results, easiest is to just copy/paste them into a .txt file (notepad will suffice) and attach it to the first post you made, that will also help others that dive into your problem, as it is likely the first thing they will want to know to best help you out … this in case the things i suggest don’t help, or if I happen to not be around … or some people just want to help you as well …

1. OK, good to know your computer is clean

2. I am not just talking about GPU drivers, but also drivers for you motherboard, network card, mouse, sound, basically the whole lot. It may take some time to figure out what things you need to get, but making sure these are up-to-date will rule these most common causes out of the equation.

3. Do please add the NCSoft Gameadvisor file to this tread, if we don’t know the system specs it is hard to give you good advice. Regardless of how it performed in the past…

4. Don’t worry we will start with the most logical next steps soon, just, without covering the basics and ruling them out, going into more specific actions may all be worthless…

Don’t worry, i know where to start

1. Make sure your computer is clean from the inside, you can buy can’s of spray-air at your local computer shop to clean it out.
(obviously you don’t want to use water/soap, and be careful with using a vacuum cleaner, static discharges can hurt your computer circuits.) … if you feel uncomfortable cleaning your computer, and it is a real mess, you can always bring your computer to a local computer shop and have it cleaned for you.

2. Make sure you have the latest drivers for all your hardware components (including motherboard, network cards, mouse, sound, etc). You can find driver updates (if there are any) at the websites of the hardware component manufacturers. Pay good attention when you download and install drivers though, and make sure you have the correct drivers! Obviously installing the wrong drivers can cause all sorts of issues.

(same as with cleaning, if you feel uncomfortable, a local computer shop can likely check your computer and make sure you are ‘up-to-date’)

3. After all of this, it would be very helpful for people helping you to know the details of your system. If you could run ‘NCSoft Gameadvisor’ (just google it) and attach the results to this thread, we can at least check what may be the problem as far as hardware goes (possible bottlenecks), or whether the system is more then capable of running GW2.

While it won’t help me much, other more knowledgable people may also want to take a look at the following file: ‘Arenanet.log’ depending on your operating system it is either in the same folder as GW2.exe is installed, or it is in your ’C://…/My Documents/Guild Wars 2/ folder … if you can attach that as well

After these steps ‘we’ know your system is clean and up-to-date, and we also have the specs of your system so it’s easier for us to figure out any bottlenecks. So please take these steps, and post back here

Another thing you may want to try is making sure you have the latest Adobe Flash version. I read in one of the threads that it is used to display the interface … another thing that may be worth checking, though i am not sure it is related, is if you didn’t disable Adobe Flash in your internet browser. The trading thing is basically a ‘webbrowser’ like piece of the game (if i understand it correctly), so it may well draw from your browser settings. You likely know yourself whether or not you disabled flash recently in your browser.

If after these things the issue lasts, then do indeed file a technical-support-ticket

That is a quick return of the problem

Seeing i am sort of lost on what you did and did not try, perhaps you can make sure you at least did these things:

1. Make sure your computer is clean from the inside, you can buy can’s of spray-air at your local computer shop to clean it out.
(obviously you don’t want to use water/soap, and be careful with using a vacuum cleaner, static discharges can hurt your computer circuits.) … if you feel uncomfortable cleaning your computer, and it is a real mess, you can always bring your computer to a local computer shop and have it cleaned for you.

2. Make sure you have the latest drivers for all your hardware components (including motherboard, network cards, mouse, sound, etc). You can find driver updates (if there are any) at the websites of the hardware component manufacturers. Pay good attention when you download and install drivers though, and make sure you have the correct drivers! Obviously installing the wrong drivers can cause all sorts of issues.

(same as with cleaning, if you feel uncomfortable, a local computer shop can likely check your computer and make sure you are ‘up-to-date’)

3. After all of this, it would be very helpful for people helping you to know the details of your system. If you could run ‘NCSoft Gameadvisor’ (just google it) and attach the results to this thread, we can at least check what may be the problem as far as hardware goes (possible bottlenecks), or whether the system is more then capable of running GW2.

- Then it would be nice to know the path to your gw2.exe … you can rightclick the shortcut to it and copy/paste the ‘target’ of that shortcut. So ‘we’ at least know where GW2.exe is. I am not sure what you did when, did you move the /guild wars 2/-folder to another drive and then did the -repair or did you repair it first and then moved the folder?

- Then i would like to know if indeed you removed the file ‘local.dat’ from your system, if you did you likely found it in C:\\documents and settings\your name\my documents\gw2\ …

! you could combine the two above by finding your local.dat file, removing it from that folder (if you feel more ‘safe’ by holding on to it for a while, you can also copy/paste it to a newly created folder, somehow i personally prefer to do so, just in case… main thing is that it is no longer in the folder where you found it.) …

After you (re)moved the file ‘local.dat’, i would suggest hitting that -repair link you made earlier.

With these steps we at least know that it has nothing to do with a clogged up computer or a driver problem (most common reasons for computer issues). And we also know where the game is at on your computer, that it has been repaired, and that the local.dat sollution has been applied. ‘So basically’ the game should be ‘ok’ as well.

If the problem persists or returns, please let us know, there may be something wrong with your computer, it could help us if you would attach the ‘Arenanet.log’ file ‘again’ to the post you make when the issue returns after these steps. It ‘logs’ the last crash, and it could help us deter-main why the problem persists…

Hiya Slyvar, I think you may be better served by making a thread of your own … including a ‘NCSoft Gameadvisor’ (just google it) as an attachment can help those wanting to help you.

Apparently you already done a ton of stuff, so when/if you make your own thread, ‘we’ (or at least i will) view the Gameadvisor report is the ‘state 0’, i may suggest some things that you already did, so ignore those but do inform me you did them. These are standard things i like to clear out of the way first, obviously … i’ll check your thread later …

Seeing your system is more than capable of running GW2, I think you are suffering from a problem with the NVidia Drivers, mainly something called TDR-issue. You may want to read this thread, and a comment made in it by Anet: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/NVIDIA-windows-kernel-mode-driver-issue/first#post1642332

Now it may not be this thing (though judging by your hardware it is unlikely to be something else)… Still though, if you feel you want to do at least something, while you wait for a solution from NVidia, you could make sure:

1. Make sure your computer is clean from the inside, you can buy can’s of spray-air at your local computer shop to clean it out.
(obviously you don’t want to use water/soap, and be careful with using a vacuum cleaner, static discharges can hurt your computer circuits.) … if you feel uncomfortable cleaning your computer, and it is a real mess, you can always bring your computer to a local computer shop and have it cleaned for you.

2. Make sure you have the latest drivers for all your hardware components (including motherboard, network cards, mouse, sound, etc). You can find driver updates (if there are any) at the websites of the hardware component manufacturers. Pay good attention when you download and install drivers though, and make sure you have the correct drivers! Obviously installing the wrong drivers can cause all sorts of issues.

(same as with cleaning, if you feel uncomfortable, a local computer shop can likely check your computer and make sure you are ‘up-to-date’)

Other than that i can’t recommend anything else, there are some questions that may help others though:

A. Have you had this problem all the time, or did it recently turn up?

B. How ‘random’ are the crashes, are there things you do, or places you are, that crashes are more likely to happen? (obviously the TDR-issue would make the crashes truely random, but other issues may well be caused by something else and thus cause a more specific crash incident.

I would say there is a slightly to little information to make a good recommendation…

- What operating system do you have exactly? 64bit can still be a multitude of OS’s

- What type of motherboard do you have? be as specific (type nr.) as you can, this will deter-main what type of GFXcard(s) you can slot in there.

- What type of Power supply (how many Watt) is in your system, this will deter-main what type of GFXcard your system can handle.

- Lastly would be the budget available, if you are buying this card specifically for GW2 then you may want to reconsider. GW2 is mostly CPU bound, now this doesn’t mean you are better off buying a new CPU (given your Motherboard can handle a better one), but it may … or to be more specific, you may be better off keeping that money in your pocket, save up some more, and buy an whole new system later this year…

Doubt people can tell you straight away, just on an error log what you can do to fix this… You can do a couple of things for starters:

1. Make sure your computer is clean from the inside, you can buy can’s of spray-air at your local computer shop to clean it out.
(obviously you don’t want to use water/soap, and be careful with using a vacuum cleaner, static discharges can hurt your computer circuits.) … if you feel uncomfortable cleaning your computer, and it is a real mess, you can always bring your computer to a local computer shop and have it cleaned for you.

2. Make sure you have the latest drivers for all your hardware components (including motherboard, network cards, mouse, sound, etc). You can find driver updates (if there are any) at the websites of the hardware component manufacturers. Pay good attention when you download and install drivers though, and make sure you have the correct drivers! Obviously installing the wrong drivers can cause all sorts of issues.

(same as with cleaning, if you feel uncomfortable, a local computer shop can likely check your computer and make sure you are ‘up-to-date’)

3. After all of this, it would be very helpful for people helping you to know the details of your system. If you could run ‘NCSoft Gameadvisor’ (just google it) and attach the results to this thread, we can at least check what may be the problem as far as hardware goes (possible bottlenecks), or whether the system is more then capable of running GW2.

4. You may also want to read this thread, and in particular Part 5.5 c0000005 crash
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/FAQ-Frequently-Asked-Questions-Compilation/first#post1095415

5. Now seeing there is a Memory Write error, there ‘may’ be something wrong with your ‘RAM’, but i would say that before you start testing that, make sure you went through steps 1-3 at least so people can direct you better to a possible sollution.

Lets hope it stays that way … and i am glad i could help you out … if you are looking for a good way to repay me: ‘have tons of fun while playing’

Ah i missed that change then, only switched to this drake recently … all the other things, i guess you are right on them :P

So with nothing on it, then you would have to reinstall everything that was ever on it (apart from your files which you more then likely backed-up somewhere). This would indeed mean you would have to install all the drivers for all your stuff again.

First i would recommend making sure you have all the latest drivers for your hardware (not just the GFX card, but all components). If you do a clean install and use the CD-Rom to reinstall your system it will install all the ‘oldish’ drivers that it came with.

Do make sure you get the correct drivers though, as installing the wrong ones can obviously cause all sorts of issues and problems (up to not being able to start your computer). If you are not experienced in dealing with this kind of stuff you may want to find someone that is …

Second I would recommend filing a support ticket, seeing a previous issue was solved through a ‘network’ fix, some of your issues may be related to your modem/router. I have very little experience with them, so i can’t recommend anything, hence you are better off going through NCSoft Support.

Lastly there happens to be an NVidia TDR Driver issue, your problems may be related to this issue. So waiting for a new driver package from NVidia may be the only way to get this solved.

If you did a clean install (as a ‘reset’) then obviously the drivers is the first place to start making sure you are ‘up-to-date’, if you don’t feel comfortable dealing with these then taking your computer to a local computer shop and explaining that you want to make sure you computer is up-to-date driver/bios wise i am sure they can help you out.

Just to recap for myself, and perhaps for yourself:
0. The computer is clean and there is good airflow

1. The computer now only has 1 monitor, so all computing power is used to display gw2 on that one monitor.

2. The GFX-drivers are reinstalled using a ‘clean install’

3. The NVidia settings are set to single screen and performance, all the other recommendations for NVidia settings on the forum are also applied.

4. I take it you also made sure you have the latest drivers/software for your motherboard, network card, sound, mouse, etc … generally speaking you can find the latest software on the websites of your hardware component suppliers, do make sure you have the correct drivers for the hardware you have, installing the wrong drivers may cause more issues obviously…

5. It may also be worth it to do a defragmentation if you do not do this, or it is not sceduled. This process takes a good amount of time, so make sure you have something else to do in the meantime. It is more then likely that it will report it could not defrag GW2, this does not have to do with this issue, it’s just that gw2.dat is so huge that it can’t process it. Don’t worry, the goal is not to defrag GW2 it is to defrag your HD so all other processes will work more smoothly …

6. While i do not think this is the case, it may also be worth it to check your HD for errors or bad-sectors. Again this takes a good amount of time… You could do the same for your RAM. You would have to find the way to do this on the interweb though (it may well be in the topic i linked earlier), as i don’t know Win7 that well…

• This step is usually a last resort, there is nothing wrong with checking these things, but more then often all is well, UNLESS, you are having problems overall in which case a bad HD or RAM can be the cause…

7. Seeing your system is at the lower end of the ‘recommended’ requirements, it may well pay off to get some sort of system vitality software (mainly temperatures and usage-load). Thing is though, you would have to have 2 screens to be able to see the monitoring software while you play :P … And i can’t recommend good software for this, as i don’t use it myself… Do make sure you research the software a bit before you install it, you want to make sure you have decent software, again, there may be some recommended options in the thread i linked. If you decide to try this, then obviously you would have to put the screen back on and switch back the NVidia setting (if it didn’t do so by itself after recognizing the monitor).

You are mainly looking for anything overheating or being at 100% usage when the issue takes place. You may not be able to ‘fix’ this, other than buying a better PC though…

8. In relation to this, you mention being able to play other games at medium/high settings, that may be true for those other games, but truth is, your system is just above the ‘minimum requirements’, meaning it’s more likely you can run the game at all minimum settings, with perhaps textures at medium (it about how i run it, and it still looks better than most other games i played at those settings!).

So make sure you set everything to minimum, and see how it goes, then start putting things ‘up’ by a notch one at a time. It’s better to have the game running at somewhat decent settings, than to be here on the forum trying to fix a problem you can’t fix by anything else but buying a new computer… not to be demeaning or anything, my system is just one step above yours, and i wish i had the money to buy a new computer, thing is i don’t so i am being realistic about it and play and enjoy the game best i can

9. Last thing to recommend would be to do a clean install of the whole computer, but really !!! Don’t do this if everything else on your computer works fine, if the problem persists it’s more then likely the NVidia-TDR thing, and they will patch this…

10. What remains as a choice for yourself is, do you want to wait for this patch and perhaps forgo your money-return while waiting for it. Your computer will always be at the lower end of the scale … and only you can decide if you see funds available to get a new system. You can also ‘always’ re-buy GW2 in the future (at least i think you would be able to :P ), so it’s not that throwing in the towel now means you will never be able to play GW2

Well this is about all i know to tell you in order to help, apart from using ‘Driver Sweapers and CCleaner/Registry cleaners’. As i see these as ways that can potentially do more harm then good, but that is just how i was raised with computers over time. These may well be topnotch now, i still think to much can go wrong if they are not used right, so i prefer not to get near them, and if possible not even mention them :P

Well apparently there is actually a TDR problem with the NVidia Driver, there is actually an official statement by NVidia about it, you can find it somewhere in the top 20 on the forum … so it could indeed be related to this …

ps. send you a PM

As long as the chests disappear from the normal world at the end of the month the Azura ‘dungeon’ should stay 1/2 UP

I recently switched from Axe+Warhorn&Torch to include a sword it goes with the torch… and thus run Axe+Warhorn, Sword&Torch …. this seems to work quite well, though i did switch off the auto attack … The Axe Warhorn combo is used to be midrange and more ‘support’ while the sword+torch is to just get in there and bash around.

I would say it works just fine, but then again, what do you want to do? this is all written from a PvE perspective and may not be worth the pixels it’s displayed with when it comes to WvW or sPvP …

I have my ranger at lvl80 atm. and i do not think it’s a waste of my time, it was all fun getting there and still is… I play mostly just PvE …

Thing i would say is, why limit yourself to one class, if anything i have to agree with Chopps above here. Try out different styles and pick the one you like, which will always depend on what you like to do, in a class based game it is always hard to compare apples to oranges, esp. when you also take personal skill level into account…

As said above here, if your goal is to just play the PvE side of the game, you will find the ranger to be very versatile. You wont be the hardest hitting dude in the group (except for long range longbow), but you’dd be able to do other things. F/E. in zerg.event farming a ranger with a Warhorn is the most valuable guy/girl around, everybody can do damage in some shape or form, but getting from event to event fast that Warhorn makes all the difference.

If sPvP is the thing for you, then i would say, keep 1 slot empty specifically for sPvP make a lvl1 char and jump right in. That way you can always switch to the FotM build(s) by creating a character that you need…

Warrior and Guardian are the most tanky style characters, due to their armor, but they are also the most straight forward. Meaning that they wont do anything to special for you either…

so realy, you have 5 slots, use at least 4 on different races and professions, and waste your life/time with the one you like most ^^

I just checked to be sure, but indeed the GF 7800 is the minimum req. for the game. So you would be looking at trying to minimize the load on your GFX card as much as you can (so i would remove the 2nd screen entirely for now). And set it up for Performance more then anything…

If the problem persists then i would really like to know if you were advised to do (and did) the repair steps… ?!

! PS. just to be sure, don’t go removing the spaces in the location where the game is installed just because i mentioned this, this may have been a specific thing for my system and the problem I experienced !

Same may well apply to your CPU, as GW2 is rather CPU bound, you may want to read this thread, which i just found and read, and found to be rather useful: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/FAQ-Frequently-Asked-Questions-Compilation/first#post1095890

So, seeing your CPU might also be a problem, you may also want to make sure you run a minimum of processes in the ‘background’, think lean and mean more than ‘my computer is an old pile of scrap metal’ esp. if you don’t have the finances to upgrade … there are actually pieces of software that kill any processes you don’t really need, yet i have no experience with them, and thus won’t recommend them, though seeing they may help you i do want to mention them, use at your own risk and do make sure you don’t just download any piece of crap that says it optimizes your PC, do some research on it and/or make sure you can trust the supplier of the software …

woa, that is rather drastic, not that it can hurt to much, but take a lot of time… just that i never said you should, so don’t blame me if it takes dang long and doesn’t fix anything hmmk :P

I’m also still rather confused about the ‘reset’ thing. Can you keep all your software, like GW2 on there, when you reset it ? what does it do, do you just slot a CD in there and it reinstalls everything to how you got the PC? … because then it’s more then likely that it also puts back all the old drivers you replaced with newer ones since the last time you did the ‘reset’ …

If it’s really such a drastic ‘reset’ as it could be, then i can see why you would experience problems, as all the latest drivers/directX/what not, would all be restored to the versions it came with when you bought it. Reinstalling GW2 may not help much, more then likely you would be better off paying a visit to the sites of your hardware suppliers, and check if there are updated drivers there for your motherboard and other hardware (like network) and software (like sound) … do make sure you have the right things though, messing with drivers can mess things up entirely !!! … it’s why i personally rather not recommend people to mess with their driver stuff unless they know what they are doing, i would hate to be the cause of you messing up your computer !!! …

So it is at your own risk, even more so because i still don’t have a clear picture on what this ‘reset’ does. Like, does it make you d/l all the windows updates again as well ?

it is more then likely in the /my documents/gw2 folder, if you don’t have such a folder then it’s most likely in the location where you installed gw2 … if it’s nowhere to be found then restarting GW2 and experiencing a crash will most likely recreate it. Seeing it’s a ‘log’ file it’s only filled with output values, and more then likely is overwritten every time you crash and send in if you choose to do so…

Do I also read correctly that you have 2 monitors hooked up to this computer?

And i would like to mention that your GFX card 8800GT is a rather oldish card, so you are likely to not be able to run very high settings (not sure what you do use as settings, just mentioning it in case you set everything on high.)

Your system does look a tad like mine though, although i have different hardware, and my gfx-card is the 9800GT … And i too ‘had’ two monitors…

I am not sure if this would work with 2 monitors still hooked up (i removed one of mine) but, in your NVidea Controll panel, there is the 2nd option from the top, called: 3D settings. There are both general and per software program settings lists. In the list you can find the “multi-screen/mixed gpu acceleration” option. I removed one screen and set these to single screen for both general and GW2. That way there is more GPU power available to run GW2, as processing time is no longer used for both screens.

And for all intends and purposes i now only have 1 screen, and yes i do miss this screen in general computer work, so i may well change the general setting to multi screen, and keep GW2 on single and shut off the 2nd monitor while playing GW2, i am just not sure if that would actually ‘work’ or mess things up, so until i feel i should try (or the lack of the 2nd screen really starts to annoy me) i will keep things on single screen settings.

Lastly the folder may not be the biggest thing (like the spaces thing), but they did do a the -repair thing, right ?

In general i would say that the GFX card you have is the most limiting factor, so it may well pay out as well to check the first option on your NVidia Control panel as well, and set it either to ‘let the 3Dapplication decide’ or set the slider to ‘performance’ … Another thing i would recommend, if you didn’t do so already, is seeing you can log on, change the GFX settings to a minimum. And then only set the textures to medium. Again here i can’t see from here what you currently run, but having had a lower end gfx card for quite a while starting at low and slowly move things up a notch (mostly textures) can help a lot with performance…

What would count as a ‘reset’ of your computer? is that a full reinstall or what exactly?

Seeing it’s at certain specific things, mostly related by sending out information (chat) or a lot of people, i think it may well have to do with your router. Unfortunately I do not have the info on what settings you would have to change. But seeing i had the black screen issue as well, the router thing is a cause they are looking at with technical support from NCSoft.

Then again, it also somewhat depends on what a ‘reset’ of your computer entails… it may be some left over drivers files… but all these are dealt with in the support sequence … So really, i would advice you to file an actual support ticket, both the drivers as well as the router/network issue will be addressed …

(still would like to know what a ‘reset’ is though)

While a feature like you suggest will likely not make it, i do think the ‘scaling system’ can scale a bit more aggressively. The ‘level’ or HP scale seems fine for bosses, but the amount of foes and scaling of non bosses seems to be somewhat lacking on some events.

Which sometimes makes it hard to ‘participate’ in an event, or experience the event as being somewhat ‘epic’.

I think that if you go to the ‘achievement’ panel in your ‘hero’ interface. You can ‘hide’ these things by making sure NOT-ONE of the achievements in the category is [v]-marked.

I am not sure if this is enough to hide them permanently, or whether they will show up again after ‘re-log’. You will run into this as soon as you try

It would be nice if you could provide us with more information to help, if you can upload a ‘NCSoft gameadvisor’ file that may help us … (just google it :P )

Then the general approach to fixing computer issues is:
0. Make sure the computer has the right specs to run the software.

1. Make sure your computer is clean on the inside, clogged up stuff causes various issues.

2. Make sure the computer has all the latest drivers/firmware(bios) for mother board and other cards. You can generally check the manufacturers-sites of the hardware to get the latest versions. (this includes network cards, sound cards etc where applicable)

3. Reinstall the software… and use the default folder that it comes with, instead of picking your own location…

4. Reinstall the software after using a CCleaner (or other cleaner type) after the uninstall to make sure all traces of the software are gone before reinstalling it again.

5. Reinstall the GFX drivers after a cleaner type software after the uninstall, to make sure all traces of the software are gone before reinstalling it again.

6. Check the disk & Check the Ram.

7. Reinstall Windows, use the latest drivers. (make sure you back-up your files, and i find it use full to pre-download the installers for most of the software i have on my system, and back that up as well. You will need a separate hard-drive or a partition to back files onto.

*Some of these steps are best done with tech support at hand, esp. if you are unfamiliar with doing them. At best they can recommend decent cleaner software… Seeing step 0. has not yet been met, perhaps its best to start with the game advisor file, and take it from there…

I am with Tota on this. My system as a whole isn’t that topnotch, so what i do is go for the things that matter ‘most’, or at least give the best viewing quality … I will give my settings behind, you may want to play a bit yourself to find out what suits you best…

1. Textures, put these on med/high (think med) for general textures, medium for characters.
2. Shaders, put these on low/med
3. Shadows, put these on low.
4. Reflections, disabled/low (think low)
5. View Distance, not sure, but i try to keep this med/high. Also see below…
6. Blur, not sure what I have it at but most likely just low…
7. Bloom, i turned this off or low (if i can’t turn it off)
8. Antialiasing, not sure what i have this on, generally low/med

To give a bit more explanation about what does what so you may be able to make choices more informed:
1. Textures, these are all pictures that are ‘wrapped’ around objects and characters. the higher the more details these have.

2. Shaders, these are SELF-shadows ON objects and characters ( If an object is hit with light on one side, it will be in it’s own shadow on the other side). These will give you more of a 3D visual effect. (i tend to keep these at medium at most, to crisp self shadows make for a very ‘crisp’ view, i prefer a rougher look)

3. Shadows, these are shadows of objects ON other objects (or the ground), I tend to keep them low/med. Don’t think you can turn them off, but NO shadows looks really weird.

4. Reflections, these can be quite extensive in GW2, it’s not just water, but all metals f/e also have reflections. These can be really cool looking, but are also taxing, i generally keep these low, not disabled! because ‘not’ having any reflections in the water makes the water look like ‘crap’ :P

5. View Distance. This is the distance at which the next effect is ‘turned on’ (blur), the view distance is how far you can look around you (this is concerns land and NPC’s, not to sure about player characters). I tend to keep this higher if i can, as viewing distance really helps in engulfing yourself in your surroundings (for me at least)

6. Blur, this is an effect that is used to give added visual experience of distance. It ‘blurs’ (make vague/foggy) objects in the distance, and the very far distance just looks like ‘fog’.

7. Bloom, this is a lighting setting of sorts, on my system it is generally off (because it can’t handle it), but i don’t care because generally i don’t like the looks of it. Bloom makes stuff look more vibrant and crisp (best way i can describe it), i personally think it makes things look less ‘real’.

8. Anti-aliasing, this has to do with rendering of lines under an angle. You don’t want this to be off in most cases, as it makes all buildings edges look ‘jagged’, but esp. on lower end cards this is also a rather ‘taxing’ feature. And what is ‘straighter than straight’ :P … then again, if you have high/veryhigh texture settings, you may run into this issue, again.

So then it becomes an issue of picking the things you prefer, and how many FPS you want to spend… Though in general, and especially on lower end cards, i would go with upping textures first by one step. Then move up character textures one step. Then move up the viewing distance by a step. Keep shadows/reflections at low, at first … i would keep bloom off, and keep anti-aliasing at low until you run into ‘jagged lines’ when you up your Textures … and keep going at it step by step

@kronoxus , i would suggest filing a ticket with technical support … though it may also help if you provide more information … like the specs of your system, or a ‘gameadvisor’ file so ‘we’ can check more info…

Seeing you have a win8 system i will at least assume you have a fresh install with all the latest drivers for your GFX-card, and firmware/drivers for your other components…

It would also be nice to know what happens when, the way you describe the error feels a lot like the ‘black screen on hitting [Play]’-issue. Meaning you start the game client, all goes well, then you hit [Play] and instead of logging into the game it gives a black screen and nothing happens :P

@Korazits, i would make a thread of yourself, so you can be helped individually, though the first thing i would want to ask is, when was the last time you cleaned out your computer?

When is the last time you cleaned your computer out ? … clogged up coolers can cause performance issues…

I will assume you have all the latest drivers, and firmware (bios) for your board and cards ? in most cases you can check your manufacturers website to check for these things.

lastly (though far fetched) it may be an idea to start the computer with a side open and check if all fans are working. In relation to this you may want to try and find a diagnostic bit of free software (like speedfan f/e) so you can check the temperatures in your system, maybe a set of case fans (front & back) may help keep the temp down.

That’s about all i can come up with, with my limited computer knowledge :P

I would suggest trying a ‘reset to default’ in the gfx-settings-panel for a start … not entirely sure (may be a different game :P ) but i recall that there is also a setting for the camera specifically, where you can ‘set’ it to be fixed all the time. As a second step you could try to turn that ‘on’, then restart the game, to then turn it back ‘off’ … that way you hopefully overwrite the current camera settings, and put stuff back to normal…

That’s about the things i can come up with …

@PigVomit
Did they make sure your game is in C:\\games\guildwars2\ folder (no spaces) and do a repair on it?

Because that solved the issue for me…

It would also be nice if you would give your specs, since it is hard to judge anything if one doesn’t know the details…

Well all i can do is ask a few questions…

- Did you make sure you have the latest (WHQL) Drivers for your gfx card?

- Have you tried choosing lower settings for the gfx to see if the problem persists, not that lower settings is a solution, but perhaps there is a specific setting (like anti-aliasing) that causes the drop specifically, and with that it is easier to look for what is causing it. Perhaps a setting in the N-videa control panel for GW2 that is conflicting with the game settings…

It is easier to find such an issue from within the game, as determining which setting is responsible for the sharp drop in FPS will help you find the cause somewhere else…

@EspenLarsen:

- Has this problem always been there, or did this turn up recently?
- Did you make sure you have the latest (WHQL) drivers for your GFX-card?
- When was the last time you cleaned your computer from the inside (in case of an overheating problem due to dust buildup)

I feel uncomfortable giving you the steps that solved the black screen issue for me (instructed to my by technical support), since i had the issue turn up as soon as i hit [play] and I am not sure if this solution works for you too.

So besides the: check for latest driver, make sure your PC isn’t clogged up, i would recommend filing a ticket with support, if these are not the causes of your issue. (though seeing you can play for at least a short amount of time, and your hardware should be more than capable of running the game without troubles, my first instinct is that your computer may be overheating …

Alright, the weekend is gone, i can say this was a weird although one time return of the black screen issue.

I have no clue where it came from or how/why it just turned up this one time, just after i updated. Seeing, not long after the patch, the login servers went down, the only hunch i draw from that is that i timed out on logging in, causing this issue. ?!?

Anyways, it was a one time thing, and all is well now

@Goat, they did a few quests in GW1, what i suggest is a bit more extensive… and even if the idea is floating around @Anet already, mentioning i would like to see it may help them decide where to spend some time…

@Emi & @Runiir, i have yet to check out the fractals, but that sounds more like a dungeon thing than actual Historians that live in the world telling a specific ‘instanced’ historic story. If fractals is indeed historic lore based, than that is no problem, in my views. Historians are a different way to tell a specific story about any race, map or area.

@Runiir, while i can see your point about more open world stuff, adding a way to do more small lore/story based instances does not exclude more open world stuff. In my particular view the historians actually add more ‘open world’ things, they add ‘open world’ lore and background stories.