Guild Wars 2

We’ve merged several threads about bugs with this story section of Episode 5 in order to get everyone the most current information on this situation.

The team is trying to replicate the bug and identify issues that might prevent someone from completing the storyline. Here are a few questions they’d like to ask:

• Do you have multiple level 80s on your account that you were taking through the episode?
• Were you in a group and if so, were you the instance owner?
• Did you switch from Episode 05 to a later episode before you completed Episode 05 for the first time?
• Have you been able to complete Episode 05 at least once?

With your answers to these questions, the team hopes to be able to test using different variables that will enable them to nail down what the core issue is, then take care of correcting that issue.

Thanks for the help with this perplexing problem!

As GM Talon explained, this definitely is a known issue and the bug fix is in testing. I believe that you’ll see a fix very, very soon (perhaps in Tuesday’s build, if all goes well).

Black Frog.9274:

I just tell people like that something like:

• You are a God and we all worship the ground you walk on.
• Your shining magnificence makes my life seem shallow and meaningless in comparison.
• My inability to move pixels as quickly or precisely as you has left me bereft of hope, a devastated shell of a man.
• My entire concept of self-worth is videogame-based and my failures in the virtual world taint my life in the real world.
• My wife told she was leaving me for someone who plays GW2 like “a real man” and my children tell their friends I died in an EVE Online conspiracy gone wrong.

Then I point out that instead of practicing virtual combat, I make love to my wife and parent my children. Haters be hatin’ people with actual accomplishments.

I have to say I’m impressed with your creativity. I just block ‘em and ignore, but I imagine there’s more than one stunned person in Tyria, trying to figure out “Did that player just diss me, or was that a compliment?”

Zaoda — thanks for updating the initial post so that everyone sees the info!

As far as communications, you guys are right: This is not how the information should have been provided, and we apologize. I also have to say that while the bug fix may be scheduled for Tuesday, there’s always a chance that the fix could fail QA review or something of that nature. So it is a priority, and it will be fixed, and most likely that will happen on Tuesday of next week.

I’m going to try to ensure that we provide details like this in all languages and on our forums, so that everyone benefits. Thanks for making us aware of this situation.

The first thing you should do is block the person. I can see you know that, and you did it. So if someone is harassing you after being blocked, they’re making a concerted effort to harass, and we don’t take that sort of thing lightly.

So use the in-game report system and your report will be seen by an agent. But if this is becoming a real or continuing issue (not a once-in-a-while anomaly) you may wish to submit a support ticket and an agent will then review a bit more of the history.

Submit:

• Your character or display name
• A time
• Your time zone
• A date
• Any other info you can provide, such as the name (character or display) of the person or person involved in harassing of offensive comments.

I just spoke with the CS leader and he said these tickets will be reviewed so do take advantage of that if you need to do so, while knowing that for most issues of chat violations the in-game system works great (and the player involved in a violation is often gone very quickly).

Cybrdroyd — Welcome to the community. We’re happy that you’ve joined us.

DeWolfe — I’m sorry you’re inconvenienced by this situation, but honestly, it’s the best overall. The restrictions aid greatly in account security, just as early chat restrictions reduce in-game advertising of money-selling sites. I sure understand your frustration, but the limits will lift in a relatively short time, and ultimately, the player experience is better for having them in place.

Thanks for understanding.

Gobble D Goop.4081:

removal of monthlies and combination of monthly/daily points? Does this mean that the new cap is 15000 AP? Other than that concern, i think i will like these changes.

Yes, combined at 15,000.

edwardroyce.5289:

Last night I created a support ticket because of a gem code that didn’t work. Now I can’t find a trace of that support ticket. Do I have to go in-game to see the result of a support ticket that I created using the website? What?

edwardroyce — If you are still having issues — for example, if you did not receive confirmation that your ticket was created and the tips in the linked article above did not help you find that confirmation e-mail — I suggest you post a question (could be the same asked here) in the Account Support forum. Our agents review that forum many times a day, and that would be the best place for them to see this query and respond to it.

Thanks.

Well, I appreciate the feedback.

Sticky? Nah, no can do because there are half a dozen or more posts that would call out for the same thing, and stickies push down current topics so we’re trying to keep them few in number. (I’m actually asking team members for a review of stickies to see if we can have fewer.)

Official answer? I don’t see the value of that unless we had the post stickied (see above) or if we had a working #%^&#^ search engine. Since we don’t have a functional search engine, an official post would just slide onto Pg 3 or Pg 4 and we’d see another “Hey, let’s have mounts!” thread.

Perhaps more importantly, I don’t believe there is an official answer on the subject, although sure, I’ll ask about it and see if there’s a way to take advantage of any info on the subject that may be available.

Rip Van Winkle.4859:

Sorry but I don’t like the way the forums are laid out now. Really hard to read the way they are now. I don’t like having to weed through the garbage to see what I find relevent to what I need to read.

Sorry that you don’t care for them. I think with time you will find things more efficient and easier to find in the reorganized format, which has reduced the number of forums while retaining all the content. There’s always a bit of learning curve with anything new, but we’ll be watching for feedback over the next few weeks.

Xiem.4719:

One question, are we really waiting 6 weeks for final episode or there is something more?

Xiem — Have you had a chance to read the blog post? It’s here: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/season-2-returns-on-january-13/

Jaken — I understand your thoughts. I admit I feel the same way with a favorite TV show, where you expect the next episode the following week and learn something else is stepping into the space for a while. Oh heck, I feel the same way at the end of each season, too. Darn that Game of Thrones!

Randulf.7614:

I think the feedback to take when you strip away all the rage, is how rhe schedule is planned for the year. The last episode didnt really end, so people rightfully feel a bit like the episode was only half played.

Maybe next year, as feedback, have a more natural way to leave the story before a break or ensure it ends. Or before wintersday starts. Because of also how close the team keeps things close to its chest, there is nothing apart from another episode to get excited about. Maybe give a teaser to generate exitement?

Thats my feedback.

And that feedback is very productively expressed. Thanks for sharing that — I’d be happy to share that with the team!

mtpelion.4562:

I’m glad the living story and holiday patches are being kept separate. Having them together would be like the boss asking you to work on Christmas.

I laughed. And I agree.

bradldz.3728:

I dont see anything wrong with waiting a little bit, we will have Wintersday to occupy us, just as expected. Why should we have 2 patches at the same time? That doesn’t make sense to me.

Thanks. You said what I said, in far fewer words.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Yes, definitely, Wintersday should be released concurrently with Episode 8. That would both make sense (4 episodes, break, 4 episodes) and would provide more content for the Winter vacation time that all companies have around this time of year (4 week break). This would also be consistent with pretty much every holiday/LS release combination of the past.

While I understand company limitations, staff limitations due to holidays, and so forth, I very much feel that this should’ve been planned for well in advance and that releasing them concurrently would’ve been the best.

May I ask why you feel that way? Why have two conflicting or competing things going on in a time period when many people have a lot going on in their lives — family obligations, travel, parties, events — which leaves them with less time to log in to their favorite game? Why not have each release get the spotlight and the player attention that each so richly deserves? And why roll out content (some are suggesting just days before a holiday break) that would be difficult if not impossible to maintain with holiday travel, developer unavailability, etc.? We pride ourselves on addressing issues as promptly as possible, but if an issue arises over a holiday break, it can be very challenging to take care of a problem. (I know this from personal experience: I worked with a server programmer through a full New Year’s Day to address an issue years ago. He was able to get things back to normal, but it was asking a lot to do that.)

Saying “This is what I want” is fine. But is what you want really logical? In my opinion the decision of the two release dates makes sense on several levels.

Donari.5237:

As unfortunate as the timing of this break may be, it’s not like they have everything in the can and are just picking release dates. Imagine your response if you were working on a large project — say, a term paper, or a mural on the side of a building — and someone said “I know your due date is in six weeks, but I’d really like you to finish next week instead.” You wouldn’t be able to do it, not with any reasonable quality.

Thank you for a reasonable comment that really stands out for its logic and perception. It’s true: The team can’t roll out content a month in advance on request. There is a plan and a master schedule, and with the much-loved and keenly-anticipated Wintersday Festival, Episode 8 will receive its full due in January, as intended. And as outlined in Colin’s blog post, there are other nice things coming, too!

Please, if this thread is going to continue, I ask you to think before posting. This is a forum, sure, but let’s all do our part to tamp down the DramaBeast with his +5-gazillion to Hype Attacks.

I’ve merged seven different threads on the subject of mounts in Guild Wars 2. I know it’s not always easy to find threads, since our search engine isn’t working properly, but there really are a lot of them to be found, usually in the first page or two.

If you have something new to say on the subject, you can add it here. But honestly, the subject may have been exhausted, so if you’re tempted to post, please choose wisely.

Rin Taou.2485:

Spider & Pig: Charlotte & Wilbur

Love the reference. (Great book!)

In addition to the normal Forum Code of Conduct, we have set modestly increased expectations for forum members who participate in the CDI Sub-Forum. Those who choose to participate in discussions on this sub-forum should be aware of the following:

• Our moderators will be casting a more critical eye in this sub-forum to ensure that posts are constructive, reasonable, and respectful. This applies to comments directed towards either developers or forum members.
• Posts that are not constructive, that use a tone that is unproductively negative, combative, or condemning, or that make no meaningful contribution to a discussion are subject to removal.
• Those who engage in poor choices as far as what they say or how they say it will be subject to escalated forum moderation, including the possible suspension or termination of forum privileges.
• This means that where you may receive a warning about a particular post in the general forums, you may receive an infraction point in the CDI Sub-Forum; where your post may be ignored in the main forum, it may be deleted or infracted in the CDI Sub-Forum.

We have set these higher standards to keep discussions on topic, constructive, and reasonable. By doing this, developers will be able to get the most value from their time spent reviewing your input on various CDI subjects and players will benefit from increased interaction from developers.

Please note: Forum members will not be able to create threads in the CDI Sub-Forum. Forum members in good standing will be able to respond to existing, open threads that are initiated by members of the Guild Wars 2 Team.

Thanks for your cooperation and for your contributions to our Collaborative Development Initiatives!

Thanks for putting grizzweld’s mind at rest and for pointing to the Phishing thread!

The support teams are fully on board with having these threads in the same sub-forum. No worries about attention to the appropriate threads by the right people.

As I posted earlier today, please preface your thread title with [MAC] or [PC] and the correct specialist will watch for those flags. (They won’t miss the others, but they will see threads more quickly with the flags in the titles.)

Thanks for helping us help you.

Xiem.4719:

LFG is broken anyway.

Yes, it is not functioning correctly. The team is looking into the situation.

Silferas.3841:

On-topic though, it’d be nice if they added some more variety to the mail carriers. I could imagine an undead hand bursting forth from the ground holding a mail right next to you That’d actually be awesome.

Perfect for a Halloween release, don’t you think?

I suggest that with the new reorganized forums, those seeking technical support should flag their threads in the subject line with [PC] or [MAC] so that the correct specialist can assist you as quickly as possible.

Thanks for taking this step to help us help you!

dkspins.4670:

Wow! An ArenaNet employee playing a Ranger – be still my beating heart! YES!

My Asuran Ranger is named Beeste (like Beast), my Stalker is named Beauty .

I’m just glad to see someone from ArenaNet playing a ranger, was so weary of being the red-headed stepchild LOL

Oh hey, no surprise there. Rangers are great! In fact, I have played Rangers since 2002 (when the bow was first added to the dev build) and I have no intention of stopping any time soon. It is my favorite profession of all. <3

Reorganization of the English forums is complete. Please let us know in the Bugs Sub-Forum if you experience forum issues, but we believe we’re good to go!

Thanks for your patience while we reorganized.

Note: You may experience some difficulties with the forums tomorrow, as the reorganization takes place. You may experience a time out or two, or just general slowness to load. Each forum will be serviced individually, starting with the English-language forum and then working through each one.

We will post a notice when the reorg begins so that you’re aware of the period of time when the forums will be read only and when they’ll be fully back in business.

Each case of reported “stalking” or harassment is reviewed by our Customer Support team individually and with care. Here are some steps you could take:

• Block the player on your Friends List
• Play in Invisible Mode
• Try reaching out to the person’s guild leader if you feel that the person would be receptive to helping you
• File an in-game report
• Submit a support ticket (see below for details)
• If the harassment extends to real life (at your home, place of business, via telephone, etc.), contact your local law enforcement agency

Now, there are occasions when claims of “harassment” run in both directions. I am not making a judgment about any situations mention here, but sometimes chat records show a back-and-forth bickering or attacking that does not allow an easy solution. This means an agent confirms an in-game report but also notes that the alleged victim also was in breach of the UA or the RoC. If there’s evidence of what we call “mutual antagonism” then it gets trickier and a resolution isn’t as simple to reach.

If someone is overtly harassing a player, the team may well be able to help with the situation if that player wishes to file a support ticket. (We cannot accept a ticket on behalf of a third party — the person involved should reach out to CS.) When doing so, please provide your character name, the offending player’s character or display name, and a very precise time, time zone, and date. Screenshots are not necessary if you can provide those details, at which time an agent will look up the incident and see what took place.

Bottom line: if you’re being harassed, do not react. Do not have your friends react. Don’t post about it on a forum or make a public issue of it. Do not start a flame war or fire a bunch of verbal mortar shots back in the direction of the person who initiated the attacks. Simply submit an in-game report or, if necessary, a ticket.

If you have submitted a ticket and the team has not reacted, then you need to continue your private discussion with a CS agent, as we would not discuss particulars here on the forums.

Kite.2510:

Is there a chance that you add more music variety to the old world?
There are many zone that could greatly benefit from some “musical enhancements”.

Kite — it might be helpful if you could give specific areas that you feel would benefit? I’m not sure where the “old world” would be in reference to your post.

Thank you.

Silmar — the standards that you have outlined have been and remain very much at the forefront of my mind as I make proposals for future forum systems. In my opinion, No. 1 is essential; No. 2 is ideal (but not always possible, depending on the service being considered), and No. 3 is not the most feasible or reasonable option for us.

The double negatives are confusing in the fourth section, “It is not possible…is not guaranteed.” For it certainly is possible to do so. Perhaps you meant it differently than it reads?

I just wanted to interject: Yaaaay, Peter’s posting in the forums.

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled thread.

Thanks for these notes. We’ve filed on this before and the ad was pulled. But it seems to have reappeared. If you could kindly post a direct link to the ad — not to where the ad leads but to the ad itself — we can investigate.

minbariguy.7504:

Gaile Gray.6029:

[SNIP] We regret that the search engine is not functioning properly right now…

Out of curiosity, does anyone know if the search engine ever worked? If so, when did it stop working? I’m not sure that I recall that it ever worked, but I could be mistaken.

In any case, I’m having a difficult time understanding why exactly the forum search engine would be broken for so long and/or be so difficult to fix. Nearly every forum on the internet has a working search engine; it’s not brand-new cutting-edge technology. Honestly, is ANet doing so poorly financially that it cannot afford to have forum tools that work?

The problem is deep within the technology behind the forum structure itself. Yes, we had a search engine in the beginning, but it was broken by our forum contractor in the course of working on other things. We no longer have a relationship with that contractor or his company, and someone else is not able to step into the system and fix the search engine because (1) our programmers are tasked with other essential work, (2) the forums run on a web framework with which most of our programmers are not familiar and (3) we’re investigating other options for forums and it would not be prudent to pour money into hiring someone to fix this as a short-term solution.

My team agrees that it would be great to share the system that is outlined in the OP, and we’re going to figure out a way to do that. It won’t be as simple as “plumbing” the current search window to go to Google — each of us still will need to input the search manually, but it’s better than the current “poke and prod” to find a particular post!

Thanks for the note, mahri. Guild Wars is a great game — I love it, as I can see you do!

The actual official release date was April 28th (as it was for Guild Wars: Factions) and it’s a day that we all keep in our hearts, as it was the start of something BIG for all of us at ArenaNet. (I can see from the date you mention that you were in the early start, so thank you for being an early believer in our company. <3 )

This is another thread where the variety of opinions is very insightful. I read the thread with interest because I can see the situation from many different angles! Thanks for a thoughtful thread.

It’s really interesting to read the various thoughts on the story and the role that we, as players, played in the update. We’ve highlighted this thread (and a few others) so that the developers can see the various opinions about the Living World updates.

Hi,

I’m sorry that this problem is still going on. My associate Mark got some information about this and posted this earlier:

An update on this. The team is actively working towards a solution for the lag issue many of you have experienced. They have already tried a few potential fixes that did not yield the expected results and are continuing to root out potential causes.
Suffice to say, they aren’t ignoring this problem.

insanemaniac.2456:

sticky it

It’s a good suggestion. I’m checking with my team about the best way to use this.

Thanks, Tom. Very helpful info!

I’m going to see if we can highlight this in some way. We regret that the search engine is not functioning properly right now, and this work-around is very useful!

It’s so very sad to hear of this loss. Eris was well respected in the game, and I know he will be greatly missed by everyone who knew him or knew of his generous spirit.

The tribute was a truly lovely moment, and deeply moving. What a great testimonial to your love and respect for your guildmate and friend.

Thank you for sharing this with us. Sincere condolences to his friends and family.

Ah ha! So the team is aware of this issue and will be adding it to the bug list very soon.

I guess y’all know this, but it’s supposed to say:

• 2 Warrior Pieces of Warrior Gear for Warrior-y Warriors

Ok, fine, I jest. We’ll get that fixed and to all those who hit the ladybug in the game, extra thanks!!

Whoops! Thanks for the report! (Did you happen to hit the Ladybug for bug report in the game? I am sure the team would want to see this. )

If you didn’t report in the game, do you happen to know what NPC showed this list? What map and NPC name? I think that might help the team replicate this bug. Thank you for any info you can share.

Congratulations to all who made the finals and the Abjured. Well played, teams!

I agree, Behellagh. I think the term is overused and used poorly.

To try to address some of the comments about “white knights,” we’re looking for people who know the game, participate in the forums, and engage well with others. These qualities means they won’t have a “speckled history” of a large number of forum infractions, suspensions, or what-have-you’s. We look for decent writing skills and a genuine interest in helping other players and our dev team with this project.

As to “white knights,” they can be white, brown, purple, or fuchsia polka dot. They can be male or female, any age above 18, and from any part of the country. A qualifier is not “Do they post only good stuff about the game?” but more “Do they express themselves clearly and fairly?”

I know we have a lot of forum members like that, and I hope they’ll consider helping out.

finkle.9513:

Im in the UK, I thought we where brothers

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

Imagine how we Canadians feel.

Zaxares.5419:

Or us Australians. Not only do we always miss out on these promotions, but we also suffer from the “Australia tax” on video games.

I’m so sorry. Maybe we’ll be able to expand the program in the future!

Katz.5143:

I too would like to ask that the BLTC forum be kept in some form. I read it more than any other.

Yes, I think it’s a popular forum.

Question: Where will we discuss crafting? Not that it gets much activity or discussion but just in case something comes to mind.

Crafting = General Discussion/Guild Wars 2 Discussion. Unless you’d have a different suggestion?

rfdarko.4639:

Thank you! I hope you’ll also consider keeping BLTC distinct, but this is a very good change.

I will pass along your thanks to Mike and Colin, who ultimately made the decision. I’m really happy that they supported the change!

As to the BLTC or some forum related to the economy, I see your point and in fact I want to talk about that over the next couple of days. Clearly, we can’t move to reorganize and consolidate our forums and then spin up the exact same number of forums. On the other hand, just as there was a case to be made for retaining Dungeons (and actually expanding it to be more useful by adding Fractals), there may be a case for something economy-ish as well.

I won’t know about this for a few days, so please bear with me.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

so what will happen to the current professions balance forum?

Fair question and I’ve been thinking about that. I would suppose that, as we see how things shake out, general professions feedback (such as those relating to balance — and don’t dare say Ranger are OP, kthnx) would go in the Guild Wars 2 Discussion Forum. I believe that there are several team members who would see it there. On the other hand, balance information specifically for a certain profession would go in that profession’s sub-forum. (Unless it was about Rangers being OP, in which case it would go on the Better Homes and Gardens cooking sub-forum.)

Sorry, I have a really bad cold, and my head is a little spinny, and I took that in odd directions, didn’t I?

Bottom line:

• Profession-specific: That profession’s sub-forum
• General Balance: GW2 Discusssion Forum

Serophous.9085:

My question stems from the last paragraph:

So, the forum expert(s) see a topic they like and join in on the discussion. The discussion goes great, but the forum expert makes no promise to relay this to the devs. So is there a standard or something that must be met for the topic to be relayed? If so, how high is it set?

We will determine this as the process evolves. Basically, we’re not relying on the forum specialists for an effective forum; their time and their efforts are entirely voluntary and contribute to the information flow but do not drive or own it. The front lines for communications will remain Forum Communications Team members and ArenaNet developers. Specialists will help us focus the vast amount of information — reports, suggestions, issues, concerns, complaints — into a reasonable quantity of information to relay to the developers. Based on their level of experience with the forums and the game, they’ll make a judgment on the quality of a topic and share it with the FCT who will do a second review and analyze it before relaying it to the devs.

Next, does this mean less Dev time in talking? I understand they get busy, they have a game to run, and I’m glad both you and Chris and others have even spent some weekend time chatting on here, I’m grateful for that. But I’m scared we are going to go back to when an actual discussion or meaningful (content, features, etc) thread would be visited by a Dev once in a blue moon (I know support posts a lot XD). I think the community is still hung up over that, and have been spoiled a bit with interaction at present.

I think and hope it will mean devs will be able to participate more, since they’ll be able to focus on the topics in a distilled form.

As for Dev posts, if the thread IS relayed, would a Dev pop in as well to view or communicate? Or is it just the volunteers?

Yes, ideally the devs will pop in and respond. Forum specialists will be amassing information to allow just that!

The final thing I see being an issue is these people will be basically on the front lines now, taking much of the heat an anger from people, all while doing it for free. Its going to require a very thick skin requirement, as I said before, these people will probably be labeled as “white knights”.

I’m not saying this is a bad idea, but a few details are still missing.

I appreciate what you’re saying, but it would be illogical for anyone to attack a forum specialist. They are not in a position to give an answer, they are in a position to help a dev give an answer, and that’s an entirely positive thing for which I hope they will be appreciated.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Also please make sure these specialist posts don’t show up in the dev tracker forum.

No, they will not for sure.

But Louveepine — you are talking to us, and you’ll continue to do so! Anyone is welcome to post, and you’ve been involved in the past and I am sure will continue to be involved.

The Forum Specialist program won’t in any way impact your ability to participate in either the French or English forums, as you wish!