ArenaNet talk:Developer updates/Archive July-Aug 2007

Latency issues the second

As it seems to me, those lags have spread over the world. neither american nor european disctricts had pings better than 1,5k today. but maybe that's a sign that it's my provider's fault >.> err7 also occurs every 5 minutes. this browser and teamspeak, however, work fine, so my connection can't be the only reason. - Y0 ich halt 19:05, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm very sorry that you have also been attacked by the Lag Monster, as have many others. :( I have seen emails flying around for days about this, and many, many people both inside and outside the company are working towards a resolution of this issue. I can't give a timeline on when it may be repaired, but do be assured that the matter is being taken very seriously, and that team members will continue to work to resolve it. --Gaile 01:08, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

Lag munstar attacking our GvG here. Not too pretty :O--TheLordOfBlah 09:08, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

thanks, i feel a bit better now... though i'm still sad about all the gamer points i could've made/could make in dragon arena that i'm missing now. - Y0 ich halt 17:36, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

IT WORKS! THANKS ANET, THANKS GAILE! :D ping:120ms sorry, that was for 10 minutes now. back to 8k. problem solved. it was a program update's fault this time. you're still the best. :) - Y0 ich halt 20:58, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

ok, i'm getting crazy now. yesterday the connection was perfect, then pings of 12k because of that update, afterwards again good pings, and now the connection is worst possible again. i hope you have that fixed quickly... looking forward to playing gw without being afraid of lags. - Y0 ich halt 12:45, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

I am passing this along -- in fact, I'm sharing the full subject here with everyone related to Network services. Thank you. --Gaile 19:27, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

I am also a victim of the lag....however for some reason i seem to get different pings throughout the day. I can usually get a ping of about 150 in the mornings (GMT), still not as good as normal but playable. but by then afternoon comes around it shoots up, constantly rising until the evening when i become a "3,290 Ping Infuser LFP"...For some reason i dont get a lot of invites! haha --ChronicinabilitY 20:22, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

well, i'm glad this lag problem occurs now that i have my "no-pc-weeks". I play way too much, so the last three weeks till summer break are no-game. the event was an exception, but my ppl still need me for gvg sometimes (which are also exception cases). so again, thanks to you. i think you can handle this until i'm back ;) - Y0 ich halt 15:40, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

K like half my characters are stuck and inaccessible but the other half I can go on. When trying to enter certain zones, they will not load and i get Err O05. Its pissing me off slightly.--TheLordOfBlah 06:00, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Please submit a Support ticket! They are sitting there waiting for them, wanting to help you and help the problem as a whole. Thank you. --Gaile 06:55, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Latency Issues the Third

I don't know what is done to the server in the last maintenance but it made all worse again.. now my ping is something between 40ms and 7000ms... Asuka 11:19, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

It was fine for about 12 hours here, now my ping is more like a jojo.. One second 47 ping, next second 4.500+ ping -- (Tribina / talk) 11:32, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

Yeh it seemed to have been sorted, and now its got worse again. I'm not sure if its A-net's fault or just the routing issue but either way it is unfortunate as I know of at least 2 people who have quit playing GW because of these problems...and people leaving isn't what any of us want. --ChronicinabilitY 11:49, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

Ok small note to add to this, it must be something to do with the servers at A-Net's end because I have started playing some more PvE and all seems fine, good pings and everything. As soon as I go to HA pings shoot up, and if I enter i get pings of around 3k in UW...I want to be GvGing but dont trust the state of the PvP servers =/ --ChronicinabilitY 15:36, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

I broke this into a new group, since the lag was gone and is back. We're exchanging flurries of mails with the network teams on both sides of the Atlantic, trying to sort this out as quickly as possible. There was definite improvement yesterday, I even got the "All clear" notification. Today -- something is wrong yet again. The team's are on it and the best thing that you can do it send, or update, a Support Ticket and provide your -diag file or your tracerts. Those were instrumental in the strides that they made and will surely help them again. --Gaile 17:10, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

well, i gotta say, from my point of view you've done a great job. my ping is back to ~90ms. yesterday i had some disconnects, but today nothing is standing in my way. gladiator, here i come! - Y0 ich halt 18:18, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

At the moment pings are very good again.. mostly <100ms average ~150ms o.O Asuka 12:26, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

For me it still depends massively on what i try to do. HA is still laggy as hell, but PvE seems almost fine now. I can rule out my internet connection as well because running other programs i am consistently able to maintain pings of between 20 and 40. Getting a lot of background downloads atm tho so hopefully these are there to help. --ChronicinabilitY 15:15, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Was working like a dream for me since sundays fix, Ive been unable to play for the last 2 weekends due to lag issues, unfortunately tonight the ping reached a peak of over 15k as average, this all started happening at 20:00 GMT (or thereabouts) Evil_Geek 20:45, 16 July 2007 (GMT)

Today there has been a Routine Maintenance and i must say my ping has improved a lot, going down from 15-18K past weekend to a comfortable 120 ping average now, with a peek of max 1.200. This is playable, but for some reason, I lost connection twice already after the maintenance.. I didn't got any error codes, it just said I lost connection because of an network issue.. Hope this can help a bit.. greetz -- (Tribina / talk) 16:22, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Yes very happy with it now....actually managed to get a few decent HA runs in and am hopefully going to be GvG'n again this evening! All seems well in the GW world!...I can also say i had a couple of random disconnects, as well as one error 007 which then took me to a character selection screen with 4 empty slots! =O thankfully logout + login sorted it all! (Worried me a lot there A-Net! :P) Overall seems a good job done. --ChronicinabilitY 19:11, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

NetworkDiag.log

When running GW with the command line option "-diag" (as you suggested) and afterwards having a look at the file "NetworkDiag.log" myself I don't think there are included any tracerts to German GW servers (which should be at RedBus in Frankfurt, shouldn't they?). I really wonder how that "NetworkDiag.log" file would be of any help your your system administration team in helping German players (like myself and nearly all other German GW friends I spoke to) with their insane lag to German GW servers. I really want to help you finding the cause for the lag, but the suggestion about "how to help" are not useful at all in my personal opinion. T.T.H. 13:05, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

It is clearly an attempt at allowing America to get favor for once. -Elviondale 17:28, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

Evil, Elviondale, evil! :)

T.T.H. -- in fact I don't know how that would work, either. I asked precisely the same question. In my mind, DxDiag is looking inside the system, and a tracert is looking outside the system, and it's outside where the problem lies. If I were submitting a report, I'd do a tracert and attach that, too. If you already have submitted a ticket, would you mind attaching the trace? In the meantime, I will ask network how and why this is helping, and see if they have a suggestion about the matter. --Gaile 17:32, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

Follow up for T.T.H.: I wrote to the network team, and this is their reply: "The player is incorrect. The –diag switch does run a tracert to a German server (206.127.145.228). The test does include a trace to Germany." They did agree with my earlier suggestion, "Asking him to include the diag.log and a tracert is also great; the more traces, the better." I hope that is helpful information, and thank you. --Gaile 21:47, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

First of all thanks for your personal involvement into this. It seems my ping to that one single German IP is perfectly fine. On the other hand I'm still "lagging my ass off" at whatever activities I do ingame: towns, missions, explorables, alliance battles (basically I can't really play Guild Wars). My suggestion is that you ask the network team for a representative list of German IP addresses, maybe around 20, including all "types" of servers (towns, missions, alliance battles, GvG, etc.) and I'll provide tracert informations to every single one of them, during different times of the day, etc. Basically I'll provide anything the network team might ever want to know from a German player about those IPs... In addition I could ask my German GW friends to provide the very same. T.T.H. 10:39, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

I would do the same. -Khan Reaper Kerensky 11:19, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

I wouldn't say the traces from the -diag thing are really useful because if I trace to the Eternal Grove server for example all packages are lost after the Frankfurt Internet HUB but if I try the diag server the packages aren't lost. I tried it over 10 times both servers..

diag server
Node	IP Address	Location	Node Name	Ping
1	192.168.0.199		stormtrooper	-
2	192.168.0.1	-		0
3	217.0.118.58	-		41
4	87.186.241.210	-		42
5	62.154.17.234	Frankfurt am Main	f-ec2.f.net.dtag.de	44
6	212.184.27.138	Stockholm		51
7	206.127.156.82	Austin	206-127-156-82.plaync.com	180
8	206.127.145.228	Austin	206-127-145-228.plaync.com	181
Eternal Grove (German District 1) server
Node	IP Address	Location	Node Name	Ping
1	192.168.0.199		stormtrooper	-
2	192.168.0.1	-		0
3	217.0.118.58	-		42
4	87.186.241.210	-		41
5	62.154.17.234	Frankfurt am Main	f-ec2.f.net.dtag.de	43
6	206.127.147.149	Austin	206-127-147-149.plaync.com	lost

Asuka 18:26, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

edited the chart a bit, there was a copy/paste mistake sorry for that but it wasn't essencial anyway.. Asuka 19:02, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, T.T.H. I don't have access to the IPs at present, but a detailed report such as you have just supplied is extremely valuable! A variety of tracerts would be gratefully accepted by the Support Team -- in fact they've written me to ask for just that.

Thanks for the chart and comments, Asuka -- very helpful! And thank you, Khan, if you also submit a ticket and encourage your guild members and/or friends to do the same. The Network Team tells me that if we could get even 10 people to do the -diag report and submit a tracert (or two, or three) we would have a lot of data that would help narrow the problems. The Network Team conducted some maintenance on Friday (working with an outside vendor I believe). The Network Team is asking if there has been improvement. I will reply that there seems to be a yes/no answer to that, based on what you've told me here. I will inquire if there's anything more to request, or details to provide, but let me thank each of you for your work on this. I know you're helping many players with the time you're taking now. --Gaile 18:31, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

-diag doesn't work for me. pathping stops as soon as it can’t resolve a hop. I don’t know why (maybe its my router), but the second hop always times out. However, tracert works. I’ll write down the server IPs with a crappy connection and trace them down later. -Khan Reaper Kerensky 19:04, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

A lot of backbone, ISP, and private routers do not respond to ICMP packets, or at least limit the ICMP responses to the IPs owned by the ISP for security/anonymity reasons. tracert usually sends 3 pings to each hop on a path and waiting for 16 hops in between the source and destination can try one's patience for sure. I'm not sure off the top of my head if no response will cause pingpath to error out, but definitely use tracert. I love old command line applications, but always remember: One cannot simply Telnet into Mordor

Uhmm, do NCsoft's server actually answer to ping/tracert? I've logged into GW, visited several outposts and wrote down IP addresses, but I don't get a (command line) ping answered for any of them. Only the German IP from the "NetworkDiag.log" (106.127.145.288) is answering to ping/tracert, the rest is dead silent. With this situation trying to ping/tracert in the search for problems is pretty useless, because nobody "after" my provider (T-Online) is answering. Well, we have that one single IP address, but my connection was and still is pretty good to that one. Ingame the lag is still in the range of "la-la-laa-laggy" towards "argh, the pain". Could you please (once again) ask the network team to give out some more IPs that are answering to ping/tracert and somebow better "resemble" the ingame situation? T.T.H. 17:49, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

Looks like they don’t. But they do answer on port 80 (test it with your browser... you will get an empty page, but not an error). I trace them down with tcptraceroute on my debian router. -Khan Reaper Kerensky 19:28, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

As of Tuesday 10. July at 10:00pm CEST (GMT+1) Martin Kerstein posted that there had been maintaince work at some data center in Frankfurt and one big internet route got "rerouted". Several people already said the situation has improved and in my personal case the lag has been greatly reduced (at least in the towns I visited ingame). I've added a new traceroute log to my support ticket (070707-001335). Please note that this tracerout log was made with an "extended" traceroute program which uses TCP instead of ICMP so all servers actually do respond and a "route" gets visible. Thanks so far and let's hope for the best. T.T.H. 20:13, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

I am currently conducting polls on the three Elite English-language Fansites, and am hopeful that Martin and Julien will be able to add them to sites presented in European languages, as well. (Tomorrow, of course, since it's after hours for them now.) Please visit my talk page and see "Player Polls" for direct links to the polls, then let us know about your experience. --Gaile 20:20, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Yes, since yesterday my ping improved to 188-250 average .. not as good as it had been but better then the whole last time.. Asuka 20:44, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Important Questions Regarding Lag

As we work on this issue, it would be very helpful to know the following:

• When you experience lag in an outpost, can you tell if you are the only one, or if everyone in the outpost is also experiencing it. (You can usually tell from the chat comments. ;) )
• When in a mission, is everyone lagging?
• When in GvG, are all your guildies lagging, or are only some players experiencing lag? If only certain players are lagging, is it possible for you to ascertain details that may make this so? For example, "My guild is international; all the players from (place) are lagging; those who are from (place) are not." Even more interesting would be "My guildies all did a tracert and a -diag, and only players A, B, and F were lagging." (Have them send those in, ok?)

I don't think it will be that easy to see who is and who is not lagging in a group like that, but these details would help us if it's possible to share them. --Gaile 19:35, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

Lag in outposts is shared by a lot of people on Shing Jea Monastery. Going out of the outpost helps for me. also, loading an area takes ages even though the game doesn't load any new content. -- (gem / talk) 19:50, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

I note what you're saying, Gem. I just logged in and logged out and there was a very perceptible delay in being able to leave -- a couple of seconds, where it used to be instant. Thanks for the note.

I have to say that this is a less-than-optimal period to do any research, since the Dragon Festival is going on right now. We'll probably get clearer data starting tomorrow, but don't let that stop you from reporting today! --Gaile 20:01, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

In an small outpost with noone there there is less lag ~500 avg than in a full outpost ~1000-2000 avg also if its 4:00 (GMT+1) and nearly noone is on the server there pings <100 for me. Lag is everywhere and its mostly me and some guildies/other players but not everyone. Asuka 20:04, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

Can you tell me if everyone in the outpost is experiencing the lag, or only some players?

Can those of you in the guild hall tell me if everyone is lagging at about the same level, of if some guildies have zero lag and some are lagged a lot?

Thank you for your help with both questions. --Gaile 20:20, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

Only yesterday the lag monster caught me as well =(. Never had problems before until I logged in and spawned in my guildhall. Had a lag spike from 12-15K. Asked my guild about it (25 people from all over europe online) all except one guy had a ping above 400 in the guildhall with quite a lot of people with several K's ping. Guildhall is avoided at the moment.. Croatia suffering from huge spike lags as well. We play in international districts coz ping drops from average 4000 in european english districts to about 300 in international districts. I posted my Networkdiag to Ncsoft. -- (Tribina / talk) 02:40, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

I submitted a support ticket as well with the diag file. However, I am on an American server (and live in America). I don't know what is going on with the servers here as a problem - but it has been going on now for a couple weeks (and got MUCH worse for the canthan festival). I haven't done anything at all different with my PC or internet - it has all remained a constant and I seem to just be getting a run around with my answer(s) from support. I am not trying to be rude with them at all - but how is it possible that it is something wrong with my PC when I have done nothing different and everything else works fine but GW. :( I would just like an answer of some solidity that they know there is a problem here in the US as well, and they are trying to fix it too. Foxysheri 16:42, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Submitting Diagnostic Reports

Hello! I generated a diagnostic report and attached it in a support ticket to Arena Net support with my current location, and server I play on. I got an email response back saying the following.

Thank you for contacting Guild Wars Technical Support.

Unfortunately, your request is either incomplete or unclear please update this ticket with the detailed description of the issue you are facing. Also, please provide us the ticket number on which your original issue is running.

Could you please shed some light on how we can format our tickets so that they know what to do? Thank you in advance! Zyphern 05:46, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Where can i send a ticket? I could not find it.. and how should it be formatted? Asuka 09:35, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

Did you reply to the email or did you use the web interface? I remember a News on wartower at friday stating that support has problems with email-replies to support tickets. - MSorglos (talk|contrib) 11:41, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

Hi. Please see the Support Page on the website for information on how to submit a ticket. It takes a couple of minutes to set up the process, but it's pretty intuitive. If you have specific questions, post here and I'm sure we can provide you with assistance.

You should be able to simply reply to the support email to further the discussion. If that is not working properly, please let me know -- I've not heard that there is a problem with the interface or the responses. If you have difficulties, you can also create a second ticket (since you have your "account" set up to do so) but be sure to reference the Incident Number to link back to the first ticket to create a "discussion thread." Thank you so much. --Gaile 18:37, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

HA Test Weekend

There could be a discussion page here on GWW to gather opinions about the test weekend's changes for those who don't want to register/use forums.

If there already is one, it could be have a bit more obvious link somewhere (haven't found one yet :D). If there isn't an article about the weekend could be made and comments could be added to the discussion page. A small note could be useful on the front page (as well as a link on the update page) about the article.

This isn't a direct message to Gaile, but I guess you will be one of those who read the feedback :) Any thoughts for or against? - IH 13:42, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

A feedback thread for this week's test would be marvelous! --Gaile 02:23, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Looks like Izzy's setup a page for it in his ever-increasing userspace :). Here you go: User_talk:Isaiah_Cartwright/HA_feedback. --Indecision 02:48, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, now there should be something to direct those who want to comment there :) - IH 09:29, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Adding announcements

I don't think we, as users, should add announcements to this page. I think we should leave that to Gaile to keep the information correct. The last addition seems to be a copy of what Gaile wrote on GWG and GWO, are we allowed to copy that anyway? Better to put up the links here on the talk page, and let Gaile add the correct information. Otherwise it isn't "Gaile News", it's just news found by fans. — Anja 08:46, 6 March 2007 (EST)

That would make GuildWars Wiki an official announcement place - I don't know if this was intended. Furthermore what's wrong with citing official comments from fan forums? BigBlue 08:52, 6 March 2007 (EST)

Just asking if we are allowed to do so under the licenses, I know nothing about the really :P
And no, it would make the Wiki to an official announcement place, it would make this part official. My opinion is that Gaile news should be added by Gaile. Information we have gathered should be placed elsewhere. There needs to be some way to distinguish what Gaile personally have posted (thus, we can blame her if something isn't right :P), and what we have found elsewhere. Even if it's posted by Gaile on the forums, she chose to not post it here, and she might have a good reason?
Besides. I wouldn't call that an official announcement made by Gaile, just an informational post regarding the matter. There not much info there to be called official announcement..
At least, state the source if we are going to post things here ourselves. Otherwise anyone could add anything and call it "posted by Gaile". I don't mean I don't trust you specifically, but this could be a problem further on when the wiki really goes public. — Anja 09:14, 6 March 2007 (EST)

This article is a place for official announcements from User:Gaile Gray. Perhaps this is not clear, but if you look through the discussions and the history, BigBlue, I think you would agree. I am going to remove your addition since it was obviously not posted by User:Gaile Gray. LordBiro 09:18, 6 March 2007 (EST)

I agree with Lord Biro above (his point is said with all letters in the beginning of this talk page), but I do believe it would be interesting to have a place where to add things Gaile has said elsewhere. Not in "official announcements", since Gaile's words usually are not that, but rather a way to keep records in the same spirit of the Gaile/Frog Talk section. Erasculio 09:35, 6 March 2007 (EST)

Either way is fine with me. The fact is, we have three levels of communication: Official press releases and other corporate messages; formal posts such as the Dev Updates (to which I added a few minutes ago); and comments that are very community based, usually taken from forum questions or in-game chats. The latter are basically casual and player-to-player in nature. If you feel there's a place for all three, that's ok by me -- that decision would be entirely up to the Wiki community and to those who may want to contribute to such a page. (I don't know that I could do so myself -- to post and then mirror posts would be pretty time consuming.) Now, some of what I post is just chatting with players, so I wouldn't think there would be much value in immortalizing that stuff forever. ;) And I guess there would be some small concern about the posting of comments without backing. Things like, "I'm pretty sure Gaile said they're working on a 'All Yaks, All the Time' version of Guild Wars." :) But if some comments are considered worth archiving, and they are linked to forum threads or screenshots of in-game chats, then that would establish veracity. But again, I'd say you should choose whatever you guys think is best! --Gaile Gray 21:23, 6 March 2007 (EST)

(Reset indent) I would like guidance on editing the Dev Updates articles. Based on the preliminary opinion stated in this thread, it seems to me that the GWW contributors view this page as one that contains official or semi-official information from the Dev Team or from me. I am concerned about edits, and would like a formal policy concerning edits of the Gaile News article page. If I have time, I'll ask for a policy review. If not, could I get some input here about editing this page? Emily and I were wondering if it may best be a protected page, but that's really up to the GWW as a whole. It could be said, though, that it's no longer a Dev Update when others are altering it. ;) --Gaile 00:56, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

I added some thoughts on this to Talk:Gaile News/20070809#Changes to the Dev Updates. --Rezyk 19:28, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

SMS payments

Is that by any chance going to work in Poland? - 88.156.37.157 10:55, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

Nothing concrete has been announced about it yet. -- ab.er.rant 15:03, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

We are working on SMS payments, but unfortunately they are not yet supported in Poland. As I understand it, the team is going to try to extend SMS options to a wide range of players through Europe, so hopefully they will come to Poland as well. --Gaile 00:10, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Is there any chance that SMS-Payment comes before the BonusMission-Promotion runs out? I dont own a credit-card and paying 50€ a year for a prepaid just to buy some stuff for the promotion really makes no sense as the cost of the prepaid-visa is twice the amount i would spend at the shop. Sir Astaroth 10:26, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Hi, Sir Astaroth -- Can you tell me specifically what country you're inquiring about? I can check on this, but I need to know the country so I can get better information for you. Thanks. --Gaile 19:37, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

I´m from Germany. Sir Astaroth 09:52, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Hey Gaile, can you maybe check about SMS payments for Slovenia? Thank you. --Шєвч [TALK] @ 07:40, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

Hey Gaile, Im from Holland can u use SMS payments here? Thank You. Mr-HaXx

There is only one Month left before the Bonus-Mission-Promotion runs out. Will Anet give people who dont have a credit card a chance to get the mission pack? Have you heard anything about SMS-Payments and a Date when they will be aviable? Is there a chance to buy this Pack later whe other Payment-Methods are supported? Sir Astaroth 22:07, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

It's been asked and I believe the answers are no, nope, and most likely not. -- ab.er.rant 06:20, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

IIRC from reading forums that is... -- ab.er.rant 06:20, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

As I'm getting pretty much tired of this, simple question: Will the Benelux, Poland, rest of Europe (and the World) get the SMS payment BEFORE the end of October? I just want an answer from Gaile, a Dev or Marketing, so I can stop the (for now) never-ending battle and just give up (if not doable) and cry in a corner. -- Karuro 21:47, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

This payment method would be very useful! - Shaolin Monk --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:82.156.163.50 .

For Germany IVR-Payment was announced for 7.October, now we have the 17th and we dont even have news about the state. Sir Astaroth 18:59, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Nearly a week after the last comment and still no news... It's understandable that there may be some issues but would it be possible that we could be informed on the stage that we are at - e.g. when will the SMS be activated for UK and IVR for UK/Germany, or will the bonus mission pack deadline be extended (based on the fact that many people only want the SMS option so they can get their hands on the BMP). Lots of Guild Wars users want this infomation and as you can read from various discussion topics on this wiki many people are getting very irritated by the lack of infomation about a feature that was meant to be released on the 7th October - 16 days ago. Thanks, FirstSunspear 10:54, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes, you are right, the SMS and/or IVR additions are behind schedule. I talked to QA this week and they are testing them, because as you can imagine, there are a lot of security concerns with on-line purchases. We're sorry that it has taken so long. I got the impression that it wasn't very far away now, but I don't know that the payment method will probably not be in place by the end of the month, for which, again, we apologize. -- Gaile 07:07, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

Im guessing this is the place to ask this so Im asking you 2 and a bit months after the preceding comment when the SMS will become available. It is understandable that there would have been some problems but it was supposed to start AGES ago. Many people were upset that it was not launched in time so they missed out on the BMP as for obvious reasons they dont like to put their credit card or payment details on the web. When will we get this feature? Will it ever happen? And if it does happen will it be in the near future - possibly before the offer on the unlock packs expire? Thanks, FirstSunspear 21:36, 8 January 2008 (UTC) (sorry if I sounded a bit rude but I just dont want to miss out on it :P )

HA Test Weekend

There could be a discussion page here on GWW to gather opinions about the test weekend's changes for those who don't want to register/use forums.

If there already is one, it could be have a bit more obvious link somewhere (haven't found one yet :D). If there isn't an article about the weekend could be made and comments could be added to the discussion page. A small note could be useful on the front page (as well as a link on the update page) about the article.

This isn't a direct message to Gaile, but I guess you will be one of those who read the feedback :) Any thoughts for or against? - IH 13:42, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

A feedback thread for this week's test would be marvelous! --Gaile 02:23, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Looks like Izzy's setup a page for it in his ever-increasing userspace :). Here you go: User_talk:Isaiah_Cartwright/HA_feedback. --Indecision 02:48, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, now there should be something to direct those who want to comment there :) - IH 09:29, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Skills, Heroes' Ascent, Victory or Death -- 09 August 2007

"Splinter Weapon: decreased recharge time to 20 seconds."
Is this a typo? It's recharge is currently 5 seconds. --Macros 22:12, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Either they're increasing recharge, or decreased the duration. I truly hope the later or RIP splinter barrager. --Valshia 22:16, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Except for increasing Black Spider Strike to 10e and the Rit updates, it looks like ANet is getting in touch with its players. Really lovin' it. —ǥȓɩηɔɧ〚₮/ḉ〛 22:18, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, honestly what were you thinking? You forgot to give Shadowsong exhaustion too! Though it is nice to have those bow skills have a reduced cost and more damage,you completely forgot about Power Shot, which is now even more incredibly useless than it was before! --66.67.187.203 22:42, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Totally useless is totally useless no matter how it's spun. —ǥȓɩηɔɧ〚₮/ḉ〛 22:46, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

So SP's are dead, Rit Spike is dead... AoD sins will pwn now. run Rending Aura and it's gg for them. Meekness, Shadow of Fear, and Faintheartedness got much needed nerfs. ~~ frvwfr2 (talk · contributions) 22:58, 9 August 2007 (UTC) I like the changes to Dark Prison and Death's Charge. Remove Hex will be ownage now... punks Smite Hex, as no one uses it for damage anyways. Good change to Savage Slash, now warrs might be able to use it.

Rit SPIKE is dead? forget spiking, and think how much this screws over most Rits for both PVE and PVP. Slapping Exhaustion on spells that are nowhere near as powerful as ele spells is one thing, but then for a Rit, who has less max energy than an ele energy (and less than other casters if holding an Urn), then it's crazy. And nerfing Xinrae's Weapon? I've never seen anyone use the damn thing. Spirit rift was actually good with the introduction of a 1s cast, but with a 2s cast its far too obvious and interrupt/dodgeable. 86.25.18.22 00:23, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

The updat one xinrae's weapon isnt so much a nerf, as it is a buff. It used to have a 30 second recharge, and cost 25 energy... making it near to impossible to effectively use. Now, it can at least be used.... sorta, at the expense of exhaustion. If they gave it the 10 energy/10 second recharge without exhaustion, it would be Way overpowered imo. disable every1's flare? gg =P

There aren't many gimmick builds in GvG that rely on the same skills to deal a spike. It's more balanced. This will, however, make it useful for HA and change the place of where a Rit will be used. —ǥȓɩηɔɧ〚₮/ḉ〛 00:59, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Not much ideas on rits eh!? Just throw in some exaustion on 5 secs recharge spells... I think it's totally wrong. Ritspike is strong because it doesn't need monks and because it spikes too frequently. Add some recharge time to rage and strike, and you're done. Putting exhaustion is the lamest of the nerfs, makes the whole channeling attribute so useless. And think about the poor razha, now he is so useless, he can't think so he will exaust his full bar in 5 secs, say goodbye to a nice hero both in pvp and pve. I never saw such a bad work from you guys, ppl whine at every nerf and we know it, but this is totally different, i see a bad work done in haste in the ritualist nerfs. I agree it's time to kill ritspike, but not to kill half ritualist skills. IF you HAVE to keep exaustion, to keep it balanced it should be of less impact (less exs maybe?) or spells have to be 140dmg (maybe conditionalized) like lightning globe (90+25%ap=140 on a 60 armor). Some toughts:

• ancestor rage: increased recharging time to 20 sec. increased area of damage to nearby.
• anguish: 25 was perfect, made it powerful but not spammable. duration is not long. it was ok
• wielder's strike: why should this cause exahustion and spirit burn not? same cost, sema recharge, the weapon condition is heavyer than the spirit condition. again, recharge increased to 12 secs and gg.
• wonderlust: cool, an elite spirit that dies in seconds and make half my bar gray ... seriously ... increased cost to 15 or increased recharge to 60 or both.
• dissonance, disenchantment: incresed duration a little, cost 15, or cost 10 and cause exahustion

The other nerfs seems not so bad. This way the rit would still be usable, but rispike would be nerfed, it would still spike powerful as hell but slowly. I'm not sure i agree with spirit rift casting time, i must think about it.. --YukoIshii 01:03, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Another cent. We are going to have the favor only when most american ppl play, it's just a matter of numbers. I didn't like the old favor, i don't like this. Just open fow and uw to everyone, they are dead old btw... --YukoIshii 01:12, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

What about having global favor under this system and regional favor under the old system? -- Gordon Ecker 01:35, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Not a bad idea. --YukoIshii 01:39, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

This update buffs the Assassin class in order to diversify the skill range, all well and good but it concerns me that the casual PvP player who wants an immediate adrenaline hit (RL adrenaline) will choose the assassin more and more and other classes less and less until AB becomes mostly Assassin versus Assassin.--Evil Geek 07:57, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Please note that Isaiah's talk page has various subdivisions for discussions of this type. It would be great if you could move this section to the talk page, and then continue the discussion there. Thanks so much. --Gaile 19:40, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Rit nerf

Wow, you guys completly impacted me to death with the rit nerf, hits delete button on ritualist.... - Chrisworld 01:09, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. There have been WAY too many times where the impact of PvP builds can be seen in the skill nerfs. People don't use Ritualists much in PvE because they aren't all that useful with current skills.... now it is even worse. Any useful techniques they had are nearly worthless with this nerf. I truly hope that ANet learns from Guild Wars and this nerf crap due to PvP.... separate PvE and PvP skills in GW2. — RabiesTurtle 02:02, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

(Edit conflict) Ridiculous dramatics aside, this is indeed a very horrible change. I thought the whole reason exhaustion was something only Elementalists could self-impose was because of their large energy pool due to Energy Storage. Ritualists don't have that; they have the same amount of energy other casters do. I don't even like running more than one skill that causes exhaustion on an Elementalist, there's no way I can justify using even one on a Ritualist. It just doesn't work. Capcom 02:06, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Great change, this restored my will to PvP seriously again. The drastic changes to HA are certain to draw skill back into that metagame... at some point :P -Auron 02:19, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

I went into AB with my rit, and i couldnt spam spirit rift with echo as fast because of SR's 2 sec recharge now and using ancestors rage exausts my eng faster than i can gain it back oh well, i dont have to play on him anymore, or alot that is, as for splinter weapon duration its OK but it hurts the ability to keep your party up with it over longe amount of time w/o casting over and over before a huge mob in AB or other pvp or something...imo - BTW i was using Weilders Strike on my warrior with his splinter wep build but not anymore ---Chrisworld 03:21, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

As previously mentioned without the large energy pool Elementalists have access to the addition of exhaustion is going to have an unfair detrimental affect on the Rit, I rarely PvP and love my Rit in PvE. In PvE most teams see the Rit as one of two things- Spirit Lord build or a healer, few people see past that and the awesome possibilities of the Rit, this is going to make people experiment less and not see past those traditional builds. It certainly isn't the death of the Rit but I do hope you find another way to counter the Rit spike in PvP without adversely affecting it so much in PvE too.--Evil Geek 07:44, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Sin oriented? You mean like AB/RA/TA? We came across a wicked sin build in HA last night. Wow. -elviondale (tahlk) 14:47, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

It's funny, I have a PvE rit, and I think I run one skill that got nerfed in this update. I don't see what the big fuss is about. - HeWhoIsPale 15:03, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Deletes Rts from the game and I will marry you Izzy. That is all. 83.104.169.126 17:08, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Wow, just as you made them viable in pve you come with a patch that completely destroys this class. First of all let me tell you that, and please excuse my directness here, introducing exhaustion to the ritu class is just a very stupid idea. The elementalist can (rarely) handle exhaustion spells because of the large energy pool, a ritu does not only lack that energy as someone above allready mentioned, but even more so with being forced to use item spells has one of the lowest energy pools of all classes. Playing my ritu only in DOA right now, i am (or at least was) a strong defender of a ritu, mesmer, ele dmg line there instead of the classic 3 ele dmg line and so bringing a bit diversity in DOA groups. My main reasons to play my ele again now are the spirit rift and ancestors rage changes. Before you were well balanced with eles, they had better dps and were easier to use while ritus had better spike and were a bit harder to use (if monsters move, e.g. break through, you loose almost all your dmg and you have to change targets a lot). Now they are just useless again in DOA. And if the spirit rift change was because of PVP then the quality of PVP must have dropped a lot since i last played , because in pvp you have plenty of time to simply walk out of a spirit rift. About the single target nukes of the ritu, i agree that they are pretty powerful in pvp, although it is not so easy to find the right fillers without having to spend skill slots for item spells, spirits and weapon spells all at the same time. So i see there might be an issue that needs addressing, but as explained above, doing that over exhaustion is just the worst possible way to do it. 134.130.183.235 19:13, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Please note that Isaiah's talk page has various subdivisions for discussions of this type. It would be great if you could move this section to the talk page, and then continue the discussion there. Thanks so much. --Gaile 19:42, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Favor System Announcements

Gaile is it possible to add the guild tag to the player's name who is maxing the title? Archangel Avoca 04:41, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Interesting idea! Let me ask the designers and/or programmers if that's possible. I won't know for a few days, but thanks for the idea. --Gaile 04:59, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Nothing regarding the item duplication bug ?

Why is there no news, no official response, not even a "We're aware of the problem and discussing/implementing/working on a(n) solution for this problem" ??? Clan Yumemiru 19:11, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Because Gaile's busy. Patience, JB. Armond 19:13, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

there has been a bit of a response...they disabled reconnects to stop further use of the bug..no word on how they are going to deal with the results tho...--Coridan 19:15, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Considering they had a major exploit dumped on them a mere 3 weeks before a major launch, they're probably very busy trying to deal with it. --Valshia 19:21, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Funny, the new Gaile News post seems to be in regards to the Gladiator Title, with nothing about an item duplication bug. Funny, priorities. 99.245.143.39 19:45, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Chill man. This has been in the works for a long time. -elviondale (tahlk) 20:00, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Gaile posted an official response on both GuildWarsGuru and GWO in the threads each has respectively regarding the issue. (Aiiane - talk - contribs) 19:58, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Can you link us Aiiane? GWG is way to laggy to sift through all the topics looking for the right one. -elviondale (tahlk) 20:07, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

So, GWG and GWO are now the official newspipes for Arenanet news now ? Tsch. And to think, all I asked for was a security blanket post to quell the wild speculation and rampant theories suggesting the worst. But I guess that was asking a little too much, wanting a bit of security and reassuring 3 weeks prior to the release of a new product. Clan Yumemiru 20:13, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

IMHO, things like this should be posted on the official wiki. -elviondale (tahlk) 21:15, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't really think so, though. Arena Net's reply on GWG was (as far as I could see) more of a way to quench the rumors about a possible rollback than anything else - and stating that rumor here would only feed the flames, as players would point how even the "Official" wiki mentioned it. Right now, what would Arena Net say here? The players responsible have been banned, but Gaile has never made a News post just to say "we have banned players who have broken the rules" - that's a given. Erasculio 21:23, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't even care what solution they pick (probably delete the most offending accounts and let the rest of the duped items run wild) or which fansite they choose to post on, all I'm asking for is for an official update about it via their "official" (but evidently not so familiar) news channel(s) - this might quite possibly have been the biggest crisis to hit GW in its existence and so far all we have is an undocumented update, a post somewhere lost in the noise on GWO and GWG, and more than lots of speculation and rumor. And the only "official" news bits are a Gladiator title change proposal here, and on players.guildwars.com (allegedly the site for players to get their LATEST information) a contest update. Way to go! Clan Yumemiru 07:58, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

You are over-estimating (extremely!) the general level of exploitation awareness of the general population of GW. And as to why they haven't responded, maybe... because they haven't decided how best to resolve it? It's better to keep a low profile (both from a business perspective and a technical perspective) than increasing general awareness by making official statements about a known exploit. -- ab.er.rant 08:16, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

[Dev Update] Gladiator Titles -- Proposed Changes

Gaile_News/20070813 - is it real or fake? It links to the talk page of User:Ryan Scott and he postet parts of this on his talk page... Could someone please clarify this? Thanks. Der moon 19:37, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Answer to myself: It's Gaile being not signed in... ;) IP is 208.252.106.189 and it is exactly the same as last time when she forgot to log in. So I assume it will be the same this time. Der moon 19:40, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

These systems of Glad points do sound interesting but they do still punish those that are put against invincible members (those that merely focus on defense and the expectation that the enemy will drop out). Any thoughts on how to address this behavior? -- Vallen Frostweaver 20:32, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

For those who aren't going to visit the User talk:Ryan Scott's page, he stated ,"...we're also adding mechanics for punishing leechers and a time limit on RA/TA games to stop runners."

I did read that but I missed reading there would be a time limit (thanks for catching that). Cool... wonder if it'll be a tie and count against a streak or if it'll just be ignored in a streak if the timer runs out. Sounds good to me either way. -- Vallen Frostweaver 13:46, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

So even defense heavy & runner builds will be punished :P--Bane of Worlds 23:29, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Surely the easiest way to combat leavers in RA is to disable the glad title track there, and reserve it only for TA? Is getting wins in random arena really worthy of an accheivement? 83.104.169.126 00:30, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

You ever try to consecutively get wins in RA? It's not as easy as it sounds. The randomness adds a certain unexpected flavor to it. You have to prepare for anything in your own build and try to complement 3 other unknowns on your team. It requires a whole other skill level. Sure if they all are terrible there isn't that much that can be done but I've seen one team memeber totally take up the slack of the team before as well. You want a challenge, go to RA. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's not. -- Vallen Frostweaver 13:50, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Feature Suggestions

• Groups and comments in friends list. This way you could group your friends in PVE areas (DOA, UW etc.) or depending on from where you know them (RL friends, Guild Members, etc.) and add comments to each of them ("good monk", "nice guy but sucks badly"... :o).
• Quick travel box with 3 level tree similar to the current quest log. First level chapter, second level region, third level outpost. Especially with submaps like DOA and the overcrowded capitals which lie on your way, traveling between chapters can be a pain. This way you could travel from gate of pain to vasburg with just one zoning instead of 3, one of them being a laggy capital.
• Add one level to quest log tree (see above) to sort quests after chapters.
• Mouseover on party search box, similar to the mouseover on invites, so you can see what classes are present in the group you want to join and what is still needed.
• Bonus to sweet tooth title track, permanent smaller sugar rush. Permanent increased movement speed in town would be nice to have, but really nothing you have to have, so ideal for a title bonus.
• And last but not least a very personal one, i guess you get that one often, but i repeat it just in case... :o). Make wisdom and treasure hunter titles account wide. I have 8 PVE slots, with no favorite amongst them, so these titles are just a very bad nightmare for me :o).

Those are just some minor suggestions which would IMHO greatly improve gameplay. 134.130.183.235 05:30, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

If you're posting GW1 suggestions, it's better to post them in fan forums where they get greater visibility. If you're proposing something for Guild Wars 2, see Talk:Guild Wars 2 suggestions. -- ab.er.rant 05:35, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Allowing nicknames in the friends list would also be nice. -- Gordon Ecker 05:36, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

GW:EN skills in ATS

Do the GW:EN skills work like normal in the 'regular' ladder matches? --  (CoRrRan / talk) 17:32, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

The 100 PvP available skills will, the other 50 will work like a sunspear rebirth signet, be flagged as non-use in pvp Dargon 17:25, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

Bonus Items in the 8/17 News

"Players activate their bonus weapons in Pre-Searing. We have no problem with this, and although the items are not really balanced for the area, we will not stop players from generating or using those items."

Well I hope we are allowed... considering that the players that have those items paid $5-10 for that use to ANET itself... besides, they are only useable at level 10 really. Thank you for allowing this... and cracking down on hacking, I know you are doing your best... and I do what I can as a player to help you guys during this difficult task. - User:SabreWolf

This depends on the item. Remember that on caster weapons only the damage is bound to attribute, and that any other bonuses (cast time/recharge time, etc) are always active. As far as combat weapons are concerned, true. Also, I'd like to say I really appreciate the quick and adequate news response from ArenaNet on this situation - good information, decisive response. Well done! Clan Yumemiru 20:10, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

Caster weapons I agree with, however... unless you are a Flare spammer, still wont make to much of a difference since your damage out put on spells are still dependent on the total level you are at to distribute... so it still wont make too much of a difference till lvl 8-10... Plus the fact that you only have 1-2 spells for that 1 attribute... so even if you have 12 points in Fire for Flare... your only doing 56 dmg, not to mention Fire Storm has a 30 sec recharge. Like my Warrior is lvl 8... and he still doesn't have enough points to make use of the Serrated Shield... especially when 6 points has to go to Swordsmanship in order to use the Rinblade (6 points = 3 Swordsmanship). But too look at the whole picture, particularly Warriors for the Serrated Shield and the Glacial Blade, you would need a 9 in Swordsmanship and Tactics... which means you need (without minor runes) a total of 74 points, which is lvl 13 (75 points). So in order for the balence for Warrior's in Pre to be thrown off, they would have to be atleast lvl 13... which you would have to do some death leveling to get to. So with that much time and effort to put into that... I would call it more then fair for Warriors. ||| But the biggest hacking problem I have, are the 55-Monk Bots clogging the game up and destroying the economy in-game... I remeber when a max swords used to go for 5k easily... now you lucky to get 1k for them... please on behalf of all the true non-hacking gamers in the community, please detect this and block their IPs or somthing. :-( - User: SabreWolf

IPs are shared and changed more often then you could possibly change accounts or get new ones, so banning accounts it far more efficient. Biz 09:18, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

I know... I have been an admin on various servers for years... but its getting to the point where its impossiable to walk around and not lag out in some town cause it just a big wave of Monk girls walking out the door with garbled names :-( I'm just thankful that they haven't found my secret farming spot in the game yet... and no, I am not saying it here. - User: SabreWolf

What about flagging IPs for added scrutiny? -- Gordon Ecker 19:39, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

Tip SabreWolf: you can sign using ~~~~. See GWW:SIGN. -- ab.er.rant 02:00, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

THANK YOU!!! I have been wondering all last week how the heck you guys did that! hahahaha, many thanks -- SabreWolf 06:52, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks!

For providing rationale behind skill changes. I may not agree with all of them, but I do like being able to think through and understand the choices that were made.

GW:EN Release / Early-Access

I proordered GW:EN a while ago, but it seems it wont arrive before the Release. Will there be something like the Early-Access of Factions (playing with the preorder-key for a few days until the package arrives)? Sir Astaroth 12:19, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

The bonus for preordering was the sneak peek weekend that took place last week. No other "early access" is planned. Be patient, you have less than 24 hours to wait before the official start :-) Chriskang 12:30, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Its not about an early access to the game (which was the sneak peak), but the possibility of playing the game without having the release key. Amazon.de sent my package today and I am not even sure if I can play this weekend. He (and I, if my game doesn't arrive on time) wants to play from the actual release date with his pre-order-key. But I wont happen. It wasn't announced and we already could play 3 days, which was the time the faction preorder key was valid for playing factions afair. -Khan Reaper Kerensky 12:38, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

I remember ANet specifically stating that you would NOT be able to play for a few days after the start with your pre-order key. --Xeeron 13:55, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I had the same trouble last year with Nightfall and the only hat I miss is the Halloween one from Kamadan for the very same reason (but with a different provider) as my Collector's Edition arrived a full-week late. With this new release, if there are no special event, hat or the Moa egg quest is not timed, I do not care. But if there are (especially if there is a new hat), I'd very much like be allowed to play for a few days with my preorder key. Jaxom 20:36, 30 August 2007 (UTC)