User talk:Joe Kimmes/Archive April 2009

Archived

Hey Joe! It appeared you had seen/answered most everything that was on your talk page from March, so I archived it all. Again, if you wish to organize your archives in a particular way, I'm happy to help, though I personally find a straight chronological archive to be easiest to navigate. -- Wyn 09:08, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Chronological makes sense to me. Thank you! - Joe Kimmes 18:31, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Camera rotation issue

It appears that rotating camera with the mouse becomes slower, that is, requires a lot more physical mouse movement, when display resolution is set to a higher value. I went from 1024x768 to 1600x1200, the difference between those two resolutions is clearly noticable. This would be a bug, yes? --Tgbyjn 09:48, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Sounds like it to me. Go ahead and report it to QA - I wonder if it's caused by the resolution change, or if it's something the resolution affects (framerate)? - Joe Kimmes 18:30, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Wouldn't that just be the standard effect of a lever? Ghosst • Talk • 00:59, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Doesn't seem to be resolution, I tried it with vsync on and had the same framerate with both resos. --Tgbyjn 05:06, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Tornadoes:

Hi again,

how often do you see tornadoes? Boro 18:44, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

i'm not Joe, but up in Washington, I would say almost never. I live in Nebraska, being tornadoe ally, and I haven't ever seen one. — Jon Lupen 21:55, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, I've never seen a tornado, ever. - Joe Kimmes 01:03, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Reaction Time

I'm going to preface this by saying this isn't a Guild Wars or a Guild Wars 2 suggestion, it's just a general AI idea I had and since AI is one of your fields, I thought I would share it with you.

One of the main things that separates AI from humans is their reaction time; being computers, they can react with inhuman speed and precision. If I remember correctly, Arena Net compensated for this by putting a set delay in between all their skill uses, actions and the like. Instead of putting a delay in between each of their actions, but still giving them an inhuman reaction speed only spaced out, give them a human-like reaction time. To use Guild Wars as an example, as it currently stands, a Mesmer hero can time an interrupt on an atom, and do it again once you get past their delay between actions. Instead of a delay between each action, move the delay ahead one space. Every time an AI decides on an action, add in a delay ranging from 1/6th to 1/2 of a second or so, before the action is carried out, to simulate a human reaction time. Any time they would use a skill, react to an attacker, move out of AoE, or any other such action, before they react, delay them by a random amount of time within the normal human reaction time range. So instead of a hero being able to interrupt any skill use where they could cast an interrupt fast enough, they would occasionally miss a skill or two as they just weren't fast enough to catch it. When chaining skills together however, a reaction time delay would not be needed as much. Heros are often waiting in-between casts on a chain, where a human never would. Since Guild Wars gives you a two skill que of sorts, say I'm casting Shatterstone followed by Glowing Ice, I'll often use Shatterstone, and hit Glowing Ice while Shatterstone is still casting, so Glowing Ice starts casting as soon Shatterstone finishes, with almost no delay.

I'm not sure where this could be used, if it will be used or what, but I figured I'd be best off sharing it with someone that could put it to constructive use. Well, considering I came up with it while thinking about how I would write a bot program, not that I can write such a program that is. XD — Jon Lupen 04:46, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

That would make assassin heroes suck a bit less. -Auron >8< 07:16, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Jon, we actually discussed this topic before, you should find the answer to your question here: User_talk:Joe_Kimmes/Archive_March_2009#Speed_at_which_heroes_use_their_skills. --Draikin 17:21, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

It's a way to give heros that human like reaction time Joe was looking for, possibly without recoding AI from the ground up. It's a way to balance the scales between reaction time and skill chaining, as well as put a more realistic dampener on hero ability. Draikin, think of my idea as a solution to what you wanted done. Joe, how easy would it be to shift when you delayed hero actions? — Jon Lupen 22:00, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

Like I said in the posts Draikin linked, it's pretty nontrivial, but I'll keep it in mind next time the opportunity presents itself to do some serious AI work. - Joe Kimmes 03:38, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

New Traders instead of an Auction House

I know everyone asks about an Auction House being put into the game. My question is much more realistic and probably easier to implement. A Green weapon trader. All the stats are fixed for all greens (except really old Wroth's Icons if memory serves) so it's going to be no different from materials etc. Obviously it's a non-trivial task, but copy and paste should account for a significant portion of the work you'd need to do. Also, skill tomes trader. Make those a separate tab on skill trainers (only makes sense that way, doesn't require a new NPC to be created in every town/hall). Zaishen keys... going to tank eventually, might as well regulate it. This idea could potentially be stretched to item mods (max stats only for obvious reasons). Notice I am not at all trying to call for gold items to be included (the markets only care about skin and req already, no need to bother at this point). This solution (set) is fairly simple, fits within code requiring only minor tweaks, instantly recognizable, and solves some major gripes. While I'm at it: what ever happened to the Xunlai Auction House found in the .dat file? Failed idea? Red herring? Top secret? What are you wearing? 68.215.147.254 03:32, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Traders seem easy, but there are some things to consider. Their buy/sell costs are based on their intake of items, of course, and so that data has to be tracked somewhere. Think about the interface, too - the Rare Material Trader handles about 25 items - there are about 25 green Axes alone, so would you have a single massive list for a Green Weapon Trader, or have several per town?

More ominously, although this happened before I joined the company, the only time ArenaNet has had to roll back the GW servers (ie, reset everyone to yesterday's data) was due to a trader glitch. So new traders would require a lot of QA, due to the scary possibility of them glitching and selling Ectos for 10 gold.

I don't mean to shoot down your idea, of course - in fact, this is a reasonable idea that the Live Team has looked into. I'm just hoping to share some of the concerns with adding even simple-sounding features like this.

I can't say anything about the dat file text, unfortunately.

Black shirt, blue jeans. - Joe Kimmes 03:53, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Can you tell us if it would be a scary/messy deal or not? — Jon Lupen 03:56, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Agreed, there are too many greens for a single page. Multiple NPCs are also out of the question. This question has already been solved by your skill traders and Balthazar unlock pages. Separate weapons by class with collapsible menus for weapon types (profession/attribute ring a bell here?). Mouseover on the name of the weapon shows a pop-up of the stats. That seems like the single biggest difficulty, or let them hotlink to the wiki somehow so you don't have to add the GUI work as much. As for the rollback, I remember that day very well. We all thought we were going to have our chance to make up for the day traders were first introduced and we weren't quite sure what to do with them (make a killing it turns out was the correct answer). 68.215.147.254 11:18, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Follow up idea: zkeys, flames, golden flames added to the sigil trader. 68.215.147.254 11:20, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, I also remember the rollback day very well, I was so freaked out by a trader selling ectos for 100g that I thought somebody had hacked the district of Drok's that I was in so I immediately logged off to make sure I didn't get caught up in something nefarious.

As for a green trader, it has been suggested before, and I fully support it if it can be done in a way that does not involve massive amounts of work for the devs. IP is right that skill traders already deal with a large number of items to sell, so do rune traders. Only issue I can see (beyond obvious workload concerns for devs) is that theoretically there is only "one" of each green, since it is dropped by a boss as "his" weapon, but then there would be a trader that has hundreds of them. Not that this would be a big problem or anything, or that anyone would really even care, but there it is.

What, no socks? Man you west coast guys are so laid back. (Satanael 16:12, 8 April 2009 (UTC))

Multiple tabs on the interface is a possible solution, but without going into detail, it's not always a simple matter to mix and match existing functionality. Again, I agree that more traders is a good idea, but the point is that it's not as simple as it can seem.

Satanael, I omitted my socks and such to avoid going into too much detail. In reality, everyone in Washington wears socks all the time to the point of doing the absurd socks-and-sandals look. o_O;; - Joe Kimmes 17:33, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Socks and sandals? ew. ;-) (Satanael 18:10, 8 April 2009 (UTC))

(Reset indent) So you agree more traders is a good idea, can you give us any hint as to what additional traders would be considered, or that you yourself would think is a good idea without going into too much detail? 000.00.00.00 18:38, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Hire me, I will be a full-time mix and matcher for the live team. (No, I'm not joking, I really would take that job.) 68.215.147.254 22:00, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

@Zero - I'm not a designer, so take my design-related opinions with a grain of salt, but if I could add one new trader it would be a Weapon Mod Trader. Weapon mods are generally too cheap to see much activity in the trade channels/party search (unlike minipets or high-value greens), but I frequently find myself trying to gear up my heroes or set up a new build and lacking that last 20% enchantment duration staff mod. I try to hang onto good mods that I find, but they add up fast in storage. - Joe Kimmes 18:54, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

lol, I made that same suggestion about a year ago (mod trader for guild halls) and it was met by pure hostility over taking resources away from GW2. Nice to see people like you and Linsey haven't forgotten us. I did have a list of things that a lot of people seemed interested in (in game chats while working on Drunkard) that I could send to you Joe. I suppose right now might be a bad time while you're polishing the new content update, but feel free to leave me a message when you're free and I could toss some ideas over to you. Ghosst • Talk •

As far as I know there was a Xunlai Market planned at the beginning of 2008. Perhaps you have time to finish the already done work now. (I'll move this article to the normal namespace after I'm sure all info are correct) BigBluetalk 09:24, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

BR (and possibly BiP) issue with martial weapon sets

I've noticed that heroes with Blood Ritual on their bar will not use it on casters with low energy if the casters are wearing martial weapon sets (e.g. spear/shield), and I have to micro them to get it cast on me when I'm out of enegy. If I'm wearing my caster weapons though (staff or wand/offhand), they seem to love automatically using it on me before I even get close to 0 energy. This is probably also a problem with Blood is Power, but I haven't tested it. Any chance you could fix this? Thanks in advance. --Seventh 10:18, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

You might want to throw this at ArenaNet:Skill_bugs. -- WarBlade 10:25, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

ArenaNet talk:AI bugs would probably be more appropriate. ¬ Wizårdbõÿ777(talk) 14:23, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

As suggested, I highly endorse submitting the bug in the skill or AI issues wiki pages.

This is a recurring issue with older skill AI - since a character's class isn't always indicative of their party role (caster Assassins, trapper rangers, W/Mos with really bad builds) the older AI often uses the weapon type as the distinguishing factor. The problem is, of course, that there are compelling reasons for some casters to use a martial set, which can confuse things as seen here.

I've set up some (slightly) improved recognition that takes into account the target's primary/secondary class as well as their weapon, but it's not implemented across all skills yet, so feedback like this is great. - Joe Kimmes 18:50, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Ah, I didn't realize there was a section devoted to AI bugs. Actually, it looks like this bug is already listed, though more in respect to issues when holding ashes. Any idea when the AI for the skills will be updated with the improved recognition? Thanks again. --Seventh 21:06, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately all my/QA's time is devoted to the April build right now, so I can't promise a quick fix. I'm hoping to do some serious AI work post-April to address issues from that AI bug section as well as my talk page. - Joe Kimmes 21:20, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

I am glad. i hope this comes out in may because it makes a lot of rit builds alot more useless in pve.75.165.115.205 23:03, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

April Fools day

Wanted to say that I loved the April Fools Day this year, much like everyone else. How long did that take to code? I mean, you probably borrowed the code from last year's stick figures and just replaced the pictures or whatever graphics you put over the character. Im just guessing on what I would use (I'm studying C++ myself), I would have gone for an "if(level == 20)" then the code for Gwen-chan image taking place of the normal one. I'm just slightly curious about it, if it turns out you weren't working on that, sorry. ^^" Katherinezoltin 05:23, 11 April 2009 (:;:

I enjoyed the Gwen-chan as well. I think only level 1's were spared. So it would perhaps be something like "if ( player.level > 1 ) transform( player, GWEN_CHAN );" – Mar Master 07:44, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Glad to hear you enjoyed it. You're right about the code being a repeat of last year's, tidied up a little to avoid the disruption to PvP. - Joe Kimmes 18:12, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

And people in class thought I was nuts to reuse code from previous assignments! Even professionals do it. ^^ And Mar, the offical thing for the April fools joke is that you have to be max level. There were level 3s and such who weren't. We figured this out last year. ^^" and also, it probably wouldn't be called transform, probably would be called something like Afool, or at least that is what I would call it. ^^" Katherinezoltin 01:57, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Pretty sure it was everyone but level 1s this year. ¬ Wizårdbõÿ777(talk) 05:04, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

for(r2d2=0;r2d2<500/r2d2;printf("%o",++r2d2)); (Oops, forgot to sign. Have fun figuring out the output of that in your head, I know I did. Although as far as obfuscated code goes, it's painfully simple.) 68.223.25.36 05:28, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Condition coding for an entire team

Hi Joe. I was just wondering if it would be difficult in term of coding to let teams play and win PvP games but award them points or let them proceed to the next "stage" only if they meet some requirements. For example you let a team with heroes start a GvG but even if they win they couldn't earn points for the ladder. Another example would be to not let a team with more than 2 heroes fight the last game in HA. I know it strongly looks like a suggestion (and it could be one) but I would like to know first if the game could be coded so.Cornflakeboy 17:43, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

This could be done, although depending on what punishments are inflicted on teams with heroes it goes from simple to very difficult code-wise. That said, I personally disagree with discouraging heroes in PvP in this way. I'm aware that heroes in PvP are problematic for any number of reasons (AI outperforming players, playing against computers in PvP), but I think that just punishing players for taking heroes won't solve much. You'll still have the un-fun experience of losing to teams with heroes; even if all rewards were removed from teams with heroes, I imagine some players would still run them just for the thrill of victory. Worse, guilds could use this to lock their ladder rank and stay low on the ladder to face weaker teams.

My opinion is that there are 2 solutions to heroes in PvP; toning all problem areas in the AI down until heroes in PvP are roughly on par with henchmen, or removing them entirely. Of course, I don't make these decisions. =) - Joe Kimmes 18:26, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

WoW what a quick answer... thank you !! Well I think you are right on the "ladder-manipulating" part. I was thinking that something like that could happen...and you just saw the weakness ;-). I thought it could be a good suggestion because then everybody would have been allowed to play but only people who invest time to find real humans to play would have been rewarded...and in the same time letting people earn fame could make them hope that one day they'll get enough ranked to be accepeted in pug in HA. Anyway you're probably right saying it would be too much discouraging, but as I always say ideas need to be written down and read and then get their own life....maybe this would contrbiute to the final fair solution that will be found by the Live Team... I still have faith in you to find the way to make everybody (even the hard-core PvP community ^^) happy. Again thx for your answer and point of you. :D Cornflakeboy 18:59, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

There's really only one option if you don't want to negatively impact Hero Battles and that's to remove them from HA and GvG and be done with it. As a compromise, add more henchmen without weapon mods/runes and give them somewhat reliable skill bars that real players can play a lot better. Otherwise we're not going to get anywhere, because all I see is people asking for AI nerfs on aspects that would actually need improvements in Hero Battles. --Draikin 21:49, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

That's actually my exact opinion; I think that improving the available henchmen and removing heroes would be the optimal solution. - Joe Kimmes 21:54, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Weapon Swapping

i have found it to be rather annoying when trying to weapon swap in pvp when it dosnt change or there is a delay is there a reason for this? i know you can hit esc to make the swap go by faster. is there any changes you can make to the weapon swap script?75.165.115.205 00:09, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

It seems to wait for a gap inbetween attacks, but even then it still takes a second or two to swap. Perhaps have swapping cancel your current action and see if it can be sped up a bit? — Jon Lupen 00:14, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

There's a delay so that certain multi-weapon builds never see the light of day and certain skill combos are suitably difficult to pull off (such as Decapitate -> energy +5 axe -> Critical Chop). Vili >8< 01:04, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

but the people who are using thous weapon swaps have practiced and are doing them regardless of how it is now or if they were to make it faster. also some times the weapons dont swap which is annoying. 75.165.115.205 01:54, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

It's an issue with the action queue that GW operates on. You can start casting one skill, you can queue up another to cast right after. You start an attack, that one has to finish before a queued up weapon attack begins. You can pick up one item and queue up another item. You can swap to a weapon set and swap to another. The little detail that everyone misses on first glance is that ALL of these are the same 2 action queue. You can Power Attack directly into picking up a gold drop. You can even Firestorm into dropping a bundle if memory serves. What all this says is that weapon swapping, your delay you experience is because you are auto attacking, or casting, or picking up a relic/flag. Pressing Escape does indeed speed this up as it cancels your attacking/queued up skill use, etc. The "extra second or two" Jon Lupen refers to is an inherent 1/2 or 3/4s "cast" that the weapon swap actually takes. This is added to aftercast that most skill share. For example: Firestorm -> weapon swap -> Flare all pressed in a row will result in no weapon swap and Flare being the second queued up skill and Flare being executed. Because of the aftercast, you can even Firestorm -> weapon swap -> Esc (during the aftercast of Firestorm) and the weapon swap will never take place. Hint: moving a direction to break your queue works the same as pressing escape. 68.215.248.14 03:44, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I have also noticed that a weapon will occassionally swap when you hit the function key while fighting, but then switch back almost immediately to the previous one. Almost like it swaps for the next skill in the chain and then reverts back.Terryn Deathward 14:51, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

That's when you've queued up a weapon swap then it gets canceled by a new attack skill. It shows as already being swapped, but you've overridden it with the new command. 68.215.248.14 19:09, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

68.215.248.14 are you joe? also my point still stands regardless of how its like a skill it dost have a cast time so its not like it can be interrupted. also regardless of the time difference people are still using it effectively to do the backbraker sin combo. and that's 4 second for them to switch to a different weapon set. so removing whatever this poss is would make no difference at all.75.165.115.205 21:19, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Nah, unless he's another Joe. 68.215.248.14's answer basically explained everything I was going to though - weapon swap speed isn't something that's intentionally limited, it's just tied into other systems and is thus unlikely to be changed. I personally don't mind that there's a small skill factor involved on fast-switching combos like the Backbreaker Assassin build, although I suppose that's more of a question for the balance department. - Joe Kimmes 21:33, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

thanks joe!75.165.115.205 23:05, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm indeed not Joe. Also, I'm a few of the other IPs on his talk page. Which ones exactly I'll leave as an exercise to the reader. :-P 68.215.248.14 04:48, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Hero and pet xp

is it possible to add like a "/heroxp heroname" comand along with a "/petxp petname" so we can keep track of how much xp we get? i also release this idea for use by anyone.75.165.119.187 10:46, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

That would certainly be useful, as as the OP points out, its rare enough that you could get away without needing to make a gui element for it. Ashes Of Doom 12:31, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

It's possible, but sort of a hassle. The heroname part of your suggested command is actually the tricky thing; it's not hard to parse the individual hero names code-side, but it's not very convenient to have to type 'master of whispers' or 'pyre fierceshot' every time you want to see how close they are to leveling. You could add abbreviations for the longer names ('master', 'pyre') but it still adds some guesswork to getting the information you want. Doing a full UI with progress bars and such would be better, of course, but would take more time, and that's a lot of progress bars to show at once for all the heroes and you and your heroes' pets. - Joe Kimmes 19:17, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

what if when you typed /heroxp or /petxp it would tell you the xp for the heroes and pets you have in your party right then?75.165.119.187 19:29, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

How taxing on the game and your comp is it to display a progress bar? — Jon Lupen 21:24, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Most progress bars aren't at all expensive from a framerate/server standpoint, my concern is that it would be an information overload.

@187 - That would be fairly straightforward. - Joe Kimmes 21:30, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Information overload for the player? — Jon Lupen 21:33, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

I don't think so. I've been in a number of situations when I've had heroes/pets that hadn't yet reached level 20 and wanted to know how far each was to the next level. Even if we could get something along the lines of, "Koss is at Level 18 and 67% away from the next level" and so on for each hero/pet in the party, I think it would useful to the players that wanted it. --★KOKUOU★ 21:39, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

@Jon Lupen - Yes, for the player.

@Kokuou - Oh, I agree that getting the experience information to players would be good; I'm just trying to convey some of the design/coding hurdles involved even for simple things like this. - Joe Kimmes 21:44, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

i think the best thing that would be the simplest and require the least amount of effort via all you guys is a /heroxp and /petxp that would only work out side (at least for the pet one) and just have it read out in text, for the heroes and pets in your party. my concern about adding a actual bar would be were to put it and that it would take away time from something else that would be more important and it would also have to drag away art designers.. 75.165.119.187 21:49, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Oh, no, Joe. I was responding to Jon about whether it would be information overload. Well, I suppose it might be for new players, but as a veteran player, I would appreciate this being added. There'd no doubt be hurdles, though; I agree with you on that. ;) --★KOKUOU★ 23:27, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

XP bars are useful for players all the time because we constantly "level up". With heroes and pets it's usefulness drops to 0 at level 20, and it would just clutter the small (already very cluttered) control panels. So a big NO to XP bars. A command is another thing though. I think you'll have to start posting sticky notes on your monitor like Linsey, Joe ;] — Poki#3 01:46, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

What about adding it as a tab on the 'H' Hero panel much the same way each hero has his own tab on the skill and inventory interfaces. There could be a single tab that lists all the heroes in a vertical line like the title track bars are. Terryn Deathward 22:22, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Body blocking in Hero Battles

Would it technically be possible to remove body blocking in HB altogether? Unlike in other PvP formats the mechanic has no purpose there, the gameplay in HB would only improve if it wasn't possible to block heroes there. --Draikin 20:14, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

It might be possible, but it would be a fairly serious/dangerous hack in the game engine code to remove player/hero collision for specific maps/formats. There are other changes I would much prefer to make to heroes/HB. - Joe Kimmes 21:32, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Bodyblocking serves very important purposes in HB. If you're referring to players making heroes get stuck on certain corners for full matches, that's an entirely different issue. Everyone knows the pathing on some HB maps is absolutely terrible and the heroes don't attempt minor redirections while flagged. Removing an entire mechanic for one sub-type is a very bad idea. 68.215.248.14 23:28, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm also referring to spirit/pets blocking them. Heroes would actually have be able to "see" obstacles on their path in order to fix the problem, since now they just bump into them and by then the damage is already done. Removing the mechanic is a drastic change but it would the format less frustrating to play (and less random) at times. That said I understand if it's not feasible to implement that kind of a change. By the way Joe, I asked people on Guru what they thought were the biggest issues with the AI, and the following 3 got the most votes (by quite a margin from the other issues):

• heroes moving away from shrines (overextending to heal, attack, kite)
• AI canceling skills
• body blocking and pathfinding issues

--Draikin 00:41, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Well yeah, I'd consider 'pathfinding issues' top 3 as well without including body blocking in it. I think that if AI or map changes (the HB maps have a number of features that the game's pathfinding has trouble with) were able to remedy the map-based pathfinding, it would be a far larger improvement than would be gained by changing body blocking mechanics. - Joe Kimmes 00:49, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

XKCD makes me think of the sleepless programmers

I saw this comic and realized that you probably aren't getting much sleep due to the GW super update. So stare at the sheep...and think of long ints. http://xkcd.com/571/ Katherinezoltin 21:20, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Could just be unsigned int or unsigned long for even better protection from overflow! 68.215.248.14 23:29, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Muzzle?

But, wait, the definition of Feedback in the proposed new wording includes more than just suggestions, it includes things like localization, bug reports, etc. So does this mean that Joe and the other devs can not comment on any "Feedback" or just suggestions? If the latter, how do we differentiate between suggestions and other feedback? Is this the right place for this question? Joe, can you comment on anything at all anymore? (Satanael 18:30, 23 April 2009 (UTC))

I really don't know anything about this discussion, so I'm playing it safe until this is sorted out. =) - Joe Kimmes 18:37, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

NO! Safe = Bad with a big B. We like throwing crazy ideas at you and having you politely and diplomatically tell us we are crazy! -Satanael 18:39, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

He can comment on things like "how does it work", and most everyone agrees that things like bugs are not a problem since they relate directly to ArenaNet copyrighted property (the game). The biggest concern as I understand it is for "new content" suggestions. Adding things that aren't there, rather than fixing things that are.... However, that is just my take on it according to how the discussion is progressing on Mike's page. -- Wyn 18:57, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

I See You

I see you Joe, lurking around in my Hall of Monuments =D — Jon Lupen 01:39, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Quite the scholar - "The Historian". Very nice touch. — Mar Master 11:33, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Haha, I had actually named him 'Joe the Historian' for a temporary name when we were doing early testing on the HoM changes, and it ended up sticking when Linsey went through and fixed up all the text. At least he's not continually recasting Hex Breaker like some of the Hall's occupants. =) - Joe Kimmes 23:38, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Things stick to you, it's why I go by Jon Lupen instead of Jon Collison (my real name), but that's another story. :) Will you be leaving my Hall of Monuments to return to Penny Arcade again this year? If NCSoft and/or Arena Net are returning that is. — Jon Lupen 23:46, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

I can't confirm if we'll be at PAX, that's a question for marketing. But if we are I'll totally be there, it was a blast last year. (hopefully we won't be trying to ship MOX the week after PAX this time though) - Joe Kimmes 23:55, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

I missed most of Friday last year saddly, but I'm working on hatching my plans to get myself there again this year, and make it for all three days. Hopefully I'll see you again this year. :) PAX was a blast last year, hopefully it will be again this year. Here's hoping they don't throw anything at you afterwards again. — Jon Lupen 00:00, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

HoM Request Fulfilled!

WOw, you did it! You implemented the HoM camera pan request I submitted! Thank you so much! Pkohler01 02:40, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

seconded, awesome joe! Ashes Of Doom 11:31, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Sorting

hey joe i was just wondering what came of the login screen sorting options i requested earlier if anything. 76.121.95.90 07:54, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

A Little birdy told me...

That you did the makeover thing all by yourself... and just brought it up in a meeting as a surprise (they rest of the team didn't even know about it). That's amazing programming for one person to do ^^ great job :D--72.230.63.96 20:20, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

In truth I was trying to make a hair stylist work for a long time - every few months or so I'd read another forum post asking about it, and I'd try to make it work again. That bird also left out the part where immediately after I was saying "look, I can change my character's hair!" everyone wanted me to make it work cross-chapter, and for faces/skins/size/gender. So it's come a long way since that meeting - it was a huge relief to see it finally get into the game. - Joe Kimmes 18:32, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

Well it is a lovely feature and you did an amazing job! *gives Joe a cookie* --Shadowphoenix 18:42, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

Signed. Amazing! You sure deserved that NPC. ;) — Why 20:06, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

And some bonus points as well. :) — Jon Lupen 20:22, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for spending time on this feature! It's very liberating knowing that I can change my toons appearance at will, it's like playing a whole new character! Pkohler01 03:35, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Good Job on the April Update.

Dear Mr Joe Kimmes, Wants to let you know that the April Update is a Job Weldone. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:Pumpkin pie (talk).

Thanks, I'm glad to see so many people are enjoying it! I've been barely keeping pace with the Zaishen quests myself, although my storage is all full again. -_-; - Joe Kimmes 18:35, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

I agree, nice work Joe (and the rest of the team of course)! --Draikin 01:02, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Agreed on the zquests! I normally can only afford to spend a couple hours playingn a day, and between Nick and the zquests, I haven't worked on a title (beyond what I pick up in faction points) in a week... Awesome! I think... Ashes Of Doom 12:51, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Exposive groth and boon of creation on a aura of the lich.

rit they dont know how to chain them correctly. its annoying cuz this build im useing would work so well if the stupid ai would chain explosive growth first then lich.76.121.95.90 21:37, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

There are a lot of enchantments/glyphs that would benefit from having the AI use them like they use for Glyph of Lesser Energy. That skill seems to have a very high priority so they refresh it instantly whenever it recharges. The elementalist enchantments for example are used before the battle starts, but during battle they don't seem to have a higher priority than other skills which causes them not to renew the enchantments and run into energy problems. The same goes for Glyph of Immolation, building a hero skill bar around it is difficult since they don't prioritize the skill. --Draikin 00:58, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

The problem with a lot of skills is that the AI was written before the numbers (energy cost, recharge) were finalized/balanced. This results in a lot of skills that have some specific conditions when they should really be used on recharge. - Joe Kimmes 01:20, 30 April 2009 (UTC)