My view of A-Net and Bugs

I have been playing Guild wars for a while (since if first came out actually) and have all 3 expansions, I truly believe when it first came out, the developers of A-Net had the ideals of a great game in mind, but what has happened to those ideals I have no clue. And here’s why.

The first little bug I see is the AI bug, yes yes, I know AI is a complex beast. However, some AI is and should be fairly simple to contain. Case in point. Spirits.
Factions has been out since April of 2006, yet I see a major game flaw with the AI for this.

When I use my Rituatlist or any character class with spirits and set them out, something odd happens. Occasionally the spirits will just sit there taking damage until they are dead, as if they are targeting something outside of radar entirely. Also if I step to the left or right after binding a spirit to bind another the newly created one will not attack and often the other spirits already out stop attacking all together. Often even if I attack myself!

Then on top of this, any heroes and henchmen that are with me when I step left or right, will stop any actions/spells/combat that they are doing and move to stand next to me before going back to combat.

Very pathetic! However, A-nets general directions are instead to nerf players. The last few actual changes to the game are not corrections to this type of AI issues, (some of which have been in the forums for a while), but instead to lower the duration or effectiveness of skills. This I find rather insulting, (and explains in part why I won’t buy anything from A-net in the future).

Yes I’ve seen some changes for the better to a certain extent, such as the armor/insignia changes, however on a closer look, those changes actually make it easier for A-net, less code to keep track of or adjust, I believe the benefits to the players, to be more of a side effect.

And I know I will get flamed for this, but my point is a simple one. GW has been out for a while in game terms, years for a game make it an antique, and yet the products main points/problems for players don’t get fixed.

For instances, a simple fix to cause your heroes/henches to would be a single button on the radar that says retreat.

But still more on my view of A-Net/GW. The simple fact that we as a community of players must support websites such as this to deal with bug issues, complaints and general problems indicates to me even more that A-net has less interest in supporting the players then themselves. I know servers are not cheap, and I know there is time involved in maintaining such things. But that’s part of customer service, and what I see isn’t customer service.

Another thing that irks me, to the point of I find insulting is the Survivor title, if you actually make it to level 20 without dying, why only the first level of the title and not the top ??? The millions of xp required to make it to the top level of survivor is rather insulting, that means that character isn’t really playing the game, or moving through the world, that character is baby sat, paying for leveling, and many other things that A-net seems to be against. Yet its still there. Even worse is the fact if you dye because of game bugs or glitch’s what customer support is so sorry take a hike, we can’t or won’t do anything for you. Now I understand as a player if I do something that gets me killed, well fine, kiss the title goodbye, but if there game mess’s up, they should take care of it on there end instead. Doesn’t happen. Yet if I buy a computer and it has a glitch, back it goes for repair or replacement, technically there is no EULA that any player can agree to that will negate a federal law, and that’s what they are pretending here. This has been like this for a while, rather then removing that title or basing it on reaching level 20 without dying, and a set range of deaths before level 20, such as the bottom ranking being based on 3 deaths, the second rank at 1 death, and the top rank being at 0 deaths. We see an impossible to reach xp level and play the game at the same time. Odd from what Gayle has stated.

Oh, lay off them.
Poor A-Net are up to there wellies in work, renaming Chitin Fragments and other vital stuff...

And banning people for not using trade chat for trading. Don't forget that life or death issue.

doesn't matter, it just means we'll get more minipets. ^^

It's Anet (or Anerf) to busy adding stuff and not fixing the crap thats messed up like the Kanaxai Aspect rooms (like scorpion and e-drain area [forgot name]).

Ehm Getting Legendary survivor is easily done while still playing the game. I did it with my Elementalist. He had protector of tyria before reaching legendary survivor!

Not knowing how to do it while remaing to PLAY the game is hardly a fault of Anet!

That said..

There are a many bugs in the game, yes.. But i think anet does a lot of good work! and to be honest PvE isnt very hard so its not a life or death situation if your heroes and henchies stop casting when you move in battle!

lol yeah ive heard survivor can be cheated but you should to more research on survivor and playing the game. im currently making my first serious try at legendary survivor. ive made 4 other tries on other characters but stupid mistakes usually cost me before i even got to level 20. anyways my current attempt is using my favorite profession, a ranger. im at 795000xp as of now just playing the game and following the story lines of all 3 chapters. ive finished all missions in tyria just need to go back and get a few bonus's i skipped. im up to grand court in elona and gyala hatchery and eternal groove in factions. ive done just about 80% of the availible quests in the process and capped just under 40 elites. 95% of this has been done hero/hench because most of my guildies are affraid a mistake by them will cost me survivor. the only xp farming ive done if u call it farming is capping the elites for my primary and secondary professions as i come across them. ive used about 20 scrolls(the cheep +50% for 10min ones) in the process. i figure with the remaining missions i need to do and quests i come across i shouldnt have to do very much xp farming til near the end. 1,337,500xp isnt really alot if u just follow the story line in all 3 chapters.

You know, SOME of us got our survivor title without paying people to level us, and by actually playing the game. I'm a little sick of people assuming that if you got to level three survivor you must have paid a power leveler or some such thing. Personally, My Survivor Mesmer played Nightfall as far as the Grand Court of Sebelkeh, Prophecies through to the fire islands, and Factions as far as Sunjiang District (in that order). She captured some skills, did EVERY quest, used alot of xp scrolls, and Sunspear bounties. I stopped at those places because I knew my limits, and knew i had a good chance of dieing after those points. The point being, by the time I had made it to Sunjiang, I had already cleared 1,000,000 xp. The rest was the result of farming stuff in Hard Mode (I Vanquished Plains of Jarin quite a few times).

Most of it i did with heroes, but as I approached the big Million landmark, some friends offered to help with the trickier missions (arborstone/boreas seabed are a wee bit more challanging with all hench teams - bundle carrying and all).

So no, it's not insulting to have the XP at that level for the survivor title. It's more of a testament to those that go through the effort. Is it difficult? It can be. Did I succeed my first try? Hell no! I have an R1 Ranger Survivor (took four tries to get there - then lost it due to carelessness). And now I can proudly say I have an R3 Mesmer Survivor - who did not bail on missions and groups (not a "leaver"), who did not pay for leveling. Instead it took 1)effort and 2)planning and 3)caution. If aren't willing or able to do those three things, don't be so insulting to those who can.

umm what?

err anyways as for survivor the title itself isn't bad, I have first rank and would have had second rank, but.... the problem is the instability of the servers and the tendency for rubberbanding...

Yeah, survivor is a joke. A cruel, cruel joke. Only the patient (re-doing characters over and over if it gets ruined), hardcore (take for-freaking-ever), and lucky (no lag or d/c issues) players will be able to get legendary the "natural" way. Oh well, I'm fine with the first level on my ranger.

I honestly think some of you FORGET all the wonderful stuff A-Net has done for us. They fixed, added and changed so many things that we have asked/complained/whined/bitched/begged for. Of course not everything is going to be perfect as you cannot satisfy everyone and not everything is going to be implemented.

I think everyone is just really bored with GW right now. By now we'd have a new campaign to work on with new content.

so, in essence, we are kind of like the five year old child who has stayed up past their bedtime? Gettign all cranky and irritable because we are tired? Teehee.

Yay! Another thread ranting and complaining about anet. Anet has done some good things to guild wars, they can't always be right the first time but they usually will fix what doesn't work. Get over it, learn to adapt to changes and move on.

the AI of hench - still a bit stupid but most of the time they perform very nicely! the have huge problems "understanding" the skills though so they are better left with simple tasks like "heals for 60" and not "interrupt and GAIN energy"!

spirit AI - now that is a problem!
the idle spirits are huge and should be dealt with as fast as possible!

survivor - the title means nothing LIKE all other titles.
the problem with your idea is simple though - even if you complete all 3 games - doing the basics (and lets face it - if you're going for survivor you prolly completed all games already and you prolly don't feel like doing every little quest in the process!) you'll never get to 1,3 mil xp! you need to do extras to get it - that includes extra quests, farming, elite capping.
And it is possible to play normally while doing the survivor - it just depends on how good you are. My paragon completed c3 without a a single death and is currently in Cavalon and still alive. my monky, ranger, warrior completed c1 and (all but the warrior who is on his way) crossed the desolation on their way to survivor.
so please - stop with the bull that its not possible.
it is.
maybe you just suck! (and don't feel offended by this - many players do!)
the reason why players resort to farming - and why I farm the title - its because it's easier, safer and faster!

BUT the vizunah death, disconnects, lag spikes are an issue and should be dealt with! but that isn't just the problem of the survivor but is rather of the whole game!

Ok nice going there, then again a ranger isnt as hard as the Assassin, and even the sin can be turned into an critical barrager which is kinda lame way to earn legendary, i on the other hand have a survivor sin with a little over 250 K XP but ive done it all with daggers, theres no way im gonna make it a barrager because if i wanted that i could just start a new ranger.

Good luck on getting it btw, and just dont DIE.

I'd say getting rid of surviver would be the best thing, the title serves no real purpose.

Other than showing off that you havent died till that rank, yeah but most titles are for showing off anyhow.

Most other titles cause you to be a liability to your party (leaving).

thanks, had a couple close calls this morning, doing some quests on the kurzick side i managed to agro 4 groups just after taking agro of the first one. my previous attempts were with another ranger, ele, rit and my dervish. other ranger died at lvl 19, ele at lvl 7 getting across from lions arch to cantha for early max armor, rit doing the cap son quest and dervish trying to clear map area the same time as doing quests at level 12.

Given how large the game has become you can't factor out that its simple to maintain completely. You can't expect things to change over night. It's not like programming all that stuff can be simple.

[QUOTE]name the federal law that puts the feds in charge of setting win conditions or quit being a total red engines caboose

Completely agree with the OP.

Example: for a long time now, a ranger sometimes can not use skills when on higher ground.

When on a bridge or stairs, a ranger is always obstructed.

These things have been reported and posted on forums.
Are they fixed?

I don't think the title was the most important thing the OP mentioned. AI is complex and hard to make but some of the issues are easy to fix.

I still think A-Net has better support than any other MMO lately.
It is. I just can't stand people that spam the channel.

Sheesh.....Just tolerate it or turn it off you bunch of whining little babies!