Curse

Phantom Knight · Jun 19, 2005, 03:36 PM // 15:36

This is the email I sent to GW support:
"
How do I get back into my group after I got disconnected/crash 3-4 hours into a long hard quest? (underworld or fissure for example.) If the option is not available, then can add this feature in? I know lots of people play this game on dial-up and get disconnected quite often. Also, the game built is not perfect and bugs/crash happend all the time. Crashing only annoy people because it drop them out of a 3 hours hard quest/mission and make them redo that 3 hours over again. While making patches to fix crash bugs, could you make a feature to let people back into the group once got crashed, since this game is different from other MMORPG that's each group is isolate in one server and there no way to find your last group once you got disconnected from the game? That would relieve a lot of frustration. Just put a tracker on each of the 8 members of the group that match the tracker on the server that they spawn; then when a player got crashed and choose to go back to the last server he was in, match him back to that last server he was in if it's still active, and put him in. Doesn't have to be put back at the position of the group, just at the beginning of the quest/mission inside that server is enough. It seems simple enough and would help out a lot of frustrated people.
Give me a reply so that i know you actually read my problem.
Thank you.
"

And this is the reply I got from them:
"
Hello Jonathan,

Thank you for contacting the Guild Wars Support team on this. We have heard from different one this frustration of not being able to rejoin a group when disconnected in the middle of a mission or quest. I think it would definitely add to gameplay overall if there was an option to rejoin a group when this happens. I would like to encourage you to consider posting this as
a suggestion on one of many of the Guild Wars Fansite message boards. A compiled list can be found here (http://guildwars.com/community/default.html). By posting on one of these message boards, other players can comment on your ideas, concerns, and suggestions, and Development Team members are able to catch up on what the community wants to see in Guild Wars. Fansite forums make it easy and efficient for us to learn from those playing the game.

Thank you for your efforts in assisting us to create the best gaming experience possible.
Kind Regards,
The Guild Wars Support Team
"

Waiting for patches and updates to fix crash bugs can be a long and frustrated waiting game itself. This feature would be a immediate reliever to many crash problems.

On exploitation:
1. Players quit intentionally to change skills before rejoin the group.
2. Players quit intentionally when they are dead in the game or incur high death penalty(dp) to clear dp.

Prevention:
1. Make players chose to rejoin at log-on screen. If they chose not to rejoin, clear the server tracker of those players so they can't rejoin the game after log-on screen. Making them choose at log-on screen will also eliminate many other exploits that they might be able to do in town to help them in that particular mission/quest that they got disconnected or quit.
2. For this exploit, introduce 2 variables to keep track of the dead/alive status and death penalty of players and use them to put players back in that server with the same status and death penalty as before the disconnection.

Those are the only 2 exploits that I can think of that might happen and ways to prevent them. If there are other exploits that bother you developers and stop you from implementing this feature, post them on this page so others can help suggesting solutions to them. There are many honest players who just want to play and enjoy this game without any disconnection, frustration that seem to happen quite a few times. Just because this feature can be exploited, doesn't mean it should be ignored; like an enchantment in the game can be easily broken but doesn't mean players should stop using enchantments. Let many eager people in the community help to make the game better by suggesting ways to overcome obstacles to implementing this new game feature.

With that, I hope to see this new feature added to the game soon. After all, this game was boasted as dial-up friendly, and this new feature would eliminate one big problem (unstable connection/disconnection) that make the game not so dial-up friendly for those who play this game on dial-up. And for others, crash bugs will always be there, hidden somewhere in the game programming. If crash has happen to you before or to your friends, or you just hate it when people left your party all of a sudden (mostly because of crash/disconnection that they didn't even have time to give you an explanation, heavy lagging is a sign of this problem too), leaving only a few left to fight the last part of fissure/underworld/missions with hard monsters and bosses and you have spent 4-5 hours to get there, then this feature will be the one you want to have added to the game.

If you support the addition of this feature, please post here saying that you support this feature and leave your country and in-game character in your post. If you have any concern with this feature, don't hesitate to post it here so other people can suggest solutions to it to make it more viable for this feature to be added.

Country: USA
In-game character: Phantom Knight

Loviatar · Jun 19, 2005, 04:11 PM // 16:11

if you can break into the instance so can a hacker

Anet said earlier that for security purposes you will not be able to break into an instance

i dont see this changing in the near future if at all since instances are one of its base ideas not pop out and pop back in

Drago Solaris · Jun 19, 2005, 04:41 PM // 16:41

also if u get disconected realy close to the end and your team finishes the missions withought you you will still hav to re do the entire thing

Quantum_Cats · Jun 19, 2005, 04:45 PM // 16:45

agreed. The last two times I have done missions, we've had people drop. And I PM them, and they say their computer crashed, they're real sorry, and then my ENTIRE GROUP has to start over, because a 1 wasn't a 0 or some stupid coding error. Wastes a good 45 minutes of a mission we didnt get to beat, then we have to GO BACK IN AND DO IT AGAIN, for another 45 minutes. The game is fun and all, but having to do something twice that should have been finished the first time is NEVER fun.

Aetherfukz · Jun 19, 2005, 05:40 PM // 17:40

The idea would rock, but you would have to really cut out the exploitations. One thing I could imagine would be the following:

When a player drops, his healthbar gets greyed-out but the name and class/level stil is displayed (even after going thru a portal into another exploration area I think). So the game still kinda knows who was there after he dropped. So maybe set some kind of flag on the main server that this exact player is greyed out (meaning he dropped) from that particular group, in this exact instance.

So when the player logs in again, he would have some kind of rejoin-button, which would warp him back around where the group is at that moment. Oh, and make it so the only has the chance to rejoin before he logs in with his character, so there would be no time for reskilling.

That way I think there would no way to exploit it...

silvertemplar · Jun 19, 2005, 05:44 PM // 17:44

Yes i would like this feature too. If they are worried about the security, then i suggest they create "mini-hubs" inside missions. These hubs would only be available to the group.

Something to this effect:

Whenever something goes wrong with your connection you get the option to rejoin your previous group at "IN-MISSION HUB" when you login. This hub would be identical to the cities/towns/outposts except without any NPCs AND without exits BUT with various entrances. When you rejoin, you will be thrown into the hub ALONE, your team will then have to find a HUB-ENTRANCE to pull you back in. Only way to leave the hub is to click on "enter mission" similar to when you enter it in the beginning, EXCEPT now you will return to the original hub entrance where the team came from.

Essentially, these hub 'entrances' can be scattered all over the mission AND over normal areas too. If the team don't want you, they just don't come and fetch you. Even if you 'hack' yourself into the mission, you will be 'stuck' in hub [and you don't get anything for being in the hub if mission ends]. Further security if you were not in the original group, you can not rejoin the group, even if you somehow managed to get into the hub.

This can be used further in various ways , like maybe a type of save-point for the group [i.e. if you entered a hub at point x, and your team dies, you can optionally return to that hub instead of the beginning etc, same as resurrection shrine].

Catch is, enter/leaving a hub will mean the obvious : Everything respawns.

Anyway just my thoughts.

Makkert · Jun 19, 2005, 08:18 PM // 20:18

Fully support it.

Netherlands
IGN Makkert I

Anarchist_Monk · Jun 19, 2005, 10:06 PM // 22:06

This is something I have not ever experienced in any other games, good customer and producer relations. Anet actually cares what we think about their game and they are open to most of our suggestions. Most games require only Alpha and beta testers to post suggestions and things. I really like the way Anet works and comunicates with us. This is just another example.