GW ATS Tester Thread

What do you guys think of it so far? If something like this was added to guild wars it would rock! I am really having fun, despite losing a lot.

Anyways, I thought if I created a thread where we can post bugs/experiences it would make it a lot easier on Gaile/Devs to see what us testers have to say.

Oh and btw, I love how I got to face Brett He is so fast, and uses a skill called "BAMPH!" which kills everyone in one shot haha.

Now that was possibly, the single best event ever. only problem was the Error 007, but i didn't mind, i won one because of it, lost one aswell.

Anyways, here's some Pics from the Event, i'll assume we're allowed to post em as the GMs said we could.

Oh the Pretty Fireworks:
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/5562/gw003xi7.jpg

Possibly, the wierdest title ever.
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/1581/gw004qf5.jpg

My first match against Beta Test FTW(Who i think is a member here)(Ended in a sorta...Draw)
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/6007/gw011ee6.jpg

As you can see, i was the unlucky recipitent of a can of GM Whoop-Ass from Andrew Patrick, who absolutly kicked my ass from all directions.
http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/7418/gw013tz7.jpg

The legendary Rank 15, ofcourse it had to be a GM, the Emote is the that firey bird thing, quite cool, also there's 2 GM Rangers, we all got Served by em.
http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8456/gw017tp8.jpg

This Photo shows the Vanquishing Gladiator title, and the fact that i was against C O B A L T, who Also kicked my ass.
http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/700/gw019uc9.jpg

And finnally, the scoreboard, my position was 51st, which considering i had only 1 win wasn't that bad, Izzy got on top i think, not surprosing a GM kicked our asses.

Here is a picture of Brett's fight with me. He killed all my heroes in one shot! Then proceeded to "speed hack" around the map. It was quite funny lol.



I also have pictures of pandas and the gm that looked like an asura

I was one of the lucky chosen, and I had a blast! Orbknight's screenshots showed the excitement. Every tester I ran into had positive comments, without regards to who won the matches. ArenaNet's Andrew was great at greeting and orientating us, like explaining how to unlock every skill and item in the game.

As for the Hero Battles, they are solid. The only trouble I ran into was my ZBoard was not working properly, which was easily fixed by swapping out keyboards, and sending a quick bug report to ArenaNet.

Thank You ArenaNet for giving us this opportunity!

Hey Orbknight (check my avatar if you don't know who I am)

Yeah it was great fun. Only two bugs I heard about were the err7 on entrance (only occurred once to me, and on the only time I tried to change anything about my build while the fight countdown was going on), and the win by err7 not giving points.

Oh, and Brett hax!

I'd give the name of the command he used to run fast (only usable on test server ), but since it can be used in combat areas, I'd rather not.

Here are my opinions on the tournament system:

1) Flawless setup. Reasonable time between rounds, and the ability to make changes is highly beneficial. You can even leave the outpost and come back and things are still just as they should be! You can even grab a new build and it works!

1a) For GvG, however, I would recommend a longer time between rounds so that each guild can see the name of its opponent and build accordingly. Perhaps six minutes?

2) How would the time limit work in GvG? 30 minute time limit and then it's an auto-draw?

3) "Information" screen is perfect. Win/Loss ratio, points...it's all there.

Do you mean he just slammed you all down with one skill?
Kinda lame but...
WTB: 1 hit kill skill (any price)

Question, was Gaile Gray in there?

He lost all his matches. Apparently he /resign'ed every single time.

No, according to one of the devs she was in a meeting.

The mahogany furniture thing is probably rank 5 of the kind of a big deal title.

That was moderately fun..........AFTER having to download for 1.5 hours, the entire client, engine, and game into its own directory.

I had two high points, after having played 5 matches.
1. The two I lost were obviously to some pretty dang good pvp'ers, who wiped the map with my innards
2. I actually played GM's 3 times, and they let me win. One used secret cheat codes and stood me up 1 on 4 for a pretty long time before I finally degened him to death. I took on Brett Vickers One and Two, but he didn't use BAMPH on me.

I took plenty of screenies, but I'll have to put them in when I get home tonight. I got some pics of the crazy rank emote and the GM's in action

One thing this DOES prove is that GM's certainly do have the ability to cheat, hack, add gold and items (their pets), and all that jazz

This is true only on the test servers. We cannot do these things on Live.

I'm sorry for any misimpressions that the joking use of these "hacks" may have caused, but I assure you--hand on heart--that these skills are not hidden in the game for use by the Dev Team. We would not risk our reputation or our honour as players and as human beings by taking advantage of cheats on the Live server.

it's cool, if I ever coded a game as huge and fun as GW, I'd save a little something for myself.........anyways, it is my goal for tomorrow's testing to get BAMPH'ed

That would be horrendous, and would ruin it for those of us who care about our reputation in the game. Would you want to play a Dev who had cheats? Of course not! We don't have them on Live, and I'm asking that the team not confuse people by showing test-serve hacks in ways that someone, somewhere is going to think applies to real, live in-game possibilities.

Again, apologies for this.

I had computer troubles, so I just played one round, got rolled by some Anet wussy lawl.

I did see Andrew with the Gold Trimmed, Beer Mug, Logo'd Anet cape lol.

I was entertaining guests for the holidays from my Mothers side of the family plus I didn't get my acceptance e-mail just about an hour ago but from what I've seen through screenshots and the current live version of the Hero Battles, it is a GREAT improvement.

Hopefully I can play against Brett tommarow xD

First, it was rare and enjoyable experience. TY for accepting my registration.

For those who want to know how ATS actually works: follow this link to see some screenies. Though the report/introduction is written in Japanese, I'm sure you can make out what each SS means, especially if you've already read the official article about coming ATS changes.

Some thoughts/questions:
1. I was a bit surprised at the small size of tester pool
Considering the nature of stress test, I expected hundreds of testers and multiple tournament instances. Instead, there were only 77 competitor (including devs) and 2 instances (64 & 13).
Too short registration period, bad timing (celebration for some ppl), or many non-present players?

2. ATS worked smoothly
We had to restart test client prior to the beginning of the first round. But the registration wasn't cancelled and we don't have to restart from the scratch. The same could be said who got disconnected upon loading etc.
As long as server runs well, we can keep taking part in the ongoing tourney.

Auto match-making, notification, etc. were informative. We could use the spare time to our convenience.
eg. Taking a break, snatching a drink, making adjustment to build for the next opponent (this might be important esp. for GvG) etc.

I'm not sure whether current 'interval' is appropriate or not yet. For the longer tourney (GvG), longer interval might be recommended, though. (4+ hours w/ very short rest would be painful.)

3. Random map choice? (Q)
At least, HvH Swiss matches were played on randomly chosen map. Will the same system be used for GvG Swiss/Single Elimination as well? This would affect build choices for GvG.

4. Longest match time fixed? (Q)
In HvH ATS, all matches began at the same time. And when my own match finished, the timer said 'Time until all battles complete'. So there's time limit for each round.
As HvH has time limitation, there's no problem. But how about GvG? Will the game considered 'draw' if neither side are unable to kill enemy lord before some fixed time?

5. Information window is handy
It shows how your instanced tournament goes at any given time. You can see ranking, points, W/L/D, and status. The status shows not only waiting/playing, but also how one win/lose as well (won, lost, bye, won by forfeit, forfeit). This is very cool feature.

Head on in tomorrow, and we'll start rolling at Noon Pacific (19:00 GMT). Yes, I'll be there. Although that means three hours of no Chocolate Bunny and Golden Egg farming. Maybe I won't be there.

Also, if you didn't apply to test, it may not be too late. We're accepting a few more folks, if you write us this weekend. We'll set up those few additional test accounts on Monday, so let us hear from you.

See GWW for info!

I registered after the first test, and i just got admitted a few hours ago. Im all ready for tommorow. So, i guess you can still register?

EDIT: Nvm, Gaile confirmed it. Thanks for the late invite, Anet. xD

What is that supposed to mean Gaile (sorry for the off topic part there.)

The AT's look great and its funny to see the dev's having fun on the Test servers, :S I wish my apartment smelled of rich mahogany.

What the hell