Idea: Give us a way to install updates without logging all the way out

Title says it all. Let us stay at least logged in while it updates. Then, we can read those notices you only see after login, but before you hit the PLAY button.

What notices?Is there something I'm missing?

You mean the notices that are on the forum News and Announcements?

Yeah, that's the only thing I could think of. They are easily accessed logged in or not. I have that tab open at all times. Also, I'm not sure what logging out and back in has to do with seeing them (unless you have 'Autoplay' ticked, I guess).https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/

When you click logon, you get a list of announcements and articles. It's the only way I know how to find them.

But, even if it weren't, why log us all the way out? Maybe there's a technical reason, but unless there is, it's wasted time.

Yes, the News Blog (link above).Probably for the same reason that you can find yourself and your friend/party/guildie in the same map/hall, but can't see each other (when one has updated and one has not). Playing on two different versions of the game.

Ever since Windows “improved” itself to Windows 10, If I’m logged into the game on my computer I can’t tab out and google the forum without going in to options and changing the game’s window size. Maybe that’s what he means. However I read the forum and do my googling on my iPad so that doesn’t matter to me. Perhaps the OP can check the forum on his phone or other device if he wants to read the News and Announcements while updating.

We already have it better than most other games out there. Any other MMO I've played required a several hour maintenance. Here, a simple relog. I'd rather they not change that. If I want the news to what's there, I alt-tab before patching.

How odd. I can alt-tab in Windows 10.
Perhaps, it's something to do with resolution or 'Windowed Fullscreen' or something.

Regardless, it's not like accessing the News Blog has ever been difficult; one can surely read it whilst updating. Same with Patch Notes.

You want them to change an entire launch mechanic ... so you can read a few notices?Wouldn't it be just as good to ask ANet to publish the notices in more places?

Yeah, I have the game in Windows Fullscreen and on my computer I can’t alt tab to access another window when it’s on that setting. I have to set it on a different size first if I want to do that. /shrug. But the forum/google can be accessed other ways so it’s a minor annoyance.

Guys lest be thankful, servers arn't going down for 4-5 hours and then downtime being extended to 48 hours.And then because of reason, game doesn't have to be rolled back, with another extended downtime of 72 hoursAfter every single patch

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:How odd. I can alt-tab in Windows 10.

Perhaps, it's something to do with resolution or 'Windowed Fullscreen' or something.

Me to. In fact I frequency that I do it can probably be considered ridiculously often. Works in both fullscreen and windowed fullscreen.

Regardless, it's not like accessing the News Blog has ever been difficult; one can surely read it whilst updating. Same with Patch Notes.

For hot fixes it can be useful to see what the change is. For example with the latest one I wouldn't have bothered patching all that urgently since nothing on it mattered to me.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:You want them to change an entire launch mechanic ... so you can read a few notices?Wouldn't it be just as good to ask ANet to publish the notices in more places?

and you would still have to go on the forum to read it anyway

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:You want them to change an entire launch mechanic ... so you can read a few notices?Wouldn't it be just as good to ask ANet to publish the notices in more places?

It shouldn't be that hard. If it is, that's the way it goes. But, it shouldn't be hard. They're already doing two steps now. This would just skip one of them (the logout).

And how would the game know you wanted to patch? Are you saying the game should automatically patch? Would that not mean throwing everyone out of instances and/or resetting every event? What if you were 2 minutes from finishing a long event? You'd be willing to forego those rewards?I think it's much better to be able to choose (within the present time limit) when to update the client. I mean, it's only a matter of a short time before you are able to log in, again (for most). (There's an option to download whilst in-game.)

@Daddicus.6128 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:You want them to change an entire launch mechanic ... so you can read a few notices?Wouldn't it be just as good to ask ANet to publish the notices in more places?

Your stated issue is wanting to read notifications. There are lots of ways to address that.

And it's a mistake to assume that a step is easy because it seems quick to you. One has to relogin to the forums (as well as other sites) after updating one's browser. It's part of the nature of software management: when you update, the application has to be closed, which means you're logged out.

Talk about first world problems... I remember the first time I was asked to restart the game to apply an update. I thought: wait, what? No 4 to 6 hour down time during European prime time? Just close, reload, install and bobs your uncle?

Wow what does the OP want Anet to do update the game while in game that is impossible. We are lucky because Anet updates in the background then when it is ready it goes into the game in a small amount of time. This way they can test the results outside of the game and make sure it works. If they tried to do that live it could ruin the game completely. This gives them a buffer not to let that happen. I have heard of games that shut down for hours to apply updates no one plays at all. Anet made that problem go away by only making people log out then log back in for updates. So consider your self lucky because you are not having to wait so long for updates to happen. It is well announced when it will happen to log off how long you have usually a couple hours before the game logs you off for the update usually 2 hours that gives you time to finish something you are doing.

@Daddicus.6128 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:You want them to change an entire launch mechanic ... so you can read a few notices?Wouldn't it be just as good to ask ANet to publish the notices in more places?

We're not talking about some web-based application where most of the computing and data management is done on a server somewhere on the other side of the internet and your browser just pulls the information to display to you next. A piece of software like the gw2 client, while still communicating with external servers to coordinate the data of everyone playing at the same time, has to do a lot of calculations by itself. To get an updated version up and running, there's no way around closing the previously running executable and starting up a new one, including (but not limited to) disconnecting the connection between the running executable (because it's no longer running) and the server.

I'm not asking to leave the client running. Just skip the logout piece. Return to the logged-in window instead of the base client startup window.

So... what you want is not not have to click the Login button again?

I suspect it has to do with how the process works. You're logged into a certain version of the game. Patching it to the new version puts you onto a new server that runs the new version. Now in order to do that the launcher probably should direct you to the right server type and that's why I think you need to log out.

I'm not sure if the game is built in a way that this can be circumvented and I sure as hell don't think it's worth their development time all things considered. This really is a first world problem. Other games are down for hours when applying patches. Why can't you just be happy with a situation that is already better than most other MMOs?

Aion could be off for most of the day on a Wednesday, I personally have a 2min wait on a big update, I know what i would rather have.The update needs to do stuff so needs for the game to be logged, ie Dat files etc.

@Chyanne Waters.8719 said:Wow what does the OP want Anet to do update the game while in game that is impossible. We are lucky because Anet updates in the background then when it is ready it goes into the game in a small amount of time. This way they can test the results outside of the game and make sure it works. If they tried to do that live it could ruin the game completely. This gives them a buffer not to let that happen. I have heard of games that shut down for hours to apply updates no one plays at all. Anet made that problem go away by only making people log out then log back in for updates. So consider your self lucky because you are not having to wait so long for updates to happen. It is well announced when it will happen to log off how long you have usually a couple hours before the game logs you off for the update usually 2 hours that gives you time to finish something you are doing.

What the OP wants is completely possible. That becomes even more clear with additional posts.

OP just did an extremely bad job with the thread topic.

@Rasimir.6239 said:

@Daddicus.6128 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:You want them to change an entire launch mechanic ... so you can read a few notices?Wouldn't it be just as good to ask ANet to publish the notices in more places?

Heh the linux kernel actually has a feature that is very much like this called livepatch but I doubt anyone would think this is worth the effort for general applications

@Daddicus.6128 said:I'm not asking to leave the client running. Just skip the logout piece. Return to the logged-in window instead of the base client startup window.

and this is why you should start off with describing whatever problem it is that you are trying to solve rather than trying to present a solution off the bat

@Trise.2865 said:So... what you want is not not have to click the Login button again?

In that case there is the -autologin option ...

I just wish the updates didn't drop shortly after the daily server restart (like the last three days in a row), when anyone like me has just logged on to tackle the new dailies and other time-gated tasks, only to be forced to relog and update as modes become unavailable and the playerbase splits between those who've updated and those who haven't. Why can't the updates drop before the reset so we get it when logging in and don't have to relog shortly after?