Gaile Gray.6029

Flagging this as a fine example of how to properly show: what you needwhat you've received (as the requested number was edited as gifts were received)thanks for those who contributed.Well done, Smiggles!

I am going to point out, again, that this thread is a "helping others" thread. And I believe that StinVec was clear about how it's best to ask for specific help. With that in mind... It is unrealistic (and pretty inappropriate) to ask someone to simply give you/buy you a Legendary Weapon, enormous amounts of gold, or to make requests for unspecified amounts of expensive items. Asking for help while you acquire the Legendary is fine. Maybe you need specific mats. Give a number, ask for them by name and naturally, accept smaller gifts than the total you need. But asking for someone to buy you the weapon is far beyond realistic, and not within what I believe to be the intentions of this thread.

As I've noted several times in reply to other people making desire posts on how to remove the edit time limitation:Please participate in at least 5 different threads on the forums to attain 'Member' rank, which does not have a post edit time limitation. You can then come back and edit your original post with your updates. :) Do NOT make an additional post. Please comment in a few other threads to attain this rank and then return to edit your initial desire post with the updated desired amounts and replace this second post you've made with [removed post] as its contents so you do not have multiple posts. Thank you. :) This is extremely valuable advice. Members -- please follow the steps above to properly participate in this thread. As SV said, do not make a new post, but edit your post to reflect accurately the status of your request.

This subject arises regularly, and it's best to keep such a conversation in a single thread, to get a true cross-section of opinion. Therefore, we've merged this thread and ask for your indulgence in doing so. Those of you who have not voted may do so on the first page. Otherwise, the comments here, while merged, will give a pretty solid representation of the differing opinions on this topic.

This was three threads. Now it's one. I am posting because the "ArenaNet Flag" disappeared and I want it to be clear that there was a response to this concern within one of the three merged threads.

I like that idea and will see if it's possible for us to do it. I am hoping that once the monthly chats become better known, people will start looking for the announcement on the forums, or may seek the announcement thread, when they realize one is coming up. I'll noodle on how we could make the upcoming chats more visible, but due to dev schedules I probably only want to announce out a single month, since new projects come along, team member priorities change, and I'd hate to "commit" us to a date six months in advance, only to find that that is the very week we're releasing a new episode. :o I do agree with you, though, that it would be splendid to get more eyes on the AFCs, and thanks for the suggestion!

Hi folks, We're happy to host this subforum, and hope that it's helpful to you in building your guild family. I'd like to make you aware of a policy here: *We allow just one "bump" post a day. Posting a comment of substance is fine, but substance is more than "bump" or "join us." If you have something meaningful to say, please do so. If you want to bump, then check the date of the last post and do not do it unless at least 24 hours have passed. Thanks for understanding.

The subforum is live now! You can post any time between now and Friday afternoon. Gogogogo! I can't find the topic anymore, I found it like 5 mins ago but after a refresh it was gone.Oh, that may be because I flubbed my intro and didn't lock it, and so I remade it. The subforum -- that's where the action is -- can be found here: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/categories/march-2018%3A-lws4-episode-2

The subforum is live now! You can post any time between now and Friday afternoon. Gogogogo!

Hey there, Here's an update about the upcoming ArenaNet Forum Chat: Our first chat will take place this week, on Thursday and Friday, March 15 and 16. The topic will be Living World Season 4, Episode 2. Guests will include members of the Dev and Narrative Teams. I'll post intros when we start, but others may join in, as well.We'll have a dedicated sub-forum for each AFC, in the Game Discussion category, after Professions. Each chat will be a separate subforum or "child forum" as they're called, just Ranger, Necromancer, etc., are each a child forum of the category called Professions. The purpose of this format is to retain the archive intact, as a moment in time, and it will make finding comments or answers on a particular subject easier than looking through a larger forum.We will open the subforum on Thursday morning a bit in advance of the time the devs will be joining in, to allow you to post your questions. So feel free to think of your questions, feedback, and comments about LW24E2 now, and be ready to post!Friday afternoon, we'll close the sub-forum and it will become an archive of the chat. We'll open a new one for the next chat, which will take place in April.Normal forum rules apply, and if you note a post or comment of concern, we encourage you to please report it using the Report flag below the comments to allow a moderator can review and handle, as appropriate.If you have any questions, let me know!

I just checked with Cal, since he had responded earlier, and he said there were some issues earlier, but this should now be resolved. Could you please let us know if you still have issues? Thank you.

Will there be cake, party hats, and pin the tail on the dolyak? Shhh, don't tell the team, but I was thinking of at least bringing baked goods! Building Management forbids animals, so the dolyak pinning must take place off campus. :D

As long as you don't cancel the episode AMA on reddit. As much as people, for no good reason, like to complain about those AMAs being on reddit, reddit is an exponentially better platform for AMAs, since you can collapse entire comment threads, and go straight to the areas of the conversation that are relevant to what you want to know. This forum simply is not capable of that, and is exponentially worse at AMAs than reddit is. The Reddit Dev Celebration will take place, as always. I've already been in touch with the excellent crew at Reddit, and they're aware we'll be visiting there on March 6th. Thanks for asking, though, I think that needed to be clarified. I mean, a Dev Celebration is good. Having a Forum Chat a week-ish later is extra good, as they both fulfill different purposes and enhance our opportunities to hang out with players. :)

I wondered if someone was going to notice the AFC thing. ;) Ok, ok, I confess it. I got a smile on my face when I named the concept, being an AFC fan for many years. My favorite team (go orange and blue!) is AFC, was actually AFL back in the day long ago. And hey, I think the acronym works nicely for our project as well as the NCL. :D

Here's an update for you on the ArenaNet Forum Chats. As you can see ~glances at calendar~ it's now the end of February, but don't worry -- we have not forgotten this concept, and we intend to start the series very soon! In fact, I think the reason for the adjustment in the inaugural chat will be apparent when you read on... What's in store? I'm glad you asked. :D We've been talking internally, and reading your thoughts specifically about the AFCs coupled with your general feedback, as well. This has led us to a few ideas: It would be great if the first ArenaNet Forum Chat focuses on Living World Season 4, Episode 2. This would fulfill a pretty broadly expressed request, that in addition to the wonderful Dev Celebrations on the day of an episode's release, we also have another conversation opportunity a bit later, after you've had a chance to play the episode and come up with feedback, questions, ideas, and such. I'll reach out to the Ep 2 Team tomorrow and see who's on board, then fill you in later on who will be participating.The series will take place about monthly, as opposed to bi-weekly, because we agree with what some of you shared: A monthly cadence will fit better in the developer schedule and will be more productive and meaningful. (I already have a nice idea for the topic of April's chat. :) )We'll kick off the AFC series on Thursday, March 15. We're thinking that it may be good to have a focused hour or two of conversation -- that is, responding to forum posts -- over a couple of days, rather than one chat on a single day. This will depend on the developers' schedules, of course, but it sounds as if this is a solid option that may even offer the ability to get back to a question the second day, if a dev wants to check into something in order to respond or if someone is available only on one of the two days.We'll have a way to gather questions, so that if you cannot attend during the AFC, you still may be able to post your comment or question. The chat will have a solid end time, of course, but we'll be sure to preserve all questions and answers afterwards.The logistics -- where, who, when, that sort of thing -- will come later, but for now, I hope you find this information of interest, and I look forward to seeing a whole bunch of you during the chat.

I promised an update, and here it is: This bug has been reviewed and confirmed. It now officially is on the "To Be Fixed" List, and the team will be addressing it as soon as they're able to do so. Thank you very much for the reports. Also, thanks to those of you who shared the idea for people to try again, because it's good to know that sometimes, that sometimes works! However, that is not the optimal situation and this bug will be corrected so that NPC doesn't act coy about making exchanges. :D

So glad you solved the mystery! Oh and thank you very much for editing your title to indicate you'd gotten to that final POI. :)

I am asking about this today. I may not get an immediate reply, but the question is with the QA Team and I feel sure they'll get back to me -- or will post -- when there's info to share.

February is almost over, no AFC seen so far. Did the idea die? AFCs definitely will be proceeding! We'll have more info soon. :)

Alright, you guys, it's starting smell like Teen Spirit around here. :) Zedek: I'm going to respond to your concerns, because you're exactly right about errors in the past. I want to work through them with you, but I agree, "errors were made" as the saying goes, and I'm in full confession mode for my part in them. Thanks for submitting that ticket so I can let you know what I found out. ReaverKane: I'm still working on the process for removing a post when it (usually inadvertently) quotes unacceptable content. I think we can do better, and I'll try to figure that out!

I wanted to attend to this one. Do you mean in-game moderation or forum moderation? If forums, I sure want to look into that, and invite you to e-mail Forums@Arena.Net if you have questions. As far as removing quotes of unacceptable content from the forums: I am working with the moderators to be sure that they let each person whose post was removed know: why it was removedthat they are welcome (in most cases) to repost if they can do so without quoting or referring to the removed contentthat the removal in nearly all cases does not impact their accountFor instance, Fred Player.1234 says something offensive and below that, Mary Ranger.4291 posts to say "Hey, don't do that!" or even posts without realizing that the content they've quoted is unacceptable. (It might contain a call-out, an insult, a link to unacceptable content, etc. -- it's not always easy to see every single element in a light reading.) So when Mary's post is removed, we want her to know the details of why it happened and how benign the outcome was for her account. (The message that the mods send does, unfortunately, begin with, "You have been warned" but that's not something that I can change. I trust that anyone receiving such a notice will read the details to fully understand how the action didn't impact them in any way.

I'm sorry to hear that. Generally, forum-related tickets are forwarded immediately to me, and I promise you I review every single ticket and e-mail that comes in, and I respond to them all. I will look into what you've described and see what took place. If the ticket is old enough that it's been archived, I will not be able to respond to it, and it seems silly to generate a new ticket to talk about an issue that was resolved weeks ago, as you mentioned. But I will look into the forum-related tickets and see what I can discover. Thanks for letting us know.

As an American who spent part of her childhood/teen years living in England, who wrote for a UK publisher for years, and who has an internal American English --> UK English translator in her head ;) I agree. Despite Winston Churchill's definition of us as "two countries divided by a common language," there are very few basic differences, and those are easily reconciled. I do wish I hadn't be asked to stop using proper spelling (back in the early days of Anet). To me, "armour" and "colour" just look right and proper. :)

A message from McKenna Berdrow: I want to update everyone on the design we currently are investigating to help achieve population balance between worlds, and the goals we hope this new World Restructuring system can achieve. The goals of the World Restructuring system are: Create great matchesHandle population fluctuationsBalance teamsDiversify WvW experiencesIt is important to keep in mind that we still are investigating and working on this system. It is possible that this system will continue to evolve as we develop it, and we will be constantly testing to make sure the system meets our goals and our expectations for a quality experience. This post is an opportunity to share with you our plans for the new system, and respond to questions before the system is far long in the development process. Restructuring WorldsEven though world linking has brought world populations closer together, it is impossible for us to get populations and coverage any closer because the current worlds do not give us the granularity needed to do that. For example in NA, Blackgate has decent coverage across all time zones whereas worlds like Crystal Desert have higher peak times and lower off-hour times. Because world linking isn't granular enough, we don't have the ideal link that allows Crystal Desert to have coverage that is similar to Blackgate. This is why, in the new World Restructuring system, we will remove all players from their current worlds, and make new worlds every eight weeks. This will create more granular pieces, which allow us to avoid situations like the Crystal Desert example. Since worlds will not exist any longer, the "World Selection" that currently is available in character select will be eliminated, and instead a selection for playing in either North America or Europe will replace it. World CreationThe system creates new worlds and assigns them a pre-generated name at the start of each season. We use 'season' to describe the time between World Restructuring. We plan on eight-week seasons, which is similar to the current time between links. We will discuss more about seasons later. World Creation builds teams so they have similar predicted participation, skill, coverage, and language. Team assignment moves players onto teams by calculating the contribution value of a player and using that calculation to distribute players fairly. We plan to track stats like play hours in WvW, commander time and squad size, time of day, and participation levels. The exact stats have yet to be determined and we are open to suggestions of other stats to use in this system. This new system will expand upon the current calculation that uses play hours for linking. If a player has played WvW before, we will be able to use the statistics from their account to sort them into a new world. The system also makes a world assignment for players who have not played WvW before, when they first begin WvW. Ideally the system will assign a new player to a world on which their friends or guild mates play, thereby making it easier than it is at present for people to play with friends in WvW. Playing with Guild MatesWe want to make sure that playing with WvW guild mates is easy in this new system. Guilds will be able to specify if they are a WvW guild. This essentially means the World Restructuring system will consider that factor at the start of each season when assigning the guild to a world. On an individual player level, once a player's guild has specified they are a WvW guild, the individual player will be able to set ONE of their guilds as their personal WvW guild. When World Restructuring happens at the start of a season, as long as you have specified your WvW guild, you will be assigned to the same world as everyone else in your WvW guild, guaranteeing you will be able to play with your guild mates. Creating AlliancesWe also want to make sure that existing WvW communities can play together in this new system. A WvW guild will be able to invite other WvW guilds to their WvW Alliance. WvW Alliances function as a party for guilds. When World Restructuring happens, the system assigns all members in the WvW guilds that make up the WvW alliance to the same world. These WvW alliances will have certain restrictions on them, such as a finite number of guilds or number of players. Our current plans for alliance size are somewhere between 500-1000 members, and we are still considering the technical and match-making ramifications of the number that we settle upon. World Creation SummarySo to summarize world creation: at the start of every season our new World Restructuring system will use recent statistics, based on similar predicted participation, skill, and coverage, to create worlds filled with alliances, guilds, and unaffiliated players. The above graph displays an example of what makes up a world under the World Restructuring system. Keep in mind, due to the algorithm used to keep worlds balanced, the number of alliances, guilds, and individual players can be wildly different between worlds, but the participation and playtime should be relatively the same. Seasons Seasons break WvW into cycles where several matches will play out. The current design for seasons is 8 weeks, but we are open to feedback. Matches are still a week long, so there would be eight matches a season in the above scenario. During the season, we will still be using 1-up, 1-down. Stages:SeasonOnce new worlds have been created and everyone has been sorted onto their WvW worlds, the new season has officially began.During a season players can manage their WvW guilds and alliances after reset and through the end of Week 7, but their WvW guild and WvW alliances will not be updated until the start of the next season.Ex: If you are playing WvW with Guild A this season and decide to set Guild B as your WvW guild in the middle of the season, you will not be able to play with Guild B until the next season, unless you transfer (more about that later).Season EndA week before the season ends, that is, during Week 8 in the season, you no longer will be able to manage your WvW guilds or alliances. Your WvW guild and alliances will be locked down at this time.Everyone is kicked out of WvW, as they are with every reset. WvW will spin back up, as it currently does after reset, and everyone will now be sorted into their new worlds.World CreationAlliances, guilds, and individual players are sorted to be on a world.This will happen at the same time as current WvW reset.Transfers Region TransfersTransferring between regions, from NA to EU, will still exist. We have not determined the costs for transferring but a region selection will be available on the character select screen that will allow transfers. World TransfersWe understand that even though this system tries to keep guilds and alliances together, there will be times during the season when people want to change teams. Because of this, there are plans to allow transfers between worlds during a season. This means that new worlds will have size restrictions on them, as they do currently. Players will be able to select worlds from the WvW panel in game. Worlds that are available for transfers will show up in the new WvW world panel. Worlds can be in these three different states: The cost of transfer worlds has not been determined. Transitioning to this SystemThis system is going to take time to make. As mentioned in the WvW FAQ, part of the reason we did World Linking was because it utilized a lot of existing tech and did not require a considerable amount of time. This allowed us to address the growing population issue quickly, while also being able to address other WvW issues. This new system is going to take considerably more time to make. We do not have a release date, but this is going to require several months of work and it will share resources with any other WvW changes that we work on. Transitioning to this system is going to be slow and we want to make this transition as smooth as possible. Once this system is ready, we plan to give everyone several weeks to form their WvW guilds and alliances. We also want to give titles related to the worlds on which players currently are playing when World Restructuring goes live. If there are other transition ideas, we would love to hear them! We will continue with World Linking until World Restructuring is ready to ship. FeedbackThat was a lot of information and I am sure there are many questions. The team will do its best to answer them. We appreciate any feedback on this system. Your opinions of this system, as well as the community's response, will be an important part of how we tackle this project. If the reception is not great for this system, then the other alternative is most likely to continue World Linking. Even though making a choice between the two systems might seem like too drastic a change for some people, we have been exploring other designs to deal with WvW populations for years and we believe that World Restructuring or World Linking are the only solutions that meet our requirements. Simply "blowing up" worlds or removing people from the worlds on which they currently play is high risk (which is why we have avoided it for so long), and the only reason we are considering World Restructuring now is because it allows players to maintain and continue to build some of the communities they've created through the years.