devtrackers.gg
It’s happening in PvE as well. I read through the crash log and this is what I found:
Crash log shows that the game is having problems loading textures. In addition to this, it can’t find animations for certain skills, resulting in these strange crashes. Unfortunately, the log doesn’t show time stamps so I can’t tell if all the missing textures and animations are happening at once or building up over time and then causing a crash.
I’m guessing that people are crashing more in competitive game modes due to the skill animation not being found, and since so many skills are being used consistently, it’s probably freaking the game out.
Cheers for the digging, SpicySalsaDance. It's certainly been...well, not boring, at the office this evening.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you folks know two things: first, we definitely hear y'all, and have been cranking away to get this crash hammered out. (In the end, it was kind of a convergence of unfortunate events. Ain't that always the way.) We'll be sorting through the details tomorrow, but for now, I just wanted to post to say that we very much do pay attention when players run into fires like this.
Oh, and the second thing: the fix just went out, so you should be all clear. Holla if you see anything else, but otherwise, go nuts. ; )
Thanks for the response. Would love to hear the details of what exactly was happening if you have time/you’re allowed to disclose it.
Also, will there be compensation for the people that lost rank points and PvP matches due to this bug?
For those who got stung by the bug, I really can't speak to what happens next, as I'm way out of my depth in that field -- less "I can't tell you" and more "I don't know." I'd work with customer service, as needed. (Rote answer, I know.) My role in all this was just working on the fix: I was part of the roving band of programmers last night, moving from desk to desk, trying all sorts of things to get a repro, a fix, and a verification last night. (Testing required multiple clients, sometimes from desks on different ends of the building, so I was literally dashing around the halls last night. Got my cardio in, at least.)
As for what actually happened, it's...complicated. A collection of disparate things, really. Involving a very sick dev (who was out of commission that day), risks stemming from setting up our tech infrastructure to support development of a steady flow of new shinies on a live game, and, frankly, a really, really big code base. I don't mean that as a weird humble brag -- those are the actual ingredients here. I've seen some conjecture that we forgot to copy-paste code from PvE into PvP / WvW, or that we don't care about those modes, or whatever. Let me be the first to assure anyone feeling that way: neither is true. (And that's just not how things work here. :P)
For the more nuts-and-boltsy among y'all, some deets: basically, the crash required a set of circumstances that just don't converge except in content with lots (not few) of human-controlled agents (not NPCs) that are customized for aesthetics (not re-created freshly, as is often the case in development for the purposes of controlling variables). Translation: the crash really only happened reliably on Live (ruh roh) in player-vs.-player contexts. Which meant that WvW, PvP, and the demo derby took it on the chin. /trombone
TLDR: We feel ya, WvW and PvP! I promise promise promise, there's nothing underhanded here. Just a bug. Eventually squashed by a stampede of programmers late last night.