Posts by Iaerah

  • Guild Wars Wiki 403 Forbidden

    ArenaNet has been using Amazon's services for years and years for hosting everything. So when I use my personal VPN and try to access the wiki through it, I get a 403 Forbidden from it, returned from Amazon's Load Balancers.

    This most likely means that they have set up rules on their load balancers against specific providers that are often used to run AI or scraping bots. A few providers that come to mind are Hetzner, OVH, DigitalOcean and so on - not because they are necessairily bad, but because they might experience more issues with servers from those providers. The wiki itself is also mainly used by regular users and banning the IP ranges from server hosts makes sense - it'll have little to no impact for regular home internet users, but it will cut off almost all of the scraping you might experience.

    However, a lot of VPNs also utilize theze providers or the same datacenters that are being used to scrape from the wiki-servers. So it makes sense to ban them, but you will catch those on a VPN (as those have non-residential IP addresses) in the crossfire.

    There are other ways to block this kind of traffic, but on Legacy we also experience a lot of issues with scrapers as well - and the only solution I've seen that actually works against them is indeed blocking the ASN of the provider that is being used for those attacks - banning a single IP manually barely does anything for a few minutes at most.
    (An ASN-number is used to identify a provider and is linked to the IP-addresses they own. If you block an ASN number, you basically block an entire host or large chunks of their servers).
    Legacy has some special tools running on the server, like CrowdSec (and CloudFlare in front of it as well), that also try to mitigate huge scraping efforts, but those just don't cut it when an army of bots is scraping everything. They use search in rapid succession, go through posts very quickly and make a ton of requests in such a short while that it generates a huge load on our server - our server is absolutely overpowered, but such a scraping attack easily eats 20-25% of the total server resources and just block the total amount of threads that are available to PHP and the database, which ment that during such an attack, Legacy could become unavailable for regular users or just respond extremely slowly.

    AI companies say that they respect your instructions that you site should not be scraped, but that is unfortunately absolutely not the case. At this point, there's still quite a few (mostly Asian, for some reason) ASN numbers blocked on Legacy because they just generated such a load that I got constantly pinged by the monitoring services.

    (Fun fact, the main reason why Legacy started to struggle had to do with how it identifies crawlers (which search engines use to index Legacy) and it generated so many look-up queries that the database basically locked up. I took this up with the forum software developers and they have fixed this in the software.).

    Quote from BooBoo

    I seem to get this when I don't use a VPN

    Could be that your ISP is on the ban-list, but your VPN isn't. That's a strange case though, but I don't know what rules and software they use to determine what is allowed or not.

  • [suggestion] live favor status

    calincalin is 100% correct here - such a thing would require us to ask permission from the author. It's also not so simple - we could build a bot ourselves too, and then parse the messages from the game and display it up here. It's something that I've considered doing a while back and looked into it.

    Now, it's not as simple as just writing a bot - I'm pretty certain I could do that, but there's no API to do that, so you're going to have to read memory addresses and figure out where the chat information is coming from. We'd need to either read the output that comes from the chat, OR send input (which is technically breaking the EULA) in the form of /favor and parsing the response.
    Every update - especially those with bigger changes - have a tendency to change those memory addresses, so you would need to go in an updated version of Guild Wars and figure out what the new memory addresses are for the information you need, update your bot, strap things up and launch your bot again. And then you'd need to write the logic for your bot to run, handle game updates, preferably reporting/monitoring so you know if something breaks, handle disconnects and so on.

    It's not a trivial thing to do and it requires more work than one might think. And, with it being a bot, it can also get flagged by the bot detection systems and get the account banned (if I'm not mistaken, that recently happened with a few of the Kamadan trade chat accounts).

    So there's a lot to take into account with this.

    The Toolbox/Kamadan Trade Chat devs have figured this all out and they know the Guild Wars works on that level way better than I (or almost everybody on Legacy) does, and that comes with years of experience. I know of the existance of GWCA but that is not publically available and that's understandable and also the right thing to do.

    While I do understand how the Trade Chat website works and where the information is fetched from, that information belongs to them. They haven't made it a public API and aren't stating that it is OK for anybody else to use that data.
    Unless they publically state that it's OK for others to use that data (and in which way), there is no way that I would even consider using that data. In my opinion it displays a lack of respect for the work that was done by the original party, but it is just also poor etiquette to do so and invites rivalry and bad vibes in a community.

    I certainly wouldn't appreciate it if a private API that I built was being used by other parties without permission. And that mostly leads to making things difficult for each other, by slightly changing the API, modifying how it works, adding authentication layers or just straight up feed wrong data when you detect that the API calls come from somewhere else.

    In this case, I have a termendous amount of respect for the developers of GWToolbox and Trade Chat and due to that, it has always been linked on Legacy. Could I have used their private API to display all posts on Legacy somewhere? Absolutely, but you don't do that.
    It's not because you can't do it, but because of respect out of the work they have done. In this case, I see little value in adding this to Legacy because it is just a click away to - let's be honest - a very useful tool/website.

    My vision for Legacy was always to collaborate, link to others when appropriate and ensure that we, as a community, are stronger as a whole.

    Now, should ArenaNet come with an official API that offers this data, I would absolutely consider adding this. And should we get permission from the Toolbox/Trade Chat team, I might also add that, with a clear mention that that data was provided by them.


    I hope that this is clear why permission is needed and what my vision for things like this is (and I'm absolutely open for discussion on this).

    • Kevin

  • Xunlai Marketplace: Trading board updates - bump limits, self-close and auto-close

    Hello everybody,

    calincalin has worked on some plugins that enable us to improve the experience on Legacy quite a bit, adding several options and improvements that have been requested for quite a while.

    Calincalin prepared an introduction, so I'll gladly share this here:


    These changes are now live in several boards in the Xunlai Marketplace - if you encounter any issues or have any questions, feel free to ask them here.

    I want to thank calincalin once again for all the effort put into these plugins that will improve Legacy for everybody!

    • Kev

  • GW Market

    Quote from Eta

    I know I can be considered as a competitor but I deeply think I can help this community.
    I have been delaying this message for months as I know player here require a high level of precision to properly exchange their high value items.
    To end this already too long disclaimer, I am here to promote the modern trading site GW Market, I know I have no right to put links but you can find it easily on top of google search.
    The site support all of the complexity of old school items, let you organize automated auctions, and already have a good player base.
    For the security part it is not dangerous as it does require any account, and there is a player certification process just by sending dm in game.

    I don't see GWMarket as a competitor, but rather as another great tool to support the Guild Wars community. Legacy should not be a monopoly and monopolize all trading in the game.

    I find collaboration very important and that's something that benefits everyone, not only Legacy, but the entire community. I'm glad that some people have been stepping up and have been offering some help with new things on Legacy as well, as my life has been very busy the last few months. But I only ever want the best for the community.

    • Kevin

  • Guide: Using the gwbb tag to display builds and skills

    Hey all,

    I'm actively working on trying to update this - this feature was added almost 10 years ago and I'm figuring out how we can properly update the sources that are being used. The entire script also needs a thorough cleanup, so the answer here is that I'm trying to figure out how we can update this properly and keep it up to date with future updates.

  • Software update

    Hello everybody,

    I have upgraded Legacy to the newest version of our forum software, Woltlab Suite Forum.

    This changes quite a few things and improves the workings of Legacy.

    Should you encounter any issues, feel free to let me know.

    • Kevin

  • How Do You Trade/Sell Names In A Secure Manner?

    Quote from Red Fireball

    so... really consider IF you want to do a name trade and IF you want to include a third party.

    The risks for this are indeed very high, and that is a risk that the buyer and seller need to take into account thoroughly before trying to do such a trade.

    We will not be able to help, intervene, vouch or clarify anything that happens due to a character name trade. All risks belong solely to those participating in the trade itself.
    This is a very high risk transaction and everybody involved should know this.
    We also don't vouch or work together or even list any trade moderators, as this is also a risk you take while doing a transaction.

    So if you do this, keep in mind, the stakes are high.

  • New user agreement

    I can hardly imagine that a forced character rename would be monetized, specially not with this wording.

    Just feels to me like regular anti-chargeback language: if you charge your money back, your account will be locked, until you provide payment again.
    The wording sounds like when you agree to buy something, but you haven't paid for it, you won't get access. Which sounds logical to me.

  • How Do You Trade/Sell Names In A Secure Manner?

    Quote from trademeimfamous

    allowing this was poor judgment in the first place, the fact that it is 'allowed' gives these trades a seeming level of legitimacy that nobody can actually guarantee. so as soon as something goes wrong it makes legacy look bad. and even if there are no Terms of Service that could somehow be interpreted to forbid this (which i have not checked), i highly doubt that Anet likes to see this, given their history of making everything more accessible and less exclusive/expensive.

    ArenaNet has in the past stated that as long as only in game currency is used, they will allow such trades. This is a grey zone at best, and people looking into trading characters names should know this.

    There was quite a discussion between our team members to decide our stance on this. In the end, the decision was made to allow this, as long as ArenaNet doesn't change their stance on this. We don't offer any support should things go wrong - but this is always the case. We offer a platform but are unable to intervene in the game itself.

    That being said, I felt it is important that trades like this - that are going to happen anyways, whether we allow them or not - have a place to happen on. If we don't allow them, that doesn't mean that trades like this will not occur, they might just move to shadier places.
    Legacy is one of the biggest trade platforms for Guild Wars and sometimes that means that we need to offer a place for things that deviate from the base line, like character name trades are.

    Because, to be honest, I don't really like the idea of selling a character name either, but the decision about allowing such a thing falls on the shoulders of ArenaNet and from all we could gather, they seem to generally be okay with it as long as only in game currency is being used.
    If we see - or get a report about it - that real life/non game currency is being used for these trades, we will obviously take action against that.

    I hope this clarifies our stance on this.

    Kevin

  • New user agreement

    Since they literally advertised about no subscription yesterday and mention it actively in the trailer for mobile, I doubt that a subscription is going to come.

    More likely just broadly worded for if a payment fails/is charged back, I would guess.

  • Announcing GuildMatchr - the worlds first Guild Wars dating app!

    Quote from Looney
    Quote from Iaerah

    Just an update, I'm a bit behind with the trophies due to the health issues of my mother - I want to make sure these trophies embody the spirit of GuildMatchr and I don't want to rush these, but they be coming!

    I'm sure others feel the same, take all the time you need.

    Your mom is way more important than pieces of flair for our profiles.

    Thanks Looney, I really appreciate this <3

  • Announcing GuildMatchr - the worlds first Guild Wars dating app!

    I see you all have had a lot of fun with matching!

    It is time for me to reveal the possible candidates in GuildMatchr! A total of 35 matches were possible:

    • Mad King Thorn
    • Gum Drops, The Royal Steed
    • Palawa Joko
    • Dhuum
    • The Underworld
    • Undead Lich
    • Prince Bokka the Magnificent
    • A Grentch (who it seems found no matches!)
    • Koss
    • Vekk
    • Zhed Shadowhoof
    • Master of Whispers
    • Prince Rurik
    • Grenth
    • Varesh Ossa
    • Gwen
    • A Jade Bow
    • A dolyak
    • Brother Mhenlo
    • Eve
    • Cynn
    • Danika
    • The Jade Sea
    • An afflicted monk (who it seems also found no matches!)
    • Margrid The Sly
    • Emperor Kisu (I think he didn't match either?)
    • Lukas Vasburg
    • Nika
    • Norgu
    • Lo Sha
    • (the urn of) Lady Althea
    • A devourer
    • Some undead
    • Shiro Tagachi
    • The Celestial Ministry
    • Livia
    • Ghostly Her... wait a minute, that one wasn't in the list but was found by someone... 8|

    I would like to thank all of the candicates who signed up and found their true love! Congratulations, for the matches made by GuildMatchr are eternal and infallible.
    At least until next year...

    GuildMatchr will remain online and might even see some more improvements over the year and perhaps some more candidates!

    This has been an amazing journey and I loved seeing you all share your matches!

    Trophies are a manual task and I'll start handing them out soon.

    - Kev

  • Announcing GuildMatchr - the worlds first Guild Wars dating app!

    Quote from Ascalon

    Can you show us some of the ones we didn’t get? This was super funny! Well done

    Well, feel free to keep trying :D Any match you share here will be given a trophy, even if you already got a match.

    Now, Bibi Rocksberg is on a roll to try to uncover more matches (and has shown me in a private conversation), so I won't spoil everything here right now - part of the fun is finding the matches, after all. Bibi Rocksberg found about 9 more candidates so far, so almost all of them have been found now!

    But my favourite match has been found and I'll gladly share that one here, as found by Bibi Rocksberg - the rest of the matches are for Bibi Rocksberg to share.

    69244

    This has been my favourite April Fools joke so far, and I am glad all of you like it as well :D


    Now, for some more questions/answers:

    - Is there a time limit for posting results?

    Not really, though I will start handing out trophies on the 14th of April or around that period. If you post a result later, I might not notice it immediately.
    I have to assign the trophies manually.

    - Will GuildMatchr be taken down at some point?

    No, GuildMatchr will remain online. It was designed to be standalone and as such can keep running for quite a while without issues.
    Also, this is way too fun to bring down.

    - Will you reveal all the candidates at some point?
    I might reveal the matches end of April... perhaps.

    - Can someone get more than one trophy?
    Absolutely!

  • Guild Wars Reforged

    Quote from BooBoo

    Happy to have a dungeon.

    But very OP devona (with max armor at level 20), max purple weapons and inscriptions (wtf?) I'm not a fan of...

    ANet has enough data points to see what the influence of it on pre-searing and the game is. If it has a too great impact, they will absolutely intervene.

    But shaking up the foundations of pre-searing is not necessarily a bad thing: it's been essentially exactly the same since the introduction of the Vanguard quests way back and it opens the doors for new challenges and content down the line in pre-searing.

    Those challenges would also bring new rewards with it and there is still a lot of place to add new rewards and meaningful changes to pre-searing. I wouldn't mind to receive a new (perhaps exclusive) armor set for pre-searing, for example.

  • Announcing GuildMatchr - the worlds first Guild Wars dating app!

    The algorithm is always right, even on multiple attempts ;)

    Feel free to do the test multiple times, who knows who you might encounter.

    There are many others that haven't been shared here yet.

  • Announcing GuildMatchr - the worlds first Guild Wars dating app!

    Quote from Neutral_CH

    That's not a bad! :love:   (actually, sorry, but since I had to translate it manually and it was getting on my nerves, I just picked the first answer every time :D)

    No worries - each time you run the test you get a selection of questions (there are more questions than you can see in a single test) and the order of the answers is randomized...

    So the Algorithm, which can't fail, finds that your ultimate love is Livia!


    I also love seeing so many different matches coming up - there are more matches that are yet to be shared here...

  • Announcing GuildMatchr - the worlds first Guild Wars dating app!

    Please create a print screen of your match and share it here - you will be rewarded a trophy with your match!


    Disclosure: GuildMatchr has been partially created with the usage of AI assisted tools, mainly in terms of front-end code.
    We have not uploaded nor provided any AI tool with references or images that are copyrighted.

    GuildMatchr is not a commercial project and will not and never be monetized.

    All of the GuildMatchr created matches have been provided by human hands.

    Next to AI tools, we also utilized an army of Grawl to help set up and guard our servers.
    While building this tool, copious amounts of Asuracake have been consumed.

  • Announcing GuildMatchr - the worlds first Guild Wars dating app!

    Dear adventurers,

    For too long, the heroes of Tyria have faced its greatest challenges alone.

    The Flameseeker Prophecies did not address this. Kormir offered no guidance. We could not wait.

    Guild Wars Legacy is proud to announce GuildMatchr — Tyria's first and only compatibility matching service, backed by years of research and a proprietary algorithm of considerable power.

    The content cannot be displayed because it is no longer available.

    (Click the logo or the image below to visit GuildMatchr and find your true love!)

    Answer 13 questions. The Algorithm will analyse your responses, cross-reference your adventuring record, and determine your perfect match from Tyria.

    We are not revealing who the candidates are. That is for the Algorithm to decide.

    All results are final. Compatibility scores are binding. The Algorithm does not negotiate.

    Click here to visit GuildMatchr and find your true love!

    Post your result card in this thread to claim your official GuildMatchr trophy as well as a trophy for your match (this is a manual process and trophies will be assigned in a week).

    Your destiny awaits.

    — Guild Wars Legacy Staff

  • Question about bots...

    Quote from Marcus Ferret

    Sad that ArenaNet hasn't found a solution to the problem... Think we used to be able to report bots in the past but I was already on the verge of quitting by then...

    That system was actually broken for a lot of years. They did fix it a few years ago.

    But combatting botting in a game is hard, people will always find a way around it. It's not that ArenaNet didn't try, but even games like RuneScape have a huge issue with it.

    Quote from Marcus Ferret

    Ouch... So it's difficult to know if we are actually contributing to the bot-mafias by making in-game purchases for items, consets, zkeys, etc...

    The biggest impact you can have here is simply never buy things for real money on websites. That motivates and funds them to continue doing it. As long as there is demand, people will do it.

    That's why for example you have the option to buy/sell gems in GW2 for real money/in game currency. That demand is always going to be there, but in that way, you can at least "control" it somewhat.

  • Question about bots...

    Quote from Red Fireball

    most items you see on legacy are from bots. even or especially the rare ones.

    Unfortunately, we don't have a way to detect if something is botted, and if we could, it's "easy" to just pass it through and sell it via-via. ArenaNet really needs to tackle this.
    While I would love to have a better way to police this, the reality is that we aren't the Guild Wars police because we don't have the tools to do so... but that's a whole different discussion.

    The only way to stop bots, in the end, is by not purchasing from them.

  • Guild Wars 1 dead, reforge not brought magic 🪄

    Quote from manuS

    Looks like reforged broke GWs neck. Look at compass. eee fully dead. Just 1 afk person with me.

    As someone who hails from Europe, the European servers have been dead for 15+ years, everybody just plays on the USA servers. GW1 is lag insensitive enough to not be an issue.

    That being said, Embark Beach has never been a good measure for how busy the game is. Kamadan or Pre-Searing Ascalon are a way better measure.

  • Guild Wars 1 dead, reforge not brought magic 🪄

    Last time they actually added new content (as in: new cosmetics) was in 2015 with the Balthazar weapons. It was mentioned back in the day that it was a huge challenge to get the art tools up and running again.

    I can imagine if you actually want to create new content, getting those tools working, making concept art and turning those in actual in game items, that would probably take a few months to get it done right the first time.
    That is if you want to actually create new content, that is.

    But I expect that the GW1 team has more up in their sleeves that they haven't shared, yet.

  • Guild Wars 1 dead, reforge not brought magic 🪄

    Quote from trademeimfamous

    well they did say that they were still working on getting the tools back to a usable state. but yes the reforged momentum seems to be over

    I think Reforged got way more attention than they expected and they have put out more content in a short moment than I had expected them to do.

    However, scaling up to really create new content, that takes a while. They already added things that I would consider to be real content, like a new quest.
    I expect more like that is coming and I am pretty sure that new content will bring back players and boost the game up again.

    It is absolutely normal for hype levels and momentum to die down a little between (content) updates, that happens for every game. It is all about how new updates bring back players.