Guild trader flip?

doesurmindglow

Question: What happens with the guild trader flip if the server is down when it's supposed to take place? It's scheduled for 3 PM EDT, will it simply occur when the server comes back up?

Couple people in guild are asking and I legit had no idea. I'm assuming it just happens when the server comes back online but some clarity from more experienced players would be helpful!

Rexlupis

There was a time when trader flip consistently conflicted with server maintenance. Back then the trader flip happened while the server was offline and when the server came back up you could see the results of your bids.

Every time trader flip has conflicted with a maintenance this pattern has remained; the flip happens "on schedule" but nobody will know the outcome until the server is actually available.

There is the one exception where there was a week where trader flip simply didn't happen, but I can't even remember if there was a conflicting maintenance on that one occasion... IIRC, that was an issue caused by changing the time in which flips were supposed to occur and we essentially got two weeks for the price of one.

doesurmindglow

Ah ok, that's kinda what I figured. Thank you!

ghastley

Now you’ve got me wondering how it would happen if the system was up when traders changed. Could you be in the middle of a trade, and the new trader takes over and doesn’t have the item?

Rexlupis

ghastley wrote: »

Now you’ve got me wondering how it would happen if the system was up when traders changed. Could you be in the middle of a trade, and the new trader takes over and doesn’t have the item?

This is the norm. There is about a 1 to 3 minute interval where all the traders are "empty" while all the bids are processed and the traders are assigned.

IE: If you're browsing a shop at 3 PM EST on a Tuesday, the shop will close and you won't be able to access any shops until the new week's bids are processed. When the trader is assigned a guild, if it is the same guild the item will be there and you'll have to find it again, but if it is a different guild at that location, obviously the item will be located where the previous guild is currently located (assuming they do get a spot that week.)

If you make a purchase before the flip happens, the purchase will go through, regardless of where that guild ends up after the flip.

doesurmindglow

Yea that's what I remember too. If you're shopping a guild trader at trader flip, the server force closes your client out of it and you can't reopen for some short but somewhat arbitrary period of time until the dust is settled and the guild traders reassigned (some cases this seems like seconds, in others maybe a minute or two). If the same guild keeps the trader you can just wait and reopen the store as soon as it lets you. If it doesn't, well, oh boy; guess you can hunt them down and hope the item you were looking at hasn't disappeared by the time you find them.

Anyway, I'm told the trader flip was in effect after the servers came back up, and in one of my guilds (not mine thankfully, but I feel for the GM) they lost the guild trader because they had planned to bid AFTER maintenance and because maintenance was extended through trader flip, missed their opportunity, which serves as cautionary tale I guess of why it's important to submit trader bids before a maintenance even if that maintenance is expected to end hours ahead of the flip.

Thanks again for the answer, it seems you were spot on!

NettleCarrier

Time stamps for the flip today were marked at the time they normally would have taken place, which leads me to believe it either occurred instantly when the server came on and backdated the time or there's another "master" service that handles this specific task and it being down had no effect. Either way, no issues with it today.

FeedbackOnly

Rexlupis wrote: »

There was a time when trader flip consistently conflicted with server maintenance. Back then the trader flip happened while the server was offline and when the server came back up you could see the results of your bids.

Every time trader flip has conflicted with a maintenance this pattern has remained; the flip happens "on schedule" but nobody will know the outcome until the server is actually available.

There is the one exception where there was a week where trader flip simply didn't happen, but I can't even remember if there was a conflicting maintenance on that one occasion... IIRC, that was an issue caused by changing the time in which flips were supposed to occur and we essentially got two weeks for the price of one.

One exception... happened quite often for awhile