Is it possible for a Jumping Puzzle / Dive to be Bugged in a subset of Servers?

Question

I just changed servers on GuildWars 2 from "Anvil Rock" (US) to "Ruins of Surnia" (EU) because Anvil Rock is full, and I have 5 friends that recently bought the game.

Even though I know that they could eventually be able to join the "full" server by simply trying periodically, that would be a lot, so I decided to migrate to a non full server.

As I am an achievement hunter, I decided to try with my "newbie" friends, the Wayfarer Foothills Jumping Puzzle, which I've had done before with the character I was logged in. After finishing the puzzle, there was a chest, but none of my two friends had their achievements (I wouldn't anyway since I had it already).

Later on that same day, I've found a pair of Diving Goggles on Metrica Province, but after putting them on and jumping of the Waterfall, there was no achievement message, so I kept trying it from different spots but nothing happened.

After a quick research I've found another Diving spot on Metrica Province, so I went for there, and there was no Goggles where they should be.

It may be a coincidence since I haven't tried any other challenge so far, but three out of three haven't worked in different forms.

Tech / Developer Perspective:

@Derp: Believe me, I'm a developer, so I know what bad code may cause :] The thing is that, depending on their replication logic, theoretically, every server should point to the same "Image" of the game, launching it and so, leading to the same "game code" running on every server. Also, fixing a single point of code, should fix the bug in every server. That's why I am asking, is it possible that they are not using the same "code" for all servers ?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

In GW2, all the game servers use the same code except in scenarios where a new build has just been deployed (then the old build is rolling out and the new one in). However, in those instances the game servers of differing versions do not intercommunicate so it's a technicality.

A given map instance is simulated independently of all others (so Shaemoor on Anvil Rock is unique from Shaemoor on Blacktide Den). The state of those simulations can thus drift, so it's very possible for an item to exist in Anvil Rock's Shaemoor but not on Blacktide's, for example because it was picked up by players at differing times and thus its respawn is on a different cooldown.

Similarly, bugs that involve getting events or other content, like triggers, "stuck" in a particular state might be surfaced by player interactions in a given map simulation, and thus might manifest on some servers and not others.

A code fix that corrected the bug would apply to all servers once the new build rolled in, but any bugs that still exist may manifest in each home world's simulation of a given map separately or not at all.

In other words, the short answer is "yes."