Game Mechanics: Pets, faction, and AFK leveling with near impunity.

[Finawin]

I would have suggested that if it wasn't just another thing the GMs had to do. I don't believe in adding daily responsibilities to GMs. I've been an admin for various MMOs, FPS servers, web sites, forums, etc.

It's not worth the hassle. Just put pets indifferent if you ask me.

[Cubehacker]

Originally Posted by Finawin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I would have suggested that if it wasn't just another thing the GMs had to do. I don't believe in adding daily responsibilities to GMs. I've been an admin for various MMOs, FPS servers, web sites, forums, etc.

It's not worth the hassle. Just put pets indifferent if you ask me.

Agreed. This isn't a project that being run by dozens of paid employees. The current GM's have enough on their plate as it is. Make pets indifferent and leave it at that.

[Finawin]

Bump, AFK leveling is bad mmkay?

[Danth]

On a related note, I've been told pets don't suck up a portion of experience when they kill things without the owner doing anything. I'm told they did on live. I never played a pet class, and don't on P99 either, but folks who did should know the ins and outs. Whether a pet eats some experience when function un-assisted definitely impacts this thread's primary subject. Yeah Yeah, thread's two weeks old and all. Oh well, still pertinent.

Danth

[guineapig]

if your pet kills something while you are AFK then you are doing zero damage to the mob.

On live
0 dmg = zero exp.

You need to do at least 1 point of damage... which keeps people from being able to level up while AFK.

[Wenai]

Originally Posted by guineapig [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

if your pet kills something while you are AFK then you are doing zero damage to the mob.

On live
0 dmg = zero exp.

You need to do at least 1 point of damage... which keeps people from being able to level up while AFK.

Definitely not originally. They tried different measures to deter people from AFK killing but originally there was no penalty I don't believe.

[guineapig]

I guess from a chanter point of view that makes sense since our nukes and dots aren't always the best way to kill a mob... Maybe that's why it took them so long to get to that point.

Truth be told, there are times when haste/berserker on pet combined with slow/stun on mob are much more mana efficient and generate less aggro than casting a nuke... but I digress. Chanters aren't the ones AFK killing.

[Finawin]

There originally was no dmg requirement, true.

I think that was to solve another exploit though, lazily. (Using high level DS that normally didn't land on people but landed on pets to kill mobs way out of your level range for example...but not sure if that was it)

You never had to worry about pets stealing experience in classic but, that's an unrelated topic.

[theRaion]

Originally Posted by guineapig [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

if your pet kills something while you are AFK then you are doing zero damage to the mob.

On live
0 dmg = zero exp.

You need to do at least 1 point of damage... which keeps people from being able to level up while AFK.

On live, If a pet kills something without the owner doing at least 1 point of damage, is a 90% reduction in exp. This was implemented around the time of Planes of Power iirc.

Pets were originally made factionless after problems which arose when owners were given the benefit of keeping their pets after going invis, but having their pets agro mobs just by running past. This was during Velious iirc.

Pet leveling is perhaps slightly more problematic here than it was on live originally, since you can get EXP from group-related sources (groups or your pets, for instance) zone-wide. In live there is a limited area you can receive EXP. This hasn't changed from classic.

Is there a limited agro range like the live servers maintain or is it zone-wide "if you agro it, it will eventually hunt you down until either you or it is dead?"
If the former, then pet leveling from across the zone is more exploit than functioning as intended. If the latter, then closer to normal function but still morally debatable.

I don't do it personally, but I can sympathize to a limited amount for either cause. Forgive me for being neutral.

[Jete]

You have no idea what would happen if you made pets indiff. Charm would become insanely OP- so im 100% for this. Fix Mages and Necros, make bards better! haha