Alt-F4'ing out to repawn pets has been hotfixed

[Greenstar]

As per Mumper's twitter https://twitter.com/mumper/status/281459948699910144

Another note, we have hotfixed the issue with pets respanwing from players disconnecting (alt-f4ing) out of the game.

I only did this once as I don't know a lot of others in guild that are collecting, but I can see this will be really disappointing if you find that really elusive rare and happen to get disconnected. I've had the game crash on my a few times over the last few weeks in the middle of a pet battle (even after the hotfix to fix that) but luckily none were with rares that I was trying to catch.

[Quintessence]

On one hand, I can understand how this wasn't intended and therefore hotfixed.

On the other, it's really disappointing news. This method was great for helping others find rare quality pets, as well as saving an unwanted rare from despawning so another collector could have a chance if they happened to come across it.

And as you said, disconnecting during a battle will be really punishing now, even if it wasn't your fault/unintentional.

I don't know. I'm pretty torn about how I should feel about this hotfix. Unlike some of the bugs, this one seemed to help more than hurt the system.

[Imthedci]

Didn't they specifically change how spawning worked in the beta just to allow this?

Does this mean that pets won't respawn even if you're attacked in pvp?


If we're not allowed to get out of a battle without disturbing the spawn, then I hope that they give us a reason to kill that rare we were trying to leave for someone else and up the droprate of battlestones when battling against a rare pet....

Intended or not, I really don't see how leaving a pet for someone else by logging out could be exploited or used maliciously...

[Poofah]

The malicious/exploitative version is this:

Be on a server that comes up early after restarts; camp a server restart in Felwood or Icecrown; despawn Minfernals or Scourged Whelplings until you find a rare; wait for the other servers to log in; offer to log out of your battle in return for gold.

I never saw this happen with my own eyes, but the current system enables it. Personally I think there was far more good than harm being done with this 'bug'. Nonetheless, this kind of antics is the reason they can't allow us to 'save' spawns for others.

[Misstic]

Why can't they just have it so when you exit/leave a battle with the white flag that the pets you were engaged with still remain? Why do they despawn, what is the reason for this? If you are trying to trigger new pets to spawn in their place you can just one shot it with a spell/melee damage. They are making the pet battles less fun, this change seems silly. I myself was disconnected during a rare I had been looking for for hours (I almost cried), but when I logged back in it was there and I was SO HAPPY.

[Misstic]

The malicious/exploitative version is this:

Be on a server that comes up early after restarts; camp a server restart in Felwood or Icecrown; despawn Minfernals or Scourged Whelplings until you find a rare; wait for the other servers to log in; offer to log out of your battle in return for gold.

I never saw this happen with my own eyes, but the current system enables it. Personally I think there was far more good than harm being done with this 'bug'. Nonetheless, this kind of antics is the reason they can't allow us to 'save' spawns for others.

But I thought they fixed it so the pets DO NOT pop after a restart or shut-down? Aren't they spawning just randomly now?

[Poofah]

The pets that were added in 5.1 have the staggered spawn that they advertised, e.g. you will not find Fluxfire Felines or Emerald Proto-Whelps right after a reset. The pre-5.1 wild pets that had mass spawns at server resets still seem to spawn that way, at least as of yesterday's reset. I've seen this myself with Irradiated Roaches, and have heard examples given for Minfernal, Jade Oozeling, and Tiny Twister.

[Thralla]

*sigh* I never even thought of the exploitative uses for this.

However, it's removal makes me very sad.

One of the best things about guild chat in the WPG, is to see someone call out Rare [insert name of pet here], anyone need it? And then that person hangs in there until the other person can arrive at that location. It is/was just an awesome spontaneous act of kindness that I felt really helped to make a great community even stronger.

I myself have been on the receiving end of such generosity at least twice (repeat my shout outs to Poofah for my rare Fel Flame and to Docrotten for my rare Kun-Lai Runt) and have gladly held a battle pet for someone else at least once.

Such a small and simple thing to do, and yet very very nice for the person on the receiving end of the generosity.

[Azmeaiel]

This change isnt in the spirit of the game at all, i dont see a reason why people should be punished for DC's and be no longer able to help friends and guildies with captures. This 'bug' let me spend hours with friends and guildies that i wouldnt have done solo and thats what the game is about isnt it? Anyhow, good one, ruin one of the few ways you can be social with collecting we have with wild pets other than trying to bash each other pets in. 4

[Quintessence]

The malicious/exploitative version is this:

Be on a server that comes up early after restarts; camp a server restart in Felwood or Icecrown; despawn Minfernals or Scourged Whelplings until you find a rare; wait for the other servers to log in; offer to log out of your battle in return for gold.

I never saw this happen with my own eyes, but the current system enables it. Personally I think there was far more good than harm being done with this 'bug'. Nonetheless, this kind of antics is the reason they can't allow us to 'save' spawns for others.

This is the first time I've ever heard of something like this. It does make sense how it could be exploited, though.

It's only something that people will do if others actually give that person attention and the credit they're craving. If no one takes that person up on their offer, they'll just be wasting their time and eventually give the process up imo.

I'm very sad about the removal of the log out/alt F4 change. For the reasons already mentioned AND it will likely affect hunting for specifically colored rare quality pets. The trick to find one a secondary and the relogging to get the "correct" color that you're looking for will probably no longer work.

Edit: Has anyone tested to see if being yanked out of a battle due to PVP or environmental agro will cause the wild pet to despawn as well? Or will it still respawn, same quality and same pet lineup?

[Azmeaiel]

tbh i have camped many servers for rare pets since release but have never seen anyone use this for selling pets, if you were waiting that long to try and 'sell' a pet you would also likly get kicked in by the opposite faction for it too, or someone would get you in combat with hostile mobs and simply break the battle (possibly an even worse exploit that hasnt been fixed) and take the pet for them self. For all the good it does for pet tamers for sharing and leaving up rare pets for each other , its 'fixing' for an almost non existant exploit is fairly mean spirited.

[Quintessence]

"We have some plans in regards to making this all smoother in 5.2.0, we will share info soon. PVP interaction was not changed." - [url=https://twitter.com/mumper/status/281584334811586560]Mumper[/url]

This was his response to an inquiry about PVP despawning + reaction to the alt+F4 change. Hopefully we'll hear more about this soon.

[Wain]

This is sad

They were well aware of this function and weren't concerned about it up till now. I wonder what changed

[Azmeaiel]

"We have some plans in regards to making this all smoother in 5.2.0, we will share info soon. PVP interaction was not changed." - [url=https://twitter.com/mumper/status/281584334811586560]Mumper[/url]

This was his response to an inquiry about PVP despawning + reaction to the alt+F4 change. Hopefully we'll hear more about this soon.

looks like to be social we will now have to team up on our opposite faction toons with friends and tap each other out of battle to save a rare spawn

[Nuriana]

This change isnt in the spirit of the game at all, i dont see a reason why people should be punished for DC's and be no longer able to help friends and guildies with captures. This 'bug' let me spend hours with friends and guildies that i wouldnt have done solo and thats what the game is about isnt it? Anyhow, good one, ruin one of the few ways you can be social with collecting we have with wild pets other than trying to bash each other pets in. 4

*sign*

[Mos]

I agree with everything said here, except for the fact that this was "Fixed" when it wasn't broken to begin with. Not once have I ever seen a shout with someone saying, " I have a rare spawn of ____ for sale for ____ amount of gold." For one, you cant hold it indefinitely, after a specific amount of time, the pet de-spawns on it's own like the battle has been forfeited or lost. Secondly, as you said, NO one except a collector is going to waste their time looking for rare spawn pets that they cant sell on their own ( Water Strider, Crusher...etc.) if they cant cage it and it's rare they dont want it. I have helped numerous guildies this way before the change, and have also dc'ed during battles with pets that I wanted, but when I re-logged it was still there.
This change is B.S. Was there honestly someone complaining about this? Dont they have a MMORPG to fix instead of worrying about trivial things such as this?

[Syrrie]

One of the things that bugs me about this change is that the pet battles themselves are still pretty buggy and have caused crashes before. I really, really dislike punishing people for crashes that aren't their fault just because someone thinks this will get more people to do more wild pet battles.

[Gromagrim]

This has saved me so many times when I've been levelling a low level team on an alt and forgotten to replace them when I'm back in Pandaria and the first battle I clicked has got that rare I've been waiting for

It's horrible when the Quality of life features you're used to are removed, but I understand if they've observed a lot of exploitation.

[Waveryn]

This is a big bummer, I had searched for a rare once for more than 2 hours and not the first time for that pet, when I found one and had it caged and the last pet almost dead the battle froze, I had never seen this and tried everything, eventually I dced and was so mad figuring I lost my rare. I frantically tried to re-log not knowing what I would find, to my shock the same pet was wandering around and I was able to re-capture it and also found the other Rare was already in my collection.
This will never happen again since the so called fix and it is not our fault when the server fails. I used the log out in battle maybe 2 times to get a rare once because I had lobie pets in the team and forgot and once because my silly pet Critted and killed a rare. And sadly the Crit and Rare happened again last evening on a huge toad in Twilight Highlands, so I tried the logoff and the pets sadly were gone, another hour and never another rare huge toad. It is no huge deal but also I do not believe this a big exploit and should have been left alone solely for possible DC's that are no players fault.

[Frozenpets]

this is bad on a lot of levels

a lot of times I have the wrong team up from a previous battle or character, and now I cant get out of the battle to put a team up.

now I will feel guilty to ever hunt for specific breeds because I would let people know if I found a rare that is tough to find and often helped guildies this way as well.

not a fan of fixing this "problem"

im really glad that ive got all of the pets in rare form other than battle stone only via upgrade pets. because frankly, if I had come across the perfect rare scourged, or giraffe calf, or whatever...Id be sweating buckets about a disconnect or something taking me out of battle and losing the rare I spent hours on. sucks for new pet fans.