Cross-Faction looting bug on Shartuul event
by Krystalle Voecks 
Jul 16th 2007 at 11:26AM
According to Millock (Horde), he was working his way through the Shartuul's Transporter event, got to the end, spawned Shartuul, and before he could get the tap on him, two Alliance Players decided to charge in and take the tap from him. This was after they sat and watched Millock work his way through the event at a distance. Why? Because he's Horde, and it's a PvP server, of course! What is troubling is that after the two Alliance players died, Shartuul's nameplate reverted to colored (untapped) at which point Millock got what he considered his own tap back, killed him, and went to loot his item. However, apparently there is some bug in the event whereby both the two Alliance players and the one Horde player were all able to roll on the loot from Shartuul as if they were in the same party, despite being of completely different factions that shouldn't ever see each others loot windows. Millock rolled need, the other two did as well, and despite his kill, and all his work up to and including killing Shartuul, he lost the item to the two Alliance players.
As if adding insult to injury, the GM who Millock spoke to about this problem agreed that the cross-faction looting was indeed a serious bug to be looked into. However, he then informed him that despite Shartuul being part of a n event in which you have to stay in a demonic form for it, Shartuul is apparently considered an "outdoor boss" that just anyone can come along and tap. The two players in question, and several of their guild mates, have claimed that many GMs have confirmed that tapping other people's spawns while they are mid-event is totally acceptable. Furthermore, in the thread in question there are stories from other people that indicate that the Alliance guild in question has done this several times to others before. It also makes it fairly clear that they intend to continue to do so, as it is currently working as intended. After all, Blizzard made it so they can get the tap from others who are doing the event.
All personal feelings aside, the warning in regards to this event is extremely clear. With the cross-faction loot bug occurring, this event needs to be fixed yesterday. I know I certainly won't be wasting my time trying to complete the arc until Blizzard makes it clear that particular bug is fixed. Beyond that -- and back into the realm of personal opinion -- I feel it should be fixed so that any summoned boss that shows up while you're in the middle of an event shouldn't be tappable by anyone else but the person(s) currently involved in the event. I don't know about you, but if I put all the work into farming for any quest line involving a chain event like that, only to lose my boss loot to someone who just decided to sit around and wait for me to spawn the Bag O' Phat Lewtz for them, I'd be pretty angry too.
*Edited to update* Pavonum on the Customer Service forums is having the Devs look into it. Let's hope they not only fix the cross-faction looting issue, but also lock the Shartuul spawn so that only the person doing the event can tap it and get the loot that they worked for.
[via the General Forums]
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Bugs, News items, Quests
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Theserene Jul 16th 2007 12:02PM
Agreed, I know many people will NOT be doing that event until it is fixed.
Cross-faction looting is a serious bug.
Panagiotis Jul 16th 2007 12:05PM
Nowdays every kind of asshole can show up in a pee vee grief server and ruin someone's day and when you even try to say anything you just get a load of trolls all together yelling "PVE that way noob"... It's not PvP anymore... 1 on 1 duels are VERY rare since PvP nowdays especially on PvP server is more like whoever has the most people on his team most of the time... I'd be pretty pissed as well...
Eldiablohijo Jul 16th 2007 12:05PM
Seriously with Names like the two alliance people had how could he not see it coming that they were going to do something immature?
It sucks that it happened to him, but he should have seen it coming.
James Jul 16th 2007 12:09PM
He's not an outdoor boss. He's a summoned boss. There is a difference. Outdoor bosses were there yesterday, last night, and 10 minutes ago. They are part of the environment just like other npc enemies. Summoned bosses are there because either your or a team put in the effort to bring him there, and therefore, that boss should be yours and yours alone. I can't say I'm surprised that the GM's took the stance they did since most of them are utterly clueless about even the most basic aspects of the game, let alone something like this. But to have Blizzard go on the record and say its working as intended makes me wonderif they've put in the time to do that quest themselves. Amazing.
nav Jul 16th 2007 12:19PM
@3 - 'I was doing the Shartuul's Transporter solo event in Ogri'la (the event where you control demons to eventually kill the powerful boss, Shartuul). During this time I saw two alliance members, Pownzored and Dwarfof ages, watching me on their mounts.'
What do you expect him to do? His darkrune has been spent, the event started. If he had seen it coming there wasn't a single thing he could have done about it.
Arisanna Jul 16th 2007 1:07PM
According to several screenshots throughout that thread, it looks like Dwarfofages has done this several times. It kills me that the GM sided with him/her when it's a clear ban to me.
Painhealer Jul 17th 2007 8:54AM
Curious if the factions were reversed, would we cheer horde tapping the loot
So they stole the loot, that's frustrating but they could have easily just interfered endlessly so you never survived combat and you would still be denied the reward.
I've attempted to solo halaa many times, successfully bombing all of the guards after 30+ minutes. Then along come a couple of 3-minute mages who camp me long enough to deny me my token before I give up.
Again, what's the difference. Deny or steal the loot, it's a PvP server.
Coherent Jul 16th 2007 1:28PM
People being able to steal event spawns is b.s. Blizzard has made some very poor policy decisions in the past, and this is just another example of it.
Blizzard's opinion on PVP servers seems to be "Anything goes". But there are still rules to the game, and exploiting game engine quirks (such as spawned bosses being untapped) is simply abuse of the highest order. Blizzard is encouraging a "anything you can get away with" attitude, and that will bite them on the ass sooner rather than later.
Quoi Jul 16th 2007 1:36PM
@7
That's a horrible comparison. Sure, they could have interfered, but they deliberately and knowingly took advantage of a bug. That's worth at least a 24 hour suspension.
Tarantel Jul 16th 2007 2:17PM
@9
As I read it, the Alliance players didn't take advantage of the bug (the bug being the cross-faction looting), all they did was tap the monster, hoping to get the loot for themselves if they killed it.
In general with this story, I appreciate the anything-goes portion of PvP, sure it sucks to get your hard-earned boss tapped by someone else, but doesn't it suck just as bad when as a level 25 you were camped by 70s?
I'll say the same thing people have said every time there is a PvP problem: Q_Q, re-roll PvE.
schroey Jul 16th 2007 2:06PM
The event needed to be fixed last month. They've had so many bugs with Legion Ring, and people want to do it because it drops Depleted Badge, so the amount of frustration with this is very high. The last patch fixed a few of them, but this issue just takes the cake.
Eldiablohijo Jul 16th 2007 2:09PM
@5 I'm playing Devil's Advocate here just because i've been on the side of a PvP server issue that I thought was complete BS and was obvious harassment, but apparently I was wrong.
Since there is a PvP solution here if he saw something like this coming I would have said he should have A) Asked for someone in his guild to come and help keep these alliance at range, or B) Ask in general chat for other horde to help keep them away.
Now the bug that caused alliance to still be able to roll on loot after he complete the encounter and they had died was indeed a load of crap, and the GMs not helping with that is another issue all together.
ringu0 Jul 16th 2007 2:29PM
> As I read it, the Alliance players didn't take advantage of the bug (the bug being the cross-faction looting), all they did was tap the monster, hoping to get the loot for themselves if they killed it.
Yup. Twice. With their guild members admitting they were doing it on purpose, and they will do it again.
RJ Jul 16th 2007 3:52PM
I've seen screenshots of them doing the same thing with another group, rolling on their depleted ring and winning it. I'm a bit confused as to why they haven't been banned for exploting when they clearly are.
nav Jul 16th 2007 4:24PM
Thing is, he *did* deal with it himself. I blocked let them take aggro and die and only when it was red and taggable again did he down the mob. It should have been his according to every standard the game has set before and every indication the game interface gave him.
Even if he'd had other Horde hold them off there was nothing he could do.
Frankly, he deserves a depleted purple instead of that depleted blue to make up for the totally useless GM who dealt with his query.
Paul W. Jul 16th 2007 4:29PM
@12 and 7
Perhaps you should find out how the event works before commenting about it.
@7
The alliance can't really "inferfere" with the event other than tagging the mob...
@12
>>"As I read it, the Alliance players didn't take advantage of the bug (the bug being the cross-faction looting), all they did was tap the monster, hoping to get the loot for themselves if they killed it."
Impossible for the alliance to kill the mob.