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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Mounting annoyances
by Amanda Miller 
Dec 3rd 2007 at 8:01AM
Now, other games often get around this by giving each character and NPC its own space, mutually exclusive from the space around it. In other words, you can bump into things, but not stand in them, enveloping them. While such a method may be more true to life, I think WoW's way of doing things is quite handy, considering the sheer numbers of players in big cities or on heavily populated realms.
Unfortunately, it can indeed become a bit of a nuisance. I become especially frustrated in the banks, when some characters feel the need to stand in the banker, rather than in the crowd, or when I find it difficult to click target a quest-giver.
Of course, Rihlsul is right; there is an increased presence at the battlemasters. Given the fact that arena season one gear can now be purchased with BG honor, many people are on a farming push. People are also still exploring the new Alterac Valley, as it has changed so much since patch 2.3. In addition, because of the new daily battleground quests, even players who previously PvP'd seldom or even never are stepping up to bat. In fact, I often find the small excuse of doing one a day is often enough to prompt me to queue a few more.
Battlemasters aren't the only NPCs seeing more action lately either. This week, after the realms came back up from extended maintenance, ushering in arena season three and the ability to acquire season one gear with BG honor, the above shall we say "crowded" screenshot was posted in Around Azeroth.
Are you annoyed by players parking on the NPCs that you need, or are you one of the players who has a habit of doing it themselves? If you could switch to a system in which characters had their own, impermeable "spaces", would you; or are you more concerned with the newfound PvP'ers in the battlegrounds than outside their gates?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Breakfast Topics, NPCs, Mounts
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Saphia Dec 3rd 2007 3:33PM
/agree. I can't stand flying pets for that reason. They're obnoxious.
Chriasas Dec 3rd 2007 10:58AM
This is a big problem. It'd shouldn't be a minigame trying to click the AV battlemaster in Shat. A simple fix BLizzard could implement would be for the NPC to pace a few steps every once in a while.
Theadrick Dec 3rd 2007 11:18AM
Yet another arguement FOR collision detection. It's not a gamebreaker for me by any means, but it does annoy me.
Krick Dec 3rd 2007 11:23AM
All the commonly mobbed NPCs should just have a "Backthafuckup" kickback aoe that fires off when too many people are standing within his personal space.
...
Krick
http://www.tankadin.com
Baluki Dec 3rd 2007 11:34AM
I really think that they need to change the "activate" distance for interaction with NPCs (and mailboxes). If you could stand a couple more feet away from them, Kodo and Netherdrake riders wouldn't need to stand so close to begin with. The size of these mounts means that they basically need to go "in" to an NPC to interact.
Sef Dec 3rd 2007 11:44AM
The big thing on my server is people park their netherdrake ontop of the flight master in Shat. Plus they do it on all the most popular npcs in town.
Firni Dec 3rd 2007 12:11PM
Only problem with characters having their own space is the one I saw in Everquest: the aholes will still find a way to annoy people. For example, the larger races (trolls) blocking the entrance to the bank.
npm Dec 3rd 2007 1:01PM
The day Season 3 started and the servers came up I hot-footed it to Area 52 to buy my gear. The building the Arena gear guys were in were packed with probably 50 players. I couldn't even see the goblins. Then I thought... I'll turn off all the player name plates and turn on the NPC name plates. Sure enough, that made it easier to target him.
Good_Idea Dec 3rd 2007 1:02PM
I'm not sure why we have to make complex code fixes for a problem that is mostly player based. As soon as you come up with one fix, they are just going to find another way to grief you using the same resource.
The solution is to send in a ticket about a player, who is basically griefing everyone. Enough tickets and Mr. AHolio gets a warning and possibly suspended. He'll get the idea.
The other solution is to use Alt+V. :)
Ian Dec 3rd 2007 1:55PM
the worst was last tuesday when S3 came out. i tried Shift+V, couldnt find her...so i picked a couple of players and did the whole target of target deal and click on the healthbar didnt work, i had to do a lot of moving around to find the arena guy. the same with the S1 vendor in the Hall of Legends. the Arena vendor was still the worst because Taurens on their kodos were intentialy geting on their mounts to pi55 people off.
onya Dec 3rd 2007 2:11PM
/tar battlemaster
/click targetframe
using a pitbull like interface with the secure dropdown modified to have a 'click me' also helps.
i'm not sure what you mean here can you explain a bit further?
john Dec 3rd 2007 3:30PM
another easy fix.
i have target of target enabled.
nearly everyone on the battle master has that battle master targeted.
i click on them, i click the target target window and then have the battle master selected.
sounds more like stupid has a problem with dumb.
Coherent Dec 4th 2007 1:31PM
WoW's way of doing things is not only handy, but necessary. Collision detection can be either done in your client or in the server, and both ways have significant drawbacks. WoW chooses to do no collision detection at all, which saves them a lot of trouble.