Video of the new NPC collision detection system
by Adam Holisky 
Mar 6th 2008 at 4:00PM
This video contains audio commentary, turn your sound up!
With the upcoming 3v3 PvP tournament, Blizzard has rolled out a new feature on the Tournament Test Realm server: NPC collision detection. This will mean that it is now not possible for players to walk through some NPCs. Players will no longer be able to crowd, or block, the NPCs. This virtually guarantees that players will always be able to access the NPCs.
There is a lot of interest in this. NPC collision detection isn't something that we're used to seeing in WoW. While collision detection has made appearances in MMORPGS of the past, it is something that modern games in this genre are lacking. Many of us are hoping that they'll implement this in the live realms soon – ideally before Wrath of the Lich King comes out.
If you haven't had a chance to test out the Tournament Test Realm yet, don't wait! You can follow this handy guide that fellow WoW Insider writer Zach Yonzon wrote up.
What do you think of this new NPC collision detection? Good or bad? Excited to see it implemented on the live servers eventually?
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, News items, PvP
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jim Mar 6th 2008 4:06PM
This will be a real boon to those players whose "v" buttons have been removed by evil lolcats.
dan Mar 7th 2008 12:17PM
Because what everyone wants is even more lag in the lowercity near the battlemasters.....
dlwn64 Mar 6th 2008 4:15PM
I don't really care all that much about it. Even when people are being asses and trying to block the NPC's you can usually get an angle to click them. I hope this isn't predictive of PC collision detection in the future as this would make it a lot harder to deal with casters in the arena (can't just run through them).
Snukums Mar 6th 2008 4:44PM
This is only for certain NPC's, not players
jbodar Mar 6th 2008 5:30PM
@dlwn64
No way in hell they'd implement PC collision. The player abuse would be so rampant that no one would be able to play anymore. The point of this change to NPCs is to CURB abuse like this.
@Snukums
"predictive... in the future" - dlwn64
Read much?
FireStar Mar 7th 2008 9:29AM
No need to worry as this would never ever happen. Wow learned from the mistakes of other mmorpgs that had collision on. If this Ever happened (which it wouldnt) it would last a total of 30 seconds before every troll in wow would completely and utterly flood the forums.
bulgur Mar 6th 2008 4:09PM
This will take the concept of "pillar humping" to a whole new level, although the notion of "trainer humping" does open up some unexpected comic potential.
Ametrine Mar 6th 2008 4:41PM
Particularly considering some of the female trainers...
Hevnlyst Dec 27th 2008 1:12AM
On the PTR, i have noticed, with enough people at the vendor, namely Draenei and Tauren, espeicially those with big shoulder, can block those tiny goblins. Multiple tauren druids in boomkin, on raptors = sigh..
Chuddy Mar 6th 2008 4:20PM
Hevnlyst, I know the pain. Signing up for a battleground can be a pain with a few around them. However one slight correction to your comment. You can't be in moonkin and on a mount. Unless this was changed on the ptr - then I would be a happy moonie.
hal Mar 6th 2008 4:56PM
druids can't be in a form and mounted simultaneously...
Izbay Mar 6th 2008 5:33PM
Ah but if you turn your camera to a top down view... they're always in a little halo of *no touch*
Rydolomo Mar 6th 2008 4:19PM
Why do ppl block them?
Same with letter boxes and most gathering points.
Do ppl go AFK and forget or do they deliberately block the NPCs?
Also with dragon mounts.
Rydolomo
Gessilea Mar 6th 2008 6:05PM
They do this because some people enjoy causing other people frustration. They are called griefers or my preferred term, haters.
Asshat McGee Mar 25th 2008 2:20PM
Sometimes there is so many people crowding the npc that the ONLY way to talk to the npc is to show the floating healthbar nameplate dealos above friendly targets. But then if there are a ton of people around the nameplates jump around too much to click on them. The solution? Stand directly on top of the npc, take a birds eye view with camera and zoom in. So the solution to everyone crowding the NPC is to crowd the NPC and use the UI features. It starts a feedback loop. But remember, floating green healthbars above the NPC and dry those QQ tears away! :)
kevin stephenson Mar 6th 2008 4:21PM
That dwarf looked like Zangief!!
Matt Mar 6th 2008 4:30PM
LoL it did!
on a seperate note, i hope they dont let you jump on mail boxes anymore...god thats annoying...
Balasan Mar 6th 2008 4:38PM
Don't nerf fun, Matt. It's going to end up like the rogues losing their swirlies.
Aaron Mar 6th 2008 5:10PM
They also need to do this with mailboxes. Nothing like a huge Tauren sitting directly on top of a mailbox with the bear mount from ZA.
zenpunk Mar 6th 2008 5:15PM
The real question is, is Blizzard going to screw up this too, and totally miss the point. Even tho the guy in the video couldn't run through the NPC, he still got get up pretty close. I bet we'll still see Taurens running their dragon mounts right up to an NPC and turning around to stick their big dragon butts in the way so you can't see the NPC anyway.
People will find a way unless Blizz does overkill.. they need to increase the range you can get close to a NPC but 2 or 3 times the distance in the video.