Trap Stealing - Blue Tracker

#1 - Jan. 4, 2015, 6:23 p.m.

For anyone who hasn't yet encountered this, it is currently possible for people to trap beasts that they do not have the tag on. According to customer support, this is currently "working as intended". I'm creating this threat to draw attention to the issue, in the hopes of convincing the developers to change this.

For 10 years now, it has been impossible to kill-steal in WoW. When you get the tag on something, you get the kill and the loot. But all of a sudden, that's no longer the case when it comes to trapping. Currently, the most-rewarding behaviour for barn use is to run around nagrand, find people who are fighting elite beasts, and to try to steal theirs rather than to find your own. It's faster, easier, and has higher rewards than actually putting in the effort yourself.

In short, the developers have created a system which rewards "jerks" (since the language filter will catch any more accurate description of these individuals). The more of a jerk you are, the better the rewards you get.

This behaviour is becoming more and more common, especially on high-pop realms. one person steals a trap, which ticks off the person who had the tag, and increases the chances that THAT person will start trying to steal traps as well. It's a horrible exponential curve of jerk-ness, all as a result of the way the developers decided to implement this system.

Personally, I can't believe that this system made it into the game in this form. The devs REALLY need to change it, at the VERY least for PvE realms, so that only the person with the tag is eligible to trap a creature. Please, everyone, contribute your thoughts. If enough of us point out how thoroughly awful the current system is, maybe it'll actually get changed to something reasonable.

Rygarius

Community Manager

#40 - Jan. 7, 2015, 3:04 a.m.

We've been observing feedback on the topic and wanted to give a heads up on two hotfixes that are currently undergoing testing (not ready yet) to address these concerns.

Increasing the spawn rates of elite creatures used for trapping.

Deadly Iron Trap will require players to have tap credit on the creature being trapped.

Rygarius

Community Manager

#236 - Jan. 7, 2015, 7:03 p.m.

01/06/2015 07:04 PMPosted by Rygarius
We've been observing feedback on the topic and wanted to give a heads up on two hotfixes that are currently undergoing testing (not ready yet) to address these concerns.

Increasing the spawn rates of elite creatures used for trapping.
Deadly Iron Trap will require players to have tap credit on the creature being trapped.

The hotfixes that were in testing from last night have been implemented and should now be active.

Garrison Buildings

Barn

Deadly Iron Trap now only traps an elite creature (Direfang Alpha, Ironhide Bull, and Wetland Trampler) that the player or party has tap credit on.
Spawn rates for Direfang Alpha, Ironhide Bull, and Wetland Trampler has increased slightly.

Rygarius

Community Manager

#435 - Jan. 8, 2015, 2:40 a.m.

Alright. I'm forwarding info from a designer with more information on what we're working on to increase the amount of elite creatures available for trapping.

The hotfix that will require a realm restart to take effect to increase the availability of elite creatures by splitting the elites off into its own population group. Previously, the elites and their regular versions shared the same population pool. Splitting the elites off into their own population pool will help them repopulate more quickly.

However, because the spawn regions for the elites are so wide, players fighting on one end may not see elite creatures repopulating on the other end of the spawn area. To address that, another hotfix is being worked on to greatly increase the number of spawn points with a further increase to the spawn rates. This other hotfix will also require a realm restart so we're holding off until both hotfixes are ready so the issue can be addressed thoroughly in one go. (You don't want two separate rolling restarts.)

With regards to concerns over the change to require tap credit to trap, we think is in part to due the scarcity of elite creatures. With the hotfixes above in place, there should be ample supply and it'll address those concerns.

We are looking at making possible further improvements beyond the scope of what hotfixes can allow to the Barn and trapping mechanic to encourage group play and reduce the need to engage in unusual behaviors.