Game Mechanics: Charmed Pets should drop items given to them

[Zaela]

It's far more likely that the server simply excluded certain NPCs/models from having weapon display packets sent than any client change. What appears or does not appear is 100% up to the server.

Whether an NPC "equips" a weapon, from their loot table or otherwise, is up to the server too. No fundamental reason it has to equip something in its loot table, nor (more to the point in this thread) put something in its loot table just because it has it "equipped."

[Erati]

so what ur saying is this could b an easy "fix"?

[Zaela]

Yeah. The server's rules for when something in a loot table should show up in the NPC's hand is wrong, evidently. What the rules should be (exclude no drop? exclude lore? exclude by NPC race? specific exclusions in certain cases?) I dunno.

[Erati]

Originally Posted by Zaela [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Yeah. The server's rules for when something in a loot table should show up in the NPC's hand is wrong, evidently. What the rules should be (exclude no drop? exclude lore? exclude by NPC race? specific exclusions in certain cases?) I dunno.

well for starters, I dont remember any 'non' weapon graphics showing up in NPCs hands in Classic

Which is why I remember the Book graphics, the Orb graphics, and the GBS graphics not being on NPCs so vividly.

Bilge for example should also not be holding a Dolly when he has the PKT.

[koros]

Originally Posted by Erati [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

well for starters, I dont remember any 'non' weapon graphics showing up in NPCs hands in Classic

Which is why I remember the Book graphics, the Orb graphics, and the GBS graphics not being on NPCs so vividly.

Bilge for example should also not be holding a Dolly when he has the PKT.

Guards held shields... I'm pretty sure pyzjin held the orb too.

[koros]

Zaela,

It's possible the client was set to exclude certain races from displaying items and it was changed by the Titanium release... which could be checked by going on live today. However, I definitely concede it's more likely it was server side.

[Erati]

Originally Posted by koros [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Guards held shields... I'm pretty sure pyzjin held the orb too.

Pyzjn did not show the GBS.

What era did you start / finish in.

Its easy to forget how silly stuff like this was very early on, especially when things got changed so often and quickly. It would be easy to think 'this was how it always was' once alot of this stuff got put in.

Froglok Scryer did not show the orb when he had it. If he didnt show the Orb, Clerics in hate and the Kael giant should not be showing it either.

If the Dread widow did not show the GBS graphic on her belly, Pyzjn should not be showing it either.

Nothing is more classic than having NPC's with a lil mystery to their drops.....make this so

I will try later to find some quotes and see the earliest entry of people even mentioning the glowy thing in her hands.

[Daldaen]

All that's cool... But I want to be able to loot the items I give my charmed pet.

It was fun to give random items to a charmed rat in Freeport or bat in GFay for some noob to find.

I remember on the Mac server, people who would farm Lodizal would give the spells/section of shell/boots/ring to a random panther and gate out. Since it was all junk except the regen belt. It was cool when noobs would kill a panther with all those items on em.

And for keeping charmed weapons, it adds a bit more of a dynamic for charming. Adding in reusable items like conflagration dagger, tash stick, etc. Or just making it easier to recover gnoll hide lariats / deadwood staves.

[koros]

Originally Posted by Erati [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Pyzjn did not show the GBS.

What era did you start / finish in.

Its easy to forget how silly stuff like this was very early on, especially when things got changed so often and quickly. It would be easy to think 'this was how it always was' once alot of this stuff got put in.

Froglok Scryer did not show the orb when he had it. If he didnt show the Orb, Clerics in hate and the Kael giant should not be showing it either.

If the Dread widow did not show the GBS graphic on her belly, Pyzjn should not be showing it either.

Nothing is more classic than having NPC's with a lil mystery to their drops.....make this so

I will try later to find some quotes and see the earliest entry of people even mentioning the glowy thing in her hands.

Started release month, ended around the end of PoP. But you're entirely right. I don't trust my recollection of that enough, and it may have been affected by p99s mechanics being different.

However, I find it a little dubious that npcs would hold regular shields, but not other non weapon offhands.

[Zaela]

Originally Posted by koros [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

It's possible the client was set to exclude certain races from displaying items and it was changed by the Titanium release...

Yeah certainly possible. Although if it was the case, they would have been stupid to have the server sending out packets they knew for certain would be ignored by their own client.

edit: actually I guess since they would have only sent them in the spawn packets and not in the separate WearChange packets they would have been no worse for wear. So ignore that one! Although it would still be a bit of unnecessary processing on the server side... plus they would have to sync up the damage message types as well (slash versus hit, etc), normally equipped weapons take precedence. Although I suppose that wasn't necessarily always set serverside... dunno.

Originally Posted by koros [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

However, I find it a little dubious that npcs would hold regular shields, but not other non weapon offhands.

Shields have their own specific item type ID (8) which is also what enables bash when they are equipped. Weapons have particular item type IDs as well which wouldn't be shared by non-weapon stuff that can go in primary and secondary. It's conceivable that they checked for these as far as whether the NPC should "equip" them.