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QUOTE (Mod Liono)
Lost a pet? Visit a pet shop!
Hi all,
The recent bug, where players logging in with a pet into a no-familiar area lost their pets, was fixed a few days ago.
We have now managed to make a one-off fix that will allow any players who lost pets in this way to reclaim them.
Why did this bug occur?
The reason this bug occurred was that the order in which code ran on the player at login changed. If a player logged out with a follower out, when they logged back in, code would run on them to set their follower back up and spawn the correct NPC for them. Code to deal with no-familiar areas would then run after this, checking that the NPC following the player was a familiar, and dismissing it if it was. This way, as the code to set up the NPC always ran first, no other follower would be affected.
A change that was made to the no-familiar area code to make it function correctly also changed the order in which this code ran. The no-familiar code ran before the login code had set up a player’s follower, and because at this point it couldn’t tell whether the follower was a familiar or not, it assumed it was and dismissed it as if it was one. This is how the pets were lost.
How is it possible to restore our pets?
Due to the code mistaking the pets for familiars, while the pet was deleted, a variable set on players that recorded whether they owned this pet or not was not deleted. This is a one-off situation due to the nature of the bug in which we are able to determine who should have, but does not have, any particular pet and return it to them. This is not a rollback of any sort and is very specific to this particular issue. We can tell from your variables if you lost a pet in this particular way and do not have the pet anywhere in your inventories; we are not able to do this in any other lost item scenario.
Sounds good. What are the catches?
There are some limitations with this fix. Unfortunately, it is not possible to tell from these variables the growth state of any pets lost, so any pets you reclaim will be given to you in their adult state. We have thought about this decision and decided that allowing some players who lost a baby pet to get back an adult pet was a better decision than forcing players who lost an adult pet to re-grow a baby pet to adult state.
Additionally, it is not possible to tell which type of a particular pet you had, so if you lost a red dragon, all we can see is that you lost a dragon. To counter this, you will be pleased to hear that upon reclaiming a lost pet that has multiple types, you will be able to choose which type you want!
So, let’s go back to the red dragon example. If you lost a fully grown red baby dragon, you will be able to reclaim a fully grown red, green, blue or black baby dragon.
OK, so how do I get my pet back?
If you believe you have lost a pet due to this bug – that is, you logged in near the Grand Exchange, in the Party Room or in any other no-familiar area, your pet was dismissed and a message in your chat box told you that your familiar was dismissed – you should go to any pet shop owner. Please note that no other way of losing your pet can be reversed. If you dismissed your pet, died with it in your inventory or lost it through any means other than this bug, you will not be able to reclaim it.
If you have lost a pet like this, the pet shop owner will have an additional chat option where you can ask him if he has come across any stray animals. If you speak to him about stray animals, you may just find that he has come across a stray animal very similar to the one you lost, and is more than happy to let you give it a home!
You’ll need to make sure you don’t have a follower with you at the time – the pet shop owner can’t concentrate on reading through his stray animal records with your pet or familiar bounding around his shop! – and make sure you have free inventory space to take your new companion home.
Are there any limits on reclaiming lost pets?
This is being introduced as a permanent feature; however, you will only be able to access the chat about strays if you are in a state where you have lost a pet. This means that, should you lose a pet in an unforeseen way in future, you will be able to claim it back.
Speaking of limits, we have been reviewing the number of unique pet types there are in the game compared to the number a player can have and we are investigating the possibility of increasing your pet allowance to allow you to tame more pets.
Thank you for your patience and understanding in this issue. Now, get out there and give a poor stray animal a loving home!
Mod Liono
Hi all,
The recent bug, where players logging in with a pet into a no-familiar area lost their pets, was fixed a few days ago.
We have now managed to make a one-off fix that will allow any players who lost pets in this way to reclaim them.
Why did this bug occur?
The reason this bug occurred was that the order in which code ran on the player at login changed. If a player logged out with a follower out, when they logged back in, code would run on them to set their follower back up and spawn the correct NPC for them. Code to deal with no-familiar areas would then run after this, checking that the NPC following the player was a familiar, and dismissing it if it was. This way, as the code to set up the NPC always ran first, no other follower would be affected.
A change that was made to the no-familiar area code to make it function correctly also changed the order in which this code ran. The no-familiar code ran before the login code had set up a player’s follower, and because at this point it couldn’t tell whether the follower was a familiar or not, it assumed it was and dismissed it as if it was one. This is how the pets were lost.
How is it possible to restore our pets?
Due to the code mistaking the pets for familiars, while the pet was deleted, a variable set on players that recorded whether they owned this pet or not was not deleted. This is a one-off situation due to the nature of the bug in which we are able to determine who should have, but does not have, any particular pet and return it to them. This is not a rollback of any sort and is very specific to this particular issue. We can tell from your variables if you lost a pet in this particular way and do not have the pet anywhere in your inventories; we are not able to do this in any other lost item scenario.
Sounds good. What are the catches?
There are some limitations with this fix. Unfortunately, it is not possible to tell from these variables the growth state of any pets lost, so any pets you reclaim will be given to you in their adult state. We have thought about this decision and decided that allowing some players who lost a baby pet to get back an adult pet was a better decision than forcing players who lost an adult pet to re-grow a baby pet to adult state.
Additionally, it is not possible to tell which type of a particular pet you had, so if you lost a red dragon, all we can see is that you lost a dragon. To counter this, you will be pleased to hear that upon reclaiming a lost pet that has multiple types, you will be able to choose which type you want!
So, let’s go back to the red dragon example. If you lost a fully grown red baby dragon, you will be able to reclaim a fully grown red, green, blue or black baby dragon.
OK, so how do I get my pet back?
If you believe you have lost a pet due to this bug – that is, you logged in near the Grand Exchange, in the Party Room or in any other no-familiar area, your pet was dismissed and a message in your chat box told you that your familiar was dismissed – you should go to any pet shop owner. Please note that no other way of losing your pet can be reversed. If you dismissed your pet, died with it in your inventory or lost it through any means other than this bug, you will not be able to reclaim it.
If you have lost a pet like this, the pet shop owner will have an additional chat option where you can ask him if he has come across any stray animals. If you speak to him about stray animals, you may just find that he has come across a stray animal very similar to the one you lost, and is more than happy to let you give it a home!
You’ll need to make sure you don’t have a follower with you at the time – the pet shop owner can’t concentrate on reading through his stray animal records with your pet or familiar bounding around his shop! – and make sure you have free inventory space to take your new companion home.
Are there any limits on reclaiming lost pets?
This is being introduced as a permanent feature; however, you will only be able to access the chat about strays if you are in a state where you have lost a pet. This means that, should you lose a pet in an unforeseen way in future, you will be able to claim it back.
Speaking of limits, we have been reviewing the number of unique pet types there are in the game compared to the number a player can have and we are investigating the possibility of increasing your pet allowance to allow you to tame more pets.
Thank you for your patience and understanding in this issue. Now, get out there and give a poor stray animal a loving home!
Mod Liono
Quick find code: 15-16-857-58552193
That was yesterday (March 20th 2009), there was also a system update today:
QUOTE (Andrew)
This mornings update was to fix a problem where the game had stopped working on java 1.4.
There were no other changes.
Thanks
Andrew
There were no other changes.
Thanks
Andrew
Quick find code: 15-16-49-58556366
MultiQuote
