patch

The Recruit-A-Friend uproar regarding people losing the ability to grant levels they had saved before the patch, will be resolved. It appears that Blizzard will return those "lost" levels after this coming Tuesday's update (the following post says Wednesday but that's because that's when the European servers are updated).

GM Issuntril responded on the European Forums.

216. Re: Recruit A Friend - Granting Levels 20/10/2008 08:29:51 PDT
Hi guys,

We have an update for you on the status of this issue, and I am happy to confirm that players who have been affected by this problem over the past week will have any levels which they had accumulated before patch 3.0.2 reimbursed after our scheduled maintenance on Wednesday morning.

Once again, we do appreciate that this problem was through no fault of your own, and we do apologise for any inconvenience caused to you all. I would also like to commend you for the controlled and constructive manner you have conducted yourselves in this thread, and let you all know that your feedback was most appreciated.

Happy leveling!

Issuntril

This is indeed good news. I had stopped playing any of my multiboxed teams until this was resolved. I was a victim of lost levels, but I had a feeling Blizzard would do the right thing and return those granted levels back to those that had lost them. Way to go Blizzard!

Over the past couple of days there's been a lot of activity over on the official European Forums regarding Patch 3.0.2 and the granting of levels via the Recruit-A-Friend program. Apparently it's a Known Issue for this patch:

"Recruit A Friend - Levels collected and stored prior to patch 3.0.2 cannot be granted
Gaining new levels will allow you to grant those, just not the ones you had stored pre 3.0.2."

GM Issuntril had this to say in response to the original post and poster, Zhadro.

1. Re: Recruit A Friend - Granting Levels 16/10/2008 14:43:35 PDT
Hi Zhadro,

Unfortunately it seems like any levels which were saved up by players before the patch are now lost. It is not possible for the Game Master team to retrieve these levels I'm afraid, but any levels which you earn post-patch should be spendable as normal.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this problem.

Issuntril

A follow up post from Thulljos backed off a little and said that it wasn't definitive but they were looking into it:

51. Re: Recruit A Friend - Granting Levels 17/10/2008 05:05:40 PDT
Hey guys,

Regarding this issue, we are waiting for further information on what will be done to resolve it. I do not have concrete information for you all just yet, but we hope to have something tonight. This is not definite, but it is what we're aiming for.

I want to stress, however, that our development team are aware of this problem and are looking into a good resolution for it. While I can understand the frustration and concern that you are experiencing, I ask that everyone remain calm and level-headed. We are looking into the matter and trying to find the best and fastest way to fix it.

Thuiljos

I'm upset about this. Not because I lost any levels I had saved and had not granted, but the fact that this was part of the incentive for people to actively "recruit-a-friend" into the game. Many people (myself included) saw this as "Recruit-A-Multiboxer" and recruited ourselves but there are actually people out that that brought in (or back) people into the game with the promise that the recruited person would be able to grant levels back to them.

There was no indication that this was going happen before the patch was released, nor was there was a change in the RAF program that states this either. It's actually still the same program they implemented when the RAF was released. So personally I don't think this is acceptable and should give back those levels to those that had them saved up.

I would like to believe that Blizzard will treat this with an appropriate and fair action. If not then they may actually "Lose-A-Friend" or a few friends because of it.

[Update:] They are going to return those "lost" levels. See new post here.

Logged in this morning and had two in game mails from Customer Support, titled "Pet Roundup!".  One of the identified issues of the patch has been with pets and mounts disappearing from the Pet tab, so it looks like Blizzard is trying to make sure people have all their pets and mounts.

It appears they are sending all the pets and mounts back to you just in case they are missing from your pets tab.  If they are still there then of course you won't be able to add them again and you will get an error stating that the pet or mount is already known.  Naturally all your soulbound pets are still soulbound and since you can't add anyway you'll just have to throw those out.  However, all the BOE pets are once again BOE and Blizzard is letting you have those anyway as "souvenirs". Nice.

Here's the actual in game mail:

"From: Customer Support
Subject: Pet Roundup!

Greetings!  It looks like a few pets got away from their owners during the excitement of Patch 3.0.2. Echoes of Doom.  We guess they got scared off by rumors of the Lich king coming soon!

After you learned to summon them, some of your pets or mounts may have gone into hiding: so we're returning them to you.  If you still know how to summon them, enjoy these as souvenirs!

There may be a few pets missing, but our GM's will be happy to find them for you.  Just let us know by sending in a petition.

Thanks!"

So check your mail and then your pets tab to make sure you have all your pets and mounts. If not, open a ticket.

You can't actually log into the Echoes of Doom (patch 3.0.2) just yet, but if you've already downloaded all the patch files, you could go ahead and start it up and see the new animated login screen. It's very cool. The new login screen features new button colors, a scene from Northrend with falling snow, the new theme music, and the skeletal dragon (seen in the WotLK cinematic) flying around the screen and landing on occasion.

Echoes of Doom (or Patch 3.0.2) will probably go live this coming Tuesday. So this is just a reminder if you haven't gotten the pre-patch files downloaded already that you should fire up the Background Downloader and let it download what's currently available.

Blizzard has seeded these files over the past few weeks and as of today, the pre-patch files are a whopping 1.17 GB download. When the patch does go live there will probably be another download, but you don't want to have to also wait to download these files when you could do so right now.

Depending on your internet speed and how you use your computer, you may or may not have these already. If you don't keep your computer on for extended periods of time after playing WoW, or you turn off your computer immediately after playing WoW, then you probably don't. This is because typically the Background Downloader starts downloading after you exit WoW, so if you don't leave your computer on after you play then you haven't given the downloader enough time to get it all.

So the easiest way to make sure you get it all before Tuesday is to just leave your computer on for several hours (or over night) after playing WoW. You could also start the Background Downloader manually and let it run. It's also a way to check if you've gotten it all or how much you have left to download.

So to minimize your downtime when Echoes of Doom is finally released, make sure you have these pre-patch files already downloaded.

[Edit] I probably should mention that there is a way to have the Background Downloader to also download while you are playing WoW. Blizzard says it shouldn't affect gameplay, but I have mine set to only download after I exit WoW.

To do so just select the Options button on the Launcher and make sure the "Download while playing World of Warcraft" is checked:

Patch 2.4.3 is live! So mount up because we now have level 30 mounts!

Mounts at 30?! Yes, it’s true: Apprentice Riding and mounts are now available at level 30. Training costs 35 gold.

Once I heard that mounts were going to be obtainable at level 30 in Patch 2.4.3, I did what a lot of people did, put their characters that still haven't gotten a mount in an Inn to rest up and wait for the patch. There was just no need to spend all that extra time running, when you could just wait a little and ride in style.



Team DoubleD mounted up and ready to ride.