So I got a task to collect some spidersilk from various spiders. Trouble is, they don't seem to be flexing correctly and are ending up considerably more difficult than flex creatures usually are. Through cheesy over-usage of Nissa's Binding, I managed to get my Guardian Spirit to kill several of them though. But none of them would drop any spidersilk. At first I thought I was just having lousy luck, but after a while I gave up on it and now assume that kills by pet are incapable of completing the task. If that's true though, I should never have been given that task in the first place as an Empath. So I had to go cancel the task (which required playing Guess-The-Syntax since nothing tells you how to do that...fortunately I was right) and then wait out that obnoxious timer before I could do another one. All around terrible experience.

Also, the Manipulate bug I posted about the other night applies to these as well; they won't attack each other no matter what.

Thanks,
-Biomancer Karthor

<<That confused me too, initially. For anything that isn't implicitly a kill broodlings task (which are found in the web burrows); after you've accepted a task, type task and it'll show you where in the realms you're supposed to go (outside the web burrows) for spiders to generate that'll drop spidersilk loot (and where you need to go for non-kill tasks). I got sent to Acenamacra's beach for my spidersilk task to kill various other types of spiders (not broodlings).>>

That's precisely what I did. I, too, was sent to Acenemacra. Did you happen to obtain any by way of kills made by a combat pet? That's my only option since the creatures are living, and it didn't seem to be generating any.

Thanks,
-Biomancer Karthor

<<Cyclic spells, combat pets, and maybe(?) AOEs don't seem to count towards kill counts.>>

That's the impression I got, at least with regard to the combat pets. It's a pretty major oversight that those tasks would even be offered to Empaths when the creatures aren't constructs. It was fine for the tree things, but here it's a big problem. We should at least be able to decline those tasks without having to wait out the silly timer.

Thanks,
-Biomancer Karthor

<<Are there any empath-completable tasks available from the arachnologist?>>

Yeah, there's tasks for destroying webs or rescuing missing people that are perfectly doable.

Thanks,
-Biomancer Karthor

<<Empaths CAN get the tasks that require collecting the chitin slivers and/or spidersilk tatters. Those do not require killing -- those items are a random drop, and they can be sold/traded between players, they don't bond in any way.>>

Good to know, thanks for clarifying. The drop rate my need a look then, because I tried long enough to become convinced that it wasn't working at all when I had my GS killing them and found zero spidersilk. Does it theoretically drop even if you're not on the task?

Thanks,
-Biomancer Karthor

>I will chime in to say that it does kind of stink that pet kills don't count.

It's been a long-standing issue with how the task system tracks creature kills. Not quickly solved, but something we'd like to look into more at some point.

Zadraes