Issues with neutral item token drops

[Anomaluna]

Item name

Neutral item tokens

Description

If you already have a neutral item token, the next token drop should immediately be teleported to fountain shop. However, this does not happen if:

1. Someone sends a token back to fountain -> you get it from the stash -> you kill a neutral creep -> a neutral item drops and you pick it up. Since you already have a token/neutral item, the 2nd token should be teleported back. This happens because the first token isn't considered 'yours' because it was dropped to someone else.

2. If you already have a token/neutral item -> you kill a neutral creep -> a token drops and you right-click it to catch it mid-air, you can keep the token. It does teleport if it drops to the ground, but not if you catch it first.

Both situations above can be abused by griefers to hold on to neutral item tokens.

Also, if I have the same neutral item as an ally and we've both sent it to neutral stash because we're using higher tier neutral items, if I try to send my tier 1 item to me by courier, I might get the wrong one that belongs to my ally. Experienced this with Trusty Shovel in linked match.

Example Match ID and Timestamp

7243874814

[LokeLok]

I think both these mechanics should still be in the game. I would rather see the devs put a timer on the Neutral Tokens while they're in someone's Backpack and automatically send it back to Fountain when the timer is exceeded. Something between 30 seconds and 1 minute will do the trick, to secure higher-level gameplay and players getting griefed. It should be enough time to hand over a Neutral Item to a teammate or choose a new one. Waiting some extra time is infinitely better than never getting a Neutral Item.

If this would be the case, it's important that the timer doesn't get reset if a player drops a Neutral Item on the ground.

[TheChetu]

This needs more visibility and should be addressed in my opinion.

There are a few other issues/situations I would like to add:

1. In the situation where there are multiple heroes present/farming in an area and a Neutral item is marked as Dropped to Hero 'A' but Hero 'B' picks up the item and uses it the next time Hero 'A' has a Neutral of that tier drop for them it will immediately return to to stash unless caught in the air which is a problem if Hero 'A' doesn't already have a Neutral of that tier and now needs to ferry it from base.

2. There are also issues with certain things happening such as Spirit Breaker charging and kills a creep which drops a neutral, that neutral then sits on the ground unless Spirit Breaker stops to grab it, an ally grabs it, uses courier, or Spirit Breaker already has a Neutral of that tier triggering the auto return. As @LokeLok said it should have an automatic return timer but I believe this should apply to the first dropped neutral as well in case someone doesn't pick it up, one minute would give enemies the opportunity to grab it if they spot it but not be so punishing on gameplay for situations where people were tping and it drops or Spirit Breaker charging or other things that cause it to drop and go in a strange spot or to a hero who wasn't trying to get it but just happened to drop.

3. It also would be better if the auto return did not happen if an allied hero who does not have that tier of an item is within 1200 range to prevent having to quickly grab it mid air so you can pass to a teammate.