1. Old School RuneScape
  2. News

Old School RuneScape News

Fishing Trawler & ERB: Part 1 - Old School RuneScape Weekly Update (21/04/21)



Ahoy there, salty sailors! We've cast our nets wide this week with Fishing Trawler improvements, plus the first wave of Equipment Rebalance changes. Let's dive in!

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Fishing Trawler[/h2]

There's a time and a plaice, but now seems like a cod moment to reveal changes to the classic Fishing Trawler minigame! Faster pacing, a new foe from the deep and some extra rewards? It's a net gain.


Game Time & Lobby

The first tweak you'll notice is the duration of the minigame – it's been halved, from 10 to 5 minutes. Snappy! This does mean that the rate of obtaining the Angler's Outfit has changed from 1/8 to 1/12 to reflect the shorter game times, which still makes it faster to obtain than before! Murphy's become more vocal too – he will bellow ship status updates, indicating how much time you have left. Heed his call and get cracking...

Murphy will let you know wherever you are!



Contribution Meter

Taking the place of the old Activity Meter is the shiny new Contribution Meter. You'll need to be actively participating in a game to reap the rewards of the sea, so get to work, landlubber.

Similar to the system in the Wintertodt minigame, the Contribution Meter will slowly fill up based on your actions. You'll need a certain amount of contributions to start earning rewards, but don't worry - you'll be notified when you hit the threshold! All activities onboard will give you some contribution, from bailing water to attacking the Kraken, and contribution does not deplete over time. At sea, hard work pays off.

Contribution means points, points mean prizes.



The Kraken

The infamously grumpy Kraken is not too happy about you disturbing its waters. Now players will have to deal with this slippery sea creature at the same time as maintaining their ship! The Kraken's creepy tentacles will pop up next to your net, preventing you from gathering any more fish until it has been dispatched and the net has been fixed. Players on the upper level of the ship can use their axe to cut the tentacles, receiving a little bit of tasty Woodcutting XP for every successful chop. Once they are subdued, you'll need to use a Hammer to fix the hole. Not fixing the rail will cause the next tentacle to spawn sooner, so be quick because the Kraken will be back twice as fast otherwise!

It's not all bad news, though - attacking those pesky tentacles and fixing the railing will grant a larger amount of contribution than other activities onboard.

Now, you will often climb the ladder to find the offending tentacle has mysteriously vanished. That's because the sun can be temporarily blinding. Be assured, the tentacle is coming – so get ready to chop!

It's well known that the trawler has some minor graphical issues that would require large sweeping changes to fix. Sadly the tentacles are affected, so don't panic if the tip of the tentacle sometimes doesn't appear. You can still chop it as long as it's not sweeping.

Obviously our smaller fishy friends are smart enough to steer clear of the monstrous Kraken, so keep attacking because he can drastically reduce the fish/XP you receive at the end of the game. He will also tear the net when he sees it's fixed. There'll be between three and six Kraken attacks per game, depending on how many people are on your boat. Players on the lower deck will be notified when an attack is underway. If you are in need of an axe you can purchase one from the shop in Port Khazard along with any other supplies you may need. In a pinch, some supplies will be found in crates at the front of the boat. You'll still have to bring your own Rope and Swamp Paste though, so make sure you're tooled up.

Come on Landlubber, let's get Kraken!



Rewards

Some other activities aboard the ship will earn you a little XP. Repairing the net will yield you a pinch of Crafting XP, while fixing those Kraken-made holes will yield a smidgen of Construction XP (as long as you have a Player Owned House to construct, of course).

Once you've completed your trawling adventure, you'll be rewarded as per usual with fish and any XP from your haul. At full contribution, you'll find 50% more fish in your net! On top of that, fish caught with the trawler will now give 50% more Fishing XP than before. Fish will also give approximately 50% more Fishing XP for each fish obtained during that game.

Since the mission takes half the time to complete, you'll get twice as many chances to snatch a Heron pet. The chances scale with contribution though, so fill that bar up for the best odds.

Bird up!


[hr][/hr]
[h2]Equipment Rebalance: Part One[/h2]

This update marks the beginning of the long-awaited Equipment Rebalance. These first changes are fairly small and were mostly welcomed by the community in our very first ERB news post.

Here's what's happened:




Medium Helmets - Ranged Attack stats have been increased from -1 to 0. This includes:
  • Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black, Mithril, Adamant, Rune, Dragon and White Medium Helmets (including the Gilded Rune Med Helm)




Full Helmets - Ranged Attack stats have been reduced from -2 to -3. This Includes:
  • Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black, Mithril, Adamant, Rune, Dragon, White and Decorative Full Helmets (including gold, trimmed and heraldic versions)
  • Initiate and Proselyte Sallets
  • Dragonstone, Ardougne Knight and Corrupted Helmets
  • Ironman, Ultimate Ironman, and Hardcore Ironman Helmets




Platelegs/Plateskirts - Ranged Attack stats have been reduced from -7 to -11. This includes:
  • Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black, Mithril, Adamant, Rune, Dragon, White and Decorative Platelegs/Plateskirts (including Gold, Trimmed and Heraldic versions)
  • Initiate and Proselyte Cuiss/Tassets
  • Corrupted Platelegs/Plateskirt
  • Dragonstone and Ardougne Knight Platelegs
  • Ironman, Ultimate Ironman, and Hardcore Ironman Platelegs




Platebodies - Ranged Attack stats have been reduced from -10 to -15. This includes:
  • Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black, Mithril, Adamant, Rune, Dragon, White and Decorative Platebodies (including Heraldic, Gold and Trimmed versions)
  • Initiate and Proselyte Hauberks
  • Dragonstone, Ardougne Knight and Corrupted Platebodies
  • Ironman, Ultimate Ironman, and Hardcore Ironman Platebodies




Squareshields - Ranged Attack stats have been increased from -2 to 0. This includes:
  • Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black, Mithril, Adamant, Rune, Dragon and White Squareshields (including Gold Rune Square Shield)




Kiteshields - Ranged Attack stats have been reduced from -2 to -3. This includes:
  • Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black, Mithril, Adamant, Rune, Dragon and White Kiteshields (including Gold Rune Kiteshield)
  • All versions of Steel, Adamant and Rune Heraldic Kiteshields
  • Corrupted Kiteshield
  • Decorative Shield




Spears - Attack rate has been decreased to 4. This includes:
  • Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black, Mithril, Adamant, Rune Spears (from 6 to 4)
  • Dragon Spear (from 5 to 4)




Warhammers - All Warhammers (including Dragon Warhammer) now require Strength to wield instead of Attack.

The following have also increased in strength:
  • Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black, Mithril, Adamant, Rune and White Warhammers
If players no longer meet the requirements, the item will be un-equipped to your inventory (if not full), failing that your bank (if not full), and failing that it will drop to the floor. Players will receive an in game message if this occurs.




Maces - Attack rate has been decreased from 5 to 4. This includes:
  • Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black, Mithril, Adamant, Rune, Dragon and White Maces




Hastae - Attack rate has been decreased from 5 to 4. This includes:
  • Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black, Mithril, Adamant, Rune and Dragon Hastae (including all Poison variants)




The Twisted Bow Prayer bonus has been reduced from +4 to 0.




The Dragonstone Gauntlets Ranged Attack has been reduced from -2 to -3.




Both the Dragonbone and Bonecrusher Necklaces have had all Attack stats increased from 0 to 10. all Defence stats increased from 0 to 2 and their Melee Strength bonus increased from 0 to 2. They also now require 70 Prayer to wield instead of 80 and both necklaces' effects are activated immediately.




Basilisk Knights have lost their Special Attacks, although the Basilisk Superiors retain it. These Attacks can also no longer be fully broken by auto-retaliating with Ranged.


That's it for the first wave of ERB changes. If you've not had a chance, check out yesterday's blog and send us your feedback on the next stage!

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Last Man Standing[/h2]

Thanks for your helpful feedback on the latest Last Man Standing map. With today's update you'll see:

  • More chests have been added around the map, specifically to final zones
  • Chests are now more visible
  • The amount of scenery in certain areas makes the environments feel more 'open'
  • Spawn locations have been improved

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Other News[/h2]


Below Ice Mountain

We've made some smaller tweaks to Gielinor's latest dungeon:

  • Golems now drop Noted Rune Essence
  • The Camdozaal Collection Log tab will now turn green when the player has completed the collection
  • The Collection Log now displays totals correctly since new items within Camdozaal were added
  • Any text mentioning the Ancient Forge has been adjusted to refer to the Sacred Forge
  • A small typo has been fixed in the Below Ice Mountain buff interface


PvP World Rota

The PvP rota has moved to Period A:

  • The host for the High-Risk PvP world will be W343 (Germany)
  • The Standard PvP world will be W324 (US West)
  • The free-to-play PvP world will be W417 (US East)
  • A small fishing net has been placed within the ruins
  • The members-only LMS world will be W333 (UK)
  • The free-to-play LMS world will be W469 (US East)


Extras
  • Additional special characters, such as "—", can now be rendered in chat. Go on, express yourself!
  • Dialogue and quest progression in the Grand Tree quest has been improved.
  • The Skavid map now stays with the player upon death.
  • Amlodd's Magical Supplies has a slower price increase in Runes, to match other popular Rune stores.
  • The anti-alting mechanic implemented last week has now been applied to the Abyssal Demons in the Catacombs, Demonic Gorillas, and Warped Jellies. The Catacombs' Abyssal Demons have had their maximum walking range increased slightly too. This will allow people to group more easily between rooms.


That's everything for this week's game update! We'd love to hear your feedback so please let us know what you think via our official forums, on the 2007Scape Reddit, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel.

[hr][/hr]
Mods Acorn, Arcane, Archie, Argo, Ash, Ayiza, Banjo, Boko, Bonsai, Brow, Bruno, Curse, Daizong, Deagle, Dibber, Ditto, Dylan, Ed, Elena, Errol, Fed, Flippy, Gecko, Gee, Grub, Halo, Husky, Jndr, John C, Kandosii, Katies, Kieren, Kirby, Lenny, Light, Lottie, Mack, Maylea, MikeD, Morty, Nasty, Nin, Oasis, Roq, Ry, Sarnie, Squid, Steve W, Sween, Tide, Vegard, West, Wolfy & Zuko

The Old School Team

Equipment Rebalance: Ranged Meta



[h2]Equipment Rebalancing: Ranged Meta and High Level Concepts[/h2]

In our last Equipment Rebalance blog, we discussed splitting the process into four releases. The idea is to start out on the simpler rebalancing, before moving on to tackle trickier subjects - such as changes to the Ranged meta - separately, giving everything the room it needs to breathe and be properly considered.

In this blog we're going to take a closer look at those Ranged meta changes, covering:
  • The current Ranged meta
  • Our previous proposal
  • Various top-level concepts for what we could change
  • Detailed DPS numbers
  • Our next steps - and a survey for you to fill in!

As a team, we believe a rebalance is clearly needed in order to curb any risk of powercreep and to ensure the long-term health of the game. It’s vital that we get this right, and we appreciate all of the support we’ve received so far.

A bit of a warning, though - this blog will contain a lot of information. But regardless, we strongly advise reading through all of it before providing any feedback. We also encourage you all to be constructive in your responses - if you're unhappy with an approach, consider offering an alternative suggestion or let us know which areas in particular need changing and why. This ensures that we’re able to action the changes that matter the most to you.

We should also note that the 'solution' to the Ranged Meta won't be found in this blog! We're going to continue working on it, and further down the road we'll be asking you to fill out a survey that will help shape our actual proposal. Together, we'll be able to find solution that we can all be happy with.

So, grab some water and stay hydrated as you traverse the desert of Equipment Rebalance...

[hr][/hr]
[h2]The Current Ranged Meta[/h2]

First, how do things currently stand?


Toxic Blowpipe

It’s no secret that the Toxic Blowpipe is strong. Here's why it's so popular:
  • It's never a bad weapon to use unless a monster is specifically invulnerable to Ranged, you’re forced to wear a shield, or you are attacking a creature that the Blowpipe cannot reach (such as TzKal-Zuk).
  • It has a very versatile special attack (when it hits).
  • It is very obtainable, costing anywhere from as little as 3m to 5m GP depending on the market.
  • It's among the fastest attacking weapons in the game, which drastically reduces its overkill potential (this also allows it to scale better than most Ranged items as max hit increases).
  • The upkeep cost isn't all that high unless using Rune/Dragon Darts, and the return on investment only provides marginal increases in damage.
  • It’s the only Ranged weapon which can compete with the Twisted Bow in terms of DPS output against lots of creatures.
  • The only Ranged weapons which out-perform the Blowpipe in places where Ranged is relevant are:
    • Dragonhunter Crossbow against high-defence dragons like Vorkath (but only if their Defence is not reduced)
    • Twisted Bow against creatures which have mid-high Defence and also a mid-high Magic level
    • Armadyl crossbow with Ruby Enchanted Bolts against creatures with exceptionally high Hitpoints, such as TzKal-Zuk
    • Chinchompas in places where creatures can be affected by Ranged AoE damage
  • Even against creatures it would not typically be match for, the Blowpipe will be a reasonably strong choice as long as the Defence can be reduced, making it fit to take on tough cookies such as:
    • Xarpus
    • Vorkath
    • Abyssal Sire
    • Sotetseg


Twisted Bow

When used against creatures with a high Magic level, the Twisted Bow is the strongest Ranged weapon in the game by a large margin. This is because of its unique effect; the higher the target's Magic level or Magic accuracy, the higher the Twisted Bow's accuracy and damage becomes!

It can be used to great effect against creatures including:
  • The Great Olm
  • Commander Zilyana
  • Dagannoth Prime
  • Alchemical Hydra
  • Skotizo
  • Vasa Nistirio
  • Most Chambers of Xeric: Challenge Mode creatures
  • TzTok-Jad
  • TzKal-Zuk
  • Zulrah
And, even if it isn't the strongest weapon, The Twisted Bow is still a reasonable choice against creatures such as:
  • Cerberus
  • Abyssal Sire
  • King Black Dragon
  • Maiden of Sugadinti
  • Sotetseg
  • Xarpus
However, The Twisted Bow is significantly worse than almost any other alternative Ranged weapon if the creature has a low Magic level, and is worse than almost every weapon in the game when the creature has no Magic level at all.

Because the Twisted Bow is a very rare drop from end-game content, it remains relatively exclusive and has held its position as one of the most expensive non-cosmetic items to obtain in the game.



Heavy Ballista

The Heavy Ballista sits within the Tier 75 Ranged weapons alongside the Twisted Bow and Toxic Blowpipe. Even though it is comparable in requirements, it sees next to no use in most PvM scenarios compared to its tier-mates because of its slow attack speed.

With the Ballista having such a slow attack speed, the potential for overkill becomes a much bigger issue.

It is, however, one of the best Ranged KO weapons in PvP due to its high hits and powerful special attack.



Crystal Bow

The Crystal Bow is an iconic Tier 70 Ranged weapon, known for having one of the longest attack ranges in the game - and not requiring arrows to shoot!

It can be used by players on a budget, and is great for those that cannot afford (or are yet to unlock) the Toxic Blowpipe. It also has some niche uses such as attacking the respiratory systems of the Abyssal Sire.

The strength of the Crystal Bow can be enhanced further by equipping a full set of the Crystal Armour. Each armour piece will give a 3% damage boost and 6% accuracy bonus to the bow. If all pieces are worn, the total set bonus is equal to a 15% damage and 30% accuracy boost.

This increase in power would suggest its effective strength should be higher than a Tier 70 item. However, it isn't all that useful because:
  • The set bonus require a head slot to be equipped, so it's often replaced by the Slayer helmet for better bonuses in many situations.
  • The set bonus is not strong enough to outdo the Toxic Blowpipe - even in situations where you cannot fight a creature on a Slayer task.
  • The armour set takes up a total of four worn equipment slots (including the bow), limiting its effectiveness where switching gear is favoured.
  • The Bow and its armour have a steep upkeep cost as they degrade in combat. They can only be recharged with Crystal Shards.
  • The armour is reasonably expensive/difficult to unlock, and the cost does not necessarily reflect its strength.


Standard Crossbows

The most commonly used standard Crossbows in game are Tier 61 for Rune, Tier 64 for Dragon and Tier 70 for Armadyl.

There is very little difference in power between them, with the best Tier (Armadyl) only providing +1 Prayer bonus alongside +10 Ranged accuracy over Rune and +6 Ranged accuracy over Dragon. However, Dragon and Armadyl crossbows are the only crossbows which can fire Dragon Bolts and their enchanted variants, which provides a substantial DPS increase over the Adamant enchanted Bolts used by the Rune Crossbow.

Crossbows allow a shield to be equipped at the same time making them a more defensive option, and in some specific encounters, this approach is forced by design. Some examples include:

  • Taking an Antifire Shield or a Dragonfire Ward against Dragons such as Vorkath
  • Taking a Crystal Shield or Dragonfire Shield into places where Defence matters
  • Taking a Mirror Shield or V's Shield against creatures such as Basilisks and Basilisk Knights

With Dragon Bolts equipped, the Armadyl Crossbow is the strongest Ranged weapon option against high Defence targets with high Hitpoints and a low Magic level. It's the second strongest weapon against creatures such as TzKal-Zuk.

The Armadyl Crossbow also has a special attack that doubles the accuracy of the next attack by 40%. However, this attack has no effect if the next move triggers the special effect of a Bolt, as this is checked before accuracy rolls occur.

Against the vast majority of creatures, a Toxic Blowpipe will always be better DPS than any Crossbow.



Karil’s Crossbow

Karil’s Crossbow is another Tier 70 Ranged weapon, though it sees much less use due to its high upkeep cost.

As it is a part of the Barrows set, it degrades during combat, and after 15 hours of use it will need repairing before it can be used again. In addition to this, the crossbow uses unique ammunition that is consumed with every shot fired.

Other noteworthy points about Karil's Crossbow include:

  • It has higher DPS than a Rune Crossbow against low-mid Defence targets, unless the Rune Crossbow is used with enchanted Ruby Bolts against creatures with high Hitpoints.
  • It attacks from a significantly shorter range than a Rune Crossbow.
  • A shield cannot be equipped at the same time as it is two-handed.
  • When worn with a full set of Karil the Tainted's armour, shots from the Crossbow benefit from a special effect that gives a chance to reduce the agility level of an opposing player by 25%
  • But... this has little to no significance even in PvP combat
  • When worn with a full set of Karil the Tainted's armour and an Amulet of the Damned, there is also a 25% chance for each attack to deal a second hit for half the damage of the first.
  • This set effect does provide a slight DPS increase and can find uses in PvP for certain players, but it does requires 5 items to be worn, all of which will degrade over time.


Magic bows

The Magic Shortbow and Magic Longbow are Tier 50 Ranged weapons, though Longbows are mostly considered irrelevant due to their slow attack speed. However, this doesn’t outweigh the benefits of having an increased attack distance!

Magic Shortbows can have comparable DPS to a Rune Crossbow, depending on the Defence of the creature and the quality of ammunition used. But a shield cannot be equipped at the same time, as they are two-handed weapons.

Even when using Amethyst arrows, the Magic Shortbow is weaker than using Karil’s Crossbow. However, the cost of upkeep is severely reduced as it doesn't degrade and any ammunition used benefits from the ammunition-saving effect of Ava's devices.

The Magic Shortbow can be imbued, increasing its base Ranged accuracy from +69 to +75 and lowering the special attack energy used from 55% to 50%.

But, imbued or not, you're always better off using a Rune Crossbow against targets with Hitpoints high enough to take full advantage of Ruby Bolt special attacks.

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Room for Growth[/h2]

The Tier 70 Ranged meta has lots of options, with plenty of ways for lower-tier items to be improved, increasing the available variety. However, the Tier 75 Ranged meta only has four options:
  • Twisted Bow against specific bosses (for those who can afford it)
  • Toxic Blowpipe for everything else, unless there's a significant drawback/reason why it can't be used
  • Armadyl Crossbow for the few occasions where the Toxic Blowpipe isn't the right choice
  • Crystal Bow with Crystal Armour... trying to be relevant and failing spectacularly!
The solution to the current meta isn't as simple as just introducing more Ranged items at Tier 75 either. Simply put, the Toxic Blowpipe is just too strong everywhere it is used. Its damage per tick ratio (see further down for more info) is too high for where it sits. This leaves us with the following options:
  • Nerf the Toxic Blowpipe so we can introduce more Ranged items at Tier 75. These would fill in places where the Blowpipe was previously used, and might be even better in some circumstances.
  • Create a new Tier above the Toxic Blowpipe. This would unavoidably result in powercreep for what one is one of the most dominant playing styles.

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Our Previous Proposal[/h2]

What was it?

These are the changes we had suggested for the charged Toxic Blowpipe:
  • 100% increased accuracy added to the special attack
  • Toxic Blowpipe base Ranged accuracy reduced from +60 to +30
  • Toxic Blowpipe base Ranged strength reduced from +40 to +25
  • All Dart variants' accuracy and strength reduced (see table below)
  • Ranged level requirement increased from 75 to 78
The intention was to make Dart choice more important, with cheaper ones being notably weaker than the more expensive options. In addition to reducing the base stats of the Toxic Blowpipe, this would bring its overall power more in line with where we considered it to be as a Tier 75/78 Ranged weapon.

Space would have been created for new items in the Tier 75/78 bracket, leading to increased diversity of options for Ranged combat.

These changes would also have helped to overcome the balancing hurdle we face currently when designing new PvM content. The Toxic Blowpipe would have a new identity as the best Ranged weapon to use against low Defence targets.

We then looked to offset the nerf of the Toxic Blowpipe by increasing the damage and accuracy bonus of Crystal Armour set. Unfortunately, our previously proposed buffs weren’t enough to make a sufficient difference and failed to bridge the gap that would have been left behind.

You can find the original details of the Toxic Blowpipe changes and more in this newspost.



What worked?
  • Darts became a more important factor, emphasising that higher DPS should have an appropriately higher cost.
  • It created a larger gap between the Toxic Blowpipe and the Twisted Bow, allowing us to fill that space over time with future rewards.
  • It created space for diversity in the Ranged meta and made existing items better in various situations.
  • It gave the Toxic Blowpipe a clear identity - the best weapon against low Defence targets.



What didn’t work?
  • The power level between those who owned a Twisted Bow and those who didn't was widened considerably, resulting in players feeling like more content would be locked behind an incredibly expensive item.
  • Despite its identity as the best weapon against low Defence targets, the Toxic Blowpipe would still be the best weapon against medium Defence targets too, unless they were specifically susceptible to the Twisted Bow.
  • With the power level of the Toxic Blowpipe being balanced more around Rune and Dragon Darts, players with limited access to these Darts (especially those playing an Iron account) felt like the nerf impacted them more than others.
  • Whilst the Ranged meta changed, it didn't really change by enough to make a noticeable immediate impact, especially towards end-game content. It still mostly revolved around using either the Toxic Blowpipe or the Twisted Bow, with the Toxic Blowpipe just being weaker than it was before. This went against our goal of increasing diversity in viable Ranged weapons, and relied too heavily on new items being added in the future.
  • The changes essentially nerfed the player rather than the weapon, as there were no immediate replacements for the Toxic Blowpipe. With no publicly available schedule for releases of new items, this undermined player confidence in the changes.
  • Many felt like those who had used the Toxic Blowpipe pre-nerf had achieved things more easily than players attempting the same tasks post-nerf.
  • Even after buffing the Crystal Armour, the Crystal Bow would remain uncompetitive. After testing various stat changes, we determined that we'd have to increase the set bonus accuracy and damage to 40% accuracy and 50% damage for the Crystal Bow to be better against the Ket-Zek in the Inferno. That's quite a substantial increase over our proposal, and something we were not comfortable doing given the Crystal Bow is still a Tier 70 item!
  • The Crystal Armour was still less viable against creatures where getting a Slayer task is possible.

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Is This REALLY Needed?[/h2]

The game has been just fine for the last six years with the Toxic Blowpipe in its current form, so why change it now? Does it even need to be changed at all?

No it doesn’t.

There is almost certainly a scenario where the Toxic Blowpipe could remain in-game just the same. However, we’d be left in a situation where adding new Ranged gear from future pieces of content would result in blatant powercreep. The gap between Melee/Magic and one Ranged item would continue to grow.

We believe that making changes now is in the best interest of the long-term health of the game. We still want the Toxic Blowpipe to remain viable, but for it to be a tool in your arsenal rather than the entire army!

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Top Level Concepts[/h2]

Since first suggesting Equipment Rebalancing we’ve received an overwhelming amount of feedback. We’ve listened to it all, and here are some of your suggestions.



Ranged Damage Types

One popular suggestion was to separate Ranged accuracy and strength into different styles, similar to how Melee works with Stab, Slash and Crush. Our internal discussions proposed:
  • Piercing (Arrows/Bows)
  • Bludgeoning (Bolts/Crossbows)
  • Magical/Special (Crystal Bow)
A change like this would definitely help to fix the issue with diversity in Ranged equipment, although it's arguably a bit extreme considering the issue only really exists because of one Ranged weapon.

Implementing the fundamentals of this would require an incredibly large amount of dev work. First we’d need to completely re-write almost all existing NPCs defensive stats and respective Ranged weapon offensive stats. Then, a similar amount of time would be needed to calculate the shift in DPS values for each Ranged weapon to ensure each one was correctly balanced.

With something of this scale, it’s likely a lot of existing metas would change (potentially for the worse) and the reality is that no matter how much time we spent balancing things internally, it would take several iterations to get right. This would have huge implications on the work done for Combat Achievements and potentially delay the project even further.

It’s also a huge shift in how Ranged combat works across Old School, and might not be a universally accepted direction for the game to take. This level of change needs serious thought, and isn’t something we’d approach without first fully investigating alternative options.



Special Boss Mechanics

Another suggestion was to introduce unique mechanics for bosses and creatures that would limit the effectiveness of the Toxic Blowpipe against them.

This is something we’ve done in the past and continue to keep in mind with new content releases. For example, Basilisk Knights require a shield and TzKal-Zuk is intentionally placed out of range for the Blowpipe.

Alternate ways of achieving this could involve:
  • Mechanics such as damage reflection, making the use of a fast attacking weapon much more punishing.
  • Mechanics that require the player to move around a lot so there are fewer opportunities to attack.
  • Drastically increasing the Defence/Ranged Defence of bosses and creatures to combat the Toxic Blowpipe. However:
    • This would however impact the viability of Melee
    • Increasing Ranged defence makes all Ranged weapons weaker, not just the Toxic Blowpipe
    • Landing special attacks with the Dragon Warhammer still has the potential to undo any high Defence stats we apply unless we specifically limit the amount of Defence that can be reduced like we have at Sotetseg
Ultimately we still feel like these solutions don't fix the underlying problem. Whilst we’re able to design new content with the current Toxic Blowpipe in mind, all existing content would remain susceptible to powercreep as and when new Ranged items become available. There’s also the potential for any changes having an unintended negative impact on other weapons.



Rebalancing Old Content

One of the most common concerns was that existing content would become much harder, or that some PvM goals would take longer to achieve. For example:
  • Lizardman Shamans would be impacted significantly due to the low Ranged accuracy of the Shayzien armour, which is required to fight them effectively.
  • The Inferno would become slightly harder. If the Blowpipe is dealing less damage, then monsters are taking longer to die. This would become a problem when reaching TzKal-Zukm, as taking down the Jal-MejJak’s quickly is very beneficial. There were also concerns raised about the increased difficulty of defeating sets of Jal-Xil and Jal-Zek during the TzKal-Zuk phase, and that the triple JalTok-Jads taking longer to kill.
  • Vasa Nistiro becomes even more reliant on having fellow raiders with a Twisted Bow, especially in Challenge Mode.
It was suggested that we could reduce the stats of affected creatures accordingly. But again, applying this kind of change across the entire game is something we’d like to avoid. However, we can certainly look case-by-case and adjust bosses and creatures where necessary.



Why don't we just ban the bots?

“The Toxic Blowpipe is only a problem because it's cheap. It's only cheap because Jagex haven't banned bots/goldfarmers. It's not our fault and we shouldn’t suffer because of this.”

Whilst the affordability and upkeep costs of the Toxic Blowpipe are an issue, they’re only contributing to the bigger problem of how crazy powerful the weapon is. By just making it more expensive to purchase and use, we'd still face the following snags:
  • A single Tier 75/78 weapon being the meta.
  • Continued issues with powercreep whenever new Ranged strength and accuracy items are introduced.
  • Dart scaling issues, with extremely accessible and affordable Darts out-DPS-ing some of the best-in-slot alternatives.
We don't disagree that the Toxic Blowpipe is cheaper than we’d like. And yes, that is partially due to the amount of them available because of accounts farming Zulrah.

We asked our Anti-Cheating Team to provide some insight into the situation:

"We have multiple BotWatch heuristics specifically looking at bosses such as Zulrah. These are frequently updated to remain as accurate and informative as possible. However, with the vast amount of scripts and bots out there, we simply can't catch every one of them, all of the time. This is an ongoing battle between the Anti-Cheating Team and people abusing our system.

"The number of botted accounts that the team remove on a weekly basis fluctuates, but is usually in the low thousands. A lot of these accounts are played manually, just as a normal player would do, but their intention is purely around Gold farming.

"This is an issue because players seek to make a living from converting in-game items to real-world currencies. So long as our games provide these players with a real-world financial incentive to play, then they'll do so at all costs. These type of accounts aren't easily identifiable via BotWatch - they require a mixture of data analysis, profiling and manual tracking.

"Over the last year, the team has been working to improve our arsenal with new talent, fresh ideas, and innovative ways of working. One example we can give is the implementation of Machine Learning models and analysis to help flag any suspicious accounts for manual review!

"We're happy to report early success with this. Through these additional analysis methods we're now seeing on average of 600 to 2,500 additional Real World Trading bans applied daily.

"We're aware that there is more work to do, and we can be doing better. Over the coming months we are actively going to be working on developing new systems to aid in the fight against cheating in our games. We can't go into detail about these new systems for obvious reasons, but alongside hiring more staff it's been a main focus of the team's planning and strategy over the past year."


[hr][/hr]
[h2]Damage Per Tick - Accuracy Is Our Friend[/h2]

One of the fundamental issues with the Toxic Blowpipe is its potential damage output is far higher than its competition.

By working out the raw potential damage output of an item, we can focus purely on the figures when comparing them. We don’t need to worry about various different stats, if a weapon is one-handed or two-handed, or things like attack range. In its simplest form, our calculations take a weapon's max hit and attack speed, and then output a simple figure that we can refer to.

The below table is based on the following:
  • Maximum Ranged gear available
  • A boosted Ranged level of 112
  • Rigour active
  • No Slayer Helmet
  • We've used three different Magic levels for the Twisted Bow to show how the Magic level really affects its raw damage output
  • We've ignored the Bolt effect chance of Crossbows
  • Naturally this doesn't take into account any upkeep costs, which we'd normally consider during balancing
  • We assume that you have 100% accuracy and will never miss, which is a good way for us to actually show the potential DPS output of a weapon
*The Twisted Bow only scales past 250 Magic inside the Chambers of Xeric, where its cap becomes 350 Magic.



Accuracy Matters, So Why Are We Ignoring It?

Accuracy is a very important metric in Old School combat. It controls how often you’re going to hit with a weapon, which directly impacts to the amount of damage you can output over a period of time. As a monster's Defence value increases, accuracy against that same creature decreases, and therefore the overall DPS typically goes down.

However, accuracy is not a very reliable stat, especially given how a lot of existing encounters involve using Defence-reducing special attacks to get as close to 100% accuracy as possible.

So in general, this is a good way to show the potential power level of items. You can clearly see from the table above just how far ahead the Toxic Blowpipe is against low Defence targets, even with low-tier Darts being used! This method also emphasises the non-existent gap between the Toxic Blowpipe and the Twisted Bow - something we should certainly work on filling with other items or future rewards.

Let’s take a look at how things are when we bring Effective Defence into the mix…

The below graph is based on the following:
  • Effective Defence is calculated by the formula Effective Ranged Defence = (Ranged Defence + 64)
  • (Defence + 9)
  • The benchmarks in order of effective Ranged Defence: Lizardman Shamans, Jal-Zek, Jaltok-Jad, Tzkal-Zuk, Sarachnis
  • Twisted Bow: The Accuracy/Damage of Twisted Bow assumes a creature with a Magic level of 250
  • Creatures are shown in this graph only to highlight Effective Defence - this is not the DPS against these specific creatures (they are placed approximately where their Effective Defence level lies)
  • Armadyl Crossbow and Dragon Bolts with procs assumes that the max hit of the special attack is always 100
    • The true DPS value will be somewhere between the 'with procs' and 'no procs' lines, though this would entirely depend on the creature being killed at the time


By looking at the graph, it’s very clear that the Toxic Blowpipe is strong against more than just low Defence creatures, which is really limiting the Ranged design space.

In our eyes, a healthy meta would look something like this:
  • Weapon A = 12 DPS against 0 Defence and 4 DPS against 30,000 effective Defence
  • Weapon B = 9 DPS against 0 Defence and 6 DPS against 30,000 effective Defence
This allows for a clearly identifiable breakpoint where you choose to use weapon A over weapon B. Obviously this is just an example of how it would look, and a rather simple one at that! We'd expect the actual meta to be much more diverse, factoring in one-handed vs two-handed weapons, attack range, bane effects against specific monsters, special attacks etc.

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Moving Forward[/h2]

If you’re still with us after all this information, then very well done - you most certainly command the power of armies, and could probably punch a horse to the ground? Which is why we need your help!

We've been working on a new proposal for the Ranged portion of Equipment Rebalancing, but before we share that, we’d really appreciate some additional guidance from you all.

We’ve created a survey about the Ranged meta and how we might proceed. Please help us by clicking here and letting us know what you think!

Some of the questions in the survey should give you some insight into our current thinking. While we will not be polling all of these changes, we do want you as a community to help us shape a healthy Ranged meta that will keep us playing happily for years to come!

Once we’ve processed your feedback from both this post and the survey, we'll come back to you with some new proposals. We expect that there will be several rounds of feedback required, so don’t worry - we won't rush this!

As Combat Achievements is close to completion, it’s important we make these changes soon, and that we get them right. We'd like to give ourselves an opportunity to evaluate any immediate changes to the meta too, so this time has been factored in.

As always, thank you for your continued support and we'll see you next blog with our shiny new Ranged meta proposal!

Start your discussion with us and other players via our official forums, on the 2007Scape Reddit, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel.

[hr][/hr]
Mods Acorn, Arcane, Archie, Argo, Ash, Ayiza, Banjo, Boko, Bonsai, Brow, Bruno, Curse, Daizong, Deagle, Dibber, Ditto, Dylan, Ed, Elena, Errol, Fed, Flippy, Gecko, Gee, Grub, Halo, Husky, Jndr, John C, Kandosii, Katies, Kieren, Kirby, Lenny, Light, Lottie, Mack, Maylea, MikeD, Morty, Nasty, Nin, Oasis, Roq, Ry, Sarnie, Squid, Steve W, Sween, Tide, Vegard, West, Wolfy & Zuko

The Old School Team

Clans: Pre-Registration



[h2]Reserve Your Clan Name![/h2]

We're really excited about the upcoming release of the Clans system - it's getting so close we can almost taste it! With that in mind, it's now time to think about reserving your unique Clan name. Handily, we've put together a Clan Reservation form so you can easily submit all the information we need.

As there are many potential claimants for any name, we don't want to run this on a first-come-first-served basis. We want to make sure that long-established Clans can bag their rightful name without fear of losing out to some cheeky chancers! To ensure fairness, this will be a manual process. We therefore greatly appreciate your patience as we try to allocate names as best we can.

Before we get into the specifics of the form, some guidelines:

  • The form should only be submitted by the owner/leader of the Clan. Sending us multiple requests from the same Clan won't improve your chances of reserving the name, but is likely to slow down our process as we try to validate the information.
  • On a similar note, please be patient with your request. We will review all requests before the release of the Clans system, and you will receive a response. Do not send us multiple requests if you haven't yet received a response.
  • As this is a manual process, please don't misuse this form. This will take time away from us assisting people who genuinely need our help.
  • Misusing this form to do something that you might think is funny, like requesting rude words or falsely trying to claim a rival Clan's name, may result in action being taken against you/your Clan, and you may lose your Clan's name as a result.

Okay, now that's out of the way, let's get on to the form itself! Clan leaders/owners can click here for the Clan Reservation form.


Here's a breakdown of what we ask for, and why we're asking for it.

  • Your email address: This is the email address where you'd like to hear back from us, and does not have to be your usual login email.
  • Subject: Simply put Clan, Clan Reservation or Clan Name.
  • Clan Name: The name you'd like to reserve. The limit is 12 characters, the same as display names.
  • Clan Creation Date: The approximate date your Clan was created (we invite you to offer proof of this date later in the form).
  • Clan Size: The approximate size of your Clan (again, proof can be provided further down).
  • Current Friends Chat: We're going to assume that you use a Friends Chat Channel (also referred to as a Clan Chat Channel).Telling us this will help to inform our decision-making if we're faced with similar name requests.
  • Proof of Clan Existing: Here's where you can submit screenshots, videos etc to support your reservation request. For example, you can include proof of the Clan creation date or number of members.
  • Discord Tag: As we mentioned earlier, the reservation process is a manual affair and requires realtime in-game interaction between leaders and J-Mods. We'll use Discord to arrange meeting dates and times. Let us know where to find you!
  • Description: This is an area for you to include any other information that you think is relevant to your name reservation request.

Thank you for following the guidelines. We look forward to receiving your Clan Reservation form!

The Old School Team

Below Ice Mountain



[h2]Hotfix Changes - April 16th[/h2]

After reviewing the effects of yesterday's hotfix and reading your feedback, some of the changed XP rates are going to be re-adjusted.

Our goal for the new dungeon Below Ice Mountain was to create a place where low-leveled, non-members get the chance to experience other types of Mining found in Gielinor (such as in the Motherlode Mine).

In line with that aim, the following will be implemented via hotfix today at approximately 14:15 BST:
  • The Mining XP when receiving a deposit is increasing from 24 to 32.
  • The Mining XP when receiving a shard is increasing from 12 to 16.
  • The chance of successfully mining Barronite at high Mining levels as been decreased, but the chance at low Mining levels as been increased.
  • The Mining buff has been increased from a 5% chance to 10% (the interface will be updated with our next game update).


All the feedback you've given is massively appreciated and we'll continue to monitor the changes and review any other suggestions you might have.

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Hotfix Changes - April 15th[/h2]

It's been amazing to see so many of you delve Below Ice Mountain! There's been a lot of feedback, and we've got some changes we'll be making based on what you've been saying.

The following will be implemented via hotfix today, at approximately 14:15 BST:

  • The base chance of getting a Barronite deposit when mining is increasing from 3% to 24%.
  • Unique items from Barronite are now 8x rarer to receive, with the Broken hammer being 3x rarer.
  • Relics within the ruins are becoming slightly rarer as well.
  • The Mining XP you receive from the deposits will decrease from 250 to 28.
  • The Smithing XP you receive from the deposits will decrease from 37.5 to 10.
  • The Mining XP you receive from shards will decrease from 25 to 12.
  • The Mining buff now gives a 5% chance of success when Mining, rather than 5% additional deposits.


The team hope you continue to enjoy the content in our newest game update. We'll keep on monitoring activity in the ruins and adjust issues accordingly as per feedback.

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Issues and Hotfixes (April 15th)[/h2]

[expand]
Issues Raised
Current Progress
(12:50 BST) World 345 is currently offline.
(April 15th - 13:30 BST)World 345 is now back online. We're sorry for any inconvenience, and we'll continue to monitor the game world for any further issues.
(12:50 BST) Players interacting with the same inactive Golem will cause the NPC disappear.
(14:00 BST) This issue is has now been resolved
(12:50 BST) Players are receiving a game message upon login about obtaining Graceful items even if they haven't got any.
(13:50 BST) This issue is has now been resolved
(12:55 BST) Some held items are not appearing correctly within the Below Ice Mountain cutscenes.
(13:30 BST) This issue is has now been resolved.
(14:55 BST) Some relics from the Ice Mountain dungeon are not unlocking as intended within the Collection Log.
(16:20 BST) This has been fixed for anyone that now unlocks the relic pieces. For players that have already received a relic piece, you can now speak to Ramarno to update your Collection Log.
(15:10 BST) Clicking out of the cutscene with Burntof will not allow players to progress with the quest.
(15:40 BST) This issue is has now been resolved.
(15:10 BST) Traps in the Vault within the Ice Mountain dungeon will block all players from walking once it spawns.
(15:40 BST) This issue is currently being investigated
(15:30 BST) Players Brimhaven Graceful items are still not appearing correctly in the Collection Log.
(17:00 BST) This issue should now be resolved. For any players that are still having issues, speak to Pirate Jackie to update your Collection Log correctly.

[/expand]

It's time to uncover the secrets of Ice Mountain in our new free-to-play quest! We've also tweaked Tempoross and souped-up the seedbox. Read on for more!

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Below Ice Mountain[/h2]

Willow, an energetic archaeologist (perhaps suspiciously so) is hunting for her next big discovery. She believes she has found the entrance to ancient underground ruins just to the west of Ice Mountain. There's a catch though - it's sealed tight and she needs to re-unite her old crew to help her break in.

Naturally, she has to stay close to the ruins (south of Ice Mountain, near the Dwarven Mines) in order to lay claim to the find. It therefore falls to you to bring her rag-tag group back together for one last caper and a final big pay-off!



Willow waiting for a gullib... err, we mean a brave adventurer!


Burntof is an old dwarf with a penchant for demolition, Checkal is a well-built lifter of heavy things and Marley is a cunning thief with a knack for disarming traps.



A lifter, a thief and a dwarf walk into a bar...


Together, they have the talents it will take to gain entry to the secret ruins. But persuading them might not be easy. See, the gang aren't all too keen on working with Willow again, and her intentions might not be as honourable as she claims...

[h3]Requirements and Rewards[/h3]
[expand]This is a novice quest aimed at free-to-play adventurers, so there aren't many requirements. You'll need 16 Quest Points to get started, and 10 Mining will definitely come in handy for a tricky encounter, but is by no means necessary. Completing the quest will yield the following rewards:
  • 1 Quest Point
  • 2,000 Coins
  • Access to the Ice Mountain Dungeon

You'll also be able to flex those muscles with a whole new emote courtesy of Checkal! Hwuargh!
[/expand]

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Ice Mountain Dungeon[/h2]

Once the quest is complete, you'll have access to the dungeon below Ice Mountain. These ruins are packed with lore, but we're keeping those cards very close to our chest for the moment. Read on for a spoiler-free guide to what awaits:


[h3]Activities In The Ruins[/h3]

Within the ruins is a great forge powered using Barronite, a unique material that can only found there. Somebody within the ruins believes it is their duty to keep the forge lit, lest the flame be diminished forever. This somebody is perhaps a few years past their prime and, with failing eyesight, will reward anybody who helps to gather vital Barronite...

There are a range of rewards for handing over the Barronite, most notable of which is access to the Vault. What's so exciting about this Vault? Well, it contains many treasures belonging to the old inhabits of the ruins, and they are all yours for the taking! However, to get the lock open you'll need to offer Barronite every time you want to enter.

Barronite can be gathered while skilling within the ruins, so you'll be gaining XP as you go. The activities available are primarily aimed at low-ish level free-to-play adventurers with the intention of filling notable gaps in free-to-play skilling. Let's take a look at some of them:


Religious Offerings (Prayer)

The caves deep below Ice Mountain are home to various rare cave fish. In ancient times, it was tradition for these fish to be used as religious offerings.



Here cave fishy fishy!


Players can offer cave fish within the ruins to train their Prayer skill. You'll need to perform the same ritual used by the long-departed inhabitants of the ruins:

Step 1: Fishing
Players will either need a small net, big net or fishing rod to catch cave fish within the ruins.

Fish
Fishing Level
Equipment
Free-to-play
Raw Guppy
7
A small net
YES
Raw Cavefish
20
A small net
YES
Raw Tetra
33
A small or big net
YES
Raw Catfish
46
A big net
NO


Players will also sometimes find Barronite when fishing. Plus, there's a rare chance of catching a Barronite Handle (see below). The fish caught here cannot be traded.

There are a few cave eel to be found (members only). They can't be used as an offering, but are a source of food. You'll also have a chance to receive the Heron pet when fishing for cave eels.

Step 2: Cooking
With fish in your net, players will need to head to one of the old preparation tables with a knife. But be careful how you cook, budding chefs - it's possible to mess up and ruin the fish. The chance of failure is dependent on your Cooking level, so bring your culinary A-game!

Fish
Cooking Level
Free-to-play
Guppy
7
YES
Cavefish
20
YES
Tetra
33
YES
Catfish
46
NO


The prepared fish cannot be traded.

Step 3: Prayer
With your fish prepared, it's time to make an offering at an ancient altar and train that Prayer skill!


Golem Cores

The old inhabitants of the ruins controlled Golems, programming them to do many tasks. The Golems were fuelled by runic energies and imbued with the power of the Body and Mind altars. It was hoped that they would one day become more self-sufficient and be freed of the requirement for programming - but the magical arts are never predictable. The unstable energies of the nearby Chaos altar slowly seeped in the Golem Cores, corrupting them and filling them with uncontrollable power. The dangerous Golems were sealed away in the ruins for good.



These look tougher than a Graveler!


Players can hunt and kill Golems within the ruins. When defeated, they will sometimes drop their corrupted Cores, which can be used at the relevant Runecraft altar to gain XP and runes.

Step 1: Combat
Players can find the following golems in the ruins:

Name
Level
Notable Drops
Free-to-play
Flawed Golem
13
None
YES
Mind Golem
30
Mind Core
YES
Body Golem
50
Body Core
YES
Chaos Golem
70
Chaos Core
NO


Killing golems will sometimes yield Barronite, too, and there's a rare chance they'll drop a Barronite Guard (see below). Golem cores cannot be traded.

Step 2: Runecrafting
Players can use the Cores to train their Runecraft skill, offering them at the relevant Runecraft altar for XP and runes. Each Core offers more XP and runes than a single essence, meaning fewer trips to the altar. However, this benefit is offset by the time it takes to obtain the Cores.


Gathering Relics (Mining and Smithing)

Players can mine Barronite rocks to find (you guessed it) Barronite and (you guessed it again) Barronite deposits. These deposits can be smelted down to gain additional Barronite and Ancient Relics.



C'ore blimey... how long has this been here?!


Step 1 - Mining
Barronite rocks can be tackled at 15 Mining. Mining here will work similarly to the upper-level ore veins in Motherlode Mine (ensuring the rocks can be worked in groups).
Players will get around 25 XP per Barronite mined, and finding a deposit will yield some additional XP.

Step 2 - Smithing
Players with 15 Smithing can break down Barronite deposits with a hammer at anvil within the dungeon, and obtain various items:
  • Barronite (common)
  • Ancient Relic (uncommon)
  • Barronite Head (rare)
  • Broken Barronite Hammer (rare + members-only)

Ancient Relics can be handed in at the Varrock Museum for coins. In addition, members also get Kudos for the first Relic they hand in! The Barronite Head and Broken Barronite Hammer, meanwhile, can be made into new items (see below).

When Smithing, players will get around 37.5 XP per deposit.


The Vault

The Vault is buried deep within the ruins - just hand in your Barronite to gain access! As we mentioned above, it was used by the ancient inhabitants of the ruins to store treasure, so it's well worth a gander. But there's a catch. Each payment of Barronite allows just one entry, and players only get a limited time inside before they are forced out by the ancient security systems.



Simply a-MAZE-ing!


The Vault itself is maze-like, and home to many chests. Players have one minute to loot as many chests as possible and then reach the exit. If the player doesn't make it out in time, all the precious bounty will be lost!

Making things even more challenging, the locations of chests - and the loot within them - will be randomised. Similarly, doors will at times be blocked off, forcing the player to think fast and dash down alternative paths.

Players will be able to stack Barronite payments to make Vault entry more convenient. For example, a player could pay for 20 entries in a single transaction. Smooth.


Other Rewards

In addition to all of the above, the ruins offer new and unique rewards! Snag yourself one of these:
Barronite Mace
An untradeable mace that was once used by the ancient inhabitants of the ruins. Players need to find three components:
  • Barronite Handle - found while hunting for cave fish
  • Barronite Guard - dropped by Golems when killed
  • Barronite Head - found while breaking down Barronite deposits




Smash your way through golems with the Barronite Mace!


Once you have all three components, a character within the ruins will tell you how to combine them to finish the Barronite Mace (you'll also need some Barronite, obviously - the clue's in the name!). The Mace is positioned slightly below the Rune Scimitar. It's a useful crush weapon for low to mid levels, and requires 40 Attack.

This Mace also comes with a unique effect - it's a golembane weapon. That means it will provide extra accuracy and damage when fighting Golems!

As the item is untradeable it will behave similarly to items like the Fire Cape on death.

Dwarven Hammer
This is a members-only, untradeable hammer that was once used as Smithing equipment by ancient dwarves. It's been a while since it's been much use to anyone, so you will first need to find the busted version while breaking down Barronite deposits. A character within the ruins will tell you how to repair it.



Stop, hammer time!


It will function as a normal hammer when skilling, but because it can be equipped in the main-hand, it frees up an inventory slot. Note that the hammer has no combat stats when equipped.

Ruins Area Buffs
Players will also be able to spend Barronite to unlock various buffs and effects that work only within the ruins:
  • Increased catch rate for fishing
  • Decreased failure chance when preparing fish
  • Reduced damage from golem attacks
  • Increased chance of obtaining Barronite deposits
  • Increased chance of finding mace components and the broken hammer
  • A one hour buff to the dungeon that increases the success chance of all activities




Frog... that is all.


And that's everything for Below Ice Mountain and our new free-to-play dungeon area. We can't wait for you to delve deep into the mysteries of these strange and wonderful ruins. What will you uncover?

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Tempoross Updates[/h2]

Items that require setting up (e.g. Dwarf Cannon, Mithril seeds, Hunting Box, etc) can no longer be used on the Tempoross lobby ship. You can no longer light fires here either.

Fishing XP may now be gained in Tempoross encounters on W45.

Players can no longer stall to run through fires.

Points from dousing fires and fixing totem poles have doubled from 20 to 40. Get splashing!

The tackle box can now be used to store the Pearl Barbarian Rod, Tiny Net, Molch Pearls, Merfolk Trident, Dark Flippers and all variants of the Trailblazer Harpoon.

Stackable fish can no longer be stored in the fish barrel.

Angler and Spirit Angler outfits are now separated in Player Owned Houses.

The messaging when subduing Tempoross has been slightly tweaked.

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Other News[/h2]

Seedbox Improvements
While we were discussing the bolt pouch design, the team noted that the seedbox isn't behaving right on death in the Wilderness. Upon death to an NPC, the seed box would drop to the ground with all of its contents still stored. If the player died below level 20 Wilderness, it would drop to the ground, along with all of its contents. If the player died above level 20 Wilderness, it would be dropped as 1 coin and all of its contents would be destroyed.

It will now behave as follows:
  • PVM death below 20 in Wilderness: the container and contents go to the gravestone.
  • PVM death above 20 in Wilderness: the container is destroyed but the contents can be preserved within the next container acquired.

PvP deaths act the same way regardless of location. The pouch is destroyed and its contents awarded to the PKer.

PvP World Rota
The PvP world rota has moved to Period B.
  • The host for the High-Risk PvP world will be W337 (US East)
  • The host for the Standard PvP world will be W325 (UK)
  • The host for the free-to-play PvP world will be W371 (UK)
  • The members-only LMS world will be W492 (US East)
  • The free-to-play LMS world will be W326 (UK)
Extras
  • For Ironmen, certain slayer monsters' loot and XP will be discredited if a player hits a 0. This is to discourage the use of alternate accounts to speed up the efficiency of certain tasks.
  • Nightmare drop calculations will now factor in the total contribution that is present when the boss dies. This is to prevent boosting of drops.
  • After an egg-ventful Eastdoor, Gregg has returned to doing... whatever it is that human-sized rabbits do.
  • You can now use the Twisted or Trailblazer Cane emotes directly from the emotes interface (as long as you have a set of tier 3 relic hunter on your Leaguehall's outfit stand in your Player Owned House).
  • The Iron Dragon in the Soul Wars dungeon has been moved closer to the rune ore spot to prevent botters from getting there without a fight.
  • Brimhaven graceful pieces will now be counted within the Collection Log.
  • Players can now search for all boss categories in the Collection Log.
  • The Dragon Harpoon will now always consume 100% of the special attack power.
  • Zuriel's staff now gives its Ancient Magicks buffs in Last Man Standing.
  • The Undead Zealot in Mort'ton has more cosmetic variation.
  • Some more shields have been updated to prevent them from disrupting players' walking animations.
  • A typo has been fixed in the Settings menu.
  • A typo has been fixed in Istoria's dialogue.
  • Some grammatical errors have been corrected in drake combat messages.

That's everything for this week's game update! We'd love to hear your feedback so please let us know what you think via our official forums, on the [url=https://www.reddit.com/r/2007scape/comments/mqnl0s/below_ice_mountain_game_update_140421/, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel.

[hr][/hr]
Mods Acorn, Arcane, Archie, Argo, Ash, Ayiza, Banjo, Boko, Bonsai, Brow, Bruno, Curse, Daizong, Deagle, Dibber, Ditto, Dylan, Ed, Elena, Errol, Fed, Flippy, Gecko, Gee, Grub, Halo, Husky, Jndr, John C, Kandosii, Katies, Kieren, Kirby, Lenny, Light, Lottie, Mack, Maylea, MikeD, Morty, Nasty, Nin, Oasis, Roq, Ry, Sarnie, Squid, Steve W, Sween, Tide, Vegard, West, Wolfy & Zuko

The Old School Team

Collection Log Improvements - Old School RuneScape Weekly Update (07/04/21)



[h2]Issues and Hotfixes (7th April)[/h2]

[expand]
Issues Raised
Current Progress
(11:35 BST) Players searching for any boss items after Tempoross within the Collection Log, won't see any results.
(11:35 BST) The Collection Log Plugin within RuneLite is currently not displaying your total as intended. We would recommend uninstalling it for the meantime, until it has been fixed.
(12:00 BST) Players searching for any boss items after Tempoross in the Collection Log, won't see any results.
(12:10 BST) This issue will be fixed in the next game update (April 14th).
(12:00 BST) Players cannot buy S.T.A.S.H. Blueprints from Watson if they have a clue to claim.
(12:20 BST) This issue has now been fixed.
(12:30 BST) Purchasing an untradable item from any store closes the store interface (this doesn't stop you from getting the item).
(12:50 BST) This issue has now been fixed.
(12:35 BST) Changing the Giant Mole pet to pink is causing issues with players Giant Mole pet insurance.
(13:10 BST) Probita's Insurance Bureau will now recognise the new pink mole for insurance purposes. Some other issues will be fixed with next week's game update (April 14th).
(14:45 BST)Players aren't seeing the side panel UI we mentioned in the Collection Log poll.
(14:155 BST) This will be implemented with the release of Combat Achievements.
(15:00 BST) After the update, players were supposed to retroactively unlock Marks of Grace in their Collection Log equivalent to their obtained amount plus the value of purchased pieces of Graceful. But... If players had any Graceful pieces equipped when logging in, they were not included in the retroactive unlock towards Marks of Grace.
(15:10 BST) One hotfix was deployed to start counting worn Graceful pieces and a second hotfix was deployed to fix the same issue, but this time for the Brimhaven Graceful variant as it wasn't included in the first hotfix.

This hotfix will only work for players that HAVEN'T logged in between the update and the hotfixes.

There will be a third fix coming in next week's game update (April 14th) to include the Brimhaven Graceful pieces (not the Marks of Grace, but the objects themselves). This will work for all players, even if they log in before th
(17:00 BST) The Shades of Mort'ton section of the Collection Log doesn't turn green to show it has been completed.
(17:00 BST) This issue is currently being investigated.

[/expand]

We're back, and we bring with us a rejuvenated Collection Log that will help you keep your stash nice
and organised! Plus, more poll changes are rolling in, and we're giving you an opportunity to brush up on your Kourend and Kebos lore just in time for A Kingdom Divided. Read on to see what's in store in the latest update... naked moles and all.


[hr][/hr]
Collection Log Improvements


The Collection Log now has its very own Search function to help you quickly find your stuff! Get typing to instantly see all the lovely items you've acquired.




Plus, the Log has the following new features:

  • A new counter shows the total number of unique items obtained (check the top of the Log to feel smug).
  • Added a togglable chat/popup notification when a new item has been added to the collection log.
  • The colour of each section of the Log changes based on its completed status. Nifty!
  • Different boss modes now have separate kill counts on their respective interfaces (DKs, Corrupted Gauntlet, CM CoX).
  • Gnome Restaurant has a delivery count at the top of its section that will start at zero for everyone when the update goes live.



Other additional items have also been added to the Log as follows:

  • Volcanic Mine Rewards have been added (in their own Volcanic Mine section).
  • Third Age and Gilded items can now be found in the "Rares" tabs for each Clue Scroll.
  • A Brimhaven Agility section has been added to the minigames tab.
  • Pirate Hook has been moved from Underwater Agility to the Brimhaven Agility section
  • Merfolk Trident has been added to the Misc section
  • Mark of Grace has moved to the Rooftop Agility section (these will be proactively unlocked if you had any before the update and will account for the amount of marks spent on each Graceful set you have purchased).
  • Third Age pieces now have their own separate tab.

[hr][/hr]
Poll 74


Collection Log aside, the last few changes from Poll 74 are also being released with today's update:

  • Theatre of Blood has gained an additional reward chest just opposite the Bank booths, that allows you to obtain any loot they forgot to claim after defeating Lady Verzik Vitur herself! You will still need to complete the full raid, and any unique drops that would normally be announced to the rest of the raiding party will still be broadcast, even if you were offline before seeing the chest yourself. Players will not be able to re-enter the Theatre if they have unclaimed rewards from the chest, but there is a discard option (don't worry, there's a warning for this too).
  • Use a mole claw on the Giant Mole pet and it will lose its fur and become pink! Apply a mole skin to grow the fur back.
  • The Abyssal Sire will no longer deal damage with a Miasma attack after it has died.
  • For 500 coins, Watson now offers a blueprint that allows you to build a STASH tracker in your Player Owned House within your Study on the wall chart space. To get building, you will need the blueprints, a Bolt of Cloth and 40 Construction.

[hr][/hr]
Postbag From The Swamp: Submit Your Questions!


With the upcoming release of A Kingdom Divided, we’d like to take the opportunity to answer your burning questions about the Kourend and Kebos lore. We’ve dusted off Postie Pete, set him up with a fetching pair of galoshes (not sure how he’ll wear them, mind), and given him the addresses of several notable NPCs – so all that’s left now is for YOU to ask the questions!

You may address your questions to any NPC in the Kourend and Kebos regions and post them in this Reddit Thread or in our Official Forums.

Stuck for inspiration? The Old School Wiki has an archive of all the previous issues of Postbag from the Hedge! Ooh, we’re feeling all nostalgic.

A previous Postbag letter


[hr][/hr]
Other News


Whilst we continue to investigate reports of the Scrying Pool and Portal Nexus not working as intended, "Scry" mode will now reveal how many players are in a specific location.

This is a temporary solution and we expect to release a permanent fix in the future that returns it to its full functionality as it was before.


PvP World Rota

The PvP world rota has moved to Period A:

  • The host for the High Risk PvP world will be W343 (Germany)
  • The host for the Standard PvP world will be W324 (US West)
  • The host for the free-to-play PvP world will be W417 (US East)
  • The members-only LMS world will be W333 (UK)
  • The free-to-play LMS world will be W469 (US East)

As previously stated, the PvP World rota will change weekly, along with every game update.


Smaller Changes

  • We have reduced the timer in the Tempoross lobby from 60 to 30 seconds.
  • The Bracelet of Clay now works correctly with the Mining Cape and Celestial Ring effects.
  • A stile has been added to the Rellekka mine, allowing multiple people to enter and exit at the same time following completion of the Fremennik Trials.
  • The shades of Mort'ton coffins have been adjusted to prevent graphical issues with shields.
  • Some jagged terrain in the Kharidian Desert, west of the Shantay Pass, has been smoothed out.
  • The Strung Rabbit Foot Necklace now slightly increases the chance of nests containing an egg or ring when emptying a bird house.
  • Some grammar has been corrected in the Herblore level-up messages.
  • The Tome of Water can now appear in the Skill Guide and level-up messages.
  • The imbued Rings of Wealth are no longer prioritised so highly for protection on death, since they downgrade even when protected.
  • The option text for the brightness control in the Settings side-panel now refers to brightness, rather than music volume.
  • The boss and Slayer kill logs no longer output code debugging messages when opened.


That's everything for this week's game update! We'd love to hear your feedback so please let us know what you think via our official forums, on the 2007Scape Reddit, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel.

[hr][/hr]
Mods Acorn, Arcane, Archie, Argo, Ash, Ayiza, Banjo, Boko, Bonsai, Brow, Bruno, Curse, Daizong, Deagle, Dibber, Ditto, Dylan, Ed, Elena, Errol, Fed, Flippy, Gecko, Gee, Grub, Halo, Husky, Jndr, John C, Kandosii, Katies, Kieren, Kirby, Lenny, Light, Lottie, Mack, Maylea, MikeD, Morty, Nasty, Nin, Oasis, Roq, Ry, Sarnie, Squid, Steve W, Sween, Tide, Vegard, West, Wolfy & Zuko


The Old School Team