SOTE Changes and Small Game Updates

08/02/2019

This week sees the release of feedback changes following the Song of the Elves quest release and some updates from the Small In-Game Improvements poll.
Song of the Elves
 

The following changes have been made following the release of the Song of the Elves quest based on player feedback:

NPC Changes
  • Zalcano's reward calculations have now been improved.
  • The Crystalline and Corrupted Hunllef has been altered slightly: Ranged will always be the first attack style, damage has been increased when praying incorrectly (or not at all), and damage has been reduced when praying correctly. Note: as this will affect the competition please see the 'Gauntlet Competition' section below for more information.
  • The seemingly innocent rabbit in Gwenith can no longer be blocked by a player.
  • The skeletons and zombies in Glarial's tomb have returned from vacation.
  • Moss Guardians will once again attack as expected if you get too close.
Zalcano's Reward Calculations

Players who contribute a fair amount now receive a drop on Zalcano's better loot table. The quantities of items received scale based how much they have contributed. Everybody above a certain threshold of contributing will also have a chance of receiving any of the unique drops, including the pet. This chance scales based on much a player has contributed. The MVP still receives Zalcano's additional drop, but from the "lesser" drop table - closing the previously wide gap between the highest contributor and everybody else. This design is aimed to maintain the incentive to be the highest contributor but improve the fairness of the system.

Quest Changes
  • Opening the world map within the Grand Library during Song of the Elves now displays a map of all levels.
  • A pillar in the Grand Library from Song of the Elves which let you place a mirror in an incorrect position has been fixed.
  • The doors in the Mourner hideout can be opened without requiring a key after completing the battle of West Ardougne during Song of the Elves.
  • Baxtorian now prompts you to reclaim items if you die in the final battles of the Song of the Elves quest.
  • Various typos in the Song of the Elves quest dialogue have been fixed.
  • A missing tinderbox spawn in the Dwarf Camp in the Underground Pass has now been found.
  • The changes to fail rates of the obstacles within the Underground Pass have been reverted.

Prifddinas Changes
  • A crystal impling will no longer hide away between some trees in Prifddinas.
  • You can no longer remove bonds from the pouch while in the Gauntlet.
  • Players can now make crystal harpoons through crystal singing provided they have the correct items to make it.
  • Three chinchompas have escaped from Gwenith and the remaining spawns have been moved slightly.
  • You can now trade noted seeds with Pennant.
  • Pennant now has a 'don't ask again' option.
  • The Prifddinas gardener has regained his sense of direction and now properly describes his north and south allotments.

Polled Changes
  • Elena's chathead has been changed to the variant that was selected in the recent opinion poll.
  • The Agility Course XP rates have been increased to 60k xp/hr at level 90 when not using shortcuts and to 66k xp/hr at level 90 when using shortcuts.

Other Changes
  • Dom Onion's interface no longer mentions crystal imbues.
  • Crystal shields and armour no longer degrade when taking a 0 hit.
  • The Crystal Acorn and Crystal Sapling can now be placed in the Seed Vault.
  • Crystal implings have been added to the impling tracker. This is accessible via right clicking on nets.
  • A chat message and a sound effect now play when a divine potion effect expires.
  • The strength bonus for Dragonstone Gauntlets has been lowered from +8 to +4.
  • The Smithing guide for the eternal teleport crystal has been updated.
  • A clue scroll step involving bowing near Lord Iorwerth has been changed to bowing at the Iorwerth Camp.
  • The elven skirt no longer stretches when performing certain animations.
  • Monsters within the gauntlet no longer drop loot from the Deadman loot table on Deadman worlds.
We plan to look at the following in the coming weeks:
  • Warped Library optimization for better frame-rates and loading times.
  • Stackable crystal weaponry.
  • Quest cutscene replayability.
  • Quest boss fight replayability.
  • Addition of elves to Nightmare Zone after quest completion.
  • Gauntlet death statistics.
  • Ability to add Knight of Ardougne armour to the POH.

We would like to thank you for the feedback you have given us thus far. As stated in our Day One Report, we will look to poll other graphical changes such as the Dragonstone armour set and the Elven models soon. We are also still reviewing loot tables for Zalcano and the Gauntlet and are open to making changes in the future.
 
The Gauntlet Competition
 

The period following a release is vital in terms of monitoring feedback and engagement to inform the balancing of new content. With this in mind, there are a number of changes we'd like to make to the Gauntlet.

We do not want to challenge the integrity of the ongoing Gauntlet competition, so to allow us to make necessary changes, and to reward the performance of players from the past week, we’re going to make the following changes to determine who wins the four prizes.
  • Chair 1 will be awarded for the fastest normal Gauntlet PRE-change
  • Chair 2 will be awarded for the fastest Corrupted Gauntlet PRE-change
  • Chair 3 will be awarded for the fastest normal Gauntlet POST-change
  • Chair 4 will be awarded for the fastest Corrupted Gauntlet POST-change
It’s apparent that a player could win more than one category. In that eventuality we’d only reward the player for one of the prize categories. We’d publicly proclaim that player as the winner of other categories, but in terms of prizing we’d reward the earliest category that the player claimed and look to reward another player. As an example:

If a player claims the Corrupted record at 2pm Monday and the Normal record at 4pm Monday. We’d reward the player for the Corrupted record, and we’d look to reward another player for the other record set. We’d reward the next fastest in the other category, which is the Normal category in this example.
Small In-Game Improvements

Following the Small In-Game Improvement and February QoL polls, we've implemented some of the updates below:

Fletching Animations


Animations have been added for when a player tips arrows, bolts and darts, and adds feathers to shafts. These animations will not affect the rate at which you do actions and will not prevent movement or other actions such as doing Agility while Fletching.

Reduce Chaos Elemental Respawn Timer

The Chaos Elemental now spawns substantially quicker - from 2.5 minutes to 60 seconds.

Volcanic Mine Quick Start

Players can now right-click quick pay to enter the Volcanic Mine.

Multiple Locator Orbs

Ava will now offer multiple locator orbs after completion of Dragon Slayer II.

In Other News

The Last Man Standing beta has closed - thanks to everyone who's spent their time playing it and sending advice for improving it. In the coming weeks we'll be working on the various features that have been suggested, leading to a re-launch in the autumn (of 2019). We may also bring back the beta before that time, so that players can help us test an engine change involving line-of-sight.

  • Players can no longer avoid Sarachnis' web attack.
  • The ambient sound effects in the Forthos Dungeon have been updated.
  • A grammar error has been corrected in the reward messages from beginner clue scrolls.
  • Blocking has been added to an awkward tile upstairs in Varrock Palace where players kept getting stuck.
  • The battlemage potion has been realigned with the other potions in the bank.


Stay tuned in the coming weeks for the Smithing interface rework!

We advise that if you run into any bugs, please ensure you report them in-game by right clicking or long pressing the "Report" button in the bottom of the chat box. You can read more about how to report a bug in Old School here.

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