Today, we’d like to talk about wrapping up Forestry.
Now that Forestry is complete, we’ve decided to re-evaluate the content as a whole and address some of your biggest bugbears.
For the most part we feel that Forestry has achieved its goal of making Woodcutting a more social, engaging experience – but we’ve heard your concerns, and recognise that there are still a few changes we could make to ensure Forestry feels right.
To clarify, this isn’t Forestry: Part Three – these are just simple quality of life changes based on your feedback. Let’s get into it!
Our intention with event items was to offer a way to make money through Forestry. Other Woodcutting resources aren’t that valuable, so we were keen to find ways to slot it into the wider economy of the game.
After reviewing your feedback, however, it’s clear that many of you think the new items feel unnecessary. For a skill that used to be ‘chop wood, get logs’, the new items add a layer of unwanted complexity, and make players feel as though they have to do a lot of preparation to train the skill efficiently.
With that in mind, we’re going to remove all Forestry event items from the game – which means that when that happens, you’ll only need your Forestry Kit and an Axe to participate in all the events.
Free-to-play players will be unaffected by this change – but members will be able to participate in events a lot more easily.
We also recognise that players have spent hard-earned time and resources crafting these items and want to reward that. Any event items remaining when this update launches will be converted to GP equal to the average price of the relevant item.
Now that the event items have been removed, what happens to the events?
Currently, the Forestry meta is to stick to one world and run around looking for events, or wait until they're called out in a Clan Chat – this gets you the best XP (and chances to obtain the uniques) per hour. However, this is just replicating the problem we were hoping to address – the problem of Woodcutting players all bunching up together in one spot instead of spreading throughout the world. Since we already tackled the world-hopping meta, leaving this one alone seems like a misstep.
Consequently, we’re going to change how events work to encourage people to train in their favourite forests, rather than feeling like they have to jog halfway across Gielinor because their mate in Seers’ Village has seen a Leprechaun.
Put simply, the chance for an event to spawn near you is now based on the last two trees you chopped. We’ll be tracking Woodcutting activity over the last three minutes, which is about two trees worth of time. The tracking measures chops, not logs, so don’t panic if you haven’t received a log for a while – it’ll still count towards the event spawn.
Each tree you’ve chopped lately will have a 20-tile radius in which an event can spawn that you’re able to participate in. If you’re eligible, you’ll get the full amount of XP, Anima-Infused Bark, and unique rolls available from that event – so it’s well worth sticking around to get the most out of your Forestry training!
If you’re not eligible you’ll still be able to participate, but you’ll only receive around 10% of the XP available and you won’t be able to obtain uniques or Anima-Infused Bark. This means that we’ve preserved the fun of stumbling across an event in the wild while encouraging foresters to chop in their favourite spots rather than teleporting all over the place and completing an endless stream of Forestry events without much Woodcutting occurring.
We’re also making a couple of balancing changes to help make Forestry events feel a bit more special. Firstly, we’ll be increasing the time between events. To balance this, we’re making it more likely for players to obtain uniques. This should mean it isn’t too much trickier to fill out your Collection Log – but just in case, we’ll be keeping a close eye on the drop rates after this update launches to ensure that all is as it should be.
This was another area where players have been overwhelmed. The constant need to recharge your Twitcher’s Gloves proved to be quite an annoyance – so we’re overhauling how they work completely.
As of this update, Twitcher’s Gloves will become a single item that doesn’t require charges. We’re also doubling their bird nest buff to 20%.
In line with this upgrade, we’re also increasing their cost to 5,000 Anima-Infused Bark and 500 Willow Logs (Noted).
We will be removing older versions of the Gloves, which means keen birdwatchers will need to purchase some new ones from the Forestry Shop. You will be refunded for any Gloves you have purchased previously, to the tune of all the Anima-Infused Bark and Willow Logs spent on every pair of unused Gloves.
This change should make the Gloves feel like a better reward overall!
This last change is comparatively minor, but it’s something you’ve asked for consistently since Forestry first launched.
Essentially, some rewards require Arctic Pine Logs, but not every account type can obtain them. As you know, our general feeling is that restricted accounts are restricted for a reason, but Arctic Pine Logs aren’t exactly a precious resource that need to be locked behind a quest – especially since you don’t even unlock them from the quest!
In the interest of fairness, we’ve sent our best gardeners to the wilds of Rellekka, where they’ve successfully planted a new grove of Arctic Pines. Now everyone can appreciate their beauty, and then immediately chop them down for firewood. Don’t worry, we’re sure they’ll grow back.
We hope you agree that these changes are a step in the right direction for both Forestry and Woodcutting as a whole. Thank you to everyone who shared their feedback – you’ve helped us make Forestry more fun for everyone!
You can also discuss this update on our official forums, on the 2007Scape subreddit, the Steam forums, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel. For more info on the above content, check out the official Old School Wiki.
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