News

This poll blog is a revision of the one that went live on the 15th. Some of the original questions have been changed or removed and others have been added. In addition, our proposal for a re-balanced loot table for Konar is included. Pending feedback over the weekend, we would like to poll the questions below early next week. This blog was put together by closely examining all of the player feedback (thank you!) and thoroughly discussing it within the whole Old School team. Balancing content, particularly for such a huge release, is not an easy task but we hope that the options offered below please as many of you as possible!


Update
Update (21/01/2019): After your feedback to the below questions, we have decided to withdraw questions #4 and #14. Regarding the Golden tench's stats, we know there is demand for a one-handed weapon with the same function as the Event RPG but do not feel this is the correct place for it. We shall explore alternative options and are open to suggestions.

The Bone whip was an interesting concept and raised plenty of discussion over weapon designs and upgrades. At this time given its mixed reception, we would prefer to hold it back and look at offering it elsewhere in another form or as a cosmetic.

Our proposed version of Konar's loot table at the very bottom of this post is now live. We understand the demand for items such as Volcanic ash but would prefer to improve the core of the issue - how it is originally obtained rather than ignore the issue and add it here. We will be looking to address this in the future.


Konar's Loot Table
As mentioned above, we have included our plans for Konar's loot table in this post. It can be found at the bottom of the blog. In response to your feedback, we have aimed to increase the overall gold earned from an average drop on Konar's table. This value is now very similar (possibly a little over) the original average amount upon release. Using community suggestions for alternatives to items produced by skilling and alchables, we have also added a couple items which were not present before. No uniques have been added for the time being so as to avoid the risk of de-stabilising the table. That said, we have seen some amazing ideas raised by the community which we have considered and may use variants of in future content relating to Mount Karuulm and Great Kourend.


Aerial Fishing
For those of you not familiar with this, an island lies in the middle of Lake Molch in the new Kebos area. At the lake, players can talk to Alry the Angler and begin aerial fishing. This method involves using birds to catch fish from spots around the lake, similar to the falconry Hunter method. Each catch offers a chance of finding a Molch Pearl which can be used to buy fishing related rewards from Alry.

We have been aware for some time that the Fishing Trawler is not the most popular minigame but is still visited by many players wishing to obtain the Angler's outfit. For reference, each piece of this outfit gives a small experience bonus while fishing with a bonus for having the full set coming to 2.5% in total. We would like to offer the option to obtain this set elsewhere, and the new aerial fishing content seems a good fit. However, if this were to be added, it would take longer to obtain the whole set via this new method as the rate of getting pearls is consistent. We also maintain that we would like to improve the trawler in future. In response to additional feedback, we will poll an increased rate of Molch Pearls gained while aerial fishing.

This is not to say the Fishing Trawler will not receive updates in the future to improve the experience. It will also continue to be the fastest way to obtain the set. This is just an option to offer the Anglers Outfit alongside an activity that is more engaging and has other benefits.



Previously we offered to increase the rate that Molch Pearls can be gained only if the above question passes. This was because the number of pearls required to buy everything in the shop would be increased. Key feedback we received determined that the rate at which pearls are gained should be increased regarless. As a result, the second question will now be polled independently of the one above regarding the Angler outfit. We have also decided to offer the increased pearl rate to scale to Fishing and Hunter level rather than as a flat increase.


The Golden tench is a rare, equippable reward that can be obtained while aerial fishing. There are no uses for any Golden tench that some lucky players may have receive after their first one. We'd like to give these some value for players who are trying to obtain the rewards in Alry's shop.




The Golden Tench as a Fun Weapon

There’s a set of weapons in the game designated as “fun weapons”, as recognised by the Duel Arena for its “fun weapons” option. The golden tench had originally been offered as one of these, like the rubber chicken. However, on launch, it had different stats from the rest of that category, making it advantageous in the Duel Arena where it still counted as a “fun weapon”. In yesterday’s update, we corrected its stats to match the rest of its category. However it has been raised in feedback, particularly by players who already spent time trying to obtain the tench, that they would prefer it with the original stats. In response, we raise the following question:


Instanced areas for aerial fishing

In the previous blog, the option to open an instanced version of the island in the centre of Lake Molch for a fixed fee in gold was offered. The idea was raised in response to the high volume of players having to world hop to get the best spots on the island. Following feedback and discussion, we have decided to withdraw this question. We would still like to reduce the necessity for world hop as this is not a positive game experience. Instead, we will explore options involving tweaking the fishing pools around the island that make world hopping less necessary. Ideas for this so far include separating the island's pools by quadrant and increasing the number of pools on the south side.


The Farming Guild

Farming Contract Balancing

We are thrilled to see the Farming Guild content within it being engaged with. In particular, the farming contracts issued by Guildmaster Jane are highly popular. Our only concern relating to this is the ease at which players can gain vast numbers of high tier seeds. Our plan is to balance the content without applying a flat nerf. This will likely take the form of replacing the diffciulty/tier system which one based on the length of time it takes to grow the contracted plant. In other words, players should receive more seeds for plants that take longer to grow. This is something we will continue to monitor and discuss internally and update you on in the future.

The Seed Vault

The launch of the Kebos Lowlands has also introduced many new items into the game, adding further pressure to any players already running low on bank space. For technical reasons, it is not possible to offer more bank space at this time, however we would like to offer some relief. For a long time, one of the major culprits taking up precious slots in the bank have been seeds. With the release of the Farming Guild, this has only become a bigger issue. A suggestion we are keen to offer is a Seed Vault that would be located in the tier 1 are of the Farming Guild, close to the bank. This would be capable of holding every type of farmable seed in any quantity. However, the vault would only hold seeds, so could not be used to store watered seeds or saplings. The Seed Vault would not be available to Ultimate Ironmen.



The Alchemical Hydra

The Alchemical Hydra is the new highest tier Slayer boss that was introduced with Kebos in the dungeon below Mount Karuulm. Many of you have enjoyed testing your skills against this new monster and been receiving some of the coveted uniques it drops.

Having examined the data regarding the Alchemical Hydra and listening to feedback, the poll question about adding a respawn function similar to Vorkath has been removed. As is stands, this would only serve to increase the kills per hour at a boss already capable of rewarding the player with exceptionally high amounts of gold per hour. Similarly, the question regarding the Elite Kourend Diary offering the reward of receiving noted Hydra bones from the Alchemical Hydra has been withdrawn. These ideas could be re-considered in the future if required.




Jar of Chemicals and POH Display Case

We would have loved to offer the Jar of Chemicals as a drop alongside the Alchemical Hydra. This drop is now expected for any huge new bosses that enter the game. Unfortunately due to contraints on development time and resource, this was something that had to make way for other content in the Kebos Lowlands. However, we are now thrilled to announce that Mod Ghost is currently designing an awesome display case for the POH complete with the tubes of flowing chemicals seen around the Alchemical Hydra's lair. When it is ready, you can expect to see it soon!

Karuulm Dungeon Agility Shortcut

Currently, players who fall to the Alchemical Hydra may recover their items outside its lair for a fee, similar to Vorkath. However, reaching this point requires running past other monsters in the dungeon, causing players to risk losing their items before reclaiming them. This makes it different to other bosses with a reclaim function such as Vorkath which can be done safely. With this in mind, we'd like to poll the following question but with an increased Agility requirement compared to before. It should also be noted that this "shortcut" will take the same amount of time to traverse as running through the dungeon normally. This means it will not increase the number of Alchemical Hydra kills possible per hour.



Wyrms, Drakes and regular Hydras

Drake and Hydra Special Attacks

Since release, many of you who are slaying Drakes and Hydras have said that the effort required to kill them is too high relative to the reward. Following this feedback, we'd like to make the following changes:



Wyrm, Drake and Hydra Bone Prayer Experience

Previously, we offered to increase the base Prayer xp received from burying Wyrm, Drake and Hydra bones. The numbers chosen for the increase are designed to fit inbetween existing bones from other monsters. Following feedback, we have opted to poll the increases to the base xp of the new bones in three separate questions.





The Hydra Tail
The Hydra tail is a tradeable unique drop that comes from the Alchemical Hydra. It can be combined with the Bonecrusher and a Dragonbone necklace to create a Bonecrusher necklace. The high alch price of the Hydra tail is currently 900,000 GP which is far higher than we feel it ought to be. However, we are aware that without being tied to something else, it value is likely to fall dramatically after we lower the alch value. Previously, we offered an alternative use which would allow players to combine it with the Bonecrusher to create an item with the Bonecrusher effect which could be equipped in the ammo slot. Following the community reaction to this idea and the concern that this would be a niche item without much value, we would like to propose something different.

Enter the Bone whip.


Mod Ry has designed a brand new item that can be created by combining the Hydra tail with a standard Abyssal whip. Here's everything you need to know. This new whip will require 72 Attack to wield, be non-degradeable and have stats just shy of halfway between the standard whip and the Tentacle whip. For comparison, adding the Kraken tentacle to the whip makes it degrade after 10,000 attacks and gives +8 to its Slash accuracy alongside a +4 Strength bonus. The Bone whip will offer +4 to Slash and +1 to Strength to fill the large gap between the two.

As mentioned above, the Bone whip will be non-degradeable and combining the two parts will consume the Hydra tail. In PvP situations, the Bone whip will split, breaking the Hydra tail only leaving the Abyssal whip. Outside of PvP, the Bone whip will be dropped. The Bone whip will have a right-click Dismantle option but the Hydra tail will be lost when you do so.

Let us know what you think of the idea as there is still time to adjust the design before the poll goes live. If this is not something the majority of you would be interested in, or should it fail the poll, we are open to holding a design competition for alternate uses for the Hydra tail. To keep the Hydra tail and Bonecrusher necklace balanced, if the Bone whip passes, the Hydra tail will no longer be required to make a Bonecrusher necklace - only the Bonecrusher and Dragonbone necklace will be needed. Players who have already made one will be given back a Hydra tail.



Kourend Favour

The citizens of Kourend’s five houses are well known for working closely with each other. Shayzien soldiers protecting Hosidius farms and Lovakengj smiths producing Shayzien armour are just a couple of examples of this. Currently, earning favour with one house will decrease favour with another unless you have completed Architectural Alliance. This feature does not reflect the thematics of Kourend, so we would like to change it. We want to make it so that gaining favour in one house does not reduce favour in any others. This will make the favour system fit the lore of Kourend better and will also increase flexibility when earning favour. This change won’t impact the overall time needed to reach maximum favour in Kourend.




X Marks the Spot
We'd like to take this opportunity to present Mod Ed's latest quest! As briefly mentioned in this week's Q&A stream, Mod Ed has written a quest designed to tie Zeah to the rest of Gielinor. Aimed at free players, this quest will also encourage new users (particularly on mobile) to find out more about Zeah and Great Kourend.


Veos has long been a lover of treasure hunts and his latest hunt has brought him to Lumbridge. However, not knowing the area well, Veos could use some help finding this treasure.

X Marks the Spot is a new free to play novice quest with no requirements. It is mainly targeted at low levels and is designed to act as a small introduction to Kourend while providing more links between Kourend and the mainland. In this quest, the player must embark on a short treasure hunt for Veos. Completion of the quest will grant a small reward of 1 quest point, 200 coins and a 300xp lamp.



Konar quo Maten

Keys to Konars Loot Crate

In feedback, many of you suggested that while on Konar's tasks, it would be more natural for an item to drop that could be exchanged with Konar for the items on her loot table rather than the monsters dropping the loot themselves. This would make drops received on certain tasks feel less artificial and give Konar a more active role in rewarding players for bringing balance to Gielinor. The second question below is also being offered following feedback and would still apply if the first passes.



Konar's Loot Table

To close the poll blog, we'll discuss the topic many of you have been patiently waiting for; Konar's Loot table balancing. Firstly, the Old School team would like to thank you all for your feedback and suggestions - we examined all of it and discussed it at length to come to the conclusions below.

User Cloud Badass examined the original drop table and offered the below re-design for consideration. This table was well received and encompassed many of the feedback points. These include having some useful drops for Ironman players that would still have value for non Ironman players. It also maintains the idea that resources which are produced by skilling such as herbs do not belong on table and that items which are used for skilling are a better alternative (seeds over herbs for example). It has also been noted that it is preferable to avoid having too many alchable items on the table despite them being useful to provide a stable price. Cloud Badass' suggested table can be seen below.


In response to the community reaction to the above table, we have opted for a new table which has taken the feedback on board. Key changes include an increase in the number of seeds dropped and a higher average gold equivalent value of rolling on the table at all. In comparison to the original table, rolling on this table should average a similar amount of gold if not be slightly higher. This offers a stable, consistent reward for players training the Slayer skill at 75 combat and above without any extreme drops. That said, some drops are still worth more than others to maintain an element of luck. The refined Konar loot table is as follows:


Uniques

As mentioned at the top of the post, we have opted not to add uniques to the table at this time. We would prefer to take the time to see how the above table is received and save the amazing ideas raised by the community either for this table later down the road or for future content.

Thank-you!

To end the post, the Old School team wants to take this opportunity to thank you all again for your feedback, suggestions and patience throughout the Kebos release. It is always encourage for us to see the passion you guys have for the game that both yourselves and everyone on the team love. We look forward to seeing what you think of the content of this post!

Discuss this update on our official forums, the community-led 2007Scape Reddit, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel. For reference on the above content, check out the official Wiki.

Mods Archie, Ash, Bruno, Curse, Ed, Gambit, Gee, Ghost, Kieren, Lenny, Lottie, Mat K, Maz, Munro, Nasty, Roq, Ry, Sween, Weath, West & Wolf
The Old School Team