Welcome to PkHonor

[Fungamer]

Ah, our weekly readers digest of what’s wrong with PKHonor and how to fix it!

Runescape.com man

[Egolith]

There has been more updates rolling out nowadays then let's say a year or two ago though...

I just checked how many updates there were in 2017 vs 2019 from January till October. The outcome was 27 vs 20 updates so this is just incorrect. For 2016 vs 2019 this was 31 vs 20 updates..

A lot of those update posts where solely bug fixes, while there are more content releases this year than 2017.

[Iron adam]

i hate bug fixes, leave them in game they are features. .

[Thoby]

First: thank you for your lengthy post Niels. Discussions about the health of the server always seem to result in something positive.

Something people tend to forget is that we know the community is shrinking and it's frustrating us as well. It's easy to point the finger and talk about the problems; but that isn't solving anything. This is as much trial-and-error to us as to you. We're extremely open to feedback, and there's always space for discussion on changes.

About the bosses; I will be taking a lot of the PvM feedback in the Slayer Expansion (the update is becoming more QoL by the minute). And that will hopefully fix some of the problems people are experiencing. If not? We'll tweak them again

Like I said, I think we're all frustrated by the state of the server. This has multiple aspects, some within our power, some outside. I have to give credits to Mike, he has been reviewing updates quite rapidly. For example, the 'Kill Count' update last month was a huge pain to review, and he did it impressively fast. I am aware of updates like 2b capes and skillcape perks, but that's why I intentionally put the disclaimers on the developers blogs: some content is simply not in line with Rapsey's or Mike's vision. Us highlighting it doesn't mean it ends up in the game. See it more as a threat, not as a debt.

Chaotics, PvP equipment and some more rebalancing is something I want to discuss in the near future. I agree that they should be nerfed / removed, and I think overall we need to do some rebalancing for the game's sake.

When looking at the lack of updates; it's something unforgiving. The current focus is the ToB, so it's expected that - since all development time goes towards that - there isn't much being developed on the side. We usually tend to develop several things parallel to eachother, but the main focus is ToB atm.


I am 100% pro-discussion. These keep us sharp We honestly try to actively communicate, to keep the community up to date. But we're humans after all. For one thing, I personally believe it would improve the health of the server if Mike isn't blamed all the time. It's simply depressing, even to me. And frankly, I don't think it has any positive effects. But hey, that's just my opinion.

Again, thank you for your post, these discussions are essential.

If u want an argument then start talking about the problems; If you want a good productive conversation then start with the solution.

I have to admit, that's an excellent quote.

[Iron blazin]

I can tell you right now theatre of blood is going to be dead content from the start.
When you have around 30-100 players online the theatre wont give any benefits.
Here’s why.
-you need good gear (max stats, maybe even torva comp/bandos)
-a view other players 2-3
-it take’s time to complete, everyone nowadays just likes to afk.

I don’t understand how you can possibly think the theatre is going to change anything.
The game needs small and “custom” updates.
At this moment the only thing that keeps this server running is the actual 30 player count
And mike who thinks he can still change someting.
If you actually believe this game is ever going to have a active player base you are either dumb or dumb.
Honestly, i give this game 6 months until the towel gets thrown in.

[Cancerstick]

From what I have seen, there needs to be balance.

For a lack of a better term, the "end game" and "mid game" content of ToB, Vorkath, Skotizo, Cerb.... in concept these are great updates, more or less for people that have played the server, are established, and are not starting after coming across PKH. These are great, keeps the older players occupied for at least a little bit, gives some new items (some with no legitimate use), and keeps things fresh until get bored of your main account, make an ironman. Get bored of that, make a HC/UIM. Really bored now.... lets just open 4 clients and afk skill on all of them. Hell, I've seen servers that let you choose your XP rates on certain account types and people seemed to love that. Normie account - 15x exp Iron - 10x exp with 5% droprate increase HCIM - 5x exp with 10% increased drops. I'm not saying let's do this, it's just a point that there's other things you can do instead of pumping out bosses that are dead after a week because you get all the useful items from them in 5 hours, or they are named Abyssal Sire.

But what about new players? What are you doing to get NEW people to the server? Keeping the existing player base happy with content apparently isn't working if the player count is dropping down to the 30's (and I thought someone mentioned 17 at one point).

I think there needs to be some changes, as mentioned on other posts, about the ease of access for a new account to get into PKing, skilling, and low level bossing, to let people sink their teeth in and get a quick and joyous feel for the server. Give me Obor, Bryophyta, or even something original for the casual newbie to kill, that you can kill with "shit gear" as they are leveling up if they don't use the instant 99 starter kit. Give me easy access to pk sets, to include the food, pots, whatever the "standard" for "new guy" pking is. Remove chaotics (or leave them and make them not useable in the wild). Same with curses and pvp gear.

In the end though, someone needs to make a decision. Continue to cater to the existing and dwindling playerbase, or try to get new people in. You can do both at the same time, but (my opinion) you can't please everyone. Older players will get mad because newer players have it "easy" or you are taking away something that they have had or used for forever. Someone needs to bite the bullet.

[Slap a ho]

-you need good gear (max stats, maybe even torva comp/bandos)

Not true. Theatre is literally done in void as meta for players without max melee (meaning scythe).

[Its flat]

I don't usually bother replying to these types of posts but I'll give my 2 cents here...

I don't know the statistics but I think the decreasing player count is due to a lack of new players, not due to players leaving the server. I think the server is pretty good how it is. I liked it how it was when I first joined and I still like it now. It's a great server as is.

I think the problem is that our marketing strategy needs a complete total revamp. Firstly, finding our server in the RSPS lists is quite difficult. Secondly, when you read our ads they really don't sound that good in comparison to the other big servers. Not only that, but the things our ads say is very different to what our server is actually like. We are pretending to be a server we're not. If we take our RuneLocus ad for example, some of the big main phrases used are "Fixed pathing" (its not fixed), "active wild" (its not active) and "all skills" (we dont have all skills). Do these really accurately describe the server? I am not so sure. Do these phrases really make the server attractive? I am not so sure.

Then you go down to read our features and the #1 feature is "titan events". I don't even know what these are, I've never heard of them until now. Our #2 feature is 100% working construction. This is great but is it really the 2nd best thing we have? It's good we have it, but it's not really that exciting in 2019. Further down the list is "New Kraken Boss". Is this really a new update? Wasn't kraken added over 4 years ago? "Fully Working Castle wars system", it's cool we have castle wars but I have never witnessed a single proper castle wars game in my time here. In my experience it is just farmed for points and that's it. Why are we advertising it as a feature? Just to disappoint naive new players?

I think the main problem is that our server honestly looks boring to new players. The new players that we do get come into the server with wrong expectations because our ads don't accurately describe our server. Why don't our ads highlight the better features of our server? Such as strong ironman community, great skilling, some pking, long lasting economy, dedicated staff team, clue scrolls, weekly events, regular updates etc. etc. And then include some of our great recent updates such as NPC killcount highscores, vorkath, 2b xp capes, skotizo, skilling pets, abyssal sire, cerberus etc. etc.

Don't get me wrong, updates are very good for the server. I have been really enjoying the updates we have been getting. I am just not convinced more updates will = more players. If we're being honest, we already get pretty consistent high quality updates. Let's focus on the things that really matter.

Thank you

[Slap a ho]

I think the problem is that our marketing strategy needs a complete total revamp.

I’m inclined to agree with most of what you said. Poorly coordinated effort in keeping our marketing advertisement current with the game. There’s plenty of companies that blew up strictly to proper marketing, and they had shit product to offer. The better you market your product to your customers, the more customers you’ll attract and have talking about your product.

We should update our marketing literature and keep it up to date.

[Fungamer]

I think the problem is that our marketing strategy needs a complete total revamp.

I’m inclined to agree with most of what you said. Poorly coordinated effort in keeping our marketing advertisement current with the game. There’s plenty of companies that blew up strictly to proper marketing, and they had shit product to offer. The better you market your product to your customers, the more customers you’ll attract and have talking about your product.

We should update our marketing literature and keep it up to date.

IIRC Ely was going to get vids going on the official PKH channel but due to miscommunications and no responses given to him it just died.

Idk why we're not using talented people like him and Ryker to get word of the server out there. I'm sure it's not a matter of them not wanting to do it lol