2 November Updates - Wilderness Event, back to Varrock, QoL

[Mike]

There is a wilderness event this weekend, granting:

• +50% PkHonor Points on PK kills
• 50% chance to receive +2 Bounty Hunter Emblem levels on target kills instead of +1
• Double artifact droprates on BH target kills
• +20% droprates and double pet drops on all wilderness NPC's
• +20% PkHonor Points and Pest Control Points from the WildyWyrm
• +50% Slayer Points on all slayer targets and revenants killed in the wilderness
• +20% Slayer XP on all slayer targets killed in the wilderness
• +50% combat XP within the wilderness

Starting in:


Ending in:




Furthermore, despite overall positive feedback on moving everything in Varrock to Edgeville, it appears that the change was not as well received as we'd hoped. Therefore, we have made Varrock the home teleport once again, along with all its shops and features as it has been in the past few years. People who missed having Varrock as home will be glad to have it back.

The facts are hard to dispute: for the last 2 days, we have held very high ranks on 3 of the biggest RSPS in the world (#1 on Top100Arena and #2 on Topg and Rsps-List) and lots of new players have joined our game during that period. Still, we have had lower than usual total online players and it appears to decrease further over time. Our player peak was at no more than 170 today, which is a low point in recent history.
It appears a lot of our established players - most of whom have not spoken openly - did not approve of the removal of Varrock as their home. Nor does the shops room as starter location seem more appealing to new players than our good old starter tent in Varrock. There are also some framedrop issues when standing in the middle of the 2 shop rooms, adding to frustration and decreasing playability for players with a low-end computer.
We had not anticipated these issues and have made the decision to put an end to the Edgeville experiment. In the long term, it may have had positive impact, but the current negative short-term impact cannot simply be ignored.

The second shops room in Edgeville has also been removed (it's now once again a barn). Edgeville can be reached through the 'PvP' teleport in your spellbook, but the PvP teleport retains the ability to teleport to locations inside the wilderness.

When dying in the wilderness, you still spawn near the :::shops room, where you'll still find two bank booths, a Fountain of Heroes, Altars and a Refund Box for much more accessible Edgeville PK'ing. Regular players can still use the Fountain of Heroes to replenish their HP, Prayer Points and Special Attack Energy.

A few more bugs and two Quality of Life suggestions with a lot of support have also been added:

• The wilderness respawn point (North side of Edgeville, next to ::shops) can now be picked as the teletab teleport location. To do so, right-click a teletab and choose 'Toggle destination'
• Fixed the Fountain of Heroes in Player-Owned Houses not working
• Fixed not being able to enchant crossbow bolts. [Edit] Also fixed not receiving any magic XP when enchanting onyx bolts
• Fixed presets visually glitching out your inventory if you have a full bank and fail to load a preset
• The Ecumenical Key has been added, which allows access to any room in the GodWars Dungeon, including the Nex room
  The key is consumed on use and is obtained through any clue caskets (higher chance for higher level casket), the King Black Dragon, Chaos Elemental, Venenatis, Lava Dragons & Frost Dragons (only the ones in the wilderness). It cannot be traded
• A bronze dagger spawn has been added near the spiderwebs at the mage bank, along with a second one near the levers of the mage arena. This will prevent players without a slash weapon to get hopelessly stuck in the deep wilderness
• Fixed Mandrith's head in the dialogue when explaining the Leaderboards

[Iron ruby]

oh
i liked it - Good updates though, i like thats it staying for the pking aspect though

[Migetmanz]

thanks mike!

[James]

Disappointing.

Is there any chance it could just have been a coincidence that the player base dropped by 10%? A 2 day period doesn't really seem long enough to get a fair assessment on whether or not moving the home spot to edgeville was a good idea.

Edit: I wouldn't be surprised if the main contributor to this drop in player base is due to the lag at edgeville. I was getting 6 fps there at one stage.

[Vik]

I was a big fan of home being Edge, however... whatever the majority wants, keep it up Mike!

[Mike]

Disappointing.

Is there any chance it could just have been a coincidence that the player base dropped by 10%? A 2 day period doesn't really seem long enough to get a fair assessment on whether or not moving the home spot to edgeville was a good idea.

Believe me, I'm surprised by the impact as well. But the numbers don't lie.
The only reason we could have had a decreasing amount of players (and a decreasing amount of new players staying) must be because of Edgeville as home. The reasons behind it (aside from the lag issue) are simply our best guess, but cannot be ignored.

Not to worry, we keep learning valuable lessons on how to keep our server growing, while further promoting PK'ing

[Troll n roll]

Disappointing.

Is there any chance it could just have been a coincidence that the player base dropped by 10%? A 2 day period doesn't really seem long enough to get a fair assessment on whether or not moving the home spot to edgeville was a good idea.

Edit: I wouldn't be surprised if the main contributor to this drop in player base is due to the lag at edgeville. I was getting 6 fps there at one stage.

I have to agree. Not claiming to be a statistical genius, but I don't think 2 days is a sufficient time-frame to judge a decrease in player activity. I would also say that lag of edgeville could have been a major contributing factor. Just my 2 cents.

[Mike]

Disappointing.

Is there any chance it could just have been a coincidence that the player base dropped by 10%? A 2 day period doesn't really seem long enough to get a fair assessment on whether or not moving the home spot to edgeville was a good idea.

Edit: I wouldn't be surprised if the main contributor to this drop in player base is due to the lag at edgeville. I was getting 6 fps there at one stage.

I have to agree. Not claiming to be a statistical genius, but I don't think 2 days is a sufficient time-frame to judge a decrease in player activity. I would also say that lag of edgeville could have been a major contributing factor. Just my 2 cents.

Really might have just been the lag. Anything else is mostly educated guesses. Either way, something had to be done because things were moving in a negative direction faster than I've ever seen before. In 8 years of PkHonor, I cannot recall any instance where our playercounts have been this low despite higher than usual traffic from toplists.

[Kattty]

I kinda liked Edgeville as home, I mean I didn't get much lag from it but that's just me. Either way, hopefully, there will be an increase in players but only time will tell

[James]

Disappointing.

Is there any chance it could just have been a coincidence that the player base dropped by 10%? A 2 day period doesn't really seem long enough to get a fair assessment on whether or not moving the home spot to edgeville was a good idea.

Edit: I wouldn't be surprised if the main contributor to this drop in player base is due to the lag at edgeville. I was getting 6 fps there at one stage.

I have to agree. Not claiming to be a statistical genius, but I don't think 2 days is a sufficient time-frame to judge a decrease in player activity. I would also say that lag of edgeville could have been a major contributing factor. Just my 2 cents.

Really might have just been the lag. Anything else is mostly educated guesses. Either way, something had to be done because things were moving in a negative direction faster than I've ever seen before. In 8 years of PkHonor, I cannot recall any instance where our playercounts have been this low despite higher than usual traffic from toplists.

If the player base is still 10% lower than usual after reverting back to varrock will it be once again changed to edgeville? Seems like the logical conclusion if there was a 10% increase in PKers.