Wildy Boss Tweaks & More | Weekly Game Update (February 2nd)

This week we’ve made feedback changes to the Wilderness Boss Rework and had an awkward conversation with some fairies…

Change Log

Wilderness Boss Rework

Last week’s Wilderness Boss Rework was a great success – it’s wonderful to see so many of you enjoying one of the game’s most underappreciated areas.

This week we hope to see even more of you checking the Wilderness out, as we introduce the next batch of improvements.

Drop Changes

Ah, the loot table – your biggest motivation, and our biggest challenge. It’s always tricky to balance these things, and the loot table for the Wilderness content is no different.

We’ve heard your feedback about the bosses’ loot not feeling rewarding enough for the risk you’re taking, so on Friday we made the following hotfixes:

• Reduced Maximum number of players able to receive loot from 15 to 10.
• Increased the minimum loot reward from 0% to 15% - so if you do less than 15% damage, you’ll still be rewarded as though you did 15%.
• Increased quantity of base rewards.

Let’s see this in practice: a group of 10 players now effectively receive 1.5x more regular loot (on average) than a solo player, as well as getting significantly more kills per hour. Great!

Not so great: since this hotfix went live last week, we’ve seen concerns that the regular loot isn’t quite meeting your expectations. Having strong, consistent loot is important because it presents a dilemma; do you stick around to gain more rewards while risking being found by other players, or do you cash out while you can and go gear back up?

By our estimations, the regular loot per kill for Venenatis, Vet’ion and Callisto is worth somewhere between 130,000 and 150,000 GP. The problem is that those averages come from big ticket drops like Onyx Bolt Tips, which means that hitting one of these rewards mean players instantly head to the Bank instead of really weighing up their options.

All this to say that this week’s changes make the loot table a bit more consistent. We’ve increased the quantities of lower-value drops and made the Rune Pickaxe a little rarer, which makes room for more exciting drops like Dragon Platelegs or noted Blighted Anglerfish.

As we explained on the livestream, we’re intentionally cautious with loot following concern around the game’s economy. We don’t have a whole lot of player data on Wilderness content – almost like you lot have been avoiding it for some reason! – so we’re treading carefully and making small changes to begin with. We hope these improvements are already making your experience better, but please do keep sending your feedback – we'll be working to make sure we can get it just right.

Next week, we’ll have more to share – including the drop rates for all the bosses’ uniques!

Anti-Grief Mechanics

We've noted that players participating in the singles variants of the Wilderness bosses can be griefed easily by other players. As a result, we're making the following changes:

• Calvar’ion now only summons two hounds no matter how many players are in the fight.
• Spindel is limited to a maximum of 10 spiderlings, no matter how many players are in the fight.
• All Wilderness bosses are now immune to Ring of Recoil and similar effects.

Further Changes

• Rearranged Venenatis’ damage through Prayer from being rolled then capped at 30 to being capped at 30 and then rolled.
• Calvar’ion will now only spawn up to seven lightning strikes at one time, regardless of the number of players in the arena – or the weather report.

Other Changes

• Pets will no longer leap in to deliver Nurmof’s final line while he’s repairing your Dragon Pickaxe.
• Fixed an issue where Artio’s head was clipping when within melee range.

Hotfixes Since Last Week

• Fixed an issue where Accursed Sceptres (a) were reverting to Thammaron’s Sceptres while protected on PvP death when equipped.
• Fixed an issue where the Voidwaker components turned into Coins upon death in the Wilderness.

On Our Radar

We’re aware of the following issues and working on fixes as we speak:

• Boss entry fee is lost upon any Wilderness death.
  • We want to explore changing this so that you only lose the fee if you die in combat that began inside or within close proximity to the boss lairs and escape caves. Let us know your thoughts!

• The ‘stall’ behaviour when falling into a boss lair can be disruptive in PvP scenarios.
• Venenatis and Spindel’s web attacks are a bit too punishing on the Energy drain front.
• At the very least, we want to reduce the drain for players under the effects of Stamina Potions, but we’re exploring other options for those of you who just have to walk it off.
• Thamarron's Sceptre remains unable to auto-cast.

Fairy Ring Graphical Update Coming Next Week

We’ve let the fairies know that you’re not keen on their redecorated portals. It was a pretty awkward conversation (not least because we kept getting turned into frogs), but they’ve promised to try and tone the sparkles down a bit.

However, as discussed on our livestream, we’re still looking for a way to make the fairy rings more visible and easier to use on mobile. We can’t increase the size of their click-box due to a pesky technical limitation, so a cosmetic change is the only way to solve this problem.

The fairies are a big fan of the mobile client (it’s easier for their tiny little hands) and are eager to hear your thoughts. Is the change above good enough for next week's game update, or should they try again?

To let them know, just close your eyes, clap your hands, and say ‘I DO believe in the Fairy Ring Graphical Update!’ – or better yet, let us know your thoughts through the usual social media channels.

Welcome Screen Changes

We wanted to give you all a heads up on a change we'll soon be making to the welcome screen. Right now, we currently support two different versions of the welcome screen, with you currently having the ability to switch back and forth between the two. However, we'll soon be decommissioning one of these welcome screens.

Doing so will make it easier for us to maintain the welcome screen and also make it possible for us to add some useful features to it, such as better information on things like polls and account security (authenticator, bank pin, etc.).

Of the two welcome screens, many people are already using the one we'll be keeping, but for those who aren't, here's what it looks like:

Secrets of the North

We've made some improvements to the Venator Bow following your feedback on its use in both PvP and PvM! In last week's newspost, we gave you a heads up about these changes so they shouldn't come as a huge surprise.

The Venator Bow will now tell you how many charges you have remaining more frequently, at every increment of 500 charges. It will also print a more emphatic message when you hit 100 and 50 charges remaining.

Additionally, the below changes will apply in both PvP and PvM:

• Secondary hits should now roll their own accuracy checks instead of using the one from the initial hit.
• Arrows can now ricochet even if their target dies.
• The speed of ricocheting arrows has been increased somewhat, which should make the Bow feel a bit nicer to use.

Let us know how you get on!

Enhanced C++ Client Improvements

• Improved minimap zoom functionality through a new slider feature, saving you the need to pinch the screen when trying to adjust it.
• Minimap zoom will now be remembered on both mobile and desktop clients.
• Added the ability to see your current combat level to a decimal place to view how far you are from your next combat level. This is OFF by default.
• Fishing spots within Chambers of Xeric are now included under Fishing spot indicators.
• Fixed various Clue Scroll Helper issues:
  • Resolved a bug with 'Hot and Cold' Clue Scrolls where the location list could disappear in certain situations.
  • Resolved a visual bug where the Fairy Queen NPC was not being highlighted by the Helper.
  • Resolved a bug where the Helper was not detecting a worn uncharged Amulet of Glory for a specific Master Clue.
  • Resolved a bug where incorrect information was displayed/highlighted in the Helper for certain cryptic clues.

Other Changes

• Restored missing text in the Accursed Sceptre creation message.
• The Ardougne Diary task that calls for an imbued Salve Amulet is now clearer about where the Amulet must be imbued.
• Deadman players may now obtain the Mystic Cards from Diango’s holiday items reclamation menu.
• Players on the Deadman world who are still subject to its newbie PvP immunity are no longer eligible to receive the weapon drops from revenants.
• Fixed a ‘hiding’ animation featured in Another Slice of H.A.M.
• Players can no longer have multiple followers while Temple Trekking.
• Fixed an issue where the Lumbridge Armour Stand was clipping on PvP Worlds.

Poll 78 Next Steps

We're delighted that you thought nearly everything in Poll 78 should pass! Even Hatius escaping justice and missing out on spending the rest of his days in a cosy Port Sarim jail cell couldn't ruin that!

Today we'd like to share the results of the Poll 78 priority survey, where you get to decide which of the passed questions get released first!

A whopping 9,000 of you voted! Without further ado, here are the top five results:

• 1st - Increase Coin Pouch Capacity
• 2nd - Magic Secateurs Inventory Usage
• 3rd - Automatically Add Player-Made Runes to the Rune Pouch
• 4th - Coloured Crystal Armour
• 5th - Magic Secateurs & Farming Skillcape boost on Bush & Limpwurts

Starting with next week's update you'll be seeing the Coin Pouch capacity increasing, alongside being able to show off your peak Priffdinas FashionScape with Crystal Armour recolours. It will also be possible to make Super Extended Antifires from Extended Antifire Potions... say that ten times fast!

We expect to release the top 5 voted for in-game in the next two weeks and the remainder of the Poll 78 questions over the next month or two, as we start to plan the next Quality of Life Poll and what theme it will follow.

Thank you once again to everyone who left feedback and took part in the survey, we're already looking forward to the next one!

Crack The Clue 3

We're back with another helpful clue, for none other than you!

This will help with something you need to match, and of course you know, there is an extra catch!

PvP Rota

The PvP rota has moved to Period B:

• 560 - (UK) - PvP World
• 579 - (US) - High-Risk PvP World
• 561 - (UK) - Free-to-Play PvP World
• 580 - (US) - LMS Competitive

World 390 (AUS) for LMS Competitive has been de-activated with this rota.

The PvP Arena is using 'Max/Med' loadouts in Ranked Duels and Tournaments this week.

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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