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1

Update Notes / Updates December 6th 2017 - Har'Lakk, Range Balancing, Spell Tweaks and More!

« on: October 28, 2017, 09:17:17 am »

Hey guys,

It's been a while since the last update and thus this topic is a little longer. I've done my best to keep things as short as possible, so that everything can be read quickly. We've got a new boss and some tweaks for the Ranging skill introducing proper longbows, new arrows and new bolts!

Engine / Performance Tweaks
Quite a lot of people were complaining that the game was lagging. I've investigated the issue and was able to tweak some things in the engine that will improve fps rates overall. I was able to identify and fix a few problematic rendering issues. The game runs best on a dedicated graphics card. If you've got a laptop with 2 graphics cards, make sure Emps-World runs on the high performance one! Intel HD chips (primarily on laptops) are known to be slow and really can't get you 60+ fps with maxed out settings. I'll now be stopping to improve the game's performance, because it's been the only thing I was able to do in the past weeks. I want to focus on content updates rather than improving the game engine more and more. I've also received quite a few reports about invisible players, areas not loading properly, flickering objects, etc. I'm still working on getting all graphical glitches fixed, but it should already be in a really good state right now. These problems are coming from the aggressive loading method I'm using. If you enter a new area, your game doesn't pause and loads new data on-demand resulting in smooth loading processes. While this sounds really nice in theory, it's a nightmare to program it. That's the main reason for certain objects not loading properly or players disappearing. However, it's already working out quite nicely and will be free of bugs in the future.

Spell Effects
I've been watching some wilderness fights and this has been a topic for quite a while now: The hit chance of spell effects. Magic hit chance and spell effect chance have always been one value and with this update I am separating them. The chances of successfully applying a spell effect on your opponent is double your accuracy. So even if you've got only a chance of 30% to hit your enemy with a magical attack, the chance for a spell effect to apply is 60%. This change may sound harsh, but I think that freezing spells in the wilderness have lost their purpose. The damage output is fine imho and I don't want to change that.

Har'Lakk
Up for a similar challenge as Nex? Har'Lakk is going to give you another tough fight! You can enter the boss lair north-west of the Barrow hills. If you cannot find the spot, use the minimap and simply search for Har'Lakk. The boss drops items for the 4 top damage dealers and can be instanced. It is highly recommended to face this enemy as a team. The best drops you can get are the Demon longbow and Demon crossbow; new level 85 Range weapons. These weapons allow you to fire Ancient arrows and Ancient bolts, which will boost your dps by a significant amount.

I've tried my best to get Har'Lakk down on my own... but I couldn't get it done. Maybe you can show me how to properly get a solo kill?

Here's the Demon longbow and crossbow:



More Ranging Tweaks
I'd like to make longbows more useful in the game and am thus introducing their weapon type. Whenever arrows are used with a longbow, they give you additional +30% Ranged strength to compensate for their slower attack speed. This results in much higher dps and makes them a valid alternative to shortbows.

The Ranged requirement and thus crossbow requirement for enchanted bolts has been increased by some levels each. You now require a level 71 or 72 Ranged weapon to fire dragon or onyx bolts. The strongest ammo shouldn't be usable with lower level crossbows, because it results in too much damage on weaker equipment. Enchanted crossbow bolts with their level requirements are now also existing in the Range skill guide.

I'm changing the level requirement of dragon arrows and introduce 2 new arrow / bolt types:

• Dragon arrows: require level 60+ bow
• Barrow arrows: require level 71+ bow
• Ancient arrows: require level 82+ bow
• Ancient bolts: require level 83+ crossbow

The point of this change is to create a gap between low and high level Ranged gear. Prior to the update you'd get almost the same damage of any bow that used dragon arrows. You can now use higher level arrows with higher level bows, which gives higher level bows a real power-up. However with this changed I am forced to nerf the arrow strength of arrows by 10%. Otherwise the newly introduced arrows would outperform everything. Barrow and Ancient arrows can be poisoned as well. The projectiles of poisoned dragon, barrow and ancient arrows have received a different model. It can now clearly be seen when you're firing a high-level poisoned arrow.


Engine changes:

• Fixed screen mode updated. It's now usable and scales appropriately with your monitor. If you've been a fan of the fixed screen mode, I recommend trying it out now and adjusting the frame scale setting in order to make it bigger.
• I've identified quite a significant fps drop when new regions are loading. I can't remove this completely, because loading a new region just requires some loading time. However, I've changed the way a new region loads a little. The minimap is now refreshed after the region is fully loaded, which has a smaller impact later on on fps drops. I've also sped up the way floor is loaded. Overall the fps drop still exists (has no fix), but is a lot less impactful than before.
• Fog calculations overhauled. I now have support for more foggy areas and the way fog is calculated was also adjusted. This may result in an increase of fps on slower systems and fixes some transparency issues with distant objects.
• Animated objects are now properly replaced and are no longer flickering. This issue existed pretty much only in Agility courses, especially in the Karamja one.
• A bug with character / npc clones has been fixed.
• The option to select Pick Mode has been removed. By default the software pick mode is now used, which is faster and isn't an ancient openGL technique that's long deprecated.
• Minimap viewer has received some improvements. Certain maps would not load and edges of walls wouldn't display.

Game changes and updates:

• Kolodion respawn timer changed from 30 minutes to 15 minutes.
• Certain minigame npcs have had some of their combat issues fixed: Spectrals, barrows, etc.
• Zamorak and Saradomin bows have been buffed. Their unique arrow effect has been turned into more reliable and flat +8 arrow strength bonus when used with their appropriate bow.
• Karamja Agility course has received a little overhaul. Animation timings were improved and a few bugs have been fixed.
• The dragon arrows reward in the Barrows chest has been replaced with Barrow arrows.
• Nex and ancient warriors/rangers/mages now drop Ancient arrows.
• Dragon arrows can now be fletched. All dragon arrow drops have been replaced with dragon arrowtip drops.
• New arrow types (barrow and ancient arrows) can now be fletched.
• Crossbow stand animation has been updated. Crossbows will no longer be inside the player model.
• Bolt animation updated. You can now see what type of bolt you're shooting (includes enchanted ones). The start and flight animations have also slightly been improved.
• Non-members can now use one additional bank tab and members two. Resulting in a storage of 11 bank tabs and 1200 items in total.
• Halloween event has been removed. You can no longer get any skulls as drops. However, the miniquest including Roddeck and the Grim Reaper can be done any time.
• The spawn timer of Shooting Stars has been reduced by about 60 minutes. A new star can now spawn in 60-90 minutes instead of 120-180 minutes.
• Cabbages can now be harvested! You may have to re-plant them in order for this fix to apply.

The past weeks have been quite stressful for me, because I had a lot of other irl things to do. I'll now be looking into the Christmas event. After that I'll make sure Melee and Magic also get a brand new tier 85 weapon with a similar boss challenge!

All the best,
Thomy

2

Update Notes / Updates April 1st 2017 - Construction

« on: March 25, 2017, 11:59:13 am »

Hello everybody!

It's finally there, Construction!! I hope you didn't come here expecting it would be an April's fool? It's not! This update has taken quite a while and the finishing touches have taken a bit. I don't want to talk too much about how to train the skill, because our wiki page has already been prepared:
https://emps-world.net/wiki/Construction
Oh yeah, most important: Using a hammer on any furniture removes it!



Materials
There's several materials you'll need for building your home. All of the materials for Constructions can be found in or around Rimmington:

• Planks: Can be obtained by going to the Sawmill operator in Rimmington (west part) or by using the Make Plank spell from the Lunar spell book.
• Limestone bricks: You can mine limestones and cut them with a chisel in the northern part of Rimmington, around the dungeon entrance. The stonemason in Rimmington also sells small amounts of Limestone bricks.
• Cloth and Gold leaf: Sawmill operator.
• Marble and Magic stone: Stonemason.
• Gardening supplies: Any plants you want to have in your home can be bought from the Gardener in Rimmington. She is directly west of the house portal. The items in her shop are ordered by the level required to place them in your house.
• Paintings and Maps: You can buy all kinds of paintings and maps for decorating your home from King Percival, who can be found in the White knights castle in Falador. King Percival also sells Skillcapes.
• Slayer trophies: There is a 1 in 1000 chance to obtain those while killing specific monsters.
• Fishing trophies: There is a 1 in 1000 chance to obtain those while fishing specific fishes.

Altars and Prayer Experience Rates
Altars give up to 250% prayer experience for offered bones. On top of that, every lit burner (no matter which one) gives additional 50% bonus experience. Resulting in a maximum of 350% prayer experience per bone that is offered at an altar. Now though, the base experience rates of burying bones need some adjustments:

• Frost dragon bones: 1875 --> 1275
• Dragon bones: 600 --> 490
• Wyvern bones: 525 --> 480
• Dagannoth bones: 500 --> 440
• Baby dragon bones: 400 --> 300
• Burnt bones: 350 --> 250
• Big bones: 220 --> 190

Please bear in mind that the gilded altar can give up to 350% experience, so this isn't a tough nerf at all. In the end, you can still gain Prayer levels much faster than before! Other altars with 2 lit burners already give at least a 200% experience boosts. So using any altar is already better than the old experience rates.

House Activities
There's several things you can do inside your house. Not everything is fully configured, because certain things would require quite a lot of time to develop while giving no real content. A good example for this is the games room. You can build everything in it, but the games don't work. There's a lot of other useful stuff to discover in Construction, such as: Prayer altars, crafting teletabs, teleport rooms, throne rooms, etc. I'll just let you find it out.


Other changes and fixes:

• Barrow chest now has a 10% chance to reward you with either a hard or elite clue scroll.
• Game settings interface has completely been overhauled. Settings are now divided into categories and the interface supports a large mode, just like bank interface, price checker, etc.
• We now have a more natural, blue sky. The fog color and distance calculations were also changed with this update.
• Improvements in object picking code. Especially slower computers will feel this.
• Thanking posts was turned into Liking posts. It makes much more sense to like a post instead of thanking it.
• Pest Control now only requires 2 players to start the game. Before the update 5 players were required.
• The way draws during duels is handled was updated. You should no longer find yourself winning or losing in an obvious draw.
• Golden mining outfit can now be bought from the Star sprite (shooting star).
• Various versions of Duellist's caps can be bought from the Brimhaven Agility arena ticket shop now.
• Drop chances of elemental crystals increased for Tormented Demons.
• Humidify spell updated. It now applies water to all items in your inventory. You can also make softclay with Humidify.
• Make Plank spell added. It now transforms multiple logs into planks.
• There is now a closer banker to Obsidian dragons.
• Teletabs can now be created in houses and have thus been removed from the wizard's drop table.

I hope you have a lot of fun building your own house. This has really taken a while to develop and I would also like to thank following people for helping me in doing so:

• Jonneh -  for the initial base of the skill. It really helped me get a good understanding of how it's supposed to work and your Room configuration system is a really good way of doing it. Thank you!
• Charr - You've really helped me collect many room configurations. Thank you.
• Jp - Also been a real help with configuring rooms. Thank you.
• And everyone else who has tested Construction in world 3. I hope there won't be too many bugs in it.

All the best,
Thomy

3

Update Notes / Updates March 16th 2017 - Graphical Improvements

« on: March 03, 2017, 01:21:41 pm »

Hey guys,

Not a lot of new things with this update. This is mainly another construction preparation and test update. I've optimized how large houses are loaded and added some usability to them. I'll now be able to show you the progress of Construction in the live game. I'll probably do that during the weekend. So make sure to be around.

Fog and Map Loader
You may have already noticed this, because the update went live a few days ago. The map loader now fades in new objects, giving you a smooth loading transition instead of them just popping up. The fog plane was also made circular to give it a more natural feeling. It won't affect performance, but make the game look smoother.

Following things have been changed:

• Stronger, richer colors for elemental bow particles.
• Npc and item floor adjustments have slightly been reworked. You should no longer find items being inside the ground. Items should now always be aligned properly to the ground plane.
• Skulling system tweak: As long as you fight your opponent, your skull will keep refreshing its timer. So you shouldn't lose your skull during fights anymore.
• You can now get multiple clue scrolls of a kind. The rewarding system has also slightly been adjusted. You now get a casket, which can be opened at a later time or even be traded with other players. This should make it easier to collect clue scrolls and their rewards.
• Grand Exchange prices of item sets are now calculated from their individual parts. They no longer have a separate price.
• Music system has completely been rewritten with a new library. Mind testing that for me? It worked on both of my computers, but you never know.
• Teleport system has completely been reworked. If you find some locations being wrong, please report them to me! I tested a lot of them, but couldn't go through all of them. There's 100+ locations.
• Price checker now shows rounded comma values of item values. It'll no longer show 20M, but 20.12M for example. The total price is rounded to 4 comma values.

I'm looking really forward to the release of Construction, because it's coming closer!

All the best,
Thomy

4

Update Notes / Updates January 19th 2017 - Combat Bonuses and New Interfaces

« on: January 11, 2017, 04:11:25 pm »

Hey guys,

I've got some bigger changes ready with this update, which introduce new ways to improve our combat system. Please take your time and read through the updates. The largest change is the introduction of lifesteal and damage soaking bonuses.


New Equipment and Character Design Screens



I've recreated both of the interfaces. They now feature a large version, which also displays your character's chat head. The equipment screen has received 2 new bonuses:

• Lifesteal: Just like the vampyrism aura. You can now see how much lifesteal your equipment gives.
• Soaked: This tells the amount of damage your equipment is soaking. I'll explain this change in more detail below.

I've also fixed a bug where equipment screen bonuses would appear in the quest tab or in the music play list. This will no longer happen.



Damage Soaking

With earlier releases of strong weapons and special attacks, your character has become pretty fragile. Also bosses hit like a truck if you don't pay attention or if you use wrong prayers. I would like to give you the opportunity to also build tanky characters. To think about bringing more damage or more tankiness. Now, this cannot be done by just providing more and more defence bonus, because it will just result the chance of not being hit. Yet, an enemy can still deal the full damage on you.

To change this, I'd like to introduce damage soaking. The amount of soaked damage can now be seen on your equipment screen and it's a quadratic function depending on your highest defence bonus. Meaning, that you can stack up a lot of defence bonus in order to reduce the power of incoming hits. The equipment setting tells you the amount that is subtracted from every incoming hit. This calculation is done BEFORE protection prayers, so it's impossible to completely nullify an enemy's high hit.

I know that this is quite a big change, so I'd like to call it experimental for now. We may have to tweak the values a little and think of special scenarios where this system may fail. I'd welcome feedback on this topic a lot!


Other Changes

• GWD boss cash drops buffed. They now drop 75-200k.
• Ancient Caves drops buffed. Items now drop in larger quantities and herb drops are noted.
• K'ril Tsutsaroth will no longer spawn an infinite amount of minions.
• Full Guthan's now has flat lifesteal bonus.
• Full Torag's now has flat damage soaking bonus.
• Spirit shields have slightly been nerfed. I reduced their defensive bonuses.
• Slight buffs to defender accuracy and strength bonuses.
• Health above entities can now be enabled via the Game Settings. This shows the exact health values above all enemies that are in combat.
• Hitpoints, prayer and run orbs now start to blink when they reach less than 10%.
• Aggressive monsters will no longer attack you when being in combat with another monster. Before this update, it was possible that certain monsters would attack you, even though you were fighting another one.
• A bug was fixed where shadows where flickering during combat.
• Santa and Jack Frost have left.

All the best,
Thomy