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Update Notes / Updates April 8th & 10th 2020 - Menu Styles, Discord Bot, Aura Buffs and More!
« on: April 08, 2020, 08:15:35 am »
Hey guys,
This update contains changes for many aspects of the game. There's new items obtainable through Silver crafting, a rework for Elemental and Abyssal weapons, Buffs to endgame Invention auras and a few engine changes that improve your gameplay. I've also fixed many bugs reported over the past weeks and added the option for customized User Interface styles. You can choose between modern and oldschool styles.
Menu Styles
You are now able to customize the look of your menu. By default you get the modern gameframe and icons. Click on "Interface Settings" to change set your preferred look.
There's also custom cursors that change depending on what option, npc, player or object is selected. Feel free to disable them if you prefer your own default mouse cursor.
Silver Casting
Several new moulds have been added to Dommik's Crafting store (Al-Kharid & Crafting guild). You are now able to melt Silver bars in a furnace to create new items:
Using a Runecrafting staff and Tiara allows you to create combination runes easier. They do not count for runes but will allow you to create runes without needing additional talismans.
Discord Bot
We now have our own official Discord bot that is integrated into the game server. It will forward clan chat from and to discord and offers some utility commands, such as finding drops for npcs. Have a look at our official Discord channel. This is the bot's initial release so it may not always work or be disabled from time to time but feel free to play around with it!
Elemental and Abyssal Weapons
I would like to bring more weapon variety into endgame PvM by improving abyssal weapons and their elemental upgrades through crystals. You no longer lose your abyssal weapon and the upgrade crystal once all charges run out. The item reverts back to its original state without the upgrade crystal. The sink is no longer necessary because of Invention. The maximum charges were changed from 50,000 to 40,000 to be aligned with the reworked aura. I've changed the Whipmaster aura into Abyssal master aura, which increases damage for all abyssal weapons including bows and staves! The creation costs for Abyssal master aura have also been changed: it no longer requires any Demon energy but 100 of each 4 basic energy types. All abyssal weapons have received a special attack that applies an effect depending on their element:
Invention Aura Buffs
I've identified that quite a few of the higher tier auras are just too weak for their costs, especially those made with Demon energy. I've changed the following:
Game fixes / changes:
Engine fixes / changes:
Texture System Rework
This change went live a lot earlier but I'm mentioning the technical changes for those interested. I've changed the texturing system from an texture atlas (openGL 1.5+) to a texture array (openGL 3.0+). This results in overall sharper and smoother scenery. Not only does this modern system look better but it also loads terrain significantly faster. Particles now also look more detailed and smoother. With this change I've improved particle spawns for elemental weapons and the wildy wyrm too. Shaders (programs on the GPU) have been upgraded from openGL 2.0 to openGL 3.0. Computers not supporting these changes will just use the old system. Rendering images and text in-game has also been optimized through that system resulting in higher fps rates and sharper image quality. The game needs to render image scenes less often because of more optimized rendering techniques. These optimizations work for both the old and new systems! Images or letters that are party cut-off by scrollbars are also no longer streamed to the GPU but properly cut with the new system. Full screen and anti aliasing button have been updated to be toggles. The game no longer needs to re-open its window to apply the settings.
Memory System Improvements
I've received a few reports of lag or crashes over the past weeks and investigated the issue. I've improved the game's memory usage by caching less models and transforming them on-demand rather than keeping all transformations. The game used to keep a copy of every model on every position which isn't quite necessary because there is a lot of duplicates with different rotations or ground alignments. You should feel that the game loads a bit quicker, smoother and it will be consuming less memory. The native libraries are now also stored inside the .emps_world cache folder by default and no longer on your operating system's temp folder.
Please let me know what you think of these changes and what you would like to see next? I was thinking of additional bosses or another Invention batch with new auras?
All the best,
Thomy
Updates of April 10th:
Item Drop System and Death Item Timers
I've received quite a lot of reports recently about people losing their items and requesting them back through our Helpdesk. We have taken a look at some cases and on rare occasions have decided to return items because they were impossible to be picked up in time. I'm now changing that policy that we are not returning any items lost upon death unless of course lost or deleted by a bug. I am additionally changing the death item timers to 10 minutes. That means that your items lost on death will be visible to you for 8 minutes and an additional 2 minutes to other players. This is more than enough time to run back and grab your gear even if your internet connection fails you. Below's a list of all (changed) item timers:
Game fixes / changes:
This update contains changes for many aspects of the game. There's new items obtainable through Silver crafting, a rework for Elemental and Abyssal weapons, Buffs to endgame Invention auras and a few engine changes that improve your gameplay. I've also fixed many bugs reported over the past weeks and added the option for customized User Interface styles. You can choose between modern and oldschool styles.
Menu Styles
You are now able to customize the look of your menu. By default you get the modern gameframe and icons. Click on "Interface Settings" to change set your preferred look.
There's also custom cursors that change depending on what option, npc, player or object is selected. Feel free to disable them if you prefer your own default mouse cursor.
Silver Casting
Several new moulds have been added to Dommik's Crafting store (Al-Kharid & Crafting guild). You are now able to melt Silver bars in a furnace to create new items:
- Saradomin & Zamorak symbols: +10 Prayer bonus and protection from appropriate faction in the GWD.
- Tiara: can be combined with any talisman.
- Runecrafting staff: can be combined with any talisman.
- Sickle: can be operated to grow Mort myre fungi in the swamp from rotting logs. It's also usable on rotting branches and small bushes giving you mort myre stems and pears. Those don't have any usage yet though.
- Silver bolts (unf): can be combined with feathers to get Silver bolts. They require the same level as Steel bolts and are slightly stronger.
Using a Runecrafting staff and Tiara allows you to create combination runes easier. They do not count for runes but will allow you to create runes without needing additional talismans.
Discord Bot
We now have our own official Discord bot that is integrated into the game server. It will forward clan chat from and to discord and offers some utility commands, such as finding drops for npcs. Have a look at our official Discord channel. This is the bot's initial release so it may not always work or be disabled from time to time but feel free to play around with it!
Elemental and Abyssal Weapons
I would like to bring more weapon variety into endgame PvM by improving abyssal weapons and their elemental upgrades through crystals. You no longer lose your abyssal weapon and the upgrade crystal once all charges run out. The item reverts back to its original state without the upgrade crystal. The sink is no longer necessary because of Invention. The maximum charges were changed from 50,000 to 40,000 to be aligned with the reworked aura. I've changed the Whipmaster aura into Abyssal master aura, which increases damage for all abyssal weapons including bows and staves! The creation costs for Abyssal master aura have also been changed: it no longer requires any Demon energy but 100 of each 4 basic energy types. All abyssal weapons have received a special attack that applies an effect depending on their element:
- Ice: freezes your enemy for 20 seconds. It's basically like an ice barrage spell. The freeze is applied on hit and not on cast time.
- Thunder: inflicts additional 15% damage with a delayed hit.
- Fire: puts a bleed effect on your enemy equal to 30% of your damage dealt.
- Nature: increases your enemy's poison damage by 4 up to a maximum of 12.
Invention Aura Buffs
I've identified that quite a few of the higher tier auras are just too weak for their costs, especially those made with Demon energy. I've changed the following:
- Experience boost aura now gives a +50% boost instead of +25%. Please bear in mind that this aura can be used on every single experience gain such as Experience lamps, Pest Control points, etc.
- Demon slayer aura damage increased from 12.5% to 15%.
- Prayer II protection bonus buffed from 4% to 5%
- Prayer III protection bonus buffed from 6% to 10%
- Lifesteal II bonus changed from 4% to 5%.
- Lifesteal III bonus changed from 6% to 10%.
Game fixes / changes:
- Construction skill interface now also shows what rooms you can build including their costs. I've also fixed a bug was fixed where the last furniture levels showed null.
- Quiver now uses the first arrow / bolts that can be used instead of the best ones. This change now allows you to choose which ammo to use from your quiver and also change it on demand. Simply swap position of your ammo inside your quiver to change priority.
- Construction rooms can now be rotated clockwise and counter clockwise.
- Fight caves now properly save when completing the final wave and exiting the minigame before claiming your reward.
- The attack animation of Aquanites has been sped up because it was blocking their walking progress for too long.
- Hunting expert west of the Grand Exchange can now string a rabbit necklace for 1m gp for you. Special thanks to JP for writing the script.
- You now get double the amount of combination runes for Runecrafting.
- The bridges of Neitiznot have been fixed. You no longer require an Agility level to cross and also can no longer get stuck while crossing.
- A bug was fixed where dye shards could be turned into dye bottles by withdrawing them from your bank.
- You now get a red chat message when equipment fully degrades and drops to the floor.
- A bug was fixed that allowed you to transform certain items because the game thought they were noted.
- Ancient gladiator animation timings have been improved. It was looking a bit too clunky.
- Trade screen now switches to a two-row layout when more than 18 items are offered.
- Several Agility courses and obstacles have been overhauled. They now look and feel smoother. This change also includes interactions with doors that open, let your player pass through and close again.
- The attack speed of colored Demon longbows has been fixed.
- Areal sounds are now properly playing again. The volume decay effect (depending on how far a sound is away) has been updated. You will now also hear sounds from players fighting monsters further away than before. These distant sounds are significantly more silent than closer ones though.
- Your weight now affects the chance of failing Agility obstacles. Negative weight will increase your chances of passing obstacles.
- The graphics of blood barrage and burst have been fixed. Also the hit and cast timers of several spells without projectiles (barrage, burst, zuriel, etc.) have been updated to better match their animations.
- The werewolf transformation animation in Canifis has been updated.
Engine fixes / changes:
- You now get a warning when attempting to close the game while being logged in.
- The render positions of elemental bows, abyssal bows & staves and demon bows have been fixed. They are now properly aligned when wearing an aura.
- The depth priority of many interfaces has been updated. You will no longer see your player clipping through text on the character equipment screen. This change came with the texture system rework.
- The 300 and 250 fps settings have been removed from the game. They were causing rounding issues with position calculations.
- Animation interpolation code has been further optimized. It now depends on your frame rate and works with graphics and projectiles as well.
- Force movements (climbing over things, Agility, knock back, etc.) has been improved. The position transition is now interpolated and looks less chunky.
- Press enter to chat now properly works when private messaging friends, entering input or having the worldmap open.
- The client-sided walking code has been overhauled. Your position is now interpolated smoother over your fps rate. That means that entity positions will now be more accurate in comparison to server positions.
Texture System Rework
This change went live a lot earlier but I'm mentioning the technical changes for those interested. I've changed the texturing system from an texture atlas (openGL 1.5+) to a texture array (openGL 3.0+). This results in overall sharper and smoother scenery. Not only does this modern system look better but it also loads terrain significantly faster. Particles now also look more detailed and smoother. With this change I've improved particle spawns for elemental weapons and the wildy wyrm too. Shaders (programs on the GPU) have been upgraded from openGL 2.0 to openGL 3.0. Computers not supporting these changes will just use the old system. Rendering images and text in-game has also been optimized through that system resulting in higher fps rates and sharper image quality. The game needs to render image scenes less often because of more optimized rendering techniques. These optimizations work for both the old and new systems! Images or letters that are party cut-off by scrollbars are also no longer streamed to the GPU but properly cut with the new system. Full screen and anti aliasing button have been updated to be toggles. The game no longer needs to re-open its window to apply the settings.
Memory System Improvements
I've received a few reports of lag or crashes over the past weeks and investigated the issue. I've improved the game's memory usage by caching less models and transforming them on-demand rather than keeping all transformations. The game used to keep a copy of every model on every position which isn't quite necessary because there is a lot of duplicates with different rotations or ground alignments. You should feel that the game loads a bit quicker, smoother and it will be consuming less memory. The native libraries are now also stored inside the .emps_world cache folder by default and no longer on your operating system's temp folder.
Please let me know what you think of these changes and what you would like to see next? I was thinking of additional bosses or another Invention batch with new auras?
All the best,
Thomy
Updates of April 10th:
Item Drop System and Death Item Timers
I've received quite a lot of reports recently about people losing their items and requesting them back through our Helpdesk. We have taken a look at some cases and on rare occasions have decided to return items because they were impossible to be picked up in time. I'm now changing that policy that we are not returning any items lost upon death unless of course lost or deleted by a bug. I am additionally changing the death item timers to 10 minutes. That means that your items lost on death will be visible to you for 8 minutes and an additional 2 minutes to other players. This is more than enough time to run back and grab your gear even if your internet connection fails you. Below's a list of all (changed) item timers:
- Item drop: 2 minutes private and 2 minutes public
- Item drop (death): 8 minutes private and 2 minutes public
- Item spawns: public and refreshed every minute
Game fixes / changes:
- Smoke demon champion attack animations and damage of magic projectile has been fixed. There could have been issues with other bosses as well that suffered from the same bug of multi projectile hits.
- You can now use the prayer orb to activate / deactivate your current prayers and set your quick prayers. You set your quick prayers by activating the desired and confirming them by clicking on the orb.
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Today I present you a full rework of the Pest Control minigame. It features multiple difficulty modes and allows you to collect more pest points. There's also Ultimate and Hardcore Ironman modes with separate Hiscores as well as plenty of adjustments and bug fixes.
