[September 19th, 2020] Patch Notes & Suggestion Squad Changes

[Ryan 873]

Message from the developers:
We were happy to finally release The Nightmare update yesterday, which also included a ton of other content too! But as some of you may know, we unfortunately experienced a handful of issues. We want to be transparent and clarify some things that were going on behind the scenes which complicated the process.

Usually when we work on updates, our procedure with the Suggestion Squad for updates is:

1. We release a "private update list" to the team (similar to the forum topics for updates) so they know what to test
2. We then open up a "test world" where members can test and report bugs / issues that they encounter or give feedback
3. The development team reviews these reports / suggestions , and fixes / improves things accordingly
4. Finally, we release a second "preliminary patch" after these fixes, so the members can then do final testing 

Unfortunately during the development of this update, right around steps 1 & 2 we noticed some suggestion squad members were using the knowledge from this update to give themselves an advantage on the live game. This included buying out items in the trading post for the new upcoming enchantments, etc. This was the most important rule of the squad and it was broken by more than one member.

This was discovered in the midst of our development, and as a result Nate & I felt that we couldn't continue releasing too much information or access to the team until we knew exactly which members could / couldn't be trusted with their rank. This led to us skipping the far less testing and quality assurance. 

We'd also like to point out that the members who performed insider trading have been dealt with, and we've confiscated things such as items purchased as a form of "insider trading"

Moving ahead (suggestion squad changes):
With all of that being said, we're making changes to the infrastructure of our suggestion squad, and we're raising the standards expected for entry and positioning on the team. This includes, but not limited to:

• Demoting members from the group that were caught in the incident described above
• Demoting members who've been relatively inactive compared to our high contributing members
  • This is an unfortunate, but necessary form of clearing house. By lowering the team's headcount only to what's absolutely necessary, we have less members to keep tabs on for spotting abuse / information leaks.
• Withholding future update information that is heavily related to the economy, and limit it to our most trusted members

We apologize for any confusion, and we are deeply disappointed to have to make these changes in the first place. At the very least, we hope that this level of transparency will provide insight to those of you who were not aware of what was going on behind the scenes.

Now, time for the good stuff...

The Nightmare (changes / improvements):

• (NEW) MVP System:
  • This MVP system only applies in global instances or private instance with 5 players
  • Damage MVP: The player who deals the most damage will receive a +25% (+15% in private) drop rate bonus for that kill
  • Tank MVP: The player who receives the most damage will receive a +15% (+5% in private) drop rate bonus for that kill
  • Note: These MVP bonuses do NOT stack if one player happens to achieve both MVP titles at once
     
• (NEW) Nightmare pets:
  • The Nightmare has received a standard boss pet (legendary pet) which is also in its collection log
  • The Night Terror has received an epic boss pet which is also in its (new) collection log
    • Pet effect: Restores player health to full when below 10 hitpoints (3 minute cooldown) - Does NOT activate in the wilderness!
       
• Other changes / improvements:
  • Added imbuing stones to The Nightmare and The Night Terror drop tables
  • Added a "hard" daily money making activity for The Nightmare kills (discluding practice mode, of course)
  • Added a "practice mode" for private Nightmare instances (ability to invite friends, just like normal private Nightmare)
  • Added a "completion time" display to Nightmare (similar to raids) which tracks your personal records for each type (global / private / night terror)
    • To view your personal records, simply type ::nightmare
    • Unfortunately, completion times prior to this patch were not saved
  • Nightmare drop rates made easier in general, for common, uncommons, and rares (both global & private instances)
  • Nightmare in solo mode now has a 25% chance for receiving a 2X drop roll
  • Nightmare in solo mode is now slightly less difficult (better hitpoint scaling, etc.)
  • Death coffer cost cap per item has been reduced from 250M to 150M
  • Death coffer cost for all iron men now have a 33% discount
  • Soulsplit no longer works on Nightmare totems/pillars
  • Soulsplit now only heals 1/2 the original amount in non-solo Nightmare instances
  • Inquisitor mace now deals +7.5% damage to Nightmare
    • This boost stacks with all other inquisitor pieces, which also give +7.5%
    • As a result, the full inquisitor set is by far the best loadout for Nightmare, granting +47.5% damage against Nightmare (blessing included)
  • Added a "request-backup" option to Nightmare when he's sleeping in Global mode
    • When you click it, it will announce to the server that 'x' players are requesting backup at global Nightmare
    • This only works if there's at least 5 people in the instance
  • Fixed issue that caused server lag / nulling via nightmare spam clicking
  • Fixed issue that caused instances to break / behave weirdly on rare occassions

Gameplay improvements / fixes:

• Weakness system (improvements):
  • Boss weakness efficacy reduced, and should no longer feel as if it's effecting things as much as before.
    • IMPORTANT NOTE: To clarify weakness and put to bed some rumors, the system adjusts Hit Frequency for using the correct style.
    • Hit frequency means when it rolls your hit and it ends up being a low roll, it rerolls to try and give you a higher one.
       
  • New weakness have also been added:
    • Cerberus has been given a crush weakness
    • Great olm (CoX) has been given a stab weakness
       
• Other improvements:
  • NEW: The Runex Cape now stacks drop rate bonuses with the cape you bind it to!
    • For example, if you bind your Runex cape (+10%) with your Mythic cape (+5%) you'll have a +15% drop rate bonus!
  • Dragon hunter lance is now +10% stronger against dragons
    • With the karamja gloves, it's now +2.5% more powerful against dragons than it was before the karamja glove nerf
  • Brimstone hammer has received an extra +10 crush bonus and +10 strength bonus
  • Kharazi spear (e) has received an extra +15 stab bonus and +10 strength bonus
  • Added a tracker to slayer urns, simply right-click "Track" to toggle the tracker on / off
  • Increased demonic gorilla spawns at the regular lair
  • Imbuing stones added to the mystery ticket loot table
  • Demonic gorillas added to the wilderness (wildy teleports), and added them to the wildneress slayer task list
  • Re-added lava giants to the wilderness slayer task list
  • Larran's keys will now go straight to your open looting bag (if you have one) rather than the ground
  • Added blood money drops to Crazy archaeologist and Scorpia
  • Set certain drops for Crazy archaeologist to "wilderness only"
  • Crazy archaeologist now gives 1 boss point per kill
  • Scorpia now has a range & magic attack rather than range & melee
  • Slayer emblem drop rate bonus will now display under your main drop rate bonus on the equipment screen
    
    
     
• Bug fixes:
  • Fixed issues with global NPC aggressiveness
  • Fixed issues with slayer urn reward table (gave some unintended items)
  • Fixed issues with doubly daily jungle task for UIMs
  • Fixed drop rate bonuses for mythic, sponsor, and completionist capes
  • Fixed ring of greed (i)'s rune coin exchange effect
  • Fixed protection values for Archaeologist's book
  • Fixed gem rocks at the Lunar gem mine
  • Fixed yell chat being filtered for high ranking staff members (unintended)
  • Fixed attack style hovers for axes (now shows the attack types)
  • Fixed potion-making skilling tasks when you have the herblore skilling cape / max cape full dose perk
  • Fixed 3rd phase verzik's attackability at certain angles
  • Fixed the event mini-map icon at home

[RogueMX 123]

Phenomenal job guys

[Vise 178]

lovely and I love you for fixing the runex cape finally

[tranquil 40]

very solid, thanks for the quick turnaround 

[Deux 3]

sexy update tbh

[Hireath 1]

Thank ya'll for the changes, especially the slayer urn tracker<3 

[terror reid 14]

Thank you for the extreme transparency with something like that going on behind the scenes. @Ryan @Nate

 

Wonderful update and patch 👍

[radical left 1]

@Ryan @Nate

I am utterly amazed the insane quantity of patches in such a short amount of time post-update. I could probably count the hrs of sleep yall got in between the two updates on one hand lol. (simping hard here, but i mean it)

[Toxic Main 1]

Thanks For the Updates Ryan/Nate. 

You guys Forgot to Fix Chitin Drop Value. 

I received it yesterday and lost it to Pkers due to it not having a value greater than super restores. I was devastated to find out that my glory protected over the Chitin.

Can you guys help a broke brother out.

Thanks,

Toxic.