Combat Beta Update #2

Bericht door **Bot** » donderdag 14 december 2023, 15:44

Originele tekst

Hey all!

We've managed to sneak a beta update in before the Christmas holidays (woo!).

It's worth noting that what's been pushed live is an exact copy of our test environment, therefore you may experience more issues or unexpected outcomes than you're used to as a number of things are still a work in progress. We felt that it would be better to get you something to play with over the Christmas period even with this in mind as opposed to having nothing until the new year!

As always, please keep the feedback and conversation flowing.

We'll continue to be engaging on our usual channels through Reddit, Discord, and Twitter (Mod Ryan, Mod Sponge).

How to access the beta

Ready to give the Beta a try? Here's how:

Jagex Launcher
- Head to the taskbar and close any running instances of the Jagex launcher.
- Click this link.
- The link will load the Jagex launcher then start loading the Beta, logging you in automatically.
Non Jagex Launcher
Click this link, then log in as normal.

On first login, your live save is imported into the Beta. You can re-import your save into the Beta once per hour.

General

Hitmarks

"In the current era of RuneScape combat, many hit marks are produced. A lot of changes we would like to make require engine support, but we've modified a few things that are in our control to see if there are any improvements."

Increased the speed of all combat hit marks from 70 -> 60 client cycles (1.4s → 1.2s)
Newer hit marks will now always replace older hit marks if all slots are full

Channeled Abilities

"Channeled abilities were hard to track as they were hidden among the buff bar and it wasn't clear when it was active or for how long. They also work differently to regular abilities in that you must be within attack range to cast them. We've made a number of changes to better support cooler more unique channeled behaviour going forward."

Note: This feature is still a work in progress so there is an increased chance of issues or missing components (e.g. not present on all channeled abilities/special attacks)

Added a 'Channel bar' component to the top-level interface that is displayed when using a channeled ability
- Removed channeled ability presence from the buff bar
- End behaviour varies based on scenario (e.g. Interrupted vs Cancelled vs Finished)
Allowed movement with melee channeled abilities as long as you remain within attack range
Rewrote the channel code to support casting channeled abilities out of range and to fix issues only present in revolution combat mode

As noted, this is a work in progress so please let us know of any issues you encounter.

Action Bar

During Game Jam Mod Ryan took some time to look at the action bar and make small impactful modernisation changes.

Note: This feature is still a work in progress so there is an increased chance of issues or missing components.

Implemented interact highlighting so that when an action bar slot is interacted with the slot will light up to give more visual feedback to your actions and to improve third-party watchable
Enabled actionbar ability cooldown information by default and removed the setting to toggle this on/off
Repositioned the ability cooldown information to be centered within the ability for better visual clarity
Removed the ability cooldown information for the GCD rotation so that the information is only present for ability-specific cooldowns
Removed the white flash that occurs at the end the GCD rotation
- In future, we would like to add something subtle but for now, this is to keep flashing relevant to the specifics of abilities as opposed to having your entire action bar light up
Reduced the size of key bind information as it was taking up a large amount of real estate when only contextually relevant
- Shortened modifier keys (e.g. Alt-C → a-C)
  - Alt → a
  - Ctrl → c
  - Shift → s

As noted, this is a work in progress so please let us know of any issues you encounter.

Melee

Systems

"We have learned a lot from the introduction of Necromancy and want to backport as many of the advanced systems as we can. We have continued to do this by updating Melee's core attack system, which allows for a cleaner flow of combat and mitigates potential bugs in the future.

It also allows us to more easily update areas in the previous system that were somewhat complicated to do, even if they sounded simple!"

Note: This feature is still a work in progress so there is an increased chance of issues or missing components. As an example this has currently only been done for PvN (Player vs NPC) combat and the full basic attack functionality is not present.

Abilities now respect the true centre of NPCs (e.g. Using an attack that hits the target and enemies around the target will correctly hunt in a 5x5 area if the NPC is size 3x3)
The basic attack now incurs GCD, generates 9% adrenaline and deals 90%-110% damage
- This is not currently available in the ability book
- The 'Necromancy Auto Attack' setting has been repurposed to work as a generic 'Auto Attack' setting
The majority of animation priorities have been addressed which should result in cleaner animations overall, with less overwriting
Modified various hit timings to better match the visuals
- There are still some stand-out issues with abilities such as 'Assault' which hits 4 times but only visually hits 3 or 5 times (2H vs DW) in animation. These will be addressed at a later date.

As noted, this is a work in progress so please let us know of any issues you encounter.

Constitution

Abilities

"We're giving constitution abilities a clean-up to match the work done previously to other styles, this includes tooltips, damage squish and general cleanup. Right now you shouldn't see many gameplay changes."

Converted to use some behind-the-scenes advanced systems that Necromancy introduced
- A first pass updating the tooltips has been completed for all of these abilities

Weapon Special Attacks

"I've got 97 problems and Seren Godbow is still all of them..."

"We've modernized and squished all remaining special attacks, there are also some minor tweaks to costs, damage, and in some cases effects of different special attacks. We don't consider special attacks 'complete' but this gets them into a good enough state to allow us to easily work with them more in the future"

Special attacks now display their cooldowns and target type in their tooltips.
Updated/rewrote and squished the damage ranges of the following special attacks:
- Noxious Weaponry - Mirrorback
  - Spiders HP increased to 10k
  - Now reduces incoming damage even if there's not a target to reflect at.
- Dragon Battleaxe - Rampage
  - Trialling moving the damage buff over to multiplicative bonus (was additive)
  - Added necromancy into the stat reduction effect
  - Removed a hidden debuff that increased NPCs / other players' chance to hit you under the spec, stacking with the existing defence debuff
- Dragon Hatchet / Crystal Hatchet - Clobber
  - Damage Squish only
- Dragon Longsword - Draconic Cleave
  - "Upped average damage slightly to account for the loss of the hit cap raising effect"
  - AVG 250%→270%
- Dragon Mace - Draconic Blow
  - Special renamed from Shatter to reduce confusion with the Shatter ability
- Dragon Scimitar - Draconic Slash
  - Special renamed from Sever to reduce confusion with the Sever ability
- Armadyl Godsword - Armadyl's Judgment
  - "Experimentally upped damage to be more in line with Dragon Claws"
  - AVG Damage 235% → 400%
- Bandos Godsword - Warstrike
  - "Simplified the stat draining effect as it was hard to determine its value"
  - Now reduces ALL the targets' stats by 5% instead of 1 stat at a time and scaling with damage dealt
  - Removed a secondary modifier that was being applied as a 'curse drain'
- Saradomin Godsword - Healing Blade
  - "Very slight tweaks/code cleanup to how the heal/prayer calculation was determined - change shouldn't be felt in-game (hopefully)"
- Zamorak Godsword - Ice Cleave
  - Stun now applies earlier in the combat system to match other stun abilities (no effective change)
- Saradomin Sword - Saradomin's Lightning
  - Both hits are now magic damage
  - AVG Damage 105% → 270% per hit
- Dragon Spear / Zamorakian Spear - Shove
  - No longer has 100% hit chance (irrelevant so long as you're above 25% hit chance due to dealing no damage)
- Vesta's Longsword - Feint
  - No longer rolls damage twice (damage values didn't represent its true average value)
- Vesta's Spear - Spear Wall
  - Now reduces incoming damage even if there's not a target to reflect at
  - AVG Damage 45% → 100%
- Statius Warhammer - Obliterate
  - Special renamed from Smash to reduce confusion with the Smash ability
- Rune Claws - Impale
  - Damage Squish only
  - Considering removing this special
- Granite Maul - Quick Smash
  - Damage Squish only
- Keenblade - Aimed Strike
  - Special renamed from Critical Strike to reduce confusion with the Critical Strike mechanic
  - AVG damage 130% → 140%
  - Hitchance bonus 25% → 20%
  - Adrenaline 35% → 75%
- Bone Dagger - Backstab
  - Damage Squish only
- Korasi Sword - Disrupt
  - Dominion Tower / Quest version updated to pull data from the reward version
  - Added walk merge to the special attack animation (attack will no longer stall the players' movements)
- Ancient Mace - Favour of the War God
  - Damage Squish only
- Zaros Godsword - Blackhole
  - Damage Squish only
- Annihilation - Gravitate
  - Cleanup only
- Abyssal Whip - Energy Drain
  - Damage Squish only
- Darklight - Weaken
  - Stat reduction changed from 1 level + 5% of levels → 6% reductions
- Barrelchest Anchor - Sunder
  - "Ability was too random, whilst random CAN be good, this one was just a bit too whacky for players to get their heads around"
  - Randomness has been removed "for now" → Now always applies the +4 base hit chance increase and reduces the targets' damage dealt
- Brackish Blade / Brine Sabre - Liquefy
  - Now both weapons share the Liquefy ability instead of having different, but very similar attacks.
  - No longer has an underwater restriction
  - Stat boost is no longer based on damage dealt (It was almost always hitting the internal cap) → Now just boosts stats by 3 flat levels + 10%
- Abyssal Vine Whip - Vine Call
  - "The vine whip was quite buggy and had no real niche, we're trying a small rework to the special to let it fit more in the realm of poison builds"
  - Complete rewrite of the special
  - Vine now deals poison damage over time effect
  - Vine no longer does AOE damage
  - Vine no longer extends the player's range
  - AVG Damage 110% initial
  - AVG Damage DoT 25% (10 hits)
- Lava Whip - Get over Here
  - "No changes right now, considering a full rework to the ability as it's the root cause of several bugs and not particularly used"
- Magic Shortbow - Twin Fang
  - Special renamed from Snapshot to reduce confusion with the Snap shot ability
  - Adrenaline 55%→50%
- Magic Shieldbow - Powershot
  - Hitchance bonus 20%→40%
- Guthix bow - Balanced Shot
  - Adrenaline 55%→35%
  - AVG damage 90%→180%
  - Heal: 100% of Damage over 60s → 60% of damage over 15s
  - Heal cap of 400 removed
- Saradomin Bow - Restorative Shot
  - Adrenaline 55%→30%
  - Average Damage 60%→140%
  - Heal: 200% of damage over 60s → 100% of damage over 15s
  - Heal cap of 400 removed
- Zamorak Bow - Destructive Shot
  - Adrenaline 55%→40%
  - Average Damage per hit 60%→170%
  - Zanik's Crossbow - Defiance
  - Adrenaline 50%→40%
  - Average Damage 110%→250%
  - Simplified PvP bonus damage: Varying damage increase based on which prayers are active → Flat 10% bonus damage for each prayer active
- Hand Cannon - Aimed Shot
  - Adrenaline 50%→35%
  - Average Damage 115%→330%
- Eldritch Crossbow - Split Soul
  - Players soul split icon will now visually change to a split soul icon whilst the effect is active
  - Added an audio queue when split soul ends
- Quickbow - Twinshot
  - Adrenaline 75%→35%
  - Average damage 65%→60%
  - Hitchance increase 25%→50%
- Seercull Bow - Soulshot
  - Adrenaline 60%→50%
  - AVG Damage 60%→110%
  - NEW: Damage now increases based on how high the targets current magic level is (2% per magic level)
  - Now drains a flat 5% of target's magic level instead of scaling with damage dealt.
- Decimation - Locate
  - Adrenaline 50%→35%
- Rune thrownaxe - Chain hit
  - Damage squish only
- Morrigan's Javelin - Phantom Strike
  - AVG Damage 72%→130%
  - DoT portion has been modernised
    - Removed damage cap
    - Applies in PvM
    - AVG Damage 35% per hit
    - 5 Hits
- Morrigan's Thrownaxe - Hamstring
  - AVG Damage 72%→ 160%
  - PvP Effect reworked:
    - No longer drains run energy
    - Now prevents the target from using movement abilities for a short duration
- Strykebow - Deep burn / Dark burn
  - Simplified damage storage
    - Removed damage thresholds where values would change → Now stores flat 50% of damage taken
  - Special Now has an initial hit: AVG damage 195%
  - DoT damage now occurs every 1.2s instead of every 0.6s for visual noise
  - Now releases 12.5% of the damage stored per hit. (was 2.5%)
- Iban Staff - Iban Blast
  - AVG Damage 190%→220%
- Guthix Staff - Claws of Guthix
  - Damage squish only
- Saradomin Staff - Saradomin Strike
  - Damage squish only
- Zamorak Staff - Flames of Zamorak
  - Damage squish only
- Armadyl Battlestaff - Tempest of Armadyl
  - Damage squish only
- Mindspike - Rune flame
  - Adrenaline 75%→35%
- Zuriels Staff - Miasmic Barrage
  - Adrenaline 100%→50%
  - code centralization: debuff should now be more consistent
- Fractured Staff of Armadyl - Instability
  - Damage squish only (both initial hit & timestrikes)
- Obliteration - Devour
  - Adrenaline 100%→50%
  - Debuff duration 10.2s→15s
  - Now has an initial hit AVG damage 220%
  - code centralization: debuff should now be more consistent & work in more places
- Staff of darkness - Power of Darkness
  - Added buff/debuff visibility
  - Now reduces damage if no target to reflect at
- Staff of light - Power of Light
  - Code cleanup
- Staff of Sliske
  - KEKW

Bow of the Last Guardian - Balance by Force/Perfect Equilibrium

"Critical Strike changes and Damage Squishing have pushed the 'BotLG' to Zanaris and beyond; because it stored damage after critical strikes were rolled, and it itself could then also critically strike, resulting in compounding power. We're going to trial bringing it down slightly and redistributing it slightly to make up for the excessive strength it's gained, the hope is getting its power a little closer to the live game."

Stored damage AVG 42.5% → 35%
Base damage AVG 11% → 12%
Perfect Equilibrium can no longer critically strike
Increased buff bar priority so it falls closer to the front of the bar
Buff is no longer hidden at 0 stacks to prevent it from 'flickering'
- Buff is hidden when the bow is unequipped
Buff is no longer redrawn when the player activates the special, preventing it from shifting position
The buff icon now changes when the player's next hit will trigger the passive
Special attack duration is now shown on a separate buff icon

Leng Swords

"The Leng swords needed a new effect given their old special attack doesn't work post-combat beta, we're using time set aside for them to give them a full overhaul, as collectively we don't think the old passive effects offered much in the way of gameplay or stylization and ultimately was going to result in lengs becoming a switch just for hurricane if higher tiered weapons released.

We'll be looking at player feedback particularly when it comes to both the power & feel of the new effects, and we're very open to making adjustments to them."

Removed the old special attack, set effect and passive effect of the Leng swords (both Tier 85 & 95)
Added new main-hand passives
- Frost (T85)
  - Attacks have a 7% chance to apply a primordial ice stack with each hit.Whenever you apply a primordial ice stack gain 2% adrenaline.
- Endless Frost (T95)
  - Attacks have a 12% chance to apply a primordial ice stack with each hit.Whenever you apply a primordial ice stack gain 3% adrenaline.
Added new offhand passives
- Chill (T85)
  - Attacks have a 5% chance to apply a primordial ice stack with each hit.Whenever you apply a primordial ice stack gain "Frostblades" for 6s
  - Frostblades: Attacks deal an additional 12% of your ability damage stat on-hit.
- Boundless Chill (T95)
  - Attacks have a 6% chance to apply a primordial ice stack with each hit.Whenever you apply a primordial ice stack gain "Frostblades" for 9s
  - Frostblades: Attacks deal an additional 12% of your ability damage stat on-hit.
- Added new special attack (T95 only currently)
- Icy Tempest
  - 30% adrenaline cost
  - 200% average damage
  - AoE 1 tile range around the player
  - Consumes all primordial ice stacks on enemies hit.
    - Deals an additional 20% damage to enemies for each primordial stack on them.

Equilibrium

"The Equilibrium aura and perk have suffered negatively from the damage squish on each of the styles, whilst previously a solid perk it's now close to useless, as a result, we're giving it a full redo.

The new effect intends to give some variety in the perks players choose to use and to reduce dependency on critical strikes. We hope to update more of the perks in the future to add viability / interesting effects, but Equilibrium was the primary issue given it being negatively affected by the beta changes"

Note: This feature is experimental and subject to rebalancing/changes.

Equilibrium Perk/Aura has been redesigned
- Perk Effect: Now increases the player's ability damage stat by 4% per rank, but prevents the player from critically striking.
- Aura Effect: Now increases the player's ability damage stat by 12%, but prevents the player from critically striking.
- Perk and Aura can now be used together for additive benefit.

Global Cooldown Abilities

"Less combat experienced players often fall into issues with abilities that are semi-off GCD. Namely; Surge, Escape, and Dive, where if players use them on specific cycles these abilities would eat their global cooldown and generate adrenaline, we're going to trial making these always off-GCD so you're less reliant on specific ability order."

Surge, Dive & Escape:
- Will now always be cast off-GCD
- No longer generate adrenaline
- Are now classed as 'Abilities rather than Basic Abilities'

"We're interested in experimenting with making reactive abilities more... reactive. Anticipation is our test subject right now; in some scenarios, players could know a stun was incoming, but due to being mid-global cooldown are unable to use the ability, so we're making this an Off-GCD ability, this could in theory allow some future mechanics to require faster reactions instead of requiring a GCD leadtime."

Anticipation:
- Will now always be cast off-GCD
- No longer generate adrenaline
- Is now classed as 'Abilities rather than Basic Abilities'

Death's Swiftness/Sunshine

"We heard you! We've reinstated the 7x7 range but also increased the size of the visual to show you exactly how big the effect is. Spoiler, it's big!"

Increased the area created to 7x7
Increased the size of the visual effect

Bugfixes

Damage over time abilities now obey the rules of hit chance/damage potential and will have their damage scaled down if you're below 100% hit chance
Bladed Dive no longer does largely inflated damage (RIP)
NPCs such as Erethedor should no longer deal massively inflated damage with Fragmentation shot and other Damage over time abilities
Metamorphosis no longer reduces players' damage
Deadshot now hits the correct number of times both at a baseline and with the Igneous Kal-Xil
Limitless was available to activate if the user had less than or exactly 60% adrenaline, this should have been less than or exactly 50% (and now it is)
Fixed an issue with 'Guthix's Blessing' and the 'Brief Respite' invention perk where the maths was being calculated incorrectly
The combat dummy at War's Retreat will now correctly play a defend/flinch animation with each hit inflicted
- "This was really bugging us while testing..."

- Mods Ryan and Sponge