I have worked on lots of things (including lots of little authenticity fixes for the server), but mostly client/RSC-C because Java sparks no joy.
I've worked on a low memory mode for RSC-C, which reduces the memory requirement down to 24MB. Jagex's RuneScape Classic client required 48MB, so memory usage is basically halved. This is accomplished through optimizing the code, carefully compressing the colour palette of sprites (down to a single 8-bit palette instead of multiple), and removing some textures.
This should (in theory) allow RSC to run on consoles with very little memory, like Sony's PSP. But I'm waiting for someone else to help with that.
^ That's RSC with the memory usage halved.
I also worked on a "diverse NPCs" mod, which aims to reduce the amount of copy and pasted NPCs in RuneScape Classic, giving them different weapons, hairstyles, skin tones, making the world more immersive.
Developer log - Stormy
Re: Developer log - Stormy
I think this is most of what I did for the server:
- Made some messages more authentic (level up, spells)
- New ranged combat formula (with Yumeko), buffed damage of crossbows to match official RSC
- Added support for old RSC protocols (196, 198, 199, 201, 202, 203)
- Added a ::minigamelog command so you can see how good you are at raising kittens and doing fishing trawler
- Fixed the stats of NPCs and corrected a few that were aggressive when they weren't meant to be.
- Fixed the friends list on the webclient and other old protocols
- Fixed many potions and alcoholic drinks to behave as they did in official RSC based on replays.
- Fixed stat draining effects of god spells to match footage of official RSC.
- 2001scape: disable the movement timer and NPCs becoming non-aggressive (with Yumeko)
- 2001scape: Do not allow cannonball smelting on F2P worlds
Re: Developer log - Stormy
Haven't had a lot of ability to dev recently because I've been moving and getting ISPs to set up an internet connection competently is a nightmare.
Today, though, I discovered a new map format that was used by the official game during late 2002. It all started when I found a random line on an archived Rune Village news page about the Yanille bank "being moved into the disused General Store building".
I'm obsessed with the game's history, so naturally I wanted to check it out. If this was true, it would have been the case for less than a few months... Fortunately, thanks to the RuneScape Archive project we've recently recovered the maps from November 2002. So I loaded landscape revision #50 up in RSC-C and found... it wouldn't load.
Fortunately it was a pretty easy fix, and it was just another slight variation on Jagex's map file format that was in use for a very short time.
Sadly, just another red-carpet double-doored bank... Myth busted? At least until we find an earlier version of the game with Yanille.
Apart from that, I've contributed two fixes to the server, both being little quest accuracy fixes.
Someone found that the server didn't match the Wiki in two minor situations during Murder Mystery (collecting flour from a barrel) and Plague City (number of buckets required to moisten the soil). Their attempted wiki edits were enough to notify us that the server needed fixing. Logg was able to find the relevant RSC+ replays and I was able to open merge requests.![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif)
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
Today, though, I discovered a new map format that was used by the official game during late 2002. It all started when I found a random line on an archived Rune Village news page about the Yanille bank "being moved into the disused General Store building".
I'm obsessed with the game's history, so naturally I wanted to check it out. If this was true, it would have been the case for less than a few months... Fortunately, thanks to the RuneScape Archive project we've recently recovered the maps from November 2002. So I loaded landscape revision #50 up in RSC-C and found... it wouldn't load.
Fortunately it was a pretty easy fix, and it was just another slight variation on Jagex's map file format that was in use for a very short time.
Sadly, just another red-carpet double-doored bank... Myth busted? At least until we find an earlier version of the game with Yanille.
Apart from that, I've contributed two fixes to the server, both being little quest accuracy fixes.
Someone found that the server didn't match the Wiki in two minor situations during Murder Mystery (collecting flour from a barrel) and Plague City (number of buckets required to moisten the soil). Their attempted wiki edits were enough to notify us that the server needed fixing. Logg was able to find the relevant RSC+ replays and I was able to open merge requests.
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif)
Re: Developer log - Stormy
OpenRSC Core Server
Corrected the messages for mixing dyes and dying capes
Previously, the messages were basically made up by private server authors years ago. We found footage for mixing dyes and making several types of capes, then inferred the proper authentic messages for the remaining dye types.
Disallow cutting webs with ranged and magic weapons
What we know: there was a list of weapons you were allowed to cut webs with.
What we don't know: what exactly that list contained (except lacking machetes and scythes).
As some people have pointed out, this makes god mages more balanced, since they get one less slot for food in the high level wilderness.
Stop non-damaging spell projectiles from stealing NPC aggression
Players were abusing this bug in a nasty way. They would find someone safe-spotting, then cast Weaken/Curse/Confuse on the monster to make it reassign its target, then log out. The NPC would walk towards the safe-spotting player and engage them in combat.
Weaken/Curse/Confuse now have the same priority as other spells when it comes to aggression mechanics.
Corrected amount of XP given by gem rocks
Gem rocks are programmed very weirdly in RSC, and there's still some mechanics that the server doesn't have (it's possible to fail and in some cases still get XP). However, they should now correctly give 65XP instead of 50XP.
Audited Hazelmere's Island NPC spawns, de-duplicate Hazelmere
This was an interesting one. I spent a long time on it, tediously watching footage of RSC players kill jungle spiders.
There should be three jungle spiders that are impossible to attack with melee. They are completely surrounded by bushes and can only be attacked with Ranged or Magic.
Overall, the number of jungle spiders was reduced slightly.
Gnome Maze Dungeon: audited NPC spawns
The number of NPCs in the dungeon didn't change, but their position did: the zombies and giant bats have their own chamber, and the hobgoblins have their own chamber. They aren't mixed. This is important because the hobgoblins are specifically harassing and surrounding Golrie.
Update black dragon drop table using new data
A00 shared some screenshots from botting black dragons on official RSC in the 2010s. Zorak broke down the data and found some new information on coins and rune amounts, correcting the wiki in the process. They now drop more blood runes, more death runes less frequently, and less frequently coins.
Audited Wilderness monster spawns
The number of Deadly Red Spider spawns in the Overgrown Village was previously ridiculously high, and I tediously watched footage of people killing spiders on RSC and noted down everything. It's now possible to pick up the steel plate mail legs spawn on a low level character if you're very careful. Just as it was in official RSC.
The Graveyard zombies now surround the iron med in a cross shape, guarding it just as they did in official RSC. The number of spawns was reduced slightly. The spawns were copied from a late 2001 copy of the official RSC data files which still included spawn data.
The number of hobgoblins in the Hobgoblin mine was increased to official RSC levels, restoring this classic training spot to its full glory. The spawns were copied from a late 2001 copy of the official RSC data files which still included spawn data.
The number of scorpions west of Edgeville now matches official, it was reduced slightly. It's now slightly less annoying to walk west from Edgeville. The spawns were copied from a late 2001 copy of the official RSC data files which still included spawn data.
There are now more spiders guarding the sapphire house spawn, as there should be. The spawns were copied from a late 2001 copy of the official RSC data files which still included spawn data.
Audited Draynor Village NPC spawns
People who had botted RSC a lot in the 2010s noticed two key things about Draynor:
APOS Client for RSC Uranium
Yes, apparently I still work on this.
Frogdoubler and Conker spent a lot of effort finding every single font that RSC used for sleep words. I wrote a CAPTCHA generator. Hopefully, one day OpenRSC can use it.
Corrected the messages for mixing dyes and dying capes
Previously, the messages were basically made up by private server authors years ago. We found footage for mixing dyes and making several types of capes, then inferred the proper authentic messages for the remaining dye types.
Disallow cutting webs with ranged and magic weapons
What we know: there was a list of weapons you were allowed to cut webs with.
What we don't know: what exactly that list contained (except lacking machetes and scythes).
As some people have pointed out, this makes god mages more balanced, since they get one less slot for food in the high level wilderness.
Stop non-damaging spell projectiles from stealing NPC aggression
Players were abusing this bug in a nasty way. They would find someone safe-spotting, then cast Weaken/Curse/Confuse on the monster to make it reassign its target, then log out. The NPC would walk towards the safe-spotting player and engage them in combat.
Weaken/Curse/Confuse now have the same priority as other spells when it comes to aggression mechanics.
Corrected amount of XP given by gem rocks
Gem rocks are programmed very weirdly in RSC, and there's still some mechanics that the server doesn't have (it's possible to fail and in some cases still get XP). However, they should now correctly give 65XP instead of 50XP.
Audited Hazelmere's Island NPC spawns, de-duplicate Hazelmere
This was an interesting one. I spent a long time on it, tediously watching footage of RSC players kill jungle spiders.
There should be three jungle spiders that are impossible to attack with melee. They are completely surrounded by bushes and can only be attacked with Ranged or Magic.
Overall, the number of jungle spiders was reduced slightly.
Gnome Maze Dungeon: audited NPC spawns
The number of NPCs in the dungeon didn't change, but their position did: the zombies and giant bats have their own chamber, and the hobgoblins have their own chamber. They aren't mixed. This is important because the hobgoblins are specifically harassing and surrounding Golrie.
Update black dragon drop table using new data
A00 shared some screenshots from botting black dragons on official RSC in the 2010s. Zorak broke down the data and found some new information on coins and rune amounts, correcting the wiki in the process. They now drop more blood runes, more death runes less frequently, and less frequently coins.
Audited Wilderness monster spawns
The number of Deadly Red Spider spawns in the Overgrown Village was previously ridiculously high, and I tediously watched footage of people killing spiders on RSC and noted down everything. It's now possible to pick up the steel plate mail legs spawn on a low level character if you're very careful. Just as it was in official RSC.
The Graveyard zombies now surround the iron med in a cross shape, guarding it just as they did in official RSC. The number of spawns was reduced slightly. The spawns were copied from a late 2001 copy of the official RSC data files which still included spawn data.
The number of hobgoblins in the Hobgoblin mine was increased to official RSC levels, restoring this classic training spot to its full glory. The spawns were copied from a late 2001 copy of the official RSC data files which still included spawn data.
The number of scorpions west of Edgeville now matches official, it was reduced slightly. It's now slightly less annoying to walk west from Edgeville. The spawns were copied from a late 2001 copy of the official RSC data files which still included spawn data.
There are now more spiders guarding the sapphire house spawn, as there should be. The spawns were copied from a late 2001 copy of the official RSC data files which still included spawn data.
Audited Draynor Village NPC spawns
People who had botted RSC a lot in the 2010s noticed two key things about Draynor:
- they remembered a man in the northern house, previously missing in OpenRSC
- they remembered being able to cert on level 3s without getting killed by Darkwizards.
APOS Client for RSC Uranium
Yes, apparently I still work on this.
- RSC client overflow fixes - should help bot stability on the extremely crowded Uranium world.
- Reverted the camera behaviour back to vanilla, with less headachey fast movement or weird player tracking.
- Added a checkbox for fog of war.
- Reduced the amount of space taken up by the PathWalker destination list after various people added tons of new locations.
- Support for system-wide installation on Unix-like systems (in preparation for a stable release, it can appear in package managers).
- Better support for legacy platforms requiring old SDL versions.
- Various stability fixes.
Frogdoubler and Conker spent a lot of effort finding every single font that RSC used for sleep words. I wrote a CAPTCHA generator. Hopefully, one day OpenRSC can use it.
Re: Developer log - Stormy
After this point I also audited every single F2P NPC spawn to make sure the number was correct.
As part of this, one deadly red spider was removed (or added, I can't remember) to Karamja Volcano and the stuffed bear in Varrock Museum was stopped from moving.![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
As part of this, one deadly red spider was removed (or added, I can't remember) to Karamja Volcano and the stuffed bear in Varrock Museum was stopped from moving.
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)