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Artisan - The Final Dev Blog

Why a new skill?

Introducing a new skill is something which will create a tremendous boost to Old School. It will create a huge amount of excitement and hype for Old School which in turn will encourage old players to play again, attract brand new players as well as engage many existing players. The overall impact on Old School is that we will see activity increase hugely which is something we all want to see. This does not mean that you will only see players come back who want to play the skill, though. The extra hype around Old School will attract more PKers, streamers and every other sort of player.

Even if you are not interested in a new skill yourself, the positive impact it will have on your game and the community you play with is absolutely huge. You will be able to play with more people, more players will be PKing and it will be easier to find a team to take on new bosses.

What will artisan bring?

Artisan is a skill where you learn how to combine different skills to make new items. While levelling this skill you will gain access to new items, new training materials and new equipment. In effect it is slayer for skilling. Some of the things you can expect to see are:

• 3 new trees with associated bows, construction items and other items
  
• 5 new resource gathering areas.
  
• 1 new ore to mine
  
• A new creature to hunt
  
• Two handed crossbows
  
• Craftable cosmetic clothing
  
• New crops to grow
  
• Ability to build your own bridges over rivers
  
• Wieldable crafting tools
  
• And much more…

Balancing

The way to think of the artisan skill is that it is a skill of new things. It gives you new ways to level existing skills, new uses for existing items and some brand new items too. It is designed to breathe new life into a lot of less popular content, for example firemaking and low level herbs. Artisan is not designed to replace any existing content or devalue any current methods of gaining XP. Artisan will not make it easier to level your existing skills, but it will act as an alternative way to level them. Of course, you can level all your skills using artisan and not have to train your existing skills the usual way, but it will be much more efficient to level them the current way. Artisan will bring you new ways to use your existing skills to make useful items.

Key changes

We have made some changes to the previous dev blog and in brief, here are the changes we have made.

• Esoteric no longer provides a +3 runecrafting bonus. Now, when wearing the hat, top and legs your runecrafting pouches will not degrade. The boots have been removed and the levels required adjusted.
  
• Added multiple additional artisan tools which can be made.
  
• Added additional farming crops which can be used to make clothing.
  
• Added a new level 85 hunter creature – the wolverine.
  
• Added artisan backpacks to the clothing list which can be used to store artisan items.
  
• Changed use of the Runecrafting totem.
  
• Added an effect to the slow burners so they reduce the chance of burning food.
  
• Players can unlock the ability to craft certain artisan items outside of an artisan task by using artisan points.

Updates to this dev blog

• Esoteric no longer provides a +3 runecrafting bonus. Now, when wearing the hat, top and legs your runecrafting pouches will not degrade. The boots have been removed and the levels required adjusted.

Gathering resources

To level your artisan skill you still need to visit an artisan master and get assignments from them. Your artisan master will first give you an assignment to gather some resources. What the artisan master will ask you to collect will depend on your levels and the level of artisan master you are talking too. Here is our initial thoughts on what he could ask you to collect.



As you can see from the table above there are some new resources you can gather, quartz, ash logs, elm logs, redwood logs, great kyatt fur and wolverine claws. Here is a breakdown of how we see them fitting into each skill.



Each artisan master will grant you access to a new resource area which contains the new resources plus a selection of other resources which you will find useful. You will be able to access this area whether you have an artisan task or not. These will include new forests, mining sites and hunting areas.

Once you have gathered the items your artisan master has asked for you should head back to talk to him and he will give you some artisan XP based on the XP you earnt gathering the resources.

Using your resources

Once you have collected your resources and have received your artisan XP you will have the option of asking the artisan for another gathering assignment or a crafting assignment. If you choose another gathering assignment, your artisan master will give you one and you can keep the resources you have already gathered.

If you ask for a crafting assignment your artisan master will ask you to use the resources you have gathered to make an item. The items you will be asked to make will be brand new items specific to the artisan skill. You will use only the item from your gathering task and another skill to make this item, you will receive XP in both artisan and the other skill you have used.

For example, you gathering task may be to collect 160 pure essence. If you ask for a crafting assignment you might be asked to create elemental runes (runes which act as all of the elements), you will receive runecrafting XP when crafting the runes and artisan XP when that task has been completed. When you next speak to your artisan master, he will give you another gathering task.

In order to craft anything in a crafting assignment, you will need to use an artisan’s workshop. Each artisan will give you access to their workshop if you have the right artisan level. Alternatively if you have the right construction level, you can build your own in your POH. The majority of the items you can make for artisan will only be able to be made while you have an assignment to make it, however they will be tradable.

Artisan points

Each time you complete a gathering assignment and the corresponding crafting assignment you will receive some artisan points. These points can be used to block specific tasks or tasks related to specific skills. A number of you have asked to be able to access the skill blocking function quickly. To accommodate this, you will be able to block one skill for free until you reach level 10 artisan. Once you have some points you can choose what to spend your points on. Here’s a list of what you could spend your points.

• Block tasks for a specific skill for the next 10 levels. (A maximum of three skills can be blocked in total)
  
• Block tasks for a specific skill until you unblock them. (A maximum of three skills can be blocked in total)
  
• Unblock a specific skill.
  
• Block a specific task. (up to a maximum of 5 tasks blocked)
  
• Unblock a specific task
  
• Be able to increase the amount of items you need to collect or craft in an assignment.
  
• Ability to unlock specific non artisan crafting tasks such as unstrung long bows.
  
• Ability to unlock specific tasks so they can be crafted outside of a task

What you can make using artisan

Below you will find a list of the different items you can make using your artisan skill. The titles reflect what skills the items are helpful for. All the items you can make are designed to give you either an alternative way to level a skill, useful items for levelling a skill or other benefits. The rewards are also designed not to devalue any existing item or way of skilling and stays true to the ethos of rewarding those who put the effort in.


Fish Fillets (fishing, cooking and herblore)

Once you have collected your fish, your artisan master may ask you to produce fish fillets. As you fillet the fish you will receive artisan XP.

If you have the required artisan level fish fillets can be cooked at any time to create filleted food which restores the same health as its non-filleted version. For example, both a cooked shark and a cooked shark fillet will heal 20 hitpoints. However, before cooking the fish fillets you can add herbs to them which will give them an additional affect. For example, if you add a marrentill herb to a raw shark fillet and cook it, you would have a food item that heals 20 hitpoints and has a chance of healing you of poison. The important thing to note is that the each food item will only have a chance of applying its effect and the effects they do apply won’t be as good as the potion you can make with that herb. The act of adding herbs to a fillet of fish will give herblore XP.

Here is the effect each herb will generate.



Carvings (mining and crafting)

Using your crafting skill you can make carvings out of pieces of ore. When worn around your neck, these carvings give you a chance to receive an extra ore from the next 28 rocks that you mine of the type of carving you are wearing. Each time you craft a carving, you will get some crafting XP.



Artisan Tools (mining, smithing, woodcutting and fishing)

Artisan tools can only be made when you have the corresponding artisan assignment. The only exception to this is the artisan’s pickaxe and hatchet which can be made at any time after you reach level 85 artisan. These items are tradable and each time you make one you will receive both artisan and smithing XP.



Totems (woodcutting, crafting and firemaking)

You may receive an assignment from your artisan master to turn some logs you have collected into a totem. The type of log you use will affect how many logs you will need to create a totem. Once you have created the totem, you can burn it to temporarily receive the effect of the totem. Here is a list of the totems you will be able to make and the impact of them.



Two handed crossbows (fletching)

Another of the assignments you might receive from your artisan master is to turn the logs you have collected into 2 handed crossbow stocks. Once you have made these stocks, you can trade them to other players, or use them to create two handed crossbows. Two handed crossbows are slower to load than a normal crossbow and have a strength requirement to use, they do have a higher max hit than their one handed counterparts.



Slow burners (woodcutting, firemaking and herblore)

If your gathering assignment was to mine some coal, your next assignment may be to make some slow burning powder. You’ll be grinding up the coal into a fine powder which can then be used to turn logs into slow burners. The finer you grind the powder the higher level log you can use it on, however you will need more of it. When you set fire to a slow burner log it will burn for longer than its normal counterpart and it will decrease the chance of burning items. As it is more difficult to set fire to a slow burning log, you get slightly more XP than you would for a burning a normal one.



Combining Runes (mining and runecrafting)

After you have collected pure essence, you can be asked to combine the essence into unique runes. This can be done by taking the pure essence to the artisan’s workshop and crafting the runes. You will get runecrafting XP for making the runes.



Construction shortcuts (woodcutting, mining and construction)

You can build your own houses and it if you can do that, it seems only sensible that you can build structures to help you climb over fences, under walls or cross rivers. When you have collected granite or some wood as a gathering assignment, you may be asked to make some items which are components needed to create the shortcuts. The shortcuts will degrade over time, however the higher your construction level the longer they will last.



Skilling bracelets (mining and crafting)

Artisan also brings you skilling bracelets. You will be able to craft lesser, major and superior bracelets for specific gathering skill which will help you when you are on an artisan task. These bracelets degrade over time and when you make them you will receive crafting XP.



Player owned housing (construction)

When you complete a craftable assignment from your artisan master you will use a workshop belonging to him. However, if you have the required levels you will also be able to build your own artisan workshop in your house. You can then use this to make items when you have a task. If you collect quartz as your gathering task, you may be asked to make figurines which when placed in your house will give you a chance to build an item without using the resources.



Clothing (farming and crafting)

If you are given a hunting gathering assignment you may well be asked to turn the items you collect into materials needed to make clothing. These items may include things such as different coloured rolls of fur, down or skins. In addition to the clothing we will be introducing the ability to grow multiple types of fibres in your allotments giving you farming XP. You will be able to spin the fibres into thread to gain some crafting XP. You will then be able to use a loom to turn your thread into textiles You will also be able to use the loom to turn balls of wool into sheets of wool and flax fibres (which you will be able to spin at a spinning wheel) into linen.



To make clothing you don’t need to have an assignment and they can be made as long as you have the required artisan level.



What happens if artisan doesn’t pass?

There has been a lot of positive feedback for some of the rewards and many of you have said that you would like to see some of them incorporated into existing skills. So, alongside the artisan poll you will also be able to vote on which ideas you would like to see added to the game should the skill as a whole not pass. Here are the questions:

• If you don’t want the artisan skill as a whole, should we introduce a level 20 tree called the Ash tree?
  
• If you don’t want the artisan skill as a whole, should we introduce a level 50 tree called the Elm tree?
  
• If you don’t want the artisan skill as a whole, should we introduce a level 85 tree called the Redwood tree?
  
• If you don’t want the artisan skill as a whole, should we introduce a level 60 quartz ore?
  
• If you don’t want the artisan skill as a whole, should we introduce a level 80 hunter creature called the great kyatt?
  
• If you don’t want the artisan skill as a whole, should we introduce a level 85 hunter creature called the wolverine?
  
• If you don’t want the artisan skill as a whole, should we add fish fillets as described in the developer blog to the cooking skill?
  
• If you don’t want the artisan skill as a whole, should we add carvings as described in the developer blog to the crafting skill?
  
• If you don’t want the artisan skill as a whole, should we add artisan tools as described in the developer blog to the crafting skill?
  
• If you don’t want the artisan skill as a whole, should we add totems as described in the developer blog to the firemaking and crafting skill?
  
• If you don’t want the artisan skill as a whole, should we add two handed crossbows as described in the developer blog to the fletching skill?
  
• If you don’t want the artisan skill as a whole, should we add slow burners as described in the developer blog to the firemaking and herblore skill?
  
• If you don’t want the artisan skill as a whole, should we add combining runes as described in the developer blog to the runecrafting skill?
  
• If you don’t want the artisan skill as a whole, should we add construction shortcuts as described in the developer blog to the construction skill?
  
• If you don’t want the artisan skill as a whole, should we add quartz figurines as described in the developer blog to the crafting and construction skill?
  
• If you don’t want the artisan skill as a whole, should we add the clothing and farming additions as described in the developer blog to the farming and crafting skill?

Mods Alfred, Ash, John C, Mat K, Reach, Ronan & Weath
The Old School Team