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===== Section 171: Arc Developer Blog 11: Narrative – The Arc 5 (Mod Rowley) =====
It's a previously unnamed faction in the Eastern Lands, but one that fits in very neatly, and leaves us future room to expand upon. Perhaps later regions will also see you running into other new factions focused on the other known legendary creatures of the east – Byakko the White Tiger, Suzaku the Vermilion Bird, and Genbu the Black Tortoise.

=== Random Lore Drops ===
One other way in which we'll be delivering some narrative is through random lore drops. The story surrounding the Acolytes of Seiryu is likely to be delivered in this way (time permitting). And what would desert islands be without at least 1 message in a bottle? Where it might lead, though, is anyone's guess at this point, so we'll leave this for you to discover for yourselves.



Mod Rowley
Senior Content Developer | The Guardians

~Portmaster Kags

===== Section 172: Arc Developer Blog 12: Animating Spirit Dragons 1 (Mod Hing) =====
This is Mod Hing, Animator for The Guardians. I’m going to share some of the challenges I faced in trying to bring the spirit dragons of The Arc (as first mentioned in Mod Joe’s dev blog) to life.



Spirit dragons are the highest-tier slayer creatures that you will face on the Aminishi island. Before I started animating, some of the things I had to consider were:
- How the dragons will move around within a set area
- How are they going to translate from moving around to a 'ready' stance for combat
- How to deal with certain technical limitations of our in-house tools while in rigging and animating the dragons



First, I had to research how we wanted the dragons to travel around. We leaned towards Chinese dragon designs, which we decided should travel in a wave like motion where the head leads the body. So where the head turns, each segment of the body will follow in a delayed manner leading to the characteristic motion.

Finding out how I was going to animate the dragon with the tools we have took some R and D. We currently use an in-house animation tool which doesn’t come with a wave deformer, so there was no quick and easy way to make the dragon model animate in the fashion we wanted. Another way would have been to use a spine-like system with rotation, but because our tool has a non-standard rigging structure it would have taken a long time, requiring me to go through each frame adjusting the pose by hand. It wouldn’t have been impossible, but it wasn’t efficient enough for our needs.

~Portmaster Kags

===== Section 173: Arc Developer Blog 13: Animating Spirit Dragons 2 (Mod Hing) =====
So after doing some research with my team leader, we decided to use translate instead of rotations to animate the dragon.

First, the dragon was modeled in a straight line so it would be easier for me to change its body shape, and so it would deform better. I then rigged up the body into separate segments. To get the basic wavelike animation, I animated the neck of the dragon going up and down, and copied this motion to all the segments of the body behind the neck. After this, I selected all the body segments, offset the animation by one frame and copied and pasted the animation to the body segments. I then deselected the body segment behind the neck and did the same thing. Then it was a case of repeating the offset, copy and paste process, each time deselecting a segment behind the last segment until I’d gone all the way down the hierarchy. With the main animation complete, it was just the case of adding extra motion to the arms, legs and the features.

When it came to combat, we didn’t want the dragons to be in their traveling state as, they would have taken up too much room. We decided that the dragons should be coiled up while in combat to show that they are focused on attacking the player, ready to strike. The problem with having a completely different pose is that it will create a popping effect. One moment the dragon is stretched out in a wave shape and the next - pop! - they are curled up.

To make it more of a smooth transition, we needed to add some kind of blending. Again, our tool doesn’t have a blending system, so we had to find a way to mimic it.

~Portmaster Kags

===== Section 174: Arc Developer Blog 14: Animating Spirit Dragons 3 (Mod Hing) =====
We achieved this by adding an extra cycle to the start of the traveling and combat-ready animations. So for the traveling animation, it would start with the ready pose and in one server cycle it would blend into the traveling pose giving it a smoother transition and then the traveling animation will play. It blends because the software is calculating the in-between pose of the ready pose and the traveling pose.

This is called Tweening. So for example, if you have two poses - a standing pose and a sitting pose - the in-between pose will probably be a crouching pose. To get it even smoother, you would select the standing pose and the crouching pose and add another in-between, so the new pose would be somewhere between the standing pose and the crouching pose and so on. Then, we finish it by adding some final touches. The same thing is then done to the ready animation, but the other way round.



Hopefully this will give you some idea of how I got the spirit dragons animated. Thanks for reading!

Mod Hing
Animator – The Guardians

~Portmaster Kags

===== Section 175: Arc Developer Blog 15: The Arc – Economy 1 (Mod Stu) =====
Mod Stu discusses the economic loop of the Arc, including skilling, merchanting, rewards, and contracts.

=== Closed Economy ===
The foundation of the Eastern Lands experience is a closed economy: the majority of items you can gather, refine and purchase cannot be obtained elsewhere, and are not tradeable with other players or on the Grand Exchange.

You'll travel to the eastern frontier where the gold coin of the West has no value. When you head there, you’ll need to be self-sufficient, as your progress through the Arc cannot be accelerated or bypassed with foreign gold.



=== Skilling and Merchanting ===
The core loop of activity in the Arc is skilling and merchanting. You sell the product of your skills to merchants for currency, and invest that currency in voyages to Uncharted Isles to discover better skilling plots and lost treasures of the East.

You'll begin your journey on the island of Waiko, a merchant hub.



=== Resources ===
These are the raw items you gather in the Wushanko Isles, such as bamboo from Woodcutting, tortoise shell from Hunting, or the humble wushroom that grows wild on Uncharted Isles.

Resources can be sold to specific merchants (such as raw fish to the Waiko fish merchant), but resources are not worth anywhere near as many chimes as commodities (see below).

Note that some of these resources, such as bamboo, can be found in your Player Owned Port. The port authority will not allow you to take Ports resources out of Ports.

~Portmaster Kags

===== Section 176: Arc Developer Blog 16: The Arc – Economy 2 (Mod Stu) =====
=== Commodities ===
Resources can be processed with your artisan skills to turn them into commodities, which are more valuable and easier to transport. For example, you could cook raw fish into fish oil or fletch bamboo into stackable bundles.

Commodities are worth more to merchants, which means more chimes to reward the extra effort you put into making them. Arc gumbo, for example, is a stew that uses almost all Arc resources as ingredients, and is well worth the investment when sold to the Waiko cook.



To gather and process Arc resources, you'll need level 90+ in the appropriate gathering or artisan skill.

=== Chimes ===
These are the primary currency of the Arc. You'll spend chimes to purchase supplies, and to unlock a variety of rewards.

As with resources, Ports chimes cannot be taken out of your Port.

=== Supplies ===
These are purchased with chimes from the chandler on Waiko, and displayed on the map interface of your ship. You can travel between the local islands of Waiko, Whale's Maw and Aminishi for free, but you'll need supplies to explore an Uncharted Isle. The most valuable islands are furthest from civilization; the further you travel in search of the richest resources, the more supplies you'll need to reach your destination.

=== Taijitu ===
These (in addition to being very difficult to spell) are a secondary currency. They're required to unlock some of the most valuable rewards: notably upgrades. They're awarded from completing finite content such as miniquests, and from plundering rare treasure chests on Uncharted Isles.

=== Rewards ===
Succeed in the Eastern Lands and you’ll earn upgrades (such as a permanent % increase to the chimes you get from selling commodities to merchants), decorations and hotspots for your claimed island, Ports resources and trade goods(!), XP lamps and cosmetics.

~Portmaster Kags

===== Section 177: Arc Developer Blog 17: The Arc – Economy 3 (Mod Stu) =====
=== Contracts ===
These are another layer of activity on top of the core skilling loop. You're probably already familiar with the contracts in the Morytania Slayer Tower: you're given a scroll listing a number of monsters to kill (though you don't need to carry the scroll to progress), and rewarded for completing the contract on your return.

Wushanko contracts are similar, but Slayer contracts are only one of many available objectives. there's a contract for each skilling activity in the Arc, from cooking shark oil or mining resource crabs to simply collecting driftwood from the shores of Uncharted Isles. Or you can roll a combat contract and murder a variety of level-scaled inhabitants of Uncharted Isles. You monster.

As with Daily Challenges, you can complete a limited number of contracts per day. This limit can be raised by purchasing a permanent upgrade in the Waiko Reward Shop.

Unlike Daily Challenges, you don't have to hand in resources to complete the contract. You can also re-roll contracts until you get one you prefer, but this will cost you chimes.

There are also specialist contracts given out by certain adventurers (if you've unlocked them through Ports), such as the Assassin on Aminishi who provides Slayer contracts exclusively for the Acolytes of Seiryu, and the Whaler on Whale's Maw who provides contracts for the rare fish to be discovered there.

The Arc is less than a week away, and we’re excited for you to finally get your hands on it. Get ready to set sail!

Mod Stu
Senior Content Developer | The Guardians

~Portmaster Kags

===== Section 178: Arc Developer Blog 18: XP & Chime Rates 1 (Mod Manti) =====
Hey all, I’m Mod Manti, and I’ve been mostly in charge of balancing of the Arc, with others helping out. Within this post you will find XP and hourly chime rates for both named-island (“low-tier”) resources and uncharted isle (“high-tier”) resources.

=== Balancing Changes ===
October 2016 Arc Batch 2 release:
• XP per hour from named-island resources has been increased by 25-40%.
• Wobbegong XP per hour has been increased by 10%.
• XP for crafting tortle bowls has been increased to 75 (up for 10).
• XP for crafting ornate tortle bowls has been increased to 100 (up from 10).
• XP for fletching bamboo bundles has been increased to 100 (up from 10).
• The amount of resources gained per hour from named-island resources has been lowered by 10-15%.
• XP lamps have been reduced in price by 10-20%.
• Long voyages now cost 20 supplies (down from 25).
• Supplies will be 25 chimes per supply (down from 40) and supply cost reduction upgrades reduce this to as low as 10 chimes per supply (down from 20).
• Supply cap now starts at 200 (up from 100) and increases to 1,000 (up from 500) with upgrades. This change will be applied automatically at launch.
• Arc gumbo sells for 65 chimes (up from 45).
• Shark soup sells for 85 chimes (up from 50).
• Cosmetic island customisations have been reduced in price.

~Portmaster Kags

===== Section 179: Arc Developer Blog 19: XP & Chime Rates 2 (Mod Manti) =====
• Rosie’s supply crate will have 5 supplies added to it every day (regardless or not of whether you log in or collect them) up to a cap of 50 supplies. It will be full for everyone when next they arrive on Waiko.

==== Numbers! ====
Skilling within the Arc works slightly differently from elsewhere in the game – the success chance is lower, but the XP-per-action is greater, which creates more outliers. We’ve agreed to disperse the mystery and provide you with numbers that you’d expect to get if you’d take the average of many days or even months.

Firstly, let’s see which boosts work within the Arc that are most commonly used.

=== Woodcutting ===
- Lumberjack outfit (+5%)
- Perfect juju woodcutting potion (+5%)
- Honed 5 perk (+10%)
- Furnace 3 perk (+15%)
- Total: +35% XP, +15% for chime boost
- Does NOT include Log-splitting scrimshaw

=== Fishing ===
- Fishing outfit (+5%)
- Fury shark outfit set to catch (+7% & a further +10%, total of +17%)
- Crystal fishing rod (+5% XP)
- Honed 5 perk (+10%)
- Furnace 3 perk (+15%)
- Perfect juju fishing potion (+5%)
- Total: +57% XP, +37% for chime boost
- Does NOT include Whopper-baiting scrimshaw

~Portmaster Kags

===== Section 180: Arc Developer Blog 20: XP & Chime Rates 3 (Mod Manti) =====
=== Mining ===
- Golden mining suit (+6%)
- Magic golem outfit (+7%)
- Honed 5 perk (+10%)
- Furnace 3 perk (+15%)
- Total: +38% XP, +23% for chime boost
- Does NOT include Rock-crushing scrimshaw

=== Hunter ===
- Hunter outfit (+6%)
- Enhanced yaktwee stick (+2%)
- Total: +8% XP

=== Divination ===
- Diviner’s outfit (+6%)
- Elder divination outfit (+7%)
- Total: +13% XP, +7% chimes
- Does NOT include Memory-crushing scrimshaw

=== Farming ===
- Farmer’s outfit (+6%)

Below are all Arc skilling resources showing the average XP rates without boosts, average XP rates with boosts, and then the same again for chime rates. Please note that these numbers are what you will be experiencing once the Arc Batch 2 is released. These rates are based on having level 99 in the respective skill and the chimes/hour rate does not take into account any sell price upgrades you have purchased.

The boosted rates below are by no means the absolute maximum they can be due to the exclusions listed in the previous paragraph.

=== Waiko Bamboo Woodcutting ===
Base hourly XP rate: 73,800
Base hourly chime rate: 715
Hourly XP rate with boosts: 99,630
Hourly chime rate with boosts: 822

=== Golden Bamboo Woodcutting ===
Base hourly XP rate: 131,100
Base hourly chime rate: 1,000
Hourly XP rate with boosts: 176,985
Hourly chime rate with boosts: 1,150

=== Salty Crabletine Mining ===
Base hourly XP rate: 78,400
Base hourly chime rate: 705
Hourly XP rate with boosts: 108,100
Hourly chime rate with boosts: 867

=== Salty Crablet Mining ===
Base hourly XP rate: 97,950
Base hourly chime rate: 770
Hourly XP rate with boosts: 135,100
Hourly chime rate with boosts: 947

~Portmaster Kags