Hey there, everyone!

It’s hard to argue Bob’s Island ever being contested as the most exciting, rewarding, and enjoyable random event one could possibly experience… but within this patch we’ve tried our best at trying to at least graze the bar! Following these notes, a new random event will be introduced into the Neox world where members will be ever so slightly invited (against their will) to play the ever effervescent assistant to a mad scientist! Will they play the part to his standard, or fall short and end up but another noted disappointment?

Additionally, we’ll be touching base on a new system we’re implementing that will drastically sharpen our bot detection and upcoming policy changes to reflect our stance on botting as a whole. With all that said, let’s get going with the notes!

For science,

Neox Staff

The Crazy Scientist

In this event, members will be mandato- voluntarily recruited to assist the cryptic mad scientist with his experiments! We’re not entirely sure what he’s up to, but as someone who hangs out in a dark, damp, and not-entirely-trustworthy cellar, we can’t imagine it’s very good. Much like Bob’s Island, random activities around the world of Neox will trigger this event where members will be teleported into an instanced area and will work their way through completing the activity there.

After being quite thoroughly briefed on what their duties as the assistant are, members will be free to roam around said dark, damp, and not-entirely-trustworthy cellar, however it’s advised that should they wish to be relieved, following through with said duties would be recommended!

In the case of our formerly fishing friend above, they’ve been instructed to find the power source from the boxes located towards the back of the area and then plug the unilateral phase detractor into the cardinal gram met- erm, to plug the power source into the back of the teleportation machine! After searching through random gizmos, gadgets, and the occasional rat, they’ll most likely eventually find a power source to make use of. Upon plugging the power source in…

Well, we wouldn’t want to spoil everything. Members can expect this event to pop-up with the likes of Bob’s Island following this patch! And of course, what would a new event be without a new hidden title to go along with it? Hopefully you’re all ready for some science!

As a little footnote, we’ve included a way for members to speed this event up drastically as long as they’ve completed it once before. Rejoice!

New Botting Detection System and Policy Changes

Let’s talk about botting. Earlier in the week, a discussion was started on our Official Discord to gauge how members felt the best way about handling players who’ve been caught botting was with one goal in mind: landing in a spot that felt fair. It’s… a tough topic. On one hand, with the deep concern and consideration for integrity and gamestate, we want to obviously discourage and appropriately punish botting, but on the other we’d like to do so in a way that didn’t outright cause members to quit. It’s undeniable that some skills can be fairly tedious to train and the temptations to allow a bot to take the wheel for a bit so you can tend to other things are… well, they’re there. Following the discussion held within the community and amidst the staff team, we’ll be making the following policy changes to our approach in dealing with botting:

Contrary to our original stance, this punishment outline is significantly more severe, which leads us onto the why: Over the last little while, we’ve been putting forth a substantial effort in introducing a more efficient and accurate bot detection and flagging system; in other words, members who’re botting will be punished significantly more swiftly and accurately, meaning the time invested and subsequently lost will no longer accumulate to the larger degree that it was before. Before, we were reliant on member reports, staff follow through, and subsequent indepth investigation into botting incidents, and this is no longer the case. With several new checks put into place, a new bot confirmation minigame prompt, and an accurate and concise staff-sided notification system, we’re quite excited to have effectively leveled up our detection game!

The most important thing that you as a player have is your time. It’s something we value deeply and want to make abundantly clear that we both respect and appreciate you sharing it with us. People who’re infringing on the rules against botting erode not only the game’s integrity as a whole, but the unspoken agreement that in playing our game, we’ll in turn protect and cherish the investment that you, as a player, are making by being a member within this community. We fully intend to quite strongly reinforce our recognition of your investment in our project not only with the introduction of this system, but the handling of future botting incidents.

Patch Summary

With the release of this patch, we’ll be introducing a new random event along with a new system for detecting botted activities throughout the world.

Below will outline all changes found within this patch. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to share feedback within our Community Discord.

• It is now possible to create Arceuus teleport tablets at the Lectern found inside one of the buildings in Arceuus.

• Increased the amount of hitpoints healed by eating Paddlefish from 16 to 20.
• Increased the duration of time that Zalcano is downed for from 75-90 ticks to 110-120 ticks. With this change, high Mining level players with a Dragon pickaxe should be able to consistently achieve 3-down solo kills.
• Made some adjustments to the drop rates of crystal shards from some Prifddinas activites.
  • Reduced the chance to obtain a Crystal shard from pickpocketing Prifddinas elves from 1/35 to 1/60.
  • Increased the chance to obtain a Crystal shard from mining ores in the Trahaern mine from 1/80 to 1/50.
  • Increased the chance to obtain a Crystal shard from chopping logs in Prifddinas from 1/80 to 1/50.
  • Increased the chance for monsters in the Iorwerth dungeon to drop a Crystal shard from 1/16 to 1/12. The drop viewer now also displays the correct rate.
  • Superior monsters in the Iorwerth dungeon now drop 2-4 Crystal shards, up from 1.
  • Due to the much higher success rate of Thieving on Neox, pickpocketing elves was by far the best skilling method to obtain crystal shards. With these changes, other skilling methods should now be closer to Thieving in terms of effectiveness.
• Left-clicking geysers in the Chambers of Xeric now attempts to fill empty gourd vials in your inventory.
• Increased the density of Black knight spawns northeast of the Boneyard in the Wilderness.
• Superior monsters now grant Slayer experience even if killed after your Slayer assignment is complete.
• Staff members no longer bypass players’ yell filter setting.

• Fixed an issue where the Prifddinas Noble was not actually granting immunity to Zalcano’s chip damage attack.
• Fixed a bug that would sometimes allow players to smuggle Gauntlet items outside the Gauntlet by dying.
• Casting combat spells while under the effect of the Fountain of Rune no longer grants Magic or Hitpoints experience.
• It is now possible to create weapon poison++ by combining Nightshade, poison ivy berries and coconut milk.
• Unlocking pets now adds them to the Collection log, if possible.
• Removed an ice fiend spawn from an incorrect location at the Ice Mountain.
• Killing a Hill Giant in the Catacombs of Kourend now counts for the ‘Kill a Hill Giant in the Great Kourend’ task.
• Fixed an issue where the staircases in Watson’s house would take players to an incorrect location.
• Purchasing tier 5 Shayzien armour from the Slayer reward shop now adds it to the Collection log.
• Oziach is now able to create Dragonfire wards using Skeletal visages.
• Fixed an issue where the Catapult minigame in the Warriors Guild would not correctly track the player’s stance.
• The imbued and saturated hearts cooldown time is now displayed by the Timers plugin.

• We didn’t remove anything this patch!