Highscores should be standarized to 1x

[The Offspring]

This is in my opinion the biggest integrity issue of 2009scape.

Back in RS2 the highscores were incredibly prestigious, 99s meant something, but they're just not the same in 2009scape because everyone's playing with a boosted xp rate that allows you to get to 99 faster than you would be able to get to 80 normally. It makes the highscores just look stupid and bloated and soulless. It feels completely inauthentic.

To remedy this issue WITHOUT AFFECTING IN-GAME GAMEPLAY EXPERIENCE, my suggestion is to standardize the highscores, make all accounts appear as if they were 1x.

So 5x players will have their xp on the hiscores show up as 1/5th of their in-game xp, 2.5x players 1/2.5th, and 10x players 1/10th, and levels calculated accordingly; 1x players will of course appear the same in-game as they do on the hiscores.

I understand that people don't want to waste their time grinding on 1x to reach the end-game content they desire, which is why I am suggesting this as a compromise - to make the hiscores prettier without affecting gameplay.

And if you do this I honestly feel you could bring back faster xp rates without harm, 10x and 20x I believe used to exist. (But you don't have to, it's just an idea.)

Faster xp rates do have the unfair advantage of skipping low-level content thus getting to high level training methods faster, but would have a long-term disadvantage under my proposed system, due to 200m caps (This isn't really relevant because no one is going to play this server for that long anyways, but theoretically, it's a case for fairness.)

But whatever, the goal is to let people play on the faster xp rates in-game, while making the highscores look prettier and reflecting something a bit closer to authentic Jagex RS. The rest of the website is very aesthetically pleasing, but the highscores make me want to vomit, as I've explained.

Then instead of writing "1x", "2.5x", "5x", etc. at the end of each username on the highscores, or you could replace 2.5x with an asterisk, 5x with two asterisks, 10x with 3 asterisks, etc. Hovering over the asterisk could display an info box explaining that this player's xp rate is divided by itself on the highscores for the purpose of standardizing them to 1x. (But you don't have to do this either, it was just an idea. Regardless, you can keep the ability to filter xp rates, but the goal here is to allow 1x accounts some ability to compete for the default front page, which is currently an absolute impossibility for them.)

On any RSPS, most people will pick the fastest possible rate, which is fine, but I feel it hurts 1x players who have put it enough hours that they SHOULD appear on the front page of the highscores by default without needing any janky filters.

This is why I think it's generally better for "remake" servers to have one and only one XP rate, but, if you're going to keep multiple xp rates, I think my proposition to standardize the highscores to 1x is the best way to handle multiple xp rates.

And I write this post as someone who is never ever going to compete for any highscores ranks myself, I just want the highscores to feel more authentic. It's not taking away xp from anyone or hurting anyone, it's just changing the way the data is presented. People can continue to play in-game the exact same way.

Again, as it stands, 1x players will never ever be on front page due to the swathes of 5x players that are impossible to compete with, even though some have put in enough time/effort that they should.


As a somewhat related side note, there are 2 issues I noticed regarding the ironman highscores:

1.) UIM and HCIM are supposed to show up on the regular grey helm ironman highscores, just as all ironman accounts show up on the regular non-ironman highscores. UIM and HCIM are mutually exclusive from each other, but they are both types of ironmen, so they should both show up on the regular grey helm ironman highscores. That's how it was done when IM and UIM were released back in 2014, and again when HCIM released in 2016.

2.) the UIM helmet logo on the highscores is incorrect, it's supposed to be different than the regular ironman and HCIM helmets. You can see it on the OSRS wiki, it's a bit bigger and fancier, and since there are so few UIMs, I think they deserve this.

These files are 10x13 pixels
https://oldschool.runescape.wiki/w/File ... _badge.png
https://oldschool.runescape.wiki/w/File ... _badge.png
This file is 13x13 pixels
https://oldschool.runescape.wiki/w/File ... _badge.png

I know that ironman isn't even a 2009 feature, but I sympathize with them as much as I do 1x players, so that's why I suggest these fixes.


Anyways, thanks for reading, and sorry for rambling! I realize I spilled my thoughts kind of haphazardly, but hopefully I was able to communicate what you'll perceive as valid points.

[Ceikry]

Sir, there is a filter.

If you want to see how you compare to the only other people that actually matter (the people on the same or lower xp rate than you) then just use the filter.

That's why it's there.

For example, Atarahlyon is currently rank 1 1x. Whatever the higher xp rates are doing is irrelevant because I'm only interested in people at 1x or lower.

Amazing right?





It's literally as far from an integrity issue as it could possibly be.

[Ceikry]

The general attitude you express in your post is one of substantial entitlement, as well.

Do you go around to every free gift that does not live up to your golden standards and openly declare some minor perceived flaw makes you want to vomit?

Additionally, you take a feature that does not even play by OSRS's rules (ironman), was not even invented by OSRS (Ironman) and apply OSRS's standards to it.

[ryannathans]

Thanks for your input, the high score system is a bit clunky and has been slated for a rewrite for a while. It's just a time consuming task and there have been better places to focus development efforts.

The rewrite would consider various features and ways for players to fairly compete, perhaps with something like seasonal hiscores.

For now you can compare like-for-like via filters.

Feel free to submit a pull request if you build some improvements to the UI.

[Ceikry]

In its essence, your suggestion is not a bad idea. The way you communicate your ideas is with aggression, insults, and demands, however. And that's not how things work here. Every single one of us is a volunteer who provides the website, the game, the forums, etc as a gift to others at our own perpetual expense (maintenance, server costs, dev time, etc.)

I would have been more than willing to hear out your suggestion had you suggested this like a sane and civil person, but I can't tolerate this kind of disrespect. So as it stands you can do it yourself or wait X years until we are in the "nothing-better-to-do" state of the project.

[Red Bracket]

Thanks for the better ironman helmet screenshots. I made the current ones in a very rough fashion

I too wouldn't be against standarizing hiscores, although I'm interested in the input from more players first. My opinion is that maxing on 5x is a huge accomplishment, and it's even more impressive to see 1x and 2.5x players compete.

[aweinstock]

I'd be in favour of a highscores view that normalizes to 1x (possibly as the default, possibly as a checkbox toggle), which is a meaningfully different view than filtering to only 1x players. Note that a 5x player normalized to 1x still has an advantage over an actual 1x player: a 5x player with 99 strength may display as if they're 80ish strength on 1x-normalized highscores, but will gain strength xp faster than an 80ish strength 1x player due to having higher max hits.

I'm against bringing back non-hcim 10x or any 20x: in addition to the adverse effects on even filtered highscores, these modes also have adverse effects on the economy.

(Tangentially related to xp rates, should we consider making 2.5x the default, even if 5x is still an option for normal accounts?)