QoL Month Week 3: SkillingIt's time for our third week of QoL month - Re-runs! This part of QoL month, we're taking a look at previous polled suggestions that didn't quite make it and giving them another chance! We also discuss the options for increasing the rate at which Buckets of Sand may be obtained in further detail. The schedule for Re-runs Week is as follows:In-game poll live by 15/02In-game poll closes 18/02 Poll QuestionsPoll Question #1Should the Wilderness ditch be replaced with a barrier that you do not have to click on? This barrier would require confirmation on a warning screen before you may cross to prevent luring. The warning screen may be toggled off via this screen and subsequently reenabled by the Doomsayer in Lumbridge if desired.Poll Question #2Should spell icons increase in size when you have filters enabled to better fit the Magic tab? This change would only affect non-PvP areas and affect every spellbook: In PvP locations and relevant PvP worlds, spell icons will not resize and automatically revert to the standard sized icons.Poll Question #3Should a Divine sigil drop be added to the Corporeal Beast's loot table? This would be used to create a Divine spirit shield, the same way the Arcane, Elysian and Spectral shields are. The Divine Spirit Shield will have a 100% chance of reducing incoming damage by 30%, at a cost of draining your Prayer points by 50% of that 30% reduction.Poll Question #4Should a small miniquest be added to retire Hatius Cosaintus? If this question passes, his functionality would be moved to Gee, one of the farmers found wandering around Lumbridge.Poll Question #5Should players be able to rearrange the order of the spell icons in their spellbooks? If this question passes, it would only affect non PvP areas: In PvP locations and relevant PvP worlds, the spellbook's spells would revert to their usual positions.Poll Question #6Should players be able to rearrange the order of the prayer icons in their prayerbook? If this question passes, it would only affect non PvP areas: In PvP locations and relevant PvP worlds, the Prayer book's Prayers would revert to their usual positions. Poll Question #7Should the model for the Armadyl helmet, when worn by female players, be reworked to more closely resemble the male version? Poll Question #8Should the Prayer Skill Guide be updated to show the relevant Prayer icons alongside the associated Prayer? It currently displays a generic Saradomin symbol. N.B: This question was missed from last week's poll and is not classed as a rerun poll. Poll Question #9Should the Dragon defender model be reworked to appear more red than pink?Poll Question #10Should players be able to click on the Special Attack orb by the minimap to activate their special attack? This would only work outside of PvP areas. In areas that you are unable to do this, the orb would be greyed out rather than its usual colour.Let's Talk About SandIn our recent QoL poll regarding Skilling we offered a solution in an attempt to tackle the current monotony for gathering Buckets of Sand. The current method provides no experience and generally feels unrewarding as a gathering method for the training that then follows. We’re happy that people have taken to Giant Seaweed as a viable method for training Crafting (we’re not the biggest fans of ShopScape) but in turn we created another sandy problem. We’ve previously provided Bucket Packs at General stores to make the method of gathering sand viable but previously also mentioned that we would consider a method outside of using buckets on a Sandpits- namely, “Sandstorm"?. This previously announced but generally underdesigned spell had several issues when we looked into potentially offering it to players: What requirements does it have? (Quest, Magic level) What resources does it use? (Runes, Sandstone) How can we balance this fairly? (Requirements, resources to cast) Does it mess with other playstyles? (Vengeance being moved isn’t something players have previously enjoyed) Quickly, the job grew out of scope for what we could offer for QoL and to top it off had issues we weren’t sure we could address. We instead brainstormed a different solution which we had originally thought would solve our problems. This brings us to we are right now… Question 7 of our QoL - Skilling Poll: Passing with 83.5%, a clear thirst for some sort of improvement or competing method to gathering Sand was clearly desired. Despite this, we believe that what we offered didn’t solve the issues we wished to address and our in-team understanding of the Ironman meta and the impact this would have on it was not aligned. The strength and general convenience of the method was far superior than what’s currently available in game. Because of this, the first thing we’d like to say is that we’re sorry. We didn’t give enough time to process feedback regarding this change and pushed it to a poll prematurely. This has left us in a position we’ve not been in before - one we don’t believe we should create something we have polled and has passed the polling process. With that in mind, we will not be creating the solution offered in the recent QoL - Skilling Poll. That leaves us to we go next. Firstly, we’d like to lay out our new goals for what we wish to address with a future poll question regarding sand gathering: Provide an increase to the amount of Buckets of Sand able to be obtained which can scale based on effort At the highest levels of effort, we will attempt to have this method be better than Charter Ship shop hopping (say that 5 times fast) Provide a method more rewarding for time than filling buckets With the above, in turn, require more focus and requirement overall With these points in mind we have the following design which we hope ticks all the boxes above whilst providing a desirable experience for those who wish to do it: To the West of the Quarry a new NPC, Drew, will be added alongside their grinding machine Players hand Drew noted buckets that he will hold for safekeeping Players may then mine the nearby Sandstone and deposit it into the grinding machine (unnoted only) Depositing the Sandstone will add charges to the machine based on the size of Sandstone (7 charges for 10kg, 3.5 for 5kg, 2 for 2kg and 1 for 1kg) At any point players may talk to Drew in and gain a Bucket of Sand at a cost of 1 Sandstone charge, 1 empty bucket and 100gp Overall, we hope this new design is more in line with our original intentions. At 65 Mining, a casual player should be gaining ~30% more sand overall per hour than currently possible at Yanille Sandpits At 99 Mining, a casual player will be gaining a little under double the amount of sand than what’s currently available at Yanille Through tick manipulation methods, a player at 65 Mining will be receiving similar rates to casual players with 99 Mining Through tick manipulation methods, a player at 99 Mining methods will be receiving competitive rates a little higher than Charter Ship hopping These numbers are based on mining and subsequently depositing the ore to the machine while not dropping lower valued Sandstone. It will not be possible to deposit noted Sandstone though would be possible to run pre-banked Sandstone back and forth from the Quarry - however, Drew's location does not make this a particularly efficient process. We’ve worked directly with some high-level members of the community that this impacts to make a particular effort to ensure what we have offered is the best it can be and to assist in filling in our personal gaps in knowledge. Thank you to them for their time and help! We will be gathering feedback on both the proposed design and any other concerns you all may have with everything discussed. Thanks for all your suggestions and input - let us know what you think about the above in the places below!