As some of you may know, Unicorn (that's the player, not the NPC) has the biggest house in PkHonor, with over 2700 objects total. Up to now, loading his house took 30 seconds. On the test server, I've just now managed to reduce that loading time to no more than 3 seconds thanks to some smart loading (bundling all objects in a single packet rather than one packet per object).
So now that we have that, I've started working on a new skilling zone, which will replace both the old helpcenter and the Premium skilling zone (the prem skilling zone will still be there, but won't be used as much anymore). This skilling zone will be placed inside the Player-owned house of the player 'PkHonor' and all players will be able to teleport there through the PoH portal or the commands ::skilling or ::helpcenter. Provided there are no technical issues or possible failures during the loading of the house, I will also make PkHonor's house the entry point of any new player.
The house would contain a load of objects not normally found within a PoH, such as ore deposits, an anvil, bank booth, thieving stalls, fishing spots and several trees. Possibly some slayer monsters and definitely some starter monsters (like rock crabs) in the dungeon as well. For me, adding these is just a matter of inserting a few extra values in the database and that's it - you have your custom house with custom objects. This should take me no longer than a day, two tops.
As compensation for the loss of the 'premium-only' skilling zone, premium members will benefit from a small boost when skilling inside PkHonor's PoH (I'm thinking something along the lines of a permanent +5% xp boost for all skills inside PkHonor's PoH for prems). However, not all skilling from the premium zone will be moved, for example we may want to leave the rune ore out.
I have not yet finally decided what the new skilling zone/helpcenter would contain, but I'm thinking along the lines of this:
> All trees (including mahogany and teak)
> All ore deposits except gem rocks and rune ore
> An anvil
> An altar (does not offer bonus xp like normal PoH altars, but it does give the normal altar XP from normal altars like the one in the prem skilling zone)
> All thieving stalls
> One or more bank booths
> All fishing spots (or maybe we can exclude a few, not sure)
> Most important stores (general store, rune store, ranged/melee store, pickaxes, axes, crafting supplies, herblore)
> Goblins and rock crabs in the dungeon (and maybe a few trolls/monkeys/dragons and a few low level slayer monsters too?)
> Some other useful and/or cool looking things normally found in a PoH (feel free to give input on the layout/objects)
> Last but not least: free beer!
By making this house the new skilling zone (for regular players and premium members alike) as well as the new entry point for new players, this should really help us to create a good first impression on new players, convincing them to stay with us and making our playerbase grow.
New players would enter, seeing a busy place (rather than a completely deserted helpcenter, as it is now) and they would be able to train most important skills while earning some money, without having too much of a hard time finding their way around the place. It would also be packed by regular players, who can welcome the new players and help them out if they want. We'll definitely be on the lookout for new helper prospects in the house
Any feedback is welcome, but I'm sure most of you agree that this will have a huge positive impact on how new players perceive PkHonor. If some of you think that the skilling zone would make some things too 'accessible' for normal players, or this is taking too much of the premium-only features away, feel free to suggest alternatives or (minor) tweaks
