Issues and Hotfixes (December 9th)
| Issues Raised | Current Progress |
| (11:45 BST) – Reports of making certain items faster than regularly intended. | (12:45 BST) – The game has been shutdown and we’re working as fast as we can to get the game back online! The team are currently testing a fix for the item production and NPC stacking issues.We can confirm a rollback will not be required.We’ll share an ETA as soon as we’re able to!Apologies for the inconvenience. |
This week we’re implementing the Grand Exchange Tax and adding some long-awaited PvP changes! In other news, we’ve got a range of exciting, Christmassy things in the Official Merch Store – so you’ll learn all about those, too.
Grand Exchange Tax & Item Sink
With this update we’re introducing the Grand Exchange Tax and Item Sink discussed last week.
Grand Exchange Tax
We’ve added a 1% tax for all sales on the Grand Exchange. Any item sold through the Grand Exchange will be subject to the tax which will be deducted from the initial sale price. This tax is applied on a per item basis, so if selling multiple items, the tax is applied per item sold, rather than the total received.
The Grand Exchange interface has also been updated to clearly show how much tax you will pay when selling an item. This can also be tracked when viewing the offer status for any sale, so as a seller, you will always be able to see your bottom line – so don’t worry about hidden costs!
Any item sold for under 100 GP will not have tax applied, therefore any sales under this threshold will show that no tax has been applied in the interface. Along with this, any item sold for over 499,999,999 GP has a capped tax of 5,000,000 GP, which will show in the interface.
From Top to Bottom:Status of an existing offer where tax is charged, below the 5m cap.Setting up a new offer where tax is charged, below the 5m cap.Setting up a new offer, where tax is charged, above the 5m cap.
We’ve also updated the player-to-player Trade menus, preventing the ‘Accept’ button from being pushed for a few seconds after either player changes the items in the trade. This should give buyers and sellers the chance to spot any scams, but if you need to trade quickly – such as in certain PvM situations – or if you’re confident taking the risk, you can opt out of the delay completely.
In case you missed it in last week’s post, here are some examples of how the tax shakes out in different trades:
Sample Cases – click here to expand…
Simple case:
Ram0ceanFan is selling 100 Cooked Shark for 975 GP each and is matched against a buyer offering the same amount.
The 1% fee charged for each item is 9.75 coins, which the game rounds down to 9 coins per Shark.
Thus, Ram0ceanFan receives 96,600 GP, which is 97,500 minus the 900 GP fee.
Expensive item:
OlmRaider73 is selling a Twisted Bow for 870,000,000 GP and is matched against a buyer offering the same amount.
The 1% fee charged for each item is 8,700,000 GP, capped at 5,000,000 GP.
Thus OlmRaider73 receives 865,000,000 GP, which is 870,000,000 minus the 5,000,000 GP fee.
If OlmRaider73 preferred to spend time finding a buyer for a direct player-to-player trade, rather than spending that 5,000,000 fee, that’s totally fair.
Cheap item:
Newb5caper is selling 100 Guam Leaves for 29 GP each and is matched against a buyer offering the same amount.
The 1% fee charged for each item rounds down to zero.
Thus, Newb5caper receives the full 2,900 GP.
More complex case:
BigDealerDel is selling 1,000 Tin Ore for 99 GP each.
- 500 of them are bought by a player who was offering the same amount. The 1% fee charged on each 99 GP item rounds down to zero, so BigDealerDel receives 49,500 GP for those 500 items.
- The other 500 are bought by a player who was offering 101 GP per item. The 1% fee charged on each 101 GP item is 1.01 GP, which the game rounds down to 1 GP per item. BigDealerDel therefore receives 50,000 GP for those 500 items, which is 50,500 minus the 500 GP fee.
Overall, BigDealerDel has sold their 1,000 Tin Ore for 99,500 GP.
Here’s a list of items exempt from the tax. Most of these are tools used by new players, as such we’d prefer not to inhibit trade on such items:
- Chisel
- Dibber
- Gardening Trowel
- Glassblowing Pipe
- Hammer
- Needle
- Pestle and Mortar
- Rake
- Saw
- Secateurs
- Shears
- Spade
- Watering Can (0)
Bonds are also exempt from the tax since they already charge a fee when they’re converted from non-tradeable to tradeable. The Grand Exchange menus will clarify which items have fees.
Item Sink
We’ve also implemented the previously-mentioned Item Sink system, which will help with inflation by using the tax collected from sales to purchase various expensive items from sellers, then delete those items once the trade is complete. Here’s how that works in detail!
When a taxed trade takes place through the Grand Exchange, part of the taxes paid will be consigned to a virtual coffer. An automatic system will then use those funds to purchase specific items, chosen by us. The system decides which items to buy based on the estimated quantity of the item entering the game per day and the amount we’d like it reduced by.
Various things can happen when a player creates a Sell offer for one of these items:
- If the virtual coffer’s funds are below a specified item’s value, the system doesn’t interfere because it can’t afford the item. The player’s Sell offer is created as normal on the Grand Exchange.
- If we’ve already hit the daily quota for an item, the system doesn’t interfere because we don’t want to create supply issues. Again, the player’s Sell offer is created as normal on the Grand Exchange.
- If the virtual coffer has enough funds and we haven’t hit the day’s quota, then the system immediately pays the seller the cost of the item (minus tax) and then removes the item from the game.
While we agree that lots of items would benefit from a reduced supply, we want to start small. A shorter list lets us monitor exactly how much money is coming in and out of the game, and how player behaviour changes in response.
For now, here are the eligible items:
- Abyssal Bludgeon
- Arcane & Spectral Shields
- Armadyl Armour
- Bandos Armour
- Dark Bow
- Dinh’s Bulwark
- Elder Maul
- God Swords (Armadyl, Bandos, Saradomin, Zamorak)
- Kodai Insignia
- Kraken Tentacle
- Nightmare Staff and Orbs (Eldritch, Harmonised, Volatile)
- Occult Necklace
- Prayer Reward Scrolls (Arcane, Dexterous, Torn)
- Saradomin Sword
- Scythe of Vitur
- Smoke Battlestaff
- Toxic Blowpipe
- Trident of the Seas
- Twisted Bow
- Zamorakian Spear
The team will actively monitor the markets and your feedback with a view to adding more items to this list in future.
That’s everything for this week’s game update. We’d love to hear your feedback so please let us know what you think via our official forums, on the 2007Scape Reddit, the Steam forums or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel.
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