1-Oct-2011: Behind the Scenes - October

[Guest Melvinkooi]

I often think back to boss monsters I fought when I was merely a low level adventurer with nothing but full mith and a few hundred herring to my name. Back then, killing Delrith or going toe to claw with the evil chicken was a major achievement, but it would be awesome to be able to fight them again with all my shiny stats and equipment...just to show them who’s boss now!

 

Imagine a sentient tower that can trawl through your memories, allowing you to relive those fights in a new, purpose-built combat arena. Imagine a tower that can give you challenges based around those unlocked bosses, giving you arcade-style bonuses and weaknesses as you progress to the top. Imagine a tower that can reward you for completing those challenges with unique gear, allowing you to show off your progress and flaunt your success in the battered faces of your enemies.

 

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one...for at the very end of this month we will be bringing members... the DOMINION TOWER!

 

DOMINION TOWER [art 1] [art 2]

 

Fight over fifty different boss monsters; engage with multiple fight modes to test your skills from endurance mode to climber mode; cope with over 20 new combat handicaps; battle in 8 brand new speciality battles, using dominion weapons and bombs. Once you’re done, chuck down a marker with your achievements, see how you’ve competed on the high score table and mock your rivals as they fail.

 

As well as generous Combat XP and new consumable items to use on the surface world, you’ll also have the chance to unlock the dominion glove sets, designed to offer new “unarmed” combat options and offer some of the best stats available for the glove slot. Plus you’ll get to play with the deadly dreadnip; a new ally to help you in your hardest and toughest fights yet to come. We are even intending to run a special sneak preview session at RuneFest this month to allow those attending to have full access to the tower on special test servers, and even invite the players there to design their own, brand-new dominion boss!

 

Chat Changes and Camera Controls

 

We’re adding new ways for you to control your camera movement by adding a new mouse cam. Sadly, this isn’t a small rodent with CCTV strapped to its back (which would be cool too), but it does allow you to use your middle mouse button to change your camera angle - which means you can navigate the game world using solely the mouse. To use the feature, you’ll simply need to hold the middle mouse wheel to pitch and rotate the view. Our chat features are going through a massive overhaul too, and will soon be able to offer features like auto wrapping text and chat “modes”, allowing you to change your default typing mode from “public” to “Clan”, “Friends”, “guest clan” etc. This is designed to make chatting in different modes even easier but will still allow users to stick to their old “//” methods if they prefer.

 

It’s worthwhile noting that all of these camera and chat changes affect both the free and members versions of the game, and were based on suggestions from our players via our forums and fan sites, as well as those in game.

 

The Pit (Agility Distraction and Diversion)

If you find yourself training your Agility skill towards the end of this month you might find yourself bumping into a mysterious talent scout who’s interested in finding some candidates for “The Pit”, RuneScape’s newest and least forgiving D&D. It’s somewhere you’ll only be able to reach via an invite, though, as you take on one of 6 different madcap events designed to give you a well-deserved break from your favourite Agility spot and test your luck and skills. Those that do well will earn generous XP rewards, unique cosmetic gear and the respect of the crazy characters at the course. Are you good enough to catch the talent scout’s eye? Start running laps and find out if you’ve got what it takes!

 

Halloween 2011 – Deathcon 2 [art]

 

Where better to hold a Halloween event than the citadel of Death himself? Grim is inviting all comers to his own Halloween-themed castle to help out with Deathcon 2, a 2 week convention to celebrate all things spooky. Meet new characters and old favourites as you engage with perplexing puzzles and catastrophic conundrums, earning you new cosmetic items, a new emote and a chance for non-clan members to see what citadels are all about. There’s even an exceptionally cool hourglass item available only to RuneScape members for this Halloween, so be sure you’re subscribed during Deathcon 2 if you want to get your hands on it. There’s plenty to see and do as you help Death and his horsemen get everything ready for the evil event of the year.

 

With both RuneFest and Deathcon 2 happening at the same time, I wonder if Grim has anything special in store for us. Don’t forget....nothing is certain apart from Death itself.

 

Have fiendish fun!

 

Mod Mark

Lead Designer

Edited October 2, 2011 by obfuscator
fixed image links

[Sy_Accursed]

all in all it sounds like a good month.

 

Dominion tower should be interesting and new best gloves ftw

Chat changes while only really cosmetic make a nice addition (guessing we might be getting the /p /c /f /g talked about near clan release to swap chat modes and stay there (p for public, c for clan, f for friend g for guest)

Agility thing sounds nice enough, most d&ds are good xp so thts welcome even if you only get it by doing agility

And Halloween is always a nice welcome break of funtimes and cosmetic stuff.

[Ezkaton]

I was excited for Halloween until I read the words:

 

Where better to hold a Halloween event than the citadel of Death himself?

 

Why Jagex... WHY?! Ugh... Citadels -.-

[tripsis]

Sounds like a great month IMO. The chat changes might be simple but they'd be great additions to the game.

[Guest Melvinkooi]

I was excited for Halloween until I read the words:

 

Where better to hold a Halloween event than the citadel of Death himself?

 

Why Jagex... WHY?! Ugh... Citadels -.-

This was also with Christmas 2010. They're hyping up big updates like Dungeoneering and Clan Citadels.

[Octarine]

I was excited for Halloween until I read the words:

 

Where better to hold a Halloween event than the citadel of Death himself?

 

Why Jagex... WHY?! Ugh... Citadels -.-

 

Yeah :( However I guess they did the same thing at Christmas with DG, I'm sure it'l work out quite well. Bring on the Dominion tower!

[Krampell]

Dominion tower = win

Camera update = win

The pit = meh

Halloween = kinda meh

 

Well, a nice start of the month atleast.

[Sy_Accursed]

Dominion tower = win

Camera update = win

The pit = meh

Halloween = kinda meh

 

Well, a nice start of the month atleast.

 

Dominion Tower says "at the very end of this month"

The Pit says "towards the end"

Halloween comes a week b4 halloween based on precedent

 

So week of the 3rd and week of 10th - chat & camera + a no update week

week of 17th the pit

week of 24th halloween

Dominion tower will be the 31st based on runefest having an exclusive preview of it and runefest is 29th & 30th

 

So it would seem a month framed in goodness

[Quyneax]

Chat/Camera - imagine this will be a simple nice update to a great useful update, happy to see it come.

 

Halloween is tradition :D. No big deal but it'll be fun no doubt.

 

The Pit is to vague to say anything about. It may turn out to be a fish flings/random event crossover for agility - that'd suck.

 

Dominion tower - idk, the glove slot item may disallow weapons/shields, so I'll reserve judgement on that, and it's a bit vague, but it should be alright/good/great. Sure hope it's good slayer xp/hr in some way, or if tasks are involved, that it doesn't further decrease slayer xp/hr.

[Saradomin_Mage]

Dominion tower - Sure hope it's good slayer xp/hr in some way,

They didn't mention Slayer XP at all in the BTS, rather, combat XP, so I'm not holding my breath for this, because I know I'll only be disappointed :P

Nonetheless, sounds like something fun to get into.

 

Also, when I read about the hourglass item for Hallowe'en, I just thought of how much of a plug it was for members.

[pulli23]

Sigh another "boss" combat level thing..

 

Can't they ever release non-high end combat things?

 

It seems this game is moving more and more to a game where you first need to invest 100+ hours before you can do anything "fun" or "worthwhile". Really with updates like these they won't ever attract new customers, and runescape is in dire need of new customers.

[Crossed_Body]

all in all it sounds like a good final week.

 

Fixed.

 

 

Sigh another "boss" combat level thing..

 

Can't they ever release non-high end combat things?

 

It seems this game is moving more and more to a game where you first need to invest 100+ hours before you can do anything "fun" or "worthwhile". Really with updates like these they won't ever attract new customers, and runescape is in dire need of new customers.

 

If I'm not mistaken, they are including quest bosses, which means a lot of them will be low level. They even mention delrith.

[sohkmj1]

I hate the hype of Clan Citadels, honestly. It only affects members, and even then, not every member(seeing as not everybody is a clan). It boggles me how they can treat this as some grand spectacular update everybody will be talking about for months or years or something.

Dominion tower sounds very nice however. Possibly awesome equipment and nostalgia feeding.

Camera updates... I'm quite used to adjusting with the keys for about 6 years so I'll probably not use this. Will probably not use the new chat updates too, seeing as I'm not in a clan.

Pit looks interesting. I could use every xp boost I can to reach that level 77 Agility I need for RotM.

[Sy_Accursed]

Sigh another "boss" combat level thing..

 

Can't they ever release non-high end combat things?

 

It seems this game is moving more and more to a game where you first need to invest 100+ hours before you can do anything "fun" or "worthwhile". Really with updates like these they won't ever attract new customers, and runescape is in dire need of new customers.

 

If I'm not mistaken, they are including quest bosses, which means a lot of them will be low level. They even mention delrith.

 

Yeah and the one of the two bosses they specifically mention is epically low levelled, and evil chicken ain;t exactly that high either

[aeternitatis]

The concept art looks so god damn lame. The tower could be alright though.. Hmm.

[Quyneax]

It seems this game is moving more and more to a game where you first need to invest 100+ hours before you can do anything "fun" or "worthwhile". Really with updates like these they won't ever attract new customers, and runescape is in dire need of new customers.

Low-level bosses have the slight problem that they are high-level slayer monsters... if you make content like the Tormented Wraith worth doing (at a low level), there will always be a high level to crash that low level because they can do the same thing but faster, cheaper etc. and make even more money. I don't see much need for bosses with a combat level cap either (e.g. you must be this level or below to enter). DG bosses, however, scale with level, that could maybe be used overworld... but lower levels should not have access to the same loot or there would be no reward from levelling apart from levelling, which is already a complaint in lots of skills.

[Krampell]

Dominion tower = win

Camera update = win

The pit = meh

Halloween = kinda meh

 

Well, a nice start of the month atleast.

 

Dominion Tower says "at the very end of this month"

The Pit says "towards the end"

Halloween comes a week b4 halloween based on precedent

 

So week of the 3rd and week of 10th - chat & camera + a no update week

week of 17th the pit

week of 24th halloween

Dominion tower will be the 31st based on runefest having an exclusive preview of it and runefest is 29th & 30th

 

So it would seem a month framed in goodness

 

Oh, I see bts doesn't follow the mentioned order then. Oh well, I guess it's a nice end of the month instead.

[Drazhor]

I laughed a bit at the image of the spider DJ :P

 

Should be a fun month- though as it's birthday month I think i'll be drinking 80% of it.

 

EDIT:

Also, perhaps by end of the month they mean the end of the updates for the month; cause I think they'll try to get the updates out before they focus on runefest!

[Crossed_Body]

there will always be a high level to crash that low level because they can do the same thing but faster, cheaper etc. and make even more money.

Which is why I think there should be low-mid tier bosses that are instanced for low-mid tier players.

[Sy_Accursed]

I laughed a bit at the image of the spider DJ :P

 

Should be a fun month- though as it's birthday month I think i'll be drinking 80% of it.

 

EDIT:

Also, perhaps by end of the month they mean the end of the updates for the month; cause I think they'll try to get the updates out before they focus on runefest!

 

Yes but they also say runefester goers get an exclusive EARLY preview of dominion tower. It can't be an early preview if the update is in-game before runefest; which leaves monday the 31st of october (or 1st of nov i guess)

 

We are even intending to run a special sneak preview session at RuneFest this month to allow those attending to have full access to the tower on special test servers, and even invite the players there to design their own, brand-new dominion boss!

[Hedgehog]

I'm going to try my hardest not to get my hopes up.

[Carl]

I laughed a bit at the image of the spider DJ :P

 

Should be a fun month- though as it's birthday month I think i'll be drinking 80% of it.

 

EDIT:

Also, perhaps by end of the month they mean the end of the updates for the month; cause I think they'll try to get the updates out before they focus on runefest!

 

Yes but they also say runefester goers get an exclusive EARLY preview of dominion tower. It can't be an early preview if the update is in-game before runefest; which leaves monday the 31st of october (or 1st of nov i guess)

 

We are even intending to run a special sneak preview session at RuneFest this month to allow those attending to have full access to the tower on special test servers, and even invite the players there to design their own, brand-new dominion boss!

 

They say full-access, perhaps when released not everything will be available to everybody?

[Sy_Accursed]

I suppose that could be true, but if its an unlock combat challenges thing that is self contained and reqs quests for the bosses I can't see it taking all that long to fully unlock. I mean if its framed around quest bosses the worst we got is Nomad and i highly doubt he'd be in there (too much of a person opposed to a monster); even if we have fight cave like endurance waves we know most of the monsters so for a torva, rapier, overlord, turmoil person could it really take long to suss out?

[wormy]

I really like the game dominion, so when i first saw it that is what I thought.

Back-back please buy members months, at least this one is not as permanent as the loyalty stall in varrok center.

[Mh1456]

I've wanted that camera feature for SO LONG. OMG. lol, quite happy about that. October sounds pretty good overall actually.