BTS July 2014

[Miss Lioness]

Behind the Scenes - July 2014

We're almost ready to launch Legacy Mode, but in the meantime, brush up on your boss slaying skills and deal with your arachnophobia. Araxxor and level 90 two-handers await!

 

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Legacy Mode

Free players and members

We're into the last few weeks of development on Legacy Mode, following several big patches to the beta and your overwhelming 80% vote in the recent poll for the feature. 

Your feedback has been fantastic, and we have been implementing the last few changes -including adding the old animations and combat stance - and fixing the final bugs. Expect a launch later in July. 

Legacy is a selectable mode that brings back the traditional no-abilities RuneScape combat that many players miss, plus the old-style interfaces from before EoC. 

Crucially, it means that traditional combat fans can have all of these things while playing the latest combat content, alongside those who prefer the newer style of EoC. 

Along with Legacy Mode come a bunch of global improvements that affect all combat players, regardless of their preferred mode: an updated level 138 combat formula, special attacks and loads of balancing changes. We’ve been working with you on the beta servers to get as near as possible to the game you want. 

If you're one of the thousands who like using EoC, carry on! That experience won’t have changed, and we think you'll enjoy the extra options offered by the brutal special attacks. 

If you are one those who have returned to try out Legacy, we have videos, a gear guide and loads more information to help you catch up - coming soon. Welcome home! 
 

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Araxxor's Lair

Members only

In Morytania, vampyres are scared of only two things: adventuring heroes like you, and Araxxor: an arachnid horror from the darkest of nightmares. 




Later this month, Araxxor will join the ranks of our epic boss monsters. Designed to be fought by one or two players, he's capable of changing his entire strategy and attack styles in each battle you fight, growing in power as you do. 

This allows you to define your own challenge levels and experience the fight differently as you grow in confidence. 

Deal with light and dark areas, acid, poison, fire, stone, webs, gut-wrenching explosions, and a bunch of new mechanics we’d like to keep hidden until launch day.

Overall, his entire den of creepy minions can vary every few days, revealing different routes to be explored. You'll need to mix up your tactics if you want a taste of the precious rewards. The difficulty grows if you bring a buddy, but drops are assigned individually, so you'll each get your share of the loot. 

And what loot it is! With unique pets and a drop table even more generous than the Queen Black Dragon's, you can gain access to brand-new level 90 two-handed weapons, one for each combat class. Each one is built from the rare parts of the lair's evil inhabitant. 

With disturbing sounds, a fascinating environment and my personal favourite boss graphics of all time, this one’s going to be amazing. We look forward to hearing your live-streamed screams of terror echoing around the globe. 

Finally, the Ninja Team are adding in-game timers for boss fights, alongside the release of the Araxxor fight. This is just the first taste of some really cool content we've got coming for boss killers in August. 
 

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Twitch Integration

Free players and members

Talking of streaming, we're launching our Twitch integration project this month too. Accessible via the Community tab, the new Twitch page will allow you to simply enter your Twitch log-in details, pick a stream name and start streaming your game to millions of potential viewers! 

It’s a fantastic way of getting into streaming for the first time and can also be used to find other RS Twitch users. 
 

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Royal Rhinos

Free players and members

In partnership with our friends from the United for Wildlife charity and the Royal Foundation, you’ll be able to visit conservationists in Burthorpe to answer questions about the real-world fate of the rhino. 

Get some answers right and you’ll be able to adopt an in-game rhino, with the most knowledgeable of you earning the rare black rhino. 

For the first month, these pets will impart an XP boost for all skills, and even act like beasts of burden before becoming a cosmetic-only pet at the end of the month. Watch out for rhino-themed community meet-ups, too! 
 

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Hiscores, Solomon's Store and More

And we're not finished there! How about trying one of our new community-voted seasonal hiscores - taking on the undead to compete for the Crown of Legends? 

In fact, the Crown of Legends will be available to all players who have reached rank 1 on any of our previous seasonal hiscores. 

There’s a new-look lobby coming out; we're updating the display name system and freeing up more names from dormant accounts; and the Adventurer's Log is getting a much-needed lick of paint. There are improvements almost everywhere you look this month. 

Solomon’s also getting in on the community action, showcasing our first player-designed pet, Void Knight-themed retro armour and improved flexibility with the Keepsake boxes, allowing up to 20 items to be stored, and allowing you to store multiple items of the same type. 

Have fun!

Mod Mark and the RuneScape Team

[Wkw]

Panic sell wands.

And ascensions.

Actually give them all to me plz

[Artemis1330]

Time to make bank on the panic.

 

On topic, new boss looks awesome, really excited for that.

 

Twitch thing looks really awesome also. Unexpected and pretty shocking for jagex to support offsite software etc like this. I like it though.

 

Love wild life preservation so that's cool to see jagex raise awareness and support like that too.

[Urza285]

Looking for araxxor partner.

[SwreeTak]

T90 2h Ranged, Magic and Melee Weapons? I can't wait for the design of those. In general a good looking month :)

No surprise quest is :( though.

[Urza285]

T90 2h Ranged, Magic and Melee Weapons? I can't wait for the design of those. In general a good looking month :)

No surprise quest is :( though.

I am calling a scythe 2h melee weapon.

[Ammako]

Display name system changes... Hmmmm

[Wkw]

I want a greatsword, something very large with the ability to be used like a pike, or a big ass sword

 

A staff that does nothing special

 

A 2h bow and a shieldbow. Maybe, you would be able to attach t70 and higher shields to it to make it a shieldbow, with the stats of the item being the average lvl..

 

lvl90 weapon +90 shield = lvl90 shieldbow

lvl90 weapon + lvl 75 spitit shield = lvl 82 shieldbow

lvl90 weapon + lvl 70 dfs = lvl80 shieldbow

lvl90 weapon + 80 dg shield = lvl85 shieldbow

[Sy_Accursed]

I have to say to me this is kinda another month of "and wheres the rest of the content..."

 

The new boss will be good and is something for me to try my hand at, especially since I lack t90 range and mage weps atm, so they'd be a nice intermediate.

Legacy mode eh don't care, so thats an 'off week' from my perspective.

Promo thing with some cute rhinos, ok but its a promo not real meaty content.

Twitch thing, prob took a fair bit to dev but again could not care less.

 

At this rate I feel like when they said elf quest august, elf city 1 sept and elf city 2 nov that is like gonna be ALL the actual meaty content for those months, with halloween the only thing to do for october.

[Saradomin_Mage]

In their defence, there was the pest control update this week, so it's like a 3 content-update month.

[Sy_Accursed]

In their defence, there was the pest control update this week, so it's like a 3 content-update month.

Meh rework doesn't really count as content to do in my book, I mean its nice and all but its nothing new to go explore and the rewards upgrades don't really sell me any reason to go back there again.

[Urza285]

I think the twitch thing might be cool for people who want to experience content second hand. I wouldnt mind that while training something else.

[Steph]

But where does the line fall between "actual" content and "filler"?

[Artemis1330]

I have always preferred far fewer, very good updates (1-2 a month) as opposed to months with 5-6 mediocre (even bad) updates.

 

I much prefer them making this boss and legacy the absolute best then spending less resources on these so they can give us a few other updates in addition. And a brand new boss is a huge update. So is legacy.

[Steph]

I've always enjoyed "quality of life" style updates that affect day to day scaping minimally (presets, drop option change on barb fish etc)

[Urza285]

I've always enjoyed "quality of life" style updates that affect day to day scaping minimally (presets, drop option change on barb fish etc)

Oddly enough i agree... i think twitch kind of falls in this category. People love showing off in game and this streamlines the processs they have to go through to doing that.

[Steph]

I feel that legacy falls there to. I'll be able to mage higher end monsters with blood spells and survive a bit more

[Sy_Accursed]

I'm happy to see keepsakes improved for sure though - kinda feeling like I might keepsake most of the lvl 80 crystal gear - or atleast eh wand/orb, bow, shield and maybe stave and halberd subject to araaxor drops and of course their looks as a whole.

[Urza285]

I personally still hold a lot of love for the dragon equipment.

[Tach]

Panic buying antipoison++

[Urza285]

Panic buying antipoison++

I saw this coming... So basically subing super antifire for antipoison++.

 

I'm also betting Araxxor will reside under Darkmeyer. Those steep cliffs would be the perfect place to put a cave for the spider. Teleporting would be a bit far though since you should only have ectophial I think...

[Rena]

 

Panic buying antipoison++

I saw this coming... So basically subing super antifire for antipoison++.

 

I'm also betting Araxxor will reside under Darkmeyer. Those steep cliffs would be the perfect place to put a cave for the spider. Teleporting would be a bit far though since you should only have ectophial I think...

 

Drakan's Medallion

[Quasar]

best way to kill undead?  i'm thinking barraging crawling hands

[Ammako]

Nah obviously they will have a portal near Edgeville monastery to teleport you directly to its lair + a new lodestone added right in front of the entrance.

[Yoko Kurama]

Although quantity is important, sometimes quality really is more important. In a month where they are releasing a major boss that will likely be pursued by its target audience (high level pvmers) for the next several months, I really don't see a problem with them not releasing much of anything else (well, they are releasing other stuff, but it's small stuff, and the Legacy stuff), because most of us will be fighting the boss anyways, so it's no big deal. It's actually smart of them and appropriate to not release too many big things this month. I do hope that they release it as the first thing this month. That way we have something to do for the whole of the month. Though I can't imagine them releasing it without it's own BTS package-hype, so it probably won't be this week.