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Behind The Scenes: May 2015


Sylpheed

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May is a busy time in the real world, so this month's selection of updates is all about getting the most from your precious game time!

 

RS Road Trip

 

Out today is the RuneScape Road Trip: a collection of exciting tasks for you to complete throughout the month of May. It's similar in design to last year's road trip, but is vastly improved thanks to your feedback, and comes with a fresh helping of shiny new rewards.

 

These include a private resource dungeon accessible via the new Explorer's Aura, complete with monsters to kill or generous resources (your choice of the two), boosted XP and a bank chest for fast, easy access. Plus, you can get reward lamps and your own special freaky little pet based on Fluffie: a strange, mind-controlling, evil-yet-super-cute thing from an ancient gnome quest.

 

 

If there are tasks you just don't like, or you want to complete your road trip in a super-fast time, hunt out a J-Mod just like me in the live game, and we can auto-complete them for you! We'll be hanging around specific locations throughout May, so do make sure you pop by to say hello!

 

For those times when we're not around, we've whipped up some regularly-spawning JMod clones to take our place, so everyone should have the opportunity to get their stamps if they wish.

 

Throughout May we'll be running a series of weekend boosts for skilling, slaying, dungeoneering, ports and minigames, so it's well worth playing if you find some spare time over the coming weekends. In fact, the skiller weekend has just kicked off!

 

We're also running a Community Road Trip on social media: Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and on our own forums. You can complete special tasks there throughout May to gain entry into two separate prize draws for some great real life prizes!

 

Pick up your road trip journal from the Burthorpe or Prifddinas Challenge Mistress and get started!

 

Minigame Spotlight System

 

We know that it's sometimes difficult to find a group to play minigames, even with the awesome new grouping system. We've decided to create a new way of playing and earning rewards by adding a universal minigame currency called thalers.

 

You can earn it by playing any minigame, but every three days, one will be "spotlighted" to earn five times as many thalers as normal! On launch, Barbarian Assault will be the spotlighted game, with Conquest following soon after. You can spend thalers on existing minigame rewards, silverhawk boots and charges, or even elite clue scrolls and prismatic XP stars.

 

This will mean that even the most obscure games will get their time in the spotlight, giving you an eager group of players to play with!

 

Improved Loot Mechanics

 

We've been working on a new way to pick up loot, and it's been in the beta for the past month. Thanks for your feedback so far - we're almost finished implementing it, and Improved Looting will be ready for launch later in the month!

 

For those of you who haven't seen it, it's an optional feature that allows you to pick up all your loot across a few game squares in two easy clicks. You can even customise it to only pick up certain types of loot: maybe you're only after herbs, or items over a certain value. It's a small update that makes a big difference, and it's one of my favourites coming this month.

 

Beta

 

The beta servers have been very useful in the past few months, with the EOC/Legacy Mash Up launching a few days ago and the Death Rework in its final feedback phase. Depending on how this goes, we may get the Death Rework to you at the end of this month – any time you can spare to try it out and give us your feedback will be a huge help!

 

Keep a look out for more beta experiments in the near future.

 

Updated D&D Rewards

 

When not sneaking around the Jagex office, the ninjas have found time to update the rewards for a bunch of RuneScape's Distractions & Diversions. They've added a new title for D&D fans, reworked Champion's Challenge to act as an optional repeatable event, fixed up the Skeletal Horror to offer elite clue scrolls, added a new phoenix familiar, made Goblin Flash Mobs free to play, the option to reset your Fish Flingers daily cap with tickets, created a teleport to Bork via the elite Varrock armour, improved the XP from the Evil Tree...

 

There's a whole lot more, but the Ninjas chased me off before I could find out the rest. Check out Mod Pi's dev blog for more information!

 

In Other News

 

Solomon's got a few tricks up his sleeves too month, too, with dyes to customise your outfits and a brand new, limited edition legendary pet called the shadow drake, which is only available for the next few weeks.

 

Our RuneLabs criteria for the month is a small, horror-themed update for use at Halloween. Start thinking about your favourite scary ideas!

 

To celebrate the launch of Block N Load, there's an in-game outfit inspired by the hot-headed automaton Cogwheel. You can get it by playing five Block N Load matches between now and the 10th of May.

 

 

Block N Load's free on Steam this weekend, so what're you waiting for? Get building, shooting and enjoying the madcap fun.

 

Finally, keep your eyes on the skies. Something's on the way - something big – and soon all of Gielinor will have no choice but to take notice.

 

 

W00ters out!

 

Mod Mark

RuneScape Design Director

 

Podcast - RuneScape Road Trip

 

Listen to our latest podcast now - where brave wayfarers Mod Moltare and Mod Matthe meet at the crossroads to discuss the RuneScape Road Trip.

 

You can also follow our official podcasts on PodBean or iTunes.

 

The RuneScape Community Team

 

What is a Behind the Scenes article?

 

Behind the Scenes is a sneak peek at the planned game updates that we hope to launch in the coming month.

 

This, however, is only a plan - not a promise - that a particular update will be released in a particular way or at a particular time. To get you the highest quality updates as quickly as possible, we usually keep on tweaking and testing right up until the moment before release, so sometimes things change or take a bit longer than expected. We aren't afraid to change our plan if necessary, as we will never launch an update before it is ready.

 

----

 

Piss poor month, even by Jagex's standards.

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May is a busy time, so let's give everyone even more daily tasks to do!  :rolleyes:

 

Looking forward to the Minigame Spotlight though - I hope it can attract some more activity and maybe pool F2P together so some minigames can actually run on a regular basis. Is anyone checking out Block and Load?

"Fight for what you believe in, and believe in what you're fighting for." Can games be art?

---

 

 

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My blog here if you want to check out my Times articles and other writings! I always appreciate comments/feedback.

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Nothing to really bring me back. It seems all month is about fixing and reworking existing content, which is a good thing.

Back after a 5 year TIF hiatus. Please don't mind me too much.

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I'm glad they are focusing on fixing what exists already. The game is in dire need of it not new content.

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Minigame spotlight sounds good in that you get options on getting the rewards and will be able to get full profound without doing all cwars all the time.

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Operation Gold Sparkles :: Chompy Kills ::  Full Profound :: Champions :: Barbarian Notes :: Champions Tackle Box :: MA Rewards

Dragonkin Journals :: Ports Stories :: Elder Chronicles :: Boss Slayer :: Penance King :: Kal'gerion Titles :: Gold Statue

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Wait, didn't the Skeletal Horror already drop elites? Are they going to be made a 100% drop?

 

Cost for profound gear:

 

Platebody - 12650

Platelegs - 9200

Helmet - 7475

Shield - 9200

Sword - 9200

 

Comparison:

 

Penance gloves - 60

Void helms - 240

SC helm - 145

Void top/legs - 300

[bleep]ING HYBRID GEAR PIECES - 700

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In real life MMO you don't get 99 smithing by making endless bronze daggers.

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Yeah I think we're gonna have to do some leg work to rank games for thaler output both as a baseline and when on times 5 for spotlight.

 

As no doubt some games will still blow on times 5 compared to other faster games.

 

Plus I'm sure some rankings would be influenced by your desired reward - eg cwars may still be be best by a good margin for profound as you get gold tickets and thalers. (i doubt it cause such long time but still)

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Operation Gold Sparkles :: Chompy Kills ::  Full Profound :: Champions :: Barbarian Notes :: Champions Tackle Box :: MA Rewards

Dragonkin Journals :: Ports Stories :: Elder Chronicles :: Boss Slayer :: Penance King :: Kal'gerion Titles :: Gold Statue

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Hmmmm, BTS was too cryptic, can't tell if WE3 is this month or next. The astronomy hints are clearly for WE3 though.

Honestly wouldn't mind a surprise drop of some content every now and then. Wake up mid week and it be like hey there is a massive monster ravaging everything. Cool.

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Quest Cape Achieved on November 14, 2007

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Items Acquired

Crystal Pick and Hatchet

Berzerker Ring x 3

3/28 Barrows Items

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Wait, didn't the Skeletal Horror already drop elites? Are they going to be made a 100% drop?

 

Cost for profound gear:

 

Platebody - 12650

Platelegs - 9200

Helmet - 7475

Shield - 9200

Sword - 9200

 

Comparison:

 

Penance gloves - 60

Void helms - 240

SC helm - 145

Void top/legs - 300

[bleep]ING HYBRID GEAR PIECES - 700

 

Where are you getting this from?

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For those wondering where the prices are from =3!

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be?~ Marianne Williamson

 

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Yeah I think we're gonna have to do some leg work to rank games for thaler output both as a baseline and when on times 5 for spotlight.

 

As no doubt some games will still blow on times 5 compared to other faster games.

 

Plus I'm sure some rankings would be influenced by your desired reward - eg cwars may still be be best by a good margin for profound as you get gold tickets and thalers. (i doubt it cause such long time but still)

 

 

Thalers are apparently based on time played and not the game itself so they should mostly be equal, although idk if time spent in lobbies counts https://twitter.com/moltare/status/594227593618030592

R.I.P. The olde nite. A legend is gone but not forgotten.

 

a Faction Related Item Sink for Rune Labs. https://[LikelyScam]/m=player-proposal/a=13/c=VcG-Ir5Ijno/view-idea?idea=19

 

 

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cant read plz fix ms lioneer

 

 

RIP silverhawk feather prices

Hello 200m agility for 0gp

 

 

cya rs

 

[bleep] OFF HOW ARE U SO [bleep]ING LUCKY U PIECE OF [bleep]ING SHIT [bleep] [bleep] [wagon] MUNCHER

 

 

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Managed to get one, sheesh...then it took about 10 minutes to escape the area.

"Fight for what you believe in, and believe in what you're fighting for." Can games be art?

---

 

 

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My blog here if you want to check out my Times articles and other writings! I always appreciate comments/feedback.

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Hmmmm, BTS was too cryptic, can't tell if WE3 is this month or next. The astronomy hints are clearly for WE3 though.

 

It will be released this month.

The video has a teaser at the end, and the article has a teaser including the Wizard Miznog  (or whatever his name was) that will be featured in Tuska event.

 

Prepare your bungholes everyone, it's all vs. Tuska soon.

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Dragon Drops : 5 Dragon Medium Helmets, 3 Dragon Claws, 3 Dragon platelegs, 2 Dragon plateskirts, 2 Dragon Hatchets, 2 Dragon Spears, 7 pairs of Dragon Boots, 1 Dragon pickaxe, 10 Dragon defenders, 3 Dragon 2h swords, 1 Dragon armour Slice, 1 Dragon armour Lump, 1 Dragon chainbody, 1 Dragon kiteshield, 1 Dragon hasta, 1 Dragon ward, 25 Dragon knives pairs
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Also, upcoming D&D changes:

 

 

 

Work is well underway on a few tweaks here and there to improve some of our less used distractions and diversions and to bring some life back into some underplayed content!
We have taken suggestions far and wide and cast our beady eyes on some stats on how and what D&Ds you play. Using this information we've come up with some changes coming to a few D&Ds near you!

 
Universal changes


`The Distracted` title

For players that have tried every D&D currently on the D&D tracker, a new title will be unlocked, "The distracted".
The purpose of this is to get you to try every D&D at least once, or re-evaluate it after we've finished improving it.




D&D specific changes


Here is a provisional list of changes we'd like to make to some of our less loved D&Ds.



Champions' Challenge

- Make all fights repeatable once a week for slayer/constitution XP (including the leprechaun).
- Getting a challenge scroll will unlock that fight in your weekly reset.
- Improve the reward XP such that if you have unlocked all champions you stand to gain around 60k slayer xp a week.
- Add the reset to the D&D tracker.
- Convert the deposit box into a bank chest.
- Allow you to feed scrolls to a baby troll.



Skeletal Horror

- Improve the XP reward to be 100* (slayer level +1) XP.
- Move the reset to the global weekly reset.
- Add a 100% chance for the skeletal horror to drop an elite clue scroll.
- Add a chance for a skeletal champion scroll.
- Add this to the D&D tracker.



Familiarisation

- Make Familiarisation start a fixed time in its 2 hour window.
- Convert the reward buff into a ticket usable after the D&D. note: you'll need to use up this ticket before you can perform this D&D again.



Court Cases

- Change the mystery box reward contents to contain a decent amount of useful skilling rewards.
- Always offer a mystery box as a reward.
- Change the reward XP to be a generic combat lamp (that includes summoning and prayer).
- Remove the tutorial requirement on getting a court case scroll drop.
- Add a title for those that have completed all cases - The Detective



Phoenix Lair

- Add a passive firemaking level boost to the phoenix familiar.
- Add a high level version of the phoenix familiar, requires 2 feathers to make, this will offer a better firemaking level boost and have a chance to burn an extra log for you when using bonfires.
- Improve usage of the phoenix familiar's special attack.
- Add the phoenix lair to the D&D tracker.
- Stop the reborn from blocking walk.
- Allow surge/escape/barge inside the lair
- Pay 10 feathers to skip to the boss fight



Goblin Flash Mobs

- Make available to free to play.
- Rescale the rewards for mid-tier leveled players.



Fish Flingers

- move the fisherman from outside of barbarian assault to just south of the barbarian fishing area.
- Add the following rewards to the reward shop:
- > Tackle box reset
- > Fish flingers tickets
- > Chance of fishing 2 fish for 20 minutes.



Bork

- Move the bork reward buffs from varrock armour 4 to varrock armour 3.
- Add a daily right click teleport to bork onto varrock armour 4.
- Add bork to the D&D tracker



Evil Tree

- Turn the evil tree to a bonfire after the event, kindling can be burnt on this with XP rates equal to yew logs.
- Chopping an evil tree will reward more XP (at least tree type XP/2)
- If there are 4 roots up, the first root will chop down faster and take longer to respawn.
- Post event rewards will now be scaled based on your current farming/woodcutting level.
- Spirit trees will be more specific when telling you when and where the next evil tree will appear> (think shooting stars).
- The auto banking woodcutting buff will work with all trees that work with signs of the porter.
- Allow auto log banking to work without having to have a full inventory.



 

[qfc]373-374-722-65613614[/qfc]

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Dragon Drops : 5 Dragon Medium Helmets, 3 Dragon Claws, 3 Dragon platelegs, 2 Dragon plateskirts, 2 Dragon Hatchets, 2 Dragon Spears, 7 pairs of Dragon Boots, 1 Dragon pickaxe, 10 Dragon defenders, 3 Dragon 2h swords, 1 Dragon armour Slice, 1 Dragon armour Lump, 1 Dragon chainbody, 1 Dragon kiteshield, 1 Dragon hasta, 1 Dragon ward, 25 Dragon knives pairs
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.:Adventurer's Log:.

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Those all look like nice improvements/tweaks to D&D's. They should get some more life into them and maybe get more players exploring them. And on top of that a new piece of content potentially available for free-to-play, which doesn't happen often. Although I thought they were called Goblin Raids rather than Flash Mobs? Anyway assuming they go through with all or most of this, good job Jagex! :thumbsup:

"Fight for what you believe in, and believe in what you're fighting for." Can games be art?

---

 

 

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My blog here if you want to check out my Times articles and other writings! I always appreciate comments/feedback.

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The sad thing is with Champs Challenege it doesn't sound as if they are making the one change really necessary for it to become actively used - the rarity of scrolls.

 

It's not like they even need to make them easy to get, just maybe shave a little off the existing rarity as a base then apply a boss pet like increasing drop rate; cause 60k slayer xp a week is all well and good but its useless if you can spend weeks on end mass slaughtering monsters and not get any scrolls.

 

 

Also yeah if Tuska event isn't this month we are at least getting an in-game precursor I mean 'Also look to the stars something big is coming' alongside the concept art of the astromancer is hardly subtle.

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Operation Gold Sparkles :: Chompy Kills ::  Full Profound :: Champions :: Barbarian Notes :: Champions Tackle Box :: MA Rewards

Dragonkin Journals :: Ports Stories :: Elder Chronicles :: Boss Slayer :: Penance King :: Kal'gerion Titles :: Gold Statue

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The sad thing is with Champs Challenege it doesn't sound as if they are making the one change really necessary for it to become actively used - the rarity of scrolls.

 

They said they wouldn't improve the drop rate cause they're scared trimmed Compers will have a [bleep]fit if they do.

Unknown_Warrior.jpegIgGCP.png

Dragon Drops : 5 Dragon Medium Helmets, 3 Dragon Claws, 3 Dragon platelegs, 2 Dragon plateskirts, 2 Dragon Hatchets, 2 Dragon Spears, 7 pairs of Dragon Boots, 1 Dragon pickaxe, 10 Dragon defenders, 3 Dragon 2h swords, 1 Dragon armour Slice, 1 Dragon armour Lump, 1 Dragon chainbody, 1 Dragon kiteshield, 1 Dragon hasta, 1 Dragon ward, 25 Dragon knives pairs
The Warrior's Blog , Herblore Habitat - Efficient and profitable

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The_Warrior.png
.:Adventurer's Log:.

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The sad thing is with Champs Challenege it doesn't sound as if they are making the one change really necessary for it to become actively used - the rarity of scrolls.

 

 

They said they wouldn't improve the drop rate cause they're scared trimmed Compers will have a [bleep]fit if they do.

That's the standard answer for everything now.

 

"Hey, what's that giant, hairy beast hurtling through the sky towards us? Is it Tuska?"

Nope. It's yo momma." :p

Back after a 5 year TIF hiatus. Please don't mind me too much.

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The sad thing is with Champs Challenege it doesn't sound as if they are making the one change really necessary for it to become actively used - the rarity of scrolls.

They said they wouldn't improve the drop rate cause they're scared trimmed Compers will have a [bleep]fit if they do.

There's a part of me that hopes that trim compers would be completely okay with champion scrolls being less stupid if it means they can actually get rewards out of them.

 

I mean, yeah 60k/week! That would be awesome if you could realistically get more than one champ scroll per week!

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I am very pleased with this mini-game spotlight concept! Hopefully, I will actually be able to try Fist of Guthix for the first time. It seemed extremely dead upon my multiple visits trying to find an instance. :p 

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Check out my upcoming Progress thread in the spoiler!

 

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*Currently postponed until further notice

   

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