The FAQ's From the RSOF. QFC: 15-16-297-62988158 Lots of text [hide] "Why are Jadinkos available to players that are not on Slayer tasks?" Mod Maylea: That is the case for pretty much all slayer creatures. In this case, there is a storyline and gameplay reason as well. Storyline-wise, it’s important to try and save the vine ecosystem by reducing the amount of mutated creatures - so the more the merrier. Gameplay-wise, I wanted this dungeon to encourage various types of players with different goals to get together and perform their favourite activity in the same area. I find Slayer a very lonely skill. You may meet other people on the same task as you, but what are the chances these will be people you already count as your friends? And what are the chances, if you do have them as friends, that they will have the same task as you next? Here, your friends can tag along with you, and if you make new friends among the skillers, you can always go down there with them and still have something to do. "Are Jadinkos plants or animals? Or both?" Mod Maylea: Both. :) "How did some become mutated?" Mod Maylea: The jade vine is an unstable plant at the best of times, as those who have tried to plant one will probably know. Papa Mambo has been careful with his, and has used an enchantment to try and keep it in check, but his power only carries so far. Whether he knows of the origin of the jadinkos, or what happens underground, I am unsure. I don’t think he does as he might have tried and done something about it. The result is that the Jadinko Queen, dependent upon the vine to further the colony, suffers from the vines occasional (but natural) corruption and thus give birth to mutated babies. "Why doesn't the examine text of Jadinko fruits explain what they do?" Mod Maylea: The "examine" can only contain so much text as per the game’s restrictions, and couldn’t contain enough to give sufficient info about what they did. They give you an indication of what they do when you eat them, which has a bit more flexibility on how much text it can contain. The main thing is that the special effects of the fruits are not designed to provide an overly significant advantage. They are just there to help you survive in the cave for longer, and the fact that the special fruits do minimal boosts is just an added bonus. "Is it possible to receive woodcutting, firemaking, and fletching strange rocks from training in the lair" Mod Maylea: Yes, yes, and yes. "What affects the hold duration of the bolas?" Mod Maylea: On NPCs, pretty much nothing. It’s the same for everybody unless the NPC is immune to bind. On players, the main thing is the range defence of the target. That includes the range defence of your armour and your range level. But that’s not all, as some players have noticed, protecting from range using prayers will halve the bind time. Unlike a bind spell, bolas are a very physical weapon that tangle your legs. If you hold something that can cut through the vine, you should be able to free yourself more quickly! So holding a slash weapon you can conceivably cut the bolas’ vine without injuring yourself, or carrying a knife, will also halve the bind duration. These two effects stack. This means that with the right equipment, you could be bound for only a quarter of the original bind time. "Why don't Jadinko babies drop the whip vine? They are part of the Jadinko lair." Mod Maylea: They are too young to have developed enough fighting power to produce a whip vine. Also, this allows players on a slayer task (a Mutated jadinko slayer task can be completed by killing indifferently any of the babies, guards or males) to complete their task without struggling to find targets to kill because the higher level jadinkos might be camped by players hoping for a whip vine. "Why did you make the whip vine tradeable and why was it set at such a high price on the Grand Exchange" Mod Maylea: Unique drops from slayer creatures are always tradeable. This one is no exception. As for the price, it is a fraction of other weapons with a high level requirement that have been released recently. We know from experience that people have spent a lot more money on items that were entirely cosmetic, and this wasn’t just a graphical change. It also updates aspects of the original weapon that people had been considering useless for a long time, so the price estimation wasn’t entirely random. The consequences? The price encouraged some players, that wouldn’t have set foot in the dungeon had the item been priced much lower, to experience the content. The market will force the price up or down until it is right, as always, so the item will find its place on the market. "For such high requirements, why did you only give the whip a slight boost?" Mod Edam: We were very conscious that we didn’t want to make an item that rivalled the CR in terms of pure DPS. What we wanted to do with the vine whip is make the whip a more versatile weapon. The vine whip’s special, whilst not as spectacular as D claws, should be pretty decent in PVM and this, with poison, means you can use it without having to swap weapons for specials. It also doesn’t degrade; unlike dungeoneering items, which can save money for those on a welfare budget. So yes, in terms of pure DPS, it is only a slight increase but the vine whip does offer a versatility that the whip and the CR may not offer and for us this justifies the requirements. Players with a lot of money and dungeoneering tokens probably won’t consider the vine whip, however we have observed that a lot of high level slayers still use a whip and so believe there is a place for the vine whip. "With the whip upgraded, why didn’t you consider giving it an aggressive stance?" Mod Maylea: The things that most stood out as needing upgrading from the original whip was the special attack. We added the poison for people who carry a poisoned weapon as well as their whip, so that they could save that inventory space for something else. But the whip had never been designed as a strength training weapon, and we saw no point in changing this now. Mod Edam: Not being able to train strength with the whip is a characteristic that we like. Considering what weapon to use in a particular situation is a core part of Runescape’s combat strategy. "Why is 83 firemaking a requirement to fletch the roots? I didn't think we needed all the requirements to use the area." Mod Maylea: There isn’t. You can harden straight roots on any fire you can cook on, not just on the firepits that are in the lair. If you want to remain in the cave to harden your roots, you can easily use fires that have been lit/refuelled by other people[/hide]