A few weeks ago, we accidentally released a version of the top level interface that had a test option on the run button called Rest. Oops! That was my mistake. Still, now the cat is out of the bag, we might as well tell you about this project. When I looked at the forums youd made some pretty good guesses about this feature - resting is a way to restore your run energy more rapidly.

 

 

 

When I got the original rest concept brief it had two parts:

 

 

 

Create a rest function that the player can use anywhere that will restore run energy more quickly than normal.

 

Create benches that would allow players to sit on and restore run energy even more rapidly.

 

In planning what was going to be required, I quickly came to the conclusion that benches were not the way to go. We still encounter problems creating animations that work well in software mode for when players are sitting on furniture. Also, the technique to do this would have meant only one player could sit on a bench at a time. From a gameplay point of view this would have been a problem - the last thing I want is for players to have to queue for rest spots.

 

 

 

So I had to come up with another idea. I toyed with cushions and small glades and the like, but they all felt a bit weak. There needed to be a reason why one spot would be better for resting than anywhere else. Mod Ash suggested that using NPCs rather than locations might be a better approach, and from that the idea of buskers came to mind. People tend to gather round buskers in real life, so the rest spots wouldn't look incongruous, and I thought they would add some extra flavour to the more well-populated areas where these are going to be placed.

 

 

 

Having cleared this idea change with Mod Mark and Andrew I talked to the Graphics team. These musicians were to be scattered all over the map, so had to stand out enough for them to be easily spotted, but also fit in with the theme of the area theyre in. Mod Zephyri came up with some lovely concept images of bards. They were dressed brightly, but in a renaissance style that fits in nicely with most city environments. They looked great, so Mod Brass, Mod Woody and some others got to work creating models and animations for them.

 

 

 

 

Concept artwork for some of the buskers

 

We looked separately at the more isolated areas where we wanted to put musicians. A lute-playing bard may look great in Falador, but would look pretty silly in Isafdar or Mort Myre, so Graphics created custom NPCs for these places. I especially enjoyed working on these as we had to come up with different ideas for why they were there. Since they were mostly embedded in higher level areas, the need for them to explain their functionality was lessened, so I could have a little fun adding flavour to them.

 

 

 

Since wed decided on musicians, we needed some music for them to play. I wanted the music to be a little different than most music in the game, as these were individual musicians playing a ditty, not an epic soundtrack. The audio guys created some lovely simple pieces of music for the musicians - mostly stripped down version of the local themes. I even specifically asked for one of the songs to be really bad, which Mod Bond did really well!

 

 

 

 

An in-game screenshot of a busker

 

The next set of problems lay with visual feedback: how to tell the player that they were resting. I wasn't sure of the best way to do this initially, so I tried out several methods - head icons, glowing animation effects that pulsed under the player - but after some tests, it became clear to us that these were a bit too intrusive, so I went for changing the run button icon on the top level interface, with a little glowing effect to draw the eye.

 

 

 

So, my work is nearly done - our balancer is working on tweaking the update to ensure that the restore rates are useful, but not over-powered, and full QA, editing and translation are still to come, but hopefully youll be able to rest soon.

 

 

 

Dont forget to have a rest every now and again! See ya.

 

 

 

Mod Chihiro

 

Senior Technical Developer, RuneScape Content

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jagex's latest development diary, Discuss! :thumbup:

Nothing exceptional, but a handy update if the rate is notable faster than just standing.

 

 

 

Don't really know how I feel about the musicians.

That should be really good :D

 

 

 

Very nice diary :thumbsup:

Jagex's Development Diaries = Dayyyuum.

 

 

 

So much better than the Behind The Scenes.

Sounds like a worthwhile update.

 

 

 

I'm intrigued as to how it will play out.

 

 

 

eg will different bards have different restore rates?

 

 

 

Will they have agiltiy level reqs or something to "use"?

 

 

 

Will it have an impact on the use of terrorbirds?

 

 

 

etc etc

Sounds like a worthwhile update.

 

 

 

I'm intrigued as to how it will play out.

 

 

 

eg will different bards have different restore rates?

 

 

 

Will they have agiltiy level reqs or something to "use"?

 

 

 

Will it have an impact on the use of terrorbirds?

 

 

 

etc etc

 

 

 

Clearly it will depend upon your sailing level :twss:

.....

 

 

 

I wish we could have some nice clothes like that.

It makes me lol how much Sailing hype the still is and hows some claim it to be solid fact despite Mod MMG having said there will never being a sailing skill while he's CEO

As I am reading this, I am also rcing too (earth runes) and I noticed there's a bench near the altar...

 

 

 

That'd be fantastic if I could get a little break every now and then so I can run to the altar instead of having to walk a majority of the time... Too bad it ain't gonna happen. :(

 

 

 

:-k

 

 

 

This sounds like a great idea, though. Can't wait to see what it'll look like!

Thats cool. I used to busk all over Europe with my family when I was a kid :D

 

Got thrown out of a town in Belgium because they thought we were gypsies

Most higher level members just use Tireless run and seeing how bards will only be in select places... I don't see it being all that useful for P2P.

If they were an old folksy type village, I bet you could have scared them into backing off with some gypsy voodoo chanting.

 

 

 

Anyway, I can sort of guess which NPC belongs to which region.

 

 

 

I'm glad they're going to have some sort of resting NPC on Karajma, since the jungle sort of forces you to run long distances through an annoying tangle of trees.

Thats cool. I used to busk all over Europe with my family when I was a kid :D

 

Got thrown out of a town in Belgium because they thought we were gypsies

 

 

 

 

 

In fairness mate the vast majority of buskers are either gypsies or tramps. Sad sign of the times.

... but I like benches

I wonder how many Borats are going to be assaulting RuneScape now...

 

 

 

The diaries are returning to their former glory now. Nice to see something that takes more than two minutes to read, plus some nice visuals. Keep it up, Jagex. :thumbsup:

 

 

 

Don't really think some players will use this to it's full potential, due to the Spirit Terrorbird. It might speed up skills like Mining & Runecraftin though. Have to wait & see.

I like it.

 

 

 

I hope we get a peruvian panflute band.

That was a good diary they got me excited about such a minor update :thumbsup:

Well I guess its good they at least tried to be creative. Simplicity would've been best here imo with the right click rest button option we had on the minimap but I'll still be using other means of energy restoration anyway.

Wow, they did an awesome job with this DD. It outlined pros and cons and provided details of the development process, it should help cut down on some of the "jagex is teh idiotz" threads we see. Nice job, Jagex.

Well I guess its good they at least tried to be creative. Simplicity would've been best here imo with the right click rest button option we had on the minimap but I'll still be using other means of energy restoration anyway.

 

 

 

I believe the rest anywhere function will still be there, but the listening to the bard part will restore it quicker than that even.

Oo really? Must've misread some of the diary then lol. Thats a good thing to know, thanks :thumbup:

Yeah if you read carefully the original brief was:

 

 

 

Create a rest function tht restores run fast anywhere

 

Allow players to sit on benches to restore run even faster still

 

 

 

Benches wuldnt work so were dropped for bards.

 

 

 

Meaning we get rest anywhere plus rest at bards for faster rate

Agility course bard FTW! :thumbsup:

 

 

 

oh and put a few gp in their hat for extra-fast restore, :lol:

Sounds like an interesting idea.

 

 

 

I like how these Dev diaries are, and how frequent they are aswell. :

Great DD! Lots of info, concept art, and even a screenshot :) And Jagex has made a lot of them recently, nice!