Dev Diary - Elite Tasks - 19-Nov-2009

[Sentry_Wolf]

 

Elite Tasks - by Mod Maz 19-Nov-2009

 

Back in 2006, Mod Mark and I sat down and started to develop what we then called ‘area tasks’. This idea was concepted and developed into the very first Achievement Diary: Karamja. This was a completely new idea within the game - not a quest, yet not a minigame or skill. It was quite an adventure finding and pushing the boundaries of what was possible at the time, and yet staying within our core ideas for what was to become Achievement Diaries: "To highlight existing content that perhaps players hadn’t used in a long time or simply didn’t know about, and to show players around an area by using existing content in the area."

 

Elite

So, seven diaries later and what has changed? Well, we give far greater rewards for the newer diaries than we gave to Karamja; we’ve added a special beginner diary to Lumbridge to introduce new players to the concept; and, of course, we recently released the Ardougne diary with a hidden elite section.

We were a little wary about how this elite section would go down considering how few players could actually complete it. Overall, the feedback appears to have been positive, with many players using it as a goal, rather than seeing it as a disappointment that they’ll never reach.

 

So, I’m now starting to design the elite sections for all of the diaries (hard for Lumbridge). What does this involve? It’s generally split into two parts: coming up with tasks and coming up with rewards.

 

By far the easier part is coming up with the tasks, which is in no small part due to you, the players. I cannot begin to count the number of good tasks that have been suggested for previous diaries on the forums. Being a player of RuneScape as well as a developer, I’ll also use my own game knowledge of the area to come up with some tasks, as well as walking around the area to get a feel for it.

 

In the case of elite tasks, I will also be talking to the curators of the other diaries that I didn’t develop or do not curate - that’s Mod Roderick (Lumbridge and Varrock), Mod Trick (Falador) and Mod Hew (Fremennik) - to see what they’d want. Oh, and listening to the squirrels’ instructions for world domination... Wait, what?

 

Task master

 

What do we look for in elite tasks? Well, pretty much the same as any normal task, but they should be higher in level than the hard tasks for the area.

 

This means:

 

• 
   
  
• Bearing in mind the core aims of the project.
  
• Trying to stick to the skill ‘theme’ of the area, if at all possible. This is the loosest requirement; after all, a diary that only featured Thieving tasks would be fairly boring and predictable!
  
• Avoiding anything that relies on a random possibility, as this has caused problems in the past (remember the gout tuber in Karamja’s Achievement Diary?). This means avoiding things like monster drop tables, clue scrolls and other such random features.
  
• Avoiding bottlenecks - e.g. things players can only do one at a time, such as successfully Thieving from one particular stall or killing the KBD, which prevents other players from doing the task for a short time.
  
• Never using any part of a quest as a task. This last one is quite tricky, as things like getting some boots of lightness would make for a nice little task, but as it is part of a quest, we don’t add it as a task because the mechanic has already been used.
  

 

Rewards

 

Having found some good tasks it’s then on to the hard part: the rewards! At least here we have a small start, as all of the diaries have XP lamps as part of the reward, but what else to give that is both balanced (so as to not be overpowered) and in keeping with the previous rewards? At the moment, that, along with the tasks, is a question I am pondering and coming up with ideas for.

Overall, I’m very proud that I am able to reward players through these diaries for their everyday playing of the game. Not just the XP and the item rewards, but the reward of discovering (or re-discovering) parts of the game that you find fun and useful.

If you feel you’d like to contribute ideas for elite tasks, elite rewards or tasks/rewards for any of the areas that don’t yet have an Achievement Diary, please post them on this forum thread. If you have questions relating specifically to this blog, please visit this forum thread.

 

Link to Dev Blog

[JoeDaStudd]

nice hopefully I'll be-able to do atleast a few of the elite tasks this time around.

[Howlin0001]

Nice, sounds good.

[Yohbilleh]

So what's that cape for?

[JoeDaStudd]

Thats the ardy elite cape I believe.

[DarkDude]

Lets see what possible 'elite' tasks could be?

 

Karmaja:

 

Kill/Get to Jad?

Plant a Spirit Tree? (83 farming)

Make a certain amount of Natures at once (which requires 91 runecrafting to do... would have to be something such as 54 at once to make it impossible (or near impossible) for people less than 91 to do.

 

Seers:

Catch a shark with Barbarian Fishing (96 fishing)

Make a Magic long bow all in seers? (A bit easy though)

 

Relekka:

 

Kill one of the dagannoth kings (although they said they didn't want to do anything like that).

Spirit tree (would be copying Karamja though).

Kill an Aquanite (78 slayer)?

 

Falador:

 

Mine/Fish something in the Living Rock Caverns would be the obvious one

Plant a Magic Tree? (Could also be in varrock diary...)

 

Varrock:

 

Do the Sawmill training (80 woodcutting)

 

I'll imagine most of these will be filled with 'trivial' tasks such as smithing a random item in varrock that don't really 'belong' to that area.

[JoeDaStudd]

Other options

 

Karajama - kill one of each dragon in the dungeon, highest level agility shortcut (72 or higher I think)

Fremmy - make a rune hasta, highest level prye ship, mine runite on neitz/jatz (use with the hasta requirement?), full fremmy outfit including the sword, shield and helm (the untradable ones) and I can see each of the DK's being a task.

[metoo1000]

i like this idea allot. but what about finishing all the diary's first before upgrading them there are still at least 2 more to come out? but i fully support elite tasks for past diary's.

[wab]

sounds awesome :smile:

 

but why you discuss the 80+ stats req when you can discuss the pic rewards at end? :rolleyes:

 

Karamja: even more reduce price on shops (really helpfull with onyx price) / double tokkul gaining from monsters&fire pits&fire caves / spirit tree on brimhaven not counting towards the max spirit tree limit / option to change gem mines teleport into duradel?

 

Varrock: 128 battle staff per day (epic) / double smith&mine up to runite / more grand exhange buy&sell squares?

 

Lumbridge: 30 high alches per day / additional cabbage teleport to draynor manor cabbages (good for belladona farming patch) / 4 times +50% energy a day / improve ring to +2 pray?

 

Lumbridge OR Fallador: port sarim spirit tree not counting towards the max spirit tree limit?

 

Fallador: 2 times restores 100% pray / +9 pray bonus shield / gaining more black knights kill count for each black knight killed (while wearing) / more xp in wc tree patch in fally park (while wearing)?

 

Relleka: 2 free teles with boots a day / option the skip pirates island and take the boat directly to lunar isle / even lower cost of fish to pay for the lyre charging / ecterina spirit tree not counting towards the max spirit tree / able to set lyre tele also to runite rocks at netiznot?

 

Seers: 240 flax per day / option to set cammy tele also to catherby / able to use the cammy kinghts training grounds even after you completed it (as training method) / altar at seers give even higher pray bonus / more xp to all trees cutted at seer&it's area (and not only maples)?

 

---

 

since it's elite, all these have high chance of happening. till ardy diary i would've ever belived they would give instant teleport right next to ardy farming patch so...you can never know with jagex :wink:

[toast647]

Lets see what possible 'elite' tasks could be?

 

Relekka:

 

Kill one of the dagannoth kings (although they said they didn't want to do anything like that).

 

They should totally make that one of the tasks...

[Den]

Sounds promising. :o

[Ambler]

although I cant do any elite tasks, more of them would be great (and achivement diary cape to come aswell?)

[Ollyc3]

Sounds like a great idea, I just hope I have the requirements for the elite tasks :rolleyes:

[Demoli]

Sounds like a great idea, I just hope I have the requirements for the elite tasks :rolleyes:

 

Ka-Bum *Tish*

 

On topic: A good step in the right direction, we nede more high level tasks to fill the "elite" gap, the last update made me want to train 75 rc and 93 summon, sure i wont do that on the recent futre, but is something to look forward when training a skill.

[D Jay99]

As long as the elite reqs are 85-90 or something, I'm happy. I have ~800 doses of both brown and yellow spices banked, so stewing shouldn't be a problem :P

 

Sounds good, hope this stuff comes out soon!

[Toad]

Sounds like a great idea, I just hope I have the requirements for the elite tasks :rolleyes:

 

Omg me too we need to get skilling.

 

Sounds interesting though :)

[blakdragon39]

Ooo looks like fun! I need to finish a few of the diary's myself.. but I just don't have enough time right now. :( Sometime I'll get to work on them, and hopefully there'll be a few more elite diaries by then too!

[brunokiller]

'I want to make more elite diaries but I have no ideas so I'll post a diary and see what people come up with'.

 

 

 

Tasks

Make a glory amulet in Lumbridge(similar to rune cbow task)

 

Rewards

Access to new training area or something at piece of land east of magic training arena.

(85+ agility) shortcut from catherbye to water obelisk island.

Shortcut to and from Jatiszo to Neitiznot.

Ability to set lyre teleport to Lunar Isle

Fremennik boots act like a seal of passage (after completions of Lunar Diplomacy).

Shortcut from air obelisk down to wildy (not back up)

Cheaper planks from sawmill.

[Obtaurian]

I've been pondering this since the Ardougne diary came out. I'm really excited for this.

[strilmus]

I think it'd be funny if the Lumby one allowed you to return to tutorial island any time you felt like it. Not like a teleport, just a raft from Lumbridge. Why? Just a random idea.

 

Other things I'd like to see from the object closest related to the reward:

 

- Obviously epic emote.

- Home teleport is instantaneous. (Charge time is still same length.)

- Elite equipment should be rune grade when the whole set is worn. Seriously. (Anybody with those levels should be able to afford hundreds of rune armor sets anyway.)

- Increased kingdom management rewards.

- Indeterminate number of free NPC contact spells.

- Ability to mess with the Grand Exchange from anywhere (or maybe just the bank), with the proviso that you can only move items between the GE and your bank. (Not sure, everybody will probably baaawwww about this.)

- Once the whole set is gained, get access to exclusive hangout area located beneath the party hall in party hall world.

- Seer's headband should make summoning pouch runs faster somehow.

- Wait period for picture taking dropped.

- Freebie style changes of every conceivable type imaginable, unlocked with corresponding regional elite grade equipment.

- Instant farm harvests. No more stupid picking one at a freaking time. GAAAH.

 

Naturally, for most of these things to be rewards, the tasks would have to be stupidly hard to get to.

[Dire_Wolf]

100% Must-Be-a-Elite-Task

Kill TzTok-Jad

[Capone_Sabre]

Fantastic news! The Ardy Elite diary was one of the best updates I have seen in the 8 1/2 years I've been playing and one of the few examples of genuine high level content. I can't wait for the next ones, well done Jagex! =D>

[cowmaster187]

i would love 128 battle staves a day, if i could do all the tasks ( probably not)

 

but i would love it still

 

i think the only one where i could complete all the tasks outright would be varock. all though i am not sure, i bet a armoured zombie would be in there

 

 

~~~legoman187~~~

[Lep]

Personally I despise diaries. JaGeX is just so stupid it's astounding to me. How something like, "walk to building X" an achievement at all? Ffs man this game is run by morons I swear... :wall:

[Aeon_]

Personally I despise diaries. JaGeX is just so stupid it's astounding to me. How something like, "walk to building X" an achievement at all? Ffs man this game is run by morons I swear... :wall:

There isn't any like that. #-o

 

Getting to 67-70 farming on the other hand, is. Might not take long, but still requires a decent amount of time.