01-Sep-10 - Behind The Scenes - September

[AdamMonkey0]

I better be able to finish atleast ONE elite diary... or I'm going to rage and feel trolled

 

Wait, I was already trolled with today's update... :wall:

[Aneron]

hm 3.5m fishing xp for the ability to stock logs in beacons, or to get more points from a slayer master who isn't the best one :-k

 

at least the ardougne diary made you go out of your way for something that was unquestionably the best lol

[stonewall337]

Do we lose 5 QP once Romeo and Juliet is taken out?

Can you plz read about the update before posting about it? No, you don't lose them.

[Troacctid]

Romeo and Juliet was a fun quest, the one they're replacing it with sounds [developmentally delayed]ed.

Nah, R&J was lame. Just a boring fetch quest.

[jettrider]

Not being able to alch bound items isn't nearly as bad as it seems. First, it's over with, it was going to happen eventually with arrows being 3k/alch, and now we can plan without that hanging over our heads. Secondly, they upped monster drops for cash by quite a bit, which should actually SAVE time which would have been spent fishing because picking up cashpiles is not more tedious than alching while running/fighting. It's still quite possible to make an altar by opening chests and picking up the bigger cash drops. And third, it gives you a legitimate option between binding laws (makes c1s go faster, reduces cash requirement at start) and arrows (guaranteed ammo for Necrolord + future bosses).

 

Court Cases - only did the first one, awkward to play through and nonexistant rewards, I do not pick up Court Summons, so I will not be playing through any of these either.

 

Bonus XP Weekend - STOP@@@

 

Elite Diaries - looking forward to these and the potential rewards (which we CANNOT judge until release). Unfortunately, I will not be setting any major new goals based on the levels they gave. I'm hoping very much they involve more than Ardougne Elite Diary (which only had a few simple tasks); otherwise, I will not be impressed by the long wait for what should be a relatively simple programming assignment.

 

F2P Quest - Could it be any harder than the long-feared Blood Pact??! Will we have to fight enemies in caves even more dangerous than God Wars the Lumbridge Catacombs?

 

Z-buffering - I really don't care about graphical glitches and I think less resources should be devoted to the engine unless they have game-changing content in mind already. Gameplay always comes before tweaks like this in my book and it shouldn't be included in a content-based outline.

[xxshady]

Romeo and Juliet was a fun quest, the one they're replacing it with sounds [developmentally delayed]ed.

Nah, R&J was lame. Just a boring fetch quest.

 

Agreed. It's funny how everyone assumes that old ( or "classic" ) content is immediately good and worthy of staying in the game. Almost all of the classic content in the game is utter [cabbage] (firemaking ftw right?..). Jagex would be wise to re-do every single old quest. I still don't know why Doric's Quest exists. 5 second turn-in, literally.

[jettrider]

Romeo and Juliet was a fun quest, the one they're replacing it with sounds [developmentally delayed]ed.

Nah, R&J was lame. Just a boring fetch quest.

 

Agreed. It's funny how everyone assumes that old ( or "classic" ) content is immediately good and worthy of staying in the game. Almost all of the classic content in the game is utter [cabbage] (firemaking ftw right?..). Jagex would be wise to re-do every single old quest. I still don't know why Doric's Quest exists. 5 second turn-in, literally.

 

It exists because, for a person starting out, it provides a decent tutorial to some common mining spots while offering experience, fun, and a little money.

 

Eliminating it suggests that Jagex considers its current pieces of content to be of such higher quality that it no longer fits. However, Jagex has stayed away from creating too many complete beginner quests like this one. Longer quests do NOT provide hours and hours of content - in fact, while a player might take 5 minutes to do Doric's Quest from scratch while following a guide, there is perhaps 20-40 minutes worth of content in an average mid-level quest. The parts of quests that have improved the most are the graphics and audio, not necessarily gameplay. Sure, we're talking about the gameplay-lite quests, but Jagex has not filled the niche with enough new quests to render Doric's Quest obsolete and has not developed to the point where quests offer a significant chunk of gameplay. That particular quest does not get in the way or cause any problems.

 

This can then be expanded to other quests including R&J. Each fills its own niche and Jagex has not filled those holes with anything major over time. They have NOT reached a level of gameplay that renders these quests obsolete. They simply do not have the manpower to rewrite even the simplest quests and I wish they'd stop devoting resources in RS' increasingly complex engine to attempt to do so.

[Troacctid]

Romeo and Juliet was a fun quest, the one they're replacing it with sounds [developmentally delayed]ed.

Nah, R&J was lame. Just a boring fetch quest.

 

Agreed. It's funny how everyone assumes that old ( or "classic" ) content is immediately good and worthy of staying in the game. Almost all of the classic content in the game is utter [cabbage] (firemaking ftw right?..). Jagex would be wise to re-do every single old quest. I still don't know why Doric's Quest exists. 5 second turn-in, literally.

 

It exists because, for a person starting out, it provides a decent tutorial to some common mining spots while offering experience, fun, and a little money.

 

Eliminating it suggests that Jagex considers its current pieces of content to be of such higher quality that it no longer fits. However, Jagex has stayed away from creating too many complete beginner quests like this one. Longer quests do NOT provide hours and hours of content - in fact, while a player might take 5 minutes to do Doric's Quest from scratch while following a guide, there is perhaps 20-40 minutes worth of content in an average mid-level quest. The parts of quests that have improved the most are the graphics and audio, not necessarily gameplay. Sure, we're talking about the gameplay-lite quests, but Jagex has not filled the niche with enough new quests to render Doric's Quest obsolete and has not developed to the point where quests offer a significant chunk of gameplay. That particular quest does not get in the way or cause any problems.

 

This can then be expanded to other quests including R&J. Each fills its own niche and Jagex has not filled those holes with anything major over time. They have NOT reached a level of gameplay that renders these quests obsolete. They simply do not have the manpower to rewrite even the simplest quests and I wish they'd stop devoting resources in RS' increasingly complex engine to attempt to do so.

While beginner quests may not provide the same level of content as more advanced ones, they're much more important to the game because they're a new player's first impression of questing. Beginner quests are like a gateway into the game--everyone passes through them. Lackluster early quests can turn a player off of questing for most of their Runescape career, but the inverse is also true--well-designed quests will make players want to complete them. So the early quests play a very important role in the game, and Jagex can get a lot of mileage out of a solid beginner quest base.

 

Also, you knock a little on the graphics and audio, but the fact of the matter is that gaming is an inherently aesthetic experience, and an aesthetically pleasing quest with good graphical elements can legitimately enhance that experience.

[Silvertaler]

95 Prayer? These diaries are just too way out of reach for me. Well at least they'll improve the older ones :mellow:

 

This update finally got me to do the court cases... it's pretty fun actually.

 

As for the new quest I better not even get started. The quest isn't "outdated", what's the point in removing it? As far as I know the NPC's are still there and they probably stay there. The quest was doing no harm to anything, it was actually a fun quest.

[Mercifull]

95 prayer... are Jagex taking the p-- with regards to bone prices? They are already ridiculously high.

[Frede173]

95 prayer... are Jagex taking the p-- with regards to bone prices? They are already ridiculously high.

Agreed.

[Squisher_33]

im very excited about the 93 slayer diary, and im super excited aobut the 95 prayer diary task sounds awsome, since i just bought turmoil and plenty of people wont be able to do it, however the 96 fishing sucks, but at least u can boost +5 to do it, the only single one of those 3 thats boostable so ill have to afk 91 fishing (i wanted to get 90 for morays anyways)

 

i hope these lamps arent 85+ skills only, i wish they were like 70 or 75+ so i can use on rc instead

 

or at least be able to store ur reward xp/lamps with the diary dude so u can use it later

 

still, this means tehres gonna be 6 elite diarys for me to do, 1.2m xp in rc/slayer plz

[Sylpheed]

im very excited about the 93 slayer diary, and im super excited aobut the 95 prayer diary task sounds awsome, since i just bought turmoil and plenty of people wont be able to do it, however the 96 fishing sucks, but at least u can boost +5 to do it, the only single one of those 3 thats boostable so ill have to afk 91 fishing (i wanted to get 90 for morays anyways)

 

Wild Pie disagrees.

[D Jay99]

im very excited about the 93 slayer diary, and im super excited aobut the 95 prayer diary task sounds awsome, since i just bought turmoil and plenty of people wont be able to do it, however the 96 fishing sucks, but at least u can boost +5 to do it, the only single one of those 3 thats boostable so ill have to afk 91 fishing (i wanted to get 90 for morays anyways)

 

Wild Pie disagrees.

93 slayer probably means killing an ice wyrm, need a task to kill one, cant get task without 93 base.

[Kimberly]

Z-buffering - I really don't care about graphical glitches and I think less resources should be devoted to the engine unless they have game-changing content in mind already. Gameplay always comes before tweaks like this in my book and it shouldn't be included in a content-based outline.

 

Don't you think they wouldn't make an update if they didn't plan to utilize it to the fullest? Just because they didn't say that "Z-Buffering will be used for <random>!" doesn't mean that it isn't going to be used for future big game updates. All of these seemingly innocuous updates, like this and RuneTek 5 and others, build up to allow them to do bigger and better things over time.

 

Or would you rather they just not tell you about it and leave the week blank anyway?

[Hajutze]

im very excited about the 93 slayer diary, and im super excited aobut the 95 prayer diary task sounds awsome, since i just bought turmoil and plenty of people wont be able to do it, however the 96 fishing sucks, but at least u can boost +5 to do it, the only single one of those 3 thats boostable so ill have to afk 91 fishing (i wanted to get 90 for morays anyways)

Slayer 93 - you have it - you're excited

Prayer 95 - you have it - you're super excited

Fishing 96 - you're far away from it - it sucks ...

 

I can't seem to find it .. but there is something wrong with this =/

[jsboutin2]

im very excited about the 93 slayer diary, and im super excited aobut the 95 prayer diary task sounds awsome, since i just bought turmoil and plenty of people wont be able to do it, however the 96 fishing sucks, but at least u can boost +5 to do it, the only single one of those 3 thats boostable so ill have to afk 91 fishing (i wanted to get 90 for morays anyways)

Slayer 93 - you have it - you're excited

Prayer 95 - you have it - you're super excited

Fishing 96 - you're far away from it - it sucks ...

 

I can't seem to find it .. but there is something wrong with this =/

 

Looks like it to me to.

 

By the way, the only good level is 96 fishing [/sarcasm]

[gspbeetle]

GE speculation

high requirements = bones arel going to rise

hard lumb task = free high alch + exp = sell your nature runes like nao!

[Bladewing]

95 prayer... are Jagex taking the p-- with regards to bone prices? They are already ridiculously high.

Agreed.

Like anyone who could afford 95 prayer before, but thought turmoil wasn't worth it, is going to feel the need to get 95 prayer for this diary.

 

tl;dr: no effect on the demand for bones.

[MstrMonopoly]

95 prayer... are Jagex taking the p-- with regards to bone prices? They are already ridiculously high.

Agreed.

Like anyone who could afford 95 prayer before, but thought turmoil wasn't worth it, is going to feel the need to get 95 prayer for this diary.

 

tl;dr: no effect on the demand for bones.

 

This. Elite Diaries are only going to be completed by a small portion of the RS playerbase. Most of the players are active on community sites such as this one.

 

Feel free to panic, though.

[Obtaurian]

im very excited about the 93 slayer diary, and im super excited aobut the 95 prayer diary task sounds awsome, since i just bought turmoil and plenty of people wont be able to do it, however the 96 fishing sucks, but at least u can boost +5 to do it, the only single one of those 3 thats boostable so ill have to afk 91 fishing (i wanted to get 90 for morays anyways)

Slayer 93 - you have it - you're excited

Prayer 95 - you have it - you're super excited

Fishing 96 - you're far away from it - it sucks ...

 

I can't seem to find it .. but there is something wrong with this =/

 

This is exactly how I felt when I read it. :lol:

[BloodAngel]

I wonder if we'll be required to kill Jad for the Karamja Elite Diary? Or will this bring back the whole Fire Cape for Ice Wyrms argument again? Either way I'm really looking forward to these even though I probably wont meet any of the requirements. Gives me some nice high level content to aim for :thumbup:

[Frede173]

GE speculation

high requirements = bones arel going to rise

hard lumb task = free high alch + exp = sell your nature runes like nao!

It's not like you'll get an unlimited amount of free alchs. >_> You'd probably only be able to get 2-3K Magic experience a day.

[Hajutze]

It would be nice if you can use it as a ... nature's staff (+ fire runes :thumbsup: )

[Jehosaphat]

I can already pretty much see which of the listed requirements will be for which diary, and what the task will be...

96 Fishing - Barehanded shark someplace in Fremmy

95 Prayer - Turn Turmoil on, probably someplace in Varrock as that's closest to the main areas of that quest

93 Slayer - Kill an ice wyrm/get an ice wyrm task, probably in the Fremmy area.

 

I love how Jagex just makes achievement diaries WoW-style quests. "Kill this, do this at this spot, and you get fancy new shiny thing! Yay!"