DevBlog - Elite Tasks - Development

[Sylpheed]

Well, its been a long hard road, but were getting there! Development is coming to a close on the Elite Achievement Diaries. This has been completed in between me training three new content developers (Mod Raven, Mod Jack and Mod Ana), and developing Shattered Heart, Familiarisation and a couple of other projects! Ive been a very busy squirrel.

 

 

Diary developments

When I first wrote about this project in the first Elite Tasks - Design dev blog last November, I was at the very beginning of the design process writing down what I thought could constitute the Elite diaries. This was made a lot easier, as Id previously had a great many suggestions from you, the players, for good tasks and rewards to include. Id say about 50-75% of the tasks we ended up using were suggested by players.

 

Since that blog, we also decided to expand this project by looking back at the previous rewards to make them work more consistently with each other. As most Achievement Diaries were developed by different people, each was implemented in a slightly different way. For example, some put teleport toggles on objects, others put them on NPCs. So Mod Mark and I created a set of guidelines and applied them to all previous rewards. Youll find a lot of the old rewards now dont require you to wear the corresponding piece of kit to receive the benefits they offer.

 

 

Kitted out

Coming up with rewards is always the hard part of an Achievement Diary, especially rewards that are valued by the player and which dont cause problems from a balancing perspective. For example, we dont want to ruin the game by allowing everyone with Karamja gloves to be invulnerable while wearing them. I think we have ended up with a good mix of rewards for skillers and combat lovers, and, as much as possible, themed them to the areas of the diaries.

 

With the release of this elite tier of diary tasks, weve tried to unify the look of the complete kit a little. Not so much that it all looks like it was designed to go together, but enough that it looks good when worn in full. Each piece was, after all, crafted by a completely different culture, with their own methods and tools. To do this, the legs for the kit had to be designed at the same time, but theyll not become available until a future Achievement Diary is released (where that will be set and when it will be released is something we have yet to decide). I really like the end result and I hope you do too.

 

 

 

Elite kit concept art

 

My link

 

Where is it?

 

Elite kit in-game

 

My link

 

So, whats next?

 

After development, the project went through a period of review and feedback. Multiple people played through and evaluated the content to make sure things felt and played right, and fitted in the game well. All of this feedback was collated and then I implemented the bits we all agreed on.

 

Were currently in the full QA phase of the project, where the code is tested and bugs squished, and, as you may have seen in the Behind the Scenes - September newspost, were hoping to release this update later this month!

 

I look forward to hearing all of your opinions after release!

[Racheya]

I have to say the rewards look much better now. I'm also more enthused to hear that they're changing the rewards a bit so you don't always have to wear the armour - that's really great. I'm actually looking forward to the diary update now. :thumbup:

[Dax]

Looks badass. Though I already know I won't be able to manage said levels.

[Neos_Matrix]

Hm, I wonder which diary the legs are from.. :huh:

[Mercifull]

Hopefully I'll be able to do some of them, the 95 prayer task will be out if my league for the foreseeable future tho :(

[Smapla]

very cool. and having teleport toggle options on equipment would be nice. also i'd like to see some consistency with the primary use option on these items. the first option of wearable equipment should be to wear it... not to use it to alchemize things or to restore your prayer

[Michael]

Be good if some things that required the wearing of the items were made available without having to wear them.

[Dax]

Hm, I wonder which diary the legs are from.. :huh:

 

I'm voting Morytania and such. Last large place to explore.

 

That, or if they want to be badass, the Wilderness.

[Dreezer]

omg, that set looks really good <3:

shame i won't have the lvl's to get it :wall:

[Michael]

Kharidian Desert, or Morytania, doubt they'd do a Wilderness Diary.

[timmmmm83]

Concept art looks a lot nicer than the in-game armour...

[Riemis]

Concept art looks a lot nicer than the in-game armour...

If you want it to look the same, you'll have to wait until runescape gets a new shader, more detailed bitmap textures and a higher polycount.

But since it's a browser game, that will take a while ;)

[xpx]

The picture-art of the diary rewards being worn looks really good, but the ingame picture looks louzy and way too robotic...lets hope for the best.

[@Dan3HitU]

Hopefully I'll be able to do some of them, the 95 prayer task will be out if my league for the foreseeable future tho :(

Bonus XP Weekend? ;)

[Frede173]

Hopefully I'll be able to do some of them, the 95 prayer task will be out if my league for the foreseeable future tho :(

Bonus XP Weekend? ;)

POH altars and ectofungus don't give bonus experience during the BXPW. <_<

[Maximusa]

Its nice that each piece should be unique but its greater that it all matches up for a set. I think it looks alright and is better than being different.

 

That whole talk about still 'trying' to be different from eachother looks like bull though.. its completely made to be a set now.

 

The most unique looking item there is the gloves. They are green. I can forgive that little detail lol.

[timmmmm83]

Concept art looks a lot nicer than the in-game armour...

If you want it to look the same, you'll have to wait until runescape gets a new shader, more detailed bitmap textures and a higher polycount.

But since it's a browser game, that will take a while ;)

I would settle for a darker shade though. :)

 

Concept art is darker than the in-game grey

[Grimy_Bunyip]

Kharidian Desert, or Morytania, doubt they'd do a Wilderness Diary.

neither kharidian desert nor morytania were on the list when jagex made a poll of "what should the next diary be"

 

the only two that were on that list, and havent been released, are Burthorpe and gnome stronghold.

 

Seeing as you get agility legs from the gnome stronghold agility course, i'd say gnome stronghold is most likely the leg diary.

[sohkmj1]

Hmmm... is it just me, or does the concept plate armour look too much like dungeoneering gear? :/

[Grimy_Bunyip]

Hmmm... is it just me, or does the concept plate armour look too much like dungeoneering gear? :/

it's just jagex's new art style.

You could say the same about the new cwars decorative armors.

[Ezkaton]

As mentioned earlier..... Where did the legs come from? They obviously wont change the Lumby Diary from the ring...... So Elven/Canifis Diary?

[Amundogus2]

As mentioned earlier..... Where did the legs come from? They obviously wont change the Lumby Diary from the ring...... So Elven/Canifis Diary?

Lrn2read ;) the blog says they just created them so they could create the entire set at once, to fit in with eachother. The legs will be released with a future achievement diary, which isn't even in development at the moment.

[Goldenjkered]

I could imagine an elite task for the Wilderness diary now; Solo the Corporal Beast. :D

[Frede173]

I could imagine an elite task for the Wilderness diary now; Solo the Corporal Beast. :D

How about NO :blink:

[SanNo1]

I could imagine an elite task for the Wilderness diary now; Solo the Corporal Beast. :D

Was thinking the exact same thing.

Just my luck, I've been saving for 95 pray and now something like this comes out which will probably make the bones go up a few hundred gp #-o