Behind the Scenes - March

[brando13a]

Well, I havnt played in over a year. I like to poke on the forums to check out updates, see whats happening with this game and what the people who still play are thinking about the state of things!

 

I have to say, being a silent observer, and former customer, the smithing update is shocking. It's been a known issue since RS2 was released that smithing and mining were no longer in sync with the flow of the rest of the skills and gameplay. By a margin of 50 levels, all smithing and mining requirements outreach their respective use levels for the products being made. Why does a level 1 item, require level 30 smithing to make? (speaking of iron) why does a level 40 item require 99 smithing? (rune obviously)

 

This disjunction has gone by the wayside because in RSC, when runescape could have sunk, and when Jagex wasnt 100% sure what they were doing or where they might go, made rune the endgame equipment, with no foreseeable plans to upgrade. Thus it made sense to make rune freaking hard to obtain. RUNEscape, it was meant to be the endall equipment. The game has evolved far, but the balance has not. Jagex has taken strides toward balancing things (poorly on most counts, but they acknowledge some of their follies) in many skills, but the difficulty curve is so outweighed by their bandaid patches (non-craftable items/rewards/ training methods).

 

The current state of things is such: smithing and mining, along with several other skills, have no uses for their level equivilant products. In their place, Jagex threw out bandaids to fill in combat without repairing the production system for creating combat equipment. Crafting level to Equip level runs at a rough 2:1 ratio, when it should be logically 1:1.

 

The logical patch: readjust smithing and mining in particular to have a near 1:1 crafting:using level requirement. Effectively, bronze is fully craftable at level 1, from dagger to platebody. Iron levels from 1-10, steel from 10-20, mithril from 20-30, adamant from 30-40, rune from 40-50. Mining would shift to match this, experience would also take a shift downwards for all items.

 

Why does jagex not do this? They've already built a whole world based around smithing in particular, to fill 50 odd levels of content and include it in the world is dauntingly gigantic! Yes it needs to be done, its the logical progression, you should be able to craft the items you'd use at the level you'd be using them. Jagex would be forced to fill the remaining levels with level appropriate content. They're just lazy, and avoiding a game changing update that is totally needed.

 

Honestly, they could release equipment improvement/enhancement, making a level 50 version of bronze, which requires a plethora of bronze and other random ingredients to make a little graphical change, and stat shift in bronze to outclass rune, and so on. It's a simple fix that requires no real changes to the system on a large scale. but no, they havnt opted to this either. They have so much opportunity, but fear change.

 

On topic- other updates look great, quests are fun and add lore and content, no one should be complainging about that addition. RoW additional uses is fantastic, teleports and increased drops, and a message to give you an actual feeling of accomplishment! GREAT! bonus exp is cool, never tried it, have fun guys.

[Emre]

I'm looking forward to the Pirate Master quest :)

[Laxaria]

My understanding of the RoW is that if it merely shows when it improves your loot, it will already be a plus in itself over it's current situation, although it's improvements seem promising.

 

gameplay improvements to the Dungeoneering skill

 

100% Dunge exp in F2P above 90 combat plx

[Range_This11]

This Smithing update is going to suck. I just know it.

[Will H]

If you really want to know, it's pretty likely that these decorative swords are valuable to the artisans, and that they can be sold, at a better xp/gp rate as opposed to the fairly significant losses associated with superheating gold at the caverns. For all we know, it might turn a profit. This is all speculation, but it's never constructive to just assume that it's going to be obsolete on release, so I have to assume that they worked out their numbers right. If we just went around saying that all of the content is already obsolete in BTS discussions, very little would ever get said.

If it is obsolete content, then we'll deal with that when the time comes.

Even if these smithable items can be sold which makes you loose less cash, how does that make Smithing useful?

 

Oh, don't get me wrong, it's still completely unnecessary. All I'm saying that it probably won't be obsolete, it might be the best way to train Smithing for plenty of levels, but it won't be useful in the way that Attack helps you hit more often or Construction lets you build a portal room.

 

Skills should help other skills or functions like transport, moneymaking and combat. If they just help themselves, it's pointless.

[Sy_Accursed]

If you really want to know, it's pretty likely that these decorative swords are valuable to the artisans, and that they can be sold, at a better xp/gp rate as opposed to the fairly significant losses associated with superheating gold at the caverns. For all we know, it might turn a profit. This is all speculation, but it's never constructive to just assume that it's going to be obsolete on release, so I have to assume that they worked out their numbers right. If we just went around saying that all of the content is already obsolete in BTS discussions, very little would ever get said.

If it is obsolete content, then we'll deal with that when the time comes.

Even if these smithable items can be sold which makes you loose less cash, how does that make Smithing useful?

 

Oh, don't get me wrong, it's still completely unnecessary. All I'm saying that it probably won't be obsolete, it might be the best way to train Smithing for plenty of levels, but it won't be useful in the way that Attack helps you hit more often or Construction lets you build a portal room.

 

Skills should help other skills or functions like transport, moneymaking and combat. If they just help themselves, it's pointless.

 

Will has very good point here just because it doesn't make the skill in itself useful as many had hoped it doesn't make it obsolete necessarily.

I mean ivy and sawmill didn't make woodcutting any more useful but they aren't obsolete.

[foursideking]

@will: smithing already helps a various amount of skills/other things though. Barrows armor, quests, fletching/ranged...without smithing, those things would be either severely tough, or would be downright annoying (imagine being forced to pay the full amount of gp to repair barrows armor). Don't get me wrong, I still think this update is gonna be fairly useless (especially for people like me who only train smithing to get quests done), but as an overall skill, smithing is still pretty useful.

[Maximusa]

Smithing is basically a dated skill. Thats not to say other skills dont need updating too. Herblore for example got a huge update a while back and is brilliant. Nearly everyone likes it and is a great addition to the game. We need more of that for some of the others. I personally wouldnt put smithing very high on the priority list at this point but doesnt mean it isnt wanted. Runescape is an old game now and its skills need to be updated to keep up.

 

Updating skills (asin major changes.) should be a priority over making new skills! ..But ofcouse.. new skills = a 10% increase in player base for a week or two.

 

OMG £££££ $$$$$$$ £££££££ $$$$$$$$$ £££££££££ CA CA CHING! + More bots to bot a new skill means even more profit! Win Win.

 

Lets make a poll asking if people want a new skill! Vote YES.. or YES..

 

No other options. No other possibilities. Can vote as many times as you want.

[Will H]

@will: smithing already helps a various amount of skills/other things though. Barrows armor, quests, fletching/ranged...without smithing, those things would be either severely tough, or would be downright annoying (imagine being forced to pay the full amount of gp to repair barrows armor). Don't get me wrong, I still think this update is gonna be fairly useless (especially for people like me who only train smithing to get quests done), but as an overall skill, smithing is still pretty useful.

 

I accept that it's not a completely useless skill. There are small things like the armour repair stand and enchanted bolts, but that's not much. Quests are par for the course, every skill is a quest requirement somewhere (aside from Dungeoneering, but that's changing this month). It still needs more stuff to do that isn't training, because what it has is a bit pathetic.

 

If you really want me to be honest, I'd rather they added more stuff that isn't training to Firemaking instead of Smithing, but that's a bit of a dream and requires a bit more of a leap of the imagination. After all what practical applications can you put on a skill that's about destroying stuff for no apparent reason?

[Bassy]

This Smithing update is going to suck. I just know it.

 

I regret to have to agree with this post. Really hoping for a big surprise here because that BTS teaser isn't appetizing at all. :sad:

[Helm_Lardar]

Really? The BTS smithing update teaser got me really excited. I hope the new swords look good though, and have special properties, and that the options for cannon improvement are unusual and can be personalised well.

[Alak_the_Great]

I can't believe I had to quit, these updates are amazing, so glad to see RoW is no longer useless.