[Real] 01-Apr-2011 - Behind the Scenes - April

[Sephy_]

Behind the Scenes April

 

All joking aside, April is a month of joy, be that dreamily toiling on a magical lunar farm, official support for RuneScape clans, celebrating life with a revised death mechanic, seeing in spring with the Easter holiday event, or joining in on the celebrations of a very real royal wedding.

 

Livid Farm

 

This month, Lokar Searunner pirate and rogue will plunder the Jade Vine for a cutting. His plan? To convince the Moon Clan to make it even more dangerous than your average Jade Vine. Then he plans to sell the resulting livid to Rellekka for chestfuls of gold...

 

Poor Pauline Polaris, utterly charmed by Lokar, has been left to tend the Livid Farm on Lunar Isle. Help her out by using your lunar spells to fertilise the soil, cure the livid, bunch them together, fix fenceposts and energise Pauline, and you will receive Magic, Farming, Crafting, Construction and Agility XP for doing so. The Livid Farm is ideal for those looking to train a number of skills at once, and is fast-paced, with the plants growing and being harvested in a matter of seconds.

 

Help Pauline harvest enough produce and youll be able to unlock eight new lunar spells. The Remote Farming spell allows you to check the status of your patches and cure them; Repair Rune Pouch unsurprisingly repairs and reinforces your rune pouches; and youll be able to deal fiery death with Vengeance Group. Unlock all spells and youll get wishes, which offer temporary effects as wide-ranging as vialling your herbs automatically and raining seeds about your feet.

 

You will be able to cast each spell in the Lunar Farm without their required Magic level, but youll gain less XP and the rewards will come more slowly. The Livid Farm itself will only be accessible to those with the following requirements:

 

Lunar Diplomacy

Magic level 70

Farming level 60

Crafting level 60

Construction level 50

 

The Clan Camp

 

As announced last week, Tuesday 12 April will see the release of true in-game support for RuneScapes many clans, and for those who arent yet part of a clan. The Clan Camp will be setting up just outside of Faladors south wall, becoming a hub for all clan activity, be that setting up a clan, recruitment, arranging events or just for private and public meetings.

 

Your first port of call should be the clan scribe, who will help you to officially register your clan and personalise it with a clan motif, colours and motto. The colours and motif you pick will be reflected in your clan cloak and on your vexillum, a wieldable flagstaff that can be used as a tool to recruit other players for your clan.

 

Other features of the camp include the ability to set up public or private meetings (say, by clan rank), set up events and have clan votes. Then theres Rated Clan Wars with RuneScapes clans becoming fully recognised by the rest of the community, it will only be natural to prove which is the best To support all of these in-game tools, therell also be website features too, including a clan homepage, stats, hiscores and clan forums.

 

Items Kept on Death Changes

 

Dying in RuneScape will become slightly less painful later this month as we introduce the concept of Limbo. If you die in any unsafe, non-PVP area, you will be prompted to choose which items you retain (following the existing rules for how many items you keep on death); also, certain types of items will always be kept on death most notably coins, but also most quest-specific items and common, low-value items such as tinderboxes, fishing rods and the like.

You will then be given a choice of where you respawn be that any of the respawn points youve unlocked (i.e. Lumbridge, Falador, Camelot or Soul Wars) or the last respawn hub you passed through (typically, the last major settlement you visited). Once you have respawned, youll be free to hunt down your gravestone to attempt to retrieve those items you did not keep.

 

Please note that the death mechanic used in the Wilderness and other dangerous PvP activities will not be changing from how it currently is, other than that your most valuable items will be decided by their Grand Exchange guide price, not their alch value.

 

Holly and Hawthorn (Easter 2011)

 

This years Easter holiday event sees the official changing of the seasons, as the Queen of Snow hands things over to the Queen of Sunrise, allowing winter to pass in to spring. At least it would if someone hadnt stolen the ceremonial year baton! What is normally a simple ceremony is edging towards bitter rivalry. If you dont commune with the elements and track down the year baton, we could all be forever trapped in winter...

 

While all that is going on, youll also be able to side with either winter or spring by chopping down seasonal trees. Free-players will be able to fell holly trees to help bring in springtime, while members have the additional choice of chopping down hawthorn trees to side with winter. The Season Tree will keep track of how things are going, and the Land of Holly and Hawthorn will sway between the seasons based on how many of each tree is cut down.

 

Everyone who pitches in will earn this events holiday item, but members will get the added option of making it more than just cosmetic, by charging it with the ability to locate (and teleport them to) evil trees around RuneScape, much like communing with a spirit tree. This additional function will only be available for a month after the event ends.

 

Royal Wedding

 

The marriage of Prince William to Kate Middleton on Friday 29 April brings with it a public holiday (in the UK), much reason for celebration and a party mood. To reflect that party spirit, towards the end of April, some of RuneScapes own royalty will be getting in on the act...

 

Tis a tale of a Wildy-crossed monsters, you see, as the royalty in question is the King Black Dragon and the Kalphite Queen! Not that well get to see the ceremony (theyre a very private couple), but any excuse for a party, right? So, to celebrate, Diango will be selling some party items, including confetti, bouquets of flowers, fireworks, bubble makers, firecrackers and commemorative mugs.

 

Have fun!

 

 

Mod Mark

RuneScape Lead Designer

[Jimmyw3000]

gf luring

[999134]

not much to look forward to this month then, fake bts looked more fun.

 

will this mean rapier/untradables will always be lost pking L

[Hegelstad]

This is really good new, it seems like they have created a good frame and infrastructure for the new clan system, and i expect that it won't be another jamflex fail actually.

 

Also nice to see a end of luring and overpriced barrows helmets :P

[haqiang]

venge group ftw?

[Da2Shae]

not much to look forward to this month then, fake bts looked more fun.

 

will this mean rapier/untradables will always be lost pking L

It really did, although either way I don't have any of the skill requirements. So many highlevel skills reqs this year.

[Sylpheed]

Other than for Dg Vengence Group really is a pointless spell.

 

Clan camp will be good(ish) for people who are already in a clan, but pretty useless for the majority. The Livid Farm is pretty much the only actual content update for this month, good job it sounds like a good addition.

[ReapMe]

How would the items kept on death work if you lagg out?

[Obtaurian]

Livid Farm looks interesting. Excited for the clan updates. New death mechanics are WTF-worthy, but nice I guess. Holiday event is [developmentally delayed]ed, as per usual.

 

And yeah, group vengeance better be available in dg. I can see it being somewhat useful.

[Nopenope]

Fake BTS sounded better.

[Will H]

Livid farm: Awesome! Vengeance group sounds fun, I hope you can use it in Daemonheim.

 

Clan Camp: The actual camp seems a bit pointless, and it's going to make the map even more cramped, but the general idea of formally supporting clans is great. I would prefer if they made construction and POH's an integral part of member's clans, but you can't have everything.

 

Items Kept on Death Changes: I'm guessing this is about stopping people dropping four dragon longswords in the Wilderness, although I'm not sure what's the point of giving us the choice of what we lose outside the Wilderness. Why not save development time and make the death mechanic inside and outside the wilderness identical?

[Sinkhan]

*hopes that livid farm means we'll have a super fast way to the island that's not teletabs :pray:*

[vettro]

Did they really need to make dying less of a big deal? Like fifteen minutes wasn't enough time? It's not anti-luring because it doesn't work in the wild..... I'm still mildly optimistic about the Farm thing.

[Will H]

*hopes that livid farm means we'll have a super fast way to the island that's not teletabs :pray:*

 

Lunar house portals?

[LinkOlaran]

I would assume in the case of dc'ing or lagging out, items kept on death would be based on the old system - highest value according to high alch apparently not, now that I reread and see that items will now be kept on ge value, not high alch value. That alone is interesting (and I completely missed it the first two times I read it somehow >.>)...

 

The Lunar Farm thing and the Easter event look interesting as well, I would probably do evil trees more (at least for a month after the event, after noticing yet another thing I missed -.-). The new Lunar spells should be interesting as well, the Remote Farming may end up being useful, depending on it's cost and how fast you can cast it and cure your crops. Not to mention the rc pouch repair one... interesting. It also reinforces the pouches, I wonder if that's just flavor text, or if it actually makes the pouches last longer before decaying...?

 

Oh, and if Venge Group is enabled in DG, I'd enjoy that - if I ever get a chance, I do try to cast venge on my team mates, but it's kinda... slow, only having the one cast every 30 seconds.

 

Overall a good month.

[Vex]

Fake BTS sounded better.

 

Looks like I won't have to leave Daemonheim this month.

[pulli23]

Dying in RuneScape will become slightly less painful later this month as we introduce the concept of Limbo. If you die in any unsafe, non-PVP area, you will be prompted to choose which items you retain (following the existing rules for how many items you keep on death); also, certain types of items will always be kept on death most notably coins, but also most quest-specific items and common, low-value items such as tinderboxes, fishing rods and the like.

 

WHAT THE HELL?

 

is this a second april's fools?

 

Really why make it even LESS bad to die? It is already amazingly stupid if you die, and you can get 99% of the time back in time with ease.. (And the other 1% you often go with teams)

[Rohanlord]

Kalphite Queen + King Black Dragon? It's the kids I feel sorry for...

[Pirkka]

Well, this month seems very lacking. If I was the one to unsubscribe during dull months, this would seriously be the month.

[Ezz]

As if super long Gravestones weren't enough :roll:

 

It'll be fun to see the new Lunar spells though.

[jettrider]

I hope this one is a joke too

[Sylpheed]

Dying in RuneScape will become slightly less painful later this month as we introduce the concept of Limbo. If you die in any unsafe, non-PVP area, you will be prompted to choose which items you retain (following the existing rules for how many items you keep on death); also, certain types of items will always be kept on death most notably coins, but also most quest-specific items and common, low-value items such as tinderboxes, fishing rods and the like.

 

WHAT THE HELL?

 

is this a second april's fools?

 

Really why make it even LESS bad to die? It is already amazingly stupid if you die, and you can get 99% of the time back in time with ease.. (And the other 1% you often go with teams)

 

It always makes me laugh at the rage when Jagex change death mechanics. For a forum that constantly makes comparisons between Rs and WoW why doesn't anyone make mention of the fact that you lose nothing when you die in WoW?

 

Also, the only people this really affects are lurers, I'll never understand why people want to lose all their stuff on death, unless you like to self harm.

[haqiang]

Other than for Dg Vengence Group really is a pointless spell.

 

Clan camp will be good(ish) for people who are already in a clan, but pretty useless for the majority. The Livid Farm is pretty much the only actual content update for this month, good job it sounds like a good addition.

i can see venge group being used to kill mages in soul war for getting mass heal from soul split and barrages, its dead useful, also it could be useful in nex if group can rotate venge on aoe

[Riemis]

So, to celebrate, Diango will be selling some party items, including confetti, bouquets of flowers, fireworks, bubble makers, firecrackers and commemorative mugs.

 

Selling cracker 1b!

[oliboli1992]

Veng nex on her blood stage.... should go fairly quickly if if everyone's venged..... or if everyone casted veng group every turn...