01 Sept, 2012 - Behind the Scenes September

[BloodAngel]

God Wars: Remastered (members only)

 

We start the month with an almighty high-level bang, as we introduce a complete rework to one of the most exciting and busy areas of the game: the God Wars Dungeon.

To start with, we will completely overhaul all of the visual elements of the dungeon. The environment itself is being reshaped and redesigned to truly represent the freezing, hostile place the God Wars Dungeon was intended to be. Almost every NPC has received a complete makeover, with the boss monsters getting special attention.

We're also reworking all of the music and sound effects within the dungeon, making the update a true feast for the senses!

It’s not just a pretty place to look at. We’ve added new drops for the boss fights, giving you new reasons to fight against the magnificent K’ril and Zilyana, who will be dropping new offensive magic robes, amulets and a new crossbow! All of the bosses (including Nex) will also now drop brand-new armour parts for existing sets such as Bandos, which can currently be seen on the beta servers.

 

 

 

For those of you interested in the lore of the dungeon, each of the bosses will also have a chance of dropping journals, expanding the background stories of the characters and mysterious entities that populate the area.

All of the existing equipment associated with the dungeon will be getting a new look, including shiny godswords; Virtus, and Pernix armour; and new zaryte bows being some of the office favourites. We're changing some of the boss attacks and also some of the more annoying features of the dungeon: no need for rope or mithril grapples anymore!

 

 

Challenge System (members only) and Noticeboard (free and members)

 

For many of us, there comes a time when we're just not sure what content we should play next, whether we are a new player with so many things to choose from, or a high-level veteran with many goals and unfinished targets. To help solve this, in September we are introducing a Challenge System to give everyone a little more direction. Each player will be given a selection of Daily Challenges, based entirely around the levels that they have. These Daily Challenges can be about training your skills, playing minigames, participating in combat, all sorts of things...but completing them will give you extra XP and rewards to help you reach those elusive levels. Each day, another Daily Challenge will be added to your list, so you’ll always have something interesting to do each day that you log in.

To present these, we’ve reworked the Task List and Quest Journal tabs to produce the Noticeboard, which is your new one-stop destination to look at all of the content available to you. On it, there is a selection of pages showing a wide variety of skilling options, quests, minigames, recently added content, Tasks and Challenges.

 

 

Two New Quests (one free, one members-only) and an Al Kharid Rework!

 

Many of you will have already met Ozan, the brave, loquacious and devilishly handsome rogue who has broken hearts and locks across Gielinor. Towards the end of this month, he will star alongside you in two all new novice quests, which encompass a humongous graphical overhaul of the whole of Al Kharid. Similarly to One Piercing Note, players with any level of experience will be able to complete the quests, but players with higher stats will be able to access the unique content hidden within.

If you haven't already, check out the Al Kharid overhaul in our recent Behind the Scenes video:Together, these quests form a rollicking re-telling of the Prince Ali Rescue quest, and they'll find you climbing, jumping and tumbling through the newly updated streets and rooftops of one of RuneScape’s oldest cities. You’ll need all your cunning and thievish guile as you tail marks, steal artefacts and dabble in a little political manoeuvring.

It’s a real sandstorm of an adventure, taking influence from both the traditional Arabian Nightsstories and more modern big-budget Hollywood action adventure films. All of the content will be fully voice-acted, and it will feature some of the most fantastic set pieces, most beautiful locations and most beguiling puzzles to be found in RuneScape. They're also a great lead-in to the rest of the desert quest series.

 

 

 

The basic rewards are focused around low-level players, with a new area, titles and equipment available, but there’s plenty more hidden for those with a keen eye for exploration and the right levels.

 

 

Botany Bay (free and members)

 

As you have no doubt read, we're almost ready to reveal our latest and greatest blow against the evil botters that pollute the game. While the Engine and System teams have been fixing, testing and improving the system, we thought it would be great if all players were able to get involved in punishing these clockwork menaces...so we’ve created Botany Bay.

 

 

 

After a cheating, rule-breaking, botting account has been caught in the act, they will be teleported to Botany Bay: a new location, hidden on a dark, foreboding island and run by the Botfinder General. Here, real players will be invited to listen to a fully voiced speech from the General, while pelting the offender with rotten tomatoes. You'll then be invited to choose one of three game-ending punishments for the offender, resulting in a brutal set of animations and a permanent ban. You’ll be able to hear about ongoing trials via the announcers that sit near several busy in-game locations. They will also offer a handy teleport to anyone nearby.

For those actually voting and choosing the account-ending punishments, you’ll also be able to access new cosmetic rewards, including a flaming pitchfork emote.

We’ve also got a new Postbag from the Hedge as your letters are answered by some of the weirdest and wildest of your favourite NPCs, and a selection of new items and rewards via Solomon’s store and the Squeal of Fortune.

Don’t forget to check out the Behind the Scenes videos for more info, as well as live Q&As: first with Senior Narrative Designer Mod Osborne, and then with CEO Mark Gerhard and VP Daniel Clough!

Have fun!

Mod Mark

RuneScape Lead Designer

[Jon Arcane]

Ban ALL the bots! And my suspicion of new mage robes to go along with Bandos/Armadyl was correct :)

[Kaur]

Botany bay sounds retarded but the rest looks awesome. One of the best BTS-s this year.

[Saradomin_Mage]

At last, lol. Finally a good month.

I see a LOT of new comp/trim reqs up there :P

 

Also laughed at Botany Bay, I really, really didn't think they'd ever come up with some in-game bot punishment method like that. Interested to see how/if it works.

[Sylpheed]

One of the best looking months for a long time. Looking forward to pretty much all this months content.

 

Also, lol at Botany Bay, it sounds like a reimagining of Thordur's black hole.

[Ezkaton]

Best BTS I have read in a long long long while... Probably as Kaur said - best one this year.

 

4 weeks of actual content... 2 reworks, 2 quests, challenge system sounds really cool.

 

I can almost believe that this is being made by a company called Jagex... Rather than IVPex.

[Ishamael]

No bonus xp anymore or what?

[Bxpprod]

Real suave Jagex. Continuing the theme of sending criminals to Australia. Racist [bleep]s. (Also 5 points for Historical References that most people won't know)

 

(For those who don't know, Botany Bay is the place Cpt Cook arrived in Aus and was originally planned to have a penal colony. Yes, I get the pun.)

 

Moreover I'm really looking forward to the GWD overhaul. Gunna have to get some pvm gear ready.

 

 

Botany bay sounds retarded but the rest looks awesome. One of the best BTS-s this year.

 

See above.

 

No bonus xp anymore or what?

 

Old news. Was posted a fair while ago that BXPW would be removed and "replaced" with other things.

[Miss Lioness]

I must say, when I read this BTS, I was thrilled =3.

 

And I would love to see the black hole return as I wished for years.

[Saradomin_Mage]

Just realised that this BTS doesn't mention anything SOF/SGS related, lol. Easily the best thing written this year!

[Ezkaton]

Thinking about it though... Once everyone has the pitchfork emote I can't see why anyone else would ever go there, just look at the Disc of Returning, sort of idea really... Hmmm.

[Sylpheed]

Just realised that this BTS doesn't mention anything SOF/SGS related, lol. Easily the best thing written this year!

 

You might want to read the last paragraph of the post.

[Sy_Accursed]

Real suave Jagex. Continuing the theme of sending criminals to Australia. Racist [bleep]s. (Also 5 points for Historical References that most people won't know)

 

(For those who don't know, Botany Bay is the place Cpt Cook arrived in Aus and was originally planned to have a penal colony. Yes, I get the pun.)

 

Moreover I'm really looking forward to the GWD overhaul. Gunna have to get some pvm gear ready.

 

It's hardly racist considering it has NOTHING to do with race.

 

Anyways I like the sound of this month.

Botany Bay may be slightly 'dead content' BUUUUT the announcements of trials and getting players involved gives a much more clear show that Jagex is punishing people. It's harder to claim 'jagex does nothing' when you can go and see it happening in-game.

b

GWD sounds nice, the new bow and magic stuff sounds intriguing. Would seem they are indeed filling out the Bandos/Aramdyl tier with something other than Ganodermic. Also good to hear the Bandos shield, helm, gloves etc. are going to start leaking in to game pre-EoC; since the 'average' player seems to be around Bandos or Nex level these days they are certainly the new armour pieces we need the most in the market ready for EoC. Plus bolstering the Lore with journals is nice. (Inb4 comp cape req all gwd journals)

 

Two Quests sounds good, though slightly concerned one kinda sounds like they just re-made prince ali rescue; but still if it's better and we can replay I like. Also hidden high lvl rewards on par with one piercing note? Yes please! Also sounds good that they are creating a lead into the overall desert lore with these quests.

 

Challenging system sounds a bit meh, could be fun and handy but seeing as I have plans don;t see me using it much. Also kinda concerned about what they are doing tab wise seeing as they mentioned altering tasks AND quest tabs to make this new 'notice board'

[Demoli]

Just realised that this BTS doesn't mention anything SOF/SGS related, lol. Easily the best thing written this year!

 

It does have a small quip at the end, nothing to worry about really.

 

Amazing month ahead, filled to the brim with content, and 2, 2! new quests. Couldn't be happier.

[Bxpprod]

It's hardly racist considering it has NOTHING to do with race.

 

[Pinata]

Finally a month that I'm looking forward to all updates listed! I personally love the graphics updates of the environments.

[Den]

Just realised that this BTS doesn't mention anything SOF/SGS related, lol. Easily the best thing written this year!

 

You might want to read the last paragraph of the post.

^ - They're still IVPex. Remember this.

 

Looking away from all the moneygrabbing updates they will release this month. The real content shown here is making September look like one of the better months this year. I look forward to almost every update.

[Jolletzu]

Gah, getting journals will be hard as [bleep], not that the bosses are hard, but that there will be shiton of other players trying to do the same :c

[Jonanananas]

What bothers me about the quests are the following lines:

 

"Many of you will have already met Ozan, the brave, loquacious and devilishly handsome rogue who has broken hearts and locks across Gielinor. Towards the end of this month, he will star alongside you in two all new novice quests."

 

and

 

"Together, these quests form a rollicking re-telling of the Prince Ali Rescue quest."

 

 

So, first of all, we have Ozan, which is just another one of those cliché signature heroes that until now, have always disappointed me, whereever they featured.

 

And secondly, both of those "epic" quests that MMG promised in his letter *together* now form a retelling of a pretty old quest with no particularly exciting storyline?

 

I hate to be negative about content that's not out yet, but I'm not holding my breath for those quests. Also, does this mean prince ali rescue will get removed?

[Star.]

As you have no doubt read, we're almost ready to reveal our latest and greatest blow against the evil botters that pollute the game.

This part I disagree with the most :V

[Equenox]

Not a huge fan of the Zammy robes design, but this month looks like a big improvement over what we've been having recently.

 

Roll on September.

[Arceus]

If Botany Bay isn't naming and shaming...

[Den]

I just realized this was posted on a Saturday. Have we ever had BTS newsposts on Saturdays before? :unsure:

Not complaining, just surprised it wasn't postponed until Monday like usual.

[Arceus]

Yes Den, I believe we have. However, I'm not going to go digging now, sorry.

[Plugpoint]

I don't get why they wouldn't just instaban the bots rather spend ages making a special island that advertises the fact that there's a bot problem. Once everyone's got their emote and it becomes dead content, what's the point in it existing?

 

Aside from that, this is the best BTS I've read since I returned to 'scape.