Behind The Scenes: December

[Urza285]

Behind the Scenes: December

12 hours ago

Winter Weekends

 

To celebrate this fantastic time of year' date=' we've filled your plate with wintery weekends and a funky festive aura, which will complement the quest and minigame meat like a tasty sauce. Anyone who signs up for membership over December will be given an aura which, when activated, will add a 50% bonus to XP gained within the next 30 minutes. It also gives you a set of wings themed around snowflakes. In addition, we're hosting a variety of special weekends over December, giving double boss drops, double XP in certain skills, double Dungeoneering tokens and even a special snowman-themed community event. It’s going to be a great month, so get involved!

 

 

TzHaar Grandmaster Quest: 'The Brink of Extinction' – Members Only

 

In this Grandmaster finale to the TzHaar storyline, you'll be asked to resolve the differences between the Ga'al, TzHaar and TokHaar by using a fiery combination of wits, knowledge and the sheer, unbridled potency of the new combat system. You’ll have to fight your way through waves of vicious foes and burn through tricky puzzles, as you march forward to the ultimate goal – bringing the city back from the brink of extinction. With fantastic graphics, voiced characters and full integration with the EoC, it’s the flaming hot action we’ve all been longing for.

 

As with any Grandmaster quest, the rewards are particularly awesome. Not only are the XP rewards some of the biggest we have ever awarded, we'll allow you to smith obsidian armour (particularly useful when fighting volcano-dwelling critters), and unlock a brand new single-player combat training area.

 

 

Requirements for the quest are as follows:

 

80 Defence

80 Smithing

72 Mining

The Elder Kiln

If your allegiance tends towards the TokHaar, Solomon will have three tiers of cosmetic armour reskins for sale, based on the ancient race.

 

Player-Owned Ports – Members Only

 

I first mentioned the idea of Player-Owned Ports at Runefest last year, and it’s something we’ve been working hard on ever since. This month, after months of plank-walking, kraken-dodging and sail-hoisting, it’ll be ready! Arrrr! That it be!

 

Player-Owned Ports is a massive minigame where you can build and manage the port, your ships and your crewmen - ships, sailors, captains and adventurers - and explore the realm of the Eastern Lands!

 

Building the port itself is a simple matter of creating and upgrading buildings by using the resources your pirates traders bring back from their exotic adventures. The better your port, the better the shipmates you attract to your fleet. The strategy lies in equipping and preparing your ships for any eventuality, finding the right crew for the job and choosing the right voyages to undertake. And there are HUNDREDS of voyages that occur in real-time, meaning you can go back to the surface world and go about your normal business while your crew do all the hard work.

 

 

Accessing the port requires at least level 90 in one of the following skills: Herblore, Prayer, Runecrafting, Thieving, Slayer or Fishing. Each skill attracts a different adventurer, who has their own deep, mysterious storyline to investigate, unlocking more and more of the fabled Eastern Lands. If you want to explore ALL of the content that the ports can offer, you’ll need at least level 90 in all of those skills.

 

There are heaps of new rewards to be accessed as your crew brings back the rare and elusive items of the eastern archipelagos. There are so many rewards, in fact, that we can only give a taster here:

 

New level 85 equipment for rangers, mages and warriors. These need to be crafted, runecrafted or smithed by players with 90+ in those skills

A brand new, 'highest-healing-ever' food type (90+ Cooking to cook)

New scrimshaw items that can be carried in a brand new 'pocket' slot, offering a range of skilling and combat benefits (90+ Fletching to make).

Of course, no update would be complete without some fantastic new graphics and audio, and the ports have those by the barrel load! Not only is it fully voiced and features some fantastic shanties (look out for a special shanty in an up-and-coming video) but the Graphics team have really pushed the boat out with some amazing buildings, ships and characters, all of which really bring the update to life.

 

Solomon will also be opening Davy Jones' Locker to reveal various sailor outfits (east and west) and nautical hairstyles and beards.

 

A Stray in a Manger – Free and Members

 

 

The poor old Varrock dog has had it bad for the last few years, and this Christmas you’ll have the chance to turn his flea-bitten, mangy life around! In a special update more akin to the Christmas events of old, you’ll be able to clean up a pack of stray dogs, build a permanent kennel in your choice of RuneScape city, and turn the dogs into a pack of Christmas reindeer, all geared up to help with Pet Christmas.

 

You’ll also be able to hunt special Christmas snow implings around the game world, gaining plenty of stocking fillers like bubble blowers, snowballs and special Christmas food.

 

There will be plenty of special RuneScape presents available for those players who get involved with a RuneScape-wide game of Pass-the-Parcel. In this Christmas variant, you'll find Santa beards and sacks, and plenty of god-themed accessories for your kennel, including Zaros chew toys and a Guthix flea circus! That's right, the fleas get re-homed too, and they get to play with high wires, flaming rings and unicycles.

 

Christmas is a great time of year to enjoy with your friends and family, so we are making some changes to our 'Refer a Friend' system, offering you extra rewards when introducing RuneScape to others.

 

Santa will also be crash landing this month, scattering presents across Gielinor for marauding monsters to pick up. Defeat the creatures, collect the presents and return them to Santa to be rewarded with gifts of your own, with greater prizes for those who find complete sets of certain present types. Yelps will be getting in on the act, so you'll have an alternative method of gaining presents on the Squeal of Fortune.

 

Pet Update

 

The stray dog has had a profound effect on the RuneScape team - so much so that, this month, we’ve been taking a look at the way pets function in the game. We wanted to improve the interactions between master and pet, so we will make a few changes to encourage more players to find a cuddly (or ferocious) friend for Christmas. Most noticeably, we are removing the need to feed or carry your pets, since they will be accessible from the new customisation interface.

 

We are also adding two brand-new, re-colourable and re-nameable pets to Solomon’s store, each with their own unique set of powers.

 

God Statue Construction D&D – Members Only

 

For our final update of the year, we're adding a new monthly D&D that could earn you Construction, Slayer and Prayer XP. Simply put, you'll be able to build statues dedicated to a variety of gods by solving puzzles based around an ingenious mix of physical scaffolding and code-breaking gameplay. Sound strange? Not as strange as the sculptor who's designed the holy landmarks dotted around the world. It's available to players with any Construction level, and is all set to end the year with a real bang.

 

Have fun...and here’s wishing you a most excellent Christmas from myself and the RS team.

 

Mod Mark

Design Director – RuneScape

 

Discuss this here.

 

What is a 'Behind the Scenes' article?

 

Behind the Scenes is a sneak peek at the planned game updates that we hope to launch in the coming month.

 

This, however, is only a plan; not a promise that a particular update will be released in a particular way or at a particular time. To get you the highest quality updates as quickly as possible, we usually keep on tweaking and testing right up until the moment before release, so sometimes things change or take a bit longer than expected. We aren't afraid to change our plan if necessary, as we will never launch an update before it is ready.

[Urza285]

Holy cow I'm so stoked for the ports update. I mean damn no one saw a second equip slot either. We all knew we would have to smith things and craft things as well for rangers. I remember calling out that we might get some new food. Also I'm not sure if we have to rely on stocking the crew or port building supplies from the outside. They seem to confidently portray all stock will come from the minigame itself. One thing that really interests me will be seeing our ships come and go. Timing voyages like all them FarmVille zombies seems like the core running mechanic as well. So I think we may have a long minigame much like castlewars with rewards sparse between. I am interested if voyages will go as low as 5, 30 or even 60 minutes. I would imagine we would see 4, 6, 12, 24 hour, and 2-7 day voyages as well for the particularly tricky and very high end areas.

 

On another note no one saw the pet update coming so suddenly. I think everyone pretty much accepted it as something that got snowballed into the EOS (evolution of summoning). I'm excited the feeding mechanic got ousted because it was always a drag when you wanted to tour around with your chameleon or baby dragon. I always thought that they were old enough to forage for themselves so why need to feed them?

[Saradomin_Mage]

There's a Solomon/SoF reference at the end of every piece of content :D (except the statues).

 

I was under the impression that PoP would extend to level 99 gear, and require level 99 skills too, but I guess they might roll those out in a later batch. Looks interesting and somewhat self-sustaining too (and least it doesn't look like it will need surface resources) so I'm quite pumped for it.

[Poppe]

Sounds like a pretty good month to me, especially looking forward to the first two updates. Worried about the new D&D statue update for trimmed comp friends XD. Hopefully it isn't time limited like shattered hearts is... think people with trim will be mildly annoyed at a few months to go it back :P

[Scherzo]

Oh wow, self control until the last exam the 17'th is going to be difficult.

[Urza285]

Truly an epic month to end the year. I find that jagex has a way of saving the best for last each year.

 

 

[Sy_Accursed]

I'm loving the sound of all this.

 

But I'm looking at that slayer req on ports and I'm like ARTUHBFNJLDVBJLNEF update I actually need to train for. Admittedly I'm not far off, but still this is kind a first for many years. (I mean sure theres bit and bobs I can't do like making gano gear and a few slayer beasts; but I sort of only count requirements on playing an piece of content not just a monster or an item)

[Kaida23]

A return to proper holiday events! :thumbsup:

[SwreeTak]

Looks awesome. I can't wait. I might actually go get those last herblore and prayer levels to 90 just because of the ports...:)

[Soa]

A return to proper holiday events! :thumbsup:

I was reminded of xmas event 2005 when I read that.

[MotherBrainII]

I'm really not impressed with runecrafting being made a combat skill. Unless it suddenly becomes viable to spend out on Runecrafting to get XP rates of 200K per hour or more, this new magic armour will be out of reach for pretty much everyone. (Unless the new armours are tradeable, which I very much doubt.)

 

Call me a pessimist, but I like this game because unlike most class-based games, you can be good at whatever you want to be good at with one account. But I think that since 2009, they've taken it too far and we're getting to the point of "to be good at anything, you need to be good at everything". Or, to put it another way, I'm tired of top-tier content in one skill arbitrarily requiring incredibly high levels in completely unrelated skills.

[Urza285]

I'm really not impressed with runecrafting being made a combat skill. Unless it suddenly becomes viable to spend out on Runecrafting to get XP rates of 200K per hour or more, this new magic armour will be out of reach for pretty much everyone.

No duh its not a combat skill and smithing aint a combat skill either is it? Maybe it's a forshadowing that runecrafting will be the method of crafting higher sought after 'magical' items such as robes and such?

[MotherBrainII]

No duh its not a combat skill and smithing aint a combat skill either is it?

 

No, but herblore is, and I don't want to see every other production skill go the same way.

 

(The same complaint does apply to smithing and crafting, but it's less important because you can at least powertrain those skills if you have enough money.)

[Urza285]

No duh its not a combat skill and smithing aint a combat skill either is it?

 

No, but herblore is, and I don't want to see every other production skill go the same way.

 

(The same complaint does apply to smithing and crafting, but it's less important because you can at least powertrain those skills if you have enough money.)

Herblore is not a combat skill.

 

The only combat skills we have are attack, strength, defense, constitution, magic, ranged. Prayer and summoning are moreso pseudo-combat skills because they are augments or complimentary to the system. Materials being gathered from both are largely produced from combat and the skills used mostly within combat.

 

With that said the concept of herblore is to boost or compliment something. Jagex has largely made herblore as a viable augment for combat. The day we see people with a healing class and herblore the base contributor to how healing works I will then agree with you.

[MotherBrainII]

No duh its not a combat skill and smithing aint a combat skill either is it?

 

No, but herblore is, and I don't want to see every other production skill go the same way.

 

(The same complaint does apply to smithing and crafting, but it's less important because you can at least powertrain those skills if you have enough money.)

Herblore is not a combat skill.

 

Of course it's not. That's why it adds to your combat ability (once you get past 88) and why every good boss hunting team in the last three years has a herblore requirement.

[Urza285]

No duh its not a combat skill and smithing aint a combat skill either is it?

 

No, but herblore is, and I don't want to see every other production skill go the same way.

 

(The same complaint does apply to smithing and crafting, but it's less important because you can at least powertrain those skills if you have enough money.)

Herblore is not a combat skill.

 

Of course it's not. That's why it adds to your combat ability (once you get past 88) and why every good boss hunting team in the last three years has a herblore requirement.

Good for them. They care about efficiency and feel that putting a herblore requirement means someone will always bring certain pots.

 

It's just the same if you went into world of Warcraft. Pvmers there expect clans to collect and obtain certain material for the clan buffs or supplies used in PVMing. They aren't indicators of your skill, but of your preparedness. Just the same as your gear.

[Toad]

First time logging into these forums in about 8 months, very curious to see if Player Owned Ports will require money to do it (I hope not) I hope its all earned via the minigame.

[MotherBrainII]

Good for them. They care about efficiency and feel that putting a herblore requirement means someone will always bring certain pots.

 

It's just the same if you went into world of Warcraft. Pvmers there expect clans to collect and obtain certain material for the clan buffs or supplies used in PVMing. They aren't indicators of your skill, but of your preparedness. Just the same as your gear.

 

I suppose Summoning's not a combat skill either, but is instead merely indicative of my preparedness to bring along a steel titan.

And Prayer's not a combat skill either, it just shows I'm prepared if I bring along Turmoil or the new equivalents.

And Magic's not a combat skill. I'm just "prepared" if I bring along Ice Barrage. (Alright, that one's a bit more sketchy, but you get my point.)

 

As far as I'm concerned, if a skill is strictly mandatory to be competitive in (non-specialist) combat activities, it's a combat skill.

[Ginger_Warrior]

As far as I'm concerned, if a skill is strictly mandatory to be competitive in (non-specialist) combat activities, it's a combat skill.

OK, I can understand that. But isn't RuneScape already a game where you have to be good at everything in order to obtain high level content? For example, all the quest requirements needed to do Ritual of the Mahjarrat. What have any of them got to do with killing Glacors? Still need to do it. All the skill requirements needed to complete the Elite Seers Diary. Completely irrelevent to the EEE's now unique healing ability, but you still need to spend millions on herblore to get there.

 

It's already very hard in RuneScape to focus on just the combat skills and the combat-related content with little consideration to anything else. I don't see PoP as a change from that; if anything it's a strong continuation of that trend by bringing skills like runecrafting into the fold.

[Will H]

I am so relieved I actually got round to doing the Fight Kiln. Now all I have to do is get level 90 in Herblore, Prayer, Runecrafting, Thieving, Slayer and Fishing. They certainly weren't kidding when they called this high-level content.

[Hajutze]

I may be missing something but dont you need ONE OF the above, not all ?

[Saradomin_Mage]

To access everything, you will need all of them, though :P

[Hajutze]

Lore-wise maybe, but I doubt you'll need all the skills for the rewards, it's probably going to be Stealing Creations-like where you can do the mini-game with 1 or 2 of the gathering skills (and some luck).

[Ginger_Warrior]

Accessing the port requires at least level 90 in one of the following skills: Herblore, Prayer, Runecrafting, Thieving, Slayer or Fishing. Each skill attracts a different adventurer, who has their own deep, mysterious storyline to investigate, unlocking more and more of the fabled Eastern Lands. If you want to explore ALL of the content that the ports can offer, you'll need at least level 90 in all of those skills.

Suggests all skills are needed for lore, instead of rewards.

[Toad]

Lore-wise maybe, but I doubt you'll need all the skills for the rewards, it's probably going to be Stealing Creations-like where you can do the mini-game with 1 or 2 of the gathering skills (and some luck).

 

I'd seriously disagree with that, I think if you have 90 fishing, you will get the fish that requires 90 cooking (the highest type of food available in the game), your skills will effect the resources you gain from it.

 

Of course we will also get some rubbish promotional SOF thing to try and urge us to spend more but, as for the minigame mechanics I feel unless you have the required skills you won't get the relevant rewards to do with that.

 

Sounds like you will have a rewards chest similar to Miscellania where you collect them and it depends on your skills (or in Miscellanias case what you have picked for them to harvest).