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Behind The Scenes - August 2013


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Behind the Scenes - August 2013

 

This August, as the Battle of Lumbridge rages, we've got a god-sized helping of content coming to RuneScape, including the all-new Divination skill, a knightly 6th Age quest featuring Sir Owen, and a huge update to the Members' Loyalty Programme!

 

Divination

Orla_Fairwisp_Aug-01092425.png

 

Members' skill - levels 1-5 for free players

 

Divination - our first new skill in three years - is coming to you this month!

 

Orla Fairweather

Guthix's death unleashed divine energy throughout Gielinor, and the ensuing turmoil has also damaged the planet, causing the life force of the Anima Mundi to bleed out into the world. Orla Fairweather and her pioneering team of researchers are investigating these strange phenomena to determine what they mean for the world - and how they can be harnessed by its inhabitants.

 

As you train in this new art, you'll gather divine energy - a valuable new resource - from wisps: residual life energy made manifest by remnants of Guthix's power. These wisps have gathered into colonies around the world, the first of which you'll encounter right by the Lumbridge crater. Along with the energy you'll gather from them, you'll also find fragments of Guthix's memories that can be returned to the Anima Mundi for extra XP gain.

 

Much more than just a gathering skill, there's plenty you'll be able to do with Divination beside level and build up resources. Using the energy you gather from the wisps, you'll be able to make pocket-slot items called signs that activate automatically under certain conditions, granting you benefits - protecting you from killing blows, for example, or keeping additional items on death. There'll also be inventory-held items called portents that are also used under certain conditions - healing you when you fall below a certain percentage health, for instance.

 

Perhaps the biggest benefit of Divination is that it'll be a huge complement to your other gathering skills. I can't reveal too much just yet, but those well versed in the skill will have unprecedented access to gathering locations and high-end materials, and extra help with the logistics of gathering resources. I'll be revealing more in an upcoming BTS video, so keep an eye out for that!

 

Divination will be a direct companion to the new skill coming next year, so get ahead of the game early! The skill will come with a daisy-fresh hiscore table, so I'm hoping to see some healthy competition on the way to the Divination skillcape. Speaking of which, if you haven't yet voted on new skillcape's colour scheme you can do so on our polls page.

 

If you're a free player, don't forget that - as with all members' skills - the first five levels of Divination will be available for you to try out. Be sure to give it a go!

 

The Death of Chivalry

The_Death_of_Chivalry-01092155.png

 

Free players and members

 

We have a real treat in store for lore fans this month with The Death of Chivalry - a quest that sees the events of the 6th Age truly begin!

 

The Death of Chivalry

You'll join Sir Owen as he infiltrates the Black Knights' Fortress. Rumour has it that the Kinshra have located a powerful, magical weapon, and Saradomin himself has ordered Owen to get hold of it before they do - at any cost.

 

Along the way, there'll be swords, sorcery and a damsel in distress, but this quest's far from a fairytale. There's a dark mystery to unravel, and hard choices that'll make you question what you know - and perhaps even where your loyalties lie. Choices you've made at the Battle of Lumbridge and elsewhere in the game will be reflected in the content, and your decisions will affect the quest's ending. See if you can spot the odd nod to the Black Knights' Fortress quest - which this replaces - and to the RuneScape novels, too.

 

The fortress itself has never looked so impressive, and our art team have done a grand job, giving it a truly menacing atmosphere. The characters are fully-voiced - including Saradomin himself - and the orchestral music more than meets the precedent set by RuneScape 3's epic score.

Black_Knights_Fortress_t-01092342.jpg

 

Black Knights' Fortress

The quest's suitable for everyone as there are no entry requirements, the combat scales with your level, and is available to free players and members alike. Rewards include a unique shield with an emote, a choice of knightly titles and an item that lets you replay the quest's cutscenes. There are some cracking post-quest rewards for members too, including a full cosmetic armour override set, righteous helpings of Prayer and Combat XP and much more. The extra XP rewards can be claimed after the quest, once level requirements of up to 80 Strength and 65 Prayer are met.

 

Improved Loyalty Programme and Solomon's Store Merge

 

Loyalty Programme: members only

 

Solomon's Store: free players and members

 

Our Members' Loyalty Programme is long due an overhaul, and you'll see just that this month. First up, we're merging Xuan's Loyalty Store with Solomon's General Store. Not only will this keep your cosmetic items in one place and accessible through the Customisation Interface, but you'll also be able to buy many of the items currently available on Solomon's Store with your loyalty points!

 

You'll also be able to treat yourself to a selection of Loyalty Store items with Runecoins, if you wish, although auras and higher-tier Loyalty Store cosmetics will remain exclusively as loyalty point items.

 

Useful information about your Loyalty Programme benefits will be available through the newly unified interface, and existing Loyalty Programme cosmetics will get some graphical polish too.

 

We're also buffing up the number of Loyalty Points awarded each month to our long-standing members, and introducing yearly milestone item rewards, so staying a member will be more rewarding than it's ever been.

 

Xuan's store will close for a week before this update happens, but we'll keep you well informed in the run-up. Keep an eye on the news for more information!

 

The Battle of Lumbridge

 

Free players and members

 

The Battle of Lumbridge is being furiously fought right now, and it's only going to heat up in the weeks to come. There'll be more powerful combatants joining the fray, and new tiers of rewards on offer - more titles, more armour pieces and more rewarding XP lamps - so get involved! Fight or gather for your chosen side; help the Duke spend his cash on restoring Lumbridge as you see fit; play your part in the event that'll pave the way for the 6th Age!

 

Have fun!

 

Mod Mark

RuneScape Design Director

 

 

Discuss this here.

Popoto.~<3

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Figured the 2nd skill would be delayed due to the delays in Divination already, so I'm not really disappointed in that. Really getting excited for a new skill (finally) so I can re-earn that comp cape. Also like the merging of SGS and LS, though I wouldn't be opposed to everything being buyable with loyalty points and Runecoins, even if it does mean "more Jagex RWT".

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It's nice how after promising us 2 new skills in 2013 they make a real effort to tell us that one has been delayed and apologise...oh no, no wait my bad they just called it 'next years new skill' in a bts with out any attempt to mention it's been delayed. Nothing wrong with it being delayed but kinda typical Jagex doing a half-assed PR job by not dealing with it properly and just glossing over the delay (Reminds me of when we suddenly got an OSRS Bts in place of a TWW one with no explanation as to why TWW was delayed, heck the video didn't even really 100% say it was delayed (iirc) and tht fact had to be pried out of jmods like a day later)

 

I know Divination will hopefully be rather absorbing but seems a bit of a meh month in my book.

Loyalty thing is nice but it doesn't sound its particularly adding anything new for us.

Quest is low-end so will be a short-lived thing.

So for the whole 4 weeks the only big thing is gonna be divination and with crowding thts likely to be a pita also kinda annoyed tht it sounds as though the top end div awards pertain to other gathering skills and little else because thats so useful for all of us with maxed stats in that area; but I shall reserve judgement on that until we actually see what the stuff is.

 

Hopefully they improved point rates are decent, it was always plain stupid that we have lots of items costing 60,000+ and at most can get 15,000 a month especially since these high point rates do require a very long period of continous membership.

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Hmmm, i thought before that divination was going to be coming towards the end of the month. But if its the first item in the BTS and Mod Mark is explaining it properly in this weeks BTS video, that seems to suggest it could be dropping next week?

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Knew they were going to merge Solomon's and the loyalty store. Well, that's pretty nice I guess. Does this mean that the loyalty store outfits will now become cosmetic overrides? You can't buy every item with loyalty points, though, so I suspect that companions, gear sets, bank boosters, achievement banners (the big-buys) won't be able to be purchased with loyalty points. Still, this marks a pretty huge step forward for Jagex and I think it's a really nice move. I'm worried that the increase in points per month is because loyalty purchase rates are going to be very high though to keep the incentive to buy runecoins there.

 

The idea of siphoning the Anima Mundi really...makes me...concerned. But it's hardly fair to judge an entire skill off a few paragraphs, so I'll just have to wait and reserve judgement. but come on really I always sort of thought that divination would just be the gathering portion, and the second skill for making the pocket slot items. Since that doesn't seem to be the case, I wonder then what we're going to do with the energy. Is it just going to be a divine version of Construction? Completely frustrating that it's been pushed off to 2014, likely not to be released until mid-year as Divination was. Still, it was always a bit of starry eyed optimism to hope for two skills in one year, I suppose.

 

With it being 3 years since the last skill release, it kind of reminds me of the infamous whiteboard we saw from one of the runefest videos where we saw something about the interfaces on the whiteboard, and just how long they must've been working on NIS alone (if that was for the NIS, that is). Crazy.

 

Anyway, I'm off to find out the terms of the sig bet I lost oh so long ago when we were speculating on the Black Knight Fortress rework.

 

Keep whining, please.

 

You're utterly right. After the push back of the summoning rework, divination, html5 beta, new skill, not to mention all the delays prior to that from the eoc, smithing rework, etc it is completely and utterly unjustified to be upset in the slightest. Really, anyone who gets upset is clearly a neanderthal who has no desire to simply accept the reality of today's world. Shame on them. Shame on their family.

 

...Laid it on a bit thick there, but you get the point. It's understandably a surprise to the average player, even if we could've guessed that it'd be delayed after the delay with the HTML5 beta.

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Have barely spent any loyalty points since it was introduced. This month is going to be a good month :lol:

 

I'm not too disappointed in the lack of a second skill this year, gives people chance to properly explore the new skill and for Jagex to make changes and bug fixes where necessary.

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Tbf no-one even really whined about the delay, everyone was very accepting the only negative was my point about how they dealt with telling us.

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Ahh so Divination will solely be based on the manipulation of the anima mundi, I thought it was just going to be one source of several. Wonder if it's gonna act similarly to the life stream in Final Fantasy VII and we'll see other bosses like Vorago begin to appear on Gielinor to defend The Elder Gods prize possession.

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So there'll be resource dungeon type things for Div? This could be pretty neat.

 

I had a feeling they'd merge sgs & loyalty stuff, wonder how many people will buy runecoins for stuff... :unsure:

 

As for the quest... Meh, guess it helps, though the Betrayal at Falador books getting attention is always nice. :thumbup:

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idk wtf anima mundi is and I have a quest cape and i've been playing longer than most

 

 

gf britlore.

 

 

also I hope divination is a very fast skill, or even better, I hope they develop a direct $$$-> XP tool so I can just drop a paycheck on the game and collect the skillcape 5 minutes later. I'd like that very much.

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idk wtf anima mundi is and I have a quest cape and i've been playing longer than most

 

 

gf britlore.

 

 

also I hope divination is a very fast skill, or even better, I hope they develop a direct $$$-> XP tool so I can just drop a paycheck on the game and collect the skillcape 5 minutes later. I'd like that very much.

 

For Guthix' sake, the skill isn't even out... Maybe you are going to like it alot... Just wait till the skill is out and you've tried it out for a couple of weeks...

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I don't think it'll be very fast, citing gathering as (typically) slower skills. However, I'd be surprised if they were to go back to the older "slow" rates (~50k/h) given that they are moving towards a 'faster'/less intensive game (Runespan/Warbands). That said, at the same time, the sadist in me screams DO IT. MAKE EVERYONE MAD.

 

I think the most interesting thing at the moment, is the wager on whether or not they will a) allow lamps to be used straight away on the skill (previously it had a waiting period) and b) relating to a), whether or not they go Capitalism 5000 mode and release a MEGA HUGE OMG DIVINATION IS OUT SoF promotion that will allow you to train Divination via Credit Card on day 1.

 

Whilst this would break precedent (mainly the lamps being usable as we haven't had a new skill in the Post-SOF wasteland) and would undoubtably shit everyone to tears, it would be a boom for sales (there will, sadly, be people willing to pay big bucks to get Rank 1, regardless of whether we think it's a "legit" achievement or not). On the flipside - the mad.

 

Keep whining, please.

 

I WISH TO WHINGE ABOUT YOUR CONSTANT WHINGING ABOUT PEOPLE WHINGING IN EVERY THREAD.

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[bleep] OFF HOW ARE U SO [bleep]ING LUCKY U PIECE OF [bleep]ING SHIT [bleep] [bleep] [wagon] MUNCHER

 

 

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For Guthix' sake, the skill isn't even out... Maybe you are going to like it alot... Just wait till the skill is out and you've tried it out for a couple of weeks...

 

If I had the funds to throw at my screen for 99's, I'd probably do it regardless of how much I liked the skill or not. At that point I wouldn't consider the training the rewarding part of the journey, just the fun that could be had afterwards similar to dungeoneering past lvl90.

 

That's the problem with "fun."

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For Guthix' sake, the skill isn't even out... Maybe you are going to like it alot... Just wait till the skill is out and you've tried it out for a couple of weeks...

 

If I had the funds to throw at my screen for 99's, I'd probably do it regardless of how much I liked the skill or not. At that point I wouldn't consider the training the rewarding part of the journey, just the fun that could be had afterwards similar to dungeoneering past lvl90.

 

That's the problem with "fun."

 

That these days it costs you over 50m to have fun? (because thats how it feels)

Popoto.~<3

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or keeping additional items on death.

 

This caught my eye. After the recent server issue I've not been using my optimum set up for fear of losing high valued items due to a dc. Hopefully these pockets will help remedy this.

 

Perhaps the biggest benefit of Divination is that it'll be a huge complement to your other gathering skills. I can't reveal too much just yet, but those well versed in the skill will have unprecedented access to gathering locations and high-end materials, and extra help with the logistics of gathering resources.

 

I wonder if this is to make certain skills faster or perhaps an attempt to make gathering skills into moneymakers again?

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I don't think it'll be very fast, citing gathering as (typically) slower skills. However, I'd be surprised if they were to go back to the older "slow" rates (~50k/h) given that they are moving towards a 'faster'/less intensive game (Runespan/Warbands). That said, at the same time, the sadist in me screams DO IT. MAKE EVERYONE MAD.

 

I think the most interesting thing at the moment, is the wager on whether or not they will a) allow lamps to be used straight away on the skill (previously it had a waiting period) and b) relating to a), whether or not they go Capitalism 5000 mode and release a MEGA HUGE OMG DIVINATION IS OUT SoF promotion that will allow you to train Divination via Credit Card on day 1.

 

Whilst this would break precedent (mainly the lamps being usable as we haven't had a new skill in the Post-SOF wasteland) and would undoubtably shit everyone to tears, it would be a boom for sales (there will, sadly, be people willing to pay big bucks to get Rank 1, regardless of whether we think it's a "legit" achievement or not). On the flipside - the mad.

 

Keep whining, please.

 

I WISH TO WHINGE ABOUT YOUR CONSTANT WHINGING ABOUT PEOPLE WHINGING IN EVERY THREAD.

Ill allow you to have your opinions :P.



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