Dev Blog - Prestige

[Platinum_Myr]

Can someone answer me this properly...

 

Say I'm all 99s, I reset my Attack to 1, I can still then wield the strongest weapon as I've already got 99, so tell me, what is the actual point of resetting it to 1? Is it literally so you can just "level" up again despite the leveling up actually being a cosmetic level?

No. Unless you revert to 99 again (undo the prestige.) you can't equip the higher level stuff.. You can go back. But if you do you can't gain xp on the prestige set. This way you actually have to use some lower level items and equipment. Ofcourse you still have the money and don't have to reset all levels at once so you do have some advantages.

[Sy_Accursed]

 

True but we have recap npcs for most big series and if they work on the cinematic replayability that'd solve the problem of the lore replay.

 

Skills aren't quite the same in reset, they are all already coded to be you need x to do y if you drop below x you can't do y because we've had plenty of stat reducing effects in-game. Sure there's 1 or 2 things that may be grey areas (eg Pop), but most stuff has the code already there to deal with your level dropping.

 

I don't think the cinematics really do a very good job for the replays, honestly. They cover some of it but a lot still gets left behind. Especially because they don't even seem to have them for some recent quests and definitely don't have them for the older ones. I think they should put the resources into quest replays now because the longer they wait the more its going to take in order to do it. Quests shouldn't be one time things when so much is tied up into them.

 

 

I'd disagree entirely.

 

The core moments of quests are covered in cinematics and coupled with the recap npcs and the various books and such we get the lore is covered in ample detail, not to mention the great work of fansites at compiling information from across all the storylines and sources. Yes not all cinematics are currently replayable but they have said it is possible and something they would like to look into doing when dev budget allows, and that looking forward they intend to do it as much as possible. I mean DoC did it, we've bee told MPD will do it. Mod John A has already said he's looking into making the BotD ones replayable. Not sure if it got done but there was talk of allowing the druids to let you rewatch TWW scenes and the priest at bol lets those be rewatched. That's nearly every cutscene we've had so far this year replayable or due to be replayable.

 

The coding, server space and effort required to make old quests replayable just is not worth it. It may work for some select quests (Eg Elder Kiln and Boe) where they are contained in instanced locations anyway, but for quests involving free roaming in the world the level of work required to make it replayable is just not worth the pay off. As I said in my original post, it's just not possible to be done for the vast majority of quests and Jagex have acknowledged this. Even looking to the future any quests that involve roaming over large portions of the world, opposed to the self contained corridor quests, would be ridiculously complicated to make replayable other than select moments.

[helring]

 

 

True but we have recap npcs for most big series and if they work on the cinematic replayability that'd solve the problem of the lore replay.

 

Skills aren't quite the same in reset, they are all already coded to be you need x to do y if you drop below x you can't do y because we've had plenty of stat reducing effects in-game. Sure there's 1 or 2 things that may be grey areas (eg Pop), but most stuff has the code already there to deal with your level dropping.

 

I don't think the cinematics really do a very good job for the replays, honestly. They cover some of it but a lot still gets left behind. Especially because they don't even seem to have them for some recent quests and definitely don't have them for the older ones. I think they should put the resources into quest replays now because the longer they wait the more its going to take in order to do it. Quests shouldn't be one time things when so much is tied up into them.

 

 

I'd disagree entirely.

 

The core moments of quests are covered in cinematics and coupled with the recap npcs and the various books and such we get the lore is covered in ample detail, not to mention the great work of fansites at compiling information from across all the storylines and sources. Yes not all cinematics are currently replayable but they have said it is possible and something they would like to look into doing when dev budget allows, and that looking forward they intend to do it as much as possible. I mean DoC did it, we've bee told MPD will do it. Mod John A has already said he's looking into making the BotD ones replayable. Not sure if it got done but there was talk of allowing the druids to let you rewatch TWW scenes and the priest at bol lets those be rewatched. That's nearly every cutscene we've had so far this year replayable or due to be replayable.

 

The coding, server space and effort required to make old quests replayable just is not worth it. It may work for some select quests (Eg Elder Kiln and Boe) where they are contained in instanced locations anyway, but for quests involving free roaming in the world the level of work required to make it replayable is just not worth the pay off. As I said in my original post, it's just not possible to be done for the vast majority of quests and Jagex have acknowledged this. Even looking to the future any quests that involve roaming over large portions of the world, opposed to the self contained corridor quests, would be ridiculously complicated to make replayable other than select moments.

 

 

I completely disagree with that. Many of the defining parts of quests are not only the cutscenes but the interactions and the characters. The conversations you have along the way and the characters you meet. Many of the older quests didn't really have cutscenes at all, and those that do often have cutscenes only for a few big moments which leave out the majority of the quest.

 

Quests are a major part of the game, they in many ways drive the lore and the story forward. If anything is worth the dev time its making quests replayable. I don't think you would need quests to be instanced in order for them to be replayable and honestly I doubt it would take up more server space than anything else. Yes a few issues like the stakes and such may need to be resolved, but if they can resolve all that for over 20 skills, then this could be done as well, they're just not willing to put the resources in which I believe is a mistake. 

[Sy_Accursed]

I'm not saying cutscenes cover it all, but the recap NPCs and books do cover all the necessary lore.

 

And no matter how you frame it the technical requirements of making quests replayable just does not work in a game like Runescape, there's just so many loopholes of things that you simply cannot be allowed to do or own whilst the quest is in progress that it's a literal nightmare for bugs if left to be done in the live world which is where instanced areas come in to play. But then trying to create instanced versions of huge swathes of the world hundreds of times over for each quest just becomes an equal headache of excess coding and data.

 

It's nothing like the trouble of resetting skills, skills as I said before are already built of a system where every action is tested against your current level due to existing draining mechanics and they do not have knock on consequences in to areas being locked or unlocked, npcs being in alternate locations, items not being allowed to exist for you. Afterall it may be dodgy to have say blisterwood logs without the lvls for the quest anymore, but it doesn't have any game-breaking consequences tied to it in the way having them when the required quest is no longer completed does.

 

It's all very well saying I don't think they need to be instanced but saying it and doing it are another thing. When quests involve changing landscape, npc locations and more and their interrelations with other content and quests make it no simple matter to just toggle these things back. This is something jmods themselves have mentioned being problematic.

 

To me their dev budget is far better spent in the remaking of old quests thereby putting more cinematics in to them and allowing those to be rewatchable and where possible having small replayable segments (such as the DoC battle) than trying to chase the technical nightmare of trying to make them replayable entirely. Alongside the addition of more recap npcs with more in-depth dialogues.

[helring]

I'm not saying cutscenes cover it all, but the recap NPCs and books do cover all the necessary lore.

 

And no matter how you frame it the technical requirements of making quests replayable just does not work in a game like Runescape, there's just so many loopholes of things that you simply cannot be allowed to do or own whilst the quest is in progress that it's a literal nightmare for bugs if left to be done in the live world which is where instanced areas come in to play. But then trying to create instanced versions of huge swathes of the world hundreds of times over for each quest just becomes an equal headache of excess coding and data.

 

It's nothing like the trouble of resetting skills, skills as I said before are already built of a system where every action is tested against your current level due to existing draining mechanics and they do not have knock on consequences in to areas being locked or unlocked, npcs being in alternate locations, items not being allowed to exist for you. Afterall it may be dodgy to have say blisterwood logs without the lvls for the quest anymore, but it doesn't have any game-breaking consequences tied to it in the way having them when the required quest is no longer completed does.

 

It's all very well saying I don't think they need to be instanced but saying it and doing it are another thing. When quests involve changing landscape, npc locations and more and their interrelations with other content and quests make it no simple matter to just toggle these things back. This is something jmods themselves have mentioned being problematic.

 

To me their dev budget is far better spent in the remaking of old quests thereby putting more cinematics in to them and allowing those to be rewatchable and where possible having small replayable segments (such as the DoC battle) than trying to chase the technical nightmare of trying to make them replayable entirely. Alongside the addition of more recap npcs with more in-depth dialogues.

 

There's already some system in there for checks on what you can and can't do and for the landscape to change because people who haven't done the quest see different things. To me it seems like making the quests replayable is something they should have done long ago and the longer they wait the harder it'll be to implement it. Yes there are quite a few variables, and there will be bugs, which I expect with pretty much any content from Jagex nowadays. Bugs could be worked out over time like they currently do and I can't think of any that would be so game-breaking. So the player has stakes earlier than they should. It would have to be patched out but I can't see it harming too much. There have been so many game-breaking bugs found before in game that didn't cause permanent damage, it gets fixed and we move on. Like the runecrafting bug in dunge where people were getting massive amounts of exp.

 

Ultimately, I think having all this lore content that can only be played once is damaging to the game. I know you disagree and thats fine. We have different priorities. Some of the quest reworks have been excellent, but I'd rather be able to replay the quests we have than get a new quest that I can only play through once. Jagex has made it pretty clear that they can make quests replayable, they just won't, and I think thats what annoys me most out of everything. They're willing to make these huge changes to the game that have a large possibility of chasing people away, but something like this that could help retain people is out of their scope.

[Jeffery]

Somethings I understand, some I don't  just got a few questions.

 

 

If I prestige combat how does somebody else know the difference between my main combat and my prestiged combat without looking it up?

 

Can I only prestige all my combat stats at once or can I one by one (For example prestiging defence then doing slayer naked with 99 att/str kinda defeats the point of being 1 defence as it's super easy with soul split/turm)

 

Are prestige highscores going to be the default highscores from now or will Lifetime xp as it'd seem a shame for the people who have got 200m in a skill for them not to be shown first priority over the new system.

[Platinum_Myr]

Somethings I understand, some I don't  just got a few questions.

 

 

If I prestige combat how does somebody else know the difference between my main combat and my prestiged combat without looking it up?

 

Can I only prestige all my combat stats at once or can I one by one (For example prestiging defence then doing slayer naked with 99 att/str kinda defeats the point of being 1 defence as it's super easy with soul split/turm)

 

Are prestige highscores going to be the default highscores from now or will Lifetime xp as it'd seem a shame for the people who have got 200m in a skill for them not to be shown first priority over the new system.

 

a) likely your visible combat will only show in game as your combat with current stats (prestiged or not, depending on their current state). You can't change anywhere but bank areas so there's no need to worry about changing combat stats mid PvP or PvM situations. Effectively when you prestige you fully reset your stat.

 

b) likely you can reset one stat at a time. I do wish all combats would reset at once, but they most likely won't do it.

 

c) prestige highscores will be default. but you will be able to view lifetime xp highscores also.

[helring]

 

Somethings I understand, some I don't  just got a few questions.

 

 

If I prestige combat how does somebody else know the difference between my main combat and my prestiged combat without looking it up?

 

Can I only prestige all my combat stats at once or can I one by one (For example prestiging defence then doing slayer naked with 99 att/str kinda defeats the point of being 1 defence as it's super easy with soul split/turm)

 

Are prestige highscores going to be the default highscores from now or will Lifetime xp as it'd seem a shame for the people who have got 200m in a skill for them not to be shown first priority over the new system.

 

a) likely your visible combat will only show in game as your combat with current stats (prestiged or not, depending on their current state). You can't change anywhere but bank areas so there's no need to worry about changing combat stats mid PvP or PvM situations. Effectively when you prestige you fully reset your stat.

 

b) likely you can reset one stat at a time. I do wish all combats would reset at once, but they most likely won't do it.

 

c) prestige highscores will be default. but you will be able to view lifetime xp highscores also.

 

 

Just to add a little bit to "b". You can reset as many or as few as you want. However, there is planned to be an achievement for prestiging all at once and not turning any off individually until you've maxed again. You can turn prestige off on all of them at once but the achievement won't be earned if you were to say leave prestige on for everything except you turn it off for attack. this achievement is to recognize that its harder to prestige when you're working on everything at once instead of only prestiging 1 or a couple skills. There will also be a miniature one for prestiging all combat skills at once.

[NukeMarine]

First, I really like this idea. I never liked that the high scores were determined by total xp once all 99's were reached. I wasn't the only one asking for high scores to not have level caps ie each skill goes up to 126 for determining rank. That rewarded those that leveled their skills evenly instead of going for 200 mill on easy skills. The prestige method is even better in that you know people are going to be rushing to get as many prestige skills as possible to 30 for the coveted number one spot. That means it will be changing rankings on a daily basis for quite some time. Plus, there's no end point that says "get here and you'll be number 1 forever", which means those in the top spot either keep at it or they will be passed by.

 

Second, I see three major problems that they can easily fix.

 

1. Prayer is a problem in that unlike all the other skills, prayer lets you level off high level item such as frost dragon bones starting at level 1. The easy fix is implement level requirements to use bones on prestiged prayer in addition to slightly higher requirements to use ectofunctus, bonecrusher or altars. 

 

2. Combat xp would mean people will prestige one part of the skill leaving the others in place to simplify advancement. The solutions is simply make that to gain prestige xp all the skills getting the xp from the kill must be prestiged. Yeah, a person can just prestige hp and str leaving atk and def alone (meaning awesome armor and weapons), but that's a fair trade off. Much better than saying someone will need to reset all combat skills which opens up what about summoning and prayer.

 

3. Instant XP such as penguins, lamps, dungeon coins, agility tickets, quest rewards, etc will be abused to bypass the early prestige levels by getting the items with their 99 levels. Easiest solution is ALL instant xp for prestiged skills becomes bonus xp instead. That also means that things like lamps and penguins that are level based give xp based on having a 99 which is your actual level anyway. 

 

Again, I like the idea and I think it'll help reduce this insane notion of having to have 200 mill. Instead, people that are high score leaders are ones that are leveling all skills which at least balances the game again. Guys like me can just profit off the whole race as usual.

[Dwoofie]

There is a lot of instant XP, and other factors to ascertain when it comes to prestige. To be honest, even if players want this, the amount of game-breaking bugs that might come from this is definitely not worth it to please a few players. Instant XP to fix, warbands should be made bonus XP instead of the current way it is etc.

 

For my own sake, I hope Jagex realize there's so much to take account for that they might just scrap it purely for technical reasons.

[Golvellius]

There is a lot of instant XP, and other factors to ascertain when it comes to prestige. To be honest, even if players want this, the amount of game-breaking bugs that might come from this is definitely not worth it to please a few players. Instant XP to fix, warbands should be made bonus XP instead of the current way it is etc.

 

For my own sake, I hope Jagex realize there's so much to take account for that they might just scrap it purely for technical reasons.

 

How is the game going to break and you get more xp than possible with all 99s?

Sure, there will be exploits discovered that let you get xp fast at X level than a brand new account, but at the end of the day the fastest way to level is going to be giving Squeell some spins... so who cares?

[Hedgehog]

 

There is a lot of instant XP, and other factors to ascertain when it comes to prestige. To be honest, even if players want this, the amount of game-breaking bugs that might come from this is definitely not worth it to please a few players. Instant XP to fix, warbands should be made bonus XP instead of the current way it is etc.

 

For my own sake, I hope Jagex realize there's so much to take account for that they might just scrap it purely for technical reasons.

 

How is the game going to break and you get more xp than possible with all 99s?

Sure, there will be exploits discovered that let you get xp fast at X level than a brand new account, but at the end of the day the fastest way to level is going to be giving Squeell some spins... so who cares?

 

Why do people keep bringing up spins

 

Do you honestly expect a lot of people to buy a ton of xp?

[Urza285]

 

 

There is a lot of instant XP, and other factors to ascertain when it comes to prestige. To be honest, even if players want this, the amount of game-breaking bugs that might come from this is definitely not worth it to please a few players. Instant XP to fix, warbands should be made bonus XP instead of the current way it is etc.

 

For my own sake, I hope Jagex realize there's so much to take account for that they might just scrap it purely for technical reasons.

 

How is the game going to break and you get more xp than possible with all 99s?

Sure, there will be exploits discovered that let you get xp fast at X level than a brand new account, but at the end of the day the fastest way to level is going to be giving Squeell some spins... so who cares?

 

Why do people keep bringing up spins

 

Do you honestly expect a lot of people to buy a ton of xp?

 

Because people think that just because its possible its going to happen. Then because it happens then it means that everyone is going to do it. But that is comparable to saying just because everyone has money that they are going to go out and imediately buy a fancy new car. It just doesn't work that way...

[Seismos]

It's much more expensive to buy XP with SoF then people seem to think. According to the RS Wikia, the chances of getting a lamp in a spin are about 17%. 200 spins is $50, and even if all of the lamps were mediums, non skill specific, and used on level 98+ skills, that would only get you about 580k XP. So at 1 prestige, getting from 98-99 alone would cost $250. And how many people do you think will spend a week's salary on a days worth of XP?

[Yoko Kurama]

It's much more expensive to buy XP with SoF then people seem to think. According to the RS Wikia, the chances of getting a lamp in a spin are about 17%. 200 spins is $50, and even if all of the lamps were mediums, non skill specific, and used on level 98+ skills, that would only get you about 580k XP. So at 1 prestige, getting from 98-99 alone would cost $250. And how many people do you think will spend a week's salary on a days worth of XP?

 

The same sort of people who can afford to play Runescape all day without having to go to school or have a job, or doing anything else in life. It seems some of the top players are financially secure enough that they can just afford to do that all day. In the 200M thread, I did the math for the first 39 days of Divination, and using extremely conservative estimates, it turned out that Drumgum was able to get 60M Divination experience by playing something like 16-17 hours a day. Allegedly, Suomi, similarly, didn't need a job, and nor did Jake, to support himself.

 

So there's quite a few people that can afford it.

[Hedgehog]

 

It's much more expensive to buy XP with SoF then people seem to think. According to the RS Wikia, the chances of getting a lamp in a spin are about 17%. 200 spins is $50, and even if all of the lamps were mediums, non skill specific, and used on level 98+ skills, that would only get you about 580k XP. So at 1 prestige, getting from 98-99 alone would cost $250. And how many people do you think will spend a week's salary on a days worth of XP?

 

The same sort of people who can afford to play Runescape all day without having to go to school or have a job, or doing anything else in life. It seems some of the top players are financially secure enough that they can just afford to do that all day. In the 200M thread, I did the math for the first 39 days of Divination, and using extremely conservative estimates, it turned out that Drumgum was able to get 60M Divination experience by playing something like 16-17 hours a day. Allegedly, Suomi, similarly, didn't need a job, and nor did Jake, to support himself.

 

So there's quite a few people that can afford it.

 

Only one top player has any intention of spending significant amounts of money on 200m in all skills, though, and that's only under a specific set of circumstances and most likely won't happen. Besides, if a player did spend a ton of money on a goal, they are removed from the competition, so it doesn't matter at all.

 

The real problem is with fair methods of abuse, such as warbands. Everyone can do them so the effects are magnified. Warbands alone bring in 75-100 times more xp per day than buyable spins for less effort/xp.

[Platinum_Myr]

Agreed. Buying XP with spins is possible but it is *ridiculously* expensive. The lamps aren't even worth it at lower levels, and in addition, it is somewhat random, but you can get hundreds of xp per hour. Note there is a daily cap on the amount of spins you can get per day as well, so you can't just completely power through it.

[helring]

Don't know if its been mentioned here yet, but they've decided to put the prestige system up to a vote. I'm kind of annoyed at that because it'll mean that 34% of people voting no could prevent me from enjoying it.

[Hedgehog]

Don't know if its been mentioned here yet, but they've decided to put the prestige system up to a vote. I'm kind of annoyed at that because it'll mean that 34% of people voting no could prevent me from enjoying it.

Consider making a second account or subjecting yourself to the limitations that the prestige system would present. You aren't losing anything except for the possibility for a good rank in a hiscore table that very few people care about. If that is what you enjoy about the prestige system, consider competing in a seasonal hiscore.

[helring]

 

Don't know if its been mentioned here yet, but they've decided to put the prestige system up to a vote. I'm kind of annoyed at that because it'll mean that 34% of people voting no could prevent me from enjoying it.

Consider making a second account or subjecting yourself to the limitations that the prestige system would present. You aren't losing anything except for the possibility for a good rank in a hiscore table that very few people care about. If that is what you enjoy about the prestige system, consider competing in a seasonal hiscore.

 

Yea, what I was looking forward to was the achievement for prestiging all at once and then maxing again. The issue with the second account is mainly my clan, they don't allow you to have 2 accounts in the clan at once so I'd have to have only one in at a time.

 

I wouldn't have an issue if they would still bring out the prestige system without the highscores attached.

[Golvellius]

 

Don't know if its been mentioned here yet, but they've decided to put the prestige system up to a vote. I'm kind of annoyed at that because it'll mean that 34% of people voting no could prevent me from enjoying it.

Consider making a second account or subjecting yourself to the limitations that the prestige system would present. You aren't losing anything except for the possibility for a good rank in a hiscore table that very few people care about. If that is what you enjoy about the prestige system, consider competing in a seasonal hiscore.

 

Have you seen the seasonal highscore?

It's like kill imps, kill cows, widly pvp kills, solo kill god wars boss. Seasonal highscores is a joke.

 

I just can't see what all the whining and [bleep]ing is about for this update.

It's just a new highscore and a way for vets to get some cosmetics and some more replay value out of the game.

It's an addition.

Nothing is taken away, their even leaving the current high score so the no-lifers can still show off their merit badge.

I think fanboys of the old high scores and their no-lifer heroes need to get over it.

[HunterDexter]

I'm still going to vote against it.

[WeatherMatt]

 

It's much more expensive to buy XP with SoF then people seem to think. According to the RS Wikia, the chances of getting a lamp in a spin are about 17%. 200 spins is $50, and even if all of the lamps were mediums, non skill specific, and used on level 98+ skills, that would only get you about 580k XP. So at 1 prestige, getting from 98-99 alone would cost $250. And how many people do you think will spend a week's salary on a days worth of XP?

 

The same sort of people who can afford to play Runescape all day without having to go to school or have a job, or doing anything else in life. It seems some of the top players are financially secure enough that they can just afford to do that all day. In the 200M thread, I did the math for the first 39 days of Divination, and using extremely conservative estimates, it turned out that Drumgum was able to get 60M Divination experience by playing something like 16-17 hours a day. Allegedly, Suomi, similarly, didn't need a job, and nor did Jake, to support himself.

 

So there's quite a few people that can afford it.

 

Woah now, not having to work to support yourself and having cash to spend on spins are two completely different things.

 

Being financially or otherwise secure to be able to play 16+ hours a day is reasonable for some people (basically all of the 200m all thread mancrushes).

 

Having the financial resources to do that AND generate $200/day to spend on spins is another matter entirely.

[Hedgehog]

 

 

It's much more expensive to buy XP with SoF then people seem to think. According to the RS Wikia, the chances of getting a lamp in a spin are about 17%. 200 spins is $50, and even if all of the lamps were mediums, non skill specific, and used on level 98+ skills, that would only get you about 580k XP. So at 1 prestige, getting from 98-99 alone would cost $250. And how many people do you think will spend a week's salary on a days worth of XP?

 

The same sort of people who can afford to play Runescape all day without having to go to school or have a job, or doing anything else in life. It seems some of the top players are financially secure enough that they can just afford to do that all day. In the 200M thread, I did the math for the first 39 days of Divination, and using extremely conservative estimates, it turned out that Drumgum was able to get 60M Divination experience by playing something like 16-17 hours a day. Allegedly, Suomi, similarly, didn't need a job, and nor did Jake, to support himself.

 

So there's quite a few people that can afford it.

 

Woah now, not having to work to support yourself and having cash to spend on spins are two completely different things.

 

Being financially or otherwise secure to be able to play 16+ hours a day is reasonable for some people (basically all of the 200m all thread mancrushes).

 

Having the financial resources to do that AND generate $200/day to spend on spins is another matter entirely.

 

There's a limit of $500/week

[Platinum_Myr]

 

 

Don't know if its been mentioned here yet, but they've decided to put the prestige system up to a vote. I'm kind of annoyed at that because it'll mean that 34% of people voting no could prevent me from enjoying it.

Consider making a second account or subjecting yourself to the limitations that the prestige system would present. You aren't losing anything except for the possibility for a good rank in a hiscore table that very few people care about. If that is what you enjoy about the prestige system, consider competing in a seasonal hiscore.

 

Have you seen the seasonal highscore?

It's like kill imps, kill cows, widly pvp kills, solo kill god wars boss. Seasonal highscores is a joke.

 

I just can't see what all the whining and [bleep]ing is about for this update.

It's just a new highscore and a way for vets to get some cosmetics and some more replay value out of the game.

It's an addition.

Nothing is taken away, their even leaving the current high score so the no-lifers can still show off their merit badge.

I think fanboys of the old high scores and their no-lifer heroes need to get over it.

 

 

I am suggesting that they *add* xp highscores that reset every few months to the seasonal highscores, not just competing in the current available ones.

 

That said, I actually have no real issue with the prestige system myself.