Behind the Scenes - January 2014

[Miss Lioness]

Behind the Scenes - January 2014

 

2014's kicking off in style, with a massive update to Player-Owned Ports; a re-imagining of our Giant Mole boss; Hati Wolf; Slayer updates; and the launch of our Power to the Players poll system!

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Power to the Players

Members only

 

This year, we're giving you the power to decide what content we make, how we make it and when with Power to the Players - our new poll system. We’ve talked about it at length in our RuneScape 2014 - Power to the Players news post, but - in summary - we're going to give you multiple polls each month, where you can vote on a range of upcoming content, from the hugest updates of the year to fine-tuned usability tweaks.

 

The votes will be members-only and will appear in-game and on the main website. Crucially, the winning option of each poll is guaranteed to make it into the game! We’ll also keep you informed as development continues on each of the projects, so you're involved and can give feedback as it's built.

 

We're starting as we mean to go on in January, and running six polls on a range of hot topics:

• Which do you want us to work on first: Elf City or the Invention skill?
• What sort of new dragon would you like added to the game?
• Which groups of creatures would you like to have reworked drop tables?
• What should our Easter holiday event be? Traditional eggs and bunnies, or a fun 6th Age event with cabbages vs monkeys?
• Should we make some changes to our world lists?
• Which map would you like added to our special secret 2014 minigame?

This is the most important update of the year. You're RuneScape's heart and soul, and in 2014 and beyond, its future is in your hands.

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The Wolves and the Valkyrie - Hati and Sköll 2014

Members only

 

The legendary wolves Hati and Sköll return, once again determined to ravage the Fremennik tribes. If you haven’t faced these beasts before, head to the lands north of Seers‘ Village later this month, where combat and skill-based content await! Take down Hati using your combat might, and drive Sköll from the lands - building a bonfire and calling great meteors to vanquish this fearsome foe.

 

This year, the brothers and are joined by Eir the Valkyrie, whom some of you will have met during Blood Runs Deep. With the gods returning, Eir suspects the End of Things may be upon the world, and wants you to help her prepare by finding her spear and helmet. These can be gained either from Hati and Sköll, or from the Fremennik province divination colony. Each player can earn multiple copies on one of those pieces, and will need to trade with other players for the other.

 

Hati and Sköll are aimed at players with mid-to-high combat levels, but busy worlds are often used by those less blessed with awesome combat skills to get all the reward, which include cosmetic items, bonus XP in combat, woodcutting, agility and new equipment rewards and bonus prayer and divination XP from the newly added Eir content.

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Ports - Batch 2

Members only

 

Think you've seen all there is of the Wushanko Isles? Think again! Two new zones - the Shield and the Loop - are opening up to intrepid explorers this month, complete with new resources and trade goods. In these distant lands exist scrolls containing the knowledge of the powerful reefwalker's cape, Leviathan ring and Death Lotus darts - level 85 armour and thrown weapons.

 

 

Three new adventurers join the Ports cast: the Trapper, the Chef and the Architect. Each comes with their own fully-voiced story, and can be accessed with at least level 90 Hunter, Cooking or Construction respectively. New crew, new ship components and a new random event round out the line-up for the easternmost parts of the Wushanko Isles, and the newly-arrived Trader will be on hand to convert excess resources into valuable trade goods.

 

 

In total, there are over 300 new voyages being added across all of the zones, so there’s never been a better time to get your port up and running.

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The Giant Mole

Members only

 

Veteran players will be well aware of the Giant Mole - the lurking menace that has terrorised Gielinor for many a year. However, we know many of you are yet to encounter the beast, and we want to be sure she's ready to face you. Let’s be honest – while the mole's "mud to the camera" special attacks are kind of fun, and the baby moles are undeniably cute, the content's pretty old and isn't up to our high, modern standards.

 

All that changes this month. Very soon, the Giant Mole will be something you can really sink your molars into!

 

 

Prepare to encounter the all-new, re-imagined, never-more-vicious! We've entirely reworked the graphics, combat mechanics and drops of this encounter - rebuilding the whole thing from scratch to make a boss fight worthy of today's RuneScape. We’ve listened to your feedback, reducing the amount of running required and added far more variety to the entire fight, giving the subterranean psychopath more attacks to play with. The fight is intended as an introduction to boss fighting, balanced around groups of players of approximately combat level 110, and offers a hard mode for three-man groups, or for solo players of considerably higher combat levels.

 

Those who stand victorious can expect upgrades to the anti-dragon shield; farming potions which speed the growth of patches; and consumable roots which can remove nasty damage-over-time effects from their user.

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Slayer Updates

Members only

 

Our intrepid Ninja Team are releasing a bunch of smaller, everyday changes to the Slayer skill this month, mostly focused around the slayer helmet and co-op slayers. All of these changes have been inspired by your posts and comments from our forums and social media.

 

Many of these improve the slayer helm. First up, we're adding slayer gem functionality to the basic slayer helm. You’ll also be able to upgrade your slayer helmet to a level 70 item - with stats to match - and fuse slayer rings and ferocious rings to it to enjoy those handy teleports at your convenience.

 

You'll also be able to get new skins for Freezy, adopt a brand-new, slayer-inspired pet, and unlock many new perks to enhance your co-op slayer kills. We’re also removing Smoking Kills as a requirement to earn Slayer points and access the Slayer Reward Shop.

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And More!

Free players and members

 

It's another great month for costumes in Solomon's Store, including my personal favourite: the Grim Reaper's armour! We’re also adding costumes and teleports themed around the Bird and the Beast world event, and throwing some new retro armour into the mix as well.

 

Make sure you’ve picked your side for the epic battle between Bandos and Armadyl, and do check out the RuneScape Companion app if you’d like to keep in touch with your friends when away from your PC. Take a look at this Silent's Spotlight video if you want to see it in action!

 

Have fun!

Mod Mark
Design Director - RuneScape

 

[Viz]

I'm happy Skoll is back. I'm gonna do some agi in January :D

[V O R K]

Death lotus darts, please let them be hunting... Cape/ring = useless but o well.

 

Rest I don't really care, Mole is alright but it doesn't have to be brought up to vorago/barrow standards.

 

CO-OP slay<333

[Howlin0001]

Sounds like it'll be a fairly good month to me.

[Saradomin_Mage]

T85 weapons only for ranged, rip :(

[Sy_Accursed]

T85 weapons only for ranged, rip :(

 

I'd hope they have made them t80 (there is a tiny bit of wiggle room in the way they worded it, not much but its there), but given jagex logic...

 

I mean t80 would make sense it'd give us a complete set for the t80 tier (not complete in the sense of 2h and dw options, but all the weaknesses covered at least)

T85 would just leave us with a hole in t80 still and begin a whole new weapon tier...

 

But anyway all in all sounds like a good month; I wonder if the seafaring 'fix' made it in to this ports update? The fix being equalising at least the last hulls and adding in a ram/figurehead equivalent for seafaring allowing those missions to be brought on par with the rest.

[V O R K]

It'd be great if they were like Vesta/Statius... Level 78 but can hit harder then chaotics albeit with less accuracy. Although I doubt they'll give POP anything remotely close to level 90 weaponry. Still better then that pesky RCB i've been sporting everywhere!

[Saradomin_Mage]

It'd be great if they were like Vesta/Statius... Level 78 but can hit harder then chaotics albeit with less accuracy. Although I doubt they'll give POP anything remotely close to level 90 weaponry. Still better then that pesky RCB i've been sporting everywhere!

Gonna be pesky death lotus darts everywhere instead :P

[mlskid]

I can honestly say that I'm really excited about this month, depsite the lack of a quest... That's the only thing that is missing. Guess I'll just have to keep trying to make money and raise my skills and wait for another skill :p

[SwreeTak]

After reading through this I can just ask one thing; Where's the quests?

Good stuff with POP2 and the Armadyl cosmetic outfit (I have been waiting for that for a long time!). Hopefully all this stainless steel I have stocked up will now be useful as for trading goods for.

[Lord Zophar]

T85 weapons only for ranged, rip :(

Yeah, let's completely ignore how the t80 magic weapon is closing in on the price of the t90 ranged weapon.

 

Nope, nothing wrong with that at all.

 

Idiots.

[inner fears]

darts sounds like fun sport  but mage is still most op in EOC , more ranged abilities plox

 

new 3 pop thingies ... damnit im 2 away from admiral , new rank commander-in-chief ?

[kamil1210]

i'm waiting for pop

[Noxx]

Looks like a fun month. Excited for Skoll and Hati. I could do with some fast exp again.

[TheDiamond]

I just spent ages on my pure doing smoking kills and getting reqs for slayer... 

[strilmus]

spear and magic helmet? like what, that one bugs bunny cartoon?

 

eh, figures it's level 90 hunting and construction, now all we're missing on the list of frustrating skills destined for ports is farming and summoning

[Saradomin_Mage]

spear and magic helmet? like what, that one bugs bunny cartoon?

 

eh, figures it's level 90 hunting and construction, now all we're missing on the list of frustrating skills destined for ports is farming and summoning

90 Agility adventurer? :P

 

"THE TRAPEZE ARTIST IS LOOKING FOR A NEW TROUPE TO WORK WITH AFTER HIS CIRCUS WAS EATEN BY SHARKS"

[Arceus]

I just love how they can't name a single new thing for free players :P..

[Sy_Accursed]

I just love how they can't name a single new thing for free players :P..

 

Indeed it is rather shocking how they can't find much dev time at all for updates for people who don't pay their server upkeep, utility or staff costs...it's almost as if they are trying to please the people who earn them profit and afford them continued employment.

[Noxx]

Besides F2P is a trial of "the real game". No need to update your trial every month. Once every quarter is plenty IMO.

[Alg]

 

I just love how they can't name a single new thing for free players :P..

 

Indeed it is rather shocking how they can't find much dev time at all for updates for people who don't pay their server upkeep, utility or staff costs...it's almost as if they are trying to please the people who earn them profit and afford them continued employment.

Because not making sure new players have a good first impression of the game is great for the game's longterm health, am I right?

 

This argument was okay in 2006 when every multiplayer game required a subscription except for Runescape. It isn't now, when subscription MMOs are dying (If not already dead) and the industry standard is freemium.

[Omali]

 

 

I just love how they can't name a single new thing for free players :P..

 

Indeed it is rather shocking how they can't find much dev time at all for updates for people who don't pay their server upkeep, utility or staff costs...it's almost as if they are trying to please the people who earn them profit and afford them continued employment.

Because not making sure new players have a good first impression of the game is great for the game's longterm health, am I right?

 

This argument was okay in 2006 when every multiplayer game required a subscription except for Runescape. It isn't now, when subscription MMOs are dying (If not already dead) and the industry standard is freemium.

 

 

Because there is so little to do in free to play that Jagex needs to regularly update it, am I right?

 

The people who constantly whine here about a lack of free to play updates aren't worried about newcomers, they're freeloaders looking for more free stuff. That's fine, don't expect Jagex to listen or care about the opinions of the "pure f2p 4 lyfe" crowd.

[Sy_Accursed]

 

 

 

I just love how they can't name a single new thing for free players :P..

 

Indeed it is rather shocking how they can't find much dev time at all for updates for people who don't pay their server upkeep, utility or staff costs...it's almost as if they are trying to please the people who earn them profit and afford them continued employment.

Because not making sure new players have a good first impression of the game is great for the game's longterm health, am I right?

 

This argument was okay in 2006 when every multiplayer game required a subscription except for Runescape. It isn't now, when subscription MMOs are dying (If not already dead) and the industry standard is freemium.

 

 

Because there is so little to do in free to play that Jagex needs to regularly update it, am I right?

 

The people who constantly whine here about a lack of free to play updates aren't worried about newcomers, they're freeloaders looking for more free stuff. That's fine, don't expect Jagex to listen or care about the opinions of the "pure f2p 4 lyfe" crowd.

 

 

Yeah its not like f2p gets absolutley nothing they tend to get 2 or 3 updates a year that are actual new content, plus all the graphics and reworks and events that filter through to f2p as well. Heck half their stuff has had more updates and reworks and reskins to it than 90% of the members world has ever seen combined.

 

So what if 1 month has nothing for them? They already have a massive demo to play plus the ongoing world event content.

 

[Unknown_Warrior]

I do hope melee and magic (especially magic) get weapons from POP too.

As it stands, it could be amazing money if it was. The tank armour you can get now is mostly useless, a lvl 85 degrading magic weapon could really make Ports a very competitive money maker.

[HunterDexter]

While I do like the upcoming updates, I bring the bad news that Rite of Passage quest is delayed to May and Fate of the Gods to April. :s Guess It'll take us a bit longer to visit Freneskae and Abinnah and finally meet Zaros and an Elder God. :c