Behind the Scenes - January 2014

[sarg1010]

 

Behind the Scenes - January 2014

Slayer Updates

Members only

 

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.

 

Am I the only one really excited for this? >.>

[Sy_Accursed]

I'm happy they are doing it but it's a bit of a meh fix in my book. The helms stats should be set to scale either with your defence lvl or to the level of the body armour worn.

 

Their way just leaves the top end players with a helm that whilst better is still a fair bit worse than their normal gear and for the midrange lvls has the same issue.

[Yoko Kurama]

Seems like a lackluster month to me. The only thing I cared about (range buff) has been postponed. Lame.

[Sy_Accursed]

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

 

Does it really count as delayed (from our perspective) when we were never given an expected time frame in the first place?

[HunterDexter]

On twitter, RoP was to be released this month or early February, and FoTG in March, they said. :)

[Th e Doctor]

No t85 weapons for melee and magic. They could have given me priff and inventing next week and this month would still be ruined for me just from that.

 

Slayer seems like stuff that could have and should have been fixed a long time ago. Giant mole seems interesting but unless its instanced and accessible with t8 and lower equipment it will probably be dead content very quickly.

 

The rest is all kinda meh.

[Alg]

 

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.

The question then is why I would choose to play a glorified demo of a game that hasn't really changed since 2005, when I could be playing something like League of Legends.

 

I mean, F2P is a ghost town right now. Those "pure f2p 4 lyfe" guys you're complaining about were the community that new players got to see first (Community! That thing that sets MMORPGs apart from the regular kind). If they're gone, what other hooks are there?

 

Hell, the mole would have been perfect for F2P simply because it's designed as an entry level boss. That's how you get players to want more.

[Hedgehog]

 

 

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.

The question then is why I would choose to play a glorified demo of a game that hasn't really changed since 2005, when I could be playing something like League of Legends.

 

I mean, F2P is a ghost town right now. Those "pure f2p 4 lyfe" guys you're complaining about were the community that new players got to see first (Community! That thing that sets MMORPGs apart from the regular kind). If they're gone, what other hooks are there?

 

F2P isn't a ghost town

 

It's surprisingly active

[ilovecuttingyews]

Last I checked, F2P was around 15% of online players at any given time. Not sure about today.

EDIT: As of now, there are 6,138 F2P and 38,682 P2P on RS, giving a value of 13.7%. If you include OSRS as being online members, that brings P2P up to 60,457 and F2Ps share to 10.2%. I wouldn't call those numbers 'surprisingly active'.

Back on topic: plenty of decent updates but nothing really stands out to me. Though ports may provide some nice profit.

[TheDiamond]

Last I checked, F2P was around 15% of online players at any given time. Not sure about today.

EDIT: As of now, there are 6,138 F2P and 38,682 P2P on RS, giving a value of 13.7%. If you include OSRS as being online members, that brings P2P up to 60,457 and F2Ps share to 10.2%. I wouldn't call those numbers 'surprisingly active'.

 

Back on topic: plenty of decent updates but nothing really stands out to me. Though ports may provide some nice profit.

Theres only like 6 f2p worlds now. 

[Wkw]

 

Last I checked, F2P was around 15% of online players at any given time. Not sure about today.

EDIT: As of now, there are 6,138 F2P and 38,682 P2P on RS, giving a value of 13.7%. If you include OSRS as being online members, that brings P2P up to 60,457 and F2Ps share to 10.2%. I wouldn't call those numbers 'surprisingly active'.

 

Back on topic: plenty of decent updates but nothing really stands out to me. Though ports may provide some nice profit.

Theres only like 6 f2p worlds now. 

 

There are 21, I just counted

[Quyneax]

If POP2 doesn't bring melee and magic weapons, it'll be a bad update in my opinion. Also, death lotus darts are much lamer than harpoons - 2H ranged thrown please, not some lame 1h. We have lots of 1h already. The rest of the month looks like no content, some small fixes/conveniences, no rebalancing.

[Yoko Kurama]

If POP2 doesn't bring melee and magic weapons, it'll be a bad update in my opinion. Also, death lotus darts are much lamer than harpoons - 2H ranged thrown please, not some lame 1h. We have lots of 1h already. The rest of the month looks like no content, some small fixes/conveniences, no rebalancing.

 

Still no range fix; only been like well over 1 year since EoC went live. Not even a discussion about it. Seriously, what are they spending all this time on? They keep postponing stuff (we were promised another 2-3 quests for the end of 2013, but they are postponed and won't be coming in January either, PoP was also delayed, as were other things), and each month seems sparser in updates than the last. It seems they barely get anything done these days.

[Quyneax]

The number of delays and the complete ignoring of rebalancing suggests to me they're still not all in on what direction the game is going in according to everyone else. Basically, there's no plan, just developers picking pet projects and carrying them out independently. Without coordination between pieces of content, the whole just doesn't make sense. That's fine if you're running Funorb, but it doesn't work in a big game where people get rich or fail depending on your balance (see: anyone who likes maging can't afford magic gear, anyone who likes ranging can't get good dps even if they can afford gear, anyone who likes meleeing is no use at higher-tier bosses).

[Yoko Kurama]

I have pestered various J-Mods on those issues over the past weeks. They are basically all clueless and hopeless. They have absolutely no awareness of core issues and problems, and no intention to fix them. They are mostly flippant when approached about these issues. 

[Omali]

The number of delays and the complete ignoring of rebalancing suggests to me they're still not all in on what direction the game is going in according to everyone else. Basically, there's no plan, just developers picking pet projects and carrying them out independently. Without coordination between pieces of content, the whole just doesn't make sense. That's fine if you're running Funorb, but it doesn't work in a big game where people get rich or fail depending on your balance (see: anyone who likes maging can't afford magic gear, anyone who likes ranging can't get good dps even if they can afford gear, anyone who likes meleeing is no use at higher-tier bosses).

 

Hasn't that been Jagex's mantra for years though? We've had updates and quests fall into oblivion because the guy who worked on them quit, the majority of Q&A's being answered with "I don't know," and more. I started playing a few months after RS2 began, and they never really developed into the mindset of "we're a business now, we have to act like one" despite the major growth in profits, staff, and investors. I figured the introduction of investors who knew how businesses should operate would set them straight, but apparently that isn't so. 

 

That's part of the reason why you see stuff like MechScape and 8Realms getting to near release, with the latter actually going into open beta, only for Jagex to suddenly realize that the game's weren't fun. 

[aerendil]

The number of delays and the complete ignoring of rebalancing suggests to me they're still not all in on what direction the game is going in according to everyone else. Basically, there's no plan, just developers picking pet projects and carrying them out independently. Without coordination between pieces of content, the whole just doesn't make sense. That's fine if you're running Funorb, but it doesn't work in a big game where people get rich or fail depending on your balance (see: anyone who likes maging can't afford magic gear, anyone who likes ranging can't get good dps even if they can afford gear, anyone who likes meleeing is no use at higher-tier bosses).

BUT WE'LL SOON HAVE POWER TO THE PLAYERS!

 

 

I just cannot wait.

 

On a more serious side:

I hate to be a bit of a poo poo whenever it comes to runescape updates, but I'm really losing faith in jagex, we only seem to get a good month every now and then; everything else seems to be filler updates….

 

Updating Mole? I mean, how many rs players are really lvl 110….. Pvm is honestly a joke now, no challenge for anything but extreme high end, so I see little point in wasting time on tidbits when there are much larger issues out there; like equalizing the combat triangle, making gear accessible to all, not just the immensely rich, and filling out/reworking skills.

[Blutters]

Was excited for Ports V2. Then I saw there's just one cape, ring, and style of weapons coming out.

Really? Da [bleep]?

 

At least Slayer updates seem decent.

[Tim]

removing smoking kills?

 

Better do it ASAP then so I can still get the XP reward. Still, January looks okay-ish. I'm glad they went back and focused on a boss that newer players can face and have a go at, rather then go balls-deep @ GWD or completely destroy the current mole.

[Leik]

removing smoking kills?

 

Better do it ASAP then so I can still get the XP reward. Still, January looks okay-ish. I'm glad they went back and focused on a boss that newer players can face and have a go at, rather then go balls-deep @ GWD or completely destroy the current mole.

They are just removing the Smoking Kills quest requirement to get slayer points. The quest will still remain in-game.

[Blyaunte]

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.

 

 

Wow, am I the only person who read this and thought this: 

 

 

Spear and Magic Helmet!!!!

[Saradomin_Mage]

 

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.

Wow, am I the only person who read this and thought this:

 

 

Spear and Magic Helmet!!!!

 

KILL THE WABBIT

 

Their way just leaves the top end players with a helm that whilst better is still a fair bit worse than their normal gear and for the midrange lvls has the same issue.

It's the best helm for slaying in and has always been weaker compared to normal gear since like 2008. Mod Ash was surprised that it had better than rune full helm stats while only requiring 10 defence. Surely the DPS boost while slaying expects you to trade off your defences in exchange for it :P

 

If the helmet scaled with levels, wouldn't it invalidate POP/Nex gear?

[Blyaunte]

 

 

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.

Wow, am I the only person who read this and thought this:

 

 

Spear and Magic Helmet!!!!

 

KILL THE WABBIT

 

One of my all-time favourite Bugs Bunny https://archive.org/details/WhatsOperaDoc'>cartoons.

[stealthchris117]

 

 

 

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.

Wow, am I the only person who read this and thought this:

 

 

Spear and Magic Helmet!!!!

 

KILL THE WABBIT

 

One of my all-time favourite Bugs Bunny cartoons.

 

It is one of the best and I too thought of this exact thing when reading the BTS.

[Lord Zophar]

 

 

 

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.

Wow, am I the only person who read this and thought this:

 

 

Spear and Magic Helmet!!!!

 

KILL THE WABBIT

 

One of my all-time favourite Bugs Bunny cartoons.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeRMOOg9ztw