Future Update Discussions

[strilmus]

make it some kinda degradable/consumable thing where you have to keep coming back?

[helring]

make it some kinda degradable/consumable thing where you have to keep coming back?

 

Could possibly work, but then they aren't there for the minigame and probably would boost anyway if possible

[Yoko Kurama]

 

 

 

 

Problem: As soon as you add a decent reward, people boost it to hell.

See: BA, SC, Cwars and now Heist, along with every other minigame with half decent rewards/trim reqs.

 

Not true. People usually tend to boost when some reward they want is ridiculously hard to get, like Profound Armour or Hybrid sets.

 

 

But how do you make something sufficiently rewarding and yet easy enough to get so it won't be boosted? 

 

 

It's the easiest thing in the world to do. Don't make it require hundreds of hours like Profound armour or Hybrid armour. Not hard to do.

 

 

Then you get a dead minigame

 

 

No you don't. Castle Wars is dead because of the experience crazed metagame. Not because of a lack of rewards. It was a lively and extremely (one of the most popular things ever in RS history) popular thing to do for several years, and I can assure you, the vast majority of people did not go into it for rewards.

[helring]

Thats exactly my point. Castle Wars is fun, but its dead now. Without rewards that people want you have a dead minigame. You can blame the efficiency players, you can blame the endgame, you can blame whatever you want, but the fact is if you make a minigame without rewards that people want it is going to die.

[Kimberly]

Castlewars was dying long before metagaming even became well known. It was dying while people used it as a place to kill others and go barrage crazy with no risk. The fact that other safe pvp zones came up afterwards did nothing to stop what was already in motion, because then there was another reason to use castlewars for something other than what was intended - idling for comp reqs.

 

Pinning its decline to the relatively new phenomenon of metagame makes no sense and is pretty much flat-out ignorance of how Castlewars ha changed over the years.

[Yoko Kurama]

Castlewars was dying long before metagaming even became well known. It was dying while people used it as a place to kill others and go barrage crazy with no risk. The fact that other safe pvp zones came up afterwards did nothing to stop what was already in motion, because then there was another reason to use castlewars for something other than what was intended - idling for comp reqs.

 

Pinning its decline to the relatively new phenomenon of metagame makes no sense and is pretty much flat-out ignorance of how Castlewars ha changed over the years.

 

What makes you think the metagame is a recent phenomenon? It's been here for a few years. As for Castle Wars, it was still lively just a few years ago. Barraging was always a part of the fun of Castle Wars -- I don't see how that contributed to its decline. Ancient Magiks were always very popular to use there. The same applies to games like Fight Pits, which had at least 2 or so active worlds just a few years ago. 

[muggiwhplar]

The very first hit to CW's popularity was themed worlds. I used to love playing CW in random worlds or my homeworld because there were enough players to make it challenging, exciting, and personal. Lots of familiar faces every time and you could solo their whole team with ancients if you were really good. There would be like 20 people per team, as opposed to 200 like in World 6.

 

Themed worlds killed that style of gameplay, forcing you to play in the games with hundreds of players, which was never fun for me. Nobody ever played CW in random worlds anymore after that update so anytime I wanted to play CW, I had to play with 200 people on the enemy team instead of 20. I think that's when I quit playing CW.

[Nobody]

 

Castlewars was dying long before metagaming even became well known. It was dying while people used it as a place to kill others and go barrage crazy with no risk. The fact that other safe pvp zones came up afterwards did nothing to stop what was already in motion, because then there was another reason to use castlewars for something other than what was intended - idling for comp reqs.

 

Pinning its decline to the relatively new phenomenon of metagame makes no sense and is pretty much flat-out ignorance of how Castlewars ha changed over the years.

 

What makes you think the metagame is a recent phenomenon? It's been here for a few years. As for Castle Wars, it was still lively just a few years ago. Barraging was always a part of the fun of Castle Wars -- I don't see how that contributed to its decline. Ancient Magiks were always very popular to use there. The same applies to games like Fight Pits, which had at least 2 or so active worlds just a few years ago. 

 

 

Because with good enough players you could spawn camp the opposing team and games ended up all about how had the most "pros" who were willing to play that day.

[Urza285]

So I did some research on mahjarrat memories (MM) and a lot of interesting tidbits. There is a dedicated thread on the lore forum here:

 

http://[Use Quick Find Code]/a=13/sl=0/[Please Use QuickFind Code]?341,342,232,65285562,goto,1

 

Also from the way we might obtain the memories it may end up being a recycled mechanic used much like obtaining guthixian memories and strange rocks combined. I'm also thinking they might be making these memories dropable as crystals that, when used at the right locations, allow us to experience their memories. I'm guessing we should expect to kill things to obtain specific memories. From there we might have to bring them to specific locations like with jennicas ring.

[Alg]

Because with good enough players you could spawn camp the opposing team and games ended up all about how had the most "pros" who were willing to play that day.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't this a big part of why ice barrage was so game-breaking back in the day? There wasn't a whole lot you could do to counter that.

[Saradomin_Mage]

SEERCULL TO THE RESCUE wait spec missed because the guy is tanking with dfs

[Wkw]

SEERCULL TO THE RESCUE wait spec missed because the guy is tanking with dfs

and if it did hit, they would just need to dunk a restore potion

[muggiwhplar]

Ice barrage also cost 3.6k PER CAST so it evened out. Blood barrage was even more expensive. An hour of runecrafting paid for 20 minutes of Castle Wars. That's the biggest reason why I chose to smuggle runes out of BA (and get perm banned); because my favorite hobby was so [bleep]ing expensive lol

 

I remember when my best friend quit playing and gave me his lifetime collection of runes-- like 50k of every rune. He wanted me to use them for staking (which I did... a little). I ended up blowing the vast majority of those runes on Castle Wars barrages in about a week :lol: He was so pissed when he found out lol... good times.

[Blyaunte]

 

There will be a poll to vote if you want the new graphics everywhere.

What. But how does that...I mean you really just...That doesn't...DAJSGIGERHTIRGHJTUGQWHTUBGEWN TJGTkWR

 

Honestly I understand why they can't do a graphical rework of ALL the monkies in the game at once. It's the same sort of thing with how the Dwarven storyline went. But WHY poll it?

 

The only reason why I could even think this would be a poll option is if there's a large graphical rework batch to be voted on later on in the year and they need to pad it with unlikely choices, but even still why. '-'

 

Well - not everyone agrees on what the Monkees should look like, ya know? Some want them to look more like Davy Jones and others like Mickey Dolenz better, and still others, like me, just love that tuque that Mike Nesmith used to wear ...  |^_^|

[Kimberly]

What makes you think the metagame is a recent phenomenon? It's been here for a few years.

That's exactly what I mean. In comparison to how long Castlewars has been used for things other than its intended purpose, it's a fairly recent development. Which is why blaming it on the metagame is stupid.

 

As for Castle Wars, it was still lively just a few years ago. ... Barraging was always a part of the fun of Castle Wars -- I don't see how that contributed to its decline.

Then you might not be fully aware of how community interaction drove the minigame itself over the years.

 

Once themed worlds - and jumping to the future: instanced lobbies - started pushing people all together combined with at the time no other safe PVP alternatives, later to change into undesirable pvp alternatives since it would be more worthwhile to do CW if ever chosen to go for trimmed comp, Castlewars never stood a chance of actually being played the way it was intended.

[Levells]

Since there's been teasers thrown about with extra content/surprises with stuff from ROTM, what items should I grab? I've got the 2 letters from Robert and his necklace (from Kethsi) and am currently hunting down Bob with my re-enchanted catspeak amulet (they really should let us shove it enchanted in the cramulet). Any other suggestions?

[strilmus]

wait until the quest comes out just in case they do something like hand you a free commorb?

[Miss Lioness]

http://[Use Quick Find Code]/a=13/c=DcHXiVyHmUY/sl=0/[Please Use QuickFind Code]?309,310,779,65290585,25,330283242#25

[strilmus]

wonder how long it takes to make a script that automatically hands out the least popular, not high priced item in the market that hasn't already been made free

[Urza285]

wonder how long it takes to make a script that automatically hands out the least popular, not high priced item in the market that hasn't already been made free

You would be surprised at what seemingly routine/simple stuff gets left out of the budget both for dev time and expendetures. Even in regular businesses too...

[helring]

Post from Mod Osborne about why quests like Temple at Senntisten are not required for Fate of the Gods:

 

Hey everyone,

 

There have been concerns about the requirements for Fate of the Gods, our upcoming Zaros quest. So many of these have been level-headed, well-reasoned arguments (thanks to Robo Hobo, Fswel and many others for the cracking threads and comments).

 

We're discussing it, as you can imagine. But first, I wanted to give you reasoning for why the quest requirements are as they are.

 

Fate of the Gods is the first of many pieces of content that will feature Zaros. Within the space of two months, you will receive another two updates that continue the Zaros story (not quests, but they will have story attached) and there will be more. Zaros will be a core player in all three of our story pillars, and this role will become clearer in Fate of the Gods. This is something that Mod Rowley and I were hoping to reveal after FOTG, but I feel it's something you would benefit from hearing now.

 

Zaros has traditionally been integral to the story of RS, and FOTG will make him integral to its future, and the slowburn story that we are building for the 6th Age. 

We wanted to include Zaros in so much future content because so many of you - regardless of affiliations - saw Zaros as central, and an intriguing character. The passion shown on the forums seems to confirm this.

 

The obstacle has been that we would have to lock all future Zaros quests/stories behind Temple at Senntisten, Firemaker's Curse etc. Some of you will not see this as a problem, and I can completely understand that. It's a reward for devotion to lore, being an awesome lorehound, and wearing your Quest Cape like a badass.

 

But, as many of you have rightly pointed out, we couldn't justify several Zaros quests if they all required the completion of these quests. I have to justify (and I should have to justify) the amount of resources that are spent on each quest. If 5% of our players will play a quest, and only 20% of our players will ever play that quest, then we have to be judicious about how many of these quests we do, and how lavish we are in their development time and presentation.

 

So, we made the decision to remove quest requirements in the same manner as World Wakes. It buys us something very very valuable: a storyline that can have Zaros included, and included regularly. That was a sacrifice we were willing to make for a fantastic and involved narrative that could a) feature the core '5th Age' characters that the lorehounds have grown to love and b) get more quests released, with a greater frequency of lore-centric, deep storyline stuff. 

 

It is also worth noting that Fate of the Gods (as World Wakes is) is an exception. If you look at One of a Kind and Mahjarrat Memories (and the upcoming Mourning's End Part III), we are adding quest requirements that are high and as expected for the lore content they contain. We simply will not be reducing quest requirements often, if at all in the future. World Wakes and Fate of the Gods (and, perhaps, Missing Presumed Death) are the foundations that we can build all of our future narrative on.

 

We have taken on board all of your comments about demarking the 5th Age quests better. This is something I am determined to do. Fate of the Gods will clearly (and slightly pushily) warn the player that they should play Temple at Senntisten. We have 5th Age notifications before each 5th Age quest now (this went in a couple of months ago), but we will look at making this clearer. We will also revisit MPD and others to add similar warnings before playing them. This may not happen for the launch of FOTG, but we hope to do it soon.

 

We will continue to look at your feedback. No doubt this post will not quell a lot of you, and I understand that. But I hope you will understand why we have done it this way, and can see the possibilities of these future stories. We're certainly excited about your reactions to the revelations of this next month.

 

We have a strong year for questing, with more quests planned than last year, and we have a strategy for getting more lore-rich quests in front of you (and many of them will be decided by you). Some of you have questioned our passion for lore, and even stated that we hate questers, but I can absolutely and resolutely say that this is not the case, and we will be proving it in March.

 

Mod Osborne

 

 

 

Source: http://[Use Quick Find Code]/sl=0/[Please Use QuickFind Code]?341,342,389,65315295

[Tim]

I was hoping they'd do that. Not just the fact I lack the levels for it, but something this big in terms of Runescape lore shouldn't be locked to only an odd 20% or so.

[helring]

I was hoping they'd do that. Not just the fact I lack the levels for it, but something this big in terms of Runescape lore shouldn't be locked to only an odd 20% or so.

 

I'm kind of split on this. I can understand why they'd do it since they want so many quests split off from this. On the other hand, if all the major lore events need to be available to people who haven't done quests because they're so major, then it doesn't leave much payoff for those who did stick with the quests. It also means that it could possibly confuse newer players and they won't get to fully enjoy the quest line in order. The second complaint might not be as bad if Jagex actually allowed a player to reset their quests and re-do them, but seeing as they don't it seems allowing players to do quests out of order could be a problem.

[Sy_Accursed]

What I'm curious on is he mentions they fixed the 5th age quest markers, has anyone checked this out and seen if they have done it now?

I remember there being a massive list of quests that ought tot have markers that did not.

 

I'm torn on this req thing too I can see their point that if Zaros is gonna be a big part in all 3 major pillars of the 6th age story arc he needs to be opened up through a low req point in the 6th age, but at the same time it does feel like a bit of a rip off. I mean we have been here for YEARS we have toiled through minor hidden references and cryptic hints to piece together an idea that Zaros even existed and who he could've been. We've slaved at reqs to climb this journey and find the mahjratt and get it the point at which Zaros can finally return and now all that work is kinda being invalidated with a sweeping 5th age vs 6th age req thing so any old noob can stroll right in to frenskae and meet Zaros himself.

 

I certainly would like to see some form of quest replay even if the 'replay' was boiled down to more a choreographed cutscene with less actual action taken to smooth over issues that could arise with trying to reset some quests. Just so people had the chance to get it in order, especially if we had more recap npcs so each series had one covering it and they could give you a whole joined up 'movie' from start to finish of the events in order.

[Tim]

 

I was hoping they'd do that. Not just the fact I lack the levels for it, but something this big in terms of Runescape lore shouldn't be locked to only an odd 20% or so.

 

I'm kind of split on this. I can understand why they'd do it since they want so many quests split off from this. On the other hand, if all the major lore events need to be available to people who haven't done quests because they're so major, then it doesn't leave much payoff for those who did stick with the quests. It also means that it could possibly confuse newer players and they won't get to fully enjoy the quest line in order. The second complaint might not be as bad if Jagex actually allowed a player to reset their quests and re-do them, but seeing as they don't it seems allowing players to do quests out of order could be a problem.

 

 

I remember them talking about doing this years ago, what ever happened to it?