Quest: Plague's End

[Sy_Accursed]

The thing that gets me is they still seem perfectly capable of making a good quest - The wizards tower remakes, the ozan quests, ooak, missing presumed death, world wakes are all nice solid quests. They just some utterly unwilling however to make the end of long standing quest lines that good BOTD suffered from an ill-conceived plot twist to avoid tying up any of the actual plot and then this...this is their "old style epic adventure"? This is their "we listened to you wanting a meaty a quest so we made it"? It's just so bare and simple. How did they think this qualified as 'meaty' when the most complex thing you have to do is

spot 5 symbols within a tiny town?

 

[strilmus]

it was less complex as it was infuriating due to the overwrought redesign making it really hard to actually look at things

 

anyway, i don't mind as much because the next quests will probably have to do with cleaning up the problems around elfland, like all of those uprooted dying trees, and an entire city of elves catching up on several hundred years worth of sitcoms they never finished watching

 

probably a good number of decent, life threatening secrets hiding in there

[Alg]

[spoiler=Because someone, somewhere will get mad if I don't spoiler this]

it was less complex as it was infuriating due to the overwrought redesign making it really hard to actually look at things

This, really. Trying to find five tiny things that don't stand out in a city full of things that do is much like trying to find that one Lego piece you need in a pile of ones that you don't. It adds some challenge to it all, but not really the kind you want.

 

Maybe it's just my bad eyesight, but I had a hard time seeing some of them even when I knew where to look and what to look for. I'd hate to have to play this with other vision problems.

 

Not even getting in to how much of the "two hour" run time we were promised was literally time spent running around, doing things like trying to find the one special dead tree that's identical to all of the other dead trees in the game, in a forest full of equally identical trees.

 

I mean, still better than Birthright or TMF, but not less rushed or underdeveloped.

 

 

[strilmus]

actually, that part was kind of easy because everybody else was heading to the same area and it wasn't that hard to get a ping on the location, it was just the really annoying design of the forest rearing its head again coupled with the poor design decision to make the graphically updated gnarled tree passes even harder to recognize against the normal forest backdrop

[Sorator]

Haven't done the quest yet, avoiding spoilers until I feel like srsly playing Runescape again, but I had to pop in because I noticed this:

 

The Ship Setup interface in Player-Owned Ports now has a tick box to hide ship parts that are no longer needed.

This may be my favorite Ninja-ish update ever. Seriously. (It's not under the Ninja header, but it feels like their sort of thing.)

 

Oh, also:

The engrammeter, used in Mahjarrat Memories, may now be charged with Elder memories.

So anyone heading for comp cape who wants to spend as little time div'ing as possible can combine those two reqs to save some time (having it charged and finished for FotG didn't really help that much anyway, honestly).

[Jeffery]

Quest was rather disappointing in my opinion.

 

Best part of this update is the instances of GWD having the option to get the Fast spawns.

 

Kree is 450k mage xp an hour with Cstaff

 

Going to test out Bandos later.

[helring]

[spoiler=Because someone, somewhere will get mad if I don't spoiler this]

it was less complex as it was infuriating due to the overwrought redesign making it really hard to actually look at things

This, really. Trying to find five tiny things that don't stand out in a city full of things that do is much like trying to find that one Lego piece you need in a pile of ones that you don't. It adds some challenge to it all, but not really the kind you want.

 

Maybe it's just my bad eyesight, but I had a hard time seeing some of them even when I knew where to look and what to look for. I'd hate to have to play this with other vision problems.

 

Not even getting in to how much of the "two hour" run time we were promised was literally time spent running around, doing things like trying to find the one special dead tree that's identical to all of the other dead trees in the game, in a forest full of equally identical trees.

 

I mean, still better than Birthright or TMF, but not less rushed or underdeveloped.

 

 

 

[spoiler=response]

The dead tree was really easy to find though because if you chopped a living tree it pointed in the dead tree's direction, so just follow the trail.

 

Overall, it seemed like a decent way to wrap up the quest. Everything could always be more complicated, if you keep doing that then the quest never gets done because you can always add more. A lot of players have been asking for the old style less handholding quests and the riddle part of this was the response since it didn't outright give you the answer. Unlike the Dwarf quest I think it finished off the quest series pretty well, didn't leave many unanswered threads, and the finale made sense.

 

 

[Urza285]

People were probably disappointed over not seeing a lot of lore connections.

[strilmus]

i'm more satisfied with the real explanation to why the underground pass is so creepy and fixated on certain things

[Th e Doctor]

I will be buying a bond just to do this quest. I started playing back when underground pass was the furthest the whole quest series had gotten and it was by far my favourite quest at that time. Gotta finish it for nostalgia purposes.

[Sobend]

I agree it was rushed, which was sad. The Plague City storyline is by far my favorite, and I'm sad that Jagex felt the need to rush the most critical episode. It wasn't horrible, but it didn't live up to its potential. It easily could have been as epic as While Guthix Sleeps in my opinion, but they settled for something good but not great. And as someone else mentioned here, it's not like Jagex can't make a good quest, it's just that they don't care much about making them outside of the sixth age storyline and reworks.

 

But either way, I really enjoyed the nostalgia part of it. I don't care and never cared much about the elves (especially how they look now - ugh), but it was great to see the original storyline players (before the Elves) come together and take back Ardougne. Elena is one of my favorite in-game characters (I have no idea why) and I'm glad she basically lead the invasion of Mourner HQ, gave you the flag, etc. More post quest dialogue with those characters would be nice, but hey you can't always get what you want, right? Overall, it was a great experience to finish what I started when I was a young kid in middle school (or whenever I started these :P) who really had one of his first true adventures going through the Underground Pass.

[Urza285]

I agree it was rushed, which was sad. The Plague City storyline is by far my favorite, and I'm sad that Jagex felt the need to rush the most critical episode. It wasn't horrible, but it didn't live up to its potential. It easily could have been as epic as While Guthix Sleeps in my opinion, but they settled for something good but not great. And as someone else mentioned here, it's not like Jagex can't make a good quest, it's just that they don't care much about making them outside of the sixth age storyline and reworks.

 

But either way, I really enjoyed the nostalgia part of it. I don't care and never cared much about the elves (especially how they look now - ugh), but it was great to see the original storyline players (before the Elves) come together and take back Ardougne. Elena is one of my favorite in-game characters (I have no idea why) and I'm glad she basically lead the invasion of Mourner HQ, gave you the flag, etc. More post quest dialogue with those characters would be nice, but hey you can't always get what you want, right? Overall, it was a great experience to finish what I started when I was a young kid in middle school (or whenever I started these :P) who really had one of his first true adventures going through the Underground Pass.

My mind doesnt span that far into the past or at least not for runescape. I do remember bits of doing underground pass at release. It was at best a quest I felt gave me a great deal of accomplishment and esteem in the game. Sure you got some respect for entering the legends guild, but man to survive that quest was like the cupcake in itself.

[Bartsimps]

Found it pretty easy. Good Luck all!

[Saradomin_Mage]

Spoilers

[hide]The light beam from Lord Crwys' crystal shot through the room. It leapt from mirror to mirror, gliding through space until it struck the Seal of Seren, and the heart of the Dark Lord.

 

"GRAAAAHHHHH" it screamed, and unceremoniously exploded, causing bits of Dark Lord to fly across the library.

 

Then there was silence.

 

Arianwyn was the first to speak. "It is over. After hanging over our heads for the last ten years, the spectre of the Dark Lord was introduced and killed off in the span of six light puzzles."

 

"Better than a pillar." Our hero mumbled under his breath.[/hide]

[Wkw]

Spoilers

[hide]The light beam from Lord Crwys' crystal shot through the room. It leapt from mirror to mirror, gliding through space until it struck the Seal of Seren, and the heart of the Dark Lord.

 

"GRAAAAHHHHH" it screamed, and unceremoniously exploded, causing bits of Dark Lord to fly across the library.

 

Then there was silence.

 

Arianwyn was the first to speak. "It is over. After hanging over our heads for the last ten years, the spectre of the Dark Lord was introduced and killed off in the span of six light puzzles."

 

"Better than a pillar." Our hero mumbled under his breath.[/hide]

What reference is the last bit from..? Slug quest?

[firebird308]

 

Spoilers

[hide]The light beam from Lord Crwys' crystal shot through the room. It leapt from mirror to mirror, gliding through space until it struck the Seal of Seren, and the heart of the Dark Lord.

 

"GRAAAAHHHHH" it screamed, and unceremoniously exploded, causing bits of Dark Lord to fly across the library.

 

Then there was silence.

 

Arianwyn was the first to speak. "It is over. After hanging over our heads for the last ten years, the spectre of the Dark Lord was introduced and killed off in the span of six light puzzles."

 

"Better than a pillar." Our hero mumbled under his breath.[/hide]

What reference is the last bit from..? Slug quest?

 

Since no one else has answered you, yes.

[Blofeld]

I know I'm late, but I finally did the quest today and I honestly feel even more let down than the dwarf finale.  It just seems like the biggest rush job in the world.     The story itself was great, its just the delivery that sucked.    When so much effort has gone into the city, I just don;t understand why so little pride seems to have gone into the quest we've waited for 10 years for.          I feel like when the elf city/quest debate came about earlier this year, sure I know players wanted the city too, but to me at least it was an uber amazing quest that I really wanted and had been waiting for predominently.   Dont get me wrong, I am incredibly excited for the city, it's going to be amazing. Theres just a part of me that would quite happily sacrifice 30% of the time and resources that have gone into the city and have them invested in the quest.

 

 

My key gripe with the corner cutting is that I just didn't feel immersed in the quest at all, i love lore normally and read it all, but I found it really hard to avoid the temptation to just space bare mash the conversations.   After a while thinking about it I think the key reason I didn't feel immersed was because of the complete lack of cutscenes. There were 3 or 4  pivotal moments that were perfect for an amazing cut scene, and instead there was just the crap animations of NPC's walking around.    For goodness sake so much effort went into Yelps death, yet when the King dies, he just disappears. Its shameful  and I just can't fathom Jagex logic.    Are budgets really that tight!!!

[Saradomin_Mage]

All the dev budget went into the elf graphics. You can really tell the difference when you look at the Lords' and Ladies' faces!!!!!

[Wkw]

I know I'm late, but I finally did the quest today and I honestly feel even more let down than the dwarf finale.  It just seems like the biggest rush job in the world.     The story itself was great, its just the delivery that sucked.    When so much effort has gone into the city, I just don;t understand why so little pride seems to have gone into the quest we've waited for 10 years for.          I feel like when the elf city/quest debate came about earlier this year, sure I know players wanted the city too, but to me at least it was an uber amazing quest that I really wanted and had been waiting for predominently.   Dont get me wrong, I am incredibly excited for the city, it's going to be amazing. Theres just a part of me that would quite happily sacrifice 30% of the time and resources that have gone into the city and have them invested in the quest.

 

 

My key gripe with the corner cutting is that I just didn't feel immersed in the quest at all, i love lore normally and read it all, but I found it really hard to avoid the temptation to just space bare mash the conversations.   After a while thinking about it I think the key reason I didn't feel immersed was because of the complete lack of cutscenes. There were 3 or 4  pivotal moments that were perfect for an amazing cut scene, and instead there was just the crap animations of NPC's walking around.    For goodness sake so much effort went into Yelps death, yet when the King dies, he just disappears. Its shameful  and I just can't fathom Jagex logic.    Are budgets really that tight!!!

I agree. It felt like the quest was only added into the game to lead into the elf city. Not the other way around.

 

Good dessert should compliment a good dinner. If you have a classy dessert  to go along with a mcdonalds burger.. thats silly. And thats what happened

[Sy_Accursed]

It seems as if jagex mistook people asking for the elf city as an undying unbridled passion for an amazing major city, where as players simple used it as a short hand of sorts for 'finish the elf series' - since the logical conclusion was restoration of the city.

 

And in doing so they have treated the quest like a formality to get out of the way without any huge fanfare or effort so they can focus on the city and the city alone.

I feel like most of us would've been more excited and appeased by a jaw dropping epic quest that took many hours to properly deal with the plague and tyras and lathas and the dark lord and iorwerth and restoring the city with a make your eyes bleed gorgeous cutscene of this city being reborn unlocking an ok city (bank, ge, furnace, anvil, few handy portals, space to grow in time with the big ticket being crystal singing and gear) opposed to a quest that rushes to tie things up out of the way to unlock an amazing city.

 

Honestly its not overly surprising when they were intending to unlock the city without the quest and only back pedalled after a lot of players called them on it. 

[Blofeld]

 

I agree. It felt like the quest was only added into the game to lead into the elf city. Not the other way around.

 

Good dessert should compliment a good dinner. If you have a classy dessert  to go along with a mcdonalds burger.. thats silly. And thats what happened

 

 

That is a fantastic analogy, and has made me chuckle.

 

What is it that's caused this, is it miss communication, or is it that Jagex have completely misunderstood what players want?

 

Re. the effort and budget being put into the elves faces, yes I know they are fantastic, that's why it would have been amazing to see those details utilized in some cut scenes so we could have seen the damn things!    As it stands we have a bunch of fantastically detailed chat faces and bodies that we've only seen a few times and mostly from a distance.    It's not too late and I would love them to assign someone to retrospectively put together some cut scenes for the ques, that those who have completed it can watch. I am confident it would make it better. 

 

I know the One of a kind quest earlier this year was to test the waters as to whether we minded corner cutting on quests so that they could make more of them. And I hoenstly don't mind for more general/fun quests   But not for this quest!!!!!

[Saradomin_Mage]

Re. the effort and budget being put into the elves faces, yes I know they are fantastic, that's why it would have been amazing to see those details utilized in some cut scenes so we could have seen the damn things!    As it stands we have a bunch of fantastically detailed chat faces and bodies that we've only seen a few times and mostly from a distance.    It's not too late and I would love them to assign someone to retrospectively put together some cut scenes for the ques, that those who have completed it can watch. I am confident it would make it better.

Sorry, I meant that as a joke reference to POP2. People were asking why the hell there wasn't any graphical budget for new building upgrades, and Mod Doctor replied "The Trapper's face is a work of art!"

[michel555555]

[hide]

 

So basically we just killed a part of Seren thus weakening the last god actually capable of opposing Zaros when we finally put her back together again? Unless you weakened  Zaros during the quest.

 

It would have been nice to have had a choice like during the Zaro's quest. To somehow keep the dark lord alive and see more sides to seren and maby getting different kinds of crystal depending on them. Black crystal gear would have been awesome...

 

Now we'll just have another generic good god while Zaros had his personality expanded.

 

[/hide]

[Urza285]

[hide]

 

So basically we just killed a part of Seren thus weakening the last god actually capable of opposing Zaros when we finally put her back together again? Unless you weakened  Zaros during the quest.

 

It would have been nice to have had a choice like during the Zaro's quest. To somehow keep the dark lord alive and see more sides to seren and maby getting different kinds of crystal depending on them. Black crystal gear would have been awesome...

 

Now we'll just have another generic good god while Zaros had his personality expanded.

 

[/hide]

Well I wouldnt say he was 'destroyed', but maybe hindered. I'm sure a jmod covering lore would say that anything shattered no matter how small the pieces may be can be put back together. With a tier 2 god I'm sure this wouldnt be a hard feat. She would just need to reign her destructive piece in when pieced back together.

[Wkw]

I think we can all agree that the Dark Lord is the part of the psyche that all people have, that has the craving to catch a butterfly and pull off its wings just to see what will happen. The part that is so small and meaningless, that for the most part, we do not use it nor do we need it.

 

If anything, that was the only part of Seren that was self aware.. and if anything, if it started to gather the rest of her, it would become the dominant part of her mind.

 

The last thing we need is a Tier-2 light goddess strutting around the world like a Victoria's Secret model killing everyone just to see how they die. We already had PlayScape edition 1 from BOL with Sara and his Big Blue Beard. We don't need more blue.