Update: I've changed this list very slightly to clarify some of the items on the plan. Also please bear in mind when this list was written it was just a rough plan to give you an idea of the sorts of things that we were thinking of. As it happens we inserted lots of other cool stuff into the schedule that isn't even on this list, which pushed some things back but certainly didn't deprive you of updates! However pretty much everything here is still planned. There is just so many possible things we can do (this list being just a small fraction), and it's hard to decide what to do first! In particular we decided to develop several key map areas that aren't even listed, before the ones here, and did considerably more detailed and complex quests than originally planned.

 

 

 

Development plan as of 31-Mar-04

 

 

 

Now that we have finished our big game engine update we can finally get back to producing regular updates to the game.

 

 

 

I'm sure you're all wondering whats coming next now the update is finally out, so read on for a summary of some of the things we have planned.

 

 

 

The new game engine allows for us to do a much greater variety of updates. We will be able to produce many exciting new features which we simply couldn't do previously. We have also expanded our development team over the last few months so expect the updates to start coming thick and fast.

 

 

 

These are just some of the many of the currently planned features.

 

 

 

New areas:

 

# A viking style area, including a new quest and town.

 

# A large 'frozen lands' area including penguins, mammoths, polar bears and more.

 

# A pyramid quest in the desert full of traps, treasure and mummys .

 

# A barrows of the undead area to explore and find new equipment.

 

# Some good training areas designed for rangers.

 

 

 

New quests:

 

# There will of course be lots of new quests. We will be adding these on a regular basis again, including Part 4 of the ongoing plague city storyline.

 

 

 

New items:

 

# Enchantable rings.

 

# More rare weapons and armour - including weapons with impressive special moves.

 

# Armoured boots.

 

# More clothing to help give your characters a unique look.

 

# Special prayer book items which can be wielded in the shield spot for prayer bonuses.

 

 

 

New features & skills

 

# Treasure hunt mini-game with a variety of rewards, including some new rare items.

 

# Summoning spells - summon skeletons, demons, etc...!

 

# A quest journal for you to read and recap what point you are up to in each quest. No more coming back to a quest after a break, and wondering what you are supposed to do next.

 

# More random events, to give more variety, and lots of chances to win unexpected rewards.

 

# More pets and followers with different properties and abilities.

 

# Special organised game events on holidays.

 

# Many new monsters such as Orcs, Lizardmen and more.

 

# In game versions of our boardgames such as chess and draughts.

 

 

 

And are also planning on adding even bigger features, that really take advantage of our new engines abilities, such as:

 

 

 

Player owned houses - Each player will be able to have their own unique house. Use the new carpentry skill to make new/rare things for your house. Using the farming skill to grow herbs and plants in the grounds of your house. Build your own private party areas and shop areas, and more!

 

 

 

Clan support, to allow you to optionally form your own clans with your friends.

 

 

 

Mutiplayer castle arena for massive team based wars!

 

 

 

Randomly generated scenarios, where a new adventure is generated for you and your friends each time you go on it. Form an adventuring party and go on your own personal quest.

 

 

 

So there's lots to look forward to! We think the next year will be very exciting.

 

 

 

 

(The address for this news piece is: http://news.runescape.com/lang/en/aff/r ... .ws?id=208 )

 

 

 

I've been thinking back, checking out the list of updates that were planned. Obviously alot of these have been implemented now. However, there are some which haven't yet been implemented, including the ice land area, the random scenarios, and summing.

 

 

 

I suppose the recent rebirth of player houses, carpentry, and construction topics that have since started to reappear in mass kind of got me thinking about these other forgotten updates. Now do not get me wrong, this isn't an attempt to start bashing, but rather an curious mind wondering how many of these are still in development, and which have been scrapped.

 

 

 

The random scenarios, and summoning, were one of the more popular ideas to come, yet you dont really hear as much about them lately, especially the former.

 

 

 

The ice lands, however, was believed by some to be located north of miscellania at the icey area visible from there (see screenshot below), but to my knowledge, nothing has been said on the subject in them in quite some time either. However, if the land in the screenshot is indeed part of it, then obviously some of that update is already in the game, albeit unaccessible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts?

icelands as in, trollweiss? icepath?

I was actually there yesterday and was shocked to see penguins. i think jagex uploads the new areas then opens them up, like when they created the pyramid in the desert. also, that POH picture leaked onto this site a week ago means jagex has them almost ready, but not ready enough for us to see in game.

random scenarios could be considered with pest control i suppose, i too was thinking back to old update promises and made that connection

Build your own private party areas and shop areas, and more!

 

 

 

 

IF they implement that they will be gods....

 

 

 

I can see it now.....

 

 

 

Gonzlar's enchanted ring and cooked fish emporium!

random scenarios could be considered with pest control i suppose, i too was thinking back to old update promises and made that connection

 

 

 

Temple trekking :)

Well all that we can do is to just wait and see what unfolds for us for the future of Runescape. Stop looking for an answer and be patient.

well they said that POH would be out by the end of 2005 :roll:

 

 

 

sure did come out...

This really made my Day and is not bookmarked in my browser, Just Awesome. On a Scale of 1 to Awesome, I give it Awesome.

Why is Castle wars on there?? I don't know when it came out..But Nice find

The only things that haven't really come yet is sommoning, POHs, and clan support. Jagex actually does seem to get stuff done... even if it does take them 2 years to get some of it done :roll:

they do get it done....but over much to much of a time frame!

 

 

 

EDIT: didn't see the tiny letters...

give jagex a break, theyve come out with so much of that stuff already, and you guys are still complaining. I remember in rsc when an update would come out every few MONTHS and still no one would complain. We are much too used to tons of updates, get used to taking a while, and when it does come out, thank jagex and dont complain about how long it took

random scenarios could be considered with pest control i suppose, i too was thinking back to old update promises and made that connection

 

 

 

Temple trekking :)

 

Yah, it's temple trekking + the other new treasure trails. They still need to do a team thing if they want to... but they don't really have to anymore.

random scenarios could be considered with pest control i suppose, i too was thinking back to old update promises and made that connection

 

 

 

Temple trekking :)

 

Yah, it's temple trekking + the other new treasure trails. They still need to do a team thing if they want to... but they don't really have to anymore.

 

 

 

But the "team thing" is exactly what I want! For those of us who are not PKers and are not in gigantic clans a simple Team of six people to go on an interesting quest would be amazing.

 

 

 

The "real" quests that we play are focused on us as the heroes, but there are things out there that one adventurer cannot do alone. That should be exemplified as we take part in a team of six to go out and travel the lands of Runescape combatting evil while a minor storyline is played out (one that is not detrimental to the official storylines).

 

 

 

You could just have a simple plug and play quest. Insert reason to go (Wealthy noblemen pays you, A rare artifact is the reward) insert plot (A powerful wizard has taken residence near the Druids he must be stopped, A goblin chieftan is planning to make war against the humans) and then insert the randomly made dungeon and then poof! You've got yourself a random adventure.

 

 

 

They'd need about a month of creative writing team to develop all of the storylines, but I think it'd be worth the work. Just imagine having a close group of friends in which you can share epic battles with all the while being able to roleplay a storyline. That's what an RPG is ladies and gentlemen.

 

 

 

If anyone has ever played Diablo you'll know that the dungeons there were randomly generated and that gave millions of different dungeons that could be played. If I could find a group of good natured individuals I'd be dungeon crawling all day long if I could.

i think it all sounds awsome, especially summoning, i've been looking forward to that, just because i really have no idea how they're going to do it... so it'll be interesting :)

Those penguins have been there since the Islands were put in. No idea why we haven't had that area yet :(

 

 

 

We've also not had Orcs or Lizardmen.

I want a cave that can be teamed (random scenarios/maps of course). Five people, 1 "healer", 1 "ranger", 1 "mager", and 2 "fighter"s. This cave would be unique in that your stats do not effect your "cave" character just like all 99's don't help much in the games room. :lol: You click on the cave and either choose a slot in another's game or start your own and make it invite-only. Each class has unique abilities (right-click to heal a teamate, right-click and cast disenchant on a door/chest, etc.) that must be used in an intelligent manner to finish. I would set the difficulty so that only 3 GOOD players are REQUIRED to beat it with 2 noobs as long as the healer was a decent player. It could be some crazy magical cave that transforms you into some other kind of creature or humanoid (hence your stats not effecting your cave-character) and the reward would be similar to a combo of CW and PC i.e. you recieve tickets depending on your performance and your victory/oss that give you a small amount of (any) xp when traded in for some snazzy new armor. It would be nice if the best armor had some above average use like a +10 range att/def bonus in the shield slot so that it would be greatly desired/often worn and untradeable of course. The minimap should be blacked out and the main view should only be lit in a small area around your character. Each character option should be extremely strong and weak vs. different things similiar to the pk triangle with the healer being very weak to everything. The game would basically consist of cave exploration (a map that you could write on in your inventory would be nice) with random monsters attacking your group from different directions with an eventual fight with the boss that has different parts of it weak to different attacks.

 

 

 

Sorry for the single paragraph but I was just typing things as I thought them. This would be a nice game that would allow skill pures, new players, or those who just don't level combat that much for whatever reason to wage war based upon their wits not their stats. I guess the rewards could be scaled to the players' combat levels but... eh whatever works.

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty interesting read, though. I was skimming for a second until I noticed that this was an OLD news release not a NEW one, lol. :oops:

Hmmm, does that finally tie up with the penguins in a sheep costume, perhaps they need to be escorted back at some point.