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Diaries From RuneScape: November In Review

RuneScape is going to be a regular game for the Diaries From column, published on the last Thursday of each month and covering the entire month’s worth of updates.

1. Prifddinas Part 2 – 9/10

The elven city of Prifddinas has quickly become one of my favorite updates of 2014, and not just because I’ve been waiting for this update ever since it was teased way back in 2004. I went through high school and ended up one semester away from my bachelor’s degree in the time Jagex took to put this update out. There are kids playing RuneScape today who were still in diapers when the city was first teased. It was a really long time ago.

Prifddinas is a giant skilling hub, a place where high level players can theoretically go and virtually never have a reason to leave. There is a ton of content, from pickpocketing elves to finding hidden titles, unlocking pets and other rewards, and I have only managed to scratch the surface.

Clan Amlodd (Divination and Summoning) – Shadow creatures are useless as a divination training, since they don’t drop cores enough to be a viable alternative. The only time I’ve found myself killing shadow creatures is when a daily task dictates it. Otherwise this area has the convenience of an NPC to trade your summoning pouches in for a small amount of shards to make summoning less of a money sink.
Clan Ithell (Construction and Crafting) – This is my new favorite area in the game. The harps provide semi-afk crafting training with the bonus reward of harmonic dust that can be used to upgrade your dragon pickaxe and hatchet. Next to the harp room is a big rock containing soft clay next to a potter’s wheel and furnace, making crafting dailies much more convenient. When the area first released, mining the maximum fifty crystal stone per day and turning it into flasks was a great money maker before the market flooded.
Clan Hefin (Agility and Prayer) – If there is one skill I hate training more than crafting, it’s agility, and this area is right up my alley. I haven’t touched the new agility course, but I should since it is the fastest course and offers various rewards for completing laps. Generally I only have enough patience for agility to grab the twenty thousand (forty if you have bonus exp) agility experience for participating in the daily mini-game. The prayer section is a money sink, for 130,000 gold you can buy and clean crystals for prayer experience. If you are really rich, you can clean thirty stones per hour, spending 3.9 million for 279,000 experience. A much better alternative to buying and grinding bones, if for convenience over price.
Clan Meilyr (Dungeoneering and Herblore) – I don’t have 95 dungeoneering so I can’t comment on just about anything in this section. Harmony moss is interesting, you buy seeds for 50 thousand, and then plant them on skill-specific posts. The moss grows by gaining experience in the related skill, and the final product can be used in potions or sold for a small profit. I love combination potions since I can finally ditch my super sets, and I like the idea of certain potions requiring you to find the recipe in dungeoneering. It offers an extra incentive to go dungeon diving.

2. Treasure Trail & Community Tools – 8/10

Treasure trails are RuneScape’s treasure hunting mini-game, scrolls found from monsters and through other activities that offer puzzles and clues that must be followed to find rewards. If you’re lucky, you can find insanely expensive equipment/cosmetics. Otherwise you are 99% of the community and find a few low level items for a half hour or so of hunting. I don’t have the logistics to figure out if the rewards are statistically dropping at a better rate, but I like the idea of introducing new and better stuff while removing less desirable rewards.

I’ve found that the majority of players fall into two categories for the player examine feature: those who haven’t touched it and are at the default settings or those who have set their account to private.

3. Heart of Stone Quest – 6/10

I didn’t enjoy this month’s quest. RuneScape’s quest system has been rough ever since Jagex brought the world into the sixth age and made it so each quest set before then is a flashback or a memory or something. Heart of Stone is supposed to be an introductory quest to the elder gods, a topic that if you’ve been keeping up with the quests will seem out of place since your character has marinated in the topic for years. Every once in a while Jagex will go back and bring in a quest to introduce players to a certain idea, throwing consistency into the wind when your character who has known about these topics for years suddenly has no idea what they are.

As an introductory quest, it feels like everyone else is doing the fun stuff. You show up in the quest after all of this interesting stuff happens, and the quest is over before the really interesting stuff will happen, and knowing Jagex the sequel is at least six months away, if not a full year or more.

The first and second batches for Prifddinas are going to keep myself, and many other players, busy for a long time to come. By giving a more tolerable way to train the most intolerable skills, hitting end-game content is looking a lot more realistic.

RuneScape Subscription Price Increase in 2015

Jagex has announced today that 2015 will see an increase in the price of RuneScape’s subscription. While the new price and date have not been finalized, current subscribers can rest easily knowing that your rate will be grandfathered in at the usual rule: As long as it doesn’t lapse for more than 14 days. Additionally, Premiere Club will reopen on December 1st, allowing players to lock in their rate by buying a full year in advance with extra rewards.

If you’re a member when the price rise happens, you’ll see no change. You’ll stay at your price as long as your active membership started before the date of the price rise. This applies for all previous grandfather rates, for those of you who’ve been subscribed for a long time.

We will update with more information when it becomes available. Check out Jagex’s Runefest presentation on 2015’s upcoming updates here.

(Source: RuneScape)

Transformers Universe Layoffs Coming

Jagex has confirmed that layoffs and employee shuffling are expected to hit the Transformers Universe team. In a statement to Games Industry, a Jagex spokesperson noted that the game has reached a stage in development where redundancies in staff can be shuffled over to other projects and in some unfortunate cases be laid off. While no layoffs have occurred yet, they will likely be happening at some point in the near future.

Jagex human resources have already begun the consultation process with the team, and are looking into repositioning individuals to other existing or emerging roles.

The UK developer is looking at shuffling its employees toward RuneScape, the recently announced card game Chronicle, and an unannounced title that may or may not be the unnamed fantasy MMO dubbed “Thirdscape” by fans that CEO Mark Gerhard very briefly spoke about four years ago.

(Source: Gamesindustry.biz)

RuneScape Expands The City of Elves

This week sees the second half of RuneScape’s Lost City of the Elves expansion. The update introduces the latter half of the Elven city, bringing with it new high level skilling locations, new monsters to fight, and new rewards.

Prifddinas first opened its doors in September and has seen the high level community flock to make the city their home. With a population surpassing exclusive havens such as the Cayman Islands and Monaco, Prifddinas has become the home to the RuneScape elite who have draped the city with over 650 thousand flags in celebration of their maxed skills.

Also now open this month is the Well of Goodwill, where players can donate in-game items and gold to be converted to real money and donated to charity.

(Source: RuneScape Press Release)

Old School RuneScape Polls New Continent, Achievements

It’s hard not to see Old School RuneScape as something of a gamer’s pipe dream. Every single update, barring bug fixes, has to be vetted through the player base and cannot be added unless 75% of the voters say yes. Over the past year, the polls have managed to shift Old School on a content path that is wholly independent of the main RuneScape game, to a level where quite a bit of content now exists in Old School that RuneScape 3 players do not have access to.

In the latest poll, Jagex has placed a hefty bit of content up for vote. Today through November 12th, players will be able to vote on a brand new continent full of activities, each activity which will be individually polled should the continent itself pass muster. Players are also able to vote on the introduction of new achievement diaries, elite achievements, repeatable tasks, and more.

Also up for vote is a change in the voting mechanic. Players can vote on lowering the approval level to 70% from 75%, the option to abstain, the option to change your vote, and changing the minimum requirement to vote.

With twelve thousand votes so far, the new continent has 90% approval, and the achievement diaries and elite tasks have 88% and 81% respectively. The minimum requirement to vote is just toeing the line. Everything else is falling quite short of reaching the 75% requirement.

(Source: RuneScape)

RuneScape Double Exp Weekend Statistics

RuneScape just recently went through a double experience weekend, and if you are anything like me you took really poor advantage of the boosted leveling. To show just how much productivity increased over the weekend, Jagex has released a comparable chart showing this weekend’s gains versus earlier in October. Summoning was the most popular skill across the board with prayer the least popular in experience gained and 99’s achieved.

RuneScape Unveils November Updates

In the latest Behind The Scenes post, Jagex has unveiled a list of updates set for release in November. The first, which will go live later today, is a double experience weekend lasting from midday October 31st to Monday, November 3rd. Members will receive double experience (3x experience for skills that have bonus experience) and 1.2x experience for free players. The first full content update of the month is the second part of the Elf City update introducing more of the city of Prifddinas. The city update includes training areas for agility, prayer, divination, slayer, the ability to craft crystal vials which hold two separate potions, and more.

Later in the month, treasure trails is set to receive an update adding in new rewards and updating clues with new puzzles and items needed to solve said puzzles. Players will also be able to reroll rewards for a chance at better loot. The first quest in the elder-god series is also set for release this month, tasking players with hunting down criminals with the use of a golem.

Throughout November, Jagex will also be opening the Well of Goodwill. Players are encouraged to donate gold, items, and bonds to charity, with Jagex donating $1 per five million gold donated as well as the full value of bonds. You’ll be able to choose which of the three charities your donation goes toward.

(Source: RuneScape)

RuneScape Shutting Down Spanish Service

Spanish speaking RuneScape players will log in today to discover some disappointing news about their game: Jagex is sunsetting the Spanish servers. In a post on the Spanish RuneScape website, Mod Pips announced that the Spanish server will no longer be supported as of today, and will shut down on November 3rd. The reason provided is that the service never grasped the level of income needed to justify the expense of translation.

In other words, we find it more expensive to produce and provide support in this version that the gain we get from it, so that as a business, we can not justify their maintenance.

Members coming from Axeso5 will receive an additional 30 days of game time and are encouraged to come over to the English, German, French, or Brazilian Portugese servers (characters can freely log between them). While future Jagex products may be translated into Spanish, with considerations to market prospects, there are no more plans to translate RuneScape any further.

(Source: RuneScape)

Jagex Declares Runefest 2014 "Most Successful."

Jagex has declared this year’s Runefest, a convention for RuneScape fans, the most successful to date. At the festival held at London’s Tobacco Dock, Jagex revealed Chronicle, a collectible card game due to release next year. The convention played host to numerous presentations, Q&A sessions with developers, cosplay events, and other distractions.

At the center of the event, of course, was Jagex’s flagship title RuneScape. In addition to congratulating the game for its continued growth, a 20% bump in subscribers in July alone, design director Mark Oglive took to the stage to announce RuneLabs, an upcoming platform where players will be able to formally suggest ideas to be implemented, giving the community the chance to vote on said updates. RuneScape’s 2015 content schedule was partially revealed, with major updates including world events and a brand new client on their way.

Perhaps most impressive is the notation that 40% of Runefest attendees did not pay a dime of real money for their tickets, buying them using in-game wealth through RuneScape’s PLEX-esque Bond items.

The event also bore witness to an unprecedented broadening of RuneScape bonds usage. The digital currency allowed 40% of RuneFest attendees to obtain event tickets through their in-game wealth. Furthermore, a number of players used bonds to ‘pay’ for their accommodation and flights to the event, allowing them to attend RuneFest without spending a penny of real world money.

More details on Runefest revelations will be made available in the coming months.

(Source: Jagex press release)

RuneScape Ditches HTML5, Introducing New Client

Jagex just announced at RuneFest that the HTML5 client, originally planned for launch with RuneScape 3 last year, hasn’t worked out. The expectation was that the technology would be optimized in time, and sadly it has sorely lagged behind. Rather than pushing ahead with what is likely to be an unwinnable situation, Jagex has announced a new client for RuneScape that will hopefully rid the game of Java’s limitations. The beta is expected to go live in a few months, no precise ETA, that players will be able to join in on.

Stay tuned for more details.

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