Tag: Old School

Old School RuneScape's Dom Onion Cave


noedits

RuneScape’s old school servers are chugging along with small content updates here and there to fix bugs and improve certain features, and people are wondering when Jagex will start adding in content that doesn’t exist on the standard servers. The answer is now! In a recently closed poll, players voted overwhelmingly (77%) for the Dom Onion Cave to be programmed and written in.

Judging by the poll, the cave will be called the Nightmare Zone, and may reward sets of level 50 and 65 armor, as well as teleport scrolls for runecrafting altars. Other items from the poll are already being added in, including an ability to right-click report players, easier armor repair and potion combining, and doubling rare spawns.

The Dom Onion Cave is a new mini-game that is currently in development where players can fight monsters from quests they have completed, with awards given based on the player’s performance. There are no further details on when the mini-game will be available.

Old School RuneScape’s Dom Onion Cave


noedits

RuneScape’s old school servers are chugging along with small content updates here and there to fix bugs and improve certain features, and people are wondering when Jagex will start adding in content that doesn’t exist on the standard servers. The answer is now! In a recently closed poll, players voted overwhelmingly (77%) for the Dom Onion Cave to be programmed and written in.

Judging by the poll, the cave will be called the Nightmare Zone, and may reward sets of level 50 and 65 armor, as well as teleport scrolls for runecrafting altars. Other items from the poll are already being added in, including an ability to right-click report players, easier armor repair and potion combining, and doubling rare spawns.

The Dom Onion Cave is a new mini-game that is currently in development where players can fight monsters from quests they have completed, with awards given based on the player’s performance. There are no further details on when the mini-game will be available.

Old School Servers Are Here To Stay


noedits

RuneScape’s Old School server has been up and running for a few months now, with Jagex offering continuous updates to fix bugs and add in small features voted on by the community. One of the big questions that players have had since the servers launched is how successful they would be, what Jagex would ultimately decide about the possibility of an additional membership to play, and whether or not the servers would attract enough players to keep them operational.

Today Jagex released a developer blog for Old School titled “here to stay.” Players should be happy to know that the servers will remain online for years to come and, at least for the foreseeable future, will not require any additional cash.

When Old School RuneScape launched we said access would be included as part of membership for the first 6 months, and then we’d review the pricing. We’ve made that decision now, rather than wait for September… There will be no increase in cost for the foreseeable future and we aren’t planning to review the pricing again for at least the next year, if not much longer. You will be able to access both Old School and the main game for the price you are currently paying for membership.

Jagex is continuing to work on client stability, banning bots, and more.

(Source: RuneScape)

OldScape’s Second Content Poll


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When Jagex announced the old school servers for RuneScape, they did so under a very clear promise: That the servers would be maintained with minor updates on a regular basis, depending on what the community voted for. Since then the plan has been unveiled for how the polls will work: Players are presented with a laundry list of update proposals based on forum feedback, and vote on each update individually. A poll must receive 75% approval otherwise it will be rejected.

The second content poll has ended and if you aren’t a member of the old school servers, odds are you have no idea what was in it. Players voted in approval to bring a free to play ruleset server, which is a little more complicated than it sounds. Old school RuneScape will still require a base RuneScape membership to play, but the server will act as a free to play server restricting members weapons/items. Many players prefer fighting with free to play rules because the combat is more simple and less varied. Players also voted in approval of an update to improve the game’s pathfinding code, allowing multiple players to use the same agility obstacles, official themed worlds, trade chat, and spell queueing.

Interestingly enough, players voted against an update that would allow them to rotate the camera while holding down the middle mouse button (63%), allowing players to queue for a world if it is full (70%), and allowing players to complete the Monkey Madness quest without gaining defense experience (61%).

Finally, wasting no time, Jagex has uploaded the third content poll for Old School RuneScape. The first question asks if players would like rare items to return in some form (currently at 85% approval) while the second asks whether or not the tradeable rares should remain tradeable (currently at 75%). The second content poll runs until April 17th.

OldScape's Second Content Poll


old

When Jagex announced the old school servers for RuneScape, they did so under a very clear promise: That the servers would be maintained with minor updates on a regular basis, depending on what the community voted for. Since then the plan has been unveiled for how the polls will work: Players are presented with a laundry list of update proposals based on forum feedback, and vote on each update individually. A poll must receive 75% approval otherwise it will be rejected.

The second content poll has ended and if you aren’t a member of the old school servers, odds are you have no idea what was in it. Players voted in approval to bring a free to play ruleset server, which is a little more complicated than it sounds. Old school RuneScape will still require a base RuneScape membership to play, but the server will act as a free to play server restricting members weapons/items. Many players prefer fighting with free to play rules because the combat is more simple and less varied. Players also voted in approval of an update to improve the game’s pathfinding code, allowing multiple players to use the same agility obstacles, official themed worlds, trade chat, and spell queueing.

Interestingly enough, players voted against an update that would allow them to rotate the camera while holding down the middle mouse button (63%), allowing players to queue for a world if it is full (70%), and allowing players to complete the Monkey Madness quest without gaining defense experience (61%).

Finally, wasting no time, Jagex has uploaded the third content poll for Old School RuneScape. The first question asks if players would like rare items to return in some form (currently at 85% approval) while the second asks whether or not the tradeable rares should remain tradeable (currently at 75%). The second content poll runs until April 17th.

Old School RuneScape’s First Content Poll Coming


noedits

Over the past couple of weeks, Old School RuneScape has seen a number of patches to bring the game back into a fully functioning state. This past week’s patch reintroduced the Construction skill, and with it player owned housing. Next week’s patch is set to bring back the mini-game Barbarian Assault. Alongside next week’s update will also introduce the first in a regular series of content polls, where Jagex picks ideas from the community forums and puts them up to a vote.

According to the poll rules, each feature will be run through a simple yes/no vote, and each poll runs over the course of a week and requires at least 75% approval in order to be passed. Only players with at least 100 total level in Old School will be able to vote. The first set of polls, listed below, will be simple content updates:

  • Easter event – the 2007 Easter holiday event is re-activated to coincide with Easter this year.
  • Herb naming – unidentified herbs become grimy <herb name>.
  • Remove roof – a command to toggle the visibility all roofs on and off.
  • ‘Enter’ to login – the enter key submits login information, rather than only the login button.
  • Bank booths – left click bank booths to instantly open the bank interface.
  • F2P worlds – still members only, but allows PKers to fight with F2P gear restrictions

You can find the entire announcement below.

(Source: RuneScape)

Old School RuneScape's First Content Poll Coming


noedits

Over the past couple of weeks, Old School RuneScape has seen a number of patches to bring the game back into a fully functioning state. This past week’s patch reintroduced the Construction skill, and with it player owned housing. Next week’s patch is set to bring back the mini-game Barbarian Assault. Alongside next week’s update will also introduce the first in a regular series of content polls, where Jagex picks ideas from the community forums and puts them up to a vote.

According to the poll rules, each feature will be run through a simple yes/no vote, and each poll runs over the course of a week and requires at least 75% approval in order to be passed. Only players with at least 100 total level in Old School will be able to vote. The first set of polls, listed below, will be simple content updates:

  • Easter event – the 2007 Easter holiday event is re-activated to coincide with Easter this year.
  • Herb naming – unidentified herbs become grimy <herb name>.
  • Remove roof – a command to toggle the visibility all roofs on and off.
  • ‘Enter’ to login – the enter key submits login information, rather than only the login button.
  • Bank booths – left click bank booths to instantly open the bank interface.
  • F2P worlds – still members only, but allows PKers to fight with F2P gear restrictions

You can find the entire announcement below.

(Source: RuneScape)

OldScape Poll Ends, Jagex Alters Conditions


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Here at MMO Fallout, I’ve often said that Jagex’s polls are really little more than exaggerated PR stunts. Players are given the option of voting yes, or not voting at all, and the tally ultimately follows the rules of Who’s Line is it Anyway, where everything is made up and the points don’t matter. Following the tiered system Jagex laid out, and subsequently altered to allow more benefits with less votes, Old School RuneScape will now be available for an additional $5 membership fee with a small team dedicated to continued maintenance, and “possible” anti-bot updates.

In a news article posted today, CEO Mark Gerhard has detailed what players should expect with the full release of Old School RuneScape. Players will be able to vote on future changes, and will be happy to see the implementation of Botwatch to keep nasty cheaters and gold farmers away. In addition, the membership fee on top of the standard member cost has been waived, at least for now.

As a gesture of our own goodwill and an aspiration for this newly established community to flourish and hopefully grow I’ve decided that we will NOT be charging the additional $5 membership fee for at least the next 6 months!

The news article notes that the member fee will continue to be waived so long as population levels are healthy. So even without five hundred thousand votes, Old School players will still enjoy most of the benefits of the tier. The Old School RuneScape server is currently available in the form of early access to members who voted in the poll, and is still considered a work in progress as several features have not yet been fully implemented.

(Source: RuneScape)

MMOrning Shots: Does Preserving Nostalgia Trump Preventing Scams?


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RuneScape’s Old School server has been running for four days now and while the game is looking pretty stable, it isn’t completely up and running. Construction and player owned housing needed to be overhauled and are not currently available, and neither is the Barbarian Assault mini-game or one or two quests. The small team currently assigned to the game is still working on a method to accurately gauge player interest in further updates, with the community divided on whether to implement new updates or keep the game as it was.

Among the changes first implemented, Jagex altered the way herbs work to be less friendly to scams. At the time in which the server existed (August 2007), all herbs looked alike and were simply called “herb” until identified. This confusion generated a specific scam in which players would advertise unidentified herbs as being higher quality than they actually were. In an update in September 2007, Jagex changed herbs to “grimy” versions, allowing players to see what the herb was before actually cleaning it. When old school RuneScape launched last week, it came with the grimy herbs instead of the unidentified versions, prompting a backlash from the community. On Monday, Jagex updated the game to revert the system back to its more scam-friendly version in response to player demand.

Players who argue for unidentified herbs do so on the grounds that players voted for RuneScape as it was in August 2007, and that includes all of its features both good and bad. The players who argued to keep grimy herbs generally do so on the grounds that preventing players from scamming each other is more important than preserving nostalgia. Neither side is wrong, really, the question comes down to priorities. Is it more important for Jagex to preserve the nostalgia of RuneScape as it was on August 10th, 2007, or is it a higher priority to implement updates geared toward preventing unruly behavior, even if that means changing the game? The question then becomes about where the line gets drawn as to what is off limits.

So where do you draw the line? Keep everything as it was, or let the community vote on newer features?

OldScape Vote Passes 250 Thousand, Membership Fee Lowered


scapesink

Jagex recently launched a poll to gauge interest in the return of classic RuneScape servers, bringing back the old school feel of August 2007. The poll, however, had a catch. Because bringing the servers back and maintaining them costs money, Jagex wanted to get a feeling as to how many people would actually participate in the servers should they launch. So for two weeks, subscribers are asked to vote yes or abstain from voting, with each vote contributing to a number of tiers, which will determine exactly how the service is supported post-launch.

At a minimum, the servers needed fifty thousand votes to launch at all, which the community easily blew through. At fifty thousand, the servers would be brought online with no updates, only critical maintenance, and would cost $15 a month. Luckily, however, the community recently struck through the two hundred fifty thousand vote mark, bringing the membership cost down to $5 with basic maintenance, anti-bot updates, and a small team for ongoing development. That $5 membership is on top of the

Should the community hit five hundred thousand, membership will be free and there will be a dedicated team for ongoing development. The poll runs until March 1st, however you can get on the servers starting today providing you are a RuneScape member and vote in the poll.

(Source: RuneScape Official Website)