Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us from RuneScape, for today’s Grim Reaper update. Soul Reaper tasks players with culling the world’s population of boss monsters for the Grim Reaper, in return for points that can be spent on rewards. Rewards include various items and buffs to assist players and make death less punishing.
Survive to the next MMOrning Shots every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Old School RuneScape launched as a snapshot of the MMO as it was back in 2007, and since then has updated with a ton of new content all sourced from the forums and approved by a majority of players via content polls. With the variety of content added, Old School RuneScape has pretty much established itself as a separate product, and not just a classic RuneScape experience. One of the largest content additions put up to player approval has been Artisan, a new skill that does not exist in RuneScape 3. The idea of Artisan is that the skill gathers from other skills to create new items.
Unfortunately the players have not voted to approve the skill over several re-imaginings. The latest dev blog details the most recent version of Artisan being presented for approval, noting that this is the final dev blog on the matter. The Artisan skill will have players receiving gathering and crafting tasks from artisan masters and will allow them to craft items and tools that will aid in everyday life. For one example, it will be possible to craft wieldable tools (saving inventory space) or creating slow-burn logs which burn longer and decreases odds for burning food.
In addition to voting on the addition of the skill, players will also have the ability to vote on individual items and see them added to existing skills if the Artisan skill as a whole does not pass.
(Source: RuneScape)
Jaex has released the first part of the first expansion for RuneScape. Lost City of the Elves is set to release in three content chunks, the first being the quest Plague’s End, the largest quest to be added into the game and the conclusion of a quest series that began in 2002. The second and third chunks of the expansion will be released in September and October respectively, with each part introducing a new section of the Elven city of Iowerth. The expansion promises “hundreds of hours of new content,” introducing new mini-games, dozens of new training methods, new equipment, new items, and and more.
“This has been a year of resurgence for RuneScape, from the introduction of the Legacy combat mode and Twitch integration to the launch of our debut expansion pack, voted for by players as part of our Player Power initiative,” said Phil Mansell, vice president of RuneScape. “In addition to the remarkable environments, challenges, and gameplay that the Lost City of the Elves brings, it also underlines the collaborative efforts between the RuneScape development team and our passionately loyal players as we work to bring the game they want to experience to life.”
When the original quest released in 2002, RuneScape looked like this.
(Source: Jagex Press Release)
The RPG community is one that is constantly challenging itself to complete games in new and unconventional ways. We’ve talked about this before on Dungeons & Dragons Online, where some communities institute perma-death, deleting their characters if they die. As unofficial challenges, of course, participation is completely based on the honor code. There is no way to know for sure if a player has kept up their end of the deal, which can often lead to distrust and fighting within said communities.
Jagex has noticed the popularity of an Ironman Mode, a game type where players level up completely self-sufficiently. The company is planning on implementing an official version of this mode, where players will be completely restricted from interacting with others. While the fine details are still being worked out, players will be unable to trade with others in any way, either by direct trade, picking up drops, picking up other players’ loot, using the auction house, buy items sold by other players to shops, or accepting aid. Players will also not be allowed to group up, join multiplayer minigames, receive buffs, use housing services by other players, or group up in Dungeoneering.
There is also a hardcore version being thought of which will delete the player’s character when they die, leaving only their highscore behind. The mode has support in both versions of RuneScape.
(Source: RuneScape)
Jagex has announced today that RuneScape’s Legacy Mode will go live on Monday, July 14th. Legacy mode, as voted on by players, reverts RuneScape back to the combat system that existed prior to the introduction of Evolution of Combat. Abilities are removed, the old interface has been reintroduced, several systems have been reverted back, and more.
Legacy mode is optional with Evolution of Combat still available for those who prefer it. There are several changes coming that will affect all players, including the recalculating of player combat levels back to the old maximum of 138 (currently 200), as well as the reintroduction of weapon-specific special attacks and a change to how strength stats affect combat.
(Source: RuneScape)
Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us from RuneScape, where Jagex has teamed up with the Unity for Wildlife charity and United for Rhino campaign to help raise awareness for illegal poaching. Over the course of the next two weeks, players will be able to answer daily rhino questions. Answer four of them correctly and adopt your very own white rhino. Get ten questions and you’ll have a black rhino to hug and squeeze and call George.
Save MMOrning Shots every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
I finally had a chance to try out the RuneScape companion app on my iPad today. Currently the app isn’t an actual app, as in one that you download through the Google Play store or Apple store, but exists as a website you access through your device’s browser. The app allows access to a multitude of features, including your bank, the Grand Exchange, stock market, chat, and more. I tested this out using an iPad mini, and found performance to be mostly alright. There is a bit of annoyance in setting up the device, as you are required to have an authenticator set up to access features like the Grand Exchange, which is likely on the same device. You also have to talk to the tutorial NPC at the Grand Exchange and enable access through the game.
As a companion app for RuneScape on the go, this is turning out to be a pretty good program. Trading is done seamlessly via items stored in the bank, and anything purchased through the Grand Exchange is stored in your bank as well. Merchants can use the app on their phone while out of the house to continue making money flipping items (buy low, sell high), which is what many seem to already be doing. You can even simply use the app to keep up with your friends and clan using the chat program. The distractions & diversions window shows progress and reset timers on activities, making it possible to check progress without actually going in-game.
But none of this is useful if you want to have the companion app open while playing, as currently you cannot be logged into both simultaneously (which is unlikely to change). Logging into RuneScape will kick you out of the companion app. On the other hand, you can also access the companion app from your desktop browser, meaning that you don’t need one of those fancy smartphones or tablets to enjoy the convenience.
I have high hopes for the RuneScape companion app.
Evolution of Combat was introduced to RuneScape on November 20th, 2012. A massive undertaking and equally dramatic shift in gameplay for the eleven year old MMO, Evolution of Combat introduced abilities, a hotbar, dual wielding, new equipment, and altered how creatures in the world needed to be fought. New items were introduced and many spells and other items were removed entirely or rendered useless by changes to how the game balanced combat. As one might expect when a game implements such a radical change, an indeterminate number of players up and quit.
Nearly two years have passed and Jagex has slowly working to bring those players back. Old School RuneScape was introduced at the end of February, a snapshot version of RuneScape culled from 2007, long before the introduction of features such as the Evolution of Combat, Grand Exchange auction house, or microtransactions. To move even further, Jagex announced that further content on Old School would be sourced directly from the community and put up to a vote before it would be implemented.
On the RuneScape 3 front, Jagex implemented a combat mode called “momentum” which was meant to replace abilities in regular encounters with monsters, by boosting offensive and defensive stats. Revolution was later added that is similar to momentum, however this mode automatically activates abilities, allowing the player to play somewhat like they did prior to Evolution of Combat.
The latest update to bring back players from pre-Evolution of Combat is Legacy Mode, but Legacy does more than simply automate a player’s combat. Legacy Mode was voted in with an 81% (200 thousand votes) majority. The mode reintroduces the old user interface and completely removes the abilities for people who choose it (unlike Revolution/Momentum which automates or ignores abilities). For all players, the maximum combat level has been reconfigured to its old cap of 138 (as opposed to 200), and weapon-specific special attacks are being reintroduced. Damage output and experience rates are supposed to be lower on Legacy Mode, but “near optimum” in comparison according to Jagex.
A few people have emailed me asking if I think that Jagex will remove Evolution of Combat altogether, and my prediction is to wait and see on legacy mode. 81% of the community wanted legacy mode introduced, and that doesn’t count those who quit due to Evolution of Combat and didn’t vote. I think what Jagex will do is iterate on legacy mode to become just as viable as using abilities and, should the time ever come where not enough people are using Evolution of Combat to justify the resources spent on updating both systems, it might be removed entirely.
For right now, however, Jagex wants to appeal to both crowds.
Old School RuneScape isn’t simply about allowing disgruntled players to relive the golden days of the past, since its introduction earlier this year the offshoot has gone in a rather separate direction from its New School counterpart. Thanks to a content system where updates are suggested and then voted on by the community, with nothing making its way in unless the majority say yes, Old School RuneScape has seen a few content updates from past its time, like optional hud improvements and even the god wars dungeon and godswords. The players even managed to vote in content that never existed back in the day, like new items and interfaces and even a new skill.
Designed by a member of the community and voted on by players, the Artisan skill is a bit like a craftsman’s take on slayer, where a slayer master gives assignments to kill certain creatures. In Artisan, an artisan master gives assignments to craft specific items in return for experience, the benefit being that you level in any related skills simultaneously. Players will be able to craft creature idols which, when burned, offer combat boosts. Players will also be able to learn how to craft special items that boost other skills, like cooking better quality food or new clothing.
You can check it all out at the dev blog below.
(Source: Old School RuneScape)
Private servers are a very stingy subject in the gaming press. Many developers don’t like to acknowledge them and, honestly, there is at least one of my contacts who will never return my emails after this article just for the act of referencing their existence. MMO Fallout does not condone private servers, nor do we allow them to be advertised in our comments section. I like to think that private servers can be an important tool for developers to gauge their audience’s expectations, however. Private servers that exist simply to cheat, to bypass a subscription, or gain accelerated experience/items will always exist, and those don’t offer much of a lesson outside of that some gamers are unwilling to invest the time or money.
As more developers are realizing, however, there is a great opportunity in classic servers. Jagex has not only maintained the original RuneScape Classic, but launched a version of 2007 RuneScape that remains updated thanks solely to the majority vote of its community. Sony Online Entertainment has, for a long time now, dabbled in classic and progression servers for Everquest. Ragnarok Online launched a classic server back in 2012, and NCSoft recently announced a classic server for Lineage II, at least the Korean version.
There are a million legitimate reasons why a developer wouldn’t want to create their own classic servers. A classic server would need some form of monetization, where a cash shop would risk driving away the target audience and a subscription would put the server in competition with those same private servers that operate for free. The developer could, however, capitalize on this very issue. A dedicated developer could offer stability and quality where many classic servers are at risk of shutting down at moment’s notice, operate on inferior server infrastructure, and are partially hand-built by the operator due to the inaccessible nature of certain MMO mechanics (server side operations).
Other developers refuse to create a classic server on the grounds that doing so would compromise their “artistic vision,” a belief that MMOs change with time and that introducing a classic server would be counter to that vision, or an admission that they made the wrong choice somewhere down the line. Further developers cite an unwillingness to risk splitting the community in half.
Happily, it appears that more developers are recognizing the potential for classic servers or those with alternate rulesets.
MMO Fallout 