RuneScape Forum Archive | Lack of New Quests

Jun

2006

Dilbert2001

Posts: 30,176 Sapphire Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Azamos said :
OSRS has had more original quests in the same period of time than the main game. They could easily import quests and content to RS3.

Hardly so. Sins of the Father is just a shortened version (about half) of Branches of Darkmeyer. From the Iceyene graveyard to the mine to sneaking into Darkmeyer to the Blisterwood tree to Safalaan being capture at the end... everything is just exact carbon copy from RS3... except the 2nd half of of Branches of Darkmeyer which adds the social and political structures of the vampyres is being omitted in OSRS.

RS3 also has 37 new quests released since Aug 23, 2013 where OSRS only has 17 quests added since its first day.

https://runescape.wiki/w/List_of_quests_by_release_date
https://oldschool.runescape.wiki/w/Quests/Release_dates

23-Jun-2020 17:46:05

Jul

2011

Hunteresque

Posts: 229 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Dilbert2001 said :
Archaeox said :
Jaekob Caed said :
I agree that recent quests have been of much higher quality...

WHAT recent quests?

Other than the tiny 'Once Upon a Slime' (Feb 2020), the last quest ('Desperate Times') was released in May 2019, and the one before that ('Curse of the Black Stone') in February 2019.

Different players have different perceptions on what is considered "recent".

However, on the relative sense, I have to agree the most recent quests - Once Upon a Slime, Desperate Times and Curse of the Black Stone are much higher quality than the ones preceding them - Chef's Assistant, Violet is Blue, The Needle Skips and You're It.

As much as I can't comment on Curse of the Black Stone and Desperate Times as I am still saving those for the time being, I do not see how you see Once Upon a Slime as higher quality than earlier quests. Yeah, maybe Chef's Assistant + the other 2 that you mentioned but I wouldn't say that Once Upon a Slime was better quality than Let Them Eat Pie for example... They're of equal quality to me. ~~Hunteresque - The Picturesque Hunter~~
~~Master Quest Cape Owner - 20/05/2021~~

26-Jun-2020 22:47:52

Jul

2011

Hunteresque

Posts: 229 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

While we are on the subject of the 'Lack of New Quests', I messaged Mod Raven and asked about the Lack of New Quests. He gave me a very honest and heartfelt reply. As I cannot post a picture of our conversation, I will copy and paste it from Discord:

From Hunteresque to Mod Raven 07/05/2020: "Dear Raven, My name is Hunteresque (in-game) and I am writing to you to ask about quests and their development. I joined RuneScape back in 2010 and have only grown to love the RuneScape story. I earned my Quest Cape back in 2015 and I have been going for the Master Quest Cape ever since (Finally got 120 Dungeoneering recently!) I was replaying Sliske's Endgame yesterday (canonical) and felt a real passion for playing that quest again. It was almost like my fire for playing RuneScape had been re-ignited as quests are a large part of why I play RuneScape. However, what I have noticed is the drop in quest releases over the past few years which I have been saddened by and I created a forum thread a few years ago expressing my worry. I have also looked into the idea of replayability and I saw on a reddit post that this would take a large amount of time and it may not be worth it considering the focus of RuneScape isn't only towards quests. Essentially, I am curious to what happened to quest releases since 2016? In 2016, I was so pumped for Sliske's Endgame and the reason for this is that I knew that a continuation would only be a few months away, tops. Please do not think that I am trying to have a dig at you personally or Jagex, I just had a realisation recently that RuneScape lore and quests were the main reasons for why I play. Thanks very much for your time."

Part I ~~Hunteresque - The Picturesque Hunter~~
~~Master Quest Cape Owner - 20/05/2021~~

26-Jun-2020 22:53:07 - Last edited on 26-Jun-2020 22:54:10 by Hunteresque

Jul

2011

Hunteresque

Posts: 229 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

From Mod Raven to Hunteresque 07/05/2020: "The simple truth of the matter is that the quality of quests is much higher than it used to be. Whilst nostalgia goggles will paint the old quests as wonderful things, most of them were short little fetch quests and we've had it made quite clear by the community that that isn't the direction quests should go. The other matter is that creating the standard of art we now use means that art takes much longer to make, meaning creating content for quests takes longer. Finally, if you look at the content we're producing, content on the whole is much bigger than the sort of releases we would see in the past. The sad truth is that it takes longer to make bigger content, so that means fewer releases.

Quests sit in an awkward place. As they're effectively temporary content (you play them once and move on) it means that we're spending a disproportionate amount of development resources on something people would only do once. When we can expend those resources instead on something like boss content, or major skill reworks or overhauls. Unfortunately making quests replayable isn't just a dev resources thing (which is really is, obviously) it's also the simple fact that players in general DON'T replay quests even quick and simple narratives, or quests which offer rewards for replaying don't get replayed. So it's clear that replayable quests are not where we should spend our time."

Part II ~~Hunteresque - The Picturesque Hunter~~
~~Master Quest Cape Owner - 20/05/2021~~

26-Jun-2020 22:53:57 - Last edited on 26-Jun-2020 22:55:21 by Hunteresque

Jul

2011

Hunteresque

Posts: 229 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Continuation of message from Mod Raven to Hunteresque 07/05/2020: "However, it's not all doom and gloom. Whilst quests have dropped off a bit (particularly the last couple of years) we are still planning to make them and there are definitely quests planned on the schedules we have internally. But as well as all of that we're looking at ways we can bring story into the game in every piece of content we do. Take a look at Archaeology, this new skill has contained within it multiple quests worth of content. The elite dungeons are combat experiences but they're held together by carefully planned out lore that tells a bigger story. We're planning the same with all our big pieces of content.
So, in short, quests are still something we want to keep doing and we have plans for them going ahead. But increased development costs and improvements to quest quality means that we can't produce the sheer quantity of quests we produced in the past."

Part III ~~Hunteresque - The Picturesque Hunter~~
~~Master Quest Cape Owner - 20/05/2021~~

26-Jun-2020 22:55:10

Jul

2011

Hunteresque

Posts: 229 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

After reading those Discord messages, I'd love to hear what the questing community has to say !

Must say thanks to Mod Raven especially for replying to my concern. ~~Hunteresque - The Picturesque Hunter~~
~~Master Quest Cape Owner - 20/05/2021~~

26-Jun-2020 22:56:37 - Last edited on 26-Jun-2020 22:59:13 by Hunteresque

Jun

2006

Dilbert2001

Posts: 30,176 Sapphire Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Hunteresque said :
Dilbert2001 said :
Archaeox said :
Jaekob Caed said :
I agree that

recent

quests have been of much higher quality...

WHAT

recent

quests?

Other than the tiny 'Once Upon a Slime' (Feb 2020), the last quest ('Desperate Times') was released in May 2019, and the one before that ('Curse of the Black Stone') in February 2019.

Different players have different perceptions on what is considered "

recent

".

However, on the relative sense, I have to agree the most

recent

quests - Once Upon a Slime, Desperate Times and Curse of the Black Stone are much higher quality than the ones preceding them - Chef's Assistant, Violet is Blue, The Needle Skips and You're It.

As much as I can't comment on Curse of the Black Stone and Desperate Times as I am still saving those for the time being, I do not see how you see Once Upon a Slime as higher quality than earlier quests. Yeah, maybe Chef's Assistant + the other 2 that you mentioned but I wouldn't say that Once Upon a Slime was better quality than Let Them Eat Pie for example... They're of equal quality to me.

Please correct me if I am wrong, Let Them Eat Pie was hardly

recent

. It was released like 8 years ago... but we we comparing "

recent

" quests all along in this discussion that you are currently replying to. I'll talk about antiquated quests like Let Them Eat Pie outside this "

recent

" quest comparison in the next post.

27-Jun-2020 17:04:25

Jun

2006

Dilbert2001

Posts: 30,176 Sapphire Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I agree with what Mod Raven said. It is simply not cost effective to spend too much time working on making old quests replayable.

In a living and breathing world we called it Gielinor, the spiral of time leads only to the gaping maw of eternity in quests or story mode. Time keeps moving forward to eternity. When Sliske and V died in the stories, they just died in the stories. We have to admit they died in the stories and keep going back to the past is both too boring and counterproductive because you will be just missing the fascinating future beyond your imaginations.

Mod Raven also brought up a good point that the fascination stories of Gielinor can be told in may ways outside quests. I have emphasized the importance of lore outside quests numerous times. I believe quests are needed, but a lot of stories can be told outside quests in content more needed like Mysteries in Archaeology, lore books from EDs/GWDs, etc, miniquests, NPC dialogues, examination of items and objects, etc.

Now onto what quests do I think are good for Gielinor? Certainly, without a doubt, we need main quest lines like Desperate Measures/Times. We also need quests just for fun or give us seasonal feeling like all kinds of Chritmas quests, Valentine Day quest like Once Upon a Slime, etc. But do we really need non-lore based quests that don't bring any fun or jolly seasonal feeling to us... like Chef's Assistance or Let Them Eat Pie? Well, my answer is certainly NO. For that reason, side quests with seasonal spirit but not much lore to the main story lines, like Once Upon A Slime is certainly worthier than the Let Them Eat Pies.

27-Jun-2020 17:28:42

Oct

2023

Terra Vitae

Posts: 405 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I can't disagree with what Mod Raven had to say from a business standpoint, but it really sucks to hear for someone who is pretty much exclusively here for quests and story. Adding more bosses won't keep me around, because I don't boss. Lore journals, likewise, because they... tend to come from bosses or ludicrous amounts of combat (Ripper Demon journals, anyone? No thanks). Dungeons? That's just bossing with extra steps.

I guess I just have to accept that this isn't a game for me anymore and I'm never gonna get closure on the remaining plot threads I was invested in because BossScape is what keeps the people playing.
Remember Your Purpose

28-Jun-2020 18:30:11

Jul

2011

Hunteresque

Posts: 229 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Dilbert2001 said :
I agree with what Mod Raven said. It is simply not cost effective to spend too much time working on making old quests replayable.

In a living and breathing world we called it Gielinor, the spiral of time leads only to the gaping maw of eternity in quests or story mode. Time keeps moving forward to eternity. When Sliske and V died in the stories, they just died in the stories. We have to admit they died in the stories and keep going back to the past is both too boring and counterproductive because you will be just missing the fascinating future beyond your imaginations.

Mod Raven also brought up a good point that the fascination stories of Gielinor can be told in may ways outside quests. I have emphasized the importance of lore outside quests numerous times. I believe quests are needed, but a lot of stories can be told outside quests in content more needed like Mysteries in Archaeology, lore books from EDs/GWDs, etc, miniquests, NPC dialogues, examination of items and objects, etc.

Now onto what quests do I think are good for Gielinor?...

Fair enough on your point about the comparison of recent quests. In regard to recent quests, I don't have too much to say besides there has been quite clearly a lack of them.

I know you are a big advocate of telling story in different ways other than quests and I understand your reasoning behind this, in that it is a cheaper option for Jagex. I agree that story is necessary in any way possible but I disagree that telling a story in a lorebook is the equivalent of telling a story in a quest. The experience is fundamentally different and questing to discover a story is much more engaging than reading a lorebook about it.

Generally speaking, I find that a visual of what is happening (i.e: cutscenes, meeting with lots of NPCs in one area during a quest etc.) is a lot more engaging than finding a book from a Ripper Demon drop and discovering the lore that way. ~~Hunteresque - The Picturesque Hunter~~
~~Master Quest Cape Owner - 20/05/2021~~

29-Jun-2020 00:43:04

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Lack of New Quests