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CM Editorial

This is a new, occasional segment in which a member of the Community Management team will write a short piece about something that is currently occupying their thoughts. This month, Mod Timbo has written a piece about Cryptic Clue Fest 3!

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Cryptic Clue Fest 3
The Cryptic Clue Fest returned in 2011 with Avalani requiring an experienced sleuth's aid in order to figure out the mystery behind the unfinished portal. As the Cryptic Clue Fest is such a mind-bending event, I thought that it would be good to write a sort of 'behind the scenes developer blog' of how we came from an idea all the way through to burning chickens appearing from the sky. Enjoy!
The Idea
Everything starts from the spark of imagination and excitement when you first think of an idea. We had the first spark of thought; Mod Kathy and I are unsure who had the idea first, while we were in a meeting discussing the Clan Citadels back in February. We were discussing what was involved, how it was going to work and importantly how Community Management (CM) could help to launch the update. One of my biggest desires while working within CM was to do a 'pre-release' content-involved event for an update. The Cryptic Clue Fest seemed perfect to incorporate all of those things that we wanted and the spark ignited a whole brainstorming process.
We were at the stage of knowing what we wanted to do but not knowing how to do it, I'm sure that you've all been at that stage in anything creative you've done. We knew that we wanted to do a Cryptic Clue Fest as a lead-up to the Citadels launch but how to get from A to B was a complete mystery. Then it all fell into place during a meeting to discuss and find out the lore behind the Citadels and how they were coming to RuneScape. Avalani's character was fully developed in my head and the 'rebuilding of the portal' story was founded.
The Clues
The core of the Cryptic Clue Fest has always been the complexity of the clues, how much fun the clues are to solve, and providing a different type of challenge than you would expect in RuneScape. This is what we went to straight away after discussing how it would fit in with the developers.
The key ingredients for a clue for the Cryptic Clue Fest have been difficult clues, items that are low cost and F2P, and NPCs that are in F2P. That is the core of the clues for all Cryptic Clue Fests and this year was no different - except this time, not all were picked completely at random!
We wrote up a short story of how we saw the Cryptic Clue Fest working, involving the lore and story that we had, the NPCs chosen, and the items for each. Some story was purely there to be comical (Barnabus's "Iron Beer" recipe for one), some was to be a tip of the hat to previous CCFers (unique text) and some slightly more serious (the White Knights and their fear of magical objects).
The clues themselves were much tougher to come up with. Much tougher. A call was put out to any CM member to come up with the idea for a clue and we'd all sit together and try to work them out. Myself, Mod Mat K, Mod Jane and Mod Crow all made it to the final cut with our clues, each saying a lot of "Aaaaaaah! That's how!" after working it out or being told. However, these were version 1 clues and the clues that you managed to solve in the Cryptic Clue Fest were at about version 77. One of the biggest things we needed to do was testing, testing and more testing.
The Testing
With great ideas comes great responsibility. To give a bit of focus, I'll talk about the clue that I made which was 'Day Three' or the Sudoku/Runedoku hybrid with the riddles at the end. My original idea was two Sudoku grids, one was a normal number one that would give you the amount needed and the second was a normal number Sudoku that had certain boxes highlighted and a puzzle attached. Solving the puzzle gave the numbers specific items, you replaced the numbers in the second grid with the items, put that Sudoku on top of the first Sudoku, and the numbers and items in the highlighted grids were what you needed. Complicated, isn't it?
The first change that I made was to scrap the highlighted grids as I thought it was too obvious and possible to solve the Sudoku in a different way in order to just get those answers. The obvious question was then: how are people going to know what they need to get? That wasn't solved for a while as I continued to pick my clue apart and got feedback from talking to various people about it. One of the things I got told was that the puzzle associated to find the items was terrible (it wasn't well-formed and involved far too much maths) and that theoretically people never needed to solve it, just bring X amount of each. This process continued until I was told X wasn't so great and we had Y solution to make the clue better.
The testing was over for a brief respite during May when we were all happy with our clues. Then the clues had to go for translation! The Translation team realised that either our word clues don't work in other languages, or that we were so involved we hadn't noticed some major issues! After a whole bunch of iterations of the clues, and having to change some for translated languages, we were all happy again at the end of June preparing for the launch - until QA looked at the clues. Some of the clues took a massive change as the crossword was made to look more 'crosswordy', one of the clues from the final day was taken out and the dice added to the treasure trail clues. Thankfully though, my own clue made it through unscathed.
The Story
We have Clan Citadels, we have a half built portal with a young wizard, and we have clues. But what exactly binds all of this together? The story element to this year's Clue Fest was the biggest change that I saw to previous Clue Fests and how in-depth and connected to future content it was. Previous Clue Fests have had a story but it's usually been a new, temporary one that doesn't stick around in the game afterwards. With Citadels being launched and sticking around until the end of time, it was of paramount importance to get the story, and how the player explores it, right.
We met again with the developers to see what lore was there behind the Citadels and what was there for Avalani. How far could we go and what did they expect? Armadyl was a god that always intrigued me as a player, so incorporating that into the story was fantastic, and Avalani was a blank slate that we could shape in the player's minds.
This is where rebuilding the portal comes into it but a million questions crop up - why is the portal broken? Where would the broken pieces be? Who would be interested in seeing the portal remade?
The mysterious Armadyl stranger seen in visions was never meant to be anyone in particular. If you take a look at their attire, they're wearing a Pendant of Armadyl, so if you really wanted a particular person to tie it to, it could be a fallen Guardian of Armadyl as that is who I modelled it on. With the Citadels being former bastions of power for Armadyl during the God Wars, it made sense that followers of Armadyl would want to see the return of their master and would hope that restoring Citadels would do that.
As for where the stones are found, there are some key links such as the Digsite (loosely linked to Sennistein), the White Knights' fear of magical objects and a wizard but also some strange ones where we had envisioned a player receiving a rock, realising it doesn't do anything and trying to get rid of it.
The Summary
We hope that you enjoyed Cryptic Clue Fest 3 and that this article has given you a bit of insight into the work, thinking and ideas that went into the event. We have a lot of 'bloopers' and things that never made it in to the Clue Fest that we'll be putting into the next Community Newsletter - so you can see some of the things that we tried, but that never made it in.
Until next time,
Mod Timbo

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The 'Clan Update' and 'Clan Spotlight' sections are taking a rest because much of this month's content is already clan-centric. They will return!

Player Submissions

Every month, we invite players to submit their own original works for inclusion in the newsletter.
Here is a haunting piece by Lebbeh :

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-Vagary-
A single snowflake, drifting contently through the air. Beyond its microscopic beauty lie a thousand meanings - the cold and the eerie...the dawn of winter. Death. It rests underneath the blankets of snow, poised and ready to latch itself onto anything living. Spirits and hopes; it kills those too. When the trees shake hard, and the wind howls like wolves...that's when you know it's happened. The one word, measly and seemingly insignificant; it instils fear in the greatest of warriors. Drained of all life, their once mighty grips are crippled, iron fists frozen into place.
Starved.
Like vultures, desperate beings feast off the frozen corpses. Tearing flesh with knives, jaws locked into place...savage is the only fitting word. Survival of the fittest; that was their reasoning. Why join the weak when you could live?
Then the white turns to green, leaving the desolation for the regrowth and birth of new life. Icy tombs melt to form new rivers, pure and cleansing. The canvas is no longer blank; it fills with new hues - blues, violets, yellows and reds. Resuscitated. Nature has deployed its defibrillator. Revived. The memories of the cold turn to pictures of warmth and hospitality, much food making itself available. It's almost as if the page has been turned. A new chapter. The story of spring.
Nourished.
Birds rejoice in the renewed landscape. Over the rolling green hills, songs are heard; they intermix with the serenity. Or perhaps they are the source of such an atmosphere. Life. Life meant spring. Life was spring.
A sweeping fire engulfs the hushed surroundings. In its wake, blistered earth is left to burn eternally. The malicious and scathing gaze of the sun penetrates deep into the soils, scorching and destroying any greenery. The revenge of death. No bird can fly high enough to avoid the flames that reach for them. Everything smoulders, thick clouds of fetid smoke curling upward as they attack the heavens. Summer. To truly personify evil, one must use that word. It melts the coldest of ice and the most ambitious of dreams. It crushes desires, disregards emotion and drags everything to hell. The devil smiles.
Sated.
In amongst the blackened terrain, small seedlings sprout from roasted seeds. Beacons of light in a pitch black room. Nature's Braille. From the harshest of deaths comes the newest of life; it pushes through the concrete slab. The cracked pot is reassembled.
In perfect rhythm to the music, an orange leaf waltzes to the forest floor. Some say it is the fall; this is the opposite. The busy environment is one that brings opulence and richness. Autumn is exactly this. It is the time when all become affluent, free from the dangers that so frequently present themselves. Liberty. Fruits grow in abundance, collected in routine fashion and stockpiled for the coming weeks. Gluttony. An icy breath flutters past the back of a neck. Deep sleep. Buried away, hoarded food is the only life support.
Gorged.
An antique lamp falls clumsily into the hands of an adventurer, a soft scraping sound whispering to him as the clay brushes across his palms. Walking over the fragmented remains of the effigy, he continues on his way.

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Next, a poem by Elithen :

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Drack Blagon
His scales gleam, what a sight, they're black as night,
Malice in his eyes to make you run in fright,
Your potion means his fiery breath cannot sear,
Your Herblore sucks, the potion did cost you dear.
Grasp your sword, and prepare for the fight,
Others range, but you cannot stand the sight.
Say your prayers, hope Korasi serves you true,
The dragon lunges, you prepare to run him through.
The dragon's maw attempts to close around your head,
Nezzy's horns make him draw back instead.
Seeing the chance, you plunge your sword into his thigh,
The dragon wrenches your sword away with a cry.
A spurt of flame escapes from the dragon's snout,
Thankfully, your dragonfire shield holds out.
You raise your armored arm to block an attack,
The dragon's claw sends you sprawling upon your back.
The beast, sensing weakness, lumbers near,
With your warspear trapped beneath you, your path is clear.
You pull out an item old as creation,
And throw the rubber chicken in desperation.
Flying at the dragon just as it roars,
Between the monster's open jaws the chicken soars.
It coughs, chokes, wheezes and dies,
Choked to death by your last-ditch try.
As nearby warriors stare at you in disbelief,
You reclaim your items, and rewards that are yours to keep.
Wishing for some dwarven stout, an entire cask,
You swear you'll kill Kuradal for setting you this task.

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If you would like to submit a piece of original content to be considered for the newsletter, please feel free to email it to us at [email protected] . We can't promise to use every submission but we do view all of them. We look forward to receiving your contributions!

Forum Spotlight

In this section, we will be showcasing a different noteworthy forum thread each month.
This month's featured thread is by Mod Maz (Queen of the Squirrels). She gives a rundown of the features and rewards contained in the Clan Citadel update. Currently there are over 80 pages of discussion - why not join in with your own opinions and feedback about Citadels?

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Quick find code: 15-16-75-63031882
Home > RuneScape Forums > Recent Game Updates > Clan Citadels are Here!

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Social Networking Update

J-Mod Community Challenges
Regular visitors to our official Facebook page will already be familiar with this new initiative!
The Community Management department has been divided into two teams. We will regularly post lists of challenges and let the community vote for which ones they want to see the J-Mods carrying out.
The two CM teams will then face off against each other and the whole thing will be filmed for your amusement.
The first event - the RS GP Challenge - has already taken place! We're still editing the footage together, but in the mean time we have released a blooper reel as a teaser:

You can check out the official thread for more information and to discuss your favourite challenge ideas!
Quick find code: 254-255-101-62944001
Location: Home > RuneScape Forums > Community Home > J Mod Community Challenge

We also continue to provide exclusive teasers and hints via the @OfficialJagex Twitter account, and you can see the latest official videos on YouTube.com/RuneScape . Check us out using the buttons below!
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