RuneScape Forum Archive | Going Too Fast!

Jul

2012

Hexie Kazumi

Posts: 3,023 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Wahisietel said :
The rest of the gnome series would definitely be set in the Sixth Age - the gnome at the thing before BOL mentioning Glouphrie, and Glouron in Prif, necessitate it being so.

Desert's in an odd spot in that Rowl*y wants them to be Fifth Age, but a conversation in MPD references Amascut's madness in the present tense. Plus the entirety of the last Halloween event, but that can easily be written off as non-canon.

Age is completely irrelevant to Elemental Workshop. Mostly irrelevant to Pirates too, since Xau-Tak was already on Gielinor in the Fifth Age. Age is also irrelevant to the Penguins as it stands currently, but I can see the appeal of tying the gods into it.

The fact that Desert and Gnome have age related plot points is exactly why those two deserve even more priority

02-Jun-2016 23:29:10

Bonzara

Posts: 1,177 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Hexie Kazumi said :
Wahisietel said :
The rest of the gnome series would definitely be set in the Sixth Age - the gnome at the thing before BOL mentioning Glouphrie, and Glouron in Prif, necessitate it being so.

Desert's in an odd spot in that Rowl*y wants them to be Fifth Age, but a conversation in MPD references Amascut's madness in the present tense. Plus the entirety of the last Halloween event, but that can easily be written off as non-canon.

Age is completely irrelevant to Elemental Workshop. Mostly irrelevant to Pirates too, since Xau-Tak was already on Gielinor in the Fifth Age. Age is also irrelevant to the Penguins as it stands currently, but I can see the appeal of tying the gods into it.

The fact that Desert and Gnome have age related plot points is exactly why those two deserve even more priority

Well, I could see the Desert series officially ending in the Fifth Age with Amascut getting banished (not cured or killed).

Then, in the Sixth Age, she returns, and possibly gets a quest of her own in which the player tries to cure her.

A bit like how while the elf quest series officially ended with Plague's End in the Fifth Age, but Seren subsequently got her own Sixth Age quest, which involved the elves. A bit of a spin-off, if you will. Are you ready to enter the Mind of Rutha?

03-Jun-2016 06:17:42

Dec

2020

Sepulchre

Posts: 3,525 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I think the Pirates quests should be brought into the 6th Age, for no other reason that V tells us about Xau-Tak in the 6th Age and we basically say... "Oh, okay." I feel like if we knew about Xau-Tak, or even met him, prior to the 6th Age, then mentioned nothing to V about it.. that'd be just.. moronic.
and don't give me none of that "Oh we met him, we fought him, we beat him but we never learned his name" **** either. I don't like to break the rules and abuse the censor but **** you if you think that's a good way to go about this. Just like how we read the book in Kindred Spirits that mentioned Xau-Tak, yet when we talk to V and he mentions him, we say nothing.. yet they say either quest can be done in either order. I'm sorry, but no. **** you, that is terrible writing.

Penguins can stay in the 5th Age, Elemental Workshop could be either or, that wouldn't matter. Gnomes could stay 5th Age, but I think it'd be cooler if they got pulled into the 6th. Desert obviously needs 6th Age. A

World Guardian

must learn to find

Balance

in themselves.
Only then can they

Control

themselves and forge their own

Fate .

03-Jun-2016 06:46:49

Rondstat

Posts: 2,770 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Wahisietel said :
Desert's in an odd spot in that Rowl*y wants them to be Fifth Age, but a conversation in MPD references Amascut's madness in the present tense. Plus the entirety of the last Halloween event, but that can easily be written off as non-canon.

I feel like the prevalence of this opinion perfectly illustrates WHY it's so important we take a step back, and how much damage the 6th Age has done to well-managed expectations.

Five years, ago, if you'd told a player that Amascut is still an insane soul-devouring goddess by the end of the Desert quest series, the reply would be - yeah, so? That's what she is.

Merely encountering a god in game was something rare and wonderful, and while we could hope to perhaps undo or circumnavigate their damage, we would have never entertained thoughts of defeating them, much less changing them.

The story has moved forward, and the stakes are greater. Fine. But it's telling that, even in the discussion of returning to 5th Age content, set in the 5th Age, players are no longer content to merely free mortals from an evil goddess' grasp. No, we have to clash with gods, Amascut needs to end up on a pike or in a cell.

The central focus of the main desert series is espionage, the ongoing cold war between Al Kharid and Menaphos. The big unanswered questions - Osman's secret schemes, the rights of succession, the alignment of the Pharoah - were always adjacent to Amascut as a bigbad, not integral, and once upon our time our goals were to defeat Amascut only inasmuch as doing so would free the desert peoples from her grip.

The point: manage your expectations, people. Just because it's all gods and artefacts and dour faces now, doesn't mean everything has to fall to that.

03-Jun-2016 19:31:27

Hazeel

Posts: 6,735 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I wouldn't mind seeing 5th age quests if they were so one-dimensional and boring. They give us no options and present us with bland stereotypical Disney villains. The Myreque has (recently) been the exception to the rule in terms of villains, giving us more grey characters, except the lack of choice still leaves me uninvested. It would have been AWESOME if you could choose between Drakan, Vanescula, and maybe even a militant third option that wipes out vampires. As it is, I just find myself questioning why the hell I'm letting Vanescula live.

Quests need grey characters in choice. Having neither is boring. Having just one doesn't work too well either. If you have grey characters, but no choice, the player feels no real involvement in the quest, like they're not even a part of it. It's no longer our story. Runescape doesn't need a hero...it needs a villain. An all encompassing force of evil that will remain ever-threatening and use chaos to make the peoples of Gielinor tolerate each other, grow strong together, and fight side by side against this evil. I am that villain.

03-Jun-2016 21:14:24 - Last edited on 03-Jun-2016 21:18:56 by Hazeel

Ancient Drew

Posts: 5,732 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Hazeel said :
I wouldn't mind seeing 5th age quests if they were so one-dimensional and boring. They give us no options and present us with bland stereotypical Disney villains. The Myreque has (recently) been the exception to the rule in terms of villains, giving us more grey characters, except the lack of choice still leaves me uninvested. It would have been AWESOME if you could choose between Drakan, Vanescula, and maybe even a militant third option that wipes out vampires. As it is, I just find myself questioning why the hell I'm letting Vanescula live.

Quests need grey characters in choice. Having neither is boring. Having just one doesn't work too well either. If you have grey characters, but no choice, the player feels no real involvement in the quest, like they're not even a part of it. It's no longer our story. There should also be different shades of grey as well, like 85% good - 35% order among other ratios, and multiple spectra should come to play. As I said before, the best stories and the best artwork isn't rushed. They should take their time and think of how to brew up a rich story. Prepare for hell on RuneScape in Naval Cataclysm!

Pokemon battle? Friend Code: 4614-0426-2439

03-Jun-2016 21:26:33

Rondstat

Posts: 2,770 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Hazeel said :
I wouldn't mind seeing 5th age quests if they were so one-dimensional and boring. They give us no options

I'm not sure about the argument that we need choices to feel invested in the story. Perhaps this is true for you, but I find I can get plenty invested in a novel without it being choose-your-own adventure, ditto for Runescape.

I think the best instance of choice in game is Branches of Darkmeyer. It's a choice that's self-contained, doesn't lead to major story branches, but also entails an examination of the adventurer's motivations and morality, and allows us to define just who we are and how far we are willing to go.

The fact is**** quests can only be done once, and it's unreasonable to expect most players to level up multiple accounts, pay for multiple memberships, just to experience different stories. The sort of branching you're talking about simply won't work in this game, unless we get a replay system.

Beyond that - I think you're being unfair to older quests. Now, Runescape has always suffered from a lack of complex characters, villains in particular. Its most revered quest features pretty much the most one-dimensional antagonist imaginable. But there are still a lot of gems in the older lore, and a lot of opportunity for expansion and greater depth.

Look at the gnomes. Glouphrie is not some power-hungry arch, being evil for its own sake. He's an individual who generally tried to do the best for his people, became a pariah because of it, and even now may be a slave to his own machinations. There's a lot to be mined there, and much opportunity for a more complex story.

Or the desert. Amascut's generic insanity was a backdrop for the Ozan double bill and Do No Evil, but only secondary to the spy intrigue and obscure motivations of the 'main' series. A focus on mortals could give us some fun, perhaps even thought provoking quests.

03-Jun-2016 21:44:26

Autumn Elite

Posts: 3,487 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

The main issue here is we are simply not getting enough quests. In previous years this wouldn't be an issue - we would get lots of quests so both the fifth and sixth ages would be getting enough content.

Although I don't agree fifth age quests can't stack up against sixth age. On the basis of large impressive things like gods maybe, but it shouldn't try to fight it there. If the fifth age quests were creating compelling characters we would be invested in them and that would draw us in. Basically the sixth age shouldn't lessen itself because the fifth age is lesser, the fifth age instead should rise through quality writing with engaging narratives and compelling characters.

I agree having mass votes isn't the best way to determine quests but there simply isn't enough quests or updates in general so they have to make what is put out liked. They are not in a comfortable position so have to attract subscribers so focus on runefest at what they know will have mass appeal rather. Really they just need to sort themselves out and put out more content.

Rondstat said :
Perhaps this is true for you, but I find I can get plenty invested in a novel without it being choose-your-own adventure, ditto for Runescape.

The difference is with a novel it is another character and their thoughts. Here it is ours and the inability to have choices is unsatisfying. It doesn't have to have massive changes but someone forcing their voice on me is not appreciated. When the Myreque series ended with Safalaan and Vanescula in charge, it was infuriating. I hate them - Safalaan in particular is moronic & rude repeatedly - and we have no change to say that which leads to a unsatisfying ending. Even if they remained in power the ability to say this would make it much better (yes there is something with Safalaan but not enough). The best choice was DoC - we said how we felt about Saradomin, and whilst it didnt impact the quest, made it better.

03-Jun-2016 22:56:39

Jul

2012

Hexie Kazumi

Posts: 3,023 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Great discussion everybody. hopefully mods take a look! As much as I love 6th Age stories, the fact that the 5th Age wasn't finished, and the fact that there is this massive power creep is hurting the cohesiveness, as well as the feel of RuneScape.

Another thing that is hurt by these huge stories is that classical RuneScape feel. The dry humor, the curious characters, and the personal scale conflicts. The discussion of the upcoming Gower quest has helped me realize another issue, about the tone and the feel of quests these days.

04-Jun-2016 01:09:02 - Last edited on 04-Jun-2016 01:10:58 by Hexie Kazumi

I Kinda Fail

Posts: 14,497 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

They should have finished off EVERY Fifth Age quest series, then when players asked, "What could be next?"

BAM! Sixth Age.

Then we wouldn't have the problem of all the desert gods being in the Sixth Age, but we don't know what happens to them in the Fifth Age... They're writing the end of the story before the middle. Click here to support my idea to make the Chronicle Absorption prayer useful!
Click here to support replacing the Lumbridge Crater!

04-Jun-2016 08:19:53

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Going Too Fast!