RuneScape Forum Archive | Seers' Village Rework

Mod Kelpie

Jagex Moderator Forum Profile Posts by user

Hey

When I have more time later today I will write up something longer, but for now I just wanted to make a few points.

* We have no plans to remove King Arthur from the game. Whilst some don't really like that he is there, others do. According to Mod Osborne, it was previously polled and people voted to keep in. Also the value for all that work would be minimal and much better put elsewhere.

* In terms of delivering lore, we may look at adding a 'History of Seer's Village' book to the council house, but mainly would like the lore to shine through in the architecture and general look of the place.

23-Mar-2017 09:49:48

AttilaSquare

Posts: 1,792 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

If you like my account on page 3, I'd recommend drawing from the Fremennik Slayer Dungeon (layers of stone, wooden buttresses, maybe some white and yellow finishings), Taverley, and the sorcerer's tower for the architecture (a post-modern town lol). If you're going for run-down, maybe make it neither dark nor light, or balance the dark and light, so it feels like a place in suspense - it shouldn't look destitute, lest the whole current feel be destroyed. A wagon or two nearby might give the feel that this place was recently settled.

23-Mar-2017 12:59:35

AttilaSquare

Posts: 1,792 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

A book could be kept informative and relatively short:

- We seers have a glorious history, one of the ancient schools of mysticism - of the Fremennik, aside the Saradominists, Zamorakians, Armadyleans, Menaphites, and Pudorians (I just made up this name, based upon some other headcannon, which I'll post below.)

- When our secret art of runecrafting went mainstream and Gunnar amassed his forces, we had to decide: flee to our cousins in the Moon Clan or to the lakes and plains to the south.

- Our last high mystic (Attila

) disbanded the school and led us south, and in order to avoid destruction he forbid the use of runic magics, ancient or modern.

- (The order and dates of these events can be decided: ) (1) We were welcomed by the local druids. (Or: Not long after our arrival, we welcomed some druids fleeing from a coming invasion of trolls in the west.) Together with them, we formed the Seers Council. (2) We sought the protection of the Sother family in the south (under whose patronage the metallurgy of Vitruvius (had - depending on when the Fremennik arrived) flourished. (Or: We also advised the Sothers to shut down the work of the metallurgist Vitruvius, for we mystics could recognize that his creations were becoming far too powerful (or: because his work might have brought the wrath of Gunnar upon our region)) Later, we gained greater autonomy within the kingdom of Kandarin, when King Ulthas divided the land of the Sothers and renamed Sotherby Seers Village.

- Today many forms of magic can be found here - Fremennik mysticism, druidic sorcery, modern runic magic. We seers peer into the future, looking for an end to the tumult of these years we have called the 6th age. Some among us fear that no end lies in sight and would like us to restore the ancient Fremennik school, as in the interminable years of the 3rd age.

23-Mar-2017 13:00:23 - Last edited on 23-Mar-2017 13:03:10 by AttilaSquare

AttilaSquare

Posts: 1,792 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Here's the other headcannon, from which I drew the name Pudorians (obviously it is not necessary to use the name - we could make up another name or cut the sixth school altogether):

There was a nation of humans in the early 2nd in what is today Draynor Forest and in cities on and around Ice Mountain. These were wiped out by Zaros. During the 3rd age, the forest land east of Ice Mountain came to be known as Pudor. After the return of Guthix, a small remnant of the ancient nation re-emerged in the village of Strite within the forests of Pudor, along with their ancient mystical school. But they did not last, for the dragon Garak wiped them out. Their loss was avenged by Camorra. More can be found here .

...

Also, as the Fremennik use the title of 'seer' and Saradominists, as well as their more secular successors, use titles of 'mystic,' 'mage,' and 'wizard,' it might be that the Menaphites use, and maybe the Pudorians used, 'magus'/'magi.' Then we could interpret the existing reference to 'magi' as either a misunderstanding of the newly arrived Fremennik mystics or as a polemical attack against them - i.e. associating the mystics with distant, foreign powers.

23-Mar-2017 13:01:33 - Last edited on 23-Mar-2017 17:08:53 by AttilaSquare

Sep

2014

Gamez X

Posts: 885 Gold Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Summerleaf said :
@Games, I personally love the way Catherby looks. My opinion vs. yours. If you really think people will hate a run-down look, then get them commenting here, otherwise, give some constructive criticism...

I do, however have some concerns about the run-down look, but if you guys already have the modeling for it done, then idc, but if they haven't gotten to it yet, I agree that something brighter and more nature-esq would be nice.
I've stated my criticism many times, its of 2 major areas of reworking a location. The first being the actual layout. Take port sarim or falador, when they where reworked all their buildings and decorations got an upgrade but they where still very much recognizable as port sarim and falador. Because of this the nostalgia attached to them areas remained intact and so they where a success. Then take catherby, theres nothing about it that even resembles the old catherby. It lost its bright and peaceful sea front layout, all the buildings people knew where swapped around and even the beach (which was the main memorable feature) got duller and is relatively MUCH smaller looking than it was. In short everything that made it catherby iconic/memorable was lost for some completely new town with a "run down look". If they did this to falador or varrock people would flip the hell out so i dont want to see them repeat that mistake yet again to any area no matter how minor

My second point is the seriously inferior graphics they've been using lately. Ever since the arc they've been using a new grass and rock texture which frankly looks garbage. The grass is super flat and quite a bit too much on the "minty" side of green. The previous grass texture is a much better shade of green and more importantly had ALOT more variation in its colouring to give the proper illusion of detail. By comparison the newer texture has far less detail and so is a downgrade, not an upgrade as it should be.

continued...

23-Mar-2017 18:09:18

Sep

2014

Gamez X

Posts: 885 Gold Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

In short, the old texture looks far more convincing as many blades of grass while the new one looks just like a plane of green. This is shown ever more by its dirt transitions. In the old texture it had a nice gradual shift in the colouring from green-brown and gradual shift to dirt texture. In the new one you can actually see the patchy hard edges of the texture cut off, best way i can describe it is it looks like puddles of spilt paint

The worst part though is the new dirt/rock texture that they've been using lately. This is most clear on the new WWM, to be quite frank it looks like someone made it on ms paint in a few minutes. Its INCREDIBLY flat plain brown and the darker/ lighter streaks are so undetailed and obvious it LOOKS fake. If it had any geography to follow the streaks and a little more variation in he colouring it might of worked but no. I mean literally it LOOKS like a cardboard cutout of melted ice cream than rock/dirt. Compare it to older rocks like the troll mountains, they have very detailed bumping and texture work, lots of geography in the modelling that gives the impression of rocky outcrops. They are FAR more convincing as rocks than this new stuff. Put simply, these new textures just look lazy and shoddily made and i WISH they'd either go back to old textures or make something that actually looks good

From these 2 points highlighting the past few graphical changes and from what kelpies said already about wanting YET ANOTHER run down area, you can see why i'm very concerned about the worrying trend their graphics team is taking lately. They are infact downgrading the game and mishandling the important nostalgia factor so much that i just dont trust them to be the people to do this. Like i said before, PLEASE go back to how you redid falador and port sarim, take notes from there. Keep seers village AS seers village and for the love of god revert or do a major overhaul of your latest texture set, give it a proper level of detail

23-Mar-2017 18:12:13

May

2011

Aquamancer

Posts: 2,047 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Summerleaf said :
Finally, is it possible that anyone remembers Vitruvius? I'm sure he has another apprentice somewhere...

No. The Elemental Workshop was sealed off and all records of the location were destroyed, so Vitruvius' contributions to the Elemental Workshop have been mostly forgotten.

Crow Crimson said :
Snip
The Seers' powers are likely some form of natural power, rather than a gift from the gods, since V was a seer, and he lived during the Second Age. I assume that the humans of Fremennik homeworld had the unique ability to occasionally see to the future. While lore about the Guthixian army would be really neat, it unfortunately does not fit here.

Ariane's parents and family in general would be a nice touch to the village, though.

23-Mar-2017 19:38:17

May

2011

Aquamancer

Posts: 2,047 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Mod Kelpie said :
Thoughts?

* I like the idea. Seers' ancestors should be Fremennik, yes, though I assume that they have assimilated into the culture of Kandarin, so they have lost a lot of the old Fremennik customs; and the loss of their precognition might be genetic of origin. It might even be an interesting idea that seers only occur among Fremennik and people descended from them.

* That makes sense: we know that the Seers' Village was built by seers, so the mistrust on the seers caused by the discovery of Runes could've been the reason why the Seers left the Fremennik tribes and settled in northern Kandarin, relatively close to their old homelands. It does not explain why the Fremennik still have seers like Peer and Skaldrun, though. I suppose Amascut's theory that Just going with the idea of a vision that caused the group to uproot and move would be fine in my eyes. It's simpler and is a bit more consistent with existing Fremennik characters.

* Nice idea, though I would also assume that as the Fremennik seers' descendants came into contact with the other Kandarian peoples, they began to lose their traditions due to cultural assimilation. It could be a mix of both. Who knows, maybe Seers' abilities are genetically latent, so as more and more seers began to intermarry with other peoples of Kandarin, more and more children in the village lost their ability to see to the future, and became completely out of touch with their Fremennik heritage, and consider themselves Kandarian instead.

* Makes sense, though pressure from the Church of Saradomin could've also been a factor, and the Seers might've been more willing to operate with Saradominists than other Guthixian groups.

23-Mar-2017 19:38:31

May

2011

Aquamancer

Posts: 2,047 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

* That could work... though wasn't it said that King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table came from their realm to Gielinor to pass time, until they are needed in their home realm once more? That said, though, the Knights have apparently been doing adventuring

* That is actually a really neat idea! Go with that, though don't make it too run down: not everyone in Seers' Village is a seer, and seers are supposed to be the minority, so most of the village's people live in the current day.

Cthris said :
Also needs a cult of edgelord seers

How about a compromise: there once was a edgelord seer cult, that got destroyed/disbanded by adventurers of the previous generation, like Xenia, or Wise Old Man? It would be nice to see how their actions have affected the lives of other people, and what kind of adventures they had.

ironpariah said :
Snip

Nah, the Seers should've been Fremenniks. There is no mention of druids ever having seers or seer-like powers, whereas the seers' presence in the Fremennik culture is overwhelming Besides, during the early Fifth Age, trolls used to be living in Asgarnia, so they were pushed to the mountains only relatively recently.

As for the Seers' Council, it's unclear if it's a council of seers, or the council for Seers' Village. If it's the former, there shouldn't be any non-seers present. If it's the latter, I'd imagine there would be both seers and non-seers.

23-Mar-2017 19:38:58

May

2011

Aquamancer

Posts: 2,047 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

AttilaSquare said :
SNIP
First off: there's no mention of sorcery as spirit-based magic to have ever been a thing. It does not even make sense: where would've these spirits even come from? The existing lore supports the idea that the races of the First Age only used runic magic: after all, if there would've been other sources of magic for humans, there wouldn't have been conflicts caused by the absence of runes. This also basically removes the foundations for the concept of mysticism and mystic schools, which would've been the source of mystic robes. We also do not need more mystic robe variants, so creating more mystic schools just so we can have more t50 robe variants only a handful of people wear is unnecessary.

Secondly: seers are likely not a school of mystics, they're likely originally a group of Fremenniks with the ability to see to the future, and used magic in combat. They were likely seperate from the Moon Clan's predecessors, though.

Thirdly: a self-insert namedrop is not cool (it's only fine if other people do it for you, or if it's in non-serious context), nor does "Attila" make sense as a Fremennik name. Attila is a Central Asian name of the Antique, the Fremennik were magical Vikings from the Middle Ages: linguistically, the name does not make sense; nor does it make sense that a Fremennik was responsible for developing the planar theory: it makes sense for wizards to do so, but not for the Fremennik.

23-Mar-2017 19:41:35

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Seers' Village Rework