The results of your first OldSchool RuneScape updates poll are now in, so we'd like to update you on where we're going from here. We'd also like to say a really big
Thank you
to the more than 100k people who voted; it's wonderful to see so many players getting involved in setting the direction of the game.
The usability features have certainly proved overwhelmingly popular. Mod Nexus, Mod Philip and I will get to work implementing those straight away; keep an eye out for updates in the following days.
Of the updates that didn't get 75% support, we'd like to reopen the matter of the F2P worlds for PKers. It's become apparent from the forums that we weren't clear about exactly what this update would entail; there have been various misconceptions floating around the forums. We're sorry about the lack of clarity.
Here's what we actually meant:
We believe this would be a fairly small coding job for us.
In the next poll, we will ask about F2P worlds again. Even if you personally aren't a PKer, or are happy to PK on the existing members' worlds, you might have a view on the economical effects.
In addition to the F2P world question, we're planning to offer the following updates on the next poll:
This isn't set in stone; we've got a fair bit of work arising from the last poll, so it'll be a while before we're ready to confirm the next one. We'd just like to try and catch miscommunications in advance next time!
Mod Nexus has had a good trawl through the archive, looking for content that we could offer to add to OldSchool RS. This is the archive of content that was half-written in August 2007. There were quite a lot of projects in development at the time, some nearly ready for release, others very rudimentary. If a project was graphically complete, we can potentially finish off its code, fix any major bugs that arose after its original launch, and get it added to OldSchool RS.
With some additional work from our game engine team, we're pretty sure we could offer you the following content that was added to RuneScape after the archive point of OldSchool RS:
As usual, we wouldn't add these if they didn't pass a poll with 75% support. We'd also like to hear your views before even scheduling such a poll; the GWD looks especially likely to be controversial!
We could also create new content for you, if you liked, within the restriction that we are currently very limited in our ability to edit the map or game interfaces, and we cannot update models at all. Nevertheless, it would be feasible to add new treasure trail clues, new recoloured versions of certain items, and things like that. Maybe even a mini-quest.
We haven't forgotten that Death to the Dorgeshuun still needs restoring to OldSchool RuneScape so that you can pursue your quest capes. We'll also be adding a toggle option to let you hide the new right-click Report op that's been added to players recently.
Thanks again for taking such a close interest in the future of OldSchool RuneScape. And thanks for reading such a long devblog!
Mod Ash & Mod Nexus
Content Developers
The usability features have certainly proved overwhelmingly popular. Mod Nexus, Mod Philip and I will get to work implementing those straight away; keep an eye out for updates in the following days.
F2P worlds for PKers
Of the updates that didn't get 75% support, we'd like to reopen the matter of the F2P worlds for PKers. It's become apparent from the forums that we weren't clear about exactly what this update would entail; there have been various misconceptions floating around the forums. We're sorry about the lack of clarity.
Here's what we actually meant:
- Some additional OldSchool worlds are put online, alongside the existing OldSchool worlds.
- On these worlds, members-only items, abilities and map areas are unavailable. F2P content would be available as normal.
- These worlds are not open to non-members; OldSchool RuneScape itself is a members' benefit.
- PVP combat would not be available anywhere on these worlds; it would be available only in the usual PVP areas, such as the Wilderness.
- These worlds would be intended primarily for the use of the many PKers who prefer to fight without members' features. Other players would not be obliged to visit these worlds.
- We would update the automatic world-picker so that players would only be directed to these worlds if they so chose.
We believe this would be a fairly small coding job for us.
In the next poll, we will ask about F2P worlds again. Even if you personally aren't a PKer, or are happy to PK on the existing members' worlds, you might have a view on the economical effects.
The Next Poll
In addition to the F2P world question, we're planning to offer the following updates on the next poll:
- Improved routefinding - In 2007, RuneScape's routefinding suffered from latency-related issues, leading to bugs such as running back and forth, dancing around big monsters indefinitely, getting "You can't reach that" when clicking on an NPC adjacent to you, etc. Rewriting the routefinding to resolve this would be a fairly big job for the engine team.
- Themed world list - The world list in the applet and on the website would be updated to show themed worlds. We'd get this list from your thread on the forums.
- Stop Agility bottlenecks - Update key Agility obstacles to remove bottlenecks where only one player could pass through at a time. This would potentially cause graphical issues with players overlapping during the animations, but it would make certain training courses less frustrating.
- Mouse camera - Allow the camera to be rotated by holding down the mouse scrollwheel and dragging.
- Login queues - When you are trying to log into a world that's full, you are placed in a queue.
This isn't set in stone; we've got a fair bit of work arising from the last poll, so it'll be a while before we're ready to confirm the next one. We'd just like to try and catch miscommunications in advance next time!
Future content
Mod Nexus has had a good trawl through the archive, looking for content that we could offer to add to OldSchool RS. This is the archive of content that was half-written in August 2007. There were quite a lot of projects in development at the time, some nearly ready for release, others very rudimentary. If a project was graphically complete, we can potentially finish off its code, fix any major bugs that arose after its original launch, and get it added to OldSchool RS.
With some additional work from our game engine team, we're pretty sure we could offer you the following content that was added to RuneScape after the archive point of OldSchool RS:
- The God Wars Dungeon
- The Varrock Achievement Diary
- Land of the Goblins (the penultimate Zanik story)
- Path of Glouphrie (including its Slayer creatures)
- The ZMI Altar
As usual, we wouldn't add these if they didn't pass a poll with 75% support. We'd also like to hear your views before even scheduling such a poll; the GWD looks especially likely to be controversial!
We could also create new content for you, if you liked, within the restriction that we are currently very limited in our ability to edit the map or game interfaces, and we cannot update models at all. Nevertheless, it would be feasible to add new treasure trail clues, new recoloured versions of certain items, and things like that. Maybe even a mini-quest.
... and finally
We haven't forgotten that Death to the Dorgeshuun still needs restoring to OldSchool RuneScape so that you can pursue your quest capes. We'll also be adding a toggle option to let you hide the new right-click Report op that's been added to players recently.
Thanks again for taking such a close interest in the future of OldSchool RuneScape. And thanks for reading such a long devblog!
Mod Ash & Mod Nexus
Content Developers
20-Mar-2013 16:49:16 - Last edited on 20-Mar-2013 19:29:33 by Mod Ash
