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===== Section 161: Arc Developer Blog 1: Welcome to the Arc 1 (Mod Joe) =====
I'm Mod Joe, Product Owner of the Guardians team. As I write this, we have recently released the River of Blood quest (April 2016). We've been fully immersed in the darkness of Morytania for the past few months, and we really need a holiday - preferably somewhere hot and sunny.

I can think of no better place than the Eastern Lands!

This project all started with you, through RuneLabs. Loads of ideas were submitted for the Player Power Month poll earlier this year and - honestly – we all thought that either Menaphos or the Underwater City would be the clear winner. The Arc Islands won, though, and we were hugely surprised and massively excited. That choice requires a very different approach from our team – and an all-new set of challenges.

Our two most recent projects - The Lord of Vampyrium (September 2015) and River of Blood - have been story-driven, and – as such – spoiler sensitive. Fortunately, the nature of The Arc means that we can be much more open with you all about the update – and we can't wait to start sharing it!

So - this'll be the first of several dev blogs from the Guardians team, where we'll tell you what we are working on and how the Eastern Lands are shaping up. Read on to find out!

=== Where are we now? ===
Back in January we commissioned some mood art from the Concept team to get the feel for the place we were going to build. We also had a very quick play with some water effects in NXT in March, as part of our prep for the islands.

Since the whole team was concentrating on River of Blood from January through to the end of April though, we didn't manage to do create any new art or gameplay assets. It did, however, get us thinking about what we'd want to see in the Arc Islands.

~Portmaster Kags

===== Section 162: Arc Developer Blog 2: Welcome to the Arc 2 (Mod Joe) =====
Based on reviewing RuneLabs ideas, as well as our own team brainstorms, we've selected a few key ideas that we really liked:

=== Slayer ===
First, Slayer should feature, along with some new Slayer creatures. We've started working with the Concept team to get a flavor of what we can do. We really liked Monkeymaner's Runelabs idea which won the poll, so we'll be taking inspiration from this while still ensuring it fits in with the rest of the narrative. We are thinking at least a couple of new enemy types (along with some variations).

We probably won't have a new Slayer master in the traditional sense, but there will be some way to get Slayer XP based on specific targets. It's early days for us - we haven't started modelling any characters yet - but here are some initial designs from the concept artists:



=== Player Owned Ports ===
Secondly, the Arc should clearly be linked to Player Owned Ports somehow. We are designing this update for our high-level players, but that's not to say that if you are lower level you will be blocked from visiting. Bear in mind that (just like in Player Owned Ports) if you want to see everything in the Arc you'll need to be Level 90+ in a handful of skills. More news on this from us as we start building our content and have more details to talk about.

We will, of course, build on established content. You be able to visit the Architect on Waiko, and we're hoping to add other familiar faces, too.

~Portmaster Kags

===== Section 163: Arc Developer Blog 3: Welcome to the Arc 3 (Mod Joe) =====
=== A Fresh Start ===
One idea we all really liked from RuneLabs was the concept of a closed or new economy. This means that everyone starts out on a level playing field and can't just spend money to unlock everything from day one.

We will be introducing a new currency, and while you won't be able to trade any of your existing gold or resources, we will probably let you take Eastern Lands home and re-invest them in Ports resources.

All your existing Ports resources will be tied in to running your own Port, though, and you won't be able to use them when you get to the Arc itself. It'll be everyone for themselves – exciting times!

=== The Rest ===
It was clear that given the ideas from the team and player expectation for this update we couldn't produce all the islands in our normal 3 month window. I'm therefore happy to say that we've been given double the time of our normal updates for the Arc region. Whilst we didn't want you to have to wait until October for us to finish the whole area, we are planning to give you half of the Arc islands in July (2016) so you'll get the opportunity to play it early and give us feedback so we can build it in to the second update.

For October, the Guardians have also landed the Halloween update, so expect this to feature on one of the islands as well. The holiday event will be open to everyone, so even if you still have some way to level up you will definitely get an opportunity to visit the Eastern Lands later this year.

Next time expect to see dev blogs from Mod Rowley on what kind of story and lore you can expect to find out more about in the Arc and Mod Orion on how he is planning to let you explore the islands themselves. While you are waiting, have another piece of our concept art to whet your appetite!



Mod Joe
Product Owner - The Guardians

~Portmaster Kags

===== Section 164: Arc Developer Blog 4: The Uncharted Isles 1 (Mod Orion) =====
I'm Mod Orion, Content Developer for The Guardians. I’ve been spending a lot of my time over the past weeks working on a new system for the Arc - The Uncharted Isles.

As well as the big islands you already know of, there are a huge number of small archipelagos in the Wushanko Isles, and only a small number of them have ever been charted.

It has been my task to breathe life into these islands and make them a tangible destination on Gielinor – one that you could conceivably explore forever.

=== How do we implement this? ===
Creating a plethora of islands would have taken up far too much of our allotted development time, so writing a system that created the islands for us was definitely the way to go. Using carefully-clamped procedural generation, we have been able to generate billions of unique, varied islands.

=== Wait. How many islands? ===
Yep, billions. The islands are generated using random information as well as custom information from your player saved game. There are over 400,000 basic land mass configurations and shapes, alongside millions of variations of coastlines and shallow waters, alongside billions - soon to be trillions - of combinations of land décor, texturing and interactive objects.

This equates to an unfathomable amount of configurations and layouts. When you go adventuring in the Uncharted Isles, you’ll always find somewhere new to explore.

~Portmaster Kags

===== Section 165: Arc Developer Blog 5: The Uncharted Isles 2 (Mod Orion) =====
=== How does it work? ===
We start by plotting some basic shapes on a grid. We then join the shapes up in a specific way to create a fully conjoined land mass. The shape of the land mass needs to be validated and small alterations might need to be made to ensure that we can work with it.



Once the central land mass has been finalized, we can give it a glorious, golden beach. We do this by traversing around the edge of the island shape and assigning it a special value. This special value determines the shape of the coastline at that point.



After the edges are done, making them look beautiful is the next step. NXT has a much more advanced water shader than the Java client, so we decided to implement another layer of coastline. Adding a ‘second edge’ of shallow water really makes the islands look like a tropical paradise, rather than just blobs of sand in the ocean.



Once the shape and 2 layers of edging are completely computed, we can create the island! We do this by using several specially designed, manually crafted 'template' islands made by Mod Alex. They contain many variations of every type of tile. We stitch these tiles together (like a quilt!) to create the islands based on the data we have just calculated.

Here are some actual examples from our 1st prototype:



Using our current generation settings, they can either be very small, or increase to as much as 3 whole map squares in area! That's larger than many of the cities in Gielinor.

~Portmaster Kags

===== Section 166: Arc Developer Blog 6: The Uncharted Isles 3 (Mod Orion) =====
=== What can I do on these islands? ===
Without giving too much away...

Players will encounter flora and fauna unique to the the Arc and the Wushanko Isles and be able to interact with them in different ways.

Mod Stu has made a really cool contract system for exploring the islands and bringing back loot or slaying dangerous creatures, with ample rewards of course.

We have an event system planned too, so you might get a nice (or nasty) surprise when you arrive at an island.

There are many skilling and combat opportunities on the Uncharted Isles, as well as the chance to find spectacular treasures, super-rare resources, and even special items that you can take back to your own island.

=== My own island? ===
After completing a short mini-quest, you’ll be able to purchase a flag to plant in any Uncharted Isle. From then on, you’ll be able to return to it and customize it how you see fit!

You might find an island that:
- Looks amazing at sunset and you want to return to it whenever you like.
- Has 2 or 3 rare resource nodes that really help you out.
- Is full of wildlife that is lucrative to hunt or gather from.
- Is full of pirates that are always up for a fight and make great combat XP.

We're really keen on giving you the choice to do as many cool things as possible on your island, whether it relates to skilling, combat, resource harvesting or simply making it a great place to soak up some summer rays.

Thanks for reading.

Mod Orion
Content Developer – The Guardians

~Portmaster Kags

===== Section 167: Arc Developer Blog 7: Narrative – The Arc 1 (Mod Rowley) =====
=== Ports! ===
Ports voyages are already overflowing with narrative content. Even the simplest of voyages could mention a new character or faction, a sea monster or event. At the time of their writing, we weren't considering that these were things we would ever see in-game, and as such, there are lots of ideas that wouldn't even work as game content. As text, your mind can fill in the blanks that no amount of graphical budget ever could.

As such, Ports has made the Eastern Lands a true melting pot of concepts, a blending of real-world cultures and mythologies, original creations and thinly disguised pop culture references. In one way, that's great for us, as it's a treasure trove of ideas for us to draw upon and a great starting place. On the other hand, there are more concepts available than we could ever do justice to, even with years of development time.

To reel off 'just a few' from the Arc region alone we have (take a deep breath) Incha the sea harpy, invisible salmon, tusked lions, Waiko earthquakes, various sites of magical significance, Shuma, flying squid, cyclopes, sirens and seasingers, Purists, sea orphans, soothsayers, smugglers, oxen, haunted islands, various missionaries from the west, Skulls pirates, sky orphan temples, giant turtles, bamboo, isolationists...(phew).

This list isn't exhaustive by any means, and we wouldn't only want to be making content based on descriptions of Ports voyages anyway. We've got plenty of our own new ideas, a heap of great suggestions from RuneLabs, and some new narrative based on Monkeymaner's Temple in the Sky idea.

~Portmaster Kags

===== Section 168: Arc Developer Blog 8: Narrative – The Arc 2 (Mod Rowley) =====
It's possible that, over time, more of these ideas will make their way into the game beyond the short text descriptions they currently have. For our July and October (2016) releases for the Arc, however, we've had to be selective. As a result, some parts of the Arc will feel familiar to Ports players, and we're hoping that other elements will end up being an unexpected surprise.

=== Ports Adventurers ===
One element of Ports that we will most definitely be using in the Arc is the various adventurers. We'd be silly not to use them. You couldn't ask for a more varied, eclectic and developed bunch of characters.



For the most part, they will only be visible to players who have actually met them in Ports, though in a couple of cases they might be available earlier (but suitably standoffish). In all cases, however, they will reflect your current progress through their personal story voyages.

Elements of their stories will also come into play. For example, Lydilla (The Architect) lives on Waiko, and her story revolves around finding building materials strong enough to withstand that island's earthquakes. This particular facet is more likely to come into play in October's release, though.

=== Motivation ===
As a team, we've also decided to release a graphical rework of Port Sarim. Much like the Falador graphical rework, Port Sarim's rework will be accompanied by a small event. Through this, we'll be building up to your first proper journey east, to give you narrative motivation to go there beyond just wanting to explore it.

Before you'll be able to sail off to the Arc, you'll first have the Raid on Port Sarim to deal with. Structurally, it is similar to The Invasion of Falador (albeit on a slightly smaller scale), but more on that at a later date.

~Portmaster Kags

===== Section 169: Arc Developer Blog 9: Narrative – The Arc 3 (Mod Rowley) =====
Some of you will be familiar with a character called Jed. He was introduced in Mega May, though we always planned to continue his story. Jed will be your initial antagonist in the Arc region, but dealing with him will just be the first step as you strike out farther east. Charming as he might be, Jed is a Skulls pirate slaver and not a nice person. While Skippy and co. might be safe back home, others haven't been quite so lucky.



We already know Trader Stan hasn't been lucky, with Jed having stolen one of his ships, so you'll also want to talk to Stan to begin the first of the Tales of the Arc: Impressing the Locals. This is the Raid on Port Sarim's equivalent of the Invasion of Falador's Banner of Radallin quest, and it will be a requirement for visiting the Arc.

Just to be clear, this miniquest is the only requirement for visiting the Arc, itself only requiring membership to complete, and it will be the only element of the Raid on Port Sarim event that will be permanent content.

=== Quests versus Miniquests ===
Tales of the Arc will be the main narrative content in the region. It was clear early on that the bulk of development time on this project would have to go into actually building the known islands of the Arc region. Filling them with things to do then became the next most important thing, to give players reason to keep going back there. Creating a full-length quest on top of that just wasn't feasible, so we opted to instead create a number of 'mini' quests.

In structure, they are simpler than a full-blown quest, focusing more on character and story than bespoke set-pieces, puzzles and boss fights. In addition to Impressing the Locals, we're aiming to have one Tale per inhabited island, though not necessarily focused on each island.

~Portmaster Kags

===== Section 170: Arc Developer Blog 10: Narrative – The Arc 4 (Mod Rowley) =====
So how many islands will be coming with July's update, and which ones? Well, your first port of call in July is going to be Waiko (a trading hub), along with Whale's Maw (a haven for fishermen) and Aminishi (home of the Acolytes of Seiryu – see below for more on them).

This means, for July, we're aiming to have 3 further miniquests set in the Arc region proper. The other 4 locations – Tuai Leit, Goshima, Cyclosis (you'll have to discover this one in Ports first), and The Islands that Once were Turtles – will arrive in October. That release will likely bring another 3, and we're considering a final one to form part of this year's Halloween update. That's up to 8 miniquests in total in place of 1 or 2 regular quests, though the final number and distribution is, of course, still subject to change.

In the future, once more of the Wushanko Islands have been built, we have no doubt that they'll be home to full-length quests. A lot of the initial stories will be on a more personal level (the Eastern Lands is free from the influence of gods, but it's not without its own problems).

Also, Mod Stu clearly missed the 'mini' part when he worked on his quest. The internally titled 'headquest' (one of July's miniquests) is on the longer side. Bad Stu, bad.

=== The Acolytes of Seiryu ===
Monkeymaner's concept has been ever-so-slightly tweaked to better fit into the established narrative of the Eastern Lands. Instead of a Temple of the Sky (with air monks and elementals), we've made it a Temple of Seiryu - the azure dragon of legend - as depicted on the highest-tier Ports portal. For a number of reasons, it's made more sense for us to theme this around water instead of air, but narratively everything else is still there – the monks, elementals and spirit dragons, and suggestions of a temple.



~Portmaster Kags