Unfinished Business | Release Strategy Update

[AmusedDragon]

 

ALSO, relevant reddit discussion links:

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/runescape/comments/6luuwp/unfinished_business_release_strategy_update/

https://www.reddit.com/r/runescape/comments/6luw95/release_schedule_changes_qa/

 

I sort of expected this. The expansion model didn't seem to be working. We've had (at least what I consider) a lot of dull or broken months of content this year so far.

[Lemurs]

They release this and invention will be even faster.

[Sir Berry]

Sounds like the right direction. Thanks for this Amused.

[Douglas]

The game is big enough already. I'm cool with having new things to do in, say, Ardougne, I don't need them to make a new city just for it to be a new city. 

[Beric]

15 minutes ago, Douglas said:

I'm cool with having new things to do in, say, Ardougne, I don't need them to make a new city just for it to be a new city. 

I would be so happy to have a reason to use the older cities. 

[John Kleppe]

Anyone got a tl;dw?

[Cadava]

 

[Deathcon]

polls like osrs x) inb4 minority has the advantage.

[Dnovelta]

3 hours ago, Beric said:

I would be so happy to have a reason to use the older cities. 

This, but for realistically any piece of "old" content.

[Pyrolord]

Interesting. Curious to see how all these polls are going to fair. 

 

50 minutes ago, Dnovelta said:

This, but for realistically any piece of "old" content.

 

This hits the nail. While new content is good, sometimes updating/releasing new stuff for existing content is better. 

[Veggie]

This is effectively them admitting failure, and telling us that a lot of promised future content is not coming. Surprised to see this positive of a response.

 

It is a good decision for them to make, though. They've been shitting themselves with the deadlines and its been embarrassing. They don't have the team to do what they want to do - whether that be a lack of staff or lack of skilled staff (turnover is a part, they're losing Mod Ollie for example). Something had to give. Better they do it now than continuing their failure. The game is filled with bugs and problems, and for a long time it's been standard to ignore anything that doesn't have an effect on content newer/mid level players are likely to interact with.

[Beric]

3 hours ago, Dnovelta said:

This, but for realistically any piece of "old" content.

 

2 hours ago, Pyrolord said:

This hits the nail. While new content is good, sometimes updating/releasing new stuff for existing content is better. 

What sort of updates/rewards would draw you guys back to old content? 

 

I struggle to think of what could pull me out of defaulting to going to the max guild or Prif in general. 

[Dnovelta]

2 hours ago, Veggie said:

This is effectively them admitting failure, and telling us that a lot of promised future content is not coming. Surprised to see this positive of a response.

 

I think that's the reason the response is positive, no? "We" tell them that this process sucks, that the content is bad, and "we" also tell them what we want, and the general direction we have in mind for it.

 

They've responded with: You're right - this process sucks. The content has not been what we wanted it to be (in terms of enjoyment and quality). We want to work with you to help drive the content development process.

 

All I really got from this video though is that they're ditching the concept of update "expansions" which force a deadline on a massive amount content that is not likely to be ready, not that they're scrapping any promised content. They're still doing the bank rework, mining/smithing rework, clue rework, T92 dyes, dailyscape rework, and invention batch 2 - which were all promised long ago. Instead it seems like they're adopting a more "release as you go" schedule with new content, with more frequent QOL fixes and smaller updates. I went back and watched the "Year Ahead" video from January and they said that the September expansions would be revealed after Menaphos, and the December expansion would be revealed sometime after that. So for all we know, we'll be getting the content from the September expansion, it just might come in December instead - when it's actually ready, instead of being released in September, and then having to be fixed and be labeled shit/dead content.

 

Just now, Beric said:

 

What sort of updates/rewards would draw you guys back to old content? 

 

I struggle to think of what could pull me out of defaulting to going to the max guild or Prif in general. 

 

For me, it's not so much that I want to use the old content, I just think it makes for a better game if there are some good reasons to use the old content. I miss the days where people played CWars for fun, and would love for that to come back to the game - not likely, I know.

 

I think that's one of the worst qualities of Prif and the Max Guild - there's no real reason to go anywhere else. It's unbelievably convenient, but a real downer on the overall game in my opinion. It's a fine line to walk though, you don't want to make things inconvenient just for the sake of making sure other content become abandoned, but you also don't want to make content too convenient either.

 

I'll have to think about what kind of updates I might personally make use of if applied to older content.

Edited July 8, 2017 by Dnovelta

[Brimes]

So was Menaphos a bust? Haven't kept up with new content in months. 

[Beric]

5 minutes ago, Brimes said:

So was Menaphos a bust? Haven't kept up with new content in months. 

It's pretty good if you're a mid level player. Not much to hold your attention otherwise. 

[Brimes]

9 minutes ago, Beric said:

It's pretty good if you're a mid level player. Not much to hold your attention otherwise. 

[AmusedDragon]

1 minute ago, Brimes said:

 

Don't worry! If you are a comped player who wants their cape there is potentially many hours of grind.

[Brimes]

Just now, AmusedDragon said:

 

Don't worry! If you are a comped player who wants their cape there is potentially many hours of grind.

Ahh of course, the one thing Jagex is good at. 

[Veggie]

2 hours ago, Beric said:

It's pretty good if you're a mid level player. Not much to hold your attention otherwise. 

It introduced

 

• Best woodcutting XP method in the game. The logs are also great for simple parts from Invention.
• Best runecrafting XP method in the game. Likely macro inefficient due to low GP/hr.
• A new slayer dungeon with a bunch of different slayer monsters. They're separated into 2 categories for slayer tasks mainly, you can kill some of the monsters for other slayer tasks, like corrupted dust devils can be slain for a dust devil task. Many of the monsters are very high slayer XP/hr, they're definitely included in the tasks that you should do now.
• 3 new sigils. 2 of them are dead-on-arrival. The one that isn't dead-on-arrival is barely used because it's too expensive to be used outside of when you're sparing no expense (like pushing Telos enrage or surviving on large Telos streak). Could be fixed through balance changes.
• New standard fish/food for ironmen, to replace monkfish.
• 4 new quests. They aren't particularly long quests. The main rewards are access to the soul altar (best RC XP as I stated above) and protection from desert heat (neat for crystallize granite mining I suppose).
• The Magister boss. From what I can tell, it's a 200k healthpoints punching bag with high defense. In a similar way to Nex with her blood phase, it discourages noobs and casuals by making the fight harder the slower you go. It drops pieces that can be used to make T92 dual wield melee weapons. It is currently a massive loss of money to kill this boss, because it costs a moderately expensive key to enter the fight (drops from slayer monsters). Could be alleviated by severe balance changes, but ultimately the "key" system is the flaw.

[Brimes]

15 minutes ago, Veggie said:

It introduced

 

• Best woodcutting XP method in the game. The logs are also great for simple parts from Invention.
• Best runecrafting XP method in the game. Likely macro inefficient due to low GP/hr.
• A new slayer dungeon with a bunch of different slayer monsters. They're separated into 2 categories for slayer tasks mainly, you can kill some of the monsters for other slayer tasks, like corrupted dust devils can be slain for a dust devil task. Many of the monsters are very high slayer XP/hr, they're definitely included in the tasks that you should do now.
• 3 new sigils. 2 of them are dead-on-arrival. The one that isn't dead-on-arrival is barely used because it's too expensive to be used outside of when you're sparing no expense (like pushing Telos enrage or surviving on large Telos streak). Could be fixed through balance changes.
• New standard fish/food for ironmen, to replace monkfish.
• 4 new quests. They aren't particularly long quests. The main rewards are access to the soul altar (best RC XP as I stated above) and protection from desert heat (neat for crystallize granite mining I suppose).
• The Magister boss. From what I can tell, it's a 200k healthpoints punching bag with high defense. In a similar way to Nex with her blood phase, it discourages noobs and casuals by making the fight harder the slower you go. It drops pieces that can be used to make T92 dual wield melee weapons. It is currently a massive loss of money to kill this boss, because it costs a moderately expensive key to enter the fight (drops from slayer monsters). Could be alleviated by severe balance changes, but ultimately the "key" system is the flaw.

Thanks for that Veggie, seems like overall it was ok just needs some tweaking. Might have to get on one day and check it all out.