The Unfinished Business/ Release Strategy Update

[Cally Raven]

For those who haven't had a chance to see the video Mod Osborne released here's the transcript.

Unfinished Business | Release Strategy Update

Good afternoon, 'Scapers,

First of all, I'd like to apologise for going a bit quiet in the past month. You've had plenty to say about Menaphos, Achievements and a few other updates, and it might have seemed like we were tucking our heads in the sand or popping off to the pub.

In reality, we've been deep in discussion as a team. We've been so focused on Menaphos and the determination to get it ready that we have neglected the wider game, so we've been making a big change or two.

NOTE - We have a habit of announcing that we're going to make changes. This time, we wanted to talk to you about changes we have already made. Expect us to go into more detail on Tuesday's livestream, as well as regular video-and-newspost updates like this one. Let's put a date in the calendar: Friday, 28th July seems like a good time to check back in on what we're doing with another post.

For now, though, read on!

Expansions

While many of you have liked - even loved - Menaphos, it's fair to say that it's had its problems. Regardless of whether you felt it was complete, we underestimated how much of our focus it would take up, and we've neglected other updates as a result.

Expansions take up a huge amount of dev time, leading to a sparse release schedule and less player happiness. It's clear that regular updates is something that makes RuneScape RuneScape. The game feels less alive without them.

For this reason, we are suspending development on all future expansions. We might release expansion-sized updates like Elf City in the future, but we won't be committing to a sequence of them, and there will be no additional expansion this year.

I know that might sound dramatic, but hear us out and find out why we think this will benefit RuneScape.

Ninjas

You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't like Ninja updates. That particular fix you've been waiting for can often have a greater impact than a conventional update. But colossal projects like the Bank Rework have been blocking the team from strengthening weeks with these essential quality-of-life improvements.

That's a real, real shame. We miss those updates. So, three weeks ago, we made the decision to double the number of developers and testers on the Ninja Team.

Thanks to the additional developers and testers, we will be releasing Ninja fixes such as the following throughout July:

Quick Prayer Presets that allow you to define a bunch of different prayers and curses to be turned on via one action, stored as a right click option on the prayer button or action bar
An Aura Bag to manage and unlock loyalty auras
Barrows, Shadow, Third Age and Blood dyes for all Telos weaponry
That's a taste of the updates you can expect regularly, and we've got many more ready for August (and don't worry – the Bank Rework is still very much a thing). We're determined to keep the quality of Ninja fixes high, and we've got a plan for how we might do that.

Polls

We know that we've tried polls before but, while they're flawed, they work. It just feels right to be involved and, as such, polls are coming back in a big way.

The plan is that we poll as many of our updates, fixes or improvements as we can.

Unfinished Business

Okay, now for the big one. For the foreseeable future, the Eternals and Titans will be delivering the updates that have been promised in the past. They will be finishing updates that feel unfinished and improving the core of the game. Think area reworks rather than new areas, and continuations of old questlines rather than new ones.

Simply put, we want to pause for a moment and resolve the Unfinished Business in RuneScape.

A good example is Achievements. Let's not assume we're done with it: we want to fix it, and make it something that benefits the game for years. So, we are planning to bring in interface improvements based on your suggestions, including more achievements onscreen at one time and a Player Inspect feature.

Invention Batch 2 is another strong example. You know it's coming from a Dev Diary, but we're expanding its remit so that it not only adds to Invention, but attempts to fix it too. So, while you can expect devices, machines and benefits beyond level 10 for your augmented gear, you can also expect fixes. These will include the removal of Inspiration, making tradeable Augmentors, and a clearer idea of which Perks will come from which components.

We now reach a bit of a quandary. In an ideal world, we'd show you a list of all of the Unfinished Business updates, complete with their release dates. BUT that would only create more expectation, and add to 'Unfinished Business' rather than deduct from it.

Instead, we'd like to list 10 updates that we're actively working on or researching. There are no dates attached: just reassurance that we're looking at these right now, and that they'll be released only when they're ready and right for the game:

Bank Rework
Mining and Smithing
Clue Scroll Overhaul
Dailyscape reductions
Invention Batch 2
Achievement System finishing
Evil Dave Quest
Graphical Reworks, including Seers' Village and Witch's House
Combat Pets
Shattered World improvements, to make it more rewarding and varied
We're going to be giving you progress-reports on these. Expect the first on the 28th of July and regularly thereafter. We also want to get you involved in their priority, and whether other updates should replace them on the list.

With that in mind, it's time to mention...

The Big RuneScape Survey

On Tuesday, 11th July, at the same time as an Unfinished Business live stream, we will be launching The Big RuneScape Survey.

This will be an open, online survey that lists everything we consider good for the game and previously promised, announced or unfinished. We will then ask you to prioritise them. Is a bunch of graphical reworks more important than a Construction Rework? Tell us, and we will use the results to prioritise the Unfinished Business stuff that you want, and build a backlog of updates to work on.

I've rambled on enough for now, and we can catch up again on the 28th of July. Remember to tune into the live stream on the 11th July, when we will be answering your questions and releasing the Big RuneScape Survey.

Start sending us your live stream questions now

On a personal note, I know these changes seem radical and reasonably rapid, but – having spent so much time reading your feedback – I'm convinced that it's the right direction. Now it's your turn to tell us whether you agree.

Thank you for being such a committed and passionate bunch of players. We're lucky to have you.

Mod Osborne & The RuneScape Team

[Dima]

Meh, I completed that big bad poll of theirs and on the last "free text" field I just gave up on them. In retrospective I guess I might've wrote "grow some balls and stop letting the players tell you what to do!".

[Cally Raven]

Unfinished Business Update | 28th July

Hi guys,

As promised, we're here with an update on the Unfinished Business strategy that Mod Osborne announced earlier this month.

First up, thanks to all of you who filled out the Big RuneScape Survey. The response was huge, and painted us a clear picture of the RuneScape content that you really want to see in the coming year.

We're already hard at work on many of those projects, and while the majority are at very early stages of development, we're here to give you as many details as we can.

There's Unfinished Business to attend to. Let's get to it!

Mining and Smithing

This came up high in the survey – second only to the Bank Rework - and you were forthcoming with a ton of useful feedback.

Interestingly, you seemed more keen to see new content added to the skills than you were to see level parity with equipment tiers. This is the overall priority order of elements that you wanted to see in the rework:

I want Smithing to be able to make useful combat armour
I want Mining and Smithing to be profitable skills at high level
I want Smithing to bring an untradeable combat benefit for high-levels (like overloads, for example)
I want the Mining skill to be the best way to get ore
I want the practice of training Mining and Smithing to feel more streamlined and reactive
I want the level requirements of Mining and Smithing ores to be reduced to the level they are for combat (e.g. Runite can be smithed at 50 and wielded at 50)
I want Mining and Smithing to be more fun and sociable
I want Artisan's Workshop to remain a good training method after a Smithing rework
Our designers have put together a plan to address the results of the survey, which we're reviewing right now. We'll be ready to share that with you soon.

Clue Scroll Overhaul

Clue scrolls are iconic RuneScape content, and they attracted an according level of attention in the survey. Top of your wish list was multiple active clue scrolls, and hidey holes to hold the gear you need.

The team are currently in an R&D phase, thinking of new and exciting reward ideas. We've also been prototyping footprints – a new cosmetic reward type first mentioned way back at last year's Runefest.

Recently, they asked for your Treasure Trail pet hates, which they're currently reviewing.

They'll have some options for you very soon. Looking out in game for a poll!

Invention Batch 2

The next big batch of Invention content was to be part of the next expansion, and we'll be able to make use of the work we've already done to bring it to you soon.

However, we have been taking the time to fix some big issues you have with the skill, and in the next two weeks we will be posting a Dev Diary video with an update on all the changes we are making based on your feedback.

Achievement System

This one's so close we can taste it! The team have been working hard on UI design and adding more achievements, broadening the range of in-game shenanigans you can be recognised for. More info in the Month Ahead video, coming out later today.

Bank Rework

The Bank Rework was one of the most popular options in the survey. 23% of you deemed it to be an important update – a whopping 46% saying it was very important' - and it's easy to see why. RuneScape is an inventory-heavy game, and improvements to the bank mean a slicker experience all round.

Once the team's time is available to do some further, essential groundwork, we'll continue with this project as a high priority.

DailyScape Reductions

We've put together a number of design options for this, which we're ready to start considering internally.

We will begin active development on this as soon as a team is available with the time and resource to do so.

Evil Dave Quest

This is coming along nicely, with a full framework for the quest playable from start to finish.

There's still a fair bit of polish and internal feedback to go, though, so it's not time to join Dave on his big adventure just yet. Look out for more info in a future Unfinished Business update!

Graphical Reworks

We've been looking at some of the older areas of the game that could benefit from a fresh lick of paint – particularly those that a new player is likely to run into.

Recently, we have been reworking the Witch's House, bringing the graphics up to date, implementing some quality of life fixes and making it available to free-to-play.

Seers' Village and Camelot graphical reworks are in progress by the Ninja Team, but are a secondary priority compared to more pressing fixes and tweaks.

Combat Skilling Pets

Thanks for all your votes on your favourite player-submitted combat-skill pet designs. Modelling begins on the Constitution pet this coming week, and our artists have started work on bringing more of the winning concepts in line with our house art style.

Feast your eyes on these, and look out for in game for polls about the title rewards for dedicated pet collectors!


Shattered Worlds

You've told us that you want Shattered Worlds to be more rewarding and more varied, so the dimension-hopping combat minigame is getting some love.

In an update coming soon, we're upping the Anima gain rates significantly.

Once they're done with Invention, the Eternals will be dedicating some time to Shattered Worlds, finding ways to make it seem less samey and introducing fiendish new ways to test your combat chops.

Let Us Know What You Think

Keep an eye out for next week's live stream – on Tuesday 1st of August - where we'll answer your questions about these projects. There's Mod Mark's Month Ahead video later today, too – going into the releases that are coming soonest – and there'll be more blogs like these, keeping you posted on the longer game.

We'll look to update you mid-month, so look out for the next Unfinished Business blog mid-September.

As always, your feedback is essential to us. Let us know what you think over on the forums!

The RuneScape Team