PvP Arena Soft Launch | Weekly Game Update (July 6th)
Get ready to test out the PvP Arena before the full launch next week!
PvP Arena: Soft Launch
The PvP Arena is coming next week! Before we throw open the gates, however, we want to ensure that all the systems we’ve put in place are working as they should, so we’re kicking things off with a soft launch.
Participants will be able to earn Rank and Reward Points, but please note that these will be wiped at the end of the soft launch period, one week from now, to ensure that everyone gets a fair start when the Arena opens for real. For now, let’s take a look at exactly what you can access with today’s update.
Setting Up
You’ll be able to find opponents and set up matches in the same place you did in the Duel Arena. You’ll also notice a couple of new NPCs who will help you navigate all your new options. The 1v1 Tournament Guide will, of course, tell you all you need to know about the 1v1 Tournaments. If you fancy a one-off fight, however, then you’ll want a word with the Duel Guide.
Grouping
To sign up for a fight, you’ll need to check out the notice boards. Here, you can find a match or host your own tournaments – and if you’re on a dedicated PvP Arena World and know the name of one of the combatants, you can watch their fight from here, too.
The Emir desires that combatants face opponents of equal strength in a fair, controlled environment. When you sign up for a fight, you’ll be matched with players of a similar skill level using an alternative save game.
This system lets you get on with whatever other activities on any world you like while your match is being prepared, so don't worry about waiting around! Once the match is ready, you’ll receive a notification that it’s time to fight! You’ll be prompted to swap to the alternative save game world, giving you enough time to get to a safe place before you hop worlds and start the battle.
Because fights take place on an alternative save game world, your standard game profile is left behind along with all your levels and items.
Beside the Chat, Clan Chat, and Group Iron side-panels, you’ll spot the Grouping side-panel. We originally created this in 2014 to help players find groups for minigames, but it now includes an extra PvP Arena button. Click this, and you’ll open a new panel for… the PvP Arena! Who would have guessed?
Clicking the PvP Arena button will open the PvP Arena's side-panel, replacing the Grouping side-panel. The ‘Find’ button invites the player to look for a PvP Arena group.
From here you can register for either a 1v1 Tournament or 1v1 Battle where the game decides who you fight against. Alternatively, you can join a manually created 1v1 Tournament.
To succeed in the Arena, you'll need to adapt your playstyle and master multiple builds based on what the audience craves the most. The crowds aren't easy to please, however, as their tastes change on a weekly basis.
Each week you'll be required to use one of the following builds:
The Equipment tab will appear when you attempt to join a PvP Arena match, and is used to select which items you intend to fight with. Currently, there are around 400 items to choose from. You can only use equipment you have the stats for, so pay close attention to which build is currently in rotation!
You’ll also be able to use the following bits of equipment, which are only available in the Arena:
Maoma’s Headgear
Koriff’s Headgear
Saika’s Headgear
Calamity Armour
Superior Calamity Armour
Elite Calamity Armour
Fighter’s Wristwraps
When the fight is complete, you’ll be returned to where you left off on your usual save. If you managed to defeat your opponent, you’ll also be rewarded with Rank and Reward Points.
Rank points are used to determine your Rank. When finding a fight, the PvP Arena system will try to match you with another player of a similar Rank. The more points you have, the higher your Rank is!
Reward points are used to purchase unique items from the PvP Arena Reward store.
If you lose your match, you’ll also lose some Rank Points. The Rank system works just like it does in the Burthorpe Games Room, where your loss/gain depends on your opponent’s Rank. Beating a higher-ranked player will reward you with more points.
You’ll also get more points for consecutive wins. The idea here is that skilled players will be able to gain high Rank quickly, so they can start fighting opponents their own size sooner.
Please note that you will not receive Rank or Reward Points when participating in manually organised events.
Think you’re ready to go? Well, let’s take a look at your options!
1v1 Tournaments
Until now, Tournaments have been exclusive to the Deadman finales, so relatively few players ever get to experience them. With the introduction of the PvP Arena, we’re making Tournament-style play available to everyone!
Tournaments offer a way for players to participate in a series of 1v1 fights in succession - if you're good enough to make it to the next round, that is! You can let the game form a tournament group for you, selected from the pool of available participants, or have a go at organising one of your own!
To enter a Tournament, simply register your interest via the PvP Arena side-panel. Once enough players have signed up, the game will proceed to create a 1v1 Tournament for successful applicants.
Each Tournament consists of anywhere from 4 to 64 players. Each round is split, until there are only two participants left. Here's how this might look for a Tournament of 16 players:
16 players are divided into eight 1v1 battles.
The eight winners from the first round then fight in four 1v1 battles.
The four winners from the second round then fight in two 1v1 battles.
The final two winners then fight each other for the victory.
You’ll receive Rank and Reward Points based on how you place – so give it your all!
Fancy creating your own Tournament? Well, you can! Please bear in mind though that participants in manually-created tournaments will not receive rewards – it’s just for fun!
Ranked 1v1 Duels
Hungry for battle but don't want to commit to a full Tournament? You’re after Ranked 1v1 Duels! These are one-off battles where the game will automatically pit you against an opponent of similar rank.
Just like tournaments, the winner of a 1v1 Battle will receive Rank and Reward Points.
Unranked 1v1 Duels
In Unranked 1v1 duels you’ll choose the opponent you want to fight, mano a mano. You won’t get rewards, but this kind of fight is great for trying out new Combat style combinations, or just getting in some practice ahead of a big Tournament! You can also have unranked duels in non-PvP Arena worlds using your own gear by clicking your opponent's Challenge option while you're both standing in the Arena areas.
Rewards
The Reward Shop will be open for the duration of the soft launch period, but please note that you will be unable to purchase anything from it until the real launch. Remember, also, that any Reward Points you accrue will be lost when the soft launch period ends.
That’s all for this week! Like we said, the purpose of the soft launch is to make sure that everything’s running smoothly – so we need you to hop in game and put the PvP Arena through its paces! We’d also love to hear your thoughts on grouping, the available load-outs, or the battles themselves, so feel free to share your feedback through the usual channels.
Other Changes
Some basic trees near the Bank chest in the Woodcutting Guild have been removed, as their ops could be inconvenient.
Clan notifications are no longer sent when a player ticks off Shayzien Armour pieces on their Collection Log, as there are an awful lot of those pieces, and it could get spammy.
You must now confirm your purchase if you try to buy over 10 Pet Reclaim tokens at once from Probita. Just in case someone accidentally tries to buy the maximum amount...
The Steel Key Ring now warns players if they try to drop it while it still has keys on.
There is now a Bank deposit box in the Grand Exchange.
A food shop icon has been removed from a Hosidius stall that does not, in fact, sell food.
There is now a right-click Take-all option on the Seed Packs.
The Clues relating to Sedridor and Traiborn have been updated to reflect their full names.
PvP World Rota
The PvP rota has moved to Period A:
539 - (US) - PvP World
548 - (Germany) - High-Risk PvP World
577 - (US) - Free-to-Play PvP World
559 - (UK) - LMS Competitive
World 390 (AUS) for LMS Competitive has been de-activated with this rota.
This week we have some final tweaks to Giants' Foundry, and a much-anticipated change to Unranked Group Iron!
Giants' Foundry Tweaks
This week brings a few finishing touches to the Giants’ Foundry, aimed at making your time spent Smithing as seamless as possible.
Firstly, Kovac has been hard at work mending the giants’ relationship with Gielinor’s financial sector. As a result, any coins he owes you for your commissions can be sent straight to the Bank!
Kovac will also be keeping track of how many swords you’ve made for him and will proudly display the number in chat when asked! The numbers, smiths... what do they mean?
Lastly, we noticed some frustration that the ‘sweet spots’ intended to reward eagle-eyes smiths for clicking at the right time were too heavily-weighted towards the beginning of a new commission. Following today’s update, you can expect a more even distribution, so keep your eyes peeled and your mouse cursors at the ready!
Unranked Group Iron Changes
For those of you who currently stand alone but would like to stand alone together… you can!
Players of any Iron mode (Regular, Hardcore or Ultimate) are now able to speak to the Iron Tutor in Lumbridge and become an Unranked GIM. Simply ask the tutor to let you review your Iron status, select 'Unranked Group Iron' under the Group tab, and then join a group - just like any other Unranked GIM!
Note that you’ll have seven days to change your mind after requesting a change in your Iron status. After those seven days have passed, any changes to your status are irreversible – so choose wisely!
Some of you jumping into a new Unranked Group might be wondering how you'll be able to let people know that you're an Unranked Group Iron, by the way. You can flex your status with some fancy Unranked Group Iron armour, featuring a fashionable green trim, or simply type in chat and bask in the glow of your new green chat icon.
Pet Reclaim Changes
It’s been a heartwarming week for us as we watch you reunite with your furry/scaly/demonic friends after so many years!
In case you missed it, last week Probita’s Pet Reclaim began automatically insuring pets, and allowed players who had Bank placeholders or Collection Log entries filled to reclaim pets they’d lost but hadn’t insured.
Players made us aware that a couple of critters slipped through the cracks, so we’ve made the following fixes in this week’s update:
Specific multi-form pets obtained before the Collection Log update can now be added to the Collection Log via Bank placeholder. Affected pets should now be insured.
Pets that are in your Player Owned House menagerie, but not in the Collection Log, are now automatically insured.
Pets that were previously insured but not present in your Bank (including placeholders), Collection Log, or menagerie will now appear on Probita’s new Insurance interface.
If you have any pets you believe aren’t showing on your insurance record, please pay Probita a visit so she can insure them for you.
We’re keeping a close eye on this feature, so let us know if you’re still experiencing issues via the links at the bottom of the post.
Pride 2022
We had a fantastic Pride March last Thursday where players came out in droves to support our LGBTQIA+ community – and in case you’ve missed it, the 2022 Pride Event is still ongoing!
If you want to snag yourself a nice piece of FashionScape in the form of a Rainbow Flower Crown, make your way over to Gilbert, who can be found a little to the east of Barbarian Village.
Other Changes
We've also bundled in a couple of smaller changes with this week's update:
The Apple Pencil will now work for players using the latest iOS client.
Updated models for some NPCs in the Pride Event to better represent the historical LGBTQIA+ figures who inspired them.
The Clan Events menu now has 'Multiple Bosses' in the boss list. This new entry should be at the top of the list and reflect common clan events like bingo a little more accurately.
Fixed grammar in the description of the Rainbow Flower Crown.
Fixed grammar in the Pride Event.
Once you have defeated [REDACTED BY ORDER OF THE VARROCK GUARD] in What Lies Below, Perdu can now sell you replacement copies of the beacon ring, even if you are yet to complete the rest of the quest.
Drift Nets will no longer require players to click through a confirmation screen before they can harvest.
Wilderness Loot Keys can now be destroyed within the Wilderness if they contain less than 30,000 GP worth of loot. There is a small delay to this process to discourage players from destroying loot during combat.
Players will now be warned when taking a Waka Canoe into the Wilderness.
It is now slightly easier to talk to the West Bank Bankers instead of the wall in Prifddinas. Players are still welcome to speak to the wall if they so choose!
A single Pride flower near Varrock Bank has been moved as it was impacting a Firemaking training method. You may now return to your usual business of lighting open fires on the streets of a highly populated city.
Pride flowers no longer block pathing in some areas.
TThe Combat Achievement button in the Collection Log is now in the same place no matter which category is selected.
Deadman Mode
Many of you have been asking us to talk about the Deadman Mode Re-Run Finale and the future of Deadman Mode.
Keep an eye out for this month's Gielinor Gazette where we'll be spending some time talking about the steps we took ahead of the re-run, the challenges we faced on the night, and the future of DMM.
That’s a wrap on this week's update, but before you go, we’ve got a couple of surveys to share with you…
PvP Update Survey
We've been running some surveys over the last two weeks and we want to make sure that as many of you as possible have the opportunity to make your thoughts heard.
The first survey is about PvP content, which we’re hoping to work on after the Wilderness Boss Rework. Click the button and have your say!
Game Modes Survey
Our second survey is all about potential new game modes!
We've received absolutely loads of feedback so far but we're on the lookout for more, so make sure to click the button below and let us know your thoughts if you haven't already!
Old School Pride Event & Pet Reclaim Changes | Weekly Game Update (June 22nd)
This week, we're introducing a holiday event full of love and dazzling colours! It's Pride 2022!
Pride 2022
Pride Month is a time to celebrate LGBTQIA+ identity all over the world, and Old School RuneScape is no exception! We’re proud of our fantastic, diverse community, all linked together by a mutual love of the game. This year’s Pride Event is our commitment to helping our LGBTQIA+ players feel safe, included, and supported in Old School – but everyone can join in the fun!
Gilbert the Leprechaun has returned to Gielinor and is once again asking for your help to spread colourful joy across the land. Catch up with him south-east of Barbarian Village, on the banks of the River Lum – and bring your greenest thumbs!
The Pride event is available on both members and free-to-play worlds and completing it will score you some fabulously floral FashionScape: your very own Rainbow Flower Crown! You’ll also receive the Rainbow Scarf from 2017, if you don’t have one already.
The whole Old School team has worked hard to create this event, and we hope that you enjoy playing it as much as we enjoyed bringing it to life!
Also of note: Gilbert has had such a warm welcome that he’ll be sticking around even after the event to hand out Rainbow Flower Crowns and Scarves to anyone who’d like one. Of course, you’ll still be able to claim these items from Diango and your Player Owned House.
Happy Pride, everyone!
In-Game Pride March
We know that not everyone is able to attend Pride marches in person – but you can still celebrate here in Gielinor, by taking part in our very first official Old School Pride march!
Here's the deets:
Date: June 23rd 2022
Time: 18:00 BST - 19:30 BST
World: 500 (Free-to-play)
Secondary World: 562 (Free-to-play)
We will be walking during the Pride March to allow everyone to keep up, starting at the location of the event. For more information please refer to the picture below!
We J-Mods will be attending in our finest rainbow gear – and we can’t wait to see what colourful outfits you all bring to the table!
We want everyone to feel safe and included during the event, so please note that our Player Support Teams will be on-hand to remove anyone looking to spoil the fun. This is an event to celebrate our LGBTQIA+ players, and we will not tolerate intimidation or harassment.
Further Diversity and Inclusion Changes
Old School RuneScape really is OLD School RuneScape, and we recognise that certain elements of the game are far less acceptable than they were 20 years ago. Moving forward, we’ll address a number of issues to make Gielinor a more inclusive and welcoming place to be.
We’ll tell you all about our plans in the next Gielinor Gazette, which is due at the end of the month. Stay tuned!
Pet Changes from Poll 76
It’s the update you’ve been waiting for – time to fill up your menagerie with a collection of pet changes!
First and foremost, any pets you receive in-game will now be automatically insured. If you’re unlucky enough to lose your pet, you will be able to retrieve it from Probita for the standard 1 million GP fee.
Both players who ‘would have been followed’ but did not receive their pet and players who have lost their pet on death can collect it from Probita, as long as it was marked in their Collection Log. Bank Placeholders also work as sufficient proof that the pet existed.
Unfortunately, we’re unable to retrieve pets which were received and then lost before the Collection Log was released, or pets whose Bank Placeholder has been deleted.
Any pets you achieve in-game are now automatically insured. If you are unlucky enough to lose your pet, your pet is redeemable from Probita for her usual fee of 1 million GP.
If you’ve previously paid an insurance fee, it’ll be added to Probita’s reclaim fee coffer and can then be used as a discount towards any further reclaims. For example, if you’ve insured two pets for 500,000 GP each, you will be given 1 free reclaim token. If you've insured 5 pets, you will be given 2 free reclaim tokens and a 500,000 GP discount towards your next reclaim token purchase. Nice!
Lastly, we’ve enabled loot drop broadcasts for all pets, including duplicate drops. Happy hunting!
New Mobile Client Features and Full Release
Great news for adventurers on the go – we’ve fully released our new client features on both Android and iOS devices! The new client will become available over the course of today, so keep an eye out for an update!
This means that the Java app is no longer in use. To play Old School RuneScape on mobile, your device must meet the following requirements:
Android: Android 8.0 (Oreo) or later, and at least 2GB RAM.
iOS: iOS Version 13.0 or later.
On the upside, mobile players now have access to all the exciting features we’ve been beta testing, including:
Buff Bars
Fishing Spot Indicators
HUD Improvements (NPC Information and Combat Styles)
Agility and Slayer Helpers
Chambers of Xeric Helper
Woodcutting and Ore Respawn Timers
Increased Draw Distance
Navigation Tile Indicators
Chat Improvements
Entity Highlights for NPCs
And more!
So what’s next? Take a look at this newspost, where we share all the details about future client features we’re looking to implement.
Other Changes
Increased the Friends Chat capacity from 100 to 500. Please note that this change does NOT allow for even larger raiding parties in Chambers of Xeric or battles in Soul Wars. We apologise if this is disappointing.
The Minimap's HP orb now shows your health in Last Man Standing as a proportion of 99, as that’s the base HP level used in the minigame.
The Edgeville and Ardougne teleport levers now have a separate warning message if they are used on High Risk Worlds. Both this new message and the pre-existing warning can be toggled on and off via the Settings menu, lest players change their minds about dismissing them permanently. The warning on the exit of Ferox Enclave can also be re-enabled via the Settings menu.
The appearance of the Observatory Professor, if he appears in Traiborn's quiz during Recipe for Disaster, has been corrected.
All Birds’ Nests will now take four times longer to disappear from the floor.
Ironmen fighting the Kalphite Queen will no longer find her lair devoid of Potato Cacti.
TzHaar Bank Chests can now be accessed from the side. Thrilling!
The entrance and exits of the Revenant Caves are now even further apart.
Giants' Foundry Changes | Weekly Game Update (June 15th)
PSA: At 11:30 BST on Friday, 17th June the game will be rebooted to deploy a coldfix to resolve an issue with the Clans UI.
This will be accompanied by the usual 30-minute shutdown timer with downtime being minimal, similarly to a Game Update.
We’ve made some improvements to Giants’ Foundry this week – keep reading to learn more!
Giants' Foundry Improvements
Since Giants’ Foundry launched last week, we’ve seen adventurers come out in droves to help Kovac forge some comically oversized weapons – although we’re still not sure what he’s planning to do with them…
As always with releases like this, we’ve spotted a couple of post-launch issues and made some changes to correct them. Here’s what’s changed since launch:
HOTFIX: Resolved a bug which prevented players from withdrawing Runite Bars from the Blast Furnace’s bar dispenser.
HOTFIX: Players will no longer erroneously lose quality when clicking the Drop Hammer at a specific time. We can’t let you tick-perfect players suffer from success!
HOTFIX: Using items on the Polishing Wheel to repair it no longer fixes the Drop Hammer.
The Moulds list will now display your best moulds first, we're not saving the best til' last here!
Removed Kovac’s confirmation dialogue when asking him for a commission, which should make back-to-back commissions feel a bit smoother. Do check in and say hello from time to time, though – we don’t want him to feel lonely!
Changed animations so that players are now able to move while examining a finished sword prior to hand-in – although you can still pause to take in the wonders of metallurgy if you wish.
Changed the weight of the Colossal Blade to 30kg, in-line with the Barrelchest Anchor. We’ve also added some sufficiently weighty noises from the Anchor to match the Blade’s heft.
Using the "X" option when adding armour or weapons to the Giants' Foundry crucible will now remember the last number input as a new option next time you open the dialog, so you can keep adding the same amount to the crucible.
The Scroll Position reset issue has been fixed so players will no longer see any dead space in the Mould jig.
Player will now actually face the mould jig when they use it.
Other Changes
We’ve also made a few other changes based on recent player feedback.
Most notably, we’ve added two more chests for use with Skully’s Loot Keys. One is located upstairs in the Grand Tree Bank and is available on all members-only worlds. The other, visible only on PvP worlds, is in the Lumbridge Castle courtyard.
The locations of the two newest Loot Chests.
Regrettably, a single potted plant was harmed while placing the Loot Key chest in the Grand Tree. Let’s have a moment of silence before moving on to the rest of this week’s changes:
Unranked Group Iron players can now make use of the braziers at the God Wars Dungeon and Kalphite Queen lair, and see whether the Iron instances are occupied.
A water source icon has been added to the Legends' Guild courtyard fountain on the World Map.
The price change rate at Baba Yaga's Magic Shop has been decreased from 1% per item to 0.1% per item, in line with the Magic Guild Store.
Clicking out of the Agility Pyramid’s completion dialogue will no longer prevent the associated Desert Diary task from completing.
Players making breadcrumbs in Recipe for Disaster are no longer given inappropriate messages about meat.
The ‘Take-net’ option on the Spirit Angler next to the Tempoross reward pool no longer involves dialogue.
You will no longer be reminded to use //// or /g, or // or /c to chat in the respective chat channels when switching worlds.
The Shayzien soldiers valiantly fighting lizardmen no longer have an ‘Attack’ option.
The door to the Zamorakian Chapel in Varrock now swings in the opposite direction.
An a-door-able small change.
PvP World Rota
The PvP rota has moved to Period B:
560 - (UK) - PvP World
579 - (US) - High-Risk PvP World
561 - (UK) - Free-to-Play PvP World
580 - (US) - LMS Competitive
World 390 (AUS) for LMS Competitive has been de-activated with this rota.
Game Mode Survey
Last week, we sent out a survey via email asking players for their thoughts on a variety of potential game modes. We saw a lot of discussion about the survey and wanted to capture more of your thoughts. Click the button below to be whisked away to a world of possibilities, let us know your thoughts on a series of game modes! If any prove popular, perhaps they might make their way to an Old School RuneScape near you soon...
PvP Update Survey
The Emir is eager to see the gates of his Arena reopen, allowing brave warriors to feel the thrill of battle once more. In order to appease His Eagerness, we'll be opening the PvP Arena for a public beta this month, and you can expect full access in July!
If you've been keeping up with our recent polls, you might be wondering what we plan to do about rewards. We intend to honour the results of the most recent poll - therefore, the PvP Arena will offer the following rewards:
Imbue Scrolls
Blighted Wave Sacks
Blighted Surge Sacks
For those of you who really wanted to experience the other rewards, we have a special treat - you'll be able to find the following items in Arena equipment chests, along with 400 other pieces of equipment for your Inventory and Worn slots.
Maoma’s Headgear
Koriff’s Headgear
Saika’s Headgear
Superior Calamity Armour
Elite Calamity Armour
Fighter’s Wristwraps
This equipment is exclusively for use within the PvP Arena - by order of the Emir himself!
Working on the PvP Arena has helped bring the team us closer to the PvP community than ever before and provided valuable insight into some of the pain points these players have. There's so much more we can do to improve the state of PvP, and this is only the first step.
Our dedicated PvP team will be moving on to reworking the Wilderness bosses, but what’s next for PvP? Well, that’s where you come in! We’d like your help to shape the future of PvP in Old School RuneScape. We really want to gain a better understanding of where you think we should focus our efforts!
In order to do that, we’ve created a short survey. We’d really appreciate if you could let us know your thoughts by filling it out. We’ll then look to share the results in a future blog.
Lastly, we just wanted to pass on a huge thank you to everyone that got involved in all of the discussions around rewards, especially those in the PvP Discord! We’ve loved working with you and can’t wait to see what else we’re able to achieve together!
Today's game update will take the game offline for approximately 30 minutes as maintenance is performed. We're aiming to have the game resume as normal from 12:00 pm BST.
Thank you for your patience.
This week we’re going on a giant-sized adventure!
Sleeping Giants Quest
Ahh, giants. We all know them. Enormous humanoids hanging about Gielinor, simply minding their own business until some adventurer or another comes along to beat them up.
But how much do we really know about these giants? What do they think about? Where did they come from? Would they enjoy making massive swords in some kind of… gargantuan workshop?
All these questions, and more, will be answered in Sleeping Giants, a new novice quest! You’ll help Kovac, a friendly giant who’s discovered an ancient forge build to his giant-size proportions!
To start the quest, head to the Giant Plateau east of Al Kharid, near Citharede Abbey.
Kovac can be found here.
Quest Requirements
[expand type="spoiler"]
15 Smithing
[/expand]
Quest Rewards
[expand type="spoiler"]
Access to the Giants' Foundry
6,000 Smithing Experience
1 Quest Point
[/expand]
Completing Sleeping Giants will also give you all the know-how you need to start Smithing in the Giants’ Foundry!
Giants' Foundry
A look inside The Giants' Foundry.
The Giants’ Foundry is a non-instanced, non-combat safe area accessible to members.
Here, you’ll work on Kovac’s commissions, picking out the perfect sword design, choosing an appropriate-level metal to work with, and carefully Smithing the blade with a variety of tools.
Each commission will come with two customer requests – for example, they might want a sword that’s ‘narrow’ and ‘spiked’. You’ll need to pick a mould from Kovac’s extensive Mould Library that matches that description. The closer the match, the higher quality your sword will be – so choose wisely!
Next, you’ll need to choose a metal to work with and place it in the crucible – the big stone bucket chained over the river of lava. It’ll accept Bronze, Iron, Steel, Mithril, Adamant or Rune Bars, or any metal item you want to recycle. We’re eco-friendly, here!
A Giant’s Sword requires 28 Bars worth of material, which is conveniently the exact same amount the crucible can hold. It’s like we did it on purpose!
The higher the tier of metal you choose, the longer the sword will take to shape, and the more precise the temperature range will have to be.
Kovac also believes that swords made of an alloy – a mixture of two or more different metals – will be better. Something to bear in mind!
Now, it’s time to cool off as we begin to work the blade!
Pick the moulds that best suit your commission!
Refinement
The refinement process lets you shape the raw preform you just created into a blade fit for a mighty giant!
You’ll have a variety of tools at your disposal:
Trip Hammer: Requiring a hot, hot, hot sword, this tool is used to hammer out the imperfections on the blade.
Grindstone: Swords must be at a medium temperature to allow this tool to grind out the edge of the sword and make it smooth.
Polishing Wheel: Get that sword to a cold temperature to use this tool, which cleans up the blade and gives it a lovely shiny finish.
Lava Pool - Dip your sword into the lava and heat it up, ensuring it’s hot enough to use particular tools.
Waterfall - Use the crashing waves of the waterfall to cool your sword down in order to use certain tools.
Use the right tool at the right time, and you’ll increase the sword’s completion to 100%. You can track which tool to use at which heat range using the in-game HUD:
The HUD found within The Foundry.
Using tools changes the temperature of the preform, which will also naturally cool down over time. Using the incorrect tool or using the right tool outside the correct temperature range, will result in a lower-quality sword. If the quality of the sword reaches 0, you’ll have to hand it over to Kovac and try again. Be warned that quality can only ever be lost – so be extra-careful!
Here’s an example of the refinement process:
Decrease the initial temperature using the waterfall until the preform is cool enough to try the trip hammer.
Cool the preform again to just below the yellow temperature range, then work it with the grindstone.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 until the sword is almost complete.
Cool the preform to the green temperature zone, then use the polishing wheel to finish the job!
Hand the finished sword to Kovac to complete the commission.
If you manage to reach 100% completion without ruining the sword, you can hand it in to Kovac, who’ll reward you with some juicy XP and some Foundry Reputation. The higher the quality, the more rewards you’ll get!
Experience
We’ve messed with the XP rates quite a bit, so here’s a refresher. The table below is based on a player who makes between 10 and 20 swords an hour, using 28 Bars per sword.
[table][tr][th]AlloyTier[/th][th]Swords Per Hour[/th][th]Average XP Per Sword[/th][th]Average XP Per Hour[/th][th]Average GP/XP[/th][th]Profitable[/th][/tr][tr][td]Lowest[/td][td]20[/td][td]~2,400[/td][td]~48,000[/td][td]0.2[/td][td]No[/td][/tr][tr][td]Low[/td][td]17[/td][td]~5,000[/td][td]~85,000[/td][td]-0.3[/td][td]Yes[/td][/tr][tr][td]Medium[/td][td]15[/td][td]~9,000[/td][td]~135,000[/td][td]-0.2[/td][td]Yes[/td][/tr][tr][td]High[/td][td]13[/td][td]~15,000[/td][td]~195,000[/td][td]0.5[/td][td]No[/td][/tr][tr][td]Highest[/td][td]12[/td][td]~23,000[/td][td]~276,000[/td][td]6.6[/td][td]No[/td][/tr][/table] These values are subject to change before and after release.
We’ve also crunched the numbers for other skilling methods:
[table][tr][th]Method[/th][th]XP Per Hour (Estimate)[/th][th]Average GP/XP[/th][th]Profitable[/th][/tr][tr][td]Gold at Blast Furnace: no Goldsmith Gauntlets[/td][td]~150,000[/td][td]8.7[/td][td]No[/td][/tr][tr][td]Gold at Blast Furnace: with Goldsmith Gauntlets[/td][td]~375,000[/td][td]3.5[/td][td]No[/td][/tr][tr][td]Steel at Blast Furnace: with Coal Bag[/td][td]~90,000[/td][td]-12.3[/td][td]Yes[/td][/tr][tr][td]Creating 5 Bar Mithril items[/td][td]~190,000 - 210,000[/td][td]3.7[/td][td]No[/td][/tr][tr][td]Creating 5 Bar Adamant items[/td][td]~240,000 - 260,000[/td][td]1.3[/td][td]No[/td][/tr][tr][td]Creating 3 Bar Rune items[/td][td]~290,000 - 310,000[/td][td]-0.8[/td][td]Yes[/td][/tr][/table] Please note that these are estimates, not exact figures.
Giants' Foundry Rewards
The Smiths' Uniform
Concept Art of the Smiths' Uniform.
Kovac has acquired some ancient Dwarven-wear… somehow… and since it’s a bit small for him, he’ll let you purchase it in the Reward Shop! The Smiths’ Uniform consists of Gloves, Boots, a Top, and a pair of swanky Bottoms. It also offers two suitably smithy bonuses:
Each piece of the outfit will give you a 20% chance to reduce your anvil Smithing speed by 1 tick, which adds up to 100% chance when wearing the full outfit. This evens out to a 15-20% speed buff while anvil Smithing.
Each outfit piece equipped also gives a 20% chance for extra completion while Smithing, which again rises to a 100% chance when wearing the full set.
You can also combine the Smiths’ Gloves with the Ice Gloves, giving you the benefits of both. Should you wish to return to your usual icy business, you can separate them again at your leisure.
Ore Packs
Ore Packs are a great way to purchase lots of coal in one go, making it easier to prepare for your next trip to the Giants’ Foundry. You will have a small chance to obtain other ores from these packs too, but the focus is mainly coal.
Moulds
We thought it would be interesting if you could buy tools to help you improve your sword-smithing process within the Foundry.
These extra moulds will help with all kinds of commissions and give you a leg up on quality before you even start Smithing. The better the mould, the higher the Smithing level you’ll need to train and gain all in one location.
Eight-Cannonball Mould
With Leagues III you got an eight-sided cannon, so it’s only fitting that you now get an Eight-Cannonball Mould! This mould lets you use two Steel Bars to smith eight Cannonballs at once, doubling your production speed!
Smithing Catalyst
Using this unstackable item when creating Bars at a furnace will not only halve the amount of Coal required but will also double the XP given! However, the Catalyst will be consumed when the Bar is made, so you’ll need plenty of them to go around.
You can also use Catalysts at the Blast Furnace, where they’ll give you double XP for any Bar produced using Coal. However, it won’t cut the Coal cost down.
As an added extra, you’ll also be allowed to use Catalysts at the Blast Furnace Bank, so you can use lots of them in one run.
Kovac's Grog
A brew made by Kovac himself! This (supposedly) tasty Grog will give you a temporary Smithing boost of +4. Just don’t tell health and safety you’re drinking on the job…
Colossal Blade
You gotta' lot of Guts to carry this around.
This mighty sword is strikingly similar to the one you helped Kovac make, and requires 60 Attack to wield.
Alongside this, we're giving it a special effect that fits the theme of the Blade. Depending on the size of the enemy you're fighting, it will now increase your Max Hit according to the size of the NPC:
(Max Hit + (2 x NPC Size))
The NPC Size will be capped at 5 (NPCs that take up a 5x5 area and above), meaning that you'll be dealing the most damage against bigger enemies. We feel like this weapon now fits a good niche comparatively to the Dragon Scimmy and could prove more useful in certain situations, whilst looking great to boot. Remember, the bigger they are, the harder they fall!
Stats fit for a Giant!
Weapon Design Competition
Since we are delving into the world of giant weaponry with today's update we want to see what would fit a Giant best. We'd like for you to design any type of weapon that you could see Kovac or any other Giant wielding as they take on the world!
You will only the need the visual design of the weapon to qualify for entry but you are more than welcome to include stats or lore surrounding your design.
Competition Details - Weapon Design Competition
[expand type="details"]
Dates & Times:
The competition begins at 00:01 BST on June 8th and closes at 23:59 BST on June 20th.
The four finalists will be chosen by the Old School team and will feature in a poll in July.
Calling all iOS players! You will no longer be able to log in on the iOS Beta Client from June 15th. As per this newspost, we'll need to close the iOS Beta Client in preparation for our full client launch!
Now for this week's other changes:
Pressing space to Smith or Craft the last item again will no longer also add a space to the Chat.
Reduced the time required to make Guardians in Guardians of the Rift.
In addition, multiple Guardians can now be made from the same pile.
Meiyerditch Laboratories have been added to the World Map.
Group Storage will now be locked during the 30-minute timer before the game reboots.
The Draynor multiway combat area now covers the path and the teleport arrival point.
Player Owned House lock settings will now be remembered across logins.
Players may now use spare Farmer’s Outfit pieces on Gricoller for a 80% refund, in line with other reward shops.
An animation is now played every time your Abyssal Lantern gives you a benefit, with the exception of the Redwood's rune pouch degrading prevention effect.
The in-game GIM Boss Bash info has been corrected to reflect that Zalcano gives 3 Tickets rather than 2.
Fixed typos in the Guardians of the Rift chat.
We've also made some tweaks to Group Ironman notifications:
The wording of the level up broadcast has been changed to "[Player name] has reached [skill name] level [level]".
Enabling the post-99 level XP broadcasts sets the amount to 1 million by default.
PKing a player as a GIM now also tracks how much the other player lost.
The description for the PK Broadcast value setting now correctly refers to coins.
PvP World Rota
We are happy to announce the PvP rota begins again with this week's update! It begins with Period A:
539 - (US) - PvP World
548 - (Germany) - High-Risk PvP World
577 - (US) - Free-to-Play PvP World
559 - (UK) - LMS Competitive
World 390 (AUS) for LMS Competitive has been activated with this rota.
Merch
Transport yourself back to the first time you visited Lumbridge with this special collection on the Official Merch Store!
Go back and meet the Lumbridge Guide, Goblin and Noob. Bring back those early memories of chopping wood with these Bronze and Rune Axe Keyrings. Ahh, nostalgia!
Speaking of which, with this Mini Teleport Icon Pin Set, you can travel back to other iconic game locations as Angels Scapes continues this new series based on her favourite places in Gielinor – where will she go next?
Last but by no means least, don’t forget to snag your copy of RuneScape Kingdoms: Shadow of Elvarg! There’s only 48 hours left to back the game and get your Kickstarter-exclusive goodies! You can read all about it here, on Steamforged’s Kickstarter page.
The PvP Arena (known by the Al Kharidians as the Emir's Arena) will be opening its gates to adventurers very soon!
Soon, Gielinor’s most skilled players will descend on the Arena to battle against similarly skilled opponents in controlled environments, and even tournaments, while using a huge variety of builds and setups at a moment's notice!
While the thrill of combat, climbing the ranks, or emerging victorious with up to 63 fallen combatants scattering the arena might be enough of a reward for some, we're still hopeful that dedicated fighters may be able to make use of the Arena's armoury to show off their skills and diversify their gameplay in other PvP content.
The PvP community and wider playerbase alike made it clear to us that our previous proposal missed the mark (a summary of the previous poll and its results can be found in this Poll Summary Blog). As a result, we've gone back to the drawing board and tried to work with contributors from various communities via the PvP Feedback Discord to to put together a fresh set of rewards that will hopefully address the key concerns raised, whilst also adding a little variety into the mix for players.
In the initial PvP Arena blog, we dove into the Calamity Armour, Maoma's, Koriff's and Saika's headgear. Throughout discussions in the PvP Feedback Discord, it became clear that approaching these armours similar to Void with percentage increases for both accuracy/damage wasn't hugely popular, especially in cases where builds would have access to equipment with extremely high defences, and in many cases without losing any max hits.
However, it was clear to us that there was a level of appreciation for diversity in builds and gear setups.
In our latest proposal, we're aiming for the following conditions:
Armour sets should not outright replace current setups with minimal downsides.
We should avoid requiring multiple full sets of armour in order to obtain bonuses in PvP.
Players seemed to get behind the idea of 'helm-switching' being a priority for the set, in such a way that it works with current gear setups, but with drawbacks that make their use a choice rather than an obligation.
New armours from the PvP Arena should not increase damage bonuses or add additional max hits beyond currently established gear.
The focus should instead be on increasing accuracy and consistency, at the expense of some defensive bonuses and KO potential.
New armours should fit into established metas, rather than trying to create new ones.
We've reworked both the Calamity armours and the respective headgear sets so they provide raw stats without any special effects or bonuses, with an increased emphasis on the PvP combat triangle. They also fit nicely into existing builds, increasing their overall usability.
One of the major concerns voiced by players was the feeling that the PvP Arena would result in 'skipping' significant or iconic pieces of content, namely the Wristbands of the Arena and the Centurion Cuirass, as both could be obtained without completion of Recipe for Disaster and Barbarian Assault respectively.
With the potential of new armour sets from the PvP Arena, adding another chest piece felt a little too much. After much discussion, we've opted to shelve the idea of the Centurion Cuirass and will not be looking to repoll it with the PvP Arena, though we may resurface it again in future content. As for the Wristbands of the Arena andwe've outlined our thoughts on a new approach further down in the blog.
Note: All of the rewards below are intended to be usable only in PvP Worlds, PvP minigames (e.g. Castle Wars & Soul Wars) and the Wilderness.
Headgear Sets
Let's take a look at the headgear sets first! These helmets will provide accuracy and defensive bonuses with respect to the combat triangle. This means they provide negative offensive and defensive bonuses for the 'wrong' style. If that sounds like a mouthful, check out the images below to see exactly how this works!
Maoma's Headgear
Maoma was the corrupt captain of the Emir’s guard. Her job was to oversee fights at the arena and ensure that order was upheld – but in reality, she was taking bribes to look the other way. Some say she even instigated some of the fights to make the Arena more popular and recruited prisoners to bolster the fighters’ ranks!
Maoma's Headgear is made up of three untradeable helms. They give the wearer good offensive bonuses when attacking with Melee, but we wouldn't expect you to hit as many arrows or land as many spells with a head encased in metal! As per the combat triangle, these helms will help you deflect those pesky bolts and arrows a little more often, but leave you very susceptible to Magic.
We know that Melee accuracy bonuses on a helm might look a little scary (unless you're familiar with the Fighter Hat!), but want to reiterate that in a meta often dominated by camping a Berserker Helm, Serpentine Helm or - for you high-rollers - a Neitiznot Faceguard, Maoma's collection has less Strength bonus, more negative bonuses for Ranged/Magic, and less defensive stats across the board.
These should slot in as 'glass-cannon' pieces, letting you land a couple more of your Whip spec misclicks than before, at the expense of defensive stats and potential max hits!
Maoma's Med Helm requires 1 Defence and 70 Strength to equip.
Maoma's Full Helm requires 40 Defence and 70 Strength to equip.
Maoma's Great Helm requires 70 Defence and 70 Strength to equip.
Koriff's Headgear
Koriff was the crowd-pleaser. Perhaps the most notorious of all, she would always be the centre of attention at the Arena. With a charming personality, she'd make sure the richer visitors had a particularly good time, pampering them with the best seats and service possible. Little did they know of her collaboration with Saika, Maoma, and the thieves they paid to pick the rich guests' pockets.
They say that fighters couldn’t help but come back for more bloodshed, even at the cost of their own life expectancy. They also say that Koriff had a direct hand in encouraging them back to the Arena, only for them to die shortly after. When crowds became tired of certain competitors, you could bet that their bodies would be carried out pierced with barely-visible crossbow bolts – and that Koriff had earned a windfall betting against them.
Koriff's Headgear is made up of 3 untradeable helms (can you see where we're going with this yet?). They'll give you some nice bonuses for Ranged and help you shrug off an extra Ice Barrage or two, but leave you susceptible to Melee attacks. Mages should also beware – trying to fire off spells in these will leave you splashing like Tempoross.
Koriff's Headband requires 1 Defence and 70 Ranged to equip.
Koriff's Cowl requires 40 Defence and 70 Ranged to equip.
Koriff's Coif requires 70 Defence and 70 Ranged to equip.
Saika's Headgear
Saika was the puppet master. She was in charge of the Arena’s economy, making sure to profit from the crowds that came to watch the fights. Her greed knew no bounds as she fudged the numbers for years - claiming the cost of running the place was so high that it barely made any profit. These sketchy numbers made their way to the Emir, and he kept shelling out to keep it going. Unfortunately for him, the funding would go straight to Saika's pocket. She would pay destitute citizens a pittance to pretend they were working, just to keep up her ruse.
Saika's Headgear is made up of - you guessed it - 3 untradeable helms. Their light, breathable fabric might help you clear your mind as you focus on casting spells and shrugging off Melee attacks. Just like Koriff's and Maoma's, if you're wearing these magical pieces then don't expect to shine with a bow or melee weapon, and expect to get hit much more often by incoming arrows and bolts!
While simple on paper, it's worth noting that Magic in Old School is probably the trickiest combat style to get right. Short of adding extreme Magic accuracy bonuses, it's difficult for Saika's Headgear to deliver on the theme of trading defences for high accuracy without leading to imbalances where spells become perhaps a little too accurate. Instead, Saika's Headgear (especially when combined with our proposed armour set) delivers what Splitbark tries to do, and offers players a chance to live out a little bit of a battlemage fantasy.
Saika's Hood requires 1 Defence and 70 Magic to equip.
Saika's Veil requires 40 Defence and 70 Magic to equip.
Saika's Shroud requires 70 Defence and 70 Magic to equip.
Calamity Armour
These headgear sets still perform best when worn with existing armour like Karil’s, Ahrim’s, Inquisitor’s or even Torva. But that’s a lot of clicking about, isn’t it? With that in mind, we’ve worked with players to repurpose the Calamity Armour as a ‘tribrid’ gear set that works with all three combat styles. No set bonuses, no special effects – just 100% natural, organic stats.
Calamity Armour is weaker defensively than your typical tank gear and has lower Ranged and Magic accuracy than Dragonhide and Robe options at the equivalent tier. The tradeoff trade-off here is one of convenience; you’ll be able to focus exclusively on swapping out the Headgear, rather than messing about switching up your whole outfit. This means you save Inventory space and extra clicks in already-intense battles, at the expense of becoming a great deal squishier than opponents wearing the current meta setups.
You'll note that we've added Melee Attack accuracy bonuses to the Calamity pieces. While the helm slot has the Fighter Hat already, armour outside of Inquisitor's hasn't typically provided Melee accuracy bonuses in the past. The reason we've opted to add it to the Calamity pieces is due to Maoma's headgear. Adding Melee accuracy bonuses to Maoma's headgear would have made it too powerful as a standalone item, so to compensate, we've shifted some of the accuracy that would have been attached to it onto the Calamity armour instead. This means that as a set, Melee users will still experience the higher accuracy and lower defence that we're aiming for, whilst preventing a single helm switch heavily increasing your chance to hit those big KOs with weapons like the AGS or Granite Maul.
The Calamity Chest and Breeches require 1 Defence, 70 Ranged, 70 Strength and 70 Magic to equip.
The Superior Calamity Chest and Breeches require 40 Defence, 70 Ranged, 70 Strength and 70 Magic to equip.
The Elite Calamity Chest and Breeches require 70 Defence, 70 Ranged, 70 Strength and 70 Magic to equip.
The Full Picture
Phew! That’s a whole lot of numbers, but what do they actually mean?
While we can’t possibly say how these rewards will perform until players are trying them out in the wild, we’ve been able to compare stats and run a whole bunch of DPS calculations against current meta setups. We reckon that our new offering will make these rewards competitive, without being best-in-slot.
Offensively, the full sets slide in somewhere between Void and the other current meta setups. Void still excels versus low-Defence targets, while the Calamity Armour and Headgear sets deal more DPS against high-Defence enemies. However, the percentage damage bonuses on Void give players significantly more max hits, which leads to greater KO potential – and as we all know, KO potential is king.
With the right helmet equipped to defend against your attacker’s combat style, the 40 Defence Calamity Set ranges from on par with to slightly better than Void. The 70 Defence set sits far below the oft-seen Barrows setups, but they’re still better than getting caught out in robes.
In cases where the proposed gear competes with or marginally outcompetes current gear, we’ve decided that it should confer a higher risk to compensate, alongside other situational drawbacks like reduced offensive or defensive bonuses.
On the topic or risk, we’d like to see these rewards be obtainable in a broken state, requiring Perdu’s repair services to make them usable in PvP. We worked with players to come up with repair costs and price points that reflect each piece’s utility. Here’s what we’ve got:
Any piece with a 1 Defence requirement has a 250,000 GP repair cost, meaning the Armour and all three helms would cost a total of 1.25 million gold to repair.
Any piece with a 40 Defence requirement has a 500,000 GP repair cost, meaning the Armour and all three helms would cost a total of 2.5 million gold to repair.
Any piece with a 70 Defence requirement has a 1 million GP repair cost, meaning the Armour and all three helms would cost a total of 5 million gold to repair.
We saw a lot of feedback, especially from players who don’t engage with PvP, that this set has the potential to be a fantastic kit for learning the ropes, letting them get competently equipped to fight back against PKers without having to figure out advanced equipment-switching tactics.
To build on that, we’ve considered making this equipment usable in any PvP-related area, so that players can seamlessly hop from killing revenants to defending themselves against other players.
We also saw widespread support for giving players a damage and accuracy bonus similar to that of the Slayer Helmet, for Wilderness PvM. We’re more than happy to offer this as a poll question, especially with the Wilderness Boss Reworks looming on the horizon!
That said, a great deal of Wilderness activity – and the associated PKing opportunities – lie beyond level 20 Wilderness. Given the high repair costs, we’d be open to letting players keep these rewards even above level 20 Wilderness. While we’d love to give players a reason to revisit the PvP Arena now and then, we don’t want every death to be punished with a massive grind, and we don’t feel like players will be happy using expensive Trouver Parchments on this particular set of gear.
(As an aside, we’re actually looking into the Trouver system as a whole. We’re aware that it feels too clunky and punishing for PvPers and the wider playerbase alike, so watch this space!)
In the event that the armour, gloves, and headgear all make it into the live game, we will of course be keeping a close eye on your feedback. We want them to be perfectly balanced, fun to use without being under- or over-powered. We really hope this new proposal delivers on the diversity we’ve promised PvP players – and hey, they look pretty stylish to boot!
Fighter's Wristwraps
Now let’s talk Wristbands of the Arena. Actually, let’s not – let’s talk Fighter’s Wristwraps.
These glove-slot items replace the Wristbands as a reward from the PvP Arena. They function as an attachment for the Culinaromancer’s various Gloves, meaning that players will need to have completed at least a little bit of Recipe for Disaster to use them.
They have a fixed value of 100,000 GP, which will be dropped to PKers in full should they claim a victim wearing them. When used on any pair of the Culinaromancer’s Gloves, the Gloves will lose all defensive bonuses and instead be granted the following stats:
+9 to Slash, Stab, Crush and Ranged Attack Bonuses
+3 to Magic Attack Bonus
For higher-levelled builds like Meds and Maxed Mains, this should serve as a slightly higher-risk alternative to standard Barrows Gloves, although the reduced defensive bonuses will leave Barrows Gloves as a great option for players engaging with an outlast scenario.
For lower and mid-levelled builds, like Pures and Zerks, the Wristwraps provide a stat boost that just might narrow the gap for those punching up against higher-bracketed builds. The downside is that you’ll take more of a beating in return – and with a little extra risk, too.
As we think about Bounty Hunter and the potential resurgence of so-called ‘Edge-Style’ PvP, these attachments will give players a way to up the ante in fights.
Here’s some images of what the most popular Culinaromancer’s Gloves' stats might look like with this attachment, next to their usual statline:
Mithril Gloves alongside their Wrapped counterpart.
Rune Gloves alongside their Wrapped counterpart.
Barrows Gloves alongside their Wrapped counterpart.
We hope the removal of the Centurion’s Cuirass and the replacement of the Wristbands of the Arena will alleviate concerns about players skipping content, while also giving prospective fighters some extra options.
Tertiary Rewards
Imbue Scrolls
Given how well Imbue Scrolls did in the previous poll, we feel it's reasonable to repoll them alongside our new offering.
Currently, Imbued (i) status is only lost on PvP death, so it’s natural for players to want to grab some for the PvP Arena. Those most likely to use their imbues will have the opportunity to reobtain them and head right back into battle.
Blighted Wave and Blighted Surge Sacks
Similarly, we’d like to give these another go alongside our newer offerings, as we reckon they perform much better in light of our improved proposals.
For those of you who missed the memo, these untradeable Sacks contain all the Runes you need to cast any given Wave or Surge spell.
On death below 20 Wilderness they’ll be protected or sent to your Gravestone upon death. Above that, they’ll be converted to 100 coins on PvP death.
Ornament Kits
A lot of you said that you liked some of the Ornament Kits we proposed, but not all of them. As such, we’ve decided to re-poll them all individually to give you all a bit more choice in the matter.
You can check them all out in detail in the previous poll blog, or, if you’re too lazy to click through (we get it, no judgements here) you can see them all below:
Dragon Claws and Elder Chaos Robes Ornament Kit items.
Heavy Ballista and Armadyl Ornament Kit items. Note: one kit is required for each piece of Armadyl gear.
Dragon Warhammer Ornament Kit. Justiciar Armour is model’s own.
Elder Maul and Bandos Ornament Kit items. Note: one kit is required for each piece of Bandos gear.
Humble Piety and Humble Chivalry
These proved unpopular among all types of voters, so we won’t be offering them as part of this proposal.
That wraps things up for today! If you like the look of these items, keep your eyes peeled for a post outlining our final poll questions next week – and don’t forget to vote!
We're also running a short survey to gather some extra feedback on these rewards and to allow us to make a couple of extra tweaks where necessary before polling. You can take part in the survey here.
Whatever the results, the PvP Arena will open its glorious gates sometime next month. We hope you’re ready for a scrap!
Unranked Group Ironman Mode | Weekly Game Update (May 26th)
We’re launching a bunch of improvements to Group Ironman Mode!
Unranked Group Ironman Mode
This week we’re following up on the promise we made in here – making Group Ironman more chill for you and your mates!
Unranked Group Ironman (or UGIM) is a sub-category of Group Ironman. It allows you to invite and accept group invitations from other UGIM and grants greater flexibility when swapping between teams.
Should you find yourself wanting to join a new group on an existing GIM account, or hoping to invite a new player to your group, you can now seamlessly convert your GIM status to ‘Unranked’.
In return for this additional flexibility, Unranked Group Ironman groups are removed from the GIM HiScores – although you’ll all appear individually on the regular ones!
Be warned: once this change is made, you will not be able to revert your account back to Ranked Group Ironman. It’s a one-way street!
So, under these new rules…
A group that invites an experienced player will:
Become an Unranked group.
Lose Prestige status (if applicable).
Lose any trade restrictions within the group.
Lose Hardcore status (if applicable).
Be removed from the Group Ironman HiScores, along with every other member of their group. Players will still be able to see their individual HiScores as if they were a main account.
If you're looking to form a new unranked group:
You'll be able to invite any type of GIM, provided they are willing to become an Unranked player.
The group will be set as Unranked from the start...
... and will not show up in the GIM HiScores. At all.
Unranked groups cannot have Prestige or Hardcore status.
If you leave an existing group, you may also choose to adopt Unranked status:
You can become Unranked via a third option found in the group leaving interface (pictured above).
This decision is non-reversible. You cannot become a Ranked Group Ironman again once you’re Unranked.
The option will remove you from the GIM HiScores. However, your progress will still be visible on the regular HiScores.
The process does NOT remove your items.
There are no trade restrictions or killcount requirements for Unranked groups.
We'll give you sufficient warnings if you're about to join an Unranked group, or if your group is about to become one. Keep an eye out for these if you decide to invite new players in!
Further Group Ironman Improvements and Addressing Player Feedback
We ran a player survey to gather your feedback on the above changes. Let’s address your main concerns:
Tradeable Untradeables
Trading untradeable items between GIM members proved to be a very popular quality of life update.
We’ve discussed how to make this happen and what potential issues could arise if we did enact this rule.
One big consideration was that allowing GIM players to trade powerful items like the Bow of Faerdhinen could make it more convenient to be a GIM than a regular player. Is that healthy for the game?
We also considered whether we could replicate this behaviour on main accounts, and how that might work. Untradeable items are not available on the Grand Exchange and we can’t display charge status in the Trade screen, so this change would make scamming much more prevalent. We’d have to undertake considerable work to fix this.
In addition, making certain items with quest requirements tradeable presents issues with the system we use to run checks on items. We’d have to rework our whole system to accommodate the change.
We also thought about the implications for PvP players. Existing untradeable items could be disproportionately strong in this framework, seriously affecting PK metas. Is that fair?
Lastly, we had to consider the potential future development costs. We’d have to carefully consider every new item in the game to decide whether it should be untradeable but tradeable for GIM, just tradeable, or just untradeable. Over time, that adds to our development hours.
We really want to improve quality of life where we can – but hopefully you can see that the team has some serious reservations about this particular change. We can’t treat it like any other QoL update – we need to put a great deal of thought and planning into making it work. We’ve tried a couple of solutions with ‘lower-value’ items already, and while we can see why this update is so desired, the potential ramifications are too much to handle just yet.
However, we may revisit this concept in the future, when we have a clearer idea of how to resolve the issues inherent in its design.
GIM HiScores
HiScores requests are naturally a lot of work, as they involve multiple teams and are often more technically complex than they seem on the surface.
However, with today’s update, Group Prestige should now be visible on the HiScores, where you’ll also be able to see if a hardcore group has run out of lives.
Prestiged groups are marked with a star on the HiScores. Losing Prestige by any means will make the star disappear.
Group KC is another popular HiScores request. Unfortunately, it’s too complicated for us to tackle right now. We’ve explored our ‘hackier’ options, and there’s just no way to do it without relying on engine work – a much bigger undertaking than it seems! Unless significant progress is made, we’ll be setting this one aside for the foreseeable.
Separate Icon for UGIM
We understand that some players would like their UGIM status to be represented with a different icon. We didn’t offer this in our original plan in case it left UGIM feeling alienated – but we can apply it retroactively, and it’s likely to happen soon. We think it’s important to ensure that GIM can show off their achievements and status appropriately.
Converting Ironmen to UGIM
You also asked us to consider allowing regular Ironmen to become Unranked Group Ironmen. We generally feel this is acceptable, because GIM is an easier approach to the Ironman experience. We’ll be working on this option in the coming weeks. Please note that this decision, when implemented, will be irreversible – we will never allow UGIM to convert to regular Ironman.
Group Boss Bash Raffle
Now, ready to win some prizes? Welcome to our first-ever Group Boss Bash!
This two-week competition is especially for Group Ironmen and begins today on May 26th. Gather your buddies, take down various bosses, and earn raffle tickets that’ll help you win awesome prizes.
Take a look at the table below to see which activities will net you those tickets, and whether they’ll apply to everyone in the group or just individual players:
[table][tr][th]Boss[/th][th]Ticket Score[/th][th]Single Player[/th][th]Ticket Award Conditions[/th][/tr][tr][td]Tempoross[/td][td]1[/td][td]N[/td][td]A successful Tempoross kill, as long as the player has achieved the Reward Permit threshold.[/td][/tr][tr][td]Wintertodt[/td][td]1[/td][td]N[/td][td]A successful Wintertodt subdue, as long as the player has achieved the minimum score to receive a Reward Crate.[/td][/tr][tr][td]Zalcano[/td][td]3[/td][td]N[/td][td]A successful Zalcano kill. Tickets go to any player who participated enough to receive loot.[/td][/tr][tr][td]Barbarian Assault[/td][td]10[/td][td]N[/td][td]Defeating the Penance Queen on wave 10. Any player who participated in the wave is eligible.[/td][/tr][tr][td]Sarachnis[/td][td]1[/td][td]Y[/td][td]A single player who receives loot.[/td][/tr][tr][td]King Black Dragon[/td][td]1[/td][td]Y[/td][td]A single player who receives loot.[/td][/tr][tr][td]Dagannoth Kings[/td][td]1[/td][td]Y[/td][td]A single player who receives loot. Includes Dagannoth Prime, Supreme and Rex.[/td][/tr][tr][td]Kalphite Queen[/td][td]2[/td][td]Y[/td][td]A single player who receives loot.[/td][/tr][tr][td]God Wars Dungeon Bosses[/td][td]5[/td][td]Y[/td][td]A single player who receives loot.[/td][/tr][tr][td]The Nightmare[/td][td]2[/td][td]N[/td][td]Any player who receives loot.[/td][/tr][tr][td]Nex[/td][td]2[/td][td]N[/td][td]Any player who receives loot.[/td][/tr][tr][td]Corporeal Beast[/td][td]5[/td][td]Y[/td][td]A single player who receives loot.[/td][/tr][tr][td]Chambers of Xeric[/td][td]Normal Mode: 10
Challenge Mode: 20[/td][td]N[/td][td]Any player who receives loot.[/td][/tr][tr][td]Theatre of Blood[/td][td]Normal: 15
Story Mode: 3
Hard Mode: 20[/td][td]N[/td][td]Any player who receives loot.[/td][/tr][/table]
These tickets have no in-game value, cannot be traded, and are only available for the duration of the raffle.
Two weeks from now we’ll randomly choose 10 lucky groups and award them with Membership! As it’s a raffle, the more points you accumulate, the more likely you are to win – so get bashing those bosses!
Signing Up for the Raffle
In order to participate, you'll need to register your group for the challenge.
Registration is very simple and happens in-game.
GIM will now see a new interface on the GIM settings menu which shows information about raffles. If you don’t feel like joining in, the ‘leave’ button will exempt your group from the draw and prevent them from joining it again.
Please note that we’ll need to temporarily disable certain group features, such as leaving a group and changing the group name, during the raffle. If you want to re-enable these features, you’ll need to leave early!
Additionally, you may only register for this raffle once per group, so make sure that the team you register is the one you intend to stick with!
Prizes
You'll accumulate points on your account that are visible from your UI. After the 2-week raffle, we'll pick 10 winning groups!
Each individual in the group will be granted one year of membership, and one of these lucky groups will be granted lifetime membership for all their members!
We'll contact winners in-game to arrange prize giving and ensure the membership they've won is applied to their desired account. Unless otherwise specified by the winners, we’ll apply the membership to the account used to register in the raffle.
A summary of the Group Boss Bash Terms and Conditions can be found here.
The full Group Boss Bash Terms and Conditions can be found here.
Guardians of the Rift Improvements
We’ve heard some of you say that the most frustrating element of Guardians of the Rift is getting into the minigame! Obviously we don’t want that to be the case, so with today’s game update we’re increasing the player cap per game to 200. The Great Guardian’s HP will scale appropriately.
We’ve also allowed players to lock their game and prevent other players from entering mid-way through the fight: perfect for small groups who want to play together! If that sounds like your thing, have a word with Tamara to sort it out. After you’ve enabled this option once, you’ll be able to use a right-click quick option to do it faster.
Here’s how locking works:
Locking prevents players from entering during Phase 1.
Locking cannot be done on GoTR themed worlds.
The game can be unlocked by talking to Tamara again.
Your locked status is not remembered from game-to-game. You need to speak to Tamara to reactivate it again.
The endgame will now be delayed when the Great Guardian reaches 100% power. He is unable to take damage during this time. This change allows players to access altars and hand in their Guardian Stones before the game ends.In other news, multiple Guardians can now be made from one pile at the same time! Their creation time has also been reduced, so it’s much easier to get those Guardians going. We want to incentivise this mechanic and prevent players from feeling like they’re wasting their time waiting for Guardians to be created.
Finally, barriers now display their HP bars at all times, unless they’re at full HP. The HP bars are now half the size, and the ‘Inspect’ option has been removed.
Other Changes
Minor tweaks to the GIM Tutor’s dialogue:
Removed the ‘Leave’ option from the Tutor. It is now accessed exclusively through the interface.
Removed all other functions that were duplicated on both the Tutor and the interface.
Other Changes
Corrected typo in description of Group Storage chests.
The Player Owned House Costume Room can now accepted the locked (l) version of the Shattered Relics Void Equipment.
Added an option to the Settings menu to enable entering and exiting Full Screen Mode more conveniently.
The Fremennik Elite reward teleport from Lunar Isle back to Relekka is now significantly faster.
The special attack animation of Arclight & Darklight no longer disrupts player movement so badly.
The Player-Owned House Costume Room can now accept the (l) [locked] version of the Shattered Relics ornamented Void equipment.
Players at the start of the Ratcatchers quest can once again obtain kittens from Gertrude.
Steam Changes
Full screen mode is now implemented!
Android Open Beta Changes
One tap login should now work as expected
iOS TestFlight Beta Changes
Using special characters on the keyboard should no longer open side panels
Text will no longer be added to the chat box when using the arrow keys on an external keyboard
Game Center logins should now work as expected
Holding backspace will now work as expected when using an external keyboard
Pulling down the notifications bar will no longer pause all application activity
Soft keyboard will now respect the colour theme selected for the device
Improved floating keyboard support for iPads
Steam and Mobile Beta Changes
Overhead text in quests will now display in the correct location
Clan side panel will now order members alphabetically
If you haven't been living under a rock crab for the past year or so, you'll know all about our plans to upgrade the existing client towards a newer, shinier C++ version! We've already released the new client on Steam and various mobile betas for iOS and Android devices. It's been a whirl of a time so far!
We're really pleased with the progress we've made and the feedback we've received from you all, too. Along with allowing us to deliver more features that we know you want in-game, the C++ Client offers players superior memory capacity, improving FPS rates and stability on mobile. Of course, device capabilities can vary, but the initial feedback on this area from our mobile playtesters sounds promising!
New features that we've already brought to mobile through various betas include:
Buff Bars
XP Trackers
Fishing Spot Indicators
HUD Improvements (NPC Information and Combat Styles)
Agility and Slayer Helpers
Chambers of Xeric Helper
Woodcutting and Ore Respawn Timers
Increased Draw Distance
Navigation Tile Indicators
Chat Improvements
Entity Highlights for NPCs
Back in June we spoke about our client milestones. Behind the scenes, our focus so far has been all about working with our wonderful playtesters to perfect the existing features and squash any bugs. We've gathered valuable feedback from the betas about what future features mean the most to players, and this has helped inform our plans. You can expect some updated milestones next month.
However, today we'd like to talk to you about the Mobile User Interface (UI). A game's UI is always important, but it's even more critical on mobile because of the tight space you are working with. The majority of our playtesters told us that they want to see more features in the new client, too, and the UI presents a good opportunity for this.
As work increases on the C++ Client on mobile, we've realised that the mobile UI needs to receive some tweaks to free up space for new features, but without feeling cluttered or clunky.
Our mobile UI proposals aim to:
Improve common gameplay loops.
Improve tidiness and balance,
Create space for new features (such as popout panels).
Keep everything familiar enough for existing players who are comfortable with the current UI.
As always though, we need your feedback, so let's get into it!
Survey Results
Here are some of our findings from both the iOS and Android Betas:
Players' biggest frustrations concerned issues with mobile UI, the XP Tracker and several small bugs, such as issues remembering passwords or authentication details.
The most requested feature was for Ground Items & Loot Trackers. This is important for mobile users especially because it is harder to see what's dropped on the ground while playing.
When asked what the worst aspect of the client is, most players said they want more features than the client currently offers.
We already have a broad idea of the sorts of features you're after, and have data to back this up!
Android
iOS
Many of our mobile playtesters expressed a preference for 'afk' training activities on mobile due to various reasons:
Alching - on mobile, the spellbook is on the other side of the screen from the Inventory.
Fishing - for spots with multiple options, a long-press is required.
Safespotting - it's easy to mis-tap and stride into danger.
PvM - Positioning yourself under/behind an NPC can require a long-press
We want the mobile experience to be just as good as the desktop one, so here's what we're planning to introduce.
Proposed Mobile UI Changes
A picture is always worth a thousand words, right?
Currently, the mobile interface looks like this:
And here's what it could look like:
What's changed?
There are a lot of smaller changes unpack here, so let us explain.
Additional Space
Chat buttons have been moved to the left-hand side of the screen in a scrollable list, showing more of your chat vertically at once! Moving these buttons away from the top of your screen cleans up the layout somewhat.
We've moved all the side panels to the right. Panels that are integral to moment-to-moment gameplay are shown first, and panels that are more informational can be shown or hidden with the new 'Expand' button.
The chat options have moved from the top to the left-hand side, and are now in a vertically-scrollable bar.
Minimising the minimap is now easier.
The 'Logout' stone has been moved to the left-hand side of the screen for better world hopping access.
Better Usability
Buttons have been made taller so they're easier to tap.
Every button on the left is the same width as the chat buttons.
The Chat Box has been made slightly taller to utilise the new vertical space.
The new Popout Panel has been changed from a side-bar to a button in the bottom-left.
The 'Minimised Minimap' has been rearranged to resemble the order of elements on the standard minimap (i.e. the order of the globes from top-to-bottom).
Condensed Minimap
Popout Menu
Side Panels
The side panels on the left have been moved, and the right-hand side now has two columns of stones (a 'main' and 'secondary' column). The latter will be hidden by default and can be revealed by pressing the new 'Expand' stone (which moves the 'main' column and side panel slightly to the left).
The main reasons for this are:
It allows us to add new features much more easily.
The Magic and the Inventory tab will now be placed on the same side of the screen, benefitting activities like Alching or Superheating.
Popout Panel
The popout panel is behind a button in the bottom-left. Tapping this expands it, covering up anything behind it.
The current page in the popout panel can be collapsed.
The popout panel button is a three-state toggle: 'minimised', 'full', and 'small'. The latter offers a non-obstructive and easy way to keep track of your XP/hour or loot tracking (in the future).
Function Button
The Function Button has been removed and replaced with a 'controls' element - this is probably the most noticeable change.
This button is essentially a dropdown that offers more control flexibility of controls and quick access. We think this will improve mobile gaming in some combat encounters and allow for higher efficiency training methods.
From top-to-bottom, the toggles are:
Enable 'walk-here' taps
Enable interaction taps
Enable tile-highlight taps
Enable tap-to-drop
More quick-settings could be added to this menu in the future, such as a metronome toggle, or a toggle to show/hide ground items.
The open-keyboard and single-tap-mode functionality of the function button have been removed because data shows they are rarely used. plus, the new long-press time setting reduces the desire for a single-tap mode.
And that's your lot! So, what do you think?
Feedback Survey & Next Steps
If you have further questions or are unclear about any of the changes listed above, don't worry! We'll be answering your questions and responding to your feedback on our next Twitch livestream on the 26th May!
We've created a survey for you to fill out on some of the possible changes listed here. Please let us know what you think and ensure you fill out this survey to let us know if we're on the right track!
Poll 76 Improvements | Weekly Game Update (May 18th)
Today's game update will take the game offline for approximately 30 minutes as maintenance is performed. We're aiming to have the game resume as normal from 12:00 pm BST.
Thank you for your patience.
This week, we’ve got more changes from Poll 76 and a BIG Kickstarter update!
Poll 76 Improvements
The next batch of Poll 76 improvements arrive in-game this week!
We’re kicking things off with hellhounds, who now drop Ensouled Hellhound Heads. They’re worth 1,200 Prayer XP each and slot neatly into the Expert tier of Reanimation. Any reanimated Hellhounds you kill will work for both Slayer Tasks and the Soul Bearer. Fun fact! Since Cerberus is technically a hellhound, she can drop these too.
Smithing and jewellery Crafting interfaces now remember the last item you crafted and outline it with a shiny highlight! As long as you have the right materials in your Backpack, you can press the Space Bar to craft it again! If you don’t have the necessary items, you’ll be unable to craft using the Space Key and the highlight will be removed.
Next up, a Fairy Ring has sprouted in the north of the Isle of Souls. We’ll let you figure out the code.
Speaking of Soul Wars, it’s now playable on every world, and we’ve made some changes to bring XP rates in line with what we promised in the original poll:
Attack, Defence, Strength and HP are now 30 XP per token (up from 24 XP)
Ranged and Magic are now 27 XP per token (up from 22 XP)
Prayer is now 14 XP per token (up from 12 XP)
We’ve also added a ‘Buy X’ option to the Other tab in the Soul Wars Reward Shop.
Lastly, NPCs in the Fight Caves are now visible at further distances. Good news for Fire Cape hunters!
Steam and Mobile Client Fixes
Next up on the improvement train are a bundle of client fixes for mobile and Steam, which we’ve summarised below:
Key: O : Fixed | X : Not Fixed | - : Issue Not Present
[table][tr][th]Issue[/th][th]Steam[/th][th]Android[/th][th]iOS[/th][/tr][tr][td]The Orb of Oculus now displays correctly. The darkness has been lifted![/td][td]O[/td][td]-[/td][td]-[/td][/tr][tr][td]The Multiway Combat icon no longer overlaps with the collapsed Minimap.[/td][td]-[/td][td]O[/td][td]O[/td][/tr][tr][td]Entity Highlights now work correctly in the Tears of Guthix minigame. [/td][td]O[/td][td]O[/td][td]O[/td][/tr][tr][td]The player can no longer interact with the Minimap through the XP tracker.[/td][td]-[/td][td]O[/td][td]O[/td][/tr][tr][td]Cleared private chat history will now remain cleared when logging back in.[/td][td]O[/td][td]O[/td][td]O[/td][/tr][tr][td]Fairy Rings are now highlighted by Entity Highlights.[/td][td]O[/td][td]O[/td][td]O[/td][/tr][tr][td]Agility Highlights now appear correctly when returning from a Random Event.[/td][td]O[/td][td]-[/td][td]-[/td][/tr][tr][td]Fixed Entity Highlights for player-grown Mahogany Trees.[/td][td]O[/td][td]O[/td][td]O[/td][/tr][tr][td]The HP Regen indicator now correctly updates when running out of Prayer Points with Rapid Heal on.[/td][td]O[/td][td]O[/td][td]O[/td][/tr][tr][td]Long Tap Delay settings now update visually after setting the new value.[/td][td]-[/td][td]O[/td][td]O[/td][/tr][tr][td]Unused interfaces are no longer visible while on Target Worlds.[/td][td]O[/td][td]O[/td][td]O[/td][/tr][/table]
Other Changes
Trouver Parchment Changes
First up we have changes to the Trouver Parchment. This can now be used on the Leagues III version of the Void Knight Equipment, Dragon Defenders (t) and Rune Defenders (t).
In terms of its behaviour:
If the item is locked (l), upon PvP death the PKer will receive the value of the Trouver Parchment and the Ornament Kit and the regular version of the item will be returned to the owner. This occurs at all levels of the Wilderness.
If the item is not locked, upon PvP death the PKer will receive gold equivalent to the value of the item (minus the value of the Ornament Kit) and the Ornament Kit. At Wilderness levels below 20, the owner will receive a broken version of their original item. At Wilderness levels above 20, the owner will receive nothing.
Smaller Changes
Roofs on the tents of Shayzien Infirmary are now automatically hidden. We’ve also removed some environmental objects from around the tents to make moving between them easier.
Fixed an issue that occurred when teleporting with items in the Drag State.
Items no longer drag or drift in the Inventory when preselecting an item and moving it.
Prayer Books with a Leagues III Ornament Kit will now appear with that model when preaching with them.
The Bigger and Badder Slayer reward unlock no longer appears as a Pie on the Reward interface.
Charged Pharaoh’s Sceptres are now a bit brighter.
Diango no longer has a buy limit on Chronicle Cards. Go wild!
Tempoross Fishing Spots no longer have holes in their clickbox. How else can we keep the fish in?
Participants in Guardians of the Rift are asked not to cast Alchemy spells. You've got a universe to save, mate!
RuneScape Kingdoms: Shadow of Elvarg
We’re back with our weekly update on Steamforged Games’ quest to bring Gielinor to your tabletop with RuneScape Kingdoms: Shadow of Elvarg.
Today, it’s the moment you’ve been waiting for – we can finally reveal exactly what’s included in Steamforged’s Kickstarter!
Launching May 31st, this Kickstarter is your chance to support Steamforged Games and get your hands on loads of exclusive extras. But remember – it’ll only stay live for 10 days, so give it a follow and don’t miss your chance!
As usual, there are multiple pledge levels to choose from. For full details and pricing, keep your eyes on Steamforged’s blog going live later today. For now though, let’s go over the basics!
Core Pledge
The Core Pledge includes RuneScape Kingdoms: Shadow of Elvarg and the Kickstarter-exclusive Culinaromancer Expansion!
This 15-hour replayable campaign comes with 16 detailed minis, including the Noob NPC and the Culinaromancer himself, plus over 400 new cards.
On top of that, you’ll also get all the Kickstarter-exclusive cards unlocked through backer votes during the Kickstarter.
Gameplay All-In Pledge
If you want all the gameplay content from the Kickstarter campaign, then this is the pledge for you! It includes the core RuneScape Kingdoms box and all four expansions, each themed around a unique boss. It’s a replayable 24-hour fantasy adventure packed into one great-value pledge – and you’ll get all the Kickstarter-exclusive content, too!
Yes, that includes the sneak-peek King Black Dragon and TzKal-Zuk minis in the image above, plus additional minis including the Wise Old Man and other iconic NPCs.
Deluxe All-in Pledge (Kickstarter Exclusive)
Don’t wanna miss a thing? Then the Deluxe All-in Pledge will be right up your alley. It’s packed with all the gameplay content so far and all the Deluxe upgrades – so as well as your regular components, you’ll receive a neoprene game mat, four neoprene boss mats, wooden tokens, metal coins, and a set of special-edition dice, all of which are Kickstarter Exclusive. Don’t miss out!
Now, while you’re thinking about which pledge to pick, let’s take a look at this week’s mini reveals!
Mini Reveals: Delrith, Dragon Knight and Capes
The second campaign, ‘Demon Slayer’ will bring you face-to-face with Delrith!
This dastardly demon nearly brought Varrock to ruin before he was slain by a brave hero. Now history is repeating itself, as the Dark Wizards outside of Varrock attempt to raise Delrith to wreak havoc anew!
Your band of brave adventurers will need to seek out Silverlight, the legendary sword said to have brought Delrith’s reign of terror to an end the first time. Can you stop the dark ritual before Delrith is unleashed?
If so, you may well find yourself accomplished enough to don some swanky new duds. Yes, that’s right – every player avatar has an upgraded version to represent your progress in the game. For example, when the knight reaches a high enough level they’ll gain a full set of Dragon Armour, new weaponry, and a hard-earned Fire Cape.
Now, some of you may be wondering why this lot are wandering around in endgame gear when they haven’t even made it out of Misthalin – and that’s a fair question! Because RuneScape Kingdoms: Shadow of Elvarg focuses on iconic, early-game quests, it’d take quite a while to reach the level required to wear these awesome items in-game! It didn’t seem fair to make you wait all that time to use your badass high-level adventurer minis, so we’re giving them to you much earlier. So go on, get out there and live your best Dragon life!
For more details on the game, check out Steamforged’s weekly blogs. This week they’re taking a look at quests: how you get them, how you play them, and most importantly, how you complete them!
You might also have spotted Mods Sarnie and Light playing through a digital demo of the game with our friends from Steamforged on Tuesday’s stream! If you missed it, you can catch up on Twitch right now and will be available on YouTube later today.
Lastly, make sure to join the RuneScape Kingdoms Facebook Group. You’ll be among the first to see new cards and minis – plus, you’ll get all the latest news from the blog and have a direct line to chat with the developers about the game. Well worth the risk of stumbling upon Grandma’s minion memes.
Since the release of Group Ironman last year, we've seen hundreds of thousands of players take on the challenge of playing alone, together! You've teamed up, taken on some menacing foes and shared your resources to progress your accounts to new heights in Old School's latest game mode!
What a blast it's been so far. You should all pat yourselves on the back for the hard work you've put in!
Earlier this year, we introduced some further Group Ironman improvements. Post-launch changes included our group storage expansion overhaul, teleport shards, tweaks to the existing Player Owned Housing system and more!
Some of you might also remember that we floated the idea of untradeable item trading between group members. Our aim was to increase the mode's accessibility for teams with less available playtime. However, we've been unable to get a clear consensus on the idea, and based on feedback we've decided not to take it forward.
In the meantime, following a quick health check on the Group Iron experience, we've been cooking up ways we can offer groups more autonomy in how they want to play the game - whether this is at a hardcore level, or just casually with friends.
A common frustration we've seen from players since launch concerns the lack of flexibility when forming and swapping groups. Dedicated groups might experience burnout, resulting in one or two members becoming inactive over time, which can eventually cause them to disband.
Whatever the reason for this - we understand. You might decide that playing as a group isn't for you, real-life may choose to interfere or, frankly, you might just be sick of your team (we've been there!).
Either way, if one or two members of a group become inactive, the current system presents existing members with a rather difficult choice:
Continue the journey as a group, competing on the HiScores without the much needed assistance of inactive team members.
OR
Kick the inactive members. If your group is struggling, you will be able to invite a new member, but they must start a brand new GIM account, and you face the loss of prestige status.
There is currently no available option to join a different GIM team. or invite an existing GIM into your team. If you would like to continue playing on a GIM account with no group, you'll need to make a new one which only new accounts can join, or become a regular account.
At launch you expressed (valid) concerns about the system because of these restrictions. It's important to remember that the system was intentionally designed this way because it protects against the potential for boosting services. We were especially cautious about this during the design phase as this all affects HiScores and, in turn, game mode integrity.
However, change is needed because we recognise that the current system is not sustainable for many groups - especially those who just want to play Group Ironman with their friends. There is a valid need for existing GIM players to change groups, or existing GIM groups to fill their spot with someone more suitable.
So, what's changing?
We'd like to propose an alteration to the existing rule structure. We'll allow existing GIM accounts to group up. In exchange, the group would be classed as 'Unranked', meaning it would be no longer tracked on the Group Ironman HiScores.
Introducing... Unranked Group Ironman!
Unranked Group Ironman
Unranked Group Ironman is a sub-category of Group Ironman, and would allow players to invite and accept group invitations from other unranked GIM.
Should you find yourself wanting to join a new group on an existing GIM account, or to invite a new member to your group, you'll be able to seamlessly convert your GIM status to 'Unranked', allowing you to invite and accept invitations from other unranked GIM, solving the issue described above. Voila!
In return for the additional flexibility that UGIM offers, the group is removed from the GIM HiScores, freeing you from the shackles of competing with other groups! But please note: once this change is made, you will not be able to revert your status back to 'Ranked'. It's a one way street!
Under the new unranked GIM rules:
A group that invites an experienced player will:
Become an unranked group.
Lose prestige status (if applicable).
This will remove any trade restrictions within their group.
Lose hardcore status (if applicable).
Be removed from the Group Ironman Hiscores (and every member is removed too). Players will still be able to see their individual HiScores as if they were a main account - they just won't display any changes within their group.
If you're looking to form a new unranked group:
You'll be able to invite any type of GIM, provided they are willing to become an unranked player.
The group will be set as unranked from the start...
... and it will not show up at the GIM HiScores. At all.
Unranked groups cannot be prestige or hardcore.
If you leave an existing group, you may also choose to convert your status to an 'Unranked GIM':
You can do this via a third option available upon leaving the group, in the interface (pictured above) where currently we offer the choice between remaining a GIM and downgrading to a main account.
The option converts your status to an unranked GIM. This is non-reversible. You cannot revert your status back to ranked once you've become unranked.
The option will remove you on the GIM HiScores. However, your progress will still be visible on the regular HiScores.
The process does NOT remove your items.
There will be no trade restrictions or KC requirements for unranked groups.
Rest assured, we'll give you sufficient warnings if you're about to join an unranked group, or if your group is about to become one. Keep an eye out for these if you decide to invite players!
We're looking forward to hearing what you think about this change - we'd like to introduce it on May 25th, so please provide feedback swiftly if any further changes are needed!
Group Ironman Boss Bash
In order for the Group Ironman mode to shine, we want to promote group activities as they help to facilitate teamwork and group play - that's the essence of what being a Group Ironman is!
The upcoming changes should help to create a nicer environment for some groups because it allows existing GIM to continue their journey no matter what their team members decide to do. We also think we should provide additional incentives for people to play as a group. We'd like to explore ways of making group content a bit more worthwhile, especially if you're looking for a good excuse to play with your friends!
Although you're able to enjoy the game as its own standalone single player experience, you've also made the potential for new group activities very clear to us, and recent group content has been well received. However, we also want to give you good reason to revisit older game content.
We think it's time to get creative!
We've created a small-scale raffle for various Group Ironmen to band together and take on some formidable foes!
The raffle will see players earn points over two weeks for taking on various bosses in the game! This raffle is exclusive to Group Ironmen, but is available to all and any types of groups - unranked, ranked and hardcore.
Since this is a brand new idea, we'd like to keep this raffle exclusive to GIM-only for the time being. However we are very open to the idea of holding these small-scale raffles for other types of accounts if this is something you would like to see!
How does it work?
Points are awarded during a 2-week period for killing various bosses in-game (see table below). These points would hold noin-game value, cannot be traded, and would only be available for the duration of the raffle. We think this could provide a fun reason to log in with your friends, encouraging your buddies to take down some bosses with you!
At the end of the 2-week period, we'll randomly pick 10 lucky groups and award them with membership! We'll choose these randomly because we don't want players feeling pressured to be online 24/7. However, groups will see an increased chance of winning the more points they have accumulated!
The below table shows how many points can be won by participating in various group activities, as well as whether they will be awarded to a single player or the whole group:
[table][tr][td]Boss[/td][td]Ticket Score[/td][td]Single Player[/td][td]Ticket Award Conditions[/td][/tr][tr][td]Tempoross[/td][td]1[/td][td]N[/td][td]A successful Tempoross kill, as long as the player has achieved the minimum score to receive a reward permit.[/td][/tr][tr][td]Wintertodt[/td][td]1[/td][td]N[/td][td]A successful Wintertodt subdue, as long as the player has achieved the minimum score to receive a reward crate.[/td][/tr][tr][td]Zalcano[/td][td]3[/td][td]N[/td][td]A successful Zalcano kill to any player who participated enough to receive loot from her.[/td][/tr][tr][td]Barbarian Assault[/td][td]10[/td][td]N[/td][td]Defeating the penance queen on wave 10. Any player who participated in the wave in eligible.[/td][/tr][tr][td]Sarachnis[/td][td]1[/td][td]Y[/td][td]A single player who received loot.[/td][/tr][tr][td]King Black Dragon[/td][td]1[/td][td]Y[/td][td]A single player who received loot. [/td][/tr][tr][td]Dagannoth Kings[/td][td]1[/td][td]Y[/td][td]A single player who received loot. Includes Dagannoth Prime, Supreme and Rex[/td][/tr][tr][td]Kalphite Queen[/td][td]2[/td][td]Y[/td][td]A single player who received loot. [/td][/tr][tr][td]Godwars Bosses[/td][td]5[/td][td]Y[/td][td]A single player who received loot. [/td][/tr][tr][td]The Nightmare[/td][td]2[/td][td]N[/td][td]Any player who received loot. [/td][/tr][tr][td]Nex[/td][td]2[/td][td]N[/td][td]Any player who receives loot. [/td][/tr][tr][td]Corporeal Beast[/td][td]5[/td][td]Y[/td][td]A single player who received loot. [/td][/tr][tr][td]Chambers of Xeric[/td][td]Normal Mode - 10Challenge Mode - 20[/td][td]N[/td][td]Any player who received loot.[/td][/tr][tr][td]Theatre of Blood[/td][td]Normal - 15Story Mode - 3Hard Mode M - 20[/td][td]N[/td][td]Any player who received loot. [/td][/tr][/table]
When would this happen?
We'd love to kick this raffle off on May 25th to keep the GIM hype going! We're also happy to discuss any questions or feedback you might have about this on our Twitch livestream on Friday, May 13th.
Signing Up for the Raffle
In order to participate, you'll need to register your group for the challenge.
Registration is very simple and happens in-game. There will be a button on the GIM Settings Menu where you can click to sign-up, so no need to visit any web links. Simply click the button and get to slaying!
When you've signed up, please note that we'll need to temporarily disable some group features during the raffle, such as leaving a group and changing the group name. You may opt to leave the raffle early if you wish to re-enable these features!
Additionally, you may only register for this raffle once per account, so make sure that the team you register with is the one you intend to stick with!
Feedback Survey
We've created a short Feedback Survey to collect your feedback - please do take the time to let us know what you think! We promise it won't take long and it will be really helpful to understand if you find these types of projects valuable.
Prizes
You'll accumulate points on your account that are visible from your UI. After the 2-week raffle, we'll pick 10 winning groups!
Each individual in the group will be granted one year of membership, and one of these lucky groups will be granted lifetime membership for all of their members!
We'll contact winners in-game to arrange prize giving and to ensure they the membership they've won is applied to their desired account. If we can't reach you in a good amount of time, we'll apply membership on the account used to register in the raffle.
And that's everything! Please let us know what you think!
To summarise:
We would like the GIM rule changes to come into effect on May 25th pending your feedback.
We would like to run the GIM-exclusive raffle on May 25th for a duration of 2-weeks, pending your feedback.
For now this raffle is exclusive to GIM but we are open to doing this for other types of accounts in the future.
We are starting this with GIM is because we want to trial the idea first to see what you think.
Feedback and questions will be addressed on our Twitch livestream Q&A on Friday, May 13th. If you can take the time to fill out this survey, we would really appreciate it and we'll be gathering questions based on your feedback and responses!
If required, we'll also be updating this blog following your feedback. Please let us know swiftly if any changes are needed!
Terms and Conditions
A Summary of the Group Boss Bash Terms & Conditions can be found here.
The full Group Boss Bash Terms & Conditions can be found here.
