Old School Runescape Dev Tracker

The poll will close on Wednesday 24th

It'll be later this afternoon (UK time)

It'd be released only when it's ready. We said we'd do multiple betas if we need to. I'd argue that getting a skill right is far more important than any other new piece of content, and it shouldn't be (and wouldn't be) rushed.

Apology accepted and sorry if I assumed your position incorrectly before. You must have little faith in us as a development team, otherwise you wouldn’t claim that our handling of this and previous skill pitches was “dropping the ball”. You’re right, we’re not perfect, but no one is.

This isn’t a complete shot in the dark though, as you claim. We’ve had a back and forth with the community over the past couple of months, changing elements as we get feedback. Claiming we haven’t done that is disingenuous.

You keep claiming to know the support numbers for Warding even though we’ve not polled it yet but refute that you are. I don’t know how to respond to that, as the argument “you’ve not done a good enough job pitching the skill” only works if the skill fails its poll. It might, but until then we won’t know whether or not we’ve done a bad job.

Ultimately, I’m sorry you’re not a fan of the proposed skill.

I’ve seen the arguments that Warding could easily be shared among other skills and that it doesn’t stand alone well enough. Personally I disagree with the idea, which you’ve pointed out is odd as I also believe something similar could be done with Sailing. That’s because I believe sailing functions more like a minigame and not a skill, while Warding I feel shares more similarities with other skills than a minigame. That’s what I was trying to get at, I’m sorry for not being clearer.

I didn’t say I’ve spent a lot of time, I said I’d put in as much effort. You said time and you assumed it was loads but to know that you’d need to know the amount of time - I’m sorry if I offended you. Honestly, a fair amount of the work I did at home in my spare time. I’m very lucky that I got to turn my hobby into my job, but it does mean I get to do a lot of work at home. The wider team have also put time into, of course, but we’re certainly not walking away from this with nothing if it fails...

That would’ve been great! But sailing failed its poll.

You speak of acting maturely yet you started your post with an insult. I welcome all criticism and read through it all - I want this to have the best chance it can and that’s only possible by listening to the community.

You may say that a lot of players don’t want the skill, yourself I presume are within that group (sorry if I’m misjudging you), and that if we were to have truly listened, we would have dropped it already and moved on without polling. When have we ever done that? How is that fair to those who do want it?

I’m not saying the skill is flawless, otherwise it would have unanimous support and that I don’t believe is possible. Hell, people even voted no to the world map update - what possible reason could someone say no to that? I’m genuinely curious!

Regardless, you’ve already come to the assumption that it will fail the poll, which is fair enough. I personally can’t predict the future but I certainly won’t blame anyone if it fails, like you’re ac...

Warding isn’t a minigame. But you’re correct, skills could be condensed somewhat. Smithing is basically crafting, as is fletching. Runecraft is basically magic with extra steps. Attack and strength? That could be a single skill, much like ranged and magic are etc.

Claiming that you are the community and that it’s not filled with a wide range of opinions just harms your argument. Let the (super-majority) democratic process play out and then feel smug if you were right or annoyed if you were wrong, as is the way.

Also, you’ve no idea how much time has gone into Warding and claiming you do is kinda strange, especially to the guy who knows exactly what has gone into it.

Progression could be based on your ship and upgrading it would require blueprints found about the various islands that could be navigated to. Personally, I think making it a skill limits it more as it’s very vague on what would exactly give XP. Would it be like agility where you do laps of the sea or would it be from making the boats? Big chunks from discovering islands, like dungeoneering? That always felt a little strange to me.

It wouldn’t be like player owned ports, but I did quite enjoy that. But then OSRS came out so I never truly got that far into it.

That’s the crux of the problem though :( when Sailing is mentioned, thoughts of windwaker and black flag come to mind, but OSRS will never replicate the fluidity and control those games do. Although I do agree the focus of it should be exploration which is why making the ship should be done with existing skills.

Then there’s making it work with the other parts of the game and explaining why charter ships exist... or when getting hold of a ship for dragon slayer may seem a little confusing if you’re already a renowned swashbuckling Corsair of the Gielinorian seas.

I would’ve put just as much effort into Sailing as I have done for Warding if I was there at the time. I would’ve even worked on a second sailing pitch, but players seem a bit annoyed when we try forcing things through the polls, which re-polling often feels like. Hell, we’re being accused of forcing Warding and we’ve yet to poll it :/

Once Warding is done (pass or fail) I’ll reconsider the re-pitching of sailing, but I’m very against the concept of it being a skill and would much rather it be added as a minigame. Also, worth mentioning, but as an artist I’m genuinely scared of Sailing... have you seen the water texture? The games render distance is also incredibly small and until our own client can improve that, I can’t see sailing looking as good as people would expect it to.

Also, as a minigame, it could lean quite heavily on existing production skills (Crafting, construction & smithing) making them a little more useful and worth training up.

The person coding it was probably bored.

Edit: Ash confirmed that it was indeed because he was bored.

Thanks for your insight! That certainly seems like a fair evaluation of the situation - back in the day there weren’t nearly as many purple assets and even fewer purple environments. Perhaps that’s why we gravitate towards the colour as it’s instantly unique due to its underuse in game.

The main reason I chose purple for Warding was because it’s a colour used often in magic (ancient magiks, various spells, enchanted robes etc) and is also the only colour currently not used on the skills tab.

Literally intentional.

Aren’t they red and black? Similar colour scheme to the tents of the imperial guard in burthorpe but with more red. I don’t personally see many issues with Shayzien, but it’s mentioned quite often so I’ll probably work on a rework of it, much how I did with Hosidius.

We have been more vibrant lately with some of the assets although I’m personally trying to tone my work down to be more desaturated and less intense. We have limitations though, as our colour space is quite restricted :(

Thanks for your feedback though :) it all helps!