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Desperate Measures
(Quest) - July 27th
Digging deeper into Gielinor's past, teaming up with some of Runescape's best known heroes, giving you chance to explore the secrets of the Dragonkin on Anachronia for some sweet rewards.
Requirements
- Desperate Times, Anachronia Base Camp tutorial
- 50 Agility, 50 Archaeology.
- ~75 in Combat.
Focus
- It continues along the story line of Desperate Times with you teaming up alongside Thok and Charos once more.
- Ties in with Archaeology allowing you to learn some historical and recent lore.
- Rewards: Enrichments to Archaeology.
Other
- Development began around March, however initial designs which since changed began way back.
- There will be more streams in the future to give insight on the development.
- Satisfying ending leaving you with questions with more to come as it leads into other content related to the elder gods.
Update Schedule Format
This is just a plan/goal which means it isn't a 100% guarantee.
Current Plan: Monthly release cadence.
- A more frequent/tighter cadence allows us to manage predictability better.
- Weekly updates will still occur.
Implementation
- Minimum guarantee of content every month.
- Mixture of Update sizes - Start off small and then pepper in medium/larger pieces of content.
- Cater to all the different player groups: Area, Bossing, Skilling, Questing.
- Themed months.
Roadmap
- Roadmap constantly changes behind the scenes and I don't think I can keep it in a spot you'd feel happy with.
- There won't be a roadmap of what we are doing every single month.
- When we are far enough along we will be comfortable with mentioning it to bring momentum to the update.
- Things are usually 3-4 weeks out when we start teasing it.
Notes
- We are not in a position to make Archaeology level content, it isn't feasible.
- Within each team focus on building a monthly cadence while having multiple teams working in parallel.
- Timbo and Osborne have been pumping out design briefs.
- We are very committed to the lore narrative of the game and will be addressing it more in our plans.
- We won't be at our peak questing time period.
- In the past we were reactive. But there are exciting times in the future with ambitious pieces in the next year.
Future Updates
| Update | Dev Stage | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Beach | July 20th | New outfits/pets. New and returning activities including Clawdia. |
| Desperate Measures | July 27th | See above. |
| Mystery Anniversary Update | September | 12th year anniversary of a piece of content. |
| Alchemical Onyx Content | Development | New piece of content following the success of Alchemical Onyx. |
| GWD3 | Development | A team is working on it. |
| Activity Pets | Creation | 2 pets are done, 2 are receiving final touches. Still on the backburner for now. |
| Orthen Dig site | Design | Similar to other dig sites but with innovation on features. |
| Halloween Event | Design | Looking back at past successful events to form this one. |
| Christmas | Design | Looking to do more. |
| Lunar Spellbook | Ninja/Feedback | Working on recreating it. Suggest what spells you'd like to see in the Ninja Dojo. |
| Clue Scrolls | Ninja/Feedback | Suggest improvements in the Ninja Dojo. |
| Clan Updates | Ninja/Feedback | Top of our mind, let us know what we should focus on. |
| Quest | TBD | Possibly another quest by the end of the year. |
Expanded Notes
- Beach Newspost on Friday
- GWD3 will receive more heat once the monthly cadence is in progress.
- You'll hear about Activity pets in future livestreams when they are ready.
- There are discussions around skill training methods, Osborne has been doing a lot of work and looking where to focus on it.
Ninja Team
Current Focus: PAG Strike, Lunar Spellbook, Clue Scrolls, Clan Updates.
- Let us know what major themes of updates we should focus on.
- Currently produce 2 strikes a month.
Dig site - Orthen
- Dig site of Anachronia, Dragonkin, Elder gods and ties in core elements of our storyline.
- Focuses on the past like normal but also on the upcoming story as well.
- A milestone beyond Warforge. Won't feel smaller compared to other dig sites.
- Innovate on mechanics: Excavations, discoveries, and mysteries.
- Kick-ass rewards: Might not be ancient rewards but it will be significant.
- Addresses problems players have with Archaeology such as with relics.
Holiday Events
- Looking back at previous successful Halloween content such as 2014 Death's door or Broken Home.
- Chatting about what we can do to add a bit more depth to it, working on designs at the moment.
- Christmas - Bring Winter weekends back, and better quality of content for the Christmas event.
- Easter event didn't go smoothly so we will look back at that and make improvements.
Mobile
- Would like a Mobile stream to discuss the entire situation around it.
- Rundown: Beta phase for iOS, Apple log-in added a couple weeks ago.
- We are still working through all the iOS compliance requirements.
ReMastery
- Concept: Reinvigorating establish content with new graphics, QoL, New challenges/content.
- This had bled into what we do currently such as the Shattered World Ninja Trike.
- You may also see it with Archaeology alongside Orthen, but for now nothing to shove in your face.
Resizable Interface
- Completed most of the development/engineering work for the technology to do it.
- Handed it over to content devs who are going to focus on the most impactful interfaces to improve on.
- Most likely ones that support the new player experience.
- There are over 3,000 UIs in the game, and they can't possibly focus on all of them.
Yak Track
- Overall we've made some great progress in the recent version.
- Next one links in D&Ds and clue scrolls and other bits of content like it.
- Continue to implement feedback changes:
- Players feel the grinder elements are still too intense.
- Cosmetic quality concerns:
- Female variants has been brought up previously but we already had stuff in production.
- I realize you're still waiting for it to happen.
Jagex Structure
COVID-19 Status
- Impacted everyone differently due to their unique circumstances in their personal life.
- Some aspects are working well while other aspects are more of a challenge.
- It's difficult not being able to interact with each other in person.
- Launching updates or transferring files/art can be slow as data pipes aren't as equipped.
- Warden has been checking in and making sure everyone is being taken care of and is comfortable,
- In some cases ordering furniture to accomplish this.
- We've had other things that have popped up that we weren't expecting (BLM, Me Too movement) and have taken time out of our work weeks to address it.
Internal Approach
- The team is looking for the opportunity to improve with these smaller pieces of content and increased cadence.
- Everytime we make a pivot it's a planning cycle for us, we want to take out the risk and ensure delivery and be happy with what we are delivering.
New Hires
We usually don't talk about new staff since it's boring, but it's important as it provides more certainty.
- New Lead Producer - Formerly at Remedy Entertainment working on Control. Also Eve Online and World of Darkness.
- Significant major hire who has been in the process of being on-boarded.
- New Art Director - Currently wrapping up his work at King, and he's been working on Call of Duty Mobile.
- New Content Development team and a New Producer.
Player Communication
- We took to heart the feedback around the lack of communication.
- This stream is something we are looking to do more of, it's a dialogue.
- We want to bring you closer to the development and keep you informed but we also want to make sure what we are working on meets the quality bar we previously talked about and find the right time to announce something.
- Determine a good middle ground
Player Advocacy Groups (PAG)
- Ninja PAG provided a lot of ideas which players will start seeing in the next few ninja strikes.
- PAGs are not meant to replace feedback, just add another layer of feedback.
- No plans to announce a future PAG yet, but we are looking to do more.
- They wouldn't be suited for a quest, but rather something like Orthen where archaeology orient players could get involved.
Player Involvement
We will 100% involve players in determining what we do.
- Hopefully get the annual survey out in August.
- Ramp up PAGs to look at some planning by the end of the year.
- Players have been joining in on our design and brainstorming sessions.
- Players can influence our backlog by speaking loudly about certain things they'd want to see improved.
- Not a fan of a voting system.