[2021] 'City of Senntisten' should be a requirement for Elder God Wars

As far as we know at present, this isn't going to be the case. There's a huge precedent for skilling and PvM content alike to be locked behind quests - that's part of the ethos of RuneScape. Give players something to aim towards and give people a reason to engage with this truly out of this world quest.

This is something that has been lost in recent years and it’s a real shame (eg Anachronia should have required Desperate Times at the very least, if not the Kudos requirement). If players could access Prifddinas on launch, Reddit wouldn’t have the vast number of players posting about their achievement - it would be without its lustre. Stay true to the identity and integrity of the game, rather than day of release completion stats.

Just some examples of content that is locked behind quests, as it should be:

• Glacors
• Tormented Demons
• Fairy Rings
• Spirit Trees
• A number of teleport spells.
• Ancient Magicks
• Curses
• Dragon Dagger
• Corporeal Beast
• Temple of Aminishi
• Effigy Incubator
• Lunar Magic
• A number of Runecrafting altars.
• Rune Platebody was removed with M&S rework.
• Armadyl Battlestaff
• Seren Spells
• A number of Agility courses.
• A number of Summoning familiars.
• Dragon Longsword
• Nightmares
• God Wars Dungeon 1
• Dragon Scimitar
• Prifddinas
• Inferno adze and Firemaking exp increases
• Bork
• A number of Bloodwood trees
• A number of Slayer masters
• Achievement diary items
• A number of Dungeons (with Slayer monsters)
• Dorgesh-Kaan
• Monkfish
• Anti-dragon shield
• Dwarf cannon
• Smithing & Cooking gauntlets
• Helm of Neitiznot
• Skeletal Horror
• Salve amulet
• A number of combat abilities
• Soul Wars cape
• Legend cape
• A number of large areas
• Barrows gloves
• Barrows bosses
• Menaphos

and so on

Some content is locked by skill requirements - e.g. no one would advocate giving new players Yak familiars, turmoil or the ability to wear Torva. Other content is locked by quest requirements. Jagex should make use of content that can act as a reward space, rather than handing it out for free. Players want something to do and work towards, that's the entire point of RuneScape by design.

P.s: Desperate Measures not being a requirement for Azzanadra’s Quest doesn’t make sense by any standard of logic.

• It takes less time to complete Desperate Measures than acquiring the Ring of Visibility (for the Trindine mystery). Though the Ring of Visibility 'requirement' is there by mistake and will probably be removed. However, given the lower Archaeology requirement on Desperate Measures means it takes less time regardless.
• It is ‘new’ and was released after the Trindine mystery, it hasn’t even been out a year as of yet. Mod Jack said his window for quest requirements is two years recently on Discord. When Azzanadra's Quest was released - Desperate Measures was barely 6 months old. It also had 'Sins of the Father', Effigy Incubator, the Orthen Dig Site and Raksha during that time to keep the pace going.
• It is extremely story relevant given the introduction to Seren’s council, shadow anima, Guthix’s relationship with anima, the Elder Gods and so on. This is only magnified in City of Senntisten via the role of Charos and [REDACTED].
• It is a very high-quality quest with interesting mechanics. The same can be said for it’s pre-req Needle Skips (which can be completed in a few minutes via a guide). This isn’t necessarily the case for Azzanadra’s Quest which was relatively sparse of assets and mechanics - opting to even re-use a 2008 model for Wizard Trindy.
  • From a marketing sense, this makes even less sense. Why not introduce players via a high quality, modern, asset rich, dynamic piece of content as opposed to one without?
• There is a natural progression in terms of skill requirements as Desperate Measures has lesser skill reqs than Azzanadra’s Quest. Allowing players to naturally flow through the story.

All of that aside, City of Senntisten was a truly stunning and immaculate piece of content. The audio was super immersive, the animations fantastic - and I can’t begin to describe how great the environment is. I loved the shadow mechanics so much that I wish they existed post quest, allowing us to fill all of the lights and such. Kinda like how GWD1 has throwing trolls this would have had the shadow mechanic. Not a big deal though.

I don’t think we compliment the small things enough. Sliske’s laugh, the voice acting from the vampire, the ambient sound effects, Azzanadra’s animations as he pulls the Elder eggs. These things matter so much and augment the experience in such a positive way. When viewing the experience in its entirety, the only real issue for me is the production quality of the narrative between Desperate Measures and City of Senntisten. I don't think this is necessarily the fault of the developers - much of this content is great on paper and the lore is phenomenal. For me, personally, it's an issue 'this could have been so much better if X'.