Runescape Dev Tracker

I can't offer any statement of guarantee that you'll get anything. ;)

What I can say is Daze and I've created backlog tasks for each of these, to investigate and apply what we can update elsewhere with the current available assets.

The first of those completed tasks went live today (Yak to Basics outfits on Lumbridge guards and dark wizards).

We have to prioritise the projects we have currently been assigned above our backlog tasks, though, so I can't offer you any ETA or any certainty.

It's also possible that another team might get to it before we do.

The bwanas? The bwanas split.

I'd have to investigate the current status of dragon models/textures that got as far as being released.

Mod Orion or Sova probably have a more informed answer, since they worked on EDs.

The trouble is that every project has to be mindful of scope.

Most deadlines are decided about a year in advance, so that you're getting regular beats of game updates. So if any production risks arise, descoping is usually the first weapon we unsheathe.

(Which is rather nice, because crunching tends to be the weapon of last resort we keep in the bottom of the backpack.

A refreshing philosophical difference from a lot of the gaming industry.

Jagex recognise we have to keep on trucking week after week, so it doesn't do us any favours to crunch. They recognise tired people don't do their best work and it's a greater long term cost than the short term gain.

And even if I say work double shifts for a few days to squeeze a bunch of extra features into a project, that doesn't mean the impacted staff that have to test it, etc, have the capacity to do the same. So if I overwork, that can create a crunch cascade that hurts those adjacent to me.)

I know, right?

This tin-foil hat is itchy, but I have to wonder if the developer named her that with his tongue wedged firmly in his cheek.

Time to add respawning enemy fairies you can slay!!

You're a monster, and I admire that.

We created a backlog task for red and blue imps too. :)

As you say, there'd be edge cases that need props or certain anims we'd have to defer 'til later when artist resource is available/outsourced, but using the newest generic model where we can is a win in my book.

Mod Daze, my team lead did it.

Thank you, I'll pass on the message to him. :)

Hearing the value you put on cosmetically improving old content - even if it means less time spent on new playable content - is really helpful to us.

Thank you! Hmm, that's a tricky one.

From our perspective, we certainly could update dark wizard robes worn by players to use the same assets as the dark wizard outfit cosmetic override.

The only thing that'd give me pause is player sentiment.

Would it irrevocably mess up player FashionScape if dark wizard robes no longer had their current look?

Would it be perceived poorly if an appearance acquired as a Yak Track reward also was available from wearing dark wizard robes?

My gut says it'd be no big deal and the value of Yak Track providing a cosmetic override remains whether or not there's an object version.

But again, would welcome your feedback. Do any of you consider updating wearable dark wizard robes unacceptable?

I'll point Mod Daze towards this thread, so he can take it into consideration. :)

(He's pretty gosh darn amazeballs, so I imagine he already has a follow-up plan for dark wizard robe objects.)

I'...

Interesting question! Responding somewhat cynically, the cut-off tends to be when we get a strong negative reaction from players that a change has gone too far (it no longer matches the silhouette of a character), and are forced to revert back or put in a toggle. ;)

Though I'd boldly suggest we're a lot more mindful of being conservative where it matters the most nowadays.

So far from your feedback it's sounding like fairies are one of those sharp edges where it's best to wait 'til there's a library of fairy assets available to at least retain the most memorable elements, given they're largely self-contained to Zanaris.

Fortunately there's plenty of overworld mobs like the city guards that in the short term can provide a far-reaching visual upgrade with minimal loss of distinct character.

Not that I'm aware of that are ready to ship and wouldn't require artistic finessing to get up to modern standards.

The Seers' Village rework really didn't get far enough to have salvageable assets I could drop into game now. Most of what you recall with fondness didn't get very far past concept art and placeholder scene blocking, IIRC.

Environmental reworks are best left to environment artists. They can do a miles better job with their eye for detail than a developer substituting models in configs and tweaking the map where necessary. True artists. :)

Fortunately there's plenty of models created for specific projects that could get greater value by being applied to more of the game, with minimal artistic intervention.

Yeah, giant rat's on the list! (At least the most common one that the new base model would suit. There's a surprising number of giant rat variants, so FutureScape retextures ahoy.)

Welcome to my brain. Edge cases. Edge cases everywhere.

Oh no, what have we done?

Mod Daze and I recently created tasks on our backlog for each of the known Yak Track models that hadn't been applied to the rest of the game, and according to our outsource manager are signed-off for us to use. That included the unicorn and bear models.

We don't have any artistic resource in our team, though, so as content developers we can only go as far as the assets that are already available.

(So eg can currently update white unicorn mobs, but there isn't currently an adult black unicorn skin or spirit stallion variant, and wacky fringe cases like the unicorn getting squished by a rock in Underground Pass probably aren't compatible. So those'd have to be considered in another pass when an artist is available.)

(And similarly right now we only have the base used for Bjorn the lightning bear, so I can update grizzly bears, but black bears or bear cubs or oddities like the rage bears in A Soul's Bane probably would have to go into the system as art requests...

In terms of a long term plan, yes. (But a plan, much like a traitor, is only a plan until it's executed.)

In terms of immediately available opportunities, we have precisely one fairy model available in the new format (the Yak Track fairy pet named, amusingly enough, Snowflake).

The newly modeled and animated base for that fairy means a big part of the work for a character & animator is done (modeling various fairy hairstyles, outfits, props, etc, is comparably lower than the formidable cost of a whole new species rig), but an artist would still need to model all the variant appearances for each of the unique fairies we want to retain before we could paritively update all the fairies.

So as a content developer, right now my only option available would be to make every fairy look like Snowflake (and disable calls to any old fairy animations that can't be substituted by one of Snowflake's new animations).

In some respects, that scorched-earth homogenous...

Cheers. I've passed this onto the team working on this years event.

Applying the outfits provided by Yak to Basics to Varrock guards is also in the works. The Lumbridge guards and dark wizards were ready sooner, so we released them ASAP.

mole