JagexRowley

Only if you're Timbo. :)

I'm not sure what the first heard track is (don't think it's an in-game track), but the music you hear when the video visits Kharid-et and the Infernal Source are both tracks from those sites. I'm a big fan of the music that's been made for Archaeology!

The next stream will be on lore (no spoilers).

The plan is to also have a whole video and stream on rewards. At least, last I heard, and if not I'm sure we'll find some way to talk about these things! :)

All I can speak to is where we are currently, and that is the skill is good to go (heading into RC QA) and the team is excitedly anticipating the release. I hope nothing causes the release date to shift, but if it does it does (and we will communicate that).

There's no predicting the future here, we'll just have to see how things go with regards to the virus. Things aren't business as usual anywhere, right now, I'm afraid. People are being set up to work from home, but the prospect of releasing a skill remotely is a scary and risky one.

tl;dr - Things are fine right now with the skill's release, but it might not stay fine due to events outside of our control.

Some of the available tasks will be to train Archaeology content; none of the rewards will be usable on Archaeology. The point is to allow players to play the newest skill and the new Yak Track at the same time (in part) so as not to create as much stress as the previous Yak Track (and Farming/Herblore 120 and DXP all overlapping caused).

i.e. It's a change to benefit players.

I'm not sure why you would jump to assuming we're going to immediately break our embargo, considering that goes counter to everything we've been saying about the new skill so far. :\

We wouldn't blame Coronavirus unless it were the actual cause, and you can bet that if the office is devastated because of it, that we would rightfully be more concerned about our health than releasing an update on time (and I would hope that people would not view that as the wrong decision to make).

That said, the update is looking solid and I have no immediate concerns we will need to postpone again. Jagex is taking the Coronavirus threat seriously and responsibly, and setting up more people to work from home if needed. Also, if everyone ends up in self-quarantine at home, we'll ideally have something that can keep you all occupied.

I removed them (from the game that is now RS3) years ago. You'd be better served posting this in r/2007scape to drum up support for doing the same in OSRS.

Material caches are like current trees (not including normal trees), not like pre-rework Mining rocks - i.e. multiple players can obtain as many materials from them as they are able for as long as they stand, and it will refresh after a short period of time. No competition, but a shared resource.

Excavation spots, on the other hand, are entirely player specific - no competition, not shared. Excavation spots will see greater use than material caches for anyone training the skill. Material caches might see greater use by those only looking to sell materials - though that remains to be seen.

The exclamation mark isn't important. It was more just a joke. :)

The XP and elite Archaeology outfits are baked into the skill progression and fairly available to all as they progress to the point in the skill where they can be obtained. You train Archaeology to access them - they are part of the race, not aside from it.

It will be that same bullsh*t. You can store materials in the bank if you'd prefer, though the restoration workbench will not recognise any in your bank. They can be deposited in noted form, though, and there's a bank chest close by every material storage, so it's a tiny hardship at worst.

I think people have confused that earlier I said the process was similar to obtaining an imcando pickaxe. You will not need imcando pickaxes or pieces to make an imcando mattock.

Embargoes on XP boosting items are in place to give a fairer playing field for the highscore race every new skill brings. Once the embargo is lifted, all boosts will be made to work with Arch.

That said, I believe the dwarf weed incense sticks do work, as they are effectively porters and run through the same code, and porters do work with Archaeology.

That interface is built dynamically depending on how players have their interfaces set up. There is no concept of centre, only order (top-left to bottom-right).

While we could hack in a fix for anyone with a three column layout, that doesn't help those with a different setup. We'd also only end up having to remove the hack when we release the next skill or two.

Not to worry. Archaeology absolutely feels like a skill when you are training it, and is most definitely not a minigame just because it has a baked-in currency. I mean, Farming has a currency now (beans) and hasn't spontaneously morphed into a minigame. It's all in the delivery and the feel.

That said, Dungeoneering being seen by some as a minigame is entirely moot if it is consistently the second highest voted favourite skill. So, if Arch ends up being viewed by some as a minigame, as long as it's being enjoyed, that's a "problem" I think we'd be happy to have. :)

I think you might be conflating picks and mattocks here.

The Pickaxe of Earth and Song is its own thing, exclusively used in Mining.

For mattocks, you would need two dragon mattocks. One of those you would turn into a crystal mattock (with 4,000 harmonic dust), the other into an imcando mattock (using new objects released with Archaeology). Then you would combine the crystal and imcando mattocks together to create the Mattock of Time and Space.

This mimics the path pickaxes use, but mattocks and pickaxes are entirely separate.

Could you contextualise what you mean?

There's a slight/minor thematic overlap, but they are vastly different pieces of content. I don't really see there being any direct comparison between them.

No need, this isn't a change we'd want to make.

Personally, the order of skills makes little sense as it is, but it is something players have gotten used to over the years. As much as I'd love to see the order of all skills here make better sense, there isn't an obvious choice for how best to do that.

If that ever was figured out, it makes sense to change the whole thing at once, rather than piecemeal, as everyone would have to get used to the new order. (To be clear, this is not something we're planning, just a personal musing.)

We have to focus on the core information first rather than specifics as there is a LOT to cover, and we don't want to confuse things by going too much into the details before we even cover the basics.

We will answer questions like this in due course ahead of release - e.g. existing items, quest requirements, etc. It's also best coming from the team as a whole rather than an individual, so we can be sure of accuracy and not have misinformation doing the rounds.

I'll flag this to Poerkie. Perhaps we can start covering some of the specifics during the first Archaeology live stream.

Regardless of when any information is released, there will likely be some form of race to gather up resources as cheaply as possible. It might well be in your interests to speculate before specific information is known.

The Crown doesn't give exact locations, at least not for Saradomin, only a rough general area (i.e. Gielinor).