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Mod_West

Mod_West



19 Jun

With the rework of Shayzien, Mod West put in a tribute to Shay, the late cat of ex-Mod Reach, who he named the city after.

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Originally posted by -Auditore-

If I had to guess, he was probably aiming to remove splashing without letting anyone know.

It's more serious than that, MMK said he was "making money out of the company" in a recent livestream.

Yeah, he definitely abused his moderator privilege and was punished for doing so. He had a great passion for the game but I can’t say too much about him as I never had the chance to work alongside him. His scripting ability was questionable from what I’ve heard from the other devs who’ve had to rewrite his code.

His interview with shauny always stuck with me and I always planned to add a reference to Shay and this rework presented the perfect opportunity :)


16 Jun

Loving the new Shayzien, some areas feel a little less loved now by comparison...

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Originally posted by Scubsy

Not saying I don't believe you but is this confirmed? I imagine they are, too; given the production value in content lately. Fingers crossed :P

There's nothing concrete in the schedule atm. My desired plan is to rework Piscarilius first as it covers a much smaller area. Then ideally Lovakengj and Arceuus would be packaged together and finally south Kebos could be polished up when we start to move into Varlamore. Don't expect any of that this year though, or even early next year.

QR code in new update?

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👀


15 Jun

Client Features: Upcoming Testing

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Originally posted by anotheraltacc1112

improvements to rooftop agility signposting

This will be a massive improvement for new mobile players, I remember logging in mobile to do some Canafis rooftop agility and realising how hard it would be if I'd never done it before, even knowing where about the click boxes are it's hit and miss.

Indeed! With A Kingdom Divided we’ve added a new agility course and we’ve spent the time to make sure it has good signposting and click-zones. The intention is to do something similar with the rooftop courses so the need for big gaudy overlays is reduced. They can still be used but ideally they won’t be needed :)

Client Features: Upcoming Testing

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Originally posted by TheFedoraTipper

https://cdn.runescape.com/assets/img/external/oldschool/2021/newsposts/2021-06-15/showcase_buffbar.png

I really don't like the way this is going.

The underlying issue with fishing spots stems from them being pretty hard to see by default on various devices. Why not improve that by making the fishing particles themselves stand out more (eg make fish jump out of a whirlpool in the water) so it's clear this is a fishing spot?

I like tile indicators but this is kind of lazy game design

I agree! We've certainly been discussing how RL has solved some elements of bad design and how we don't need to replicate their solution when we can literally change the games assets. Unfortunately no matter how well we solve the problem, players have become accustomed to a specific way things work. Even if we are to change the fishing spots (which could be controversial) I imagine some would still desire the overlays. I have this - along with improvements to rooftop agility signposting - on my to-do list which I plan to take a stab at during our next ideation session :)


07 Jun

rare pepe spotted in hosidius

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Originally posted by bleuofblue

thanks man! i was crushing some MH and blazing... looked up after a toke and saw pepe staring back at me. i felt it had to be a sign

if coincidence, i guess that's god making his art through west

Can't say I set out to make a face but when I noticed him I figured he deserved to live and blankly stare out towards the endless void of space... forevermore...


04 Jun

A side-by-side of the old Shayzien city and the new. (Including the areas changed north of it)

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Originally posted by BioMasterZap

I don't think I caught how much it went into Lovakengj. That will be very interesting to explore ingame... I know Mod West wanted a better divider between Arceuus and Lovakengj so this seems like the start of that. I just hope the smiley lava pool is okay.

Smiley boi is a national treasure. He ain’t goin ;)


03 Jun

New map of Great Kourend on the OSRS world map website

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Originally posted by Lewufuwi

Awesome, well my praises extend to the rest of the team involved as well :)

Glad to hear you don't take it to heart, I do feel sorry for you guys, a lot of people forget there are real humans behind the usernames and computer screens.

Thanks for putting in so much time for my comments and criticisms, there's really not a video game on earth with a team like OSRS has!

I don't expect you to change stuff at my word and I know it's not as easy as just changing stuff as and when you fancy it. I just appreciate you giving me my chance to be honest and you being able to do the same.

Thanks very much for these comments, have a nice weekend :)

Always happy to chat :) hope you have a good weekend too!

New map of Great Kourend on the OSRS world map website

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Originally posted by Lewufuwi

Hey West, thank you for taking the time to comment on my criticism, please know it comes from a place of love for the game and respect for the artists and I'm not just a misery here to call everything shit (that's very far from my opinion haha).

Good point about the high fantasy element being heavier in Priff, definitely something to consider from my end. I'm not a fan of how drastically fantasy modern OSRS design is, I much preferred the more reality-bound designs of by-gone days - take everything Tempoross for instance, it's all very realistic and simple, I absolutely love everything to do with Tempoross', his battle arena, and the minigame hub design. But that's just my opinion, I appreciate that there is a time and a place for everything.

I will stand by my comments about the tents, it just looks a little bit silly with the big exaggerated curls. The colour is fine with me, it goes nicely with the dark woods and dark tent material. I particularly like the layeri...

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Don’t worry, it may seem from the comments I take it to heart but honestly after 5 years I’m very much use to hearing all the criticism. Maybe responding to some of it is a little pointless but I find it helpful to dig a little deeper sometimes and figure out what the specific issue is. It’s helpful to know as I wouldn’t want to make any of the same mistakes again if I can avoid it :D

The tent corners are perhaps a little too elegant, I suppose that wouldn’t be too hard to fix but we’ve pretty much signed off on the rework now so that it has sufficient time for final tests before release. At this point it’s only really important bugs and I wouldn’t think that this qualifies.

Thanks for all the compliments! While I took on all of the mapping work for the Hosidius rework back in 19 the Shayzien rework has been a group effort that has had the entire art teams input and it definitely shows. The level of polish we’ve achieved with this rework is definitely next level and...

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New map of Great Kourend on the OSRS world map website

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Originally posted by Lewufuwi

I did see that stream but I'm saving seeing it in game before I make too much of a judgement. I judged Tempoross early and I actually like the design when it's in game.

My first impressions are that I like the buildings in Shayzien, but I dislike the big goofy red roofs, I definitely think those need to go. I think the buildings in Priff itself looks okay (although the whole SOTE quest and Elves themselves look abhorrent), but Priff roofs are also a bit goofy.

It's very World of Warcrafty with the big, exaggerated roofs.

But as I said, I'm reserving my judgement for when it's in game...

Looking back at the Prif roof kit I do wish I'd made it about 15-20% smaller. It's a tough balance trying to make it work as a versatile kit that also fits into our rigid grid system. Fortunately if any area is going to look a bit more high-fantasy I think the Elf capital is the place for it.

As for the Shayzien tent roofs, here

are
 ...

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New map of Great Kourend on the OSRS world map website

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Originally posted by HobbesForever

Sander the grave digger? Is that a Song of Ice and Fire reference? (the game of thrones books)

Yep


01 Jun

A design for the Bow of Faerdhinen I made

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Originally posted by Fabulous_Web_7130

At the end of the day you guys coming short isnt what truely frustrates me. Its the competitiveness and lack of morality in the way people play to obtain flexscape. Its the sociopathic natture thats killed pvp. Its the lack of resources to fight bots and scummy behavior that kills pvp for people who have genuine interest in the challenge in it and/or fun in it whether seperate at the same time. You jmods are doing the best and anyone who has move out of their parents house can see that. Im sorry for the shit you have to read. I know you wouldnt have replied if there wasnt atleast an ounce of truth in what i said at the end of the day but that doesnt mean its where the heart is. I love you guys man dont take the hate to heart its just criticism

Edit: its also a bit in the endless rng pit of 2000h collection log completion way cox/nightmare type drop tables are designed. Im a minority but me and alot of the people who play hard without being elitist assholes about the game ag...

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All valid points. There’s certainly ways we can improve and I do feel bad that we’ve yet to solve a lot of the pressing issues you’ve raised here.

If you were salty about the scythe orn than that’s fair enough. We should’ve approached the situation differently as it was all a pivot from our original idea which made it a bit of a scramble to get it all together. Hopefully we’ll learn from that and try to handle the situation better next time :)


31 May

A design for the Bow of Faerdhinen I made

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Originally posted by Fabulous_Web_7130

Not all of you. Ur one of the ones i really like. Still sacrificing the preference of personal creativity is nice to give us what we want.. but uve made so much original stuff that the community hasnt premade I really am not talking down to that

Thanks, I guess :P I do disagree that any of my colleagues have been ignoring player feedback in an attempt to improve their portfolio and stroke their egos. Sometimes things just don't go over well and we're all to blame for that. It's impossible to please everyone at the end of the day.

A design for the Bow of Faerdhinen I made

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Originally posted by startsomewhere

Thanks for explaining that. That makes more sense. This is a really old game and I don't think a lot us (myself included) think about all the limitations that have to be fought and worked against for designs.

Are the engine limitations things that can be improved over time or is that not realistic?

That's alright, understandably it's hard to know the specific limitations we face working on such an old game from an outside perspective :P

For this issue in particular it's a tedious one to fix. The 2008 HD update fixed it for RS3 back in the day but it required hiring a considerable amount of staff to scale up every single asset in game by a factor of 3. There might be better ways to solve it nowadays but I imagine it'll still be quite expensive.

A design for the Bow of Faerdhinen I made

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Originally posted by startsomewhere

The in-game cape barely resembles #2, which is a fantastic design.

I don't think you understand. I didn't complain about how its rendered. I stated that I remember reading a post about it being designed this way on purpose due to rendering limitations when it came to view distance and lighting meaning it's probably the best we can really have right now.

Okay...I think I see what you mean. Sorry for misunderstanding.

Let's get into the nitty gritty. Option #2 has a slightly edited lava texture (the same used on the fire cape) scrolling behind black polygons while the in-game infernal cape uses a brand new texture which was attempting to simulate option #2 as close as possible. The issue I think you're referring to is the limitation we have with our vertices. There's only a finite amount of space we can have between vertices before they snap together. To make sense of this, zoom into your player characters face, notice how one side of the face blinks? That isn't blinking, that's the vertices snapping together due to how low fidelity the vertices grid is. When we tried to put #2 into the game, it genuinely looked horribly deformed because of that issue. It's a hard one to explain but you'll have to trust me.

The design principals are the same tho... black shapes with a red/orange glow between them, the main difference...

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A design for the Bow of Faerdhinen I made

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Originally posted by startsomewhere

https://www.reddit.com/r/2007scape/comments/557o12/infernal_cape_design_strawpoll_week_2/ (#2 is the winner, and you can find the link to the first one where #5 was the winner)

Unsure about osrs site polls, since the community presence is strong on here. All of these polls have winning designs that look much better than what we have in-game so not sure what you're talking about. In fact, every design on those polls is much better.

Didn't Jagex specifically tweak the designs to have larger circles and larger outlines around them? It was so it would look right from all distances I think? As for the darkness of it, that's supposed to be something about how the RS engine lights characters and is an engine limitation, yeah?

There was a Jmod post about how they didn't want it this way, but it was all they could do right now because of engine limitations I think....

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Option 2 looks pretty close to what we ended up with. Regardless, it was an iterative process and that reddit thread is clearly not the end point. I wasn't involved with the making of the asset but we were a 3 man art team at the time so I was quite involved behind the scenes. All designs originated from player suggestions and if there were any changes they were either from feedback or tech limitations.

If your issue is the way it's rendered in the vanilla client then it has nothing to do with the design of the asset and I'm failing to see your point. It was literally a design guided by players ideas and feedback. We can't please everyone ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

A design for the Bow of Faerdhinen I made

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Originally posted by startsomewhere

dunno why downvoted. this is pretty accurate. look at the infernal cape.. so many amazing designs on here and we got pepperoni cape.

The cape that the community voted on and decided which design went into the game?


30 May

A design for the Bow of Faerdhinen I made

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Originally posted by Safari_Time

Sorry West, not a personal dig at you whatsoever and I love the direction that OSRS is taking. I am just kinda heated seeing things posted by twitter /RS_NEXT_GEN who goes into the rs3 cache.

Just something thats being noticed is that lots and lots and lots of stuff has been made for rs3 in the past, like, an overwhelming amount of completed content, that is then just chucked in the cache and left to gather dust. OSRS probably doesn't do this cause of your connections to the players, limited team, polls and stuff. But some cases at hand include completed models for monsters, dungeon fabs, perks and other content that mods must spend hours and hours on just to show very little to nothing in the end. Like, a lot of it is actually very good and it doesn't make sense why it's still there and never comes out. So much variety thats never there.

And I know this happens in games dev all the time but RS3 seems to have A LOT.

Oh, fair enough. I must say I follow that account quite closely too and do sometimes wonder where they're getting their information. Some of the stuff they've posted about OSRS is generally public info already but a little spread about the internet so rarely seen in one place. The RS3 stuff is interesting but some of it is wrong from the bits and pieces I've seen so I wouldn't take it entirely at face value. I suppose it's still quite indicative of the way RS3 functions though so I understand your grievance.

We've definitely not shelved much work due to the reasons you've outlined but it happens and it is the way game dev goes sometimes. Occasionally entire games never see the light of day so having 100+ models and environments collecting dust isn't as bad as it could be.

A design for the Bow of Faerdhinen I made

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Originally posted by Safari_Time

AKA: Not gonna happen, we'll made 40 designs, model them all, add them in, shelve them, poll something basic.

Proof of this lies in rs3.

???

A design for the Bow of Faerdhinen I made

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Seen a few player designs of the bow recently. No plans currently for the design so I’ll be sure to show this to the rest of the team :)