Community Q&A With Jagex
Earlier this year, Jagex got in contact with us and we began discussing the possibility of some really cool changes (we'll share more info when we have specific details) in the future. Of those changes, they offered us an opportunity to interview them and ask questions related to RuneScape. A few weeks ago, a thread was posted in General RuneScape Discussion asking what three questions you most wanted to ask Jagex. A selection of these questions were sent to Jagex and here are the answers!
Published on: April 25, 2009 12:48 AM UTC
The Interview
- With 10 skills having over 200,000 people at level 70, high much 'high level content' is being planned or worked on? - Neo Avatars
- I can't talk about specific future updates, but we are aware that high-level content is wanted and we are working on it.Deciding what level requirements to give to new content is often a dilemma. However many players can play high-level content, there are always far more who can play medium- and low-level content – because high-level players can still play content that is 'beneath' them, whereas low-level players cannot play high-level content at all. The higher the level requirements of a piece of content are, the fewer people will be able to play it, so it's harder for us to justify the time we will spend writing high-level content – especially in the case of quests, where the main appeal ought to be the enjoyment of doing the quest rather than just the rewards. On the other hand, we understand that high-level content provides something for people to look forward and motivate them to level up their skills. It's a balancing act, and it's something we definitely think about a lot both as individual developers and as a team.
John A
- Can you make it to where you can never max out a skill? – Muttdog
- Having no limit at all would be technically impossible. When the game stores a number, such as the amount of XP you have in a skill, it has to assign it a certain amount of space, which means that there's a maximum value that that number can be. We could make the cap very high, but a skill with literally no cap, so that you could keep on getting XP forever, would be impossible.
John A
- Will there ever be more resourse and production skills (such as mining and smithing)? - little boy 1100
- We've always planned to keep adding skills to the game slowly but steadily, and that includes all types of skills. What those skills will be and when they will arrive I can't say.One difficulty we have is that, the more skills we have in the game, harder it is to find conceptual space to add new ones. All the really obvious ones are already there. Making metal things is Smithing; making non-metal things is mostly Crafting; making large things like buildings and furniture is Construction – it would be hard to add a new 'making things' skill that doesn't tread on the toes of one of those three. This doesn't mean we won't be adding new skills, but it does mean that whenever we do decide to add one we have a difficult process of deciding what it could possibly be!
John A
- Are you planning on giving us any skill updates or adding to existing non combat skills? Not all of us are pkers you know. – samasa
- We know! One of the interesting things about the RuneScape development team is that all of us are different kinds of player, both when we play RuneScape and as gamers in general. There are some people in the team who are hard-core PKers, others who are skillers, or into quests, and so forth. I personally am a story-focused player and not into PKing at all. Because we're all different types of gamer, we're naturally interested in adding many different types of content, and we'll keep on adding a mix of different content types to the game.
John A
- Will PvP ever include things like PK points, so there isn't so much killing on the streets (except wild) and the game is more realistic? - little boy 1100
- I'm not sure how a points system would make the game more realistic – I'm fairly sure that if I killed someone in real life I wouldn't get points for it! The idea of PvP worlds was that they would be a free-for-all, so updates that tried to prescribe where you should and should not fight wouldn't fit in with that idea.
John A
- Is the real wilderness ever coming back? - R4ng3d W4rs
- If you mean will it go back to exactly how it was before, then no. Our changes to the Wilderness were necessary to get rid or real-world trading which was destroying the game, as we explained at the time. That isn't to say that we won't improve the Wilderness and the PvP system in other ways, but putting it back to how it was before isn't on the cards.
John A
- Will there be additions to the world in the ocean beyond the elf lands? – Erebus
- I can't talk specifically about future content. There are various ways we can add more areas to the game, including adding new islands beyond the main land-mass. If we were to add much more to the east and west sides of the map, we'd eventually have to decide how large the RuneScape planet is, and when the east and west sides would join up. That won't be for a long time though, if it ever happens at all.
John A
- Do you have any imminent plans for this area? (North of the God Wars Dungeon and Ice Path): - Vorgore
- Ooh, a gap. I can't say anything specific about future content, but a gap like that is very tempting to developers. In fact, there's a big copy of the RuneScape map on the wall next to my desk, and I notice that that blank space has been filled in, so a project is being developed there. What could it be? You will just have to wait to find out.
John A
Update: The space was 'filled up' earlier this week with the Tale of the Muspah quest. ~ Neo
- Will there be any new boss monsters added to the game, and what kind of things will they drop? – Kemosabe
- I definitely expect new boss monsters to be added to the game, at least with quests. The exact nature of what they will be or what they will drop is not for me to spoil though; I'd rather leave it to the first courageous adventurers to discover what they look like and how they should be defeated. What I can say is that creating a boss monster is an interesting experience and I personally like boss monsters which require a certain strategy to be defeated, so any boss monsters I'd design would have a twist to it that would hopefully make it interesting. Can't say much more though…
Mod_maylea
- Will the f2p map ever get bigger? - As780
- Good question. It was extended it a bit last year (with the runecrafting guild for those above 50, and the land of Snow for those who started Myths of the White lands last Christmas, the macro events that all became F2P). What the future holds is anyone's guess.
Mod_maylea
- Do you every plan on making more armor available for free to play? - Gold Valcore
- think it's something that is being considered. Sadly I can't tell more than that.
Mod_maylea
Other Content
- Do you plan to make more outfits that blend in well with certain skillcapes? - Warrior Zynk
- That's certainly a suggestion to consider! Certain outfits out there already match fairly well. If you have more specific suggestions (colours, shapes etc.), feel free to suggest!
Mod_maylea
- Are there going to be future updates to a few mini-games such as castle wars, duel arena, fight pits, and duel tournaments which are begging for tweakings? – Keldo
- I can't say for sure. Some of those games have already come a long way but are always open to improvements. All they need is the right suggestions!
Mod_maylea
- You stated that this year is a year of improvements. What kind of stuff are you looking at improving? (minigames, skills, general graphics, etc) – Kemosabe
- Graphics are actively working on updating the look of the game (check the fairy area development diary) We (programmers) are fixing bugs and giving a buff to what needs it. There'll be improvements to the world map, adding more "quick" options and many other things! And we're also on the lookout for more things to improve, so any suggestions are welcome!
Mod_maylea
- If TT rewards are "random", how do you prevent somebody from getting too many large or small rewards? - Don Florty
- Treasure trails rewards work a bit like the drops you get when you kill a monster. It picks a random number, checks a pre-determined table that contains all possible rewards for that number then gives you the result. The only restrictions on there are what objects it can drop, but there isn't any inside balancing mechanism to favour a more/less valuable drop if the last one you had was "too small" or "too large". If someone gets many large rewards, they're just incredibly lucky!
Mod_maylea
- Will the highscores break when the top player gets another half billion experience or so? - Neo Avatars
- No. We've thought of that, and the high scores system will cope with anything you can throw at it! Do your worst!
John A
- Could you give me a general overview of the development of RuneScript? – Vorgore
- The RuneScript scripting language has been continually developing since the game started. Back in the days of RuneScape Classic it was quite primitive, as the long-serving developers who remember those days sometimes like to remind the newer ones. When we upgraded from Classic to the current RuneScape the scripting language was totally re-written. Since then it's had new features added to it continually – not just new things it's able to do, but also structural changes to make it easier to write complex code in it. It's gradually transformed from simple beginnings to a fully-featured scripting language that allows us to do some quite advanced things.
- What 'degrees' do you need to work for Jagex? - Runescaper4
- This is difficult to answer as every role is different, for example you will need a different degree for a role in Graphics than you will of our game engine team. The best thing to do is to work hard; we are always looking for talented people to join our team.
Mod Hohbein
- Over the many years of RuneScape have you (Jagex) regretted any sort of update or significant change to RuneScape? – Finitchiyoe
- The quick answer is no. Not every player appreciates or enjoys every update but we always have the players in mind when we make any decision big or small.
Mod Hohbein
- What are your plans for the future of Jagex? – Giggoe
- That would be telling…but you can expect an exciting year from us.
Mod Hohbein
