2nd January 2009 - Behind the Scenes 2009

Southrend · **Posted:** January 2nd, 2009, 6:29 am

www.runescape.com wrote:

2nd January 2009 - Behind the Scenes 2009

So, the first post of the New Year and you’ll be wondering what the next 12 months in RuneScape will bring. The past year saw the introduction of PvP Worlds, RuneScape High Detail, Summoning, our first Grandmaster quest, combat minigames, and Distractions and Diversions. What can we do to top 2008?

Well, this is the challenge that we’ve set ourselves: 2009 has become our official Upgrade Year! So, what does that mean? It means our New Year's resolution is to tweak and polish what we've already got in the game alongside creating new content. For example:

* Doing the 'little' jobs that make a big difference (e.g. a 'You are here' arrow on the world map) and basically fixing all the annoying little niggles the game has. Things that may be the least glamorous to work on and talk about, but which really add up.
* Updating some of the earliest content/quests to bring it up to date, and take advantage of all the features we have added to the game engine since it was originally created. Also, reworking old clues that no longer work now the game is bigger (e.g. 'Look west of the mountains' was fine when there was only one mountain, but not now).
* Making the interfaces as intuitive, flexible and user-friendly as possible.
* Then, after all that, we’ll start looking into abandoned and barely used areas/features of the game, and breathing new life into them.

Of course, we don't want to JUST do upgrades, so we're planning to do a mix of upgrades and new content. To achieve this we are planning on going back to releasing approximately four updates per month, which will alternate between upgrades and new content.

We’ve been trawling the forums, pooling opinions from our game teams and inviting everyone at Jagex HQ to voice their opinions on what they’d like to see in an upgraded RuneScape. As a regular player, there will no doubt be at least one feature you’ve always wanted to see introduced, to make your time in RuneScape even better. Chances are that it’s already on our list, but to be on the safe side, why not let us know? We’ll be monitoring the forums, so please tell us what you want to see. We can’t promise we'll do everything, but we’ll try to incorporate any particular trends we see into our plans, and let you know.

Well, at the end of my first newspost, I just want to thank you all for your continued support through 2008, and I look forward to seeing you all in Gielinor in 2009.

Happy New Year!

Mod Vince
Head of RuneScape

Adbot · **Posted:** January 2nd, 2009, 6:29 am

Kirby · **Posted:** January 2nd, 2009, 6:47 am

Another great BTS. 5/5 for me again.

Finishing those quest stories are finally what we need. It took them, what? 3-5 years to find out that you need to finish a story if you start a story?

I don't know what they mean about flexing the interface, but it sounds nice.

Omg, they are going all Aslan-style and blowing on a computer game to bring dead things to life! That is so gangsta.

The arrival of the update/week is just outrageous and will be certainly something I will look forward to in the coming weeks.

This certainly will be a good 2009 in Gielinor.

Kylescorpion · **Posted:** January 2nd, 2009, 11:04 am

finally!!! Im all about new skills being introduced I love it, but I believe it's about time adding new content for all the skills around already. Like prayer and slayer everything ffs! lol. Finishing old quest storylines as well (elemental workshop 3 plz)

colinsoccer123 · **Posted:** January 2nd, 2009, 2:18 pm

Looks pretty good, I'm glad there won't be a huge number of "new" updates since I won't be playing as much this year.

Sunset Fish · **Posted:** January 2nd, 2009, 5:10 pm

colinsoccer123 wrote:

Looks pretty good, I'm glad there won't be a huge number of "new" updates since I won't be playing as much this year.

yeah the more updates they have the worst they are
I like fewer but better updates

this year looks pretty good
and when it mention areas where people dont go to much I though of Rimmington
and the only reason I go there is because nobody is there and I hope it stays that way

fiann · **Posted:** January 2nd, 2009, 8:59 pm

5 0f 5 for using the word "niggles". :twisted:

Happy New Year!!!!

Adbot · **Posted:** January 2nd, 2009, 8:59 pm

The Xbox Legacy · **Posted:** January 3rd, 2009, 10:27 am

fiann wrote:

5 0f 5 for using the word "niggles". :twisted:

Happy New Year!!!!

Yeah, still wondering if that's actually a word ...

Hopefully when Jagex gets done fixing all the little problems with RS, things will look a lot better. Finishing quest lines will be great for a lot of people, I just don't quest often anymore. Also hoping the new interface isn't a batch of fail

Otherwise doesn't seem like anything major is happening ... yet.

Deadalus · **Posted:** January 3rd, 2009, 12:29 pm

The Xbox Legacy wrote:

fiann wrote:

It means our New Year's resolution is to tweak and polish what we've already got in the game alongside creating new content.

That's been their goal every single year!!! Jagex, trying to be different. [-X

power crazy · **Posted:** January 3rd, 2009, 1:27 pm

I think that this Behind the Scenes was a little disappointing for me because they didn't give details. Just a short overview. I wish that they would have had specifics in there. Also, I don't really care about them fixing up the game, it seems fine how it is! I want Content! oh well, I'm sure they will do a good job as usual. (lol)

Davo · **Posted:** January 4th, 2009, 8:57 pm

I'm looking forward to the content updates. Those are always nice. A couple things though.

- Personally I think they need to take it easy on the quests. I believe they've been releasing more than one a month. Maybe keep it to just one. No offense to you questers out there, but people don't play Runescape solely for the quests. Even if you do release new quests make the rewards halfway decent.

-I think their first priority needs to be fixing the HD bugs. As some of you might have seen my topic about how the GE progress bars don't work on HD for me. Let's take care of simple but effective litttle things like that before we go adding a "YOU ARE HERE" arrow to the world map. I think anyone that has played for over a month knows where they are. It's the problem of getting somewhere else.

Tim · **Posted:** January 5th, 2009, 8:52 pm

They "YOU ARE HERE" on the map will really help out, um... Good BTS for the year and Congrats to Mod Vince for becoming the new Head of Runescape!