RuneFest | Updates of 2016

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RuneFest | Updates of 2016
This article covers the content of Mod Mark and Mod Osborne's Updates of 2016 speech, given at RuneFest on October 3rd 2015.

Hi everyone, and welcome to the big reveals for 2016!

On behalf of everybody at Jagex, thank you very much for being part of the wonderful world of RuneScape. While we get to breathe life into the world of Gielinor, it's your energy, your feedback, your Runelabs ideas, your shouts of thanks and rants in Fally that breathe life into us.

So, from the bottom of all our hearts, thank you.

2016 will be a big, big year for RuneScape. There will be no overarching theme – instead, our objective is a simple one.

We want every update in 2016 to feel essential. We want you to be wowed by everything that we release, and that means a couple of significant changes:

First, we want to change how we update the game, giving you more bang for your buck. Each month there will be a major release – something you can really get your teeth into. To support this, we'll still have smaller, regular updates, keeping the game ticking over smoothly. This was the favoured approach when we polled you about update frequency in 2015, and we think it will really improve the game.

The second part is how we involve you. In August, we tried something new - posting a survey that included all of our favourite large update ideas: your suggestions, staff ideas, and just updates that we've always wanted to do. We then asked you to vote on your favourites, and it's from that poll that we've built 2016's schedule.

While things can obviously change and move around, we have moulded the year around these amazing ideas to give you a fantastic year of RuneScape.

God Wars Dungeon 2
A new God Wars Dungeon was the clear winner from the list of updates. How could we refuse?

Rather than being another dungeon thawed from a past age, we want God Wars Dungeon 2 to reflect today's conflict – that of the Sixth Age.

This will be a solo-oriented experience – very much in the vein of the original. It's a combat update for everyone – you won't necessarily need boss combat experience, and there'll be no elaborate Raid-like mechanics to grapple with.


You'll fight mobs that earn you kill count, in turn unlocking doors to epic bosses with equally epic drops.

Expect new god weapons to fight with, and a good few surprises, too.


God Wars Dungeon 2 comes from the team of RuneScape combat masters who brought you Raids, Araxxor and Vorago. They can't wait to bring the new God Wars Dungeon to life.

Mining & Smithing Rework
This was the top answer from long-term players currently on a break, and third most popular from current RS players. You completely surprised us with this one – it's the Smithing and Mining Rework!

This is the real joy of asking what you want – we've talked and talked about this for years, but we thought you weren't that excited about it compared to the big shiny stuff. Well, we were wrong - and you told us in your thousands.

We're committed to make Smithing and Mining as awesome as they can be. Whether that means new training methods, we're not sure yet - but a priority is making the gear level-relevant. No more rune platebodies at level 99!

Once we've moved things about, we will then be looking at the higher levels of Smithing, ensuring that the skill – along with Mining - is really worth training. These reasons will - naturally - include some top end gear that can complement or give cheaper alternatives to the bigger-hitting gear from drops, without replacing or undermining them.




NXT | New Game Client

For those of you who missed out on the great talk earlier on today, I'll quickly cover the new RuneScape game client. It's a great new way of playing RuneScape, offering you a more reliable experience with shorter loading times, and graphics far better than ever before.

This one will be accessible by everyone using the current Java client and our extensive testing will mean it's at least as fast as - but probably far quicker than - your current experience. You'll get bigger draw distances, better lighting, shadows, and water, culminating in a far deeper, more immersive RuneScape experience.



Invention

Invention is coming in January 2016. It's an elite skill, requiring level 80 in Divination, Smithing and Crafting just to start it off, and it can be levelled up all the way to 120, just like Dungeoneering.

Due to these requirements we can ensure that everything is designed to be suited to and valued by high-level players.

It's a skill of two halves: one all about inventing and making new items to help you train your skills, the other all about enhancing and augmenting your existing weapons and tools, adding perks that do all sorts of wacky, mad yet useful things in a crazy mashup of magic and medieval science.

You'll train Invention both by using invented items and by discovering new ones, allowing you to experiment and use the things you make to progress rather than simply filling your bank with stuff.

There's crazy stuff like the duplicator, which has a 50/50 chance of duplicating any tradeable item you own, or destroying it. Or the Calling perk, that summons a signature hero like the Raptor to fight beside you. It all looks awesome, too:


Invention | Crystal and Clockwork
Content throughout 2016 will add more devices to invent and perks to unlock, evolving throughout the year.

In particular, we will have a substantial new addition to the Invention skill coming later in the year.

Invention starts with three tech trees, but we are going to offer you another two. Invention: Crystal and Clockwork will add gnome and elf tech trees later on in the year, giving you substantial new mechanics.


15 Years | Emote, Classic and Documentary

Next year is a huge milestone for us as we hit our 15 year anniversary, and we have some amazing things planned.

We're currently filming a documentary all about RuneScape: a really honest bit of film all about the game's humble beginnings, epic highs, unfortunate lows, and the fun we've had along the way.

When I say we, I really mean all of us, with famous and infamous players, ex-members of staff and influential individuals who've helped shape the world. There will be some special celebrations in game, too, with parties and unique items, and we're even planning to open up Classic again for a last hurrah! But surely there's something really awesome we can do, right?

Gower Quest
That's right. We're very proud and honoured to welcome back Andrew and Paul Gower as Guest Designers and Executive Producers on a special 15th Anniversary quest.

This will feature them both as in-game characters and in real life development, with tons of 4th wall-breaking craziness, NPCs trying to escape the loop of being spawned and killed, quest NPCs trying to get back in the game, and more.

Thanks for reading. Start looking forward to a great remainder of 2015, and – in 2016 – a year like never before.

Mod Mark, Mod Osborne and the RuneScape Team

 

NXT Client Teaser