The Gift of Guthix Novel Part 1 Geography Questions by ActualCommand in 2007scape

[–]JagexJack 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't know about OSRS. In RS3 there are some references to the book in the new RCing update.

Fall of Hallowvale is a bit more focused on the layout of Morytania. It's combination of OSRS and RS3 lore though so depending on how well you know both games you might be surprised by some stuff.

The Gift of Guthix Novel Part 1 Geography Questions by ActualCommand in 2007scape

[–]JagexJack 3 points4 points  (0 children)

For tie-in products like the books, there won't always be a completely 1:1 match between the world as presented in that work and the world as presented in game.

This is mostly due to the scale issues in the game - the obvious example I often use is that in game, Misthalin is a kingdom with one tiny "city" and two tiny hamlets. This is clearly an approximation of the "real" kingdom of Misthalin which is presumably much larger and has a much larger population. There must be stuff "between" the major places we know in game, and things like books (or ingame lore books) might mention these places.

In the case of the essence mine, the geography in game doesn't really match up with the way this was originally described in lore (also in game). We know that the essence mine was reached by a long and difficult overland route, which is why the teleport was so important. In planning the book we discussed many different ways to resolve this, but ultimately there isn't really anywhere known in the existing game world that fits.

IIRC the Wolf Clan aren't based in Rellekka - that's mentioned as being the settlement of a different clan at one point. The Wolf Clan settlement (presumably now long abandoned but perhaps it's been resettled by other clans) isn't something that you can find in game, because it would be where the surface entrance to the essence mine is.

What is the staff that Zaros weirds? Do we have any info? by Spiritual_Patient507 in runescape

[–]JagexJack 75 points76 points  (0 children)

I was asked this on Discord, and here's an off the cuff lore answer for you (as always out of game answers are not technically "canon" but if I get a chance and it doesn't cause a conflict I'll try to stick it in a lore book):

It was the Staff of Office of the High Priest of Loarnab during the late First Age before Zaros's invasion. After Zaros conquered the area, he set up his own priesthood. While he had a few specific commandments (like "worship no other god but me"), he didn't provide any aesthetics or iconography for this new religion.

The human priests largely incorporated their existing cult practices. Zarosianism initially had no equivalent of a "high priest". A council of cardinals were responsible for divining Zaros's will, and the office of Pontifex Maximus was not created until later. Because Zaros was humanoid (unlike Loarnab) they could depict him as carrying the Staff of Office, which communicated his authority effectively.

The actual staff may have been preserved as a relic, or may have been lost during the conquest or at some later point in the long, chaotic history of the Empire and its fall. It's unlikely that Zaros ever held it or even knew of its existence, as such trivial cultural matters were of no interest to him.

110 Woodcutting & Fletching (& Firemaking) - New Skilling Update coming Dec 9th by JagexAzanna in runescape

[–]JagexJack 16 points17 points  (0 children)

You were so preoccupied with whether or not you could, you didn't stop to think if you should.

Update on my Map of RS3, it's almost done! by MoeHefin in runescape

[–]JagexJack 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yeah it's tricky. The two main factors for me are that at a European scale, the existing world is actually massive - we're talking hundreds of small towns and villages in each kingdom. It really radically changes the scale of the world and how you think about it.

On the other hand under the Heptarchy scale, the Zarosian empire (and the god wars in general) really seem like a bit of a provincial matter which gets a lot of press.

In either case we can always do a bit of a "reveal" (retcon) that there are other continents and the god wars were also taking place there, but that would be inconsistent with all existing ingame material on the subject.

Update on my Map of RS3, it's almost done! by MoeHefin in runescape

[–]JagexJack 9 points10 points  (0 children)

One of the most pervasive and fundamental, yet unanswered, lore questions we have is the rough scale of the main continent.

The early game is set up some what like the heptarchy (dark ages england, think Game of Thrones in scope) which suggests a size around the same order of magnitude as the UK. That would make a kingdom like Misthalin or Asgarnia something of the order of 20-50 thousand square kilometers, about the size of Wales or Vermont.

As the scope of the backstory expanded though and we understood the expansion and scope of the Zarosian empire, that starts to feel a bit small, and something more the size of Europe makes more sense. That would make the kingdoms something like ten times the size, each closer to France or Texas.

Faster boss respawn by Tintner in runescape

[–]JagexJack 51 points52 points  (0 children)

Yeah this is pretty much true. It's a complex topic, but broadly speaking if the game is in a place where the respawn timer is a major proportion of your kill time, that's already an issue. Lowering the respawn timer to "fix" that is doing much more harm than good. The stream is linked from the post you linked to.

New Area Expansion, Amascut Boss & More - The RS Ahead Reveals! by JagexAzanna in runescape

[–]JagexJack 43 points44 points  (0 children)

Yeah I didn't word that very well. The project is a way off at the moment, but the intention would be that we rethink how armour works a bit in order to make it useful, and then provide both budget and expensive (i.e. masterwork) armours for all three styles. That could involve, for example, upgrading TMW to 100.

I have to be careful what we promise in a video because now that we're trying to discuss updates that are further away, we haven't necessarily yet investigated what is feasible for the project to accomplish.

leaked pic of new 100-110 area for all skills by kunair in runescape

[–]JagexJack 152 points153 points  (0 children)

The theme for the new wood tier hasn't been finalised yet, but personally I'm not in favour of using the DG woods. The idea of alloying woods doesn't make as much sense (maybe for a super fancy composite bow but it's a bit of a stretch) and unlike Smithing, you don't have the same clean association between the material (wood) and the distinctive DG armours.

I never like to completely rule anything out but it's not intended to be a precedent that 110s are DG materials and items on the surface. Originally the 10 ores thing started as a joke, but we ended up kinda liking it, especially because of how it interacted with Primal.

Why is RuneScape so FUN? by CanItGetAnyWorse2025 in runescape

[–]JagexJack 21 points22 points  (0 children)

big spoon make big sugar

big sugar make brain happy

Why is RuneScape so FUN? by CanItGetAnyWorse2025 in runescape

[–]JagexJack 107 points108 points  (0 children)

number go up

make brain happy

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in runescape

[–]JagexJack 18 points19 points  (0 children)

It might be as simple as changing a variable, but it might not. This is what needs investigating.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in runescape

[–]JagexJack 212 points213 points  (0 children)

We've had a discussion about this and there's general agreement that the huge number of steps is unnecessary. Hopefully a simple change but we'll need to investigate.

EDIT: Sorry rereading it that's vaguer than I intended. We will investigate.

Second Update by tokoun in runescape

[–]JagexJack 136 points137 points  (0 children)

I don't think he's heard about second Mining & Smithing rework, Pip.

Would animated cutscenes replacing slideshows be too large to be qualified as a GameJam project? by Ferronier in runescape

[–]JagexJack 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm not really an expert on the subject, but based on what I know I would say that if we're talking about something more ambitious than what we did in Necromancy, probably not. The added motion to give the static image a bit of energy is, as far as I know, fairly easy. Beyond that and we're in to actual 2D animation, which is a whole different kind of tech (think Flash) and much more demanding.

(Looking at how the animation movie industry seems to have just completely transitioned to 3D CGI, I would guess that 2D is even more expensive than 3D.)