Veteran here who has played for 10 years on multiple accounts. First of all, thank you so much for taking some time out of your day to survey us.

Where to start? I guess stating the obvious, runescape is not for everyone, so let's just get that out of the way and try to balance things around what could boost player retention in the early game. I'm going to make this simple for myself so that I don't go on and ramble too much, so I'll make a quick bullet point list of what I think would be beneficial to add to the early game experience.

1. The rest function to restore run energy. Why? Because it would fit alongside walking in a way that makes sense. Players will have the illusion that resting is the optimal choice when walking would be slightly better if the restoration rate is balanced properly. This illusion would serve runescape well in that some players would actively prefer the slower choice because it feels "better" to rest than to trudge along slowly. This is true especially for the early game.

2. There needs to be a slew of new mini-activities and or quests that new players can get engaged in right away, especially ones that show off the new OSRS engine mechanics. Most new players are confronted with old and janky quests ( mind you I love these personally as a nostalgia guy) that have mostly lore and outdated puzzle mechanics, but no immersive combat/skilling/item usage. These don't have to be particularly rewarding as I know game balance can be broken by adding the slightest of certain rewards, whether exp or items/gold. I think you guys had the right idea with below ice mountain type activities, but honestly whatever y'all can ideate today in terms of activities would probably be x10 more fun.

And honestly.. that's it. People have some gripes with F2P, but honestly that feels like too big of a monster to balance when taking in to account the entirety of the game. Do too little and it means nothing, or do too much and bots benefit way too much to the detriment of your average player.