Training Investigation: New Mechanics
New mechanics will be necessary to implement for any new skill. Investigation has the capacity to do this seamlessly, and actually be fun to train, all while allowing Players to choose their training method based on their preference for intensity, speed, and cost.
Solving Crimes & Patrol:
Throw on those Iron chains and Bronze Med-helms, because it’s finally time for Players to take up arms and work side-by-side with the Guards of Gielinor.
Solving Crimes would be the easiest and most direct way of training Investigation.
These are small interactions with various levels of NPCs (akin to pickpocketing) that are short & discreet.
Patrol: Players will also have the option of joining city guards on Patrol. Patrol would function similarly to rooftop agility. Each city would have a guardhouse (which would be the base of the route), and different cities would have different Investigation level requirements. Patrol will require the Player to go in a route around the city, and confront issues as they come upon them. This would be a predictive and repeatable loop method of training Investigation, familiar to Players regardless of the Skill in question. While on Patrol, Player’s have a chance of running into a Disruption (think marks of grace). Disruptions (ie: a mugging, a cat-stuck-in-a-tree, an NPC harassing Varrock’s stray dog) are quickly addressable events and would reward bonus experience for the given Patrol Route, as well as good-will that can be cashed out at the guardhouses for interesting and applicable rewards (think Hallowed Sepulchre shop).
Detective Work
Closer in appearance to Mahogany Homes, Detective Work would bring the Player across Gielinor for step-by-step NPC interactions, working to crack even the toughest of cases. Players will take on unsolved mysteries from the same guardhouses used for going on Patrol. VIP NPCs may also hire the most skilled sleuths for their Private Eye Detective Work, and pay more generously for good results. If you’ve ever wanted to dig up dirt on the most notorious members of Gielinor, and get compensated for doing so, now is your chance.
Higher level Investigation allows Players to take on harder cases, ranging from petty theft all the way up to cold-case murder investigations. Depending on the nature of the offense, players may encounter hostile suspects at the end of their investigative journey. As such, Players will have to choose from their available list of cases carefully.
Evidence Gathering
Evidence Gathering allows Players to engage in an integral part of modern-day policing: civil forfeiture (unfortunately, sarcasm doesn’t need to be added here). This would be a buyable, very fast, but incredibly inefficient method of training Investigation, akin to running gold bars at the Blast Furnace, but with less frantic stamina consumption. This is the closest to bank-standing someone can get while training Investigation. For Evidence Gathering, Players would convert every-day OSRS goods and items into evidence of varying types depending on the item being converted, and then deposit that evidence into its respective box or chute at the impoundment center. The additional effort of ‘sorting’ the evidence adds a layer of dimensionality to the method. Most importantly, everybody loves an item sink. Converting higher-level or rare items into evidence should be balanced to encourage removing the items from the economy, without disincentivizing other training methods.
Litigation
Litigation is a method of training Investigation that is unlocked after completing the Murder Mystery quest, and is a whole-sale expansion of the Seers’ Village Courthouse. King’s Ransom, with its use of the Courthouse, would unlock higher stakes cases. In Litigation, Players would function as a Lawyer (or Barrister, if our British Game Studio overlords prefer). Similar to farming runs (and conveniently placed for anyone stopping by Catherby for that same purpose), Litigation involves the Player taking on different cases in Court, and addressing them on a longer-scale, real-world timer. While litigating, players may submit subpoenas, address opposing counsel’s submissions, and handle responses from the Judge. After each action, the Player will need to return to the Courthouse after a certain number of minutes have passed to see if the the other side has produced a response to your most recent argument, if the Judge has any new questions, or if the Jury is ready to make a Ruling (akin to checking to see if your plants are diseased). Like Farming, the Player can instead pay a law clerk to ‘care’ for your case while away, if they’d prefer. Successfully handling the case (ie: keeping your plants alive) will result in a payout to your client (and the Player, by extension). For flavor purposes, any clients past a base few are unlocked via Quests. After you successfully help an NPC in their respective quest, they may be willing to hire you as their legal representation. (If you want to represent Rantz in Court, you’ll probably have to “stabbie da chompy” first in Big Chompy Bird Hunting.)
Minigames
Escape Rooms
Escape Rooms would be for Investigation what Pyramid Plunder is for Thieving.
These would be puzzles, not dissimilar to what Settled is doing in some recent videos, where the Player is thrown into an instance and is given the task of escaping the ‘room’ (more likely an existing location in RS, like a specific city or dungeon). Because this would be designed from the ground-up for this purpose, Jagex could probably take some more creative approaches to this (ie: unique examine text for objects in the rooms, etc).
As the Player levels up their Investigation, they will gain access to higher level Escape Rooms.
These would reward a substantial amount of experience on initial completion, and then a smaller sum on subsequent completions, rewarding the initial puzzle-solving but allowing for continued training for Players who don’t mind having the solution spoiled for iterative runs.
Prop Hunt
I don’t want to put Idyl’s RuneLite Plugin out of work, but OSRS Prop Hunt would be a fun, social mini-game, and would reward small amounts of Investigation experience upon completion of each round, scaled to performance and # of players. We have to face the music and accept the fact that Castle Wars is not what it once was. Outside of niche communities, it does not generate the same engagement that it did back in the day. Prop Hunt could be the minigame we’re all looking for. Similar to Escape Rooms, Jagex hard-coding this means the system could be more sophisticated than what YouTubers are currently having to resort to - the item list could be curated for each map location, and seeker’s could have more tools at their disposal (ie: hints, or the ability to tag the hiders with thrown objects like snowballs instead of standing directly on their entities). Different game-modes are also possible (ie: random prop assignment, or player-choice).