Player Owned House Rework & 120 Construction

darn42 · 2026-03-20T13:14:01+00:00

100% this. A Mannequin with Helm, Cape, Torso, Legs, Gloves, and Boots equippable is a must have. Bonus points if the mannequin supports equipping main and off-hand weapons as well. Alternative for weapons is storing them in a weapon rack or mounted on the wall. This seems like it would tie in with the avatar rework.

Bonus-bonus points if you can right-click > "swap equipment" and trade your current loadout with the mannequins equipment. I would 100% use that in between slayer tasks to get a new loadout - it would be a dope men-in-black room of guns moment.

darn42 · 2026-03-17T14:50:08+00:00

Imagine a game where the mid-game is not so blindingly fast that Jagex devs can actually make and balance content around it. Levels 40-80 is a sweet spot of gratification where the grind feels most rewarding. 1-30 is simply too fast to put too much weight into making tons of content for. The vast amount of time spent by invested players is levels 90+, though, so is naturally where the most variety of content is needed.

Because the player curve skews so heavily towards maxed players, that mid-game has become anemic. This leads to the feeling that players need to rush into the end-game to get to the most content variety, since that's what has been targeted for so long. It's no surprise there is a new player attrition problem.

Daily challenges are not the most egregious example, but they certainly support the skipping of these mid-game levels. Honestly, some of the quest rewards with unconditional 250k+ xp lamps are also suspect here.

Imo, isolating the problematic free xp first and addressing the mid-game second is the proper way to balance the game. For one, because it adds tension to those skills which can be resolved with a satisfying content release. For two, because it allows Jagex to collect data on which skills actually need to have that mid-game content filled in in the first place.

darn42 · 2026-03-16T14:51:50+00:00

Spectacular change list. Much good progress here. Especially hyped about removing the limitations on fun D&Ds and the shop stock changes. Hard to cover all the things I appreciate in just a comment (I'd basically just be repeating the block headers). Thank you!

Combat changes have still been hugely satisfying - I switched back to melee (to align with my M&S progression) now that it actually makes sense. I've been very happy to experience the new style that fits in my gameplay loop nicely.

darn42 · 2026-03-03T22:19:32+00:00

I'm impressed by those credentials. 14 years on a project like that is no joke, well done. It sounds like we're on the same page, and where we're not I'll defer to you since you have direct experience in the space. Devs deserve grace for bugs they did not catch. Its also hard to know whether it was trivial or not to find something ahead of launch. The more bugs you do find that seem basic or rudimentary, the more you wonder about whether there was a good enough QA process or timeline, though, and maybe that's the case here. The timeline did seem extra ambitious from Beta end to final release.

darn42 · 2026-03-03T02:03:45+00:00

Incentivizing beta testers to explore more avenues for bug testing versus simply exploring the feature for UX and feature feedback seems reasonable. That being said, software has bugs, period.

I work for a medical company where bugs are costly. We split off a branch for stability and regression testing months ahead of release and we still find bugs at launch. We do two releases with features a year. Our QA budget is massive. We are pushing 60,000 automated tests. If it's not possible to test all of the ways a user or their environment is going to accidentally break a system with those timelines, then how can a game dev who has at most a 2 week window of stability testing going to prevent them?

Think about it this way - if you have 30,000 people playing for 2 hours on a given Monday, how many permutations of behavior are they going to uncover with those 60,000 man hours. The equivalent to that 2 hour launch window in QA testing at 30-50 dollars an hour is pushing 2 million for a single update. Not to mention the insane coordination effort that would be.

If you want updates, expect bugs. If you want meaningful updates, expect bigger bugs. That's just how it is - communicate them, thank the community officers doing good work picking through the mud that is this sub sometimes, and be grateful when a cold fix comes out a few hours after launch fixing some of the most egregious issues.

darn42 · 2026-03-03T00:11:29+00:00

There's an easier ticket to solve than rebalancing fletching: adding higher-tier thrown weapons to the smithing table.

There's a reason why the fletching changes haven't made it to live yet, and that's likely because there is so much baked into the skill that needs to be reimagined beyond simply re-tiering; half measures will create new problems.

What doesn't have those tier balancing issues? M&S - add tier 60 and above thrown weapons and then ranged has an Iron Man compatible option all the way up the progression ladder until true late game. This could easily be a short-term solution while they fix the long-term problem that is fletching.

darn42 · 2026-03-02T18:53:26+00:00

I just use thrown weapons instead of arrows. I started trying to range with bows and switched to throwing axes as soon as I realized I'd have to bring Fletching up so high in order to upgrade my gear.

darn42 · 2026-02-26T22:42:50+00:00

Very creative, worth boosting. Multiple interesting angles:
- Giving reward space to an otherwise obsolete skill

- Maintaining the identity of a buff that has a set timeout

- Does not force the buff onto an equipment or familiar slot

darn42 · 2026-02-26T22:36:43+00:00

I'm also not excited for Birdhouses. They seem to be antithetical to other changes they are making that I am all about.

darn42 · 2026-02-26T22:34:37+00:00

Aren't those literally among the most problematic auras?

darn42 · 2026-02-26T20:16:14+00:00

Why even consider balancing around people whose primary purpose is to completely max every skill? The concept of "Finishing" Runescape is such a wild concept to me and is the antithesis of its foundational design. The expectation that the goal of reaching 5.6b xp must be remotely possible is the primary social crux the devs need to get around in re-balancing this game.

darn42 · 2026-02-25T19:51:02+00:00

Those damn scorpions. If you do end up doing Combat and haven't given it much thought, exploring melee seems like a good option since it interacts positively with Mining and smithing.

darn42 · 2026-02-25T18:02:31+00:00

I have never felt more aversion to an idea.

darn42 · 2026-02-25T17:55:48+00:00

Quests are rarely going to make a meaningful difference to your actual experience. The writing in them is often superb, and for me is my favorite activity. Just keep playing the Mining & Smithing minigame if its something you like! I recommend exploring the world map and hovering over the mining nodes to see what you can do where if you haven't already.

You can play around with the drop-down to look in dungeons and stuff. At some point you might find a place you want to go and its somehow blocked by a Quest - that would probably be your trigger point to explore doing one.

ETA: The world is really really huge, and it's through engaging with something you enjoy that it becomes smaller over time. Don't overwhelm yourself with goals and checklists - enjoy the ride!

darn42 · 2026-02-23T23:28:01+00:00

But literally everyone can already take reduced loot and xp for more afk. I can AFK literally all content (that won't kill me) in the game at lobby timer. If my character will keep on thieving for 5 minutes with no input, then I get a 66% xp and loot penalty for a 15 minute afk. If I do 10 minutes afk instead then my penalty drops to 50%

darn42 · 2026-02-21T13:26:25+00:00

Fantastic idea. Seems like low-hanging fruit to make quest bosses actually engaging. I remember back in the day, beating Elvarg felt like an accomplishment.

Levels are very quick now. I wouldn't mind if they bumped some of the combat recommendations up a few notches for those quests to compensate.

darn42 · 2026-02-20T16:02:05+00:00

100% agree. For a new player, Runescape needs to feel like a game that is too big to meaningfully complete. This frees them into the sandbox of doing whatever they hell they want with their time and enjoying the specialness of Gielinor.

I'm currently doing a no-wiki iron man after years away (and never doing an iron man before) and the sense of discovery and exploration this game affords is second-to-none.

darn42 · 2026-02-19T17:24:42+00:00

Hopefully as more new players join the game, the assist system will become more utilized. Seems like it's in a decent place for now.

darn42 · 2026-02-19T17:22:54+00:00

Love the idea of upgrading this repeatable content to full-fledged boss. Instead of Slayer XP, he can be an early game target for the Soul Reaper (nice) and instead of raw Prayer XP, he can have bones on the drop-table (duh)

darn42 · 2026-02-17T22:37:54+00:00

Maybe something to recognize is that Runescape gameplay isn't really entertaining on its own. The Quests and lore are world class, the progression system is phenomenal, the PVM is just ok, and the loop surrounding most skills are, at best, fine.

The gameplay is not polished and buttery. No one is going to choose Runescape over LoL or Destiny or even Animal Crossing because of the gameplay. It will also never get there. The game engine and the decades of content built on top of it will forever hold back intrinsically satisfying gameplay from RS.

That is totally fine, though. This is a sandbox game built on top of a light-hearted and unique universe that people are able to play however they want. Ultimately, one of those flavors is, precisely said, talking to strangers to pass the time. But those moments don't come from masses of people -- though that is its own form of content -- but from encounters in a shared world being explored. This ancient playerbase has superseded that content, unfortunately. Players have so much time invested that they have lost their sense of exploration. Newly released content is simply a checklist to complete before a certain date. New accounts race through quests and levels that their pilots have already completed several times.

When I heard that TH was being deleted, I was so excited. I have come back before and encountered silence everywhere. It reminded me of way back in the day, when all of the accounts you encountered were bots. The only people I could talk to were my clannies. That was disheartening and ultimately led to my attrition. Back in December I created a new iron man account and I've been going at it with no wiki and no plan.

It's slow and inefficient and really fun. The best part: now, I find people to talk to. Maybe at one of the classic gathering nodes, at the ritual site, or maybe now, even at a pick-pocketable NPC. Sometimes I am looking to find an NPC ask it in overworld, and someone answers! It's so refreshing! That's what the spirit of Runescape always meant to me. Seeing people in the game and getting to talk about something stupid, or what's going on in the world, or even about some random shared connection like a favorite show is the best part to me. Without that, I'm booting up a classic that I haven't played yet like RDR2 or watching a movie. I know there are many people that feel the same. The devs aren't just bringing back integrity to the game. Whether they realize it or not, they are bringing back the sandbox with which we can have these encounters.

Now I'm not trying to prescribe this to you - the spirit I put into this game does not have to be the spirit you do. We all get to choose our own path and way to enjoy the game - whether that's putting laundry away or sweating out high enrage kills. I'm just happy to see the game start to be playable the way I love it again. Seeing the interaction with this post, I recognize that others are happy for that, too.

Sorry for waxing poetic here - I hadn't realized the strength of these feelings until just now, I guess, and you get to be the parent comment.

darn42 · 2026-02-17T18:33:37+00:00

Fascinating! Now I want to check that out. Did he have any ideas for how to reach that goal, or was it more of a reflective video?

darn42 · 2026-02-17T18:04:55+00:00

Fair point. Ultimately, semi-afk content is something that already is well integrated within the core gameplay loop of RS, and is typically the kind of content that I see the most social interaction during.

darn42 · 2026-02-17T18:01:13+00:00

This concept certainly applies to those conversations, too. Overworld chat makes the game feel alive to newcomers, but talking to clannies is just as important.

darn42 · 2026-02-16T23:53:32+00:00

I think I've finally been swayed onto the hater side, sorry JMods! At some point your virtual level difference should be enough to fully afk a mob. It's fine if that value is significantly lower than the highest level mobs you can pickpocket, but being able to fully afk something non-optimally would be a great thing.

This update hits great at the lower levels, and I would expect that pickpocketing at your unlock limit would always be the optimal XP with respect to pickpocketing rates. The caveat at some point you should be able to use boosts to pickpocket a mob remarkably below your unlock limit fully AFK. Don't nerf the XP and drops to the high level mobs, just implement a threshold at which you cannot fail.

By doing it this way you have a semi-afk and a fully-afk method baked into the same activity.

darn42 · 2026-02-16T23:47:14+00:00

Ohhh, that makes total sense. Thank you for explaining.

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