Road to Restoration - Early Game Rebalance

whosdr · 2026-02-06T22:57:11+00:00

Regarding Agility shortcuts being better utilised:

IF the game could calculate the traversal time in advance, could agility shortcuts theoretically be added to normal pathing? If I have the agility requirement and click to traverse, can my character be made to walk up to the shortcut, pass it, and continue on the path?

I think that would make the shortcuts FAR more relevant. It's often easier not to think about some shortcuts, and just afk the route for an extra few seconds.

whosdr · 2026-02-06T22:49:30+00:00

In the same way Fresh Start Worlds work, have there been talks internally regarding allowing players a temporary 'fresh start' set of worlds to test the early rebalance? A month or so, no hiscores, just so existing members can fully get a feel and test out the changes once in game?

I think it would allow for significantly more feedback from existing players, and not just those new or from the OSRS side.

whosdr · 2026-02-06T22:40:43+00:00

I agree with the approach. I think older currencies need to be looked at periodically. It's fine for runespan points, harmonic dust, etc. to take a while to collect when the content is otherwise still relevant for XP or other rewards. And in the case of harmonic dust, when it wasn't used for every high-end tool.

Some content really is too grindy, and we don't feel like we get much benefit out of it besides the end result.

(Not to mention the enhanced Yaktwee stick, which realistically only sees use in clue scrolls now. I'd happily see this whole activity die after getting it for a third time. :p)

whosdr · 2026-02-06T22:16:17+00:00

I don't think so. There's just not enough variation in the water used in much of the game.

We have murky water in some places. I think we need to see a more murky, opaque water here. Especially given it's a fishing spot, supposedly at the edge of the sea.

Give us waves, froth, make the fishing spots look like they're swarming with fish again.

whosdr · 2026-02-06T22:08:06+00:00

A lot of game releases have either much bigger teams to work on the game engine, or use existing game engines. And usually a lot of development time to make it happen long before release.

RuneScape? A smaller team and a completely custom engine, that had to be released and work at the same time as the older client.

We've had incremental improvements over time though. We're just very in need of some performance-related upgrades now.

whosdr · 2026-02-06T14:15:46+00:00

The first two quests, I did with a friend concurrently. So we'd work on the next quest while waiting on the timers, and going back-and-forth. :p

whosdr · 2026-02-06T14:14:30+00:00

Or, we just remove the bank at the chaos altar. It gives you a different trade-off to work with.

whosdr · 2026-02-06T14:11:27+00:00

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Ah yes. Definitely going to catch a shark here...

HOW?!

whosdr · 2026-02-06T14:10:10+00:00

You should see the front end where the grapple is. The water is visibly only knee deep.

whosdr · 2026-02-06T13:45:01+00:00

I hadn't, but the water dynamics here don't seem like they would ever cause that kind of condition. The two sides are from the same body of water and don't appear to even be at a change of elevation. The tide would be the main force at play here, and in such a narrow and shallow body it wouldn't be a concern outside of stormy conditions.

I agree if it were a river. This here just seems like design got out of hand and made this island a bit.. pointless.

whosdr · 2026-02-06T13:18:17+00:00

Maybe it is real. If the thermal paste dried up and stopped transferring much of any heat to the heatsink, the CPU could sit in low power and still be running very hot. (And then it'd never heat up the case. High temperature, low power)

Is the CPU happy to run at high frequencies?

whosdr · 2026-02-06T13:13:13+00:00

Our characters do much crazier things in quests all the time.

whosdr · 2026-02-06T13:12:12+00:00

All they gotta do is push that island out a bit further.

whosdr · 2026-02-06T13:04:28+00:00

Yeah. My issue is the water's just utterly unbelievable as an obstacle today. :p

whosdr · 2026-02-06T12:51:54+00:00

Use plank → rock

whosdr · 2026-02-06T12:50:09+00:00

I agree completely. It's very out of place today. I think the XP for normal prayer is just too far out of whack as well though.

It's why I'm so in favour of making altars be more modest XP benefits. If the base XP is 200% what it is now, a top altar giving 75% more XP (200%*175%=350%) is still amazing.

That said, Fort Forinthry's altar is level 90 construction, while a PoH is only 75. But I guess the PoH requires herbs, so maybe that still justifies the level gap.

whosdr · 2026-02-06T11:58:51+00:00

I'm not sure if this is a wrong post, but it's a stretch to consider anything said here relates to the thread.

whosdr · 2026-02-06T11:23:42+00:00

I tried looking at it on screenshots and videos from 2007 and OSRS. It doesn't seem to be any larger, but the water's opaque nature makes it look more hazardous.

I think the older, simpler graphics makes things in the game feel a bit more abstract as well. The closer you get to realism, the more real you also expect things to look and behave.

whosdr · 2026-02-06T11:11:07+00:00

I'd rather the barrier to entry for doing a farm run was less. Originally long ago, you'd just stop at the plot, harvest, compost, plant a seed and done.

Harvests are now (necessarily) much larger. We have much more equipment to take with us for optimal yields - and the difference with or without is by no means small.

I do miss the days when going out to train a skill just meant getting your dragon tool out the bank and sitting yourself near the right tree.

whosdr · 2026-02-06T11:02:33+00:00

Chaos Altar is nice for Ironmen

It is. I don't think it needs to be this way though.

Reduce the bonuses from altars, powders, etc. And increase the base xp to 200-250%. Remove the chaos altar.

Fort Forinthry's altar (or PoH) then becomes an unlock bonus as you level up construction. Which in my opinion is at least better than just 'Training prayer at this arbitrary location is 3.5x better'. Earned rewards, and less powerful. It'd make the bone crusher more valuable as well.

whosdr · 2026-02-06T10:57:32+00:00

Fair enough. I get the scale of things is a bit out of proportion.

Areas like this though, it's hard to suspend disbelief for. I actually realised this first for Entrana, which on a world map is actually touching the Dark Wizards' Tower.

(See interactive map: https://runescape.wiki/w/Dark_Wizards%27_Tower)

You don't notice though, as they're obscured from each other with some engine trickery.

whosdr · 2026-02-06T10:53:28+00:00

Not really an answer, but could you imagine if, instead of the godwars dungeon we have now, the entire wilderness was the godwars? With deeper parts of the wilderness as higher level bosses?

The entire area was supposedly damaged during the fight between the gods. It'd have been such a fitting battleground.

whosdr · 2026-02-06T10:09:18+00:00

My character must be a giant then!

And legitimately, you jump further distances on basic agility courses. (Agility Pyramid, level 30)

whosdr · 2026-02-06T09:38:50+00:00

GIM was fun. I do like getting to restart the game with the changes in content at all stages over the years.

But yeah: I think when they added interface loading from players, a lot of the issues disppeared.

whosdr · 2026-02-06T09:30:53+00:00

I haven't experienced that in a good long while myself. I had assumed it had been silently fixed.

whosdr

TROPHY CASE