Q&A Improved
Q) Mainiac97 – You should put maps for caves and such on the world map.
A)Paul – I agree.
Q)Matbob20 – Many over the past year have suggested new guilds like fletching and woodcutting by the Ranging Guild, and a farming guild has at least 500 supporters. What are you going to do about the guilds and how often do you look at our ideas?
A) Paul – I think the immediate focus guild-wise may be on making some of the older guilds useful again. We already have a Ranging Guild, but it’s not the most popular of guilds at the moment. If there are ideas floating around to improve it, they could be interesting.
That’s not to say that we won’t think about doing a new guild, too. So, yes, player suggestion threads on those topics are of interest to us.
We’ve always looked at player ideas quite a lot, but just recently we’ve ramped that up even more.
Q) Sir Kilot95 – Could you graphically update parts of RuneScape that just don’t fit in with places like Varrock? Draynor, for example.
A) Mod Roderick – Although we’re continually improving the graphics, RuneScape is so large it can take time to update the entire world. You’ll usually find that as content is adjusted or improved the associated graphics will also be reworked. When designing new content we consider using existing areas to allow such improvements to be made more often.
Q) Pyro Bond – It would be wonderful if you could make an official clan database not just a “clan chat”, because they just fall apart after a few weeks.
Q)Kingrandy0 – What kind of future plans are in store for Clans?
Q)Digory Barns – I would also like to see more updates in the Clan Community, such as POCs and POEs (Player Owned Cities; Player Owned Empire). A new rank in the chat would be nice.
Q)Lordjay82 – Make stuff for Clans. Clans need stuff to symbolize their status.
A) Mod Roderick – I’d like more features for both combat- and skill-based clans. Part of the Stealing Creation design was based on the idea that skill clans could ally with combat clans, and the alliance system there allows six clans to enter a game. That’s 600 players in a game!
You’re right, though, Pyro Bond. As far as the game knows, clans are little more than a chat channel. This means that technically we’re still quite limited in what we can do with clans. It would require significant work to be able to have Player Owned Cities or similar clan facilities, although it would certainly add an interesting aspect to the game and be well worth the technical challenge.
Q) Xeniel6 – There is a lot of mystery and intrigue surrounding the different gods of RuneScape. Perhaps you might know a bit about them?
A) Paul – As you complete quests you may well start to realise that, with RuneScape gods, all is not as it first seems. I won’t spoil the storylines by explaining the gods here, but I can mention I’m working on a quest involving the Mahjarrat, who take gods rather seriously.
Q) Callum2a – What is your stand on players making RuneScape videos? Do you believe that it is a good way for players to express their creativity and individuality? And do you think it brings the RuneScape Community closer together?
A) Mod Roderick – I love watching player-made RuneScape videos. Some are very amusing, and show RuneScape player culture in a way we can’t express in the game without breaking the “fourth wall”.
It’s certainly nice to see player’s interpretations of the RuneScape world, particularly with obscure subjects.
As a Content Developer, videos can also be a great resource. They allow you to look back in time to when an update was launched, and see exactly how players responded to new content. It’s especially useful for assessing content which no longer exists, such as holiday events.
Q) Johnnyharris1 – Do you write the script and story line for the game as you go along or is it all planned out?
A) Mod Roderick – There’s a lot of back-story and RuneScape history which is not yet revealed in the game, but there’s still freedom to create individual storylines for each quest series. The actual dialogue tends to be written while a quest is being made, though sometimes short sections of chat will be written earlier to help the developer get a better understanding of the characters involved.
Mod Mark – There are parts of storylines that Paul wrote years ago, before I was even with the company (wow, that’s 6 years now!), that we’re not even close to talking about yet. Plotlines like the Stone of Jas have been talked about ever since I started here, and it was only in “While Guthix Sleeps” that we started to talk about it seriously. Of course, several people noticed the spoilers that existed in the game beforehand, but there was nothing established as fact until the launch of that quest. Then, of course, there’s the big Z…
Q) Wilmslow – What high level are you working on?
A) Mod Roderick – I’m currently planning an update to Prayer. As you can imagine, anything which has an impact on combat has to be very carefully considered. It can’t be created in haste, so this is at a very early stage of development.
Q) Wilmslow – Are you working on other ways to make accounts unique such as races/classes/tribes or such?
A) Mod Mark – No, not at the moment. Experiencing life as a monkey or a goblin or even a penguin tends to be restricted to specific quests and areas – RuneScape wasn’t really built with other races in mind, and it’s technically difficult to do with the tools we have available. We have been considering special minigame environments where you could play different beasts or creatures, though, so it’s not an impossibility in the future. I would certainly love to be able to play a bear. Bears rule.
Q) Fitzcairn – Zaros’s return has been hinted at for a long time now. Will it be achieved this year?
A) Mod Mark – Zaros likes to remain mysterious about such things, and isn’t likely to let even us know when he intends to return. However, a select team of developers led by Paul is trying to find out 
Q) Freak Nerd01 – Can we make a dragon pickaxe?
A) Mod Mark – Dragon pickaxes will be released in the future. I can’t really say anything more than that, but it did come up in discussion this week, so we haven’t forgotten about it and we DO have a plan.
Q) Heavenlyevil – How often do you intend on releasing Development Diaries?
A) Mod Mark – Whenever the developers feel like they have something to say. Think of them like a blog – you’d post on a blog if you felt like you had something you wanted to share. DD’s will be the same.
Q) Darth Stefan – Will there be a second God Wars?
A) Mod Mark – We have strong ideas for another high level dungeon, but it’s not likely to be another God Wars…ah, hang on…are you asking me if there will be another actual war of the gods? I’d say that was very likely, especially with the return of Z being talked about so much and Guthix still fast asleep. They do like to take matters into their own hands.
Q) Fitzcairn – Could we please tie up some loose ends on quest story lines before we start whole new story lines?
A) Mod Mark – Yes, and we are doing so. You may have noticed that more quests focus on unresolved issues rather than starting new ones. We will still be producing new storylines, but not as frequently as we did before. Even the matter of how Vargas got turned into a yeti will be revealed this year!
Q) Manblood222- Can you change the environment to suit seasons?
A) Mod Mark – We would love to! Many areas of the game use snow/desert effects, so weather and seasons are a possibility for the future.
Q) Tyky95 – How much better is a dragon axe compared to rune? Is the dragon axe really worth having?
A) Mod Mark – Yes! I chatted to our balancing department about this today and learnt the following:
Dragon axes are approximately 5 to 10% better than rune axes. This depends entirely on what sort of tree you are hitting and what your current Woodcutting level is, but it’s roughly 5-10% better. Having a better axe means more logs and therefore more xp. The nice thing about dragon axes is that they are rare enough to hold their trade values – this means you can be relatively safe in the knowledge that you can buy one and resell it. Any extra logs you did get from using it would more than pay for any money you might lose from a shifting resell price, assuming you used it efficiently while you were trying it out.
Mod Roderick – Even if you only notice a small difference between two tools, over time the difference will really add up. It’s always pleasing to find threads which discuss such issues, where people take the effort to test items and publish their findings on the forums.
A nice wide range of questions there. It appears that the new head, REALLY wants to get the ball rolling.
We’ll see. Join us again (if there are any more) For the Q&A!
I said SUM IT UP. -.-
It is ridiculously long. -.-
But then again, I am probably wrong as usual. *tired*
Lol, i thought it should just get posted. And you said “add more ‘necessary’ quotes (which i didnt – thought it was too long) and just wanted it posted. I didn’t make it any longer than the last few lines
its good and tells u alot
No I did not say to add anymore quotes. O.o
I said keep ONLY the necessary ones and add PICTURES.
Good content, very valuable, thanks
Can you provide more information on this?