Behind the Scenes - June

Fish Flingers Improvements...and Bigger Fish! (Members Only)



In August 2011, we revamped the Temple Trekking minigame and we were really pleased with the results. This month, we bring you...the Fish Flingers rework! For those of you who don’t know what Fish Flingers is, it’s a great little player-skill-based D&D, suitable for all levels, where you and other players compete to become the greatest fisherman of all time...well, until the beginning of the next game, anyway.

The rework’s first job will be to dramatically increase accessibility so that it’s easier to get to Fish Flingers games between bouts of ’normal‘ fishing. Not only will the start points be permanent additions to the map, but we’ll add more of them to popular fishing areas throughout the game. Competitions will also be far more frequent, running every 20 minutes, and you’ll be able to claim 2 tickets per day rather than just 10 per week.

We’re adding a new ‘big fish‘ feature to the game, too. Players will have to cooperate with each other to land these whoppers, but the XP rewards will make the extra effort worthwhile for all. So, get involved, and don’t be koi! You don’t want to be the cod one out.

We will also completely overhaul the nature (and size) of the potential rewards. The Fishing XP will be tweaked to reward fishers who find the best tackle combinations available. You’ll also be able to earn a brand new set of fishing gear, similar to the lumberjack outfit and the golden mining gear. Each piece will improve all your earned Fishing XP while worn. We’ve also changed the tackle box reward to allow you to store raw fish, and are implementing a host of other cool features too.

Yelps is also getting involved with this update, as he temporarily renames his home ’The Squeal of Neptune’, giving you a chance to catch some brand-new cosmetic fish-themed attire!

The Crucible - The Return of Bounty Hunter (Members Only)

Back in 2011, we removed the “Bounty” mechanic. For many of you, it was a style of PKing you preferred to the traditional Wilderness, and we promised we would bring it back. Well, it’s back! And this time, it’s better than ever...



The Crucible is a giant arena that players over combat level 60 can enter to do battle with like-minded opponents. Once inside, you’ll be assigned another player as your target, resulting in some of the most dangerous, vicious, and potentially rewarding combat available in the game. If you’re successful in your assignment then you will be given a grace period where you can’t be attacked, allowing you to run away from the action, bank your loot and then leap back into the fray.

The entire area is based around solo play - so no multi-way combat - and combat can only be engaged between targets, so no rushing or PJing! Of course, you’ll need to be very sure of your abilities, because - as with all dangerous PKing - the winner of each fight will gain ALL the drops from their opponent.

Players gain points through noble actions (e.g. not running away) and victories. These points can then be spent on unique death titles, and jingles to play to your slaughtered foes. The points are also used to determine a brand new feature to RuneScape – the Supreme Champion.

If you have a high ranking within a Crucible game, you’ll have the chance to be temporarily elevated to the status of a Supreme Champion., You’ll be rendered invincible for a whole minute, and will be given access to a raft of brand new weapons only to be used within the Crucible, so you can go on a mad, crazy rampage where you can slaughter anyone in your way. Harnessing the dark powers discovered by the Crucible’s keepers, each weapon is suitable for different combat styles, with melee warriors claiming ’Annihilation‘, rangers wielding ’Decimation‘ and mages holding the mighty ’Obliteration‘ aloft. The Crucible’s a cruel, capricious place, though, and your fellow PKers will be waiting for revenge when you’re knocked from your lofty perch.

We’re also relying on a new, special combat calculation to assign targets. This means your targets will be of an ability level that is equal or similar to your own, so skill and knowledge will rule the land.

Between kills, you’ll also be able to loot corpses of long-dead warriors that are scattered around the area, providing brand new combat gloves; again, only to be worn within the Crucible. Powerful, and offering a healthy life point boost, we’re looking forward to seeing these gloves in use.
A new hiscore table, tracking kills, is being created with the update, so we’ll soon know who the most powerful PKers are...officially!

Combat Beta (Members Only)

There’s a huge amount of news, reveals, videos and general chatter about the combat rework, so I won’t repeat it all here. Suffice to say that it’s the biggest thing we’ve ever tried to do and it has already had thousands of hours of development invested into it. If you want to check it out, the beta will be open to members only, and the combat beta contract item has been delivered to the inventory of every single account today (June 1st). If you want to help us to shape the future of the game, get involved! It’s not all about combat, either (despite the name), as it brings new action bars available for all players. Want to know what an action bar is? Sign up to the beta now! Keep reading the news updates and watching our videos to keep learning about the most exciting update of the year. Be sure to check out our new Combat HQ too!

Have fun!

Mod Mark
RuneScape Lead Designer

Little disappointing month really, update to a crappy minigame and bringing back another bad one.. Expecting fish flingers won't be particularly fun nor decent for exp, more of a get the gear then run like most of these gear games.. Maybe the combat rework will make up for it, we'll see

Dosn't sound like a good month at all for updates! Blah!

Boring month is boring. Not really anything to look forward to this month content wise.

Only two updates this month.. Okay well, i like the Fish Flingers update, i like fishing and i think Fish Flingers is fun even now. I don't care about Bounty Hunter at all, so yeah.
+ I'm really excited about the Combat Beta, let's where this is going then.

To paraphrase:

Boring

Yep, that about sums it up.

Bounty Hunter doesn't interest me particularly since it is for PKers, but sounds cool for them.
Fish Flingers sounds pretty cool, I might try it out if the rewards are any good (which sounds like they will be).
Also the combat update is the big update of the year I think, so of course that is highly anticipated.

Sounds like a good month to me.

Nothing I will probably use to be honest, as far as the two updates go anyways. I was a fan of bounty hunter during my pking years but since those have passed I won't be visiting the new arena, well, maybe I'll take one of my old dormant pking accounts and check it out someday but that would require members on the account and I kind of cba getting members on those type of accounts... even when I did pk 24/7 I mostly used F2P for that reason.

To be really honest I like having these sort of "break months" where I don't have to worry about going to check out the new quest or new minigame or anything else. I can just continue what I'm doing and not worry about missing out on anything
_________

FYI: Someone should sticky this and un-sticky May's :p

FYI: Someone should sticky this and un-sticky May's :p

Done. Thanks for the reminder!

Am actually a little upset, I didnt like flish fingers anyway and cannot see why I would play it now I have 99 fishing anyway =(

Never PK'd and bounty hunter doesnt sound like would entice me away from skilling.

As for combat update, am just hoping am not let down and will make me push for 99 range