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As I’m sure a large number of you know (Assuming you’ve been keeping up with RuneScape’s recent News and Updates), JAGeX has begun showing some fan sites their support. RuneVillage is grateful to be one of these websites.
JAGeX has held special e-mail interviews with a few websites and we were lucky enough to be a part of that. While we, the staff, realize we were a little late on getting OUR interview up, it was only because we were spending our time on it to make sure that things turned out the best they could. In fact it was Mod Mark, the Lead Designer over at JAGeX that personally answered all of our questions! Needless to say we are very proud of the turnout and hope for their continued support.
So here we are with answers to the questions that YOU, the heart of RuneVillage, asked the team. While we may have touched up the submitted questions a bit, the questions we submitted were very much the ones all of you wanted answered. Sadly we did have to trim some of the questions out of the final product that we sent in. Don’t worry though, I think I can safely say that this won’t be our only time speaking with the JAGeX team!
So without further delay here are the answers you’ve been waiting patiently for! If you want to just jump right in and find the question that you asked, go ahead and look for your username. The credit for each question has remained with the person(s) that asked it.
The RuneVillage Interview With Mod Mark
[Eastgotenks] - Have you ever given thought to adding a feature that says how much time you've spent in the game is or even allow a player to see how old their character is?
[ Mod Mark] Yes. It’s something we know players would love to see but have never found a good way to get that information to our players. We have given a few out recently via the forums but I know we’re working on a better way for everyone.
[DragonCrusher1] - How do you feel the game and its community have progressed over the years?
[ Mod Mark] Community - Fantastically. I really enjoyed the small community we had back in the classic days, but we could never have kept that kind of personal approach given the volume of players we had. These days we can do other things like support your events and give staff presence at key moments ingame, which we really struggled to do before. I’m very proud of our community (and to be part of it) and am always pleasantly surprised by the kind of discussions in our forums.
The game is even more amazing for me. I don’t want this to sound like a sales pitch but I still love it after 6 years, as a player and as a designer. The recent graphical update has given the game a new feel again and it’s always exciting to work in new areas. In my mind, the game and quality continues to grow, certainly if you look at the way our quest writing has changed over the years, and the depth of the new content we release. I do reminisce of the days of classic and “thinking” about mining, but am very pleased at the way the game has progressed. I do miss the old RS classic dragon longsword inventory model though, that ruled. Anyway its sounding a bit too much like a marketing blurb so I will stop there.
[Donut Juice] - Have you ever thought of raising the skill level cap past 99, whether it be through lowering the experience between skills or simply extending the cap with the current xp ratios? With certain weapons, it's almost possible to hit the maximum amount of hitpoints, so hitpoints for example would be a skill that could benefit from having a higher cap.
[ Mod Mark] Yes we do talk about this kind of update, but there are negative sides to doing something like that. For example, to lots of players, reaching 99 is a big enough achievement without us raising it even higher. However we are aware that 99 hit points might not be enough to compete much longer, especially if we introduce weapons even more powerful than the current top gear.
[Matt258] - Currently the experience cap is 200m experience, a cap which many players have reached in various skills. That being said, have you considered changing the cap to a higher number?
[ Mod Mark]Yes we do think about these sorts of updates, 200m was just a number we picked. It could easily have been a different number. We do always consider those players at number 1 who reached 200m first, and would have to carefully consider all options before doing something like that. We don’t want to remove the achievements made by people to get there first.
[Purez Skillz] - Is there any plan to revisit the drop tables of old monsters who have had their rare drops become more common and decrease in value?
[ Mod Mark] Yes. Rebalancing existing content is arguably harder than introducing new content, but were not happy about areas of the game which aren’t considered worthwhile anymore. We will fix them, just give us time.
[Pyro3000] - What has been the hardest update?
[ Mod Mark] The introduction of trade limits and changing the old wilderness. It wasn’t something we really wanted to do, but we knew we had too to preserve the game. I honestly believe that if we hadn’t done it the game would be in a terrible state right now, but it certainly wasn’t fun or easy to do. Normally we really enjoy all the updates we write, but that one was a toughy.
[Snake1235] - Are there any plans for Jagex to add content relating to the eastern lands mentioned by one of the sailors in Port Phasmtys?
[ Mod Mark] Yes! Ak-Haranu isn’t a mad man. He really does come from a far eastern land and we do want to produce content for it. However, I am quite keen to conclude more of our existing storylines and finish of our existing coastlines before making any more.
[Boa1891] Can you give us any insight into whether or not Jagex plans to add more hands-on or fun methods of training boring skills like woodcutting or fishing?
[ Mod Mark] We like to think there is room in our game for engaging skills and the more straight forward skills like this one. However, right now we’re looking at making mining more interesting at higher levels so yes, potentially. Certainly we want more diversion content like the evil tree, which in my mind is a more interesting way of woodcutting, but not on its own right with the limit of how many per day you can use.
[Matt258] - Will the Party Room ever be changed to have only your Friends able to attend it instead of the entire world?
[ Mod Mark]Possibly
[Boa1891] Do you have an official statement on what, in general, Jagex considers as "high-leveled"?
[ Mod Mark]Nothing official. Personally I consider general skills to be high leveled after about level 80, and a members only skill to be high leveled at about lvl 70.
[Blackmage172] - Do the standard laws of supply and demand and other macroeconomic/microeconomic measures affect the Grand Exchange, or does Jagex play an active role besides setting prices for new items? In other words, is RS a mixed or free market economy? What can players expect under the chosen system?
[ Mod Mark] We generally don't play an active role, besides setting the initial price, except where we have to cap the maximum or minimum price an item is allowed to reach to make the gameplay fair for everyone. The price caps are obvious when hit, since the market price of an item will be the same as either the minimum or maximum price. Also, we're looking to remove a large number of the price caps on items in the game very soon.
[Donut Juice] - Do you plan to keep discontinued items (Half Wine, Disk, etc.) and holiday items (Party Hats, H'Ween Masks, etc.) in the game forever?
[ Mod Mark]Yes.
[Palo] - Has Jagex ever considered creating a quest completely based on the fictitious "ScapeRune" area?
[ Mod Mark]Yes! We had some very odd ideas for random events based in ScapeRune, including rebuilding cows (that’s actually what the beehive event became).
[dustin] - Horses are a very popular suggestion as well. Have you ever given thought to adding horses to RuneScape, be it as transportation or for increased inventory spaces?
[ Mod Mark] Summoning provided the additional inv space. We’ve always had technical issues of making the player model fill a bigger space (which it would if it also had a horse in it), but those kinds of issues are slowly disappearing.
[Landerpurex] - Do you feel that you have properly combated real world trading and people who level unfairly using bots and other programs?
[ Mod Mark] We have combated against it as much as we feel we can right now and are happy with the results. This doesn’t mean we will stop and will continue to fight if more problems arise.
[Palo] - Will there be a new quest storyline starting soon (such as the Plague City storyline)?
[ Mod Mark]We just started a new storyline with “Tales of the Muspah” and will be resurrecting the old dwarf quests. I’m also working on a new storyline specifically for grand master quests.
[Blackmage172] - What is the future of RuneScape Classic? Many players hold the opinion that Jagex seeks to "kill" RSC; will there ever be any plans for the opening up of Classic?
[ Mod Mark] I think the act that classic is still there at all is clear enough that we don’t intend to kill it. There have been various discussions about RS classic recently and so I wouldn’t be surprised if we made an announcement about it soon.
[Rocky Martin] - Could you give us any information on an upcoming skill?
[ Mod Mark] Massive!
[Xr Rx] Will there ever be a function added to switch between first-person and third-person views in RuneScape, such as in other MMOs along the lines of Final Fantasy XI?
[ Mod Mark]Unlikely.
[RipTide] - Have you given thought to adding smilies (perhaps akin to the ones on your forums) in-game?
[ Mod Mark]No, I am not a fan of making weird icons via chat. What’s wrong with a simple :] ?*
[Landerpurex] - With the new president, do you feel like you're finding the right balance between fixing the small things and big new content releases?
[ Mod Mark]I’ve not received any more complaints from Mr. Obama about the speed of fishing monkfish or the PvP worlds, so I guess we have the balance right ? If your referring to our new CEO, then yes, I think we do have the right balance.
[Pyro3000] - What has been your favorite update?
[ Mod Mark]There’s so many. As a JAGEX employee, Chompy bird hunting was one of my favorite updates because it was the first project I QA’ed on my own for a live launch and also Tytn had let me write a few things in it so I was excited about my first launch. Icthlarins little helper was my first launch in charge of the RuneScape team, so that was pretty cool. As a player, I enjoyed mornings end part 2 immensely because it was a genuinely tough puzzle, and I love puzzles. Also the launch of the roleplaying server was a massive plus for me, because now I have somewhere to go and roleplay! I find RS much more fun if you have your own stories around your character. It’s not for everyone though and it can get in the way of leveling sometimes ?
[Landerpurex] - What level are you in RuneScape?
[ Mod Mark] I have a few accounts but my main has just hit his target of total skill lvl 1700. Next I’m trying to get my herblore up to 80! I have about 18m in the bank after selling a whole shed load of prayer pots on the GE. I’ve let my questing slip recently so have not done “While Guthix sleeps” yet, but I have the levels to do it!
__________________  It's tough, but I still play. I keep losing, but I still play! - Taichi
Digital Complex is officially launched!
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