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Gielinor Gazette - October 2021



Can you believe we haven't had a Gielinor Gazette since last year... crazy right? For those that don't know, the Gazette is a monthly newspost featuring in-depth content design articles from our wonderful devs, production updates from the leads and a chance to welcome new members of the team.

For its return this year we wanted to give it a bit of a revamp, bringing back some classic Gazette sections - Postbag from the Hedge and the Player Showcase Gallery! These we classic staples of past Gazettes, which many of the team look back at fondly.

Within the first Gazette of 2021 we say hello to the whopping over 20 J-Mods that have joined us this year! Plus, Mod Elena offers a look into the design of Group Ironman and we update you on some of the future content coming to Old School, including a look at what the New Client features are like on Mobile!

It's great to be back. So make your favourite sarnie, a nice cuppa' tea, and sit back for a good read!

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[h2]Project Status Update[/h2]


Recent Leadership Livestream

Last week's live stream was a big one, and a leadership presence on the streams was well overdue. Mods Ayiza, Kieren, and Sween were joined by Mod Markos - Old School's new Executive Producer. We sought to give you some insight into concerns such as account security, the Duel Arena and more. Let's break down some of the key announcements:
  • Duel Arena: In the long-term, we plan to replace the Duel Arena with more engaging content. In the meantime we'd like to explore some other changes, like the introduction of a staking cap. More information will follow later this month.
  • Account Security: In the livestream Mod Markos, the new Executive Producer, stated that Account Security will be a priority of his, acknowledging that it has been far too long since we promised changes.
  • Games Rules and RWT: Beginning later this month we'll be adapting our approach to RWT. Currently, we focus on tackling those who sell wealth or services, but we're going to renew our attention on finding the players who are buying wealth or services. We're also exploring new reporting options for different types of rule-breaking.
  • The Game Economy: You've asked us to pay close attention to the game's economic health, and we plan to do just that. We've even hired some economists to help advise us! We'll talk about our plans in more detail later this month.
  • Nex In Old School: Following the Summer Summit we saw that, despite a lot of excitement for the content we announced, you wanted something more permanent and playable. We've been investigating backporting Nex with an Old School flavour, but before we poll it there'll be a blog (in a few weeks time) and an in-game beta to test proposed rewards.
WIP images of the Boss Room & Nex.


Group Ironman

Can you believe we're just two days away from Group Ironman's release? What a journey it has been since its initial announcement back at RuneFest 2019. It is the result of a huge collective team effort. So, get ready to travel to The Node with your friends from 11am BST on October 6th!

As usual, there'll be a newspost alongside the release to give you all of the information you need. This has been a highly requested gamemode, even prior to the actual announcement. Just as Ironman was led by Boaty and Faux, we've really enjoyed watching the likes of EVScape, Purpp, RonPlaysGames, and Skiddler pursue their unofficial Group.

We really appreciate your patience over the last two years, and we can't wait to see what you get up to!


Leagues III

Our third League is making amazing progress. It's called Shattered Relics and launches on November 3rd! Following the announcement at our Summer Summit, much of the design has been finalised and we have released the Rewards Poll Blog, so check it out and make sure to have your say!


Tombs of Amascut

We've shared a lot more information on the third Raid since August. We released a newspost and ran a Beta for the potential rewards and there was an amazing reception at our Summer Summit. We're delighted to share with you all that a new Rewards Blog and Beta will be arriving this month, so look out for them when they drop soon! Art pre-production has also made great progress.

Concept art from Tombs of Amascut.


Wilderness Changes

The Wilderness changes blogged back in July are now in development. The first batch has been released, consisting of the final Equipment Rebalance changes and an altered Revenant Cave entrance.

Regrettably, it's taken us much, much longer to get round to these changes than we'd hoped. A huge but critical technical rework was recently urgently required, taking out a developer of the project for multiple months. In addition to this, we've also had to reallocate resource in support of upcoming content. This left us in a position where our only option was to wait for this work to be signed off before resuming anything Wilderness-related. Delaying content is something we'd rather avoid, and while we are committed to delivering the changes as promised, the long-term health of the game always remains our top priority.

Now for the good news! The technical rework is now in QA, and the remaining jobs from Poll 75 are done. We are finally seeing progress, but in the interest of transparency, we'd say that we are not out of the woods just yet. With the delays pushing us into what is now a jam-packed schedule of upcoming content, our dev capacity is not where we need it to be in order to bring these updates together. We are committed to those changes and will do them with no compromise on quality, no matter how long it takes us.

Thank you for your patience so far, and rest assured that we wish to see these changes in the game as much as you do.


Wilderness Boss Rework

Work on this will kick off once the above has been completed. In the interim, the art team has progressed with sketches and concept art for environments and rewards.

Vet'tions Chamber Concept


Venenatis's Lair Concept #1


Venenatis's Lair Concept #2


Steam Client Features

Last month, our Steam Client was updated with a second batch of features including Agility helpers, increased draw distances, a zoomable minimap and more! The team continues on its quest to deliver a client that really enhances your Old School experience. Additions thus far include:
  • Opponent Information HUD
  • Buff Bar and Ammo Display
  • Stat Boost Timers
  • Fishing Spot Indicators
  • Tile Markers
  • Chambers of Xeric Helper
  • Mouse-Over Tooltips
  • Chat History Improvements
  • Orb Visual Timers
  • FPS Settings
  • Anti-Drag Settings
  • Settings Menu Re-organisation
  • Draw Distance Settings
  • Tile Indicators
  • Improved UI Scaling
  • Agility Helpers
  • Minimap Improvements

And this is just the beginning! We've got tons of exciting features on the way in the near future that will improve your experiences with Clue Scrolls, loot and more.

In the meantime, our third drop of new features is just around the corner, arriving on October 20th! This release will focus on Skilling Helpers such as respawn timers, XP trackers and the introduction of our Client-Side Panel.

Here's a full list of what's coming with Drop 3:
  • New Side Panel
  • XP Tracker Sub-Panel
  • Slayer Helper and Task Streak Tracking
  • Respawn Timers (Ore and Woodcutting)
  • Improved Poison/Venom Info
  • Logout Notifier

Now, we know that a lot of you have been asking about the progress of new mobile features. We are delighted to say that it's going very well, and you can get a cheeky sneak peek in a few screenshots below. Please note: these screenshots are still a work in progress.

Opponent Information HUD & Attack Style Visual.


Slayer Helper & Tracker.


Here's the NEW Side Panel!


If you don't want it, that's fine too!


Combat with the Side Panel.


Cutting Logs with the XP Tracker Side Panel.


Agility Helpers.

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[h2]Group Ironman - Development Process[/h2]

by Mod Elena


Hi all! I’m Mod Elena, lead developer on the Group Ironman project. I’d like to share some of the project's history, as well as some insights into the design decisions that were made and the development process that we've been using.

Group Ironman is rapidly approaching its launch, after having been on the horizon for so long. The first design document for it was created in January 2018 – so there was talk of it more than three years ago! Back then we knew we definitely wanted to do it at some point, but we didn’t yet have the technology to do so. Clans had to come first, but now that's out the system for Group Ironman is nearly all in place.

I was left alone to start working on the design for the game mode immediately after Clans launched back in May. The very first thing I did was look at what others had done before me. There was various documentation about meetings and talks, and just general ideas of what the game mode should be. I kept most of it – scrapped some – and then went back to the drawing board. In my head I was trying to picture what the game mode means to me, and what I wanted it to be. I tried to imagine the core game loop of making a character, becoming part of a group and then competing within that group. Thinking about these things as a general high-level concept made the next steps very easy because I was left with a million questions, such as “how do I find players to group with?” and “how would groups make decisions fairly?”. I jotted down all the questions, and then proceeded to try to answer them all in a rough first draft of the design.

I quickly realised that I didn’t have all the answers myself. At a high-level concept, sure, I knew that Group Ironmen should have typical Iron-restrictions when interacting with players outside of their group, while at the same time acting as main-accounts when interacting with players within the group. But what I didn’t know were things such as “What happens when a player leaves a group?” or “How do we make sure no groups get an unfair advantage?”. I started conversations with groups of players and colleagues to really get to the bottom of it all. The discussions were incredibly valuable and shed light on aspects I hadn’t even considered – all helping me make more informed decisions.

Once I was satisfied with the design, I sent it around to the Juggernauts (my development team) for them to review. Their feedback was extremely valuable and I adapted the design further, before sending it around to the wider Old School team. The initial reaction was “Group Ironman is finally happening!”, followed by more constructive criticism for me to address. These feedback loops are common with projects like this. Usually we start development shortly after the design is finalised and all the internal feedback has happened. However, we were scheduled to do Deadman Mode before Group Ironman, so the Juggernauts put Group Ironman on hold and rallied around Combat Achievements and Deadman Mode first.

In the next few months while we developed other content, there was a lot of talk about the scheduling for Group Ironman. To help with scheduling, we always break down the project into different jobs that we then assign point values to in order to determine how big of a job it is. For Group Ironman, we had jobs such as 'Forming a Group' and 'Selecting the GIM mode'. We then estimated how much time each would take, and checked if we could fit it all in the time that we had left. Sadly, we could not. This meant we had to thoroughly assess each job and evaluate its importance. Do we really need it for launch? What value does the feature have? Where is our time best spent? These are all questions we had to ask ourselves as we tried to make the project as good as it could be in the available time.

In August 2021, the development finally started. The art team got a head start by beginning one sprint before the rest of us while we finished off the final touches on Deadman. That meant that when we began on development, there was already a bunch of assets such as new armour and a brand-new island waiting for us - The Node.

I’ve been in lots of talks with the engine team about how the HiScores should work, as well as exploring what we can do with Shared Storage. It’s something that I’ve been wanting to see in Old School ever since I started working on Clans in January, and I believe it will make a huge difference to Group Ironman gameplay. This is new territory and requires a lot of work, which is why it took us a while to figure it out. Luckily, the engine team figured out how to provide it, and I'm so excited to see us have Shared Storage for the launch of Group Ironman.

We currently have six content developers on the project (Mods Arcane, Ash, Husky, Mac, Tide, and myself). Having this many developers on the same project can be tricky, especially when we work on the same files. It’s kind of like trying to cram six people into a kitchen and telling them to prepare a meal together. It takes a lot of communication to make sure we don’t trip over each other.

A typical workday for me on Group Ironman starts with a morning meeting, where everyone on the project gets together to catch up. It’s very brief, and everyone says what they’ve been up to since they last spoke, and what they plan on doing next. It’s a good way of flagging any unexpected things that may come up so that we can identify and deal with issues early. I typically spend most of the rest of the day talking to different people to make sure things are running smoothly. Whenever there’s a question about the Group Ironman design, I am the go-to person. This could be from the marketing team making sure that their videos are suitable, artists wondering exactly how an asset will be used, developers checking if they’ve interpreted the design document correctly, and so on. When I’m not overseeing development or taking deep dives into engine code with Mod Boko to explore how we can make things work from a technical standpoint, I may finally get some time to code.

I hope you enjoyed the little peek behind the curtains on how development has gone down for Group Ironman! I've been writing most of this from my point of view, but know that with me is a large team of very talented and passionate people who are working very hard to make this project the best it can be. I can certainly say that everyone working on this project is extremely excited to see it launch, and we hope you are too. Group Ironman will arrive soon – and I will be playing it myself in my spare time. I hope to see you on The Node!

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[h2]Old School's Ins and Outs[/h2]

We've welcomed over 20 J-Mods since our last Gazette. How incredible is that? Several different areas of the team have grown and expanded - we are excited for the future of Old School and how the team is shaping up! A few of the new starters tell us a little bit about themselves below, but please make sure to give a warm welcome to the other members of the team: Mods Dibber, Dnz, Dylan, Grub, Ivee, Kirby, KT, Kurotou, Light, Matheus, Nylu, Sigma & Sova.


Mod Markos has joined as Executive Producer

Hi there, I'm Mod Markos! I've been at Jagex for some time including many years on RuneScape and a spell on Old School back in 2019.

I've played a fair amount of RuneScape over the years (although I'm still some way off being high level) and tend to gravitate towards questing for the storytelling and skilling because I love watching the numbers go up! Outside of RuneScape I tend to play a lot of open world RPGs and have been an avid gamer for as long as I can remember.

In my role I'm responsible for the general running of the game and am looking forward to working with the team and community on delivering lots of great, new updates over the coming years!


Mod Meat is our new Game Engine Developer

Hi players! My name is Mod Meat and I have just joined Jagex as a game engine developer on Old School RuneScape. I’ve been programming since I was a teenager and playing RuneScape for even longer, so the idea of working for Jagex is a dream job for me. I always played RuneScape free-to-play as a kid and only recently got back into the game during lockdown, so I’ve been loving exploring all the old and new content that I missed out on. My favourite thing about the game has to be the hilarious and quirky humour. I recently did the Cold War quest and I think it’s the most I have ever laughed while playing a video game (who knew 'The Thing' from Sheep Shearer was just two penguins in a sheep suit?). I’m looking forward to developing our engine to support all the great new content coming up, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.


Mod Regent is our new Producer

My name is Mod Regent, I am the new producer working on the Old School team. I have in games for nine years now, having previously worked in indie (Freejam) then in triple-A (2K) and now I have the opportunity to work with the incredible team here at Jagex. Having played RuneScape since 2004, it was always a childhood dream to work here, and not one I thought would ever happen.. but 17 years later here I am! I have never really been able to quit RuneScape and when they announced Old School in 2013, I couldn’t wait to jump back into the game and have been playing ever since.

It is an incredible privilege to work with the team here and I look forwards to helping them develop all of the incredible content we have planned - made doubly exciting as I get to play it all after!


Mod Con is our new Junior QA Analyst

Hiya, I am Mod Con. I am happy to say I am joining Jagex as a Junior QA Analyst on the Old School team! This is my first proper experience with the games industry, having been a student from 2020. The games experience I do have comes from my studies and making my own projects in my free time. Oh and playing them, of course (stuff like MMOs, platformers, adventure games, RPGs etc). I haven’t had much time with Old School but I'm having a lot of fun with it (loving the humour of the quests and the chill nature of just playing the game). But I've heard lots about the game throughout the years, which makes me glad that I get to help test such an iconic MMO.

I am excited to start testing the game with all the upcoming content, helping the devs out and helping ensure bugs are tackled so you the players can continue to enjoy the game and have fun. :)