Dev Blog: Wilderness Rejuvenation II (Recently Updated)

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Dev Blog: Wilderness Rejuvenation II

mod_ayiza

October 30 2017

Dev Blog: Wilderness Rejuvenation II 

For many, the Wilderness has been the main focus of time spent in-game. First introduced to RuneScape in 2001, it is famous for being the only place where players can engage in Player-versus-Player (PvP) Combat to gain all items that the defeated dropped. Since the release of Old School RuneScape, there have been multiple changes made to the Wilderness. The most notable changes were part of the original Wilderness Rejuvenation back in March 2014 which introduced new bosses, monsters, resources and activities. 

Wilderness Rejuvenation II will bring forward changes to the Chaos Temple Altar in level 38 Wilderness making it one of the most rewarding places to train Prayer, bringing back the infamous Revenant Caves and a new miniquest, Mage Arena II - an expansion to one of the most iconic miniquests in the game. 

As with all other Poll focused Dev Blogs, we want to take some time to collate your feedback. The poll is expected to go live in-game early next week!  
Changelog

• Split the poll questions up regarding the Chaos Altar and Wilderness Diaries rewards.
• Clarified how the new God capes work with safe deaths.
• Clarified how players are rewarded for killing another player that is wearing the new God cape.
• Added a new poll question regarding recharging new God capes after unlocking the first one.
• Added a new poll question regarding non-Revenant NPC's found within the Revenant Caves.
• Adjusted the requirements for the Revenant Bracers based on community feedback.
• Clarified the effectiveness of the Revenant Cave Teleport Scroll.
• Clarified the value of players killed whilst wearing PvP armours.
• Changed the benefits of the Chaos Altar so it no longer offers a direct XP boost.
• Lowered the bonuses of the new proposed God capes.
• Clarified minor details regarding Revenant caves.
• Added additional wording regarding Loot Keys.
• Added the drop rate for the Revenant Vambraces to the related poll question.

Addressing PvP Weapons & Corrupt PvP Armour... 
We've seen a lot of talk around why PvP weapons and corrupt PvP armours are not included as part of the poll questions. The simple answer is they're too large of a job to fit into this project. Most of the options you're seeing in this Dev Blog have already been developed by Mod Jed in his free time and at the weekends, leaving mostly art and the finishing touches to be applied once we know what is passing. This means it would be a relatively quick process for us to implement them into the live game, subject to the polls passing. 

The issue with the PvP weapons and corrupt PvP armours is whilst they were great in many ways, they also brought a lot of negatives into the PvP scene and game in general. The amount of work we'd need to undertake in order to balance these would be far too much. We wanted to see how the community would react to the possibility of the standard PvP armours before offering these. If there is a good response, we can certainly look at offering them in the future. For now, we won't be offering them as we cannot commit the resource to develop and balance them, and we'd rather not offer something we can't deliver in a timely manner. 

We hope you understand our stance on this and we apologise if you had expected all of this to be done at once. 
   
The Chaos Altar
The Chaos Temple found within level 38 of the Wilderness, west of the Lava Maze, has received a lucrative buff for any adventurer brave enough to travel there. Currently the Altar provides the standard Prayer restoration properties as other altars do, but the mages of Zamorak have been busy working on making improvements any Prayer training fanatic would dream of. 

Players will be able to sacrifice bones on the Chaos Altar inside the temple with a 50% chance for the bone to not be consumed in the process of offering. The XP gained would be the same as a Gilded altar with 2 lit burners. If you've completed the Wilderness Diaries, you can potentially save an additional +10%, giving a total 60% chance for bones to not be consumed in the process of offering. 
 
In addition to this, there will be a new NPC stood near the altar which will un-note any bones you hand them for a fee. The cost for this would be 50gp per bone (1300gp for 26 bones) or for those that have completed the Wilderness Diaries, you can un-note your bones at no cost! This will be the only benefit the NPC offers. 
   
In the above image, we have 16 available spaces in our inventory and have not completed the Wilderness Diaries. This makes the cost to be the expected 50gp for each bone un-noted (16 * 50gp = 800gp).
Players who do not wish to manually use bones on the altar one by one are provided an automated queue after using the first bone, similar to altars currently found in Player owned Houses (PoHs). The default speed for this would be the same as PoHs, but for anyone with the Wilderness Elite diaries complete, it would be slightly faster. Note: Even with the Wilderness Diaries completed, this will still be slower than a skilled player manually using the bones on the altar one by one. 

Currently if a player averages 40 trips per hour using a Gilded altar in their PoH and automatically offers their bones (this means not offering each bone individually, which will drastically increase the experience gained per hour depending on how skilled the player is), they can expect to receive around 270k experience per hour when using Dragon Bones. 

If the same conditions were applied to the proposed Chaos Altar for a player that has completed the Wilderness Diaries, you would expect to receive around 360k experience per hour. Experience gained per hour for a player manually offering the bones would not increase as there is no bonus experience offered, but you would potentially save up to 60% of your bones used. 

We would expect most players to be able to complete more than 40 trips per hour at the Chaos Altar if given the freedom to do so. However, it will come with great cost. In order to achieve higher experience rates, you'll be risking your stack of noted bones to anyone that is willing to put up a fight! In addition to this, you'll likely require multiple resources at hand to fend off any attackers which will take up that valuable inventory space, lowering the overall amount of bones you can offer per hour! 
 

Poll Question
Should we add the ability for players to offer bones to the Chaos Altar found in level 38 Wilderness as described in the Dev Blog for a 50% chance to save any bone used in the process? There will be an NPC who will un-note bones for a fee.

 

Poll Question
If the proposed changes to the Chaos Altar found in level 38 Wilderness are added to the game, as described in the Dev Blog, should completion of the Wilderness diaries remove the fee to un-note bones via the NPC near the altar?

 

Poll Question
If the proposed changes to the Chaos Altar found in level 38 Wilderness are added to the game, as described in the Dev Blog, should completion of the Wilderness diaries give players a 60% chance to save any bones used in the process compared to the proposed 50% chance when sacrificing their bones to this altar?

 

Poll Question
If the proposed changes to the Chaos Altar found in level 38 Wilderness are added to the game, as described in the Dev Blog, should completion of the Wilderness diaries allow players to sacrifice their bones to this altar slightly faster when not offering them manually? Manually offering the bones will remain the fastest method.

   
Mage Arena II
Kolodion, master of battle magic, has a new challenge for any battle hardy mage. Previously players were tasked with duelling Kolodion and defeating him through his various forms. Once done, which is quite a simple task for anyone with 60+ Magic, players would unlock the most powerful magic based cape in the game. 

Mage Arena II is the next step in this miniquest series and offers challengers a brand-new best in slot magic cape! Getting hold of such an item won't be easy though. For anyone that has completed the original Mage Arena and unlocked the ability to cast all God spells outside of the Mage Arena, Kolodion will task those with 75+ Magic to track down and defeat 3 brand-new bosses, found in random locations within deep multi-combat Wilderness and only being damaged with specific God spells. 
  The stats of the proposed new God capes are as per the below image. The stats and cape models are a work in progress and are subject to change. 
 
The name "God cape (i)" is a WIP/placeholder and is subject to change. 

The new variant of the God capes will work like the current ones do with in their combination with the God staves and spells. There will be max cape versions of each of the new capes. 

In order to locate the bosses, Kolodion will hand players a Hot/Cold device which will draw you closer to the Boss spawn location (using this device will cause damage to the player, so you must be conservative with its usage). When close enough, one of 3 bosses will spawn, which only the player who summoned it can attack - even in a multiway area. If you take too long to find any of the 3 spawn locations, all 3 will be reset and assigned new spawn points! 

Players will want to make sure they come prepared for a difficult battle against the bosses. You may even find them using some spells that are common in Player vs Player combat. 
   
The above image contains temporary boss models that are subject to change
When you defeat a boss, it will drop a unique heart. You must defeat all three bosses and then take Kolodion one of each heart. These cannot be banked. Once Kolodion has all 3 hearts, he will upgrade one God cape for you. This will consume your old God cape and replace it with the newer upgraded version. In order to upgrade another variant of the God capes, you will have to repeat the process of tracking down and defeating all 3 bosses! 

You'll want to be very careful when using the cape. If you die with, or drop the cape, the magic sealed within it will be lost and the original God cape will be reclaimed! This will not apply to any area that is classed as a safe death, and the cape will be recoverable from any service that offers an item reclaim function. 

Falling to another player whilst holding one of the new God capes will reward the killer with a small amount of gold, similar to how untradeable items currently work. 
 

Poll Question
Should we add Mage Arena II to the game, as described in the Dev Blog? Players with 75+ Magic who have completed the Mage Arena and unlocked the ability to cast all God spells outside of the arena will have to track down and defeat 3 brand-new bosses, found in random locations within deep multi-combat Wilderness. Completing this would allow players to upgrade one God cape to a new Best in Slot magic cape which is lost on death or when dropped.

 

Poll Question
If Mage Arena II is added to the game, should it be possible to recharge new capes by tracking down and killing one of the bosses, rather than all 3? Unlocking the first cape would still require tracking down and killing all 3 bosses.

 

Poll Question
If Mage Arena II is added to the game, should it be possible to obtain more than 1 God cape type at any given time? This would allow players to have capes from all 3 Gods without the need for any drop trick methods.

   
Revenant Caves
Think back to the dark days of RuneScape. Free trade is disabled and Player vs Player activity is no longer available. It was decided that there was a requirement to keep the Wilderness a dangerous place with the removed risk of player killers. Revenants, roaming NPC ghosts, were added. These NPC's exploited the weakness of their target, making them powerful and feared monsters. In return they offered very lucrative rewards. 

When free trade and Player vs Player activity in the Wilderness returned, there was a large demand to keep the Revenants in-game and to keep the items they generated as part of a drop table, which would prevent them becoming discontinued. And let it be known that on this day the Revenant Caves (Forinthry Dungeon) were created! A dangerous cavern filled with a variety of NPC's that scaled in level and strength, hidden deep within the Wilderness offering fantastic methods of gaining wealth. 

These are the Revenant caves we want to recreate, although with some minor tweaks and improvements. We cannot offer the PvP weapons from the past, but would like to introduce the PvP armours into the game alongside a new bracelet, which would be extremely effective when worn within the caves only. The Revenants would have new models, although their mechanics and difficulty would be similar to the originals. 
   
The above image is a work in progress and is subject to change
The Revenant caves will contain various levels and types of monsters throughout, all of which are currently included in the Wilderness Slayer monster list. Alongside NPC's you would find elsewhere in the game, there will be different versions of Revenants, a new ghostly NPC. Some of these will prove quite the challenge to defeat. The harder the Revenant is to kill, the better chance it has of dropping a unique item, although the lower level ones will still have a very rare chance of dropping uniques. 

The Revenant caves will be multi-way combat throughout, apart from the entrance to the caves and a small area within. You can expect to find many high-level shortcuts and escapes routes, providing helpful ways for players to slip out of reach should they find themselves in a difficult situation. Players will also be able to place a Dwarf Multicannon within the caves. 

The proposed NPC's that aren't Revenants would be found in the lower wilderness-level areas of the cave and will include, amongst others:

• Lesser demons
• Green dragons
• Greater demons
• Ankous
• Hellhounds

Players willing to spend their time within the caves can expect to earn on average, up to 2m GP per hour. Good luck staying there for that long without getting killed by another player or a pesky Revenant though! 
 

Poll Question
Should we add the Revenant caves to the game, as described in the Dev Blog? The caves would be located within the wilderness from levels 17 to 40. There will be a variety of existing NPC's to kill, alongside a new NPC - Revenants. All non-Revenant NPC monsters within the cave would be part of the Wilderness Slayer monster list. There will be various high-level shortcuts and escape routes available to players.

 

Poll Question
If the Revenant caves are added to the game, should all non-Revenant NPC's within the cave differ slightly from their normal versions, similar to the monsters found within the Kourend Catacombs? They would have slightly higher stats and a buffed loot table. If this question fails, the normal version of the NPC's will still be added.

 

Poll Question
If the Revenant caves are added to the game, should we add a new task for Revenants to the Wilderness Slayer task list? Any level of Revenant would count towards this task.

  The Rewards
We want this to be known as a high risk, high reward activity. Anyone willing to spend lengthy amounts of time in the caves should expect to earn a great amount of GP per hour via unique drops and alchables, although we doubt that will be possible with the chance of being killed by another player! 

Revenant bracelet 
We want to introduce a new bracelet into the game which will only be effective within the Revenant caves. This bracelet would offer no stats and would be dropped by Revenants found within the cave. It will be possible to charge the bracelet with a new consumable item, Revenant shards, which will also be dropped by the same NPCs. 

Once charged, players wearing the bracelet will find that no Revenants will be aggressive towards them. In addition to this, the player will become immune to their attacks. However, each attack will drain 1 charge from the bracelet. Once all of the charges have been consumed, the bracelet will revert to its uncharged form. This will allow players to stay in the caves for longer, but means they'll be risking far more loot! 

An uncharged bracelet may be dismantled for a set amount of shards. Both the Revenant bracelet and shards would be tradeable, although the bracelet will need to be fully uncharged first. 

The Revenant bracelet would have an alch value of around 45k and will always be dropped on death. It can never be protected by the default 3 items kept on death when unskulled, via using the prayer "Protect Item" or a combination of the two. 
 

Poll Question
If the Revenant caves are added to the game, should Revenant NPC's within the cave have a chance to drop the Revenant bracelet as described in the Dev Blog? If this question passed, Revenant NPC's will also drop Revenant shards, which are a guaranteed drop used to charge the bracelet. The uncharged bracelet and Revenant shards would be tradeable.

Teleport Scroll 
Getting to and from the Revenant caves can be a time-consuming process. We want to offer a way for those willing to splash out the cash a faster way of travelling to the caves. 

All Revenant NPC's available to kill within the caves would have a small chance of dropping a tradeable Teleport Scroll, which would teleport players to the lower wilderness-level entrance of the Revenant caves. 

It's worth noting that the caves will expand from levels 17-40 wilderness, and this teleport would only take you to the entrance of the caves. The higher levelled Revenants will be found deep within the caves, which will add a natural delay to players returning to the caves for the purpose of finding the higher levelled Revenants. 
 

Poll Question
If the Revenant caves are added to the game, should Revenant NPC's within the cave have a chance to drop a Teleport Scroll as described in the Dev Blog? This single use item would teleport players to the lower wilderness-level entrance of the Revenant caves. The scrolls would be tradeable and the drop rate would increase dependant on the level of Revenant killed.

Amulet of Peril 
We wanted the Revenant caves to be high risk, high reward in terms of loot. What if the same concept could be applied to gear? 

The Amulet of Peril is a new tradeable rare drop from Revenant NPC's which has the ability to increase your strength bonus based on how low your active hitpoints are whilst in PvP combat. 

Players will need to have the amulet equipped and be in combat with another player for a set amount of time to “charge” it before strength bonus kicks in. This means it will not work when fighting against NPC's but will provide great bonuses for anyone in a PvP situation that is willing to risk having lower hitpoints. 

We're expecting the amulet to have a similar strength level to that of a Power amulet when uncharged and when fully charged, offering slightly more bonuses to that of the Torture amulet. 
 

Poll Question
If the Revenant caves are added to the game, should Revenant NPC's within the cave have a chance to drop a new tradeable necklace, the Amulet of Peril, as described in the Dev Blog? The amulet has the ability to increase your strength bonus based on how low your active hitpoints are whilst in PvP combat only. The drop rate would increase dependant on the level of Revenant killed.

Revenant Vambraces (WIP) 
For as long as they've been released, Barrows gloves have been the go to for many Melee or Ranged accounts. Offering unrivalled stats in both offence and defence stats, it's often difficult to choose them over anything else and is almost all situations they're superior to the highest tier dragonhide vambraces. 

We'd like to offer a new type of gloves/vambraces, exclusively dropped by Revenants found within the Revenant Caves that are aimed towards ranged combat. These gloves/vambraces would offer a slightly higher ranged attack bonus than the Barrows gloves alongside a small Ranged strength bonus at the cost of defence stats and melee strength. 
   
The name "Revenant Vambraces" is currently a WIP/placeholder and is subject to change
The gloves/vambraces would require 40 Defence and 70 Ranged to equip. They would be tradeable. 
 

Poll Question
If the Revenant caves are added to the game, should Revenant NPC's within the cave have a chance to drop a new set of tradeable gloves/vambraces that would be BiS for ranged, as described in the Dev Blog? These would require 40 Defence and 70 Ranged to equip. The drop rate when killing the highest level of Revenant would be approximately 1/9000.

Loot Key Scroll 
We're bringing Deadman to the Wilderness! Well, a part of it at least... The Loot Key Scroll is a new tradeable item dropped by Revenant NPC's found within the Revenant Caves which can be redeemed at Krystilia (the Edgeville witch), giving players the ability to toggle "Loot keys".

• Loot keys turn all the loot you'd normally get from a player in the wilderness or PvP worlds into the form of a key, which will only use up 1 inventory slot.
• A player can hold up to 5 keys at once, after which PvP drops will revert to normal functionality until they have either redeemed or destroyed a key.
• Keys can be redeemed at a bank, similar to Deadman keys, or destroyed.
• Killing another player who has Loot Keys would assign you their most valuable keys. If you already have a number of keys in your inventory, you will receive the most valuable keys until you are holding 5.

Our intention with Loot Keys is to allow players that have enough supplies after a kill to take all of their well-earned loot and get straight back into action, without rendering them as vulnerable by taking up inventory slots. Players carrying Loot Keys will become high profile targets as you have a chance of getting their keys and multiple loots! 

Players with Loot Keys in their inventory will not have an indicator above their heads like in Deadman. The only way you will be able to tell if someone is holding Loot Keys is by killing them and checking for yourself! 
 

Poll Question
If the Revenant caves are added to the game, should Revenant NPC's within the cave have a chance to drop a tradeable Loot Key Scroll, as described in the Dev Blog? The Loot Key Scroll can be redeemed at Krystilia (the Edgeville witch), giving players the ability to toggle "Loot keys" for any PvP kills. The drop rate would increase dependant on the level of Revenant killed.

PvP Armours 
By far the most iconic drops the Revenants had were the Ancient Warrior's equipment (also known as PvP armour and weapons). We cannot offer the weapons, but we'd like to bring back the old armours! Known to be some of the best defensive gear in the game, they come with a great cost. Each piece of the PvP armours are tradeable until they are used in combat. Much like Barrows equipment, once you take a single hit from any NPC or player, they degrade and become untradeable. However, PvP armours can never be repaired - once they degrade they disintegrate! 

Each piece of the PvP armour sets would require 78 Defence to equip and would last for 1 hour of combat before fully disintegrating. They would offer no special bonuses for having the full set equipped. 
   
 
 
 
The above stats are a work in progress and are subject to change
Falling to another player whilst wearing a piece of PvP armour will reward the killer with an amount of gold based on how degraded the armour was at the time of death. 
 

Poll Question
If the Revenant caves are added to the game, should we also add the PvP armours as described in the Dev Blog? These armours would be tradeable until they are used in combat. Once used, they will degrade and become untradeable. After 1 hour of combat, they will disintegrate. They cannot be repaired, making them very expensive to use.

 

Discuss this update on our forums.

Mods Archie, Ash, Ayiza, Curse, Ed, Ghost, Jed, John C, Kieren, Mat K, Maz, Roq, Ry, Stone, Sween, TomH, Weath, West & Wolf
The Old School Team

[Alex]

2m/HR is looking like this will be a helluva money maker...and make it a super good spot to PK.

I also really like the idea of an upgraded mage cape, but my god I hope they change how it looks. 

[Casper]

those god capes are ugly need to change

[Shady Sipper]

Dopee

[Crimma]

Super pumped for rev cave. back in 2012 420pkers ran this bitch. now ac will!

[Chris]

I hope it passes, it'll make the wild so much more active and give us room to grow