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Latest game industry newsWed, 17 Mar 2010 19:04:59 +0000http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4enhourly1Localisation’s Answers – Developer’s Blog
http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/localisations-answers-developers-blog/
http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/localisations-answers-developers-blog/#commentsThu, 24 Sep 2009 22:38:42 +0000adminhttp://www.zybez.net/community/index.php?showtopic=1303776Ronitopp asks: I read somewhere that you are going to release RuneScape: Finnish. Is this true?
and
Ellwell asks: What future Languages do you hope to release?
We have not finalised any plans regarding the next language yet. We prefer to keep our options open and support our choice with market research data. Localisation is an expensive and time-consuming process; therefore, we need to make sure we get it right. Seeing how many players have been asking for their own language, we think that it is about time for everyone to learn Esperanto! That would make things a lot easier for us.
Arengeir asks: 1) About how long does it take to translate RuneScape and its website into another language? 2) How many people are actively working in the languages team for Jagex? Does this number continue to grow? 3) Do you ever plan to translate the game into Latin? 4) What about Klingon?
It takes around ten months to translate the game and website. Both combined contain around four million words. A translator can translate around 2,000 words per day (do the math) and this does not include testing of localised content. Obviously, this number keeps growing with every update, so localising into another language is a major project!
When working on a new language, there are around fifty people involved in the process. Our internal team currently consists of twelve people (three language teams containing two translators, one tester and one team leader each, plus me as the Localisation Manager) and, yes, this number continues to grow too. If you have a look at the Jagex websites Vacancies section you can see that we are currently looking for another BR Portuguese translator.
As for Latin: Si nos erant victus duos mille annus abhinc , per vicis of Romanorum Imperium , nos mos meditatus a Latin lingua poema poematis.
And Klingon: TlhIngan qel ghorgh maH chenmoH wa'DIch ghom - 54 nem.
Chain Flame asks: With the recent introduction of different language game worlds, it appears Jagex is working to support the diverse languages that the Runescape community uses. So is it possible for Runescape forums to support Chinese/Japanese/Korean character inputs? I think that many forums and discussion boards allow such character inputs.
In general, this is definitely possible, but it would alienate our western players if those characters could be used on the official international forum. We would consider it if we were ever to launch our products in the Asian markets (with their own dedicated forums), but it is highly unlikely to happen on our current forum.
Ces El 2 asks: When are you planning on releasing RuneScape in Spanish? I clearly remember a poll in which one of the questions was what language would the players want RuneScape translated to, when we only had the English version. The winner was Spanish, yet you released the game in German, then French, and now Portuguese. Why? What about the poll results? If the majority of people wanted it in Spanish, why release something only the minority wanted?
The interest is not only mine, I know lots of people who would want to see the game they love playing in their mother language. Hopefully you'll answer this. Thank you for the opportunity and for your time.
Spanish is on top of our list when it comes to the future languages, but there are several factors we need to take into consideration when making a decision about the next language - the number of people that speak the language worldwide, the number of English speakers in the target country, supported payment methods, possible business partners and many, many more. Also, we have just searched through our poll archive (from 2003 until today) and could not find any poll where we asked for which language you would prefer.
The poll you are referring to was posted in August 2008. At that time we had already launched the German language version and started working on the French and Brazilian-Portuguese language versions. In general, German is always one of the first languages that a product is translated into - usually followed by French, Italian and Spanish - because of the hefty length of words and the big German market. We have decided to take a different approach, though, based on the criteria I mentioned above.
Sliferdude24 asks: how does the whole process of making the game in a whole different language work?
It depends on what kind of game. ;) Localising a MMO is a great challenge, mainly due to the large word count, but also because the text is never final. We start with recruiting the team and choosing the LSP (Language Service Provider), and then we create glossaries and reference documents, and a schedule and resource plan.
After that the fun begins and a number of translators work on the text until every single word is translated. Then the text is proofread by editors, making sure that everything is consistent before we conduct the quality checks. Once this is done, the language testing stage starts and we bring in six to ten language testers on site. Their task is to go through the whole game and make sure that what they see goes with what they read.
As you can see, the process is quite complicated and thorough, and also applies to the website. After everything is translated, proofread and tested, we release the game. From then on, our internal team takes care of translating and testing all further updates.
Blokker12 asks: one more question, will rs ever appear in dutch (i'm from belgium you see, i, (and many others) will really like it
Dutch is quite a specific case. We have a lot of players from the Netherlands, but research shows that 89% of Dutch speakers also speak English; therefore, Dutch is not likely to be our next language. Maybe if you could all unlearn English there would be a chance of a Dutch version happening in the future. ;)
Game Shark82 asks: Hi Jagex, If i report somebody and he was talking in dutch with me, will i still be able to report him or is it not possible? I mean, does Jagex have a translator so you understand what he's saying when i report someone?
Players can and should report whenever they see offensive language (even if the offensive language is in Dutch, because we do have a Dutch team in place to deal with those offences). Please do not report someone just because they are speaking in a language that you do not understand, though. To sum up: if you are going to report an offence that was committed in a foreign language, you need to be able understand that language in the first place to know that an offence was actually committed.
Camilo101480 asks: 1. When will be rs translated to spanish? 2. While we wait for rs spanish, when are you going to create spanish forums? 3. What Jagex Mods can speak spanish? 4. When will you look for a spanish translation team?
1. Please have a look at one of the answers above. :) 2. We are hoping to have more dedicated forums soon, so watch this space. 3. We have a number of Spanish speakers in Jagex on the development side and also in Player Support. 4. As soon as we decide that Spanish is the next language we will translate the game into.
Figther07 asks: Hello! I am from Norway and I would like if you take away some censorship. the words is: Hvvor ( with only one v, means where like in where are you) ikke (means not)Hå*on (the k change to a *, Hå*on is a name.) I would be very happy if you at least could delete the hvvor censor. Thank you!
and
Eagles Dk1 asks: I was wondering why some danish words are censored, for example is "****" (h,v,o,r) it means where, censored. Is there any reason for this? And could you uncensor these particular danish words?
Currently, we dont have Danish worlds, so there is no censor particularly designed for that language. For logistical reasons, we will not add or remove words from the English word filter. We are contemplating adding more dedicated language filters in the future, but we are unable to give a timeframe right now. Be assured that we are hiring Player Support representatives from different countries to make sure that the in-game chat stays clean and safe.
As part of the restructuring of the forums into communities we are going to be adding Dutch and Finnish flags onto the top bar. There will be separate sections of the communities for these languages, but the actual forum module will still be in English and have the English word filter. Dedicated language forums would be a possibility for the future.
Troacctid asks: Do things like puns ever get lost in translation? If so, do you remember any specific examples? What do you replace them with?
This is what localisation is all about! A lot of the time, a pun or joke that works in English cannot be translated in the same way as the original and still make sense. Think about the Spirits of the Elid quest, where the main NPC collects soles instead of souls - this only works if the words for sole and soul sound the same in the target language. In all three current localised versions of RuneScape, this was not the case, so we basically had to adjust the whole theme of the quest.
We do this by brainstorming ideas within the respective language teams and researching options that fit with the target culture. Translation is not just about porting words from one language into another - more often than not we have to localise the content for the different cultures - hence the name of our department. Oh, the juggling of words; it is what we live for!
Robbyneo Xx asks: haha i remember i was looking at the new updates on runescape one day and it said i see the language update: Brazil right? well i misread it wrong and thought it said brail!!! haha so if i logged into runescape in that language would there be dots everywhere instead of objects and people? i was like.. how does that work lol.
Braille will still look different depending on which language it is used for and it is highly unlikely that there will be an English Braille language version, considering that it would be very hard to implement little dots coming out of your monitor that would also need to be changed when we fix a typo or amend some phrases. We have heard of blind players using screen-reader software that enables them to listen to the text in-game, though.]]>Ronitopp asks: I read somewhere that you are going to release RuneScape: Finnish. Is this true?
and
Ellwell asks: What future Languages do you hope to release?
We have not finalised any plans regarding the next language yet. We prefer to keep our options open and support our choice with market research data. Localisation is an expensive and time-consuming process; therefore, we need to make sure we get it right. Seeing how many players have been asking for their own language, we think that it is about time for everyone to learn Esperanto! That would make things a lot easier for us.
Arengeir asks: 1) About how long does it take to translate RuneScape and its website into another language? 2) How many people are actively working in the languages team for Jagex? Does this number continue to grow? 3) Do you ever plan to translate the game into Latin? 4) What about Klingon?
It takes around ten months to translate the game and website. Both combined contain around four million words. A translator can translate around 2,000 words per day (do the math) and this does not include testing of localised content. Obviously, this number keeps growing with every update, so localising into another language is a major project!
When working on a new language, there are around fifty people involved in the process. Our internal team currently consists of twelve people (three language teams containing two translators, one tester and one team leader each, plus me as the Localisation Manager) and, yes, this number continues to grow too. If you have a look at the Jagex websites Vacancies section you can see that we are currently looking for another BR Portuguese translator.
As for Latin: Si nos erant victus duos mille annus abhinc , per vicis of Romanorum Imperium , nos mos meditatus a Latin lingua poema poematis.
And Klingon: TlhIngan qel ghorgh maH chenmoH wa'DIch ghom - 54 nem.
Chain Flame asks: With the recent introduction of different language game worlds, it appears Jagex is working to support the diverse languages that the Runescape community uses. So is it possible for Runescape forums to support Chinese/Japanese/Korean character inputs? I think that many forums and discussion boards allow such character inputs.
In general, this is definitely possible, but it would alienate our western players if those characters could be used on the official international forum. We would consider it if we were ever to launch our products in the Asian markets (with their own dedicated forums), but it is highly unlikely to happen on our current forum.
Ces El 2 asks: When are you planning on releasing RuneScape in Spanish? I clearly remember a poll in which one of the questions was what language would the players want RuneScape translated to, when we only had the English version. The winner was Spanish, yet you released the game in German, then French, and now Portuguese. Why? What about the poll results? If the majority of people wanted it in Spanish, why release something only the minority wanted?
The interest is not only mine, I know lots of people who would want to see the game they love playing in their mother language. Hopefully you'll answer this. Thank you for the opportunity and for your time.
Spanish is on top of our list when it comes to the future languages, but there are several factors we need to take into consideration when making a decision about the next language - the number of people that speak the language worldwide, the number of English speakers in the target country, supported payment methods, possible business partners and many, many more. Also, we have just searched through our poll archive (from 2003 until today) and could not find any poll where we asked for which language you would prefer.
The poll you are referring to was posted in August 2008. At that time we had already launched the German language version and started working on the French and Brazilian-Portuguese language versions. In general, German is always one of the first languages that a product is translated into - usually followed by French, Italian and Spanish - because of the hefty length of words and the big German market. We have decided to take a different approach, though, based on the criteria I mentioned above.
Sliferdude24 asks: how does the whole process of making the game in a whole different language work?
It depends on what kind of game. ;) Localising a MMO is a great challenge, mainly due to the large word count, but also because the text is never final. We start with recruiting the team and choosing the LSP (Language Service Provider), and then we create glossaries and reference documents, and a schedule and resource plan.
After that the fun begins and a number of translators work on the text until every single word is translated. Then the text is proofread by editors, making sure that everything is consistent before we conduct the quality checks. Once this is done, the language testing stage starts and we bring in six to ten language testers on site. Their task is to go through the whole game and make sure that what they see goes with what they read.
As you can see, the process is quite complicated and thorough, and also applies to the website. After everything is translated, proofread and tested, we release the game. From then on, our internal team takes care of translating and testing all further updates.
Blokker12 asks: one more question, will rs ever appear in dutch (i'm from belgium you see, i, (and many others) will really like it
Dutch is quite a specific case. We have a lot of players from the Netherlands, but research shows that 89% of Dutch speakers also speak English; therefore, Dutch is not likely to be our next language. Maybe if you could all unlearn English there would be a chance of a Dutch version happening in the future. ;)
Game Shark82 asks: Hi Jagex, If i report somebody and he was talking in dutch with me, will i still be able to report him or is it not possible? I mean, does Jagex have a translator so you understand what he's saying when i report someone?
Players can and should report whenever they see offensive language (even if the offensive language is in Dutch, because we do have a Dutch team in place to deal with those offences). Please do not report someone just because they are speaking in a language that you do not understand, though. To sum up: if you are going to report an offence that was committed in a foreign language, you need to be able understand that language in the first place to know that an offence was actually committed.
Camilo101480 asks: 1. When will be rs translated to spanish? 2. While we wait for rs spanish, when are you going to create spanish forums? 3. What Jagex Mods can speak spanish? 4. When will you look for a spanish translation team?
1. Please have a look at one of the answers above. :) 2. We are hoping to have more dedicated forums soon, so watch this space. 3. We have a number of Spanish speakers in Jagex on the development side and also in Player Support. 4. As soon as we decide that Spanish is the next language we will translate the game into.
Figther07 asks: Hello! I am from Norway and I would like if you take away some censorship. the words is: Hvvor ( with only one v, means where like in where are you) ikke (means not)Hå*on (the k change to a *, Hå*on is a name.) I would be very happy if you at least could delete the hvvor censor. Thank you!
and
Eagles Dk1 asks: I was wondering why some danish words are censored, for example is "****" (h,v,o,r) it means where, censored. Is there any reason for this? And could you uncensor these particular danish words?
Currently, we dont have Danish worlds, so there is no censor particularly designed for that language. For logistical reasons, we will not add or remove words from the English word filter. We are contemplating adding more dedicated language filters in the future, but we are unable to give a timeframe right now. Be assured that we are hiring Player Support representatives from different countries to make sure that the in-game chat stays clean and safe.
As part of the restructuring of the forums into communities we are going to be adding Dutch and Finnish flags onto the top bar. There will be separate sections of the communities for these languages, but the actual forum module will still be in English and have the English word filter. Dedicated language forums would be a possibility for the future.
Troacctid asks: Do things like puns ever get lost in translation? If so, do you remember any specific examples? What do you replace them with?
This is what localisation is all about! A lot of the time, a pun or joke that works in English cannot be translated in the same way as the original and still make sense. Think about the Spirits of the Elid quest, where the main NPC collects soles instead of souls - this only works if the words for sole and soul sound the same in the target language. In all three current localised versions of RuneScape, this was not the case, so we basically had to adjust the whole theme of the quest.
We do this by brainstorming ideas within the respective language teams and researching options that fit with the target culture. Translation is not just about porting words from one language into another - more often than not we have to localise the content for the different cultures - hence the name of our department. Oh, the juggling of words; it is what we live for!
Robbyneo Xx asks: haha i remember i was looking at the new updates on runescape one day and it said i see the language update: Brazil right? well i misread it wrong and thought it said brail!!! haha so if i logged into runescape in that language would there be dots everywhere instead of objects and people? i was like.. how does that work lol.
Braille will still look different depending on which language it is used for and it is highly unlikely that there will be an English Braille language version, considering that it would be very hard to implement little dots coming out of your monitor that would also need to be changed when we fix a typo or amend some phrases. We have heard of blind players using screen-reader software that enables them to listen to the text in-game, though.]]>http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/localisations-answers-developers-blog/feed/0Woodcutting Rebalance
http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/woodcutting-rebalance/
http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/woodcutting-rebalance/#commentsWed, 23 Sep 2009 15:53:11 +0000adminhttp://www.zybez.net/community/index.php?showtopic=1303304 Teak and mahogany trees now also have a special log or two up their sleeves, which are worth much more than their weight in gold to the right buyer! Choking ivy creepers have been seen clambering up the stone walls of RuneScapes major cities and is much tougher to deal with than it looks. Weve also tweaked arctic pine-splitting and put up some Prayer-refreshing hollow bark torches in the Haunted Woods, so get your hatchets out and your arms chopping!
Finally, the workers at the Lumber Yard are inviting high-level woodcutters to participate in 'Sawmill Training', where you can grab, slice and saw your way to greater experience. For more information on all of these changes, head over to the Woodcutting section of the Game Guide. Mod Trick RuneScape Content Developer
In other news...
Hobgoblins were starting to feel a bit left behind in the looks stakes compared to their Bandosian brothers, so we've given them a graphical rework.
We've removed the doors to Edgeville's furnace to make it easier to use, but moved the furnace two squares further from the bank to maintain the balance. You will still need to have completed the necessary Varrock Achievement Diary tasks in order to use the furnace.
You might notice a small new feature has been added to the Friends List (the ability to move the line separating players names and online status). This feature is associated with the Display Names update, which were hoping to release later this year.]]> Teak and mahogany trees now also have a special log or two up their sleeves, which are worth much more than their weight in gold to the right buyer! Choking ivy creepers have been seen clambering up the stone walls of RuneScapes major cities and is much tougher to deal with than it looks. Weve also tweaked arctic pine-splitting and put up some Prayer-refreshing hollow bark torches in the Haunted Woods, so get your hatchets out and your arms chopping!
Finally, the workers at the Lumber Yard are inviting high-level woodcutters to participate in 'Sawmill Training', where you can grab, slice and saw your way to greater experience. For more information on all of these changes, head over to the Woodcutting section of the Game Guide. Mod Trick RuneScape Content Developer
In other news...
Hobgoblins were starting to feel a bit left behind in the looks stakes compared to their Bandosian brothers, so we've given them a graphical rework.
We've removed the doors to Edgeville's furnace to make it easier to use, but moved the furnace two squares further from the bank to maintain the balance. You will still need to have completed the necessary Varrock Achievement Diary tasks in order to use the furnace.
You might notice a small new feature has been added to the Friends List (the ability to move the line separating players names and online status). This feature is associated with the Display Names update, which were hoping to release later this year.]]>http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/woodcutting-rebalance/feed/0Billing Web Pages – New Look
http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/billing-web-pages-new-look/
http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/billing-web-pages-new-look/#commentsWed, 23 Sep 2009 14:47:09 +0000adminhttp://www.zybez.net/community/index.php?showtopic=1303293 Old billing style:
New billing style:
Our billing pages remain as secure as before, and you will find the wide range of payment options that you are used to. From today when you subscribe or manage your subscription, you will be redirected to the usual, secure location, and you will be greeted by pages that now have a brighter, clearer design.]]> Old billing style:
New billing style:
Our billing pages remain as secure as before, and you will find the wide range of payment options that you are used to. From today when you subscribe or manage your subscription, you will be redirected to the usual, secure location, and you will be greeted by pages that now have a brighter, clearer design.]]>http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/billing-web-pages-new-look/feed/0Friends And Clan Chat Rollback
http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/friends-and-clan-chat-rollback/
http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/friends-and-clan-chat-rollback/#commentsMon, 21 Sep 2009 17:00:19 +0000adminhttp://www.zybez.net/community/index.php?showtopic=1302547 As you may be aware, we have been moving our core systems from their current home in Cambridge to new, faster facilities located in central London. As part of this move, we are switching from a local server and disk storage system to a storage area network (SAN). The SAN is designed to allow us to scale our storage needs better in the future, and should have provided us with more resilience in the case of hardware or network failures.
The data in the SAN is replicated from the primary hosting facility, in real-time, to a secondary facility where we can run systems from in the event of a failure of the primary. Data is also backed up continuously from these two sites to our offices in Cambridge.
In this instance, however, during one of the system moves, we inadvertently triggered a flaw in the new storage system. This flaw caused the server hosting the fourth set of friend data to cease writing updates to the SAN at about midday last Wednesday. Because the data was cached in memory, and not flushed to the SAN, none was replicated to the second facility or backed up to our offices.
Despite this the friend storage system appeared to be working normally and we didn't spot the problem until this afternoon when we restarted the server for other maintenance. It is important to note that we DO have comprehensive backups, but in this case they didnt help because the data was (invisibly) not saved to disk at all, so wasnt there for us to rollback to.
We are currently investigating the root cause of the write failures, and will not migrate any further core systems until we have determined the cause of and resolved this problem. We are also more closely monitoring the systems we have already migrated, so if similar problems occur we can deal with them in a timely manner.
Please accept our sincerest apologies for any Friend List or Clan Chat updates you may have lost as a result of this failure. ]]> As you may be aware, we have been moving our core systems from their current home in Cambridge to new, faster facilities located in central London. As part of this move, we are switching from a local server and disk storage system to a storage area network (SAN). The SAN is designed to allow us to scale our storage needs better in the future, and should have provided us with more resilience in the case of hardware or network failures.
The data in the SAN is replicated from the primary hosting facility, in real-time, to a secondary facility where we can run systems from in the event of a failure of the primary. Data is also backed up continuously from these two sites to our offices in Cambridge.
In this instance, however, during one of the system moves, we inadvertently triggered a flaw in the new storage system. This flaw caused the server hosting the fourth set of friend data to cease writing updates to the SAN at about midday last Wednesday. Because the data was cached in memory, and not flushed to the SAN, none was replicated to the second facility or backed up to our offices.
Despite this the friend storage system appeared to be working normally and we didn't spot the problem until this afternoon when we restarted the server for other maintenance. It is important to note that we DO have comprehensive backups, but in this case they didnt help because the data was (invisibly) not saved to disk at all, so wasnt there for us to rollback to.
We are currently investigating the root cause of the write failures, and will not migrate any further core systems until we have determined the cause of and resolved this problem. We are also more closely monitoring the systems we have already migrated, so if similar problems occur we can deal with them in a timely manner.
Please accept our sincerest apologies for any Friend List or Clan Chat updates you may have lost as a result of this failure. ]]>http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/friends-and-clan-chat-rollback/feed/0Core Game System Hosting Move
http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/core-game-system-hosting-move/
http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/core-game-system-hosting-move/#commentsMon, 21 Sep 2009 15:33:34 +0000adminhttp://www.zybez.net/community/index.php?showtopic=1302529 * Friend lists and private messages for one quarter of players ]]> * Friend lists and private messages for one quarter of players ]]>http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/core-game-system-hosting-move/feed/0Game Worlds Moving…
http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/game-worlds-moving/
http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/game-worlds-moving/#commentsFri, 18 Sep 2009 16:38:14 +0000adminhttp://www.zybez.net/community/index.php?showtopic=1301215 Unfortunately, this will mean some down-time while the servers are moved to the new facility. Starting today, and continuing over the course of this weekend, the following worlds will be offline while they are moved:
7,8,9,13,14,19,20,22,
27,28,29,30,37,42,47,
48,56,61,62,64,66,70,
100,113,114 and 115.
When the worlds are taken offline, you will receive the "System update in 10 minutes" warning.
We have tried to minimise disruption to various worlds (themed or otherwise) so that all game features are available during this time.
I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience but, rest assured, we are making these changes to improve your gaming infrastructure.
Thanks,
Mod MMG CEO]]> Unfortunately, this will mean some down-time while the servers are moved to the new facility. Starting today, and continuing over the course of this weekend, the following worlds will be offline while they are moved:
7,8,9,13,14,19,20,22,
27,28,29,30,37,42,47,
48,56,61,62,64,66,70,
100,113,114 and 115.
When the worlds are taken offline, you will receive the "System update in 10 minutes" warning.
We have tried to minimise disruption to various worlds (themed or otherwise) so that all game features are available during this time.
I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience but, rest assured, we are making these changes to improve your gaming infrastructure.
Thanks,
Mod MMG CEO]]>http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/game-worlds-moving/feed/0Runescape Q&a Community Management
http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/runescape-qa-%c2%96-community-management/
http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/runescape-qa-%c2%96-community-management/#commentsFri, 18 Sep 2009 05:26:37 +0000adminhttp://www.zybez.net/community/index.php?showtopic=1300995forum thread and in this developers blog.
Members of the Community Management team (including myself, Mod Paul M and Mod Catia) will be fielding the live Q&A on the forums tonight from 8pm (BST/official forum time). Questions asked on this forum thread shall be answered on this forum thread; these threads will become available at 8pm.
Members of the Community Management team (including myself, Mod Paul M and Mod Catia) will be fielding the live Q&A on the forums tonight from 8pm (BST/official forum time). Questions asked on this forum thread shall be answered on this forum thread; these threads will become available at 8pm.
Mod Kelvin Head of Community Management
]]>http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/runescape-qa-%c2%96-community-management/feed/0Living Rock Caverns
http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/living-rock-caverns/
http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/living-rock-caverns/#commentsThu, 17 Sep 2009 10:22:24 +0000adminhttp://www.zybez.net/community/index.php?showtopic=1300701 The caverns are home to more than fish, however! The living rock guardians of the caverns take umbrage with adventurers plundering their home, so be on your guard, and beware of the rock of the caverns themselves! Particularly lucky (or should that be unlucky?) adventurers may even encounter a living rock patriarch, which are rumoured to wander the caverns in search of careless individuals to smite with its mighty fists.
Mod Rathe RuneScape Content Developer
Summary: Where to access the Living Rock Caverns: Enter the caverns at the northern end of the Dwarven Mine.
Requirements: 85 Fishing (to bait cavefish) 90 Fishing (to bait rocktail) 73 Mining (to mine living rock remains) 77 Mining (to mine concentrated coal deposits) 80 Mining (to mine concentrated gold deposits) 88 Cooking (to cook cavefish) 93 Cooking (to cook rocktail) The ability to defeat level 120+ foes would be a distinct advantage
In other news...
We've added a caret (aka text cursor) to the chat box to allow you to move within any text you type to correct typos or insert extra words. To move the caret through your text either hold down 'Shift' and use the arrow keys, or simply click where you'd like the caret to be. This should save considerable time when correcting typos!
As promised in the RuneScape Content Live Q&A, we've increased the POH room limit from 30 up to 32. These two extra rooms become available at Construction levels 38 and 44 respectively.
The dragon pickaxe has been added to the list of items you can CoinShare via the LootShare system.
We've removed more delays (e.g. when drinking potions and running).
We've increased the shop stock of bone bolts.
Bounty Hunter worlds have been changed slightly to allow players to access the Grand Exchange area of the map for all your combat needs. ]]> The caverns are home to more than fish, however! The living rock guardians of the caverns take umbrage with adventurers plundering their home, so be on your guard, and beware of the rock of the caverns themselves! Particularly lucky (or should that be unlucky?) adventurers may even encounter a living rock patriarch, which are rumoured to wander the caverns in search of careless individuals to smite with its mighty fists.
Mod Rathe RuneScape Content Developer
Summary: Where to access the Living Rock Caverns: Enter the caverns at the northern end of the Dwarven Mine.
Requirements: 85 Fishing (to bait cavefish) 90 Fishing (to bait rocktail) 73 Mining (to mine living rock remains) 77 Mining (to mine concentrated coal deposits) 80 Mining (to mine concentrated gold deposits) 88 Cooking (to cook cavefish) 93 Cooking (to cook rocktail) The ability to defeat level 120+ foes would be a distinct advantage
In other news...
We've added a caret (aka text cursor) to the chat box to allow you to move within any text you type to correct typos or insert extra words. To move the caret through your text either hold down 'Shift' and use the arrow keys, or simply click where you'd like the caret to be. This should save considerable time when correcting typos!
As promised in the RuneScape Content Live Q&A, we've increased the POH room limit from 30 up to 32. These two extra rooms become available at Construction levels 38 and 44 respectively.
The dragon pickaxe has been added to the list of items you can CoinShare via the LootShare system.
We've removed more delays (e.g. when drinking potions and running).
We've increased the shop stock of bone bolts.
Bounty Hunter worlds have been changed slightly to allow players to access the Grand Exchange area of the map for all your combat needs. ]]>http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/living-rock-caverns/feed/0Advisors And Objectives
http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/advisors-and-objectives/
http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/advisors-and-objectives/#commentsThu, 17 Sep 2009 10:20:55 +0000adminhttp://www.zybez.net/community/index.php?showtopic=1300699 Objective system The objective system allows you to set yourself an objective to work towards, be that a specific skill level or the completion of a certain quest. This can either be randomly generated or something of your own choosing. The system will then track how you are doing in meeting that objective.
It was initially developed with new players in mind, as it will give those who are boggled by the vast array of things to do in RuneScape something to focus upon, and provide some direction as to the sorts of things they could be aiming for. We have, however, designed it in such a way that we hope more experienced players will find of use, and that they too will enjoy setting themselves goals and tracking their progress towards them.
New tutorial and Advisor system The previous tutorial and the Lumbridge tutors were not giving the best first impression of RuneScape to new players, nor were they the most effective way of teaching new players how to play the game. Much of the information they gave was not of interest to players until later on in the game, and came across as too wordy and boring. Weve found that most players prefer to get stuck into the game and figure things out by actually playing.
As such, a lot of this information has been moved out of the tutorial, and the tutorial has been replaced with a slightly shorter introduction to the game, which focuses on the basic controls. Much of the information that was taught in the previous tutorial can now be accessed as mini tutorials, as and when players want to learn, through the new advisor system.
The advisor is a helpful old fellow by the name of Roddeck, who can be found by clicking on the new question mark button (next to the logout button). The advisor system works dynamically depending on where you are and what you are doing at the time. You can either do a mini tutorial (a much more interactive way of learning things) or Ask Roddeck for advice (if you just want a quick answer).
The advisor system currently only covers basic activities, but we are planning to flesh it out to cover more skills and activities.
Starting area Weve defined an area of the game as the starting area, in which you can access the new tutorials, as well as making it a safer area for new players. There are guards and gates placed at the various entrances to the starting area, so new players can tell where the borders are. The area is quite big, covering Lumbridge, Varrock and Draynor.
The gates have been designed so as not to slow down more experienced players (i.e. everyone with a total level of 60 or more). Simply click on the other side of the gate in the game window (or on the minimap) and you will automatically walk through, without any more clicks than normal. Players with a total level below 60 will need to confirm that they really do wish to leave the starting area.
Other changes Weve made various other changes due to the above:
* As these mini tutorials are more interactive, theyve rendered obsolete some previous features we had in Lumbridge for helping new players. These features had built up over the years and were making Lumbridge feel rather cluttered, so youll find that most of the Lumbridge tutors and the Lumbridge money making features have been removed from the game. The items which you could previously get for free from the tutors are now available as free samples from certain shops. * The Air Altars location has moved to southwest of Varrock, next to the River Lum. Its the same distance from Varrocks west bank as it used to be from Faladors east bank. * Weve added a new fishing shop to Lumbridge. * A new tanner has set up shop in southwest Varrock. * A new pottery has been opened in Draynor Village. * A new bridge has been built over the River Lum (near the Champions Guild). * Small changes have been made to some easy and beginner Achievement Diary tasks. Also, the Craft 196 air runes simultaneously task in the Falador Achievement Diary has changed to Craft 140 mind runes simultaneously. * Woodcutting skillcapes can now be bought from Wilfred, who can be found among the trees north of Falador. * Goblins and giant spiders now have slightly improved drop tables.
Paul RuneScape Content Developer ]]> Objective system The objective system allows you to set yourself an objective to work towards, be that a specific skill level or the completion of a certain quest. This can either be randomly generated or something of your own choosing. The system will then track how you are doing in meeting that objective.
It was initially developed with new players in mind, as it will give those who are boggled by the vast array of things to do in RuneScape something to focus upon, and provide some direction as to the sorts of things they could be aiming for. We have, however, designed it in such a way that we hope more experienced players will find of use, and that they too will enjoy setting themselves goals and tracking their progress towards them.
New tutorial and Advisor system The previous tutorial and the Lumbridge tutors were not giving the best first impression of RuneScape to new players, nor were they the most effective way of teaching new players how to play the game. Much of the information they gave was not of interest to players until later on in the game, and came across as too wordy and boring. Weve found that most players prefer to get stuck into the game and figure things out by actually playing.
As such, a lot of this information has been moved out of the tutorial, and the tutorial has been replaced with a slightly shorter introduction to the game, which focuses on the basic controls. Much of the information that was taught in the previous tutorial can now be accessed as mini tutorials, as and when players want to learn, through the new advisor system.
The advisor is a helpful old fellow by the name of Roddeck, who can be found by clicking on the new question mark button (next to the logout button). The advisor system works dynamically depending on where you are and what you are doing at the time. You can either do a mini tutorial (a much more interactive way of learning things) or Ask Roddeck for advice (if you just want a quick answer).
The advisor system currently only covers basic activities, but we are planning to flesh it out to cover more skills and activities.
Starting area Weve defined an area of the game as the starting area, in which you can access the new tutorials, as well as making it a safer area for new players. There are guards and gates placed at the various entrances to the starting area, so new players can tell where the borders are. The area is quite big, covering Lumbridge, Varrock and Draynor.
The gates have been designed so as not to slow down more experienced players (i.e. everyone with a total level of 60 or more). Simply click on the other side of the gate in the game window (or on the minimap) and you will automatically walk through, without any more clicks than normal. Players with a total level below 60 will need to confirm that they really do wish to leave the starting area.
Other changes Weve made various other changes due to the above:
* As these mini tutorials are more interactive, theyve rendered obsolete some previous features we had in Lumbridge for helping new players. These features had built up over the years and were making Lumbridge feel rather cluttered, so youll find that most of the Lumbridge tutors and the Lumbridge money making features have been removed from the game. The items which you could previously get for free from the tutors are now available as free samples from certain shops. * The Air Altars location has moved to southwest of Varrock, next to the River Lum. Its the same distance from Varrocks west bank as it used to be from Faladors east bank. * Weve added a new fishing shop to Lumbridge. * A new tanner has set up shop in southwest Varrock. * A new pottery has been opened in Draynor Village. * A new bridge has been built over the River Lum (near the Champions Guild). * Small changes have been made to some easy and beginner Achievement Diary tasks. Also, the Craft 196 air runes simultaneously task in the Falador Achievement Diary has changed to Craft 140 mind runes simultaneously. * Woodcutting skillcapes can now be bought from Wilfred, who can be found among the trees north of Falador. * Goblins and giant spiders now have slightly improved drop tables.
Paul RuneScape Content Developer ]]>http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/advisors-and-objectives/feed/0Retro Revival – Developer Blog
http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/retro-revival-developer-blog/
http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/retro-revival-developer-blog/#commentsTue, 15 Sep 2009 15:17:28 +0000adminhttp://www.zybez.net/community/index.php?showtopic=1299926 RSC's bank interface
For those who do not know, RuneScape Classic is the name we now use to refer to the very first version of RuneScape, the original basis for RuneScape as it is today. As discussed in the RuneTek 5 blog, RuneScape Classic was RuneTek 2. When we upgraded the game engine to RuneTek 3, we renamed the first game to RuneScape Classic, and the RT3 engine took over the RuneScape moniker.
That RT3 engine has long since evolved, through RT4 (High Details) and the now all-encompassing RT5 (the version of RuneScape we all play today). But we do still run a version of RuneScape Classic on our servers for those people who have continued to play it over the years. Were currently working on a project to revamp RuneScape Classic and open it up again to everyone who wants to play.
Introduction from Mod Mark Baxtorian Falls, Classic-style
Mod Mark: When Mod MMG joined the company, the first thing he and I spoke about was RuneScape Classic (often just called Classic). He wanted to know more about this "retro" version of RuneScape, and was surprised when I told him we had closed account creation, but that the game was still running. Despite the fact we had not supported the product for years (with updates), we still had an active player base. He was keen for me to liaise with the other Classic fans in the company to work out what needed to be fixed in order for us to relaunch it.
This was the best news I had heard in ages, because Classic has always been very important to us as a company, and as individual players of the game. Without Classic, the current versions of RuneScape simply would not exist. It made us who we are today. Not supporting it was really quite painful for us, but it had just become impossible to support due to the movement in technologies in the new version of the game. Ill hand you over to Mod Jack H, the developer for this project, to give some more details.
Over to the developer Classic 'Claws of Guthix'
I have to admit it was a bit of a surprise when I was told that I would now be working on RuneScape Classic! The game had not been updated for years, only a few people who had worked on it were still with the company, and nobody could really remember the details of how it worked. But Classic was about to become the basis for a totally new idea for Jagex: player-owned virtual servers. But Im getting ahead of myself...
My first job was to get Classic into a state in which we could release it again. The Jagex systems which handle updating and releasing new content and game engine updates have moved on a long way since Classic was last released. In order to be able to make changes to the game again, I had to fit it out with the same systems that RuneScape uses to handle things like loading the game code, downloading the content (such as maps, 3D models and sprites), managing your Friends and Ignore lists, and sending abuse reports. I also had to add support for the new display names system that Mod Duncan is working on, and we got some bonuses, like the ability to private chat between Classic and RS2.
So far, we would have had to do all this anyway, because the display names project affects all our games (including Classic), so it had to be updated to support it and we had to be able to release it again. But Andrew and Mod MMG had much bigger ideas for Classic. They wanted to make it available to new players again, and solve the problems that caused it to be restricted in the first place.
The problem that needed solving was how to stop the macroing which was crippling Classic without changing the game. We didnt want to add to Classic all the measures to stop macroing and cheating that weve developed for RuneScape, because that would stop Classic being Classic. We could have just enabled all the cheat codes in the game so macroing would become pointless, but that would make the game quite pointless too. So heres what we came up with...
And then over to you...? Demon Slayer's first incarnation
How about if players could rent and administer their own Classic servers? As a server owner, you could enable or disable any cheat codes you liked, add people to the invite list or banned list, or give individual friends any privileges you liked within your world. In this way, the activities of macroers would become pointless, as you could go on to a cheating-enabled world and get all the stuff you wanted for free if you wanted, but there would still be worlds where youd have the satisfaction of knowing you worked for your stuff. I should explain that your character would be saved separately for each world, so you couldnt cheat on one world then use the stuff you gained on a non-cheating world. The different rules set by the owner of each world would really make each world a different game, with different people in positions of power, wielding cheat codes and unleashing Classics most awesome spells and items, or making everyone work to get ahead...
Finally, to reassure our loyal Classic members whove stuck with the game all the way through, these new player-run Classic worlds will be in ADDITION to the two restricted Classic worlds we already operate. We plan to leave those unchanged and not invaded by lots of newcomers or cheat codes.
We reckon this will be a lot of fun, but what do you think of the idea? Its going to be a lot of work for us to make it a reality as weve never done anything like this before. Would you rent a server? How much would you be willing to pay? What sort of features would you want to see? Do you have any other comments or suggestions? Let us know.]]> RSC's bank interface
For those who do not know, RuneScape Classic is the name we now use to refer to the very first version of RuneScape, the original basis for RuneScape as it is today. As discussed in the RuneTek 5 blog, RuneScape Classic was RuneTek 2. When we upgraded the game engine to RuneTek 3, we renamed the first game to RuneScape Classic, and the RT3 engine took over the RuneScape moniker.
That RT3 engine has long since evolved, through RT4 (High Details) and the now all-encompassing RT5 (the version of RuneScape we all play today). But we do still run a version of RuneScape Classic on our servers for those people who have continued to play it over the years. Were currently working on a project to revamp RuneScape Classic and open it up again to everyone who wants to play.
Introduction from Mod Mark Baxtorian Falls, Classic-style
Mod Mark: When Mod MMG joined the company, the first thing he and I spoke about was RuneScape Classic (often just called Classic). He wanted to know more about this "retro" version of RuneScape, and was surprised when I told him we had closed account creation, but that the game was still running. Despite the fact we had not supported the product for years (with updates), we still had an active player base. He was keen for me to liaise with the other Classic fans in the company to work out what needed to be fixed in order for us to relaunch it.
This was the best news I had heard in ages, because Classic has always been very important to us as a company, and as individual players of the game. Without Classic, the current versions of RuneScape simply would not exist. It made us who we are today. Not supporting it was really quite painful for us, but it had just become impossible to support due to the movement in technologies in the new version of the game. Ill hand you over to Mod Jack H, the developer for this project, to give some more details.
Over to the developer Classic 'Claws of Guthix'
I have to admit it was a bit of a surprise when I was told that I would now be working on RuneScape Classic! The game had not been updated for years, only a few people who had worked on it were still with the company, and nobody could really remember the details of how it worked. But Classic was about to become the basis for a totally new idea for Jagex: player-owned virtual servers. But Im getting ahead of myself...
My first job was to get Classic into a state in which we could release it again. The Jagex systems which handle updating and releasing new content and game engine updates have moved on a long way since Classic was last released. In order to be able to make changes to the game again, I had to fit it out with the same systems that RuneScape uses to handle things like loading the game code, downloading the content (such as maps, 3D models and sprites), managing your Friends and Ignore lists, and sending abuse reports. I also had to add support for the new display names system that Mod Duncan is working on, and we got some bonuses, like the ability to private chat between Classic and RS2.
So far, we would have had to do all this anyway, because the display names project affects all our games (including Classic), so it had to be updated to support it and we had to be able to release it again. But Andrew and Mod MMG had much bigger ideas for Classic. They wanted to make it available to new players again, and solve the problems that caused it to be restricted in the first place.
The problem that needed solving was how to stop the macroing which was crippling Classic without changing the game. We didnt want to add to Classic all the measures to stop macroing and cheating that weve developed for RuneScape, because that would stop Classic being Classic. We could have just enabled all the cheat codes in the game so macroing would become pointless, but that would make the game quite pointless too. So heres what we came up with...
And then over to you...? Demon Slayer's first incarnation
How about if players could rent and administer their own Classic servers? As a server owner, you could enable or disable any cheat codes you liked, add people to the invite list or banned list, or give individual friends any privileges you liked within your world. In this way, the activities of macroers would become pointless, as you could go on to a cheating-enabled world and get all the stuff you wanted for free if you wanted, but there would still be worlds where youd have the satisfaction of knowing you worked for your stuff. I should explain that your character would be saved separately for each world, so you couldnt cheat on one world then use the stuff you gained on a non-cheating world. The different rules set by the owner of each world would really make each world a different game, with different people in positions of power, wielding cheat codes and unleashing Classics most awesome spells and items, or making everyone work to get ahead...
Finally, to reassure our loyal Classic members whove stuck with the game all the way through, these new player-run Classic worlds will be in ADDITION to the two restricted Classic worlds we already operate. We plan to leave those unchanged and not invaded by lots of newcomers or cheat codes.
We reckon this will be a lot of fun, but what do you think of the idea? Its going to be a lot of work for us to make it a reality as weve never done anything like this before. Would you rent a server? How much would you be willing to pay? What sort of features would you want to see? Do you have any other comments or suggestions? Let us know.]]>http://www.vgoldzone.com/news/2009/09/retro-revival-developer-blog/feed/0
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