Yesterday's live stream was a big one. 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. In this stream we sought to give you some insight into concerns you've had for a while now, like resolving the Deadman issue and our next steps, what we're doing with the Duel Arena, the release schedule of game content and permanent content versus game modes and seasonals, Account Security upgrades, botting, and other rule-breaking. There were also some new announcements! In addition to the content announced at the Summer Summit, we're also working on a port of Nex from RuneScape to Old School, and we're going to be paying close attention to the health of the game economy. Check out the video to watch it or skip below to read the summary!
00:01 - 1:58 Livestream introduction
Introduction and chit-chat. Kieren found a kitten!
1:59 - 6:43 Mod Markos introduction
Mod Markos is Old School's new Executive Producer. His main responsibility will be to ensure that the Old School team have everything they need to deliver great game content. He has been at Jagex for many years, and served on Old School RuneScape as interim Executive Producer in 2019 (as well as supporting Old School's original release way back in 2013!).
6:44 - 8:51 Announcements
The Group Ironman poll passed and there's a summary blog for you to go and read! This week's update brought the first Wilderness changes. And Leagues is returning! Shattered Relics, the third League, is arriving in early November. Check out the Rewards blog, which brings us to...
8:58 - 16:16 Leagues III Rewards
An overview of the proposed Shattered Relics rewards and accompanying discussion around the thematic and the League.
16:17 - 18:26 Mod Markos' First Priorities
He wants to really dig into solving outstanding promises and long-time concerns for players as his first priority. This is explored further later in the stream!
18:27 - 25:56 The Group Ironman Poll and Polling generally
The team discuss the outcome of the poll, motives for voting, why the development was so far underway before polling began, and then polling generally. Sween rambles a lot, but viewers seemed to enjoy what was said.
25:57 - 31:15 The Deadman Finals and Next Steps, and the future of Deadman
The team explain that they're working toward the prospect of a re-run of the Finals event, but there's a need to investigate content, engine, and network changes before we can announce anything. The future of Deadman is tied into the re-run.
31:16 - 37:00 Wilderness changes and its delay
Ayiza and Kieren discuss why the Wilderness changes, proposed many months ago, were delayed.
37:01 - 39:20 The HD Decision and Reversal
The team discuss the decision (and how bad it was), and what they're going to do to rectify this in future. Working closely with third-party developers and players is key to ensuring this doesn't occur again.
39:21 - 42:07 The Duel Arena
Sween announces that, in the long-term, the Duel Arena will be replaced by more engaging content, pending design and development, but in the interim there'll be changes coming to mitigate its issues, like the introduction of a cap on stake amounts. There is more information on the way in October.
42:08 - 43:20 Botting and Cheating
The team discusses the improvements being made to the Anti-Cheating Team, as well as offering players more report options for different types of rule-breaking. There's more focus on preserving the integrity of things like boss HiScores.
43:21 - 45:29 Real World Trading
Sween announces that in addition to maintaining the current approach of prioritising action against gold/service sellers, there will also be action taken against gold/service buyers. More news will come in October.
45:30 - 46:46 Account Security
Markos will be chasing the status of the Account Security changes as a matter of priority. He acknowledges that it has been too long since the blog which promised changes.
46:47 - 47:50 Permanent Content versus Game Modes or Seasonals
The team discuss the importance of different modes and seasonals, but acknowledge that the release order isn't ideal. Group Ironman was originally meant to come before Deadman. In an perfect world there would be a big gap between Deadman and Leagues.
47:51 - 52:33 The Return of Nex!
The team announce that they have been exploring the prospect of bringing back Nex to Old School, with changes made to make it fit the game. More information will come in October, ahead of a Rewards Beta test.
52:34 - 56:38 The Game Economy
The team will be paying very close attention to the game economy in the coming months. Ahead of a blog in October, the team discuss that they have hired game economists to advise them, and that one avenue they'd like to explore is the prospect of a Grand Exchange tax which will see taxed gold used to then remove some items from the Grand Exchange to ensure that prices remain the same. There are other gold sinks coming too.
56:39 - 59:37 The Current Release Schedule (Deadman into Group Ironman into Leagues)
This was touched upon a bit earlier. Again the team acknowledges that it isn't ideal, and explain why it is how it is.
59:38 - End The Growth Of The Old School Team And Amount Of Content
The team discusses the belief that despite its growth, there is less content making its way into game. The team acknowledges that this perception is valid, but that there's a lot of under the hood rewrites and updates being undertaken this year. The new J-Mods need to be trained, which is a resource drain in the short-term but is one that will benefit the game in the long-term. The team want to ensure that the release schedule going forward in 2022 and beyond offers players value for their membership.
That's it! Going forward we'd like to offer these types of summaries for all Leadership Livestreams. You'll be able to join the team again in October for another of these, and in the meantime don't miss out on the normal weekly J-Mod Q&As!
The Old School Team