Hello again 'Scapers

This is part three of our blog series on the Road to Restoration.

Today's topic covers "Regrounding Items", but many of you have wondered what that actually refers to. 

The "Regrounding Items" project is about making visuals and worn items fit better thematically into the world of RuneScape as we work towards something that is more immersive and consistent with the game.

In short, we want outfits in the game to no longer be obtrusive.

In todays blog we'll cover the rationale with which we are approaching this topic, as well as previewing some of the planned changes coming later this month on the 23rd of February. Further changes as part of this project are planned later this year.

Before we get to that though, there has been some discussion in community as to what "grounded medieval fantasy" for RuneScape might mean, and whether there are beloved elements within the game that would clash with that identity. For example, some folks may have worried that to be grounded means to step back from the fantastical or lean much more into low fantasy as a concept. That's not the case. We will continue to develop RuneScape as a game with high fantasy themes, where magic permeates every aspect of a world built on medieval foundations. Built on top of those foundations should be a player journey through a world that feels like home - and that may also mean that not every quest or event needs to include an existential threat to the universe.  

Grounding refers to making the world feel cohesive and consistent within the outline above. Having magic with a fantasy world does not mean that just about anything goes - instead, we want to maintain that all things within Gielinor should make sense for our unique world. Our work to reground the game therefore simply means that we want to ensure that the world feels like it obeys a specific ruleset.

With that said, lets take a look at our rationale, approach and also provide a preview of the upcoming changes. 

Rationale:

Let's begin with the why.

As a reminder, one of our key goals for RuneScape's Road to Restoration is to curate a game that is consistent and cohesive, and that has a clear visual identity. All existing content should be brought in line with our integrity guidelines. 

Over the years we have added a wide range of items and cosmetic overrides that are visually intrusive or thematically out of place. The technical term for something that doesn't fit into the world is "non-diegetic" - you may see us occasionally use this when it comes to discussing visual integrity. You've already helped identify many such outfits and cosmetics which fundamentally break in-game immersion and do not fit within the medieval fantasy theme of RuneScape. An important distinction to make here is that while cosmetic overrides are able to be toggled off as of this past January, item visuals cannot. As some of these items have the same level of immersion breaking impact, they must therefore be considering against the above goal.

Approach:

This project aims to resolve these issues via whatever method is most appropriate. Where possible we'd prefer tweaking or replacing the visuals, but we may need to consider removing particular items, or restricting where certain items can be used (e.g. Snowboards only in the Christmas Hub) as well. We want to consider all options available. One very important caveat: With the amount of items we may need to tackle here, creating brand-new designs for all of them is impossible. Our aim therefore is to address the greatest amount of items by changing them for the better and aligning them with our visual standard as a minimum. 

Here are a few guidelines that we are considering everything against: 

• Does this wearable make the player look non-human? 

• Does this wearable significantly change the proportions of the player avatar (e.g. flatten or enlarge your head)?

• Does this wearable get in the way of other players being able to identify what's happening on screen? (Overdone particle effects & oversized outfits beware) 

• Does this wearable fit into the world thematically?

• Could this wearable have been created from the materials available in RuneScape?

What precisely are we tackling?

Please note that as a lot of this work is still in motion, there will likely still be some changes between today and launch day. We may add or remove items from the list, or we may change how we decide to handle them, based on the work required. 

Without further ado, let's take a look. 

Elite Skilling Outfits

Elite Skilling outfits are probably amongst the most egregious offenders for this project. A number of them are intrusive and mess with the integrity of the game, while in some cases even their very naming feels inconsistent. 

"Master Archaeologist" tells you exactly what's in the tin. "Fury Shark"? Not so much. 

An additional issue with the outfits is that the elite outfits for a number of skills are made up of three to four other outfits that are then combined to get the master outfit. We plan to rework this system, so that you will only need to craft what is currently the "combined" outfit using an invention table. This would also mean removing the lesser pieces of the outfit from the game. What that means for rebalancing the outfit fragments is still something we're investigating. 

All uncombined versions are planned to be removed - should you have any of these keepsaked, the keepsake key will be returned to you. If you have any uncombined parts, the correlated combined part will be unlocked - So if you had (for example) the Burnt Shark head unlocked, you should instead have the Master Anglet's Hat unlocked. 

Below is a table of the current outfits we're currently looking at for this matter, as well as what direction we're planning to take with them. 

Other Individual Items

Moving on from Elite Skilling outfits, we've focused on a few items that are either non-diegetic, have an overabundance of particle effects, or that just outright stick out like a sore thumb.

For the below lists of affected items, we will provide a simple example (Helm of Darkness) of the intended changes, rather than case by case screenshots. As the work on this project is still ongoing, many of them are not yet in a final place for sharing. 

The following helmet slot items are problematic because they place what feels like actual monster heads on the player avatar, making it feel non-human. For these instances we plan to make them feel more human by converting them into something more mask-like that sits on the face or head of the player.

• Slayer Masks & Helms (such as, but not limited to: Helm of the Frozen/Verdant/Parched Wyrm, Jellyhead and more)

• Pumpkin Masks & Mask of the Grove Guardian

The following items have been identified as being too particle heavy. We plan to tone down the glow on these items in particular, though it is worth noting that we have also upgraded some of these designs to our more recent VFX tech which enables more improved particle visuals

• Lovers Medallion; Hater Medallion; Bat Necklace

  • Note: We'll tone the amount of particles down as well as change the particle source so that they emanate from the medallion itself. 

• Cinderbane and Samid's gloves

• Luminous Alchemists and Alchemists amulets

• Gatherers cape

• Desert Treasure (Damis Dark & Light; Kamil, Fire Warrior Outfit)

Bespoke Resolutions:

• Soul Cape

  • Issue: The effect of these capes can be quite garish due to the associated particle effects.

  • Resolution: Rework the capes to aim for the same effect without it being particle based. 

The following items either have too many issues associated with them, or have a particularly insurmountable issue. These problems make their continued existence alongside our visual standards no longer viable and they will be removed from the game. Should you have any of these keepsaked, the keepsake key will be returned to you:

• Flaming Head and Flaming Skull items

• Zodiac Costumes

• Mimic Helm

• Octopus Backpack

• Super Disco Outfit

• Infected Zombie Outfit

That about sums it up for todays community topic. As with the rest of our Road to Restoration blog series, we're eager to share as many previews of our work as possible with you - both to involve you in the journey but also hopefully to excite you about the coming changes. Last week's Early Game Rebalance and Dailyscape Overhaul blog was a good example of us sharing something with enough time to react to your feedback before the update roles out, so please do keep it coming - we'll react to feedback where it is both possible and it aligns with our Road to Restoration goals and values. As you may have noticed in today's blog, you're getting to see piping hot developments and changes pretty much straight from the oven our desks. That does mean that in some cases things we mention may not always be ready for visual sharing, and in other cases our overall design exploration may not yet have been fully completed. It also means that what you're seeing may not be the "final_final_I_swear_to_guthix_this_is_final_V5.jpg" version and that there may be some changes and tweaks between our preview and what gets released. However, these timings do give us all the opportunity to shape RuneScape in the best way possible, and we're all very excited to continue on this journey together with you!