This Week In RuneScape: 20 Year Veteran Cape & Patch Week 2

31 Jan 2022Developer post

Source: Steam Community (opens in a new tab)

We’ve got exciting plans for 2022 to share with you this week, and we’re giving long term players a chance to show off their commitment to Gielinor with the new Veteran Cape!

Have you been ‘Scaping since the start? Celebrate 20 years of playing RuneScape with the new Veteran Cape!

Membership – and the concept of Runedays – were only introduced on the 27th February 2002, so this year will be the 20th anniversary for some of our long-term committed players. We thought it would be nice if you long-haulers had a snazzy Cape to equip.

Not quite there yet? Don’t worry, once your account has been registered for 20 years, you’ll be able to grab yours.

The 20 Year Veteran Cape can be claimed TODAY for players who had active accounts from February 28th 2002. All players will be able to claim the cape after 7278 days instead of exactly 20 years going forward too.

After more than 21 years of being exclusively digital, we’ve partnered with Steamforged Games to bring Gielinor to tabletops around the world!

Steamforged are creating both a board game and a core book for a tabletop roleplaying game set in Gielinor. Both games will debut in 2022 – the board game will be launched on Kickstarter, but the TTRPG will be heading straight to stores.

We know you can’t wait to start creating your own tabletop adventures – but how about shaping the games themselves? Get involved by taking part in our survey!

You’ll also get the opportunity to engage with Steamforged on Kickstarter and other dedicated community spaces throughout development. For the full announcement, invites to playtests and the latest updates you can join the dedicated mailing list on their website.

The Board Game

The board game will take 1-5 players on thrilling, quest-based campaigns through Gielinor. You’ll be able to craft and upgrade equipment, learn and improve your skills, cook special recipes, engage with your favourite NPCs and explore different regions, with a variety of enticing side quests to distract and entertain you on the way... oh, and did we mention the miniatures?

The Tabletop Roleplaying Game

The TTRPG will take the form of a lavishly illustrated, hardback core rulebook containing everything you need to run a campaign in the world of RuneScape! Build your own characters, explore the lush land of Gielinor, and create your own unique and exciting quests!

Both games will draw on quests, characters and locations from across RuneScape and Old School RuneScape’s history – and the TTRPG will be fully compatible with the fifth edition of the world’s favourite roleplaying game!

Wednesday February 2nd | 17:00 Game Time | General Q&A

Send your questions on anything and everything to the development team and we’ll answer as many as we can!

See you on Twitch!

General

Since the release of Archaeology, we've noticed the Ripper Demon familiar is the optimal choice for the majority of combat scenarios. So, we’ve done a balancing pass on the lesser-used familiars to give them a bit more potential:

Hellhound

The Hellhound familiar was underwhelming – it had a niche as a tank option to help survive big bursts of damage, but 10% damage reduction didn't offer enough benefits to outweigh other options such as Beasts of Burden or damaging familiars.

Solution:

Hellhound damage reduction passive effect has been increased from 10% to 20%.

Blood Reaver

The Blood Reaver has seen a bit more use recently, as some players pair it with Cinderbane Gauntlets to create a demon-based poison mini-gun. On the whole, though, it’s not popular. We're adding some power to its Scroll to increase its viability as a healing familiar whilst also increasing its passive to hopefully appeal to players stacking life drain effects.

Solution:

HP increased from 8,300 to 20,000.
Scroll effect decreased from 10% to 5% (Total healing overall increased).
Healing-to-damage passive effect increased from 25% to 33%.

Kal'gerion Demon

The Kal'gerion has fallen flat in almost all scenarios, only seeing usage when paired with the Fractured Staff of Armadyl. We're wary of over-buffing it, given the strong synergy with any future critical strike buffs. As a result, we've decided to address the high-input playstyle that is unappealing to a large proportion of players and give it a small passive effect.

Solution:

Bugfix: Kalgerion's attack speed was incorrect given its damage rating, we've updated it to use the intended attack speed: Attack speed increased from 4.8 seconds to 2.4 seconds.
Crit-i-cal Scroll effect duration increased from 15 seconds to 60 seconds.
New familiar passive: gives 1% critical strike chance to players using a Kal'gerion familiar.

Rewards from the Oasis Restoration community event can now be unlocked as rare drops by skilling around Het's Oasis.
The Duel Arena destruction cutscene will now automatically play when talking to Icthlarin by the entrance, instead of when entering the area.
The community chest and task board have now been removed from Het's Oasis.
Improved digging function of Meerkats and Void Ravager.
Fixed an issue with teleport to Crystal Skillchompa via Volcanic Trapper Head.
The Kami-shima sanctuary was visible from The Arc world map. This was unintended and has now been fixed.
The ‘Let Us Slay’ achievement's platform-specific description now refers to either Turael or Spria, according to your current Burthorpe Slayer Master.
- If a player has previously completed a Troll Warzone Gelatinous Abomination task, Turael will now skip the step in his Burthorpe path that required the player to defeat Gelatinous Abominations.
Fixed an issue during the In Search of the Myreque quest where dialogue with Veliaf was far too light to be read against the chatbox background.
- Additionally the NPC introductions and steel weapon list have been converted to pop ups to make it easier to read and understand what you have left to complete or gather.
The String Jewellery spell icon included a small Zaros God symbol. This was unintentional and the symbol has now been removed.
Fixed an issue with examine text of Glacors and Glacytes in the Glacor Front.
Updated the font color on the Garden of Tranquility item list. The text should now be easier to read.
Zemouregal's notes on the other Mahjarrat have been updated to be more readable.

Mobile

We've released some new art for checkboxes on mobile

Note On Awaited Fixes

We have a number of community requested fixes, including Hitboxes and invisible fire in Cabbage Facepunch, currently in testing for an engine update. Subject to passing testing, we hope to deploy the update in early to mid-February. Thanks for your reports and your patience while we worked on fixes!

Community Showcase

The RuneScape Art Community is the BEST (totally not biased) and we've seen some incredible art appear this past month. Here's just a few of the incredible creations that caught our eye: