Jake
2013-02-11 07:00:12
After receiving about 460+ replies regarding RS interfaces, Jagex has decided to take some action in the near future.
http://services.runescape.com/m=forum/sl=0/forums.ws?16,17,550,64226866
http://services.runescape.com/m=forum/sl=0/forums.ws?16,17,550,64226866
Hey everyone!
Mod_ThatJim (Senior Game Designer) here to talk some more about RuneScape interfaces and how you have affected - and will continue to affect - their future.
Thank you so much to everyone who posted in our ‘The Future of RS Interfaces’ thread. Your words have been vital in guiding us forward and strengthening some of the decisions we've already made. We've had over 450 replies at the time of this post, of which the team and I have read every single one.
Now, what was it that you have all been talking about? Well, to help us get an idea of the general feelings of the community I have pulled together every single word, sentence and paragraph to create a cloud of content that you’re concerned about.
The image below is the culmination of all your feedback into its simplest form. From this, I’ll talk about some of the key feedback and what we’re doing for RS3 to make it happen. I'm going to keep a few things under my hat for now, so stay tuned for more. On with the show!
These are your words!
Word Cloud
Data from 46 pages of posts, totalling 458 replies.
Obviously you’ll be thinking, “What about all the 'a's, 'the's and 'what's that we used?” Well, in order to make the most of the word cloud we've removed lots of the common words that don’t mean much on their own. That leaves us with the image above. :)
But what does it mean? In order to make some sense of this cloud of words, let me take some of the most prominent words, examine why they’re here and what we’re doing to make sure they don’t crop up again.
Noticeboard
The big one. The hottest topic from the thread has to be the Noticeboard. First of all, it’s not all negative; lots of you had some good things to say, with many saying that it was your favourite interface. So why is it here? Well, that comes down to another important word in the cloud: Black.
The biggest problem you have with the Noticeboard and some other interfaces is their fullscreen nature. We know the black borders haven’t been a big hit, and we feel your pain. They were made like this for technical reasons, but as we move forward those technical challenges are being overcome.
Which means…drum roll…no more fullscreen Noticeboard & Skill Guide! No more black borders and no more long load times to get to your favourite content. Just imagine: chatting and using the Noticeboard at the same time!
Quest
“Well, obviously 'quest' is there: we all like quests!” Hold your horses; the reason 'quest' is here is actually quite specific. Closely related to the Noticeboard’s loading times and fullscreen display is access to your quest lists and logs. When we first launched the Noticeboard, we had lots of plans for the Quest Journal and its future. Unfortunately, it had to be put aside in favour of some of the other cool stuff we were working on at the time.
Now is the time for the Quest Journal! As well as being quicker to access from the improved Noticeboard, we’re also bringing back the ability to view your quest log during gameplay. I can’t talk too much about this yet, but it will be a part of our new Customisation tools that I think you’ll love.
Ability Bar
I've brought these two together as they are mostly used in tandem throughout the thread. The ability bar - for the most part - has been a big hit. However, some of you have some reservations, specifically to do with its position.
We hear you. What if you could move your ability bar? What if you could change its shape? What if you could rotate it? Well, these are all things we’re looking into at the moment, so instead of dictating where you should have interfaces, you get to choose. RuneScape is about you - the community - and that is at the heart of the work we’re doing with the new interfaces.
Combat Academy
We wanted to ensure you all knew how to reach it and could make the most of the new combat system. To do this, we thought a side stone was the best method - which it was. But now many of you have successfully played though the Combat Academy, it’s time to get the stone back. We’ll be removing it soon. :)
That’s all for now. I’ll let you to think more about the way you use interfaces in RuneScape and leave you with a couple more questions:
• What three interfaces do you use most in RuneScape? (e.g Inventory, Skill Guide, Noticeboard)
o Why do you use these interfaces in particular?
• What interface do you never or rarely use?
o Why no love for this interface?
Thanks for reading, and make sure you keep your feedback coming. I've closed the other thread now, so focus your attention here.
What’s Next?
In the coming weeks I’ll be going into more detail about the future of RuneScape interfaces and how you can affect this future. I have some very cool stuff to share; the team and I are itching to show off what we've been working on, so stay tuned. Remember to share your answers to the questions above and help shape the future of RuneScape.
Thanks for reading!
Jim