Upcoming updates

The following is a list of upcoming updates, derived from official Jagex content:

Smithing
Note: Some mining updates have already happened- Dragon pickaxes, Concentrated coal rocks and Concentrated gold rocks.

Construction
The Construction skill has been lacking a large update since its release. For instance, only recently did we finally get a new room to keep up with Summoning. My question is: will there be a massive Construction update to keep the skill up-to-date with other recent updates to the game? Thank you for your time! Black Firexp

We are looking at a Construction skill addition at the moment, but it’s not massive. Mod Mark

Slayer
The recent update to the Slayer skill was amazing. I really like the new dungeon addition to the waterfall. Slayer is a skill that I believe to be a favourite among the mature gamers. Do you plan on coming out with any more updates for the more veteran players? If so, any hints? :) NElGHBOR

I like the Slayer updates a lot, too, and there is one more in development at the moment, which again is one of my favourite updates in the near future. So, yes, there will be something for you. Mod Fetzki

New no profit / powertraining methods
I have 99 Woodcutting and I’m keen to max it out to 200 million XP. Is there any chance of speeding up how fast magic logs come? I’ve timed it and it takes longer than catching sharks, which seems a bit unfair that level 99 fishers have more advantage of making money faster than level 99 woodcutters. The rebalance you did was great with the sawmill and ivy, but could you increase the time on magic trees, please? ISkullCrushI

We dont think that each skill should be equally difficult or hard – far from it. We encourage different skills to be, well, different. :) If you want to make the money that a shark fisherman does, then perhaps you could fish some sharks? The Woodcutting will still be there when you’re finished. Besides, not so long ago a magic log was worth more than a shark. There’s no reason to think that won’t be the case again in the future. Regarding the rebalancing of Woodcutting: yes, we’re really happy with how that went and we may apply some of the same principals to other skills in the future. Mod Mark

Hiscores
This might refer to the recently released Adventurer's Logs, or the Barbarian Assault statistics.

Myreque quest series - Part 5 won't be the last quest in the serie
Are the final quests of the elf and Myreque series going to come out anytime this year? Best wishes for the year and, as always, keep up the good work! ;) Godly 20

Who says that there will be only one more Myreque quest? I think there should be more... Mod Fetzki

Several more Grandmaster quests to come

 * One of the Grandmaster quests Jagex said to be released is Nomad's Requiem, which was released on 11 January 2010. However, this is not the level 80 requirements quest, as none of the requirements for Nomad's Requiem are level 80 or above.

1) In the previous Q&A, we were told a Grandmaster quest was planned that would require several stats in the 80s. You also said it may not be the next Grandmaster that will be released. So, will this be coming out in 2010 or not? Is this the next Grandmaster or not? Feel free to shed any more light on it, if at all possible. At least DO answer as much of this question as you can, please. You have my permission to partially answer it or leave parts out.

Andrey138

1) The thing with Grandmaster quests is that it is quite an effort to get them right, and we want to give them enough time in order to do so, therefore, I cannot promise it for any time soon, but we are working on it. I hope very much that it will still be released in 2010.

Mod Fetzki

New Free To Play quest
On 11 February Jagex stated in Q&A that a new quest is being worked on which will be accessible for free players.

Two more quests in the dwarf storyline
In 2010, will we see more of a variety of quest storylines? Well, in 2009, obviously the main quest theme was Mahjarrat with four quests in eight months or something like that. To me, that storyline is continuing to progress at an extremely fast rate. My favourite quest series is the dwarf one. Is there still a plan to make it a five part series with the fifth one coming out as a Grandmaster? Lord Ivan XX

We think that we had a good mix in 2009. Don't forget we had continuation of many quest lines like the dwarf storyline, the elf storyline and the Fremennik one, on top of the penguin one and the conclusion of the cave goblin quest series. And, yes, we are continuing the dwarf storyline this year and we still plan to have a final one after that. Mod Fetzki

White knight quest in 2010
1) Will we hear more of King Vallance soon? Where has he gone, and what are the real goals of the White Knights and Temple Knights? 2) When will we hear more of Armadyl? He's very mysterious and we haven't found out much information on him in a long time. 3) Will there be any new robes or staves out soon? It's been a while since Magic has had some powerful robes or weapons that were released on their own (not with other things such as the PvP armour or Barrows). 4) Is it possible or probable that this year there'll either be a new spellbook released or the ability to merge different spells from different books into one customised book? JJ The Sage

Interestingly, we were discussing Vallance this week. We wanted to write one of Mod Nancy's court cases about him, but we decided the plotline was potentially awesome and so we would be better writing an entire quest about it. Also (and related to one of the above questions), we really don't have a clear plan right now where he is... :) You will see some more knight content this year, though not regarding King Vallance. I'm hoping our recent updates have given you some cool new mage stuff to play with, but we’re not working on any spellbook changes right now. Mod Mark

Quest serie finished in 2010
3) This question is a very short one: are you going to finish any quest series this year? Duke Risto

3) You will get a short answer too: Yes. Mod Fetzki

Dragon warhammer
Do you think that it might be possible to release a new dragon weapon sometime in the remaining dwarf/Red Axe storyline, like, say, the dragon warhammer, since the dwarves do use warhammers and it would fit the theme? Frahaleah

Nice idea, although I feel new dragon equipment is more likely to come from a drop table than as a quest reward, so it depends on the type of creature dropping it rather than the quest it’s associated with. So, if we released some new dwarf NPCs to fight we might add this, but I am not sure that we need more level 60 equipment in the game. Mod Mark

(quite contradicting answers in just a few months time)

99 requirement armour
1) Will there ever be equipment with the requirement of level 99 in a skill to use? 2) What do you think about making elite equipment where you need level 99 in the non-combat skill to make it (it would be untradeable) and level 99 in the combat skill to use it? Pro Cheese93

1) Yes! 2) Cool! We should do level 80 and 90 gear first, though, don't you think? Mod Mark

New mage hats
I, and possibly others of the RuneScape community, would like to know if there shall be a new Magic-related quest like Desert Treasure or Lunar Diplomacy? c d o d

The recent Rune Mechanics quest was quite magey, I thought. :) I just need to know how I can get me one of those cool hats the wizards in it are wearing! Mod Mark


 * Note: the fact the hats will be released can be indirectly derived from the answer. There was no question about the hats, though Mod Mark showed interested in them. It might be a strong hint, and could be part of the combat rebalancing updates.

More uses for Ivandis Flail
4) Can we expect some new content in which we'll need our Ivandis Flail? :)

Jellenoppes

4) Yes! Mod Mark

2010: Year of skill completion
Note: this was said in 2009; the 'aimed update until the end of this year' refers thus to 2009 and not to 2010.

Would it be possible to have more benefits of having level 99 in a skill? Say, for combat-related skills, maybe a 5% increase in the skill, and for non-combat related skills, perhaps special items to wear or more things to be able to do when you’re level 99. Getting to level 92 is only halfway to 99, and with most skills there isn't really much content after 92 for the time spent needed to level. (Admittedly, levelling does generally become faster at higher levels.) Will 1b

We do plan to add more high-level, 90+ content to the game, but I would also like to address the gaps in the 80s. The strykewyrm update is the kind of update that appeals to me at the moment regarding skill updates, taking three ‘gaps’ at different levels and filling them. Mod Mark

More Elite diaries to be created
Jagex asked on the future updates on RSOF for player's suggestions on possible future elite tasks and rewards. As this thread is posted in future updates section (and not suggestions section) and there's a develop blog in the same section created, it is to be assumed there will be more elite diaries in the future.

Barbarian Assault, Gnomeball, Trouble brewing and Castlewars Updates
Note: the Barbarian Assault update was released on the 19th of January 2010.

2) Any plans for updating Castle Wars? 3) Could you make a tutorial for Trouble Brewing, because I can't figure out how it works.

Jellenoppes

2) Yes! 3) I love Trouble Brewing, but we know we need to rework a fair amount of it. Some of the gameplay is just broken now. I’d like to fix it up before teaching people how to play it. There is an excellent KB article on it, though – try reading that.

Mod Mark

Measurements against spamming merchanter's clans
About merchant clans and GE price manipulation: when will we see an update which will stop them all at once? King Dancing

We don't want to stop merchant clans as long as they play by the rules, and this means they don't manipulate prices, they merely enjoy the gameplay factor of merchanting with all its risks and benefits and that is alright. What is annoying is the aggressive advertisement of some of these clans and we want to do something about that. Mod Fetzki

New particles in an unknown region
4) Why is the Adventurer's Log only for members. If it could be for F2P also, it could work as a new highscore system. And is Adventurer's Log going to have other features? Duke Risto

4) The Adventurer's Log contains a lot more information than the highscores and, therefore, needs to manage a much higher data stream, so we needed to restrict the number of users. To choose members was the most obvious. Mod Fetzki

Pollivneach smoke dungeon
1) Any plans with the weird machine in the Pollnivneach smoke dungeon?

1) Yes!

Mod Mark

More fairy ring teleports
1) Will there be any new fairy ring locations added this year? I did put up a thread about this (and the auto dial fairy ring system – quick find code: 78-79-547-58762243) back in April last year, but didn't receive a reply about it.

Yt Da White

1) Yes. Sorry we didn’t reply to your thread; we would love to be able to reply to every thread, but then we wouldn’t have time to make any content!

Mod Mark


 * Note: it sounds plausible this update will come along with Fairy Tale part 3.

Changing PVP mechanics
2) I know you already enacted measures to prevent 76king, but is there anything else you might do to either remove the statues (which are lowering the value of the GP) or change them in any way? Qt melanie

2) Yes, but there is nothing that I want to disclose at this point. Mod Fetzki

General

 * The Skill will partially be F2P.


 * The Skill will be the biggest update of 2010 (Obviously).


 * The Skill will change the game this much *Fetzki spreads his arms wide*


 * The Skill DOES take you beyond the current free map.


 * The Skill was first supposed to be a game on its own, but was changed into a skill later.


 * The Skill doesn't involve Pirate Empires, a 'future' Fun Orb game.


 * The Skill has never been done in a 'game' before.


 * The Skill has probably not been guessed yet (because of the above).


 * The Skill will be the 25th skill.

Technical

 * The Skill is taking a large amount of resources from the graphics team.


 * The Skill will use a whole new game mechanic.


 * The Skill will introduce a whole new type of gameplay.

Skill Related

 * The Skill will involve all current skills and combat.


 * The Skill is not going to be a combat, resource, production or character development skill.


 * The Skill is unique and not similar to another skill.

Combat Related

 * Aspects of the skills will be good for Pures in PVP.


 * It won’t have any impact on your combat level.

Requirements

 * No Quest to unlock the skill.


 * No other Skills required for the skill.

Training

 * Training will not be money driven or cost a lot.


 * A ship is featuring in it quite prominently

Rejections

 * It's not Sailing or anything like that.


 * It does NOT start with a ‘B’.

Release

 * The New Skill was first scheduled for last year, but has been delayed to 2010.


 * The New Skill won’t be released this month (February).


 * The New Skill will be ready soon.. (Mod MMG, January the 18th 2010).


 * The New Skill will be released closer to the middle of the year than to the end of the year.

(Source: all kinds; Q&A + Jagex posts at the forums - all information is collected by Xaror and can be found at the forum thread with QFC 16-17-324-60366434)

Magic Graphics Update
{{cquote2 Mod Mark: Yes, we plan to add particle effects and bloom aspects to spell animations, bringing them up to standard. Our artists mention it weekly! Mod Fetzki: It is a massive task and a unique challenge to get this done to a high standard, in both Standard and High Detail modes. The early prototypes look great, though! {{cite web }}
 * 4 = Mod Mark and Mod Fetzki
 * 1 = Amirul179: Will you update the magic animation to make it more unique and powerful? as the old one doesn't fit RuneScape HD anymore.

Dragon graphical rework
Mod Knox's response to a thread about the new look of the Tutorial dragon.

Fairy graphical rework
Mod Tytn's Development Blog announces with the release of Fairy Tale III that the city of Zanaris will be updated along with the inhabitants, constituting mostly of fairies. In Development Diary released earlier that year, Mod Joe, presents some screenshots of the what Zanaris would look in the near future. Although not confirmed, it is expected that throughout 2010 the third part of Fairy Tale quest series will be released along with Zanaris graphical rework that includes the fairies homes and landscape.

Water Troll
Interview with Mark Gerhard on James Gosling's Toy Show