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Geek Culture / The Big Java RS... Improoving?

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Bizar Guy
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Posted: 31st Oct 2006 06:53 Edited at: 31st Oct 2006 18:12
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If you haven't played RuneScape recently, you've missed this, but the game seems to be improoving at a phenomenal rate. I was gone for a month and a half from the game, and whe I came back, I could hardly bevieve the changes. Since I started playing again, I'm almost ashamed to say for the moment I've become hooked on it. And before this, I might have played once a week if I averaged it out durring the times I did play. The only free quest I have left now is the Dragon Slayer!! I hardly believe it, but if they keep making the game better at this rate, I may actualy go for membership when I'm done with the free part of the game...

For one, RuneScape is actualy starting to look fairly good. If they can fix the sucky draw distance (although much better than before!!), and improove the camera, it will be apparent even to those not looking for it at all. The water in the game is still aweful, and it still has the itty bitty resolution, with no options to increase. But the visuals have gotten a ton better, and the entire landscape really benefits from it. In fact, all the newest models in it sport numerous and fluid animations. Runescape may become, dare I say it? A visualy apealing game?!?!?

Next is the sound effects. WHAT?!? SOUND EFFECTS IN RUNESCAPE!?!?!!? Yes it's true! And lots of them. In fact, most of them are fairly good or not half bad. Some though are aweful, but those are usualy the older ones.

And then there's gameplay. WHA-. Yes, not only is there more to the game than just clicking on the other guy to attack them, it now feels somewhat intuitive to change fighting styles and activate the correct prayer and magics. And now that if you close the browser in the middle of a fight, your guy doesn't exist until the fight is finished, you actualy pay attention to escape routes and all that. One thing I've noticed especialy, is that I've started to really get a sense that with a high enough skill level, you can make practicaly any item in the game yourself. Not a new feature, they've just managed to make it really feel like it. If they can get rid of the lag time between actions in the game, it might no longer be tedious at all.

Here are some screens I took... I'm genuinly impressed with the devotion Jagex has to RuneScape. RuneScape had earned it's rep as the joke of mmo's but now it seems to be turning into a genuine game that still has a great sense of humor about itself.
(The bridge to Faldor castle)


(Note my sceleton suit and rubber chicken in this one)


(And here is a not too shabby forest path south of Faldor...)


(A tiny church on a hill...)


(This didn't come of very good, but in motion this is a pretty impressive hill. It feels quite nice with all the organics. I'm standing next to a dungeon enterance, which houses many a bandit and pirate)


Edit: I'm not trying to say what a great game RuneScape is, I'm just saying it looks like it's well on its way to becoming one.

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Jess T
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Posted: 31st Oct 2006 12:02
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I'm sorry, what's so good about this Runescape game?

Is there something other than the crappy graphics and forced advertising that I'm missing...?

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dark coder
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Posted: 31st Oct 2006 12:59
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The creators of it must have made quite alot of cash, why didn't they spend some on upgrading past ms paint?

Hallowed are the ori.
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Fallout
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Posted: 31st Oct 2006 13:23
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Yeah, doesnt look great, but I guess the clue is in the title. If it's coded in Java, it's probably coded to be completely multi-platform, and maybe it doesnt use any graphics acceleration to maximize it's audience?!?! Just a guess. If those are the improved visuals though, what did it used to look like?


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David R
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Posted: 31st Oct 2006 13:26
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Nah, it just impairs visuals to ensure it runs fast across the internet, and on nearly all PC's. Simple as that

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Bizar Guy
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Posted: 31st Oct 2006 14:39 Edited at: 31st Oct 2006 18:15
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This is what RuneScape used to look like. While it still doesn't exactly look good, it has actualy developed an art style. And yes, the main reason they don't just make one big update to bring the graphics up to scratch is because they want it to run on everything...
If it were not for the low res and poor draw distance, it wouldn't be so dificult to see the appeal of this style...

And RuneScape pretty much maximizes it's adience by having a massive part of the world that you can play in for free. If there wasn't, I would have never even looked at it, and wouldn't be at a point where I'm waiting for them to update it enough to make it worth paying for in my opinion.

RuneScape is good in that you can play it once a month to an entire day with no obligation, as about 1/4 of the game is free. The 3/4 you can't play are of course the better 3/4, but that's kind of expected. The biggest fault is the gameplay, which is repeative until you actualy learn how to use it well. A big advantage is that the world is so cram-packed with stuff that you'd have to go out of your way to not find something to do.

I'm not certain of this, but so far I've found this to be the best FREE mmorpg. I tried silk road recently, and I was amazed at how aweful the movement, hud, and use of space was. I also found it to have shody collision and I ended up walking through a number of buildings that served no purose what so ever. There were massive cities I could go through, but nothing to do in them. It also had the most limited character creation system I had seen in quite a while, and even with all the graphics maxed out, just looked plain aweful artisicaly. I've tried a few others (although not recently), and was just really unimpressed overall with the lack of polish in so many areas.

I basicaly made this thread, because I obviously know RuneScape has an aweful rep (which it had earned), and now the game in all catagories seems to be improoving exponentioaly. I was curious to see if people would have the exact same opinion of it, or if someone might have noticed besides me.

Edit: In case you didn't know, RuneScape is play in your browser, and there is no download or instal to put on your computer. Very easy to start playing, nothing to get rid of if you deside to stop.

Edit2:
Quote: "The creators of it must have made quite alot of cash, why didn't they spend some on upgrading past ms paint?"

That's kind of what I'm trying to say... they are... Right now... minus ms paint, although I wouldn't be surprised if they used it for RuneScape Classic.

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Saikoro
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Posted: 31st Oct 2006 14:42 Edited at: 31st Oct 2006 14:42
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Erm... that's what runescape did and looked like 2 years ago, mate.

(player of 6-7 years now)

EDIT: What it did and looked like regarding first post.


My band Phoenix Ophelia : http://www.myspace.com/phoenixophelia
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Bizar Guy
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Posted: 31st Oct 2006 14:48 Edited at: 31st Oct 2006 14:50
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I posted that for people who had never played game before, to show just in general the improovements.

You won't see the difference in a screen from two-three months ago, as much of it can't really be seen in a bad jpeg. I'll see if I can get a good example though. The best thing you can do to see the diff is play yourself if you haven't recently, and with the sound on. Note that the Varok area is still not upgraded as that's what they're doing now.

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Saikoro
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Posted: 31st Oct 2006 15:06
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Meh, I'll go pop on now and take a look. I was just under the impression from your first post that this was all new stuff since you had left a month or so ago


My band Phoenix Ophelia : http://www.myspace.com/phoenixophelia
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Bizar Guy
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Posted: 31st Oct 2006 15:17 Edited at: 31st Oct 2006 18:24
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A lot is new, but I was just trying to get accross how much and how fast RuneScape is improoving.

Here are some example of what I was talking about.
(Then being a few months ago in the first, and the rats are even more recent in the second, like two or three weeks)

Then,

And now-


Then,

And now-


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Vampiric
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Posted: 31st Oct 2006 21:45
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Your a member right, i used to be a member a while ago, i've moved onto guild wars now, bettwer graphics and only £18 for nightfall on then net

All bow down to evil
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Bizar Guy
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Posted: 1st Nov 2006 04:30
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No! At the moment I see no good reason to become an rs member. I'm a free player. I did however state that with all the improvements happening, I won't be surprised if they do get to a point where I'm willing to become a member.

I'll say it again unless anyone didn't understand. I'm not telling everyone RuneScape is this great game that you should all be playing, in fact, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone but those who want to try a good free mmorpg, and appreciate the lightheartedness present throughout the game. If you can't stand repetitive gameplay even slightly, this isn't the game for you. Much of the game is centered around making items and selling them, which in and of itself is repetitive.

I'm just impressed with how much improvement I constantly see in the game, and how they continually improve more and more of it faster and faster.

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indi
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Posted: 1st Nov 2006 04:36 Edited at: 1st Nov 2006 04:36
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It looks like a dramatic improvement and feels akin to playstation 1 graphics.
it would be interesting if that java game could be ported to mobile phones.

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Crazy Ninja
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Posted: 1st Nov 2006 10:32
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i've played it recently and i have to say that the graphics have improved some, its just not noticeable with the pics he has because they've been scaled some.

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Bizar Guy
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Posted: 1st Nov 2006 13:34
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I just looked at their site. For November they're adding 2 quests, a new skill and hundereds of items to go with it, and updating the graphics of spiders, imps, and sheep, which are some of the most common creatures in the game... So basicaly it sounded like a typical month for them.

I don't think it could be put on a phone very well, as it's a point and click rpg. Graphically... I dbout it. I recomend going to their site and either playing the game or doing a google search for pics of it, as they came out really aweful with the print screen key, and I did scale them like Crazy Ninja said.

This is a link to their site, they have better quality shots there.
http://www.runescape.com/


Please don't post in the thread my sig leads to.
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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 1st Nov 2006 14:10
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Jagex have been hiring people over the last few months, thats probably the reason why the game has been updated so much.

Ive even tried to get a job with them.

--

Iam a member on runescape and have been for a while, on and off. Its fun when you first become a member, but when you have seen every thing, it gets boring.

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Benjamin
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Posted: 1st Nov 2006 14:16
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Quote: "Is there something other than the crappy graphics"

I do know what you mean. I see people playing games on mobile phones and think to myself "why don't they just get one of the latest consoles and play games with much better graphics on them?".

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Jess T
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Posted: 1st Nov 2006 17:47
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Benny,

Close, but what I was getting at is that I've seen much better things in Java (and other PC areas) that have that much needed polished touch about them that are not even commercial (hell, most are open-source!)...

Anyhoo - I'm glad you all like it... You seem to be having fun.

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Benjamin
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Posted: 1st Nov 2006 18:40
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Quote: "Close, but what I was getting at is that I've seen much better things in Java (and other PC areas)"

So these other things run in web browsers too?

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