Runescape News

Mobilising Armies

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:54:38 -0500

ZYBEZ GUIDE RELEASED: http://www.zybez.net/minigames.php?id=39

UPDATE: Mobilizing Armies Temporarily Disabled

QUOTE

Mod Maz
Jagex Mod

08-Jul-2009 18:43:23
Last edited on 08-Jul-2009 21:43:19 by Mod Nexus

Currently you can play the Conflict scenario, but the Siege one is not starting.

Just to let you know that we are working on a solution as I type, please bear with us.

Mod Maz
Queen of the Squirrel Armies

Edit:

A quick update...

This is proving to be more complex than previously thought, for the time being we've disabled everything except the conflict scenario. We will fix this as soon as possible.

Mod Nexus.

Mobilising Armies is a new multiplayer combat minigame, but instead of controlling your avatar you'll be controlling a whole battalion, deploying your squads with tactical precision and trying to second-guess the intentions of your opponents. There are four different scenarios to play in: Conflict, Siege, Hoard and Rescue. Each presents its own set of challenges, such as building catapults, collecting resources and stealing from your opponents, to name just a few. Don't worry about finding three other players, though: when you turn up at the command centre the officers will arrange your match for you.

As we all know, war isn't cheap, so with Mobilising Armies we are introducing a commodity-exchange system. If, after training a skill, you're left with a lot of commodities that you don't need yourself (e.g. a surplus of jewellery after training Crafting), you'll be able to trade them in at the command centre for investment credits, which can then be exchanged for squads and special units, such as cannons, barricades or exploding chinchompas. You can also choose to stake investment credits in an impending battle for a larger payout of reward credits, which can in turn be spent on additional items.

There are a variety of rewards for victorious commanders, including quest kits that let you hold much-needed questing tools in one inventory slot, resource locators that'll teleport you directly to resources such as mining spots and trees, and "spoils of war", which are a selection of resources, gold and items that will allow you to train your skills further

Good luck, and enjoy!

Mod Tim, Lead Content Developer, and Mod Maz, Content Developer and Queen of the Squirrels

(For a look at some of the technical challenges we've faced in developing this minigame, take a look at this recent blog post from Andrew, titled Mobilising Armies.)

Summary:
Mobilising Armies can be found south of the Feldip Hills and west of Oo'glog. You can get there using any of the following:

Spirit trees
The Mobilising Armies Teleport spell in the standard spellbook
The games necklace

There are no requirements to start playing, but to keep playing you'll need tradeable commodities.

In other news...

We've added the ability for you to make notes. To access this new feature, click on the Notes icon at the bottom-right of the screen. This remarkably simple system enables you to leave up to 30 notes for yourself, each of which can be up to 50 characters long.

On a related note, any invalid player names saved in your Friends/Ignore lists have been marked with a *. From now on, you will only be able to add valid player names to your Friends/Ignore lists.

We've also moved the Summoning interface's functionality to the Summoning icon next to the minimap – simply right-click on this icon for all your pet/familiar needs. We're aware this leaves a blank 'stone' on the interface; there is another new feature planned to go in that space.

We've added an alternative sitting position when you rest. You can toggle how you sit by clicking rest again to choose your preferred pose.

Zanik's crossbow can now be used with many more varieties of bolts. It seems that it only used a small selection beforehand.

The filter for the quest list will no longer remove quests you've already started.

Summoning scrolls should no longer interfere with special attack energy replenishing.

You can no longer use fairy rings while you are tele-blocked. This seemed a bit inconsistent with other areas of the game.

You can now take familiars over the bridge towards Zamorak in the God Wars Dungeon, so you don't have to dismiss them and then summon them again after crossing.

Fairy Area Improvement: Animating (developers' Blog)

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:17:26 -0500

Hello, I am Mod Biscuits and I would like to take you through the experiences I had producing the new fairy quest.With the fairy concept art and models looking great it was up to me as the animator to give them personality and life. It was the first time I had responsibility over the animation of an entire race in RuneScape. Before I could start I needed a clear understanding of how these fairies would behave. To do this I worked closely with Mod Alec, Mod GG and Mod Ingrid to discuss how they would move and interact in the world of RuneScape.

Developing the characteristics of the fairies

Two frames of animation

We decided to make the fairies quite similar to insects with very fast beating wings and fast, erratic movements. I also wanted to stay clear from the stereotypical 'cute' fairy, while still keeping a delicate and feminine feel to them. Previously, all the fairies moved in a similar way, now the Fairy Queen, Godfather and his henchmen all have unique animations that set them apart. The Fairy Queen and Godfather's movements are less erratic than the generic fairies to give them a more regal feel. The Fairy Queen's motions are steadier and more graceful, reflecting her royalty. The Godfather is very similar to the Fairy Queen, with less movement compared to his henchmen, and he hovers with his hands behind his back to show superiority. The Godfather's henchmen both have their own unique style also. Slim Louie looks dangerous and ready for a fight and Fat Rocco is awkward and unfit - he holds on to his hat when he moves and occasionally needs to pull his trousers up.

Techniques used in animation

Best viewed in Mozilla Firefox

I wanted to produce the effect of motion blur on the fairies' wings to enhance the feeling of speed, but it is very difficult to achieve this effect without processor-heavy graphics techniques. Motion blur is an effect usually seen on film when something is moving too fast for the shutter to capture, thus resulting in a blurred image. In a game, the image is drawn to the screen as quickly as the screen can refresh, resulting in no blurred effect. In order to make the wings look as though they are moving fast enough to blur, I've modelled the path of the wings' motion with polygons. I can then animate the transparency value of these polygons to fake the effect of motion blur. This makes the wings look like they're beating faster than they actually are.
I'm glad I had the chance to animate such a unique race in Runescape. This project has been a lot of fun and I hope everybody likes what we have done with the fairies.

We've animated a few of the fairies, as you can see, but we still have a fair few more to finish off before the project can to go to QA.

Wallie Cards Available In Sweden

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:20:13 -0500

Our users in Sweden can now purchase RuneScape membership without a credit card, thanks to Wallie!

Pre-paid game cards offering RuneScape membership in a variety of durations are available to buy in Pressbyran and 7-Eleven stores throughout Sweden.

To find your nearest store, check out the Wallie card website.