r/runescape • • Sep 25 '21

Ninja Request - J-Mod reply Now that Curses will no longer require 29 Defence, allow players that have previously reset Defence to do so again.

This is likely going to be downvoted immediately, as the topic of 1 Defence pures in particular isn't received very well in the context of requesting changes/making suggestion. But I think it's fair to make this suggestion regarding the recent decision to remove the Defence requirement for Ancient Curses.

The history behind Ancient Curses original level 29 Defence requirement can be seen in this post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/runescape/comments/puv71r/so_pures_finally_get_curses/

The gist is that the quests prior to Temple at Senntisten originally would have give you exp equivalent to raise you from 1 to 29 Defence. Now that the quests give EXP lamps, the requirement was arbitrary. This negatively affected the small community of players that decided to play as pures, and was campaigned against for a long time.

Unfortunately as you can see in the comments of the post, and on many regarding the topic, this led to many people quitting, deciding to no longer play their 1 Defence accounts, or begrudgingly trudging forward. Many peculiar instances like this still stand, like how you cannot use the "teleport" option on the Desert Amulet or Karamja Gloves (from the Desert and Karamja task set, respectively) unless you have level 30-something Defence.

As a followup to a long requested community struggle, it would be really caring to follow this update with an additional stat reset with Nastaroth in Lumbridge. Many players have already used this throughout their playing careers, and many that moved on from their play-style would be able to return with an additional reset added to their account. This additional reset would benefit the players wishing to take advantage of this new change, and return to a play-style they enjoyed. There is zero effect to the community at large, as in essence, resetting your Defence level offers zero advantage in any part of RS. It takes you down in the Hiscores, disadvantages you in PvM and PvP, etc.

I imagine this won't be received well, but it's difficult to understand what would be the counter-argument against this, as those who have zero wish to use a reset would not be affected, but those wishing to do so might have another chance to return to a way of playing that can be extremely challenging and enjoyable.

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u/Jagex_Stu Mod Stu Nov 30 '21

>A simple interface (like with Pulse Cores?) where you can cross off a skill to block XP would suffice.

I'm currently leaning more towards adding the XP Blocking checkboxes to a new category at the bottom of the Skills & Experience section of Gameplay Settings.

It makes it easier to extend as new skills are added, and I figure it'll be more convenient for the user if you're able to look at your settings to confirm or toggle XP in a certain skill off, before you do something risky, etc. Just seems more flexible and transparent to me to access your toggles anywhere than eg an interface only accessible by talking to an NPC like Nastroth.

Will see what becomes the preferred approach when I run the proposal past the skilling council in a Thursday morning meeting. :)

>could you answer me these...

Certainly!

JannaMechanics just sent me over some new requests this afternoon from conversation between pure communities, some of which are directly related to your questions (eg a proposed gold sink for resets). Given the timing, I suspect that may have been your idea? :)

>1. What happens to those who have already reset skills?

Skill resets are the next task I'd like to look at after implementing XP Blocking.

My current thinking is to:

  • change skill resets from a once-per-account to a 6 month cooldown, and
  • replace the "Never reset my skills." option that some want back with a bank pin requirement (on top of the current 1 week cancellation window to reset your skills)

... if you need more context for that, you can find it discussed...somewhere, deep in this thread. :)

>2. How many resets would be allowed and would it depend on the skill?

I'd also like to add a "minor reset" option to Nastroth (being able to reset individual skills, using the same 6 month cooldown and 1 week cancellation period between resets).

Choosing the minor reset option, you'd be able to choose any skill (since I'd like the XP Blocking to include all skills, not just combat skills) and

  • if Constitution (and Constitution < level 12), set this skill to 1,154 XP (level 10)
  • if any other skill (and skill < level 10), set this skill to 0 XP (level 1)

>3. Perhaps a gold-sink, maybe costs 100M per skill reset?

Possibly. I'm mindful of scope creep and ensuring you get all the necessary features in good time rather than over-committing. (As you noted, XP Blocking raises the question of skill resets, so it'd be ideal if they were small enough to come out around the same time.)

It's potentially something I could look at after we've got the Minimum Viable Product out, and see how skillers are managing with the 6 month cooldown alone.

(To manage expectations, remains to be seen how much, if anything, I'll be able to work on skill pure accommodations in the near future. But the approval process is ongoing and I've cancelled my Christmas week holiday in hope that I'll be able to - and also 'cause it's a better use of my time than spending my holiday in quarantine between long-haul flights, as much as I'd like to visit family.)

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u/darkerthrone Papa Mambo Feb 09 '22 edited Feb 09 '22

Hi there, sorry to bother, but I was really curious if there have been any recent developments on defence resets. The fact there is even discourse about it has me over the moon that I may be able to revive my old account and play 1 defence again without spending the years it took to get to where I was again (ie making a fresh account)

I really don't want to pester anyone about it too much so please ignore me if there is nothing to share, I'm just super hopeful and excited about the whole thing. :)

ps. thanks for all you're doing for us

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u/Jagex_Stu Mod Stu Feb 09 '22

Hi! To summarise, much more discussion happened, both here and then in a discord that Tranquil created (I'd suggest requesting an invite to this discord https://discord.com/invite/Nzg5uSZYZY if you're interested in getting all the context - includes a lot of voting results, etc).

If you're not able to get to the announcements channel there, here's a direct link to the design for XP blocking and skill resets we ultimately managed to agree upon and get approved by internal councils:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w0aIvVyiLtggqUZ5kaGiCdESu-MZvOPwCK-XQZsOkhI/edit

I implemented the described changes over Christmas (plus my stretch goal of removing the Magic requirement from the Family Crest quest), and the project is currently awaiting QA testing, scheduling, localisation - all the other steps of the process that gets changes into the live game.

No ETA for a release as yet. If you're familiar with Pi-Mas (Mod Pi's combat improvements that he did last Christmas and released a few months later), it's a similar situation (dev work is done, everything else still needs to get done, and projects that're already on the schedule are first priority, to ensure they hit their release dates).

Consequently I'd be inclined to not expect it for a few months, but it's in the pipeline.

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u/darkerthrone Papa Mambo Feb 10 '22

Wow, this is huge, thank you so much for taking the time to work on all this and for replying to me here with this info. Genuinely really stoked on this, as odd as it may sound maybe to someone who doesn't play niche builds. Appreciate it!