The highly anticipated Sailing skill has emerged as the community’s chosen new addition to Old School RuneScape, and its beta stages are closer than ever. Jagex has released a development roadmap, giving players clear insight into the team’s progress and what this means for their game accounts.
Context
This year, Jagex and the Old School RuneScape development team are introducing a significant wave of content. Players have already seen substantial updates, including a comprehensive revamp of three Wilderness bosses, the release of the grandmaster quest Desert Treasure 2, and the introduction of a new prayer book and boss, the Phantom Muspah. Additionally, the Woodcutting skill received an expansion with Forestry, and the Bounty Hunter minigame made an unprecedented return. Amidst these exciting additions, the most monumental change is undoubtedly the introduction of a brand-new skill. This marks a historic moment for the game, prompting Jagex to proceed with extreme care, ensuring extensive community involvement throughout the development process.
Brief History
The journey to a new skill began with Jagex polling the community on their desire for such an addition. Following an overwhelmingly positive response, the development team actively gathered player feedback to shape potential skill concepts. This extensive consultation culminated in three distinct skill pitches: Sailing, Shamanism, and Taming. These proposals were then presented to the player base in a subsequent in-game poll, allowing them to vote for their preferred option. Sailing emerged as the clear favorite, securing the most votes, with Shamanism also receiving significant support, showcasing the community’s enthusiasm for fresh gameplay experiences.
Refining Sailing
With Sailing confirmed, the skill has now advanced to its critical refinement stage. This phase involves an intensive two-month period dedicated to collaborative feedback and detailed discussions between Jagex and the community. These conversations will delve into four specific areas concerning the skill’s design and implementation. After thoroughly considering all input, Jagex will consolidate the findings and present them in a new poll. Only upon successful passage of this poll will the actual development work commence, paving the way for eventual beta testing. This structured approach ensures that player voices are integral to shaping the skill before it enters the development pipeline.
The four key areas scheduled for in-depth discussion, each for approximately two weeks, are:
- Core System and Gameplay Loops: How the skill functions at its heart.
- Navigation and Map/Sea Scale: How players move ships and interact with the game world.
- Reward Space: What benefits and items players gain from training Sailing.
- Overall Game Integration and Lore: How Sailing fits into Gielinor’s existing world and story.
Sailing Refinement Survey
Before initiating the scheduled in-depth discussions, Jagex launched a survey designed to gauge initial player sentiment and expectations regarding the four crucial topics of the refinement stage. This initial data collection helps the developers understand the community’s baseline feelings. The survey includes questions about a player’s engagement history, such as whether they voted yes or no on the initial poll for a new skill, their total in-game level, weekly playtime commitments, and if they actively play an Ironman account. It also probes their favorite in-game activities and their specific vote for Sailing during the skill pitch poll, providing valuable demographic and preference data.
Core System and Gameplay
Moving beyond general player information, the survey delves into preferred training methods and the desired intensity of the Sailing skill. Jagex aims to discern whether players prefer a single training method with varied activities, akin to Slayer, or multiple distinct training pathways, similar to Hunter. The survey presents various potential training activities for evaluation, including courier missions between different ports, engaging in Slayer tasks on remote islands, or embarking on voyages to discover and conquer new territories. Respondents are asked to rate each activity based on their enthusiasm, from strong preference to strong dislike, giving Jagex clear indications of community interest in different gameplay loops. This helps shape the core experience of training the skill.
Mechanics
A significant portion of the survey addresses the mechanics of Sailing, a topic slated for discussion later in the refinement stage. Players are asked to rate the importance of being able to freely move around their ship and perform various interactions while navigating. Intriguingly, Jagex offers choices for preferred ship control systems: traditional point-and-click, WASD movement, or an interface-driven approach. The survey also queries players on other mechanical aspects, such as the importance of smooth navigation across both PC and mobile platforms, and the desire to see other players’ ships on the open sea. This feedback is vital for creating an intuitive and engaging control experience.
Furthermore, the survey explores the amount of content players expect at launch. Respondents rate various Sailing-related features, indicating whether they would be content with their inclusion on release, consider them a minimum requirement, deem them unimportant for launch, or prefer they not be included at all. Examples of content to rate include:
- New discoverable islands.
- Dedicated bosses unique to Sailing.
- Specialized Sailing guilds.
- New minigames related to sailing.
- Comprehensive ship upgrade systems.
Rewards
While a broad discussion on rewards is planned for mid-June, Jagex proactively gathers initial player thoughts through the survey. This section specifically asks players about the types of activities they envision performing with the Sailing skill and, more importantly, what kinds of rewards they most desire. Respondents are tasked with rating various potential rewards. This feedback helps guide the development team in crafting a reward space that genuinely excites the community and offers meaningful progression. Examples of rewards that players rate include cosmetic items, new boss encounters, further ship upgrades, and access to new resources.
Integration
The final survey segment, corresponding to late June’s discussion, focuses on the lore and seamless integration of Sailing into the existing game world. Players are asked whether they favor cross-skill training, such as simultaneously leveling Sailing alongside Fishing or other skills, or if they prefer entirely new, isolated training methods specific to Sailing. The survey also probes the desirability of integrating Sailing with existing game elements, like allowing access to current farming patches via new sea routes. A crucial question pertains to the role and functionality of established ports within the new Sailing skill, exploring how they might interact with maritime travel and trade.
Refinement Summary
By mid-July, Jagex intends to release a comprehensive blog post, potentially followed by an in-game poll, that will summarize all the detailed discussions and feedback gathered from the player base during the refinement stage. This crucial step will consolidate the community’s preferences and solidify the design direction for Sailing. Based on the outcome of this summary and any subsequent poll, Jagex will either move forward with active development for the beta phase or, if the proposed design does not meet community approval, return to an earlier stage of development to further iterate on the skill’s core concepts. This commitment ensures that the final product truly aligns with player expectations.
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