It’s time to see what’s next for Varlamore!
With the launch of Varlamore Part One, you’re finally able to hop on your quetzal and explore the Shining Kingdom... well. One third of it, anyway.
There are still two parts left in our biggest area expansion ever, and today we want to give you your first look at Varlamore Part Two.
Before we get into it, we want to thank each and every one of you for taking the time to explore Varlamore! We’ve really enjoyed collaborating with you to bring the Shining Kingdom to life, and we can’t wait to do the same with Parts Two and Three. Please note we will still be making the previous changes we spoke about last week and look to improve areas of Part One in the near future.
With that in mind, today’s post is all about how YOU can have your say about quests and rewards in Varlamore Part Two. Let’s get started!
We’re thrilled to see how much you’ve enjoyed the first few quests in Varlamore – especially one of the froggy variety! If you haven’t yet played The Ribbiting Tale of a Lily Pad Labour Dispute, we highly recommend it. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable little quest that really captures the spirit of Old School RuneScape.
It’s also generated a lot of questions about whether we’ll add more surprise quests in future. Here on the team, we love surprises, and if the community feels the same, we’ll happily look into adding more in Parts Two and Three.
Consequently, in the next Varlamore poll, there’ll be two questions asking whether you want more Varlamore quests, and whether you’d like that number to include more surprises.
To be clear, if surprise quests get the greenlight, we’ll still be polling any included rewards or content that will affect the wider game. That’s one of the core principles of our Polling Charter, after all! This means that while we’ll keep the exact details of the quest a surprise until launch day, you will still get the final say on any game-changing content it might include.
In addition, these questions will apply to all future Varlamore releases, not just Part Two. Vote yes, and you can look forward to plenty more surprises in future!
Now let’s take a quick look at the rewards you can expect from Part Two. As we revealed in our Winter Summit, Varlamore Part Two takes you to two extremes: the luxurious island of Aldarin, and the inhospitable mountain range north of Civitas illa Fortis.
Headline content includes a new Herblore activity on Aldarin, a new group boss in the mountains, and the continuation of the Varlamore storyline.
Today, we want to know what rewards you’d like to see from this content, so we can make sure you have the opportunity to vote for something you’d really like to see in the game. Here’s a quick breakdown of the reward spaces we have in mind.
Herblore Activity
This high-level skilling activity is designed for players with 70+ Herblore, although lower-level players may still be able to join in the fun. As with any high-level activity, we want to ensure the rewards are appropriately desirable.
More than any other skill, Herblore plays a very different role for Iron players. While this activity is suitable for all account types, we want to make careful considerations regarding the ways different players interact with this particular skill.
Finally, this isn’t a high-intensity training method. Herblore is already pretty high-intensity as it is! As a result, we’ll be prioritising tangible rewards over XP.
We haven’t yet decided how many rewards should come from this piece of content, or what those rewards might be – so the floor is open for you to tell us your ideas!
Group Boss
The northern mountain range will be home to a multiplayer PvM experience. Our target group size is 3-8 players, but you’ll have the option to do the content by yourself, or en masse!
In terms of loot mechanics, we’ll be looking to bosses like Nex and Scurrius that reward multiple players.
Unlike Scurrius, we’re not targeting players with less PvM experience, or trying to teach mechanics. Instead, we expect that players will already have (or be close to having) a Fire Cape before taking on this boss. To put that in simpler terms, this content is aimed at 90+ Total Combat Level.
Again, we feel that harder content deserves better rewards, so we plan to give out 2-3 unique drops from this boss. Bear in mind that this won’t include pets or cosmetics, just the few rewards that impact the wider game.
One other thing – we’ve heard your feedback regarding chargeable items and will not be including them as a reward from this content. Bear that in mind when you’re letting us know your thoughts!
Now that you have some idea of our intentions, we want to hear from you. We’ve asked the wonderful mods on the 2007scape subreddit to create the limited-time 'Varla-MORE' flair for posts on this topic, and there’s also a special channel where you can share your ideas in the Official Old School Discord.
We can’t wait to see all the awesome rewards you come up with – so flex those creative muscles, and start thinking of ideas!
You can also discuss this update on the 2007Scape subreddit, the Steam forums, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel. For more info on the above content, check out the official Old School Wiki.
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