It's been a little while since our last update regarding OSRS Community Worlds. This project will let you create and customise your very own world to experience the Old School RuneScape you want to play!
Since our previous update, the team has been exploring, discussing and developing different elements of the core tech we will need to ensure that Community Worlds function correctly, while keeping an eye on all your discussions! Our goal is and always has been to involve as many of you as possible, as much as we can, and we've already been diving deep into all of your Parameter requests.
We also sent out a form recently to anyone that wanted to discuss Project Zanaris and its progress with us to see where we can fit you into our feedback loops. So, if you're interested and haven't already completed an interest form, then click the button below - soon we'll be entering the very first stages of player testing! Whether you're fully behind the Project or have reservations, we think a healthy balance of feedback from all types of players will help the project reach it's full potential.
Although we didn't have a newspost last month, we did host our second Zanaris-themed Discord Stages where Mods Sarnie & Tomb, spoke about Parameters, Design Goals and much, much more! If you missed it, check out the video below.
If you can’t see the video above, click here.
Before we crack on, please note that much of the discussions included below do not 100% confirm any of these features will release with Project Zanaris' initial launch. Now let's dive into this month's update...
If you can’t see the image above, click here.
One of the most exciting features we've been investigating recently is region-locking. For those unfamiliar, region-locking takes form in a few ways, whether via self-restricted rule sets such as Settled's Swampletics, Jeporite's Northern UIM and xRakine's Deserted Series or from official limited game modes such as Leagues.
We believe that allowing you to deploy region restrictions is going to enable some of the most interesting Community World ideas, spanning from servers dedicated to those previously described rulesets, enhanced variations of those same rules, all the way to ideas we haven't even seen yet!
Much like a famous, green ogre, region-locking itself has layers and the design team have been investigating the different ways this feature could be implemented. One of the 'simplest' versions is with the current regions that Leagues offers. This version would allow you to easily select which regions you would like to have open or unlocked, which means you could have everyone locked to only Misthalin or unlock everywhere except the famous starter region.
Although the Leagues approach is great, we know as a project and as players, you would like more freedom in exactly where you want to go - so we want to give you greater flexibility. An early version of a more free-form region-locker has been to draw a square on the familiar map of Gielinor allowing only players to roam in that region of the map, allowing you to refine exactly what parts of the map you want open for more interesting worlds, like hosting a PvP event only restricted to Falador and its surrounding areas.
Ultimately, and this remains true for Project Zanaris as a whole, we're big on freedom - opening ways to play Old School that you can't do in the main game. Although that is our goal, some of the steps to achieving this are going to take time to get right. We would ultimately like to give you the ability to specify which areas of the map you would like to have accessible or not. Maybe you want only Lumbridge, Varrock, Falador and The Wilderness, or maybe you just want all underground areas of the game accessible, this approach would give you that freedom. This, however, would very much be one of the longer term goals.
There are of course many other region-locked accounts and rulesets out there and our ultimate hope is to have opportunities to support each of them. If you have ideas for region-locked rules or restrtictions you'd like to see us implement, then let us know! This, however, is a very lofty goal for us, and would not be something we'd able to start working on until other pieces of this region-themed puzzle were in place.
As you can see, there are many versions of region-locking we could take, all with different requirements, development work and levels of flexibility, but the team knows the importance of giving you this freedom and we'll be keeping an eye on all your feedback regarding this expansive feature.
While we aren't tied to just doing one, these would come as a staggered approach and not all at once. We hope you're just as excited as we are for the future possibilities of region-locking!
While there have been some very productive discussions both on socials and when we've hosted our Discord Stages calls - we know these don't get as much widespread attention as our newsposts. So, we thought it would be good to go through some of the key areas we've discussed during our Discord Stages, that might pique your interest!
Before we dive in, something we have clarified in both previous Stages is that we are not ready to discuss any elements of monetisation, including server costs. The team are actively looking into this area and once we are ready with all of the information, we will happily share all the necessary details. We want to ensure that all the information we present to you is not only accurate but achievable.
What we can say however is that we will not be allowing Pay-to-Win or any features that break the Rules of RuneScape as for us, that goes against the fundamentals of Old School.
Balancing Expectations While Dreaming Big!
Something we're going to keep hammering home during the development of Project Zanaris is our aspiration to give you, the players, as much freedom as possible. World hosts should have control on a world to play Old School exactly the way you want to. This could mean playing a slightly alternate version of what the main game offers to something drastically beyond what we've currently thought up. Ultimately, we want to take the barriers off the sandbox and for you to create experiences never seen before.
While that goal is lofty and the sky is not the limit, it comes with big caveats to make each different part of Project Zanaris happen. There is a lot of content and different pieces that make up each piece of content and tech that we have to look through and utilise to even make Zanaris function from a base-level. Luckily for Old School, Project Zanaris' tinkering will not directly affect content in the main game, but instead could provide benefits to systems and tech.
One of the biggest priorities we have as a team, involves Parameters. In theory, we could have every parameter every single player could ever think of added to the game. That would take a lot of time and exploratory work as while some parameters reconfigure specific numbers or defer current parts of the code to do something else instead, other more adventurous parameters can take much more time or can even need other updates to areas like the Engine, Game Systems, etc. Balancing what parameters we include first has been the one of the biggest next steps for the team, but one that isn't a straight-forward task as we have so many different players and playstyles that all want different things from Project Zanaris.
Outside of parameters, we know plenty of you want the ability to create custom content, whether that be a brand-new boss, new area of the map or even editing core systems of the game. These elements are the highest aspiration for us, and while we ultimately want this level of freedom, how would we proceed with is a big question we can't answer right now. Our immediate focus is on giving you the freedom with parameters to start breaking down the sandbox walls.
And this just scratches the surface of just some of the challenges this project brings. While ambitious, we know there's a healthy appetite for Community Worlds in various forms and we can't wait to let you go wild when Project Zanaris comes to life!
How will Project Zanaris work alongside Old School?
Something the team wants to make very clear is that Old School RuneScape is the main game and we don't want to take away from that. It's important to everyone on both teams that Project Zanaris remains the chilled younger cousin of Old School, as while we don't offer the core Old School experience, we can offer things the main game both could not and would not want to do.
It's the reason why Project Zanaris worlds won't be hosted in the same areas as Old School worlds and why we aren't going to allow any interaction with the main game, outside of examples like the want to copy a version of your main save over to a Zanaris world (just like you can with Beta Worlds and if the world host allows that option) or for cross-game chat.
Our previous newspost touched on that idea and talked about our progress and we'd like to clarify that this area is still under investigation and is not guranteed to happen. We know there are technical challenges that makes this feature more difficult to implement, the team are going to need to see how we can tackle these hurdles before commiting to making the feature work!
What ways are you looking to get feedback from the community?
While Project Zanaris isn't being polled, we remain committed to active Community Consultation. This is something extremely important to us as we understand how important it is to involve everyone within the Community to help shape making this as great as it can be. In the short term, that will be engaging you all through newsposts such as this, Discord Stages, internal testing and eventually even large scale tests!
Like we've previously said, some of the work we do on Project Zanaris can open more possibilities for Old School. Our priority is involving you as much as we can, as we want to address your concerns, requests and feedback to help shape and focus the Project and team.
What does the future of Leagues and Deadman look like, with Project Zanaris?
The future of Leagues and Deadman look bright in our eyes and will continue far into the future. Leagues V is currently happening, and our developers have done a great job making one of the best Leagues. We've got the base of Trailblazer, which we know has been the most successful league, with the team building on what makes it so exciting, especially with new features like Combat Masteries, new Relics, Echo Bosses and the team alongside addressing the pain points of Trailblazer.
Outside of this edition of Leagues, the team will continue to iterate on new Leagues and new Deadman Modes as far into the future as possible. They are not going anywhere, no matter what happens with Project Zanaris. We know how important the spirit of competition is and how much excitement officially timed events bring.
We don't think this will devalue game modes like Leagues or Deadman, because the beauty behind those is they offer a new experience, with the combination of an officially run event. Alongside that competitive element, which brings Leagues and Deadman alive, making it so unique. 50,000 people starting fresh all at the same time, going into a world that they are semi-knowledgeable about is one of the most fascinating things about Leagues and the allure of it comes from that... alongside the superpower nature of Leagues.
To wrap-up this month's edition, we want to follow suit from our previous newspost and hear directly from YOU! The survey below gives you a chance to share your thoughts on Project Zanaris, talk about the options we've talked about today, and share your ideas for other parameters you’d like to see. We can't wait to hear your thoughts!
We'll be back in the new year with more updates and teasers!
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.
Mods Freddie, Kailou, Morgath, Neon, Qwert, Pork, Sarnie, Snazzy, Strike, Titania, Tomb, TJ
The Zanaris Team.