Weather should have many wide ranging effects on day to day life in Runescape. Imagine not having to water crops if you plant them while it is raining. Or better yet (or worse depending on your opinion), crops in a drought stricken area may need additional watering to ensure proper growth. Maybe a freak snow storm could block the pass up through White Wolf Mountain and force players to go around another way till the weather clears. Rare rains in the desert would allow players to walk freely without needing water sacks. And forget about having a high success rate on making fires if it is raining.

Combat could also be effected by weather, and more specifically by the rain. Rangers would find their attack skill slightly hampered in stormy areas. Mages on the other hand would find their water and wind spells enhanced while their fire and earth spells would become muddied (pun intended). Warriors would find fighting beasts who use fire attacks less prone to getting high hit damage, just as cold weather Ice Warriors would be stronger in the snow.

Other skills would be effected also. The aforementioned firemaking skill would have obvious effects. River Fishermen might find that their catches are more bountiful immediately after a storm has passed through while fish in the seas would be harder to find. There would be new items for Craftsmen to make, like raincoats and umbrellas that would temper the ill effects of rain on agility. Maybe there could also be fireproof tinderboxes? New random events could occur while it is storming. Maybe that player you are chatting to suddenly gets hit by lightning and gets blown clear across to Camelot.

Of course, to do this properly, every skill that is effected should have an equal amount of pros and cons like the Mages I mentioned before. But coming up with balance should not be too difficult for the creative team at Jagex.

Logistically speaking, the graphics would probably not be a major issue. A rain effect could be overlaid, while making the scene slightly darker and removing shadows (the last two of which are supposedly incorporated into the game already). An occasional high brightening could simulate lightning. The difficult part would be getting a decent weather simulation going that would allow most of Runescape to be “normal” most of the time but still allowing weather patterns to realistically drift across the world. Jagex wouldn’t need the software of the Weather Channel, but they would still need to put a lot of thought and effort into the simulation. A weather system would probably be as complicated an update as the graphical update of July 2008.

Edit: I know I have a Dynamic Stat Sidebar Widget, but I wrote this post before I had that option.  And the truth is that I needed to change hosting providers to get that widget to work.  A regularly updated image file like some dynamic signatures would have been a nice alternative.   I still think major Runescape fan sites who already make dynamic signature files should look into what I suggest below.

I would really love to see one of the major Runescape fan sites, those who already provide dynamic signatures and dynamic avatars, design a dynamic blog side bar. It shouldn’t be all that hard to do as it simply would be a reworking of a dynamic signature, but sized taller than wider. Many blog sites allow images in the side bars, including Wordpress.com and Blogger.com. For now I am working on a simple design but it is not dynamic and I have to manually update it in PhotoImpact if I want it to be current. So if there is anyone out there who is, or who knows someone, at Runescape Bits & Bytes, SXSSniffer, RuneUniverse, LeetScape or the many other sites that already provide dynamic signatures, please get this idea out of my head and into a working environment.

Roaming the Varrock Streets At Night

This next idea stems from my long time love of the game SimCity. I have been playing SimCity in all its incarnations right up to and including SimCity Societies (though this last SimCity is my least favorite). The nice thing about SimCity is that it includes a very visually stimulating and mentally interesting day/night cycle. It is this day/night cycle that I think Runescape is desperately missing and would add another nice touch of realism.

I think it would be wonderful to prowl the streets of Varrock at night with the flickering of oil street lamps guiding the way as we pass light filled windows and doors. The twinkling of camp fires made by people training the firemaking skill would add a feeling of sitting by the fire on a summer night BSing with family and friends. And of course, the gentle chirping of crickets would lend an extra level of realism.

I am not suggesting that it should become so dark that game play enjoyment would be effected because players can not see. I’m simply suggesting bathing everything in lighting similar to blueish moonlight, and instead of shadows, have windows cast rays of light at night. During twilight the effect could be more orange lighting, such as sunrise and sunset.

Of course the cycle should be reasonably short and a length that would guarantee that different lighting effects would be in place at the same real time each day. My initial idea would be to have a five hour lighting cycle. Two and a half hours for day time, a half hour for dusk, an hour and a half for night, and another half hour for dawn. This would mimic more of a summer season and also provide for daytime to start an hour later (real time) each day.

Where I get hung up within this idea is how best to implement the cycle within Runescape. Should all of Runescape be daytime, twilight, or night at the same time? Or should the days travel across the map from east to west? There is something aesthetically pleasing about teleporting from Lumbridge during the daytime and winding up in Camelot at night, just as traveling from San Fransisco to London could cause the same effect in the real world. If the dynamic shadows in the recent graphics update are truly dynamic, then they could even adjust in response to the theoretical position of the sun. But I have the nagging feeling that with a world map as small as Runescape, it would be more prudent to have the whole world cycle at the same time.

I don’t think this idea would really have too much of an effect on the overall skill system within Runescape. I suppose that the firemaking and thieving skills could be enhanced. Maybe heavily wooded areas would require a lantern of some sort to see at night (which would be a boon for craftsmen). Maybe certain beasts would only roam the lands at night. Muggers and thugs would be more prone to attack players at night and there would be more of them around. Outside of those few things, the day/night cycle would be more of an aesthetic and realism update.

Ever since I began playing Runescape I have always thought it would be fun if we could pick-pocket other players. I mean, thieving is such a valuable skill, why can’t we use it on each other too. Of course there would have to be restrictions. Like maybe you would need level 50 or above thieving and could only steal from other level 50+s. Maybe restrict it to the Wilderness.  And if you get caught you have to pay your victim a certain amount (and if you have no GP on you then you get arrested).

On a related subject. I think we should be able to knock over the Runescape banks. I can’t even fathom how that would work, but it would none the less be cool. Maybe you would need four players with a combined thieving level of 210. The booty could be the amount of all the gp deposits made in the last ten minutes in that particular bank. That way, the slower the bank the less you get but the easier it is. The more busy the bank, the greater the reward but a higher likelihood of getting caught. And if you do get caught you and your cronies have to sit in jail for a couple of hours realtime.

I can already see a clan walk into the Edgeville Bank yelling “This is a stick up!” and robbing the place for a Million gp. As a side note, you can watch a cute video of the Draynor Village bank being robbed by talking to the bank guard outside the bank (you may need to pay him 50gp).  It is one of the funniest Laugh Out Loud things I have seen in Runescape.  It even pokes fun at real living players, noobs, and gives a nod to the very valuable Party Hats.  “Ooh – A Party Hat!” 

Draynor Being Robbed

We already have a doctor costume.

For my first all whacked out idea, I think the Runescape world (also known by the official name of Gielinor) should incorporate a health care system. More specifically, I think players should be able to get sick. I don’t mean “poisoned.” I am talking outright sick. Players should be able to catch colds. Maybe have a plague hit Lumbridge. Oh, the possibilities.

I will use a common cold to describe my idea for a health care setup in Runescape.

A common cold could effect a player by temporarily lowering that player’s maximum hit points by a certain percentage and would last a specific game time. Maybe hit points could be lowered variably by up to ten percent over three hours (the length of illness would also be variable). A cold wouldn’t kill a player, just make them weaker. It could also effect other skills. Reduce the players strength and attack slightly.  Also, take Agility down a notch or two while we are at it.

Some illnesses would be contagious and pass from player to player. Lingering within one space, lets say, of any player who has a cold for too long will cause something like a 1 in 500 chance of catching the cold. The longer you linger, the more your chance of getting sick.  Other illnesses would require direct contact (standing on the same spot or making a trade).

But what about crowded places? We don’t want to always fear going into a bank, or the Grand Exchange, or even a store. Well, there is a simple way to make these areas safe. Classify them as quarantine zones. To enter a quarantine zone while sick you must be wearing a mask. While wearing the mask you aren’t contagious anywhere in Runescape.

How long would a player be sick? The time should be determined at the moment of infection based on the players level of health (hp) with a random factor also entered into the equation. A player with full health will have a harder time of getting sick and if they do get sick, their illness will be shorter than a player who has been drastically effected by combat and is near death already.

Illness would not be limited to the simple sniffles. There could be various diseases with various degrees, lengths, and effects. A simple cold could be shaken off with little notice. Dragon-pox could knock a player for a loop and practically force him or her to find a healer, go to the hospital, or at the very least relegate their activities to non combat skills such as construction or farming. The more sever the illness, the harder it would be to catch. No disease would be life threatening, but who wants to be level 85 combat with only 33 hit points and not able to hit more than 5 on a Chaos Druid.

Of course there would need to be cures. Eating soups, for example, would shorten the time of the illness. This could be a boon for our cooks (chicken soup anyone?) Special potions could be made (Elixir of Alka-Seltzer) and be even more effective. That would be a new reason to train up that herblore skill. Runescape craftsmen could be busy making surgical masks for the ill. Plus we could introduce a whole new skill and even a new player type to the World of Runescape.

The Healer. The healer skill could be trained by healing ill players and certain unlucky NPCs. Hospitals could be setup to allow Healers to train the healing skill, and the sick could find help. Plus, as an added bonus, higher healer levels would reduce the healers own chances of becoming ill. Lower level healers would only be able to shorten the time players are ill and their services would be free.  Expert healers would be able to rid illness altogether but at a cost. Imagine, doctors and nurses in Runescape walking around in their white cloaks and funny hats.

The Healer skill could be dependent on the herblore and magic skills. To add some balance and some incentive to become a healer, certain high level healing potions would only be tradeable from high level healers and not available on the Grand Exchange.  Players could also inoculate themselves and reduce their chance of illness by asking healers to perform certain healer related spells.

I know this is a radical idea.  There would be a lot involved in getting it running and there are many negatives that would need confronting. First and foremost, illness shouldn’t spread rampant. It would have to be uncommon for a player to catch a disease. We don’t want to be getting sick all the time (it should be more like a random event). Plus, once a player has been sick, that player should become immune from getting sick again for a certain period of time. Maybe 48 hours game time.

Another troubling  issue that has bothered me about contagious illness is how best to keep malicious players (lets call them uber-noobs) from purposely trying to infect other players.  In real life, most people don’t go around trying to get other people sick. But online, this courteous mentality is wishful thinking at best. A few ideas I have are: 1) Have the sick people cough every few minutes, thus warning others of the contagious nature. 2) Put a Mr. Yuk symbol over the heads of the gravely ill.  Though I don’t fancy seeing a bunch of people running through Lumbridge being chased by a player with a Mr. Yuk.  3) Passing illnesses on to too many other players would relegate the offending player to a quarantine area such as their own home or a special ward in the hospital.  They would have to remain there until their illness passed. 4) Limit number of players who can get ill from one specific player.  5) Maybe a combination of all these ideas.

Anyway, that was crazy idea number one.