CurvedSpace Forums: RuneScape: 6th May 2009 - Bounty Hunter Wilderness-only PvP - CurvedSpace Forums

This week’s update introduces Bounty Hunter ‘Wilderness-only’ PvP worlds (or ‘Bounty Worlds’). Our aim was to get something that feels as close to the original Wilderness as we can manage, and to add another thrill with the Bounty Hunter mechanic. The new worlds are limited to the Wilderness, and use the old ‘who can attack who’ levels. Bounty Worlds are basically a mix of 3 previous PvP games. It has the best bits we can reuse from Bounty Hunter, PvP worlds, and the old Wilderness. In short, we’ve increased the chance to get your opponent’s items and we added the thrill of hunting a bounty within the Wilderness while surrounded by hundreds of potential PKers.


Here’s how it works:

You can attack anyone within the level range determined by the Wilderness level, starting with 1 just above Edgeville to 56 at the top of the map. If you kill someone who isn’t your bounty target, it is considered a ‘rogue kill’. There is no penalty for rogue kills any more. It will add 1 to your ‘rogue kills’ highscore, and you will get a drop based on the ‘drop potential’ mechanic from PvP worlds (see here for more details). We have, however, made it so that, when drop potential is converted to items, it is 3 times more likely to give you items your target was carrying, as opposed to generated items. The average size of the rewards is based on your drop potential the same as in PvP worlds.

After you have spent 30 minutes in a dangerous area on a Bounty World, the system will start looking for suitable ‘bounty targets’ for you. After 60 minutes, the chance of being assigned a target increases further. (Note: this doesn’t have to be all in one go, and isn’t reset by leaving.) Your target will always be a similar level to you. To make things even more interesting, you will also be their target! If you kill your target, it will add 1 to your ‘bounty kills’ highscore, and you will receive a generous boost to your drop: the average size of these drops is boosted by an extra hour of drop potential (just as if you’d spent an hour in a hot zone), on top of the drop you would receive normally. In addition to this, we’ve made it more likely that you’ll get items from your opponent’s actual inventory for killing your target – this also applies to rogue kills and in normal PvP worlds, but at a lower rate.

To make sure you have a chance of getting to the rewards, there are a couple of extra rules. Firstly, if your bounty target is fighting someone else in a single-way combat area, you will be able to attack your target, and their original foe will be locked out. Secondly, if you are fighting your enemy but do not inflict enough damage to count as the ‘hero’ (in the same way as drops are awarded when fighting monsters), your target will remain your target. Basically, your bounty target will remain your bounty target until one of you kills the other, or one of you leaves the Wilderness for more than ten minutes.

It isn’t all about the rewards, of course: it’s also about the thrill of trying to hunt someone down in an environment where the levels are well-matched. That’s why we brought back the old Wilderness levels, and restricted the action to the old Wilderness area. You can only fight in the Wilderness, and the only other area available is Edgeville, where you can restock and prepare for battle. You have to be in one of those areas before you can log into a Bounty World. So, head to Edgeville, switch to a Bounty World, and see if you can work your way up the Rogue/Bounty Hunter highscore tables.

Andrew
Lead Developer

In Other News…

Thirsty adventurers should head to the poll to take part in our latest vote: Guaranteed Content – Name a Pub. We have made a shortlist of your very best pub suggestions, and now we need you decide which one is your favourite. The winning idea will be added to the game in the coming months. You can find the poll under the 'Community' drop-down tab above.

Similar to the changes we made to the way PvP worlds work to prevent people from using fun weapons or low-level spells, we have updated the system to detect other ways of fighting without taking any risks. Now, if you see anyone in single-way combat who is fighting without taking any apparent damage over an extended period of time, you can jump in and teach them how fighting works.

The lilies of the valley have finished blooming, and have been removed from the game. Any you might have had lying around have been whisked away.

Leprechauns can now convert clean herbs to banknotes for you. Previously, if you'd accidentally cleaned the herb, the leprechaun wouldn't accept the herb.

The in-game skill guides now link to an appropriate page in the Game Guide if you wish to find out more information.

The following small fixes and adjustments have now been made to the game. If you spot any further bugs in-game, please use the Bug Report feature ('Submit a Bug Report' under the 'Help' drop-down menu of the website).

Graphical

• The red menaphite headgear was appearing purple rather than red at the sides.
• The graphic for unpowered orbs has been changed to more easily distinguish them from air orbs.
• A roof removal issue has been resolved around the Black Knights' Fortress.
• Fixed an animation that was playing faster than intended.
• Fixed an animation so the player no longer holds their weapon while on the Agility course in Bandos's throne room.
• Fixed a bug where items wouldn't be displayed on the floor in a particular location in the northern Wilderness.
• Fixed the bridges in the Gnome Stronghold to correctly appear in low detail.
• Adjusted the spacing on the Farming tool storage interface.
• Fixed a floating issue with the Explore emote.
• Julian and a few other NPCs in Lumbridge appeared to be missing arms at certain camera angles in low detail.
• Fixed a roof removal issue in Lletya.
• Fixed a render issue with the various full helms and your chathead.
• The buttons on the Grand Exchange interface have been adjusted so the clickable area is more consistent with the sizes of the various components.
• Removed some random glowing light near Melzar's Maze.
• Poison and disease hit splats will no longer be stretched when near a wall in the Myreque caves.
• Shades in the Stronghold of Security have had their robes adjusted to better match the dropped version.
• The back point of the enchanted hat should no longer have render issues with your neck at the front.
• A random square near the Magic Guild was blocked for no apparent reason.
• Zanik will no longer occasionally appear on top of the Oo'glog pools.
• "Your cannon has decayed" is now in red text to better warn you.
• Skeletal hellhounds should no longer drop their loot in a wall if they were next to one when they died.
• Flames no longer appear through the floor in a particular dungeon.
• Fixed a map height issue in Morytania.
• Updated a cat model to be textured.
• Improved the tooltip box for the hot air balloon controls.
• The customs officer cap from the Rocking Out quest should no longer make your hair disappear.
• Fixed the clickable area for the NPC Contact interface when talking to Chaeldar.
• Adjusted some animations in While Guthix Sleeps.
• Infinity boots no longer clip with flared trousers.
• Fixed a label issue with the runite crossbow and the Zamorak plateskirt.
• Fixed some height-mapping issues in the Forgettable Tale of a Drunken Dwarf cutscene.
• Updated an interface in Rocking Out to look better in high detail.
• Fixed various graphical issues with bandanas and eye patches.
• Stopped elite black platelegs and the bug lantern causing a stretched polygon.
• Players will no longer randomly disappear while chopping trees in low detail.

Quests

• Updated some code in the Eadgar's Ruse and Mountain Daughter quests, no visible functionality changes.
• Dondakan now has a right-click option to fire you into the rock.
• Alrena should definitely be in her house, rather than occasionally outside.
• An axe from Swan Song is now a hatchet to match other hatchets.
• The Sinclair Mansion dog: now with added barking!
• Added music to the first cutscene in the Cabin Fever quest.
• Added some atmospheric sounds to a Cabin Fever area.
• The quest complete jingle wasn't playing when completing As a First Resort.
• Fixed a label issue with a zombie in Zogre Flesh Eaters.
• Added a plank in a specific location to aid with the progress of the Mountain Daughter quest.
• If you've lost your train from Kennith's Concerns, this can now randomly be found around Witchhaven.

Miscellaneous

• The Grand Exchange interface will now flag any sell offers you've placed that are out of the trading range of that particular item.
• Peer the Seer has better checks when depositing items in your bank and now deals with noted items.
• Greenman's Ale now has the apostrophe in it and all references to it have been updated.
• Fixed several typos and grammatical errors in various chat.
• Changed a battle hatchet correctly to a battle axe.
• Updated some text to reflect the fact you can fill plant pots with soil from patches in any state, not just when they're empty.
• Bandos's Throne Room Agility course is now correctly on the skill guide.
• The swap/insert button in your bank will now remember your preference between logins.
• Caviar and roe 'eat' options have been adjusted so you don't immediately eat them. They are still edible, though.
• All highwaymen to the south-east of Falador should count toward the Falador Achievement Diary.
• The sound effects should now be correctly synchronised with the ectophial teleport animation.
• A dungeon icon has been placed back on the world map for the Keldagrim Mine.
• Runite bolts have been more consistently named.
• Sound effects for the gnome glider were missing in the ogre area.
• Snoring sound effects have been added to the NPCs in the Varrock Church.
• One of the warning beacons was asking for too many nails when repairing the ladder.
• Clockwork items from your house are now listed on the Crafting skill guide.
• Fixed an issue with the minimap run button while in the tutorial.
• The 'locked' sound effect plays when trying to open a compost bin that's not ready.
• Added sound effects when making a crystal key.
• Added a banker to Catherby where a bank booth was open but no banker was present.
• Removed a duplicate item in Chargurr's shop in Oo'glog.
• The track 'Sojourn' had at least 3 wrong notes, apparently!
• General Graardor is an ourg, so he now appropriately drops ourg bones.
• The Wise Old Man no longer mentions random events that have been removed.
• Quick chat has been added for the Evil Tree distraction and diversion.
• You can now open a chest and mithril door with the key in your inventory, rather than having to use it on the locations.
• Floor spike traps now have a bigger clickable area.
• Energy Transfer will no longer work in single-way combat on a PvP world.
• Adjusted some text on the welcome screen.

It isn't really fair to claim this doesn't count as an update because we are just re-releasing something we had before.

We have after all completely reprogrammed the entire bounty hunter game, and it has involved hundreds of hours of development work, and hundreds of hours of balancing and testing work.

The effort we have put into to trying to get this right is enormous. We are dedicated to having really good PvP in our game. When I said we weren't going to consider it 'good enough' and leave it broken I really meant it.

P.S. I know a lot of our focus has been on PvP lately, but that's because it was one of the most broken areas. About 10% of our players enjoy PvP, and so our development focus is split by a similar proportion. There is lots of non-PvP content in development at the moment also.

Your timer is not reset by logging out. You can build up to getting a bounty target in little bits if you like.

The only time you shouldn't logout is AFTER you already have a target. If you do that the game will consider you to be a chicken Your opponent will get a new target quickly, but you will have to wait all over again.

So in summary once you have a target, be brave and fight!

It looks like there are 5 bounty hunter worlds at the moment to me.

We will of course monitor how busy they get, and adjust as necessary.

for some reason the list in game doesn't show the same bounty hunter worlds.

I am investigating now. There should be more than 2.

Apologies for the inconvenience, after this game update there should be several Bounty Worlds. The world select page was not updated to reflect the latest changes.

It doesn't have to be 1 hour in one go.

You can do it in 60 1 minute hops if you like

Of course once you have a target you should stay and fight or you will lose them and have to wait again.

We should be able to give you extra worlds shortly (at least to account for the initial rush). We're aware it's a bit cramped!

Mod Tim
Lead Content Developer

More Bounty Worlds are coming along with the system update.

Pretty leet

"Why are we not able to use the areas outside of Bounty Hunter?"

We already have PvP worlds in which the option is available to fight other players across RuneScape, so that box is ticked.

For the Bounty Hunter mechanic, it made sense to use a relatively concentrated area for finding targets. Otherwise, you could find yourself trekking back and forth all the way across the map which wouldn't really be that much fun.

In addition, from a story/feel perspective, it fits in nicely that combat and bounty hunting takes place in the Wilderness – a dangerous and foreboding place, some might say!


"Why did you not put Bounty Hunter in every world, similar to the old Wildy?"

Similar to the above answer, we want to keep the player numbers concentrated for certain RS activities. When you log in to try out a particular activity, you want to be fairly confident you’ll find someone else to play with!

The other reason is real world trading (RWT). We want to keep player numbers relatively busy with activities like this, otherwise it opens up opportunities for abuse and mischievous ones abusing the freedom in some quiet corner.

It also makes things easier to technically manage behind the scenes, but we won’t bore you with that.


"Are there Revenants in the Bounty Hunter worlds?"

Nope, just like ordinary PvP worlds, you shouldn’t spot a Revenant. There are ordinary ghosts, but they shouldn’t cause you too much concern.


"Is PvP drop potential carried over to BH worlds? "

Yes, your potential for drops is carried back and forth between Bounty and PvP worlds.


"If I get disconnected, will I lose my target?"

Like spending time in a safe zone or logging out, you will have ten minutes to return before Mandrith removes your target.


"I have a suggestion, can you allow us to access the Grand Exchange in the BH worlds?"

We didn’t really want to make this a world about anything other than the Bounty Hunter/PvP activity, so for the time being, we would suggest using other worlds.


"I'm fed up with one-itemers attacking me, using their specials, dying and then returning to attack me again. Are you able to prevent players from re-entering the Wildy within a certain time slot?"

Technically, we could prevent players from doing a variety of things to make the game seem fairer. However, you have to consider it poses a difficult challenge. For instance, do we:

1) Have more enforced rules so that things feel fairer, but you’re more restricted and have fewer options.

2) Have a small amount of rules so game play feels open and free, but players can opt do do things as mentioned above.

We try to come up with something that’s a bit of a compromise between the two. Bounty Worlds are supposed to be open for combat in a variety of ways, and it is other content (like the various combat minigames), that guide you more down a particular route with more rules.


"Do you intend on doing anything with the craters?"

Yes, it’s something we want to do very soon.

The Bounty Hunter minigame was made to offer some game play from the removal of the old Wilderness. As this has been moved over in some form to Bounty Hunter worlds, there’s no current plans to re-create another minigame to take its place. However, as you know, we’re always trying to come up with new and crazy ways for you to spend your time.


"Why can we not pick up untradeable items?"

We have untradeable items for quite a few reasons.

For example, let’s take a quest reward you have to earn through completing a difficult quest, it’s not something you can simply buy from the Grand Exchange. Having items like this lets you show off your accomplishments without others thinking "Oh, he probably just bought it off of the GE".

If we were to allow you to pick up untradeable items dropped on death, it would be very easy to trade untradeable items by purposefully killing each other.

In regards to wanting to pick up all of your own untradeable items upon death, we will not be implementing this feature. Bounty hunting is supposed to be dangerous, if you are not willing to risk an item (whether it be tradeable or untradeable), leave it in your bank!


"Grr! My home-world is now a BH world and I want it back!"

With the initial release, we wanted to offer more worlds to account for the demand. As with other types of content, we let things calm down a bit to see how busy things turn out to be and will then take another look at which worlds are being used.

Do we need more worlds? Do we need less? Can we use other worlds? Are the chosen worlds used for another purpose?

These are all questions we will ask ourselves as we juggle the worlds.


♥ Many thanks to Mod Tim (Lead Content Developer) for providing the information! ♥