The Agility Caves

So yeah. I figured I should come up with at least one of my own ideas for the Raid. So here it is...

It occurred to me the other day that caves in RuneScape are a little unrealistic. Why? Well they all have floors...

So that probably sounds a little stupid to you, so let me explain more. Every cave system in RuneScape seems to have an almost artificially flat cave floor that anybody can walk on without any trouble. In real life, many untamed caves have slippery, uneven floors, stalactites, slopes, chasms and are, in short, pretty tough to navigate

Now I don't think it would be practical or logical to make every cave in RuneScape like this, but it has inspired me to suggest:

The Agility Caves

It seemed obvious to me that if a cave is going to be like I described, it's going to require agility to navigate. But that would make the Agility Caves no more exciting than your average agility course...

See, the Agility Caves are home to monsters. Lots of them. And thats where things start to get interesting, because while normally, your character has solid, flat ground to stand on while fighting, in here, he (or she) won't.

In the Agility Caves, your combat ability is effected by factors that don't usually effect combat, the most notable example being agility - because if you're fighting some big ugly monster and trying to hang onto a stalactite at the same time, you're going to need to be agile.

The idea here is to create a unique combat experience that requires players to incorporate skills that they wouldn't usually incorporate into combat situations. Of course, the player will be rewarded handsomely with a new way to train combat, agility and with new items (and possibly abilities)


Rewards

There are five ways to gain rewards from the agility caves

1. XP - People with high agility levels may find that the Agility Caves provide good combat XP. High combat levels would also provide fairly good agility

2. Killing Nequam - Beating a Nequam in combat alone isn't enough to guarantee a reward. Without a rope noose, the Nequam will simply fall into the river at the bottom of the caves. Your chances of successfully getting a Nequam into a noose is proportional to your agility level. The formula for this is *Agility level*/150. Nequam can then be looted for their hides, heads and claws, which will be useful to crafters

3. Saving hostages. Each hostage will be guarded by a Nequam, and you won't be able to rescue them until the Nequam has been slain. Once you've beaten their Nequam though, you can give them emergency teletabs to leave the cave with. Before they go, however, they may give you a reward, which varies depending on where they're from...
4. Putting hostages out of their misery - Either they'll be beyond saving, or you won't be capable of fighting a Nequam to rescue them - putting a hostage out of their misery will provide you with the lower end of the drop table for the person you killed. It will not contain any of the unique drops

Hostage reward list

(Rewards unique to the agility caves are in itallics
Wizards from the Wizard Tower - Any type of rune, including combination runes (between 5 and 150), all elemental staves, wizard robes, noted rune essence, noted pure essence, tome of rock
Warriors from Al Kharid - Mithril, Adamant and Rune scimitars, all gems up to dragonstone (cut or uncut), coins, noted silk, all types of unenchanted jewelery up to diamond, the silkscreen veil
White knights from Falador - Coins, swordfish, lobsters and sharks (2-3, all unnoted), pieces of initiate and prosylate armour (the appropriate quests will still be required to wear them) Templar boots
Karamja Tribesmen - Mithril and Adamant spears, weapon poison, noted teak and mahogany logs, pineapples, papayas, mosquito proboscis, thrower's beads

And more - realistically, the Nequam could probably abduct people from Lumbridge too, so I need ideas for drops from them, as well as fillers for the three I've already suggested.

What do the unique drops do, then?
The tome of rock provides unlimited earth runes in the offhand slot - basically a tome of frost but for earth runes
The silkscreen veil is an enchanted piece of silk that, when looked through, makes the user more accurate. Thus it has a +7 bonus in crush, slash and stab attack. However, being silk, it has no defensive bonuses
Templar boots are boots worn by the white knights. Their defensive bonuses are poor, with just +2 for slash and crush, but they offer a good +3 prayer bonus
Thrower's beads are a necklace that gives a 20% ranged and ranged damage boost to throwing weapons - ie javelins, thrownaxes, knives, darts and obsidian throwing rings - will NOT effect chinchompa and slings

And the 5th way of getting a reward? The Nequam Matriarch
So this is the boss fight. I need ideas on how it'll work, what level it'll be, etc

Sounds very interesting! But I'm not entirely sure fighting FROM obstacles would be possible... perhaps it requires skill to hold on while being attacked, but you have to get to a platform to fight back?

Also, just to be pedantic, I think most caves ingame are currently regarded as dungeons. But yes, most could/should be updated!

Omg, imagine Taverly Dungeon! The dragon lair could have nests scattered around a deep cavern which you have to navigate to get to... with the adults actually in flight/hanging onto the wall and the mites/tites, and landing on platforms! And in the base of the pit could be savage dragons, who have been mauled by other dragons/outsides and left for dead... just for added effect.

Creating the floor plans would be complicated. Giving there always has to be a way out.

Just to be the bearer of bad news, I'm not sure how user-friendly these caves would be. If they are like agility courses, then it's just a series of flat platforms that you have to click to pass over obsticles. And this will get annoying. However, if there's no clicking (say a path that have an agility requirement to walk on) then all you're doing is adding restrictions to areas. I'm not sure how good/capable auto-actions are. Where you can just click somewhere and it will automatically try to do the obstacles.

Yes. I see your point about the user friendly factor...

I actually think a system somewhere between the two would work.
For you to understand this properly, I should first explain that there are no flat platforms for the user to stand on. If they stop, they stop ON an obstacle. But some of these obstacles are big.

My thought is that going between one obstacle and another requires a click, but moving around the obstacle you're currently on requires no clicking. Take an example of a cave wall and a big stalactite. Say you're currently holding onto the cave wall - you can "walk" (thats in inverted commas because while you're actually siding along a wall, but thats just an animation, and it counts as walking) along the wall. However, to get to the stalactite, you have to click.
I would of course, love to hear any ideas you have to solve this.

As for the ease of exit, I had the idea that this whole thing could be set over a large, subterranean river, and that, should you truly need to get out, you can simply give up and jump into it, letting it carry you back to the start. Going deeper into the caves you might stray away from here, so there is no easy escape for the higher level, higher risk parts of the caves (although most people going here would have the good sense to bring a teleport anyway)

I'll give it some thought at some point. Feeling a little under the weather atm.

Tremble before the almighty Paint!



Taverly Dungeon

Green indicates balance-type walkways. Purple indicates a climbable edge (also fall-down-able). Red are jumps (except the leftmost, which is the pipe). Yellow is rope swing. I hope the brown colours are distinct enough, there are suppose to be three shades. Large multi-blue are adults, medium blue are adolescents, small blue are hatchlings and small multi-blue are eggs.

To be honest, all I've done is turn it into an agility course. Which isn't how I'm really imagining it, or how I suspect you are. I'm not really sure how relevant to this idea my image actually is.

Hmm. While your idea is AWESOME, you're right, I'm not sure how it's relevant to my idea either

Still, it does give me some ideas for my dungeon. While I can't reuse blue dragons I really, really, really like the idea of it being a nest for something. I like the idea of that something being powerful even more. And you've also given me a potential idea for a reward to this thing - eggs. Get in, fight your way through, collect eggs, crack em open and cook high healing omelette... Or does that all sound a bit Living Rock Carverns to you?

Wait a minute, you're suggesting specific caves? Sorry, I thought you wanted to update.

Living Rock Caverns?

I'm suggesting an entirely new cave. Thought that was clear. My bad

And yeah, in the Living Rock Carverns, you basically have to battle through monsters to get to the Rocktails and Cavefish, two of the highest healing foods in the game (I think, never actually been there myself)
Anyway, I've decided that would be too similar to going in and stealing eggs, so it's back to the drawing-board for rewards...

As for the functionality of the cave... I was thinking that the obstacle you're on actually effects how well you can fight - Like if you're holding onto a rockface with both hands, you'll have to fight defensively, but if you're on a slippery surface, you'll be able to land some decent hits, but will be easier to hit yourself. To prevent people just staying on one obstacle forever, the player will "tire" of using a particular muscle group and either require a change, or fall into the river. What do you think of that?

Possibly. I'm trying to imagine existing examples that illustrate that the system is capable. Ooh, Pyramid Plunder? If you stand still on certain blocks for too long it moves and you fall.

I see no reason why it would be incapable. Technically, you're just walking but with a different animation for it. Even if what you say about pyramid plunder is incorrect, what about the activity system in use in Soul Wars, The Great Orb Project etc. An adapted version of that could easily be used...

Yeah I suppose.

The Nequam

The Nequam are the race that inhabit the agility cave. They are still a work in progress, so feel free to critique or suggest a change to anything I say (no guarantees I'll like it though )

The Nequam are roughly human in proportions, but winged, sharp toothed, and with leathery, dark grey skin. Quadrupedal, but capable of walking on just their hind legs for a short while, and using their front legs as arms.
Nequam are nocturnal. They hate light, hence their need to hide in the caves. They also have a taste for fresh meat - live flesh.

In many ways they are like the Vyre, hence many myths connecting the two - Vyres are corrupted Nequam, Nequam are corrupted Vyre, the two are related by evolution, having come to Gielinor from the same realm. Nobody truly knows their origin or relation the the Vyre - only that some point in history, their paths spilt.

Each night, the Nequam take flight from the agility caves in search of a meal. Victims are abducted from a wide radius (I haven't decided exactly where the caves will be located yet, but their victims will be from a variety of settlements). Enjoying their meals fresh, the Nequam will not kill those they capture - simply eat them alive and discard them to the bottom of the caves as soon as life escapes them, to be washed away by the river.

An average Nequam could easily beat an average human in single combat. They have an even greater advantage on their home terrain.
Good thing your adventurer isn't an average human...

Vampyres are corrupted Icyene.

That is a theory. Not a fact.

What is your point anyway? Do you think that the Nequam cannot be at all related to the Vyre should this be true? Can they not even have similarities? Can there not even be myths (myths, of course, not having to be true) connecting the two?

Haha, it's pretty alluded to theory though.

Could the Nequam just be corrupted vyre? Perhaps when they become too drunk on life, etc. Or, if Drakan corrupted the Icyene, perhaps he corrupted other races? What are the vampire in relation to the vampyre/vyre? I know Drakan described them as savage...

Sounds cool though.

I'm trying to create a sense of mystery surrounding the whole Nequam/Vyre thing...

So much so that I don't really know myself

But anyway, I'm glad you like it.

Onwards then, to the location of the caves. And I need your help on this one...
First up, I need a good place to put a new cave - so no existing caves around it. Narrowing that down, because the Agility caves house an underground river flowing out to sea, I need a coastal location with enough realistic space behind it for a river. Finally, I need this place to be somewhere in the middle of the human kingdoms - I want the Nequam to realistically be able to take victims from at least Al-Kharid, Karamja, Falador and Lumbridge, for reward purposes.

My thoughts were that it would be somewhere around Draynor and Port Sarim... If a better location could be found amongst other human kingdoms, I would consider it though...

Beneath Al Karid? I don't know how far Lumbridge's dungeon spans, but I can't think of anything beneath Al Karid.

Alternatively, the Wilderness? The River Lumb already flows out of a cave opening... perhaps you could expand the entrance so you can enter there, and be in the cave? Although, "realistic space... for a river" I wouldn't say there is. The ground level doesn't go up... meaning there's no room for the the cavern to be above the river. So maybe not this one.

I'd loathe to have it in the wilderness. While you're right, it makes perfect geographical sense, I'd just hate to have it there for Pking reasons.

Al Kharid could work. I'm currently staring at a map and considering the logistics...

The canoe system could be used to access it without the wilderness, if that's your only concern? But agreed, the wilderness could be a bad choice.

They're obviously corrupted aviansies. Nuf said.

Dark Avorian wrote:They're obviously corrupted aviansies. Nuf said.

Thar. The Nerquam are corrupted aviantese.

Rewards

There are four ways to gain rewards from the agility caves

1. XP - People with high agility levels may find that the Agility Caves provide good combat XP. High combat levels would also provide fairly good agility

2. Killing Nequam - Beating a Nequam in combat alone isn't enough to guarantee a reward. Without a rope noose, the Nequam will simply fall into the river at the bottom of the caves. Your chances of successfully getting a Nequam into a noose is proportional to your agility level. The formula for this is *Agility level*/150. Nequam can then be looted for their hides, heads and claws, which will be useful to crafters

3. Saving hostages. Each hostage will be guarded by a Nequam, and you won't be able to rescue them until the Nequam has been slain. Once you've beaten their Nequam though, you can give them emergency teletabs to leave the cave with. Before they go, however, they may give you a reward, which varies depending on where they're from... (Rewards unique to the agility caves are in itallics
Wizards from the Wizard Tower - Any type of rune, including combination runes (between 5 and 150), all elemental staves, wizard robes, noted rune essence, noted pure essence, mist staff
Warriors from Al Kharid - Mithril, Adamant and Rune scimitars, all gems up to dragonstone (cut or uncut), coins, noted silk, all types of unenchanted jewelery up to diamond, the silkscreen veil
White knights from Falador - Coins, swordfish, lobsters and sharks (2-3, all unnoted), pieces of initiate and prosylate armour (the appropriate quests will still be required to wear them) Templar boots
And more - realistically, the Nequam could probably abduct people from Lumbridge and Karamja too, so I need ideas for drops from them, as well as fillers for the three I've already suggested.

4. Putting hostages out of their misery - Either they'll be beyond saving, or you won't be capable of fighting a Nequam to rescue them - putting a hostage out of their misery will provide you with the lower end of the drop table for the person you killed. It will not contain any of the unique drops

What do the unique drops do, then?
The Mist staff provides unlimited water and air runes, as the name suggests
The silkscreen veil is an enchanted piece of silk that, when looked through, makes the user more accurate. Thus it has a +7 bonus in crush, slash and stab attack. However, being silk, it has no defensive bonuses
Templar boots are boots worn by the white knights. Their defensive bonuses are poor, with just +2 for slash and crush, but they offer a good +3 prayer bonus

So what do you think?

Sounds goood. I fear the Mist Staff might render the Frost Book undesirable, but otherwise it's good.

Ah. A valid point, actually. While the tome of frost does would still have a desirable magic bonus, my objectives here are not to make other pieces of content useless.

Perhaps another tome. Of Earth, perhaps? With a weaker magic bonus than the tome of frost?

Enchant Level 6 Jewellery
Confuse
Weaken
Curse
Bind
Snare
Entangle
Vulnerability
Enfeeble
Stun
Bones to Bananas
Bones to Peaches
Enchant Level 5 Jewellery
String Jewellery
Stat Restore Pot Share
Boost Potion Share
Earth Strike
Earth Bolt
Earth Blast
Earth Wave
Earth Surge
Crumble Undead
Lumbridge Teleport
Teleport to House

We already have non-air combination staffs, and recently been given air+water (in the form of Frost Tome). Having the Frost Tome also meant we can now use Lava Staff + Frost Tome to cover ALL non-air runes. I don't see any repercussions of adding a Fire or Earth.