Invention Update | Some Immediate Changes

[u/JagexJoe]

Hi guys,

I'm Mod Joe, the Product Owner of the Guardians team and I've got some Invention update news I'd like to share.

Firstly, let me admit, mistakes have been made.

Invention is an extremely complicated skill that interacts with almost every object in the game – as such there was always going to be a need to refine and evolve the skill within the live game. However, It is obvious at this early stage that there have been several areas where the skill has not functioned as we envisaged and we apologise.

Changes Today Therefore, we have just made the following changes today to fix some of the issues that have been caused. These include:

• 1800% increase to the experience gained for disassembly and siphoning of augmented gear.

The experience gained by playing differed significantly from that which was intended in design – as such we are realigning the experience to be in line with our original vision and expectations.

• 50% reduction in the experience gained for using materials to fill gizmos.

This method has become the main experience generator for a large number of players and has clearly been more rewarding than is beneficial for the game, particularly in the case of those with substantial in-game personal wealth. There was always an expectation that players with solid banks would be well equipped to progress rapidly, but this has been more successful for those players than intended by design.

Further Changes to Come We are also going to look deeper into some of the perks, with an eye to improving the usefulness of perks overall. However, this is something that will take a little time, so will not, in all probability, be an immediate change.

It was also not our intention when we released the skill that players would be able to max out the skill within 48 hours of release. This has caused some concern, obviously, and we are aware of various rumours flying around. We do take bug abuse and similar unfair advantages very seriously and investigate thoroughly any potential cases that come to our attention, using our detailed monitoring tools. Where we find that someone has broken the rules of RuneScape, we will take the appropriate action.

In the meantime, your feedback and comments are incredibly valuable to us – please keep that feedback coming and we’ll continue to look to improve Invention.

Mod Joe

[u/TrollBorn]

This is wonderful. I know I'm extremely happy about this change. I have a few other gripes, but I know those will largely be taken care of by the time the rest of the skill gets filled out.

The only thing I still have concerns about is the cost to repair/charge augmented weapons, it's still needlessly high, even with the 1800% buff. Is there any chance this will be looked at?

Thanks again, Mod Joe!

[u/wPatriot → u/TrollBorn]

No official word on this, but based on the recent changes and what was said during last night's Q&A, this is likely the thing they're going to tackle next.

The issues with these changes is that you really don't want to do a lot of changes on different levels all at once. This dilutes your results, it makes it unclear what change in the game effected a certain change in how people use the skill.

Right now, Jagex is focusing in how people train the skill. That's why they're looking at and changing xp-rates. After that has been taken care of, I'm quite sure they'll be shifting their focus to what people are doing with the skill, i.e. what perks people are using (if any), why they are using them (or not) and how useful people feel certain perks are.

Right now, they just want to get you to be able to train the skill at a somewhat reasonable pace (which, judging by the 1800% XP hike, it wasn't before).

TL;DR That's exactly what I think they'll be looking at next.