Right Click Examine: Group Ironman

Welcome to the Group Ironman design blog!

In this blog, we're going to be outlining as much of the design for Group Ironman as we can as it will be coming to RuneScape later this year. Group Ironman is an incredibly important project not just to the development team but to many of you out there looking to team up and experience this unique gamemode.

As such, it is equally important to us that you know the whole picture before release and can have some input on the project itself. Now, you may be wondering why we're looking for feedback on a game update which was already released by our friends over at Old School RuneScape - that's an excellent question and we'd like to explain that further on in the blog.

First up, we should explain what Group Ironman is for those who don't know what the update is.

What is Group Ironman?

Group Ironman follows the same principles of normal Ironman rules, players are self-sufficient, are unable to trade (mostly) and have a DIY attitude towards the game and what it has to throw at you. However, in Group Ironman you embark on this journey with a group of friends who are on the same journey as you.

The advantages of being within a group is that you can help one another and complete content together not normally available to normal Ironman players.

Parity+

One of the core aims for the design of Group Ironman was that it must at a minimum, match the same feature set as Old School.

Parity was the key word during the design phase, ensuring parity between both the RuneScape and Old School versions of the update is important so that all of the features you expect to be there are there and if you're coming from Old School to try RuneScape Group Ironman then you know what you're getting in to. Parity, for absolute clarity, means the following:

• Groups can be made in sizes of 2-5.
• A definitive ruleset for Group Ironman which is different from normal Ironmen
• There are two different modes of Group Ironman - Competitive Group Ironman and regular Group Ironman
• Group members can freely trade tradeable items to each other
• Group Storage, a shared bank, and its capacity can be upgraded through gameplay
• In-game management tools for the group
• Group-specific broadcasts which can be customised personally
• Unique armour for players in Group Ironman

More details on some of these points will be available further on in the blog.

Parity is one thing but we want to make sure there is a significant RuneScape stamp on our update and this is where the plus part of Parity+ comes in. This includes the following:

• New feature: Journey achievements
• Journey achievements are like Qualifications from Archaeology, providing a wide variety of challenges and tasks across the whole of Gielinor requiring the whole group to come together to complete.
• Competitive Group Ironman
• A further restrictive ruleset for those wanting a challenge. This focuses more on group gameplay where no outside influence is allowed. Both Regular and Competitive modes have highscores.
• More freedom in Group Storage
• Not only tradeable items will be available to be stored within Group Storage, certain untradeable items - including augmented weapons/armour - will be able to be stored here.
• Tightly defined ruleset
• The rules of the gamemode are defined in stone up front, and displayed in-game, ensuring a clear position on current and upcoming content.
• "Together as One" Group Management
• Removing group members, and other important decisions, require a supermajority to enact to ensure safety for all group members.
• Greater group identity through cosmetics
• Not only will Group Ironmen get their own armour, completing Journey Tier achievements unlocks an evolving cosmetic version to demonstrate your group's achievement through the Journey system.

Journey achievements

We want to add something new to Group Ironman to help groups find a direction if they don't have it all planned out when they make their groups. As mentioned earlier, they're very similar to Qualifications in Archaeology which helped guide the player through the skill and earn increasingly better rewards.

As you create your group, you'll be asked to complete your first "Journey Tier" achievement, the first step on the long journey. Unlocking the first of ten Journey tiers acts as a short tutorial on how they work and reward the group with access to Group Storage. Here's a look at what is included in the requirements for Journey Tier 1 in order to demonstrate how this may work for the rest of them:

• Journey Tier 1
• Achieve (50 multiplied by group size) total level across the whole group.
• Achieve (5 multiplied by group size) quest points across the whole group.
• All group members must have completed 'Cook's Assistant'.
• At least one group member has completed 'The Scourge of Misthalin' achievement.
• At least one group member has completed 'The Provider of Misthalin' achievement.

As you may have noticed, we've added new achievements that will be available to all players on release of Group Ironman. We've added these, and other new achievements, to better help the scaling difficulty of Journey Tier achievements where existing achievements don't cover what we required. Here are those two new achievement requirements:

• The Scourge of Misthalin
• Kill 3 Cows.
• Kill 3 Goblins.
• Kill 3 Giant Rats.
• Kill 3 Wizards (Blue/Dark).
• Kill 3 Barbarians.
• 5 Runescore.
• The Provider of Misthalin
• Gather 10 logs.
• Gather 10 shrimp.
• Gather 10 copper ore.
• Gather 10 tin ore.
• 5 Runescore.

The Journey achievement system should give you goals to complete and a chance to specialise in their groups, should they want to, to focus on certain areas of the game like quests, PvM, skilling or a generalist who can help/cover requirements for the rest of the group.

Ultimately, its up to you as a group to decide what you want to do - you don't have to complete the Journey Tier Achievements or specialise in a certain area, this gamemode is for you and your group to decide on how you want to tackle it.

Competitive Group Ironman

In Old School RuneScape, they define the two types of Group Ironman as 'Ranked' and 'Unranked' but we wanted to have our own spin on it, inline with Parity+, so instead we created "Competitive" and "Regular" Group Ironman groups giving the player a choice on how they want to approach the gamemode. Do your group just want to kick back and relax, not having to worry about certain rules? Does your group want the extra restrictions on Competitive to show the world your prowess? We're catering to both types of players here in the two different rulesets.

Regular Group Ironman is what you would come to expect, its the normal RuneScape Ironman rules applied to a group setting where group members can access Group Storage, trade items to each other and embark on the Journey system together. This means that different groups can do content together, work with other non-Group Ironmen on certain things and, in general, the normal Ironman rules and restrictions/freedoms we've allowed work for Regular Group Ironmen. This mode will have its own highscores, alongside Competitive, and allow normal Ironmen to change their gamemode to Group Ironman although this is irreversible and not applicable the other way around.

Competitive Group Ironman (CGIM) has a simple principle guiding all of the extra rules applied to this mode; benefiting, being assisted by, grouping or interacting with another player who is not in your group is forbidden.

This means that a lot of content is locked to either only you can play with your group members or are locked completely due to the multiplayer nature which can be influenced by outside players. Additionally, the loot rules in PvM are restricted so that CGIM group members must do 100% of the damage of a kill to earn any drops although to help this, bosses where instancing is available will be free for CGIM players. CGIM can only be accessed by new accounts and a CGIM group can only replenish its numbers if someone leaves with fresh accounts. If you leave a CGIM group then you can only join the Regular GIM mode or become a 'main', a regular account not in any Ironman mode.

Importantly, we will be making it so that players cannot downgrade from being CGIM players by accident, should you try to do something that is against the rules then you'll either get nothing as a result, for example from drops in PvM, be automatically teleported away from getting an advantage or simply just blocked by the game.

More freedom in Group Storage

Group Storage is a shared bank amongst all of the members of a Group Ironman group where you can store items and other players from your group can access it and withdraw, or store, items from it also. Group Storage will be accessible wherever there are banks meaning that it'll be a great place for you to store an item for your group members without having to meet face to face.

That is not all, however, some untradeable items which you may wish to share around the group will able to be stored in Group Storage allowing for trading of items you normally couldn't. Primarily, this is to try and account for the way that important items, such as augmented weapons and armour, can be traded around the group.

This came from our Parity+ mentality - in Old School RuneScape its common for many groups to trade important items for PvM amongst the group as they stay tradeable, however, augmenting an item in RuneScape is so important that separating perks, de-augmenting etc would prove not only an incredible barrier to trading these items but also wasteful in terms of perking the perfect gizmo. This was incredibly important to us during early design, and something frequently requested and talked about by you, so getting this in for Group Storage makes it a truly cooperative experience that we're excited for you to get your hands on.

Tightly defined ruleset

We think its especially important to have a tightly defined ruleset for what a Group Ironman can and cannot do, even more so for the Competitive Group Ironman mode. These rules, should be available to you at any time, explainable by anyone including the development team and if there is a discrepancy in future content, there should not be question marks about what is or isn't allowed.

These rules will be available in-game also so there is always a reference point should you not be sure about what is involved in the gamemode.

The whole ruleset for both Regular and Competitive Group Ironman can be viewed below. What content a Competitive Group Ironman can take part in should be inferred by the rules but a whole list of that will be published for feedback before release of the mode.

"Together as One" Group Management

Ensuring the safety and security of players is of paramount importance and that also extends to the tools needed to help run a group in Group Ironman. In any multiplayer environment, there can be rash decisions between friends or other unsavoury business which can result in some drastic changes being made to a group.

We want to avoid that as much as we can with Group Ironman and as such, all important decisions about the group such as removing a member, downgrading from Competitive etc can only take place with a supermajority, and to be more specific only with everyone else in the group agreeing. Not only this, such decisions will have a timeframe associated with them so that decisions can be reversed if the group changes their mind.

Greater group identity through cosmetics

Everyone loves cosmetics and influencing how their character looks in the game and Group Ironman wouldn't be the same update if you couldn't shout about how proud you are of your group and the achievements it has accomplished.

Much like Old School or a normal Ironman, on creating a group you should all have access to actual equipment that is both practical in combat being a hybrid armour set but also stylish, representing your affiliation with Group Ironman. This armour is also unlocked as a cosmetic and can be upgraded as a cosmetic through three additional appearances which are unlocked through the Journey Tier achievement system with the final, and most impressive, upgrade coming with the 10th and final tier.

It's not only cosmetic armour you can get your hands on, we're also introducing new milestone capes for the whole group. These represent the culmination of phenomenal group cohesion and work to achieve as they are the Group Max Cape & Group Quest Cape. We're super excited to offer the ultimate representation of group work through the new group milestone capes and the cosmetic armour for completion of the Journey Tier achievements, making this such a rewarding experience for you and your group.

What next?

Thank you for taking the time to read the design blog for Group Ironman. We're currently in development of the project and now is the time for you to give us feedback. Feedback about what is missing, what you'd like to see added, what you're excited about and equally what you're disappointed here.

We want to make Group Ironman something that everyone can jump into and take part in, regardless of whether you think you might not like it or not - form a group and get involved and discover our newest and most exciting gamemode to date.

Get Involved

Now you're up to speed with these concepts, we want your feedback! We'll be paying attention to conversations across the community as always, but for the most direct line to the team, we encourage you to join our Official Discord.

Head on over to #rce-chat to see what is being discussed and #rce-dev-questions to add your thoughts to ongoing questions from the development team. Click the button below to join today!

Thanks for reading Right Click Examine blog! We're super excited to be opening up our development for your feedback and we hope you'll get involved. See you in Gielinor.

- The RuneScape Team

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