Genuinely, what's so hard about going the route of RS3 here with the Wilderness rework? If it's about the reward but getting no risk, why not just tune them since lets be honest the Wilderness is not for PvP, it's for PKing.
The problem with that is that it would be the nail in the coffin for actually killing PKing.
I know PKing gets a really bad rap, because the design of it sucks ass in the Wilderness, but Jagex hasn't actually tried anything to make that design better for people.
But people want to jump to just making it optional (killing it) instead of actually trying to improve it to where it's fun to engage in for both sides.
I will tell you this - "Prey" gameplay CAN be fun. In the current Wilderness maybe it’s not fun right now, but as a game designer I know there is design space where it could be made more interesting.
I know that currently, for PKers, they have to go dry hopping through 400 worlds just to find one guy risking almost nothing.
For "Prey", they feel like they are constantly being crashed and interrupted and hunted by PKers when 100 people are hopping through every world with clans and also wilderness scout bots to find them.
And that shit's no good.
Though ironically some players enjoy it. That's anyone not bothered by the risk, and people who like to anti-PK and whatnot.
What everyone calls the "Predator Prey" model is what I would more accurately call "hunt & chase vs escape or counter" gameplay. Some call it cat and mouse.
Being the predator or PKer or hunter we already know is inherently interesting because you're trying to kill people for their loot.
But how can being "prey" be fun? Wouldn’t it just suck to be a defenseless mouse?
Well, it's supposed to feel like being Indiana Jones - getting some treasure and then escaping the treasure vault safely while evading some assassins that are after your life.
Castle Wars is just a small version of that feeling. You get a bit of an adrenaline rush and feeling of accomplishment if you actually manage to capture the flag, escape enemy territory, and make it back to your side. Essentially, it's like a micro predator-prey minigame. Once you have that flag you are getting hunted down.
Fist of Guthix was also literally a predator prey PvP minigame, and I personally liked it a lot in 2010. The game was a 1v1 match where both players took turns being the predator or the prey and whoever did both roles better won.
The "prey" player, or the Hunted, had to hold on to a Stone Bowl and gather energy while escaping from the hunter trying to kill them. If you stood in the middle of the arena, you gained energy faster, but you were much easier to find.
If you wanted to really win, you had to run around the arena and try not to get caught for as long as you can, and once the hunter finds you, you had to do your best to pray and switch armors to tank them for as long as possible.
The value of defense was heavily reduced putting the emphasis on correct prayers as the prey and correct weapon bridding as the hunter.
And yea, I had fun playing as the hunted doing my best to escape the hunter. Of course, I also enjoyed getting back at them and hunting them next.
All of the fun of these mechanics goes out the window for me in the Wilderness because of having to risk too much for what feels like an unworthy reward.
Like yeah, I can make 6m gold per hour at some Wilderness boss, but I could also just get killed at the end of that hour and lose 300k to 1million in gold. Or I could get killed at the very beginning and just lose my gold immediately. And if the Wilderness were more popular and active, then I would only theoretically be getting attacked and killed more.
Castle Wars and FoG are safe minigames, so risk never got in the way of the fun.
However, I can understand that there are people who legitimately enjoy that in the Wilderness, and I know that there is a design space where it can be improved upon.
I agree with you, the Wildy sucks ass right now. It is near dead right now.
Making it optional has to come with also doing something to make it not dead, e.g., revitalizing it.
For example the suggestion for Wilderness clues is not just 'remove wildy clue steps', it's "also give us wildy-only clues" that only PKers really have a reason to engage with.
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u/101perry 6h ago
Genuinely, what's so hard about going the route of RS3 here with the Wilderness rework? If it's about the reward but getting no risk, why not just tune them since lets be honest the Wilderness is not for PvP, it's for PKing.