Can someone tell me what's so amazing about OSRS?

[Dark Sun Gwyndolin]

My friend is absolutely obsessed with OSRS, to the point that he has multiple max-level Ironmen. I've tried to get into OSRS myself, but found it unimmersive compared to RS3. For example, Tutorial Island, nostalgic as it is, just doesn't have the same hold on me as Burthope / Taverly. I loved having a dedicated early-game skilling area that I could wander around, with everything except the Grand Exchange close at hand.

That said, I don't really play RS3 anymore either, since I got annoyed with all the events and microtransactions. I was hoping I'd latch onto OSRS due to cutting that chuff out, but after about 20 hours of play, it doesn't seem to make me want to love it.

My friend says that Runelite and HDOS would fix it, but I don't see what's so immersive about a dozen coloured squares all over my screen. Feels like I'm a glorified bot rather than exploring at my own pace. Same with his suggestions of a Group Ironman; I barely have the patience to grind normally, never mind without the convenience of the GE.

Fellow OSRS players who made the jump from RS3: what made you switch over, and what do you find most immersive about OSRS?

[Playstation 1 enjoyer]

I don't think the graphics or gameplay update did favors for RS3. Even with the ancient looking graphics of OSRS, I find RS3 to be uglier, or at least more visually generic. I also don't care for the gameplay changes in the EOC update. The changes felt unnecessary and don't really compliment the relatively simplistic gameplay that I enjoy about OSRS.

Runelite doesn't necessarily need to have a bunch of colored squares, part of what makes it good is how modifiable it is. There are several quality of life changes that Runelite introduces, even without visuals, that make OSRS more fun to play in my opinion.

Personally, I feel that an ironman account is what makes the game good. Fetching my own quest items or really getting rewarded for my progression is where the game shines. The Grand Exchange kind of ruins that. With a regular account, I find it difficult not to just grind out my highest gold-per-hour method and buy whatever supplies I need.

[Varpushaukka]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Nephalim Glory:

Fellow OSRS players who made the jump from RS3: what made you switch over, and what do you find most immersive about OSRS?

1. No Treasure Hunter and MTX cosmetics.
2. Graphics are actually consistent when it comes to art style, and the simplicity is charming.
3. Not having a crapton of dailies/weeklies/monthlies/temporary events to keep a track of.

There are more reasons, but those are the most important ones. For context, I was comped with around 2b total exp when I made the switch, it just felt like I was playing a daily chore simulator: log in, do the limited-time activities, realize that they took so long to complete that you ran out of time to play anything else, and having to log out again for the day.

[MassMetalizer]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Varpushaukka:

2. Graphics are actually consistent when it comes to art style, and the simplicity is charming.

I really like the graphics, it's overall nice, simple, stands out, and I think it's aged nicely. I like that it doesn't take itself too seriously. One minute I'm fighting minotaur in a dungeon themed after the four horsemen, the other, I'm trying to escape from an evil cat via balloon animals.

I wish I could see Runescape Classic again, if only to revisit it.

[Dark Sun Gwyndolin]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Varpushaukka:

1. No Treasure Hunter and MTX cosmetics.
2. Graphics are actually consistent when it comes to art style, and the simplicity is charming.
3. Not having a crapton of dailies/weeklies/monthlies/temporary events to keep a track of.

See, the first and third I definitely agree with, and was the main reason I left RS3. However, I actually LIKE RS3's artstyle, it has just the right amount of detail to feel welcoming without descending into a over-detailed mess like many "AAA" games these days.

I'll go out on a limb and say that RS3 Prifddinas is my favourite town in RPG history. The gleaming white marble and colourful plants felt like a worthy milestone for entering the lategame.

[Varpushaukka]

Oprindeligt skrevet af MassMetalizer:

I really like the graphics, it's overall nice, simple, stands out, and I think it's aged nicely. I like that it doesn't take itself too seriously. One minute I'm fighting minotaur in a dungeon themed after the four horsemen, the other, I'm trying to escape from an evil cat via balloon animals.

I wish I could see Runescape Classic again, if only to revisit it.

Yeah, the standing out/aging bit is actually quite a big one: if you make a consistent and unique art style, and stick to that graphical design when making new assets, you only need to do the graphical job once, and can focus more on creating new content and patching/balancing existing content.

One of the biggest issues I see on the RS3 development side is that they have to waste so much time and money updating the graphics, and when they come up with some new way to improve graphics again, they have to rework existing graphics *again*. I don't know how OSRS is going to handle the whole HD graphics thing in the future, but I hope it doesn't fall to the same endless rework loop that's been going on forever in RS3.

[Varpushaukka]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Nephalim Glory:

See, the first and third I definitely agree with, and was the main reason I left RS3. However, I actually LIKE RS3's artstyle, it has just the right amount of detail to feel welcoming without descending into a over-detailed mess like many "AAA" games these days.

I'll go out on a limb and say that RS3 Prifddinas is my favourite town in RPG history. The gleaming white marble and colourful plants felt like a worthy milestone for entering the lategame.

RS3 Prif is one of the graphically prettiest places in the game for sure, but I wouldn't use it as a baseline example, because as you said, it's not something you'll get to see until later on in the game. As well, have you seen OSRS Prif? Because I've been to both, and they both act as similar milestones, yet I'd still say the OSRS version takes the cake, because it feels more "grandiose" to me, and I find it has a better crystal/trees balance than the RS3 counterpart.

[Justice]

To honest neither RS3 or OSRS are good. If only we had 2008-2012 runescape instead. But unfortunely there isn't one. OSRS is much better choise between rs3 and itself , but lack 2008HD graphics and animations, lack gameplay and ballance of 2008-2012 era. It has to be fixed from core, but unfortunely the core is OSRS not 2008+ Runescape....

[allocesninja]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Nephalim Glory:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Varpushaukka:

1. No Treasure Hunter and MTX cosmetics.
2. Graphics are actually consistent when it comes to art style, and the simplicity is charming.
3. Not having a crapton of dailies/weeklies/monthlies/temporary events to keep a track of.

See, the first and third I definitely agree with, and was the main reason I left RS3. However, I actually LIKE RS3's artstyle, it has just the right amount of detail to feel welcoming without descending into a over-detailed mess like many "AAA" games these days.

I'll go out on a limb and say that RS3 Prifddinas is my favourite town in RPG history. The gleaming white marble and colourful plants felt like a worthy milestone for entering the lategame.

the popups in RS3 kill it for me even as someone that doesn't mind spending money. it can be there just don't shove it in my face 24/7 also i like RS3 look as well but hate EoC

[Phirestar]

For me, the main appeal of Old School is that progression feels much more impactful and rewarding. RuneScape 3 suffers a lot from what I would call “modern gaming design philosophy”, which basically means stripping out all adversity from the player experience as much as possible, and labeling it as “quality of life” or “convenience”.

I’ll point to the two examples that I always bring up when discussing this topic: Magic and Agility. These two skills heavily govern the player’s mobility, and leveling them up increases the overall efficiency of nearly all other tasks across the board. This is especially true in the case of OSRS: getting to a specific Magic level to unlock a new teleportation spell, or reaching a new energy restoration bracket based on your Agility, has major implications on your future grinds. The time it takes to regenerate your run energy to 100% is halved by level 50, and being able to warp to Varrock or some other city will save dozens or hundreds of hours over the course of your account’s lifetime. This incentives you to train these skills as much as possible, and you’ll immediately notice just how different the game feels when you go from not having them, to having them.

In RuneScape 3, however, they completely destroyed this system of leveling up to earn those benefits by introducing the lodestone network and the run energy rework. Now, you have the ability to travel to every major city exactly one time and enable an infinite teleport landmark with no cooldowns, no necessary levels, and no required resources (runes). Additionally, you can now more or less run everywhere and never be in a position where you’re forced to walk due to not having enough energy. These systems take the established method of leveling up your character in order to become more mobile, and just hand you those benefits right at the start of the experience. It wipes out one of the biggest motivations to train Magic and Agility, and offers nothing of its own in return. Reaching 54 Magic and unlocking the Ardougne teleport no longer feels like a reward, because you’re able to get there anyway since day one.

This is why people will tell you that Old School RuneScape is about the journey and not the destination. RuneScape 3 feels like it wants players to have everything unlocked from the start, which is why they also do things like let you buy experience lamps and gamble for in-game gold and items with Treasure Hunter. And that goes against the whole point of an RPG for many people, where leveling up and growing your character to be more powerful is the spirit and the appeal of the experience. We want to feel like the actions we take in the game are rewarded, and you can’t do that in a system where they offer the rewards without having to do any of the grinding.

The adversity in the present is what makes the rewards later on feel so satisfying to achieve. If you don’t want players to have those limitations and you want them to be able to reach endgame as fast as possible, then you might as well not have the skills and leveling system in the game at all.

[Dark Sun Gwyndolin]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Phirestar:

-snip-

That's... actually an excellent justification. As someone who plays MMO's for immersion, that sounds like the perfect motivation for me to play OSRS.

[regulus]

it's 2024 and we're still talking about EOC.

Mod Mark'Donalds ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up bad with that one.

[Elsa]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Thoa:

I don't think the graphics or gameplay update did favors for RS3. Even with the ancient looking graphics of OSRS, I find RS3 to be uglier, or at least more visually generic. I also don't care for the gameplay changes in the EOC update. The changes felt unnecessary and don't really compliment the relatively simplistic gameplay that I enjoy about OSRS.
.

and you can tell who has never played with eoc enabled in rs3 when they just stay locked on legacy mode

07 combat felt very dated going into eoc and it was nice to actually be able to fight instead of a combat system that relied solely on just punch enemy punches you then you punch them back now that combat has actual tactical combat and even enemies scale to your level

[Dark Sun Gwyndolin]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Mommie Frenni:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Thoa:

I don't think the graphics or gameplay update did favors for RS3. Even with the ancient looking graphics of OSRS, I find RS3 to be uglier, or at least more visually generic. I also don't care for the gameplay changes in the EOC update. The changes felt unnecessary and don't really compliment the relatively simplistic gameplay that I enjoy about OSRS.
.

and you can tell who has never played with eoc enabled in rs3 when they just stay locked on legacy mode

07 combat felt very dated going into eoc and it was nice to actually be able to fight instead of a combat system that relied solely on just punch enemy punches you then you punch them back now that combat has actual tactical combat and even enemies scale to your level

PLEASE don't bring up EoC in an OSRS thread; even as an RS3 fan I know that stuff is gigantic flamebait.

[Morton Salt]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Mommie Frenni:

07 combat felt very dated going into eoc and it was nice to actually be able to fight instead of a combat system that relied solely on just punch enemy punches you then you punch them back now that combat has actual tactical combat

You will find later on that there is no real tactical combat, just copy/paste revolution bar from wiki and at bosses do dps rotation that is realy bland tbh, where sometimes you using Devotion and Resonance.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Mommie Frenni:

even enemies scale to your level

Huh? Where? o.O

[Elsa]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Morton Salt:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Mommie Frenni:

07 combat felt very dated going into eoc and it was nice to actually be able to fight instead of a combat system that relied solely on just punch enemy punches you then you punch them back now that combat has actual tactical combat

You will find later on that there is no real tactical combat, just copy/paste revolution bar from wiki and at bosses do dps rotation that is realy bland tbh, where sometimes you using Devotion and Resonance.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Mommie Frenni:

even enemies scale to your level

Huh? Where? o.O

there is a quest boss you can repeat fight that she scales to your lvl when you battle her

then theirs a daily boss you can fight that all so scales to your lvl