March 2008 Updates

Over the past few months, lots of you have offered us ideas for how to get the best out of the Grand Exchange and LootShare system. Well, by Guthix, our first update of the month will see the introduction of the best of these!

First will be CoinShare, which will convert high-level drops into cash and then share it equally between you and your battling clan compatriots. This entirely optional addition to LootShare will save clans from having only one player who benefits from a high-level drop, instead offering everyone a big bag of cash when a monster drops something awesome. This fabulous new system will put the item on the Grand Exchange at the market value without you having to do anything, and will give the CoinSharers cash immediately, based on the lowest boundary that the item can sell for. Now that's service!

Talking of the Grand Exchange, Brugsen Bursen has been working on the Grand Exchange interfaces. He will be streamlining them to require fewer clicks and less time when selling or purchasing wares. The Grand Exchange Database has taken Brugsen longer than he anticipated, however; he expects this Grand Exchange aid to be ready towards the end of the month. With it, players will have a visual way to search for items, check their value and even view price fluctuations over a period of time.

All of these Varrock distractions seem to have given Surok an opportunity for escape! March will bring an addition to the Surok storyline, following the fleeing wizard north out of Varrock and into the Chaos Tunnels. The rewards are plentiful for this mini-quest, but as is customary with Surok, expect some lies, deceit, chaos and a wee bit of brutal combat.

Lies and deceit will certainly be on the menu with this month's quest, Kenniths's Concerns, and it is a dish best served cold...while covered in slug goo. That's right, the sea slugs are coming back, and they'll be up to their usual hijinks, feeding on brainwaves and attempting world domination - the little scamps. Poor Kennith, the boy you saved from certain subservience on the Fishing Platform, is being hassled by the slugs once again and he will have a few tasks for you. Needless to say, they will test your abilities to the max.

A test of a different variety awaits you in the Stronghold of Player Safety. This twin to the Stronghold of Security will be open to both free players and members, allowing those who prove their intellectual mettle in the Player Safety quiz to swipe rewards, splat cockroaches and taunt gublinch in the depths of the jailhouse below.

Also available to free players and members is our next holiday event, Easter 2008, which will bring yet another wily scheme from the Easter Bunny. What will it be this time? Well, the Easter Bunny has been noting the powers of the Summoning familiars in RuneScape - in particular, the petrifying gaze of the cockatrice. Using a complicated process that involves an incubator and a vat of finest chocolate, the Easter Bunny has hatched a chocatrice. Will the Easter Bunny's weapon of mass production work? You can bet your last gp that it won't...

In our third update this month for both free players and members, we will introduce the bizarre gnomecopters. These unwieldy vehicles have been invented by pioneering gnomes to take players high over a series of members' areas, like Castle Wars, Pest Control and Isafdar, giving them a gander at what they have to offer. The only problem is, they might look silly while they're doing it.

Certainly silly-looking (but you wouldn't say it to their faces) are the hordes of familiars and pets that make up Summoning Batch 2. These creatures look about as mean, big and unusual as TzTok-Jad after a bubble bath, so prepare for some high-level and demanding familiars. Although we had to delay the release of Summoning Batch 2, we can guarantee that this extra time has been spent well to give the creatures a little bit more of a 'kick', with rewards for persistent summoners and awesome abilities that'll knock their headdresses off.

We don't want to give away too much about these familiars in the Behind the Scenes, but you can expect a Summoning wallpaper to give you a graphical taster of what's in store. As you would expect from the end of a Behind the Scenes, there are also a number of other website-based additions to get giddy about, including a new Players' Gallery, Postbag from the Hedge and an entry in the Lores and Histories.

We told you there was a lot this month! Gadzooks!
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Febuary 2008 Update Thread

« Last edited by librascythe on Mar 3rd 2008 »

Clan Chat owners now have the option to use CoinShare, an addition to the LootShare system that was requested by many of you on the Forums.

To start CoinSharing, LootShare must be activated on your clan channel. You can then choose 'CoinShare' from your Clan Chat Setup interface. It is an entirely optional addition.

CoinShare has no effect on the majority of items; they will still be allocated to members of the clan channel according to how 'lucky' they have been with previous LootSharing monster drops.

If you have CoinShare active, the following will happen if a monster drops something of great value, like a dragon chainbody:

* The item is immediately put on the Grand Exchange, set at the current market price.
* An equal amount of coins is dropped on the floor for each LootSharer. Each player can then pick their share up. The total number of coins is based on the item's lowest value on the Grand Exchange.

All of this happens immediately. For a list of items that can be converted to cash using CoinShare, and more information on how CoinShare works, please read the Knowledge Base article.

As there will be an increased number of LootSharers because of this update, we have doubled the number of LootSharing worlds. For a list, please click here.



CoinShare and the Grand Exchange:

Following the State of Play, many of you posted your concerns about how CoinShare works with the Grand Exchange. The following bulletpoints should address the worries you have:

* We have decided to place CoinShare items on the Grand Exchange so that this update has no effect on the rarity of certain items. High-value items would become more difficult to find if they were all converted into cash with CoinShare. We will place these items on the Exchange so they stay in circulation.
* CoinShare items bought or sold on the Grand Exchange DO NOT affect the item's market value. Only items that have been placed on the Grand Exchange in a conventional manner can affect the market price.
* A CoinShare item will be set at the average market price and will ALWAYS stay at the average market price. So, if the item's market price moves up or down, so will the value of the CoinShare item.
* Players receive the lowest market price when CoinSharing because of its additional convenience. Players do not have to waste an inventory space when picking up a high-value item, they do not have to travel to the Grand Exchange and they are guaranteed money from its sale.
* Players do not receive additional cash once the item has been sold on the Exchange.

Grand Exchange Interface Changes:

The Grand Exchange has been managing item trades for a few months now, which is enough time for us to check the Forums, scan your feedback and put together some changes that will not only make it easier to use, but a lot quicker too.

A lot of feedback centred on the Grand Exchange interfaces, with many of you forced to click multiple times when selling or buying. The following changes should really reduce that wasted clicking time:

* When making a Buy Offer, the +1/+10/+100/+1000 buttons increase the quantity by that amount
* When making a Sell Offer, the 1/10/100 buttons set the quantity to that amount. There is no 1000 option here, instead there is an ALL button which sets the quantity to the total in your inventory
* The Buy/Sell buttons in empty offer slots now appear by default
* The Grand Exchange Item Search interface now opens automatically when you click to make a new buy offer
* If you are collecting five or more of the same item from your collection box, they will be certed/noted (as long as they do not normally stack in your inventory)

« Last edited by librascythe on Mar 4th 2008 »

It seems that Surok has made a cunning escape from his Varrock Library prison and is intent on continuing his nefarious schemes. He even found time to steal some ancient tomes from the library, unearthing dark secrets and powerful magicks.

It is clear that Surok has plans to control the city of Varrock and it is up to you to stop him! Scuppering Surok may not be as easy as it sounds, however, as he has friends in very, very high places.

Surok was last seen heading east out of Varrock, towards the Chaos Tunnels that were introduced in January.

Have a care when entering the Tunnels, as they are dark and full of creatures - including dragons - that will attack without mercy! Be sure to only take what you are prepared to lose, for there are worse things than simple orks in the dark places of this world.



In other news...

As a result of recent feedback, players can now take priest robes and gowns into Bounty Hunter. These items offer small Prayer bonuses that players might wish to make use of.

We've fixed an issue with the Assist System, so that runecrafters will be able to get 'double' runes if the assister has the necessary Runecrafting level.

The Friends and Ignore interfaces have been looked at and adjusted to make them more readable. These were slightly darker than intended.

We've been looking at a few smaller changes that will enhance your gameplay and you can expect more of these in the future:

* When reopening the Smithing interface, it will remember where you last scrolled to, similar to the bank interface.
* Romeo in Varrock will no longer interrupt you if you're passing through. You can still stop by, have a chat and see if you can cheer him up!

You may have heard of FunOrb but know very little about what it involves. Well, it's a new website that we've released, offering a great selection of browser-based games that we'll be adding to regularly!

You'll find a variety of free games on offer, from fast and furious platformers to gloriously over-the-top shooters; from intense turn-based strategy games to brainbusting puzzles. Each of them are deep and massively enjoyable, enticing you to give them 'just one more go'.

If you have a RuneScape account then you can go to the FunOrb website, sign in and start playing immediately! This is because FunOrb is setup very similarly to RuneScape - each game has a 'free' element that can be played until you decide to become a member. Free players get highscores tables and some Achievements, while those who subscribe to FunOrb get access to full games, all Achievements, multiplayer games, a fullscreen mode and FunOrb Forums.

We also have extra website updates and games planned for the future, with new content every two weeks!


StarCannon Torquing

There are also features available for current RuneScape players. You can sign in to FunOrb with your RuneScape account, keeping the same Friends List and Ignore List. This means you can chat to friends across both games and even see which game they are playing (and trying to beat your score)!

What is more, RuneScape members can purchase a combined membership package for both FunOrb and RuneScape at US$7, or �4.60, when paying by credit card. That's only $2 more than your usual RuneScape membership! A FunOrb account on its own costs US$3 or �2 by credit card.

Our Rules now apply to both RuneScape and FunOrb. Rulebreakers will find that their punishments are effective on both sites.

Some of you have asked whether you can mention FunOrb on RuneScape Forums. Since we can guarantee that FunOrb is a secure site, you are free to talk about FunOrb on suitable RuneScape Forums and RuneScape on suitable FunOrb Forums.

We would also like to take this opportunity to say that FunOrb, although a product of Jagex, will not impact on our RuneScape updates. You will still be receiving the same quantity and quality of updates that you always have. There are separate teams dedicated to producing the very best content for FunOrb, so you can expect many more superb games in the future.

Professor Henry has opened a new Misthalin Training Centre of Excellence, south of Edgeville. Here, you can take a test that asks questions about staying safe in Runescape, earning some great rewards in the process!

If you're in the mood for combat, there are rumours that an old jailhouse has been discovered beneath the Centre, completely overrun by insects of an unnatural size. Strap on your fighting boots, arm yourself and get ready to investigate, as only a true adventurer can!



« Last edited by librascythe on Mar 13th 2008 »

As ever, there are strange occurrences afoot in the slug-riddled town of Witchaven. Kennith, the odd little boy with a (justified) aversion to sea slugs, is convinced that the townsfolk are up to no good in the caverns beneath the town and he is looking for a brave adventurer with a talent for Mining to investigate.

Could it be that the sea slugs are looking to get revenge for the events of Slug Menace? Or is there some new threat looming large over Witchaven? How does Kennith's new friend, Kimberly, fit into all of this? You will need all of your wits, digging talents and sneaking abilities to find out.

Along the way, players can expect to reunite with Ezekial Lovecraft, all round man-in-the-know, in an effort to outwit the horde of secretive villagers who are determined to keep their great 'work' a surprise. You may even be introduced to an extremely volatile new kind of ore. One thing is for certain: not everything is what it seems in Witchaven...


In other news...

We've added a feature that allows you to keep an eye on the remaining charges of your crystal saw. You will now be able to track how much the crystal seed has drained when used for Construction.

Several sound effects have been added or improved in areas of RuneScape: from creaky doors and creature sound effects to travelling sounds and swords clanging against armour.

Tokkul and obsidian drops have been fixed and will once again drop for those Lootsharing while fighting TzHaar creatures.

Finally, you'll be pleased to know that the Kill Count in the God Wars Dungeon should correctly update when using CoinShare.

This month, Postie Pete has returned with a Players' Gallery of RuneScape-related humour and comics. So, if you feel like a laugh over the Easter season, view this month's Players' Gallery here.

It seems that the problem-prone Easter Bunny is once again experiencing difficulties. He's spent so much time redecorating his warren that he hasn't noticed critters burrowing in and devouring his entire chocolate stockpile.

Now, devoid of cocoa stocks, the chocolate egg production has ground to a halt and the forecast for Easter celebrations looks bleak. No need to worry, though - the Easter Bunny is an inventive sort, and has come up with an eggs-emplary new idea: use a chocatrice! These fearsome creatures, incubated from a chocolate-coated cockatrice egg, can turn their targets into chocolate with one lethal, chocifying gaze.

It falls to you, then, to create this curious creature. You'll need to track down some of the lost chocolate to make a chocatrice egg and then carefully incubate it. The critters who ate the chocolate supply are sealed in the Easter Bunny's tunnels and will prove a suitable target for your chocatrice.

So, this Easter, you will come to the aid of chocolate lovers everywhere, incubating your own chocatrice, guiding it around the Easter Bunny's tunnels and turning the greedy rats into something altogether more delicious...


In other news...

The music system now has a counter which keeps 'track' of how many songs you've unlocked. You'll have the Air Guitar emote in no time!

Players will now always receive a TzHaar fire cape and 8,000 TokKul after defeating TzTok-Jad. You can keep any extra fire capes you win as spares in case you lose them, or speak to TzHaar-Mej-Jal, master of the Fight Cave, who will purchase spare fire capes from you for 8,000 TokKul a piece.

We're constantly looking at item prices on the Grand Exchange and how they match up with similar items and those that are unfinished versions of other items. Prices for some of these sorts of items have been adjusted following this pattern. For example, an unstrung necklace will more closely follow the price of the strung version.

You might have found in the recently refurbished Edgeville Dungeon that fighting chaos druids was a slow process. The death animation has been reduced so you don't have to spend as much time waiting before picking up your loot!


« Last edited by librascythe on Mar 18th 2008 »

Okay from now on Update threads will be made but don't need to be pinned.
Update threads can only be alive for the month they are for.
and once a new update thread is made they should be closed.
To talk about old update threads either talk in the new one (after saying which update) or the new (Dis)Accomplishments thread (Decide Later if it should be used for it)

In February's edition of State of Play we promised to report regularly on anticipated updates, giving you a better idea of how they are progressing. This week, we feel it's the right time to catch up with Summoning, PvP minigames and some other releases we have planned.

Summoning Improvements:

Progress has been made on Summoning 2 and we plan to have this released by the end of the month. It is currently past the balancing and entering the final QA stages.

Many of you have asked what the rebalancing entails. Well, we do not want to ruin the surprise completely, but we can say that we have changed our philosophy towards balancing familiars. Instead of having lots of benefits that ADD UP to create a useful familiar, we have decided to make sure that each familiar will have one stand-out ability that makes it awesome.

Take the beaver, for example: currently, it boosts your Woodcutting, counts as a knife, produces logs when Woodcutting and offers the Multichop special move. On their own, these abilities add up, but don't 'stand out', as such. Well, with our change in policy, the beaver will soon make you logs and planks no matter what you are doing at the time, in a similar vein to Ava's Accumulator from the Animal Magnetism quest.

We can also reveal that the combat familiars will give you XP when used in battle. Each combat familiar will have a specific skill that they raise your XP in during combat - the spirit jelly gives Strength XP, for example. This will be equal to the XP you would receive if you had caused the damage yourself.

Friends List Changes:

When we released the changes to the Friends List on the 25th of February, we never intended them to impact on your enjoyment of RuneScape. In fact, the changes were made so that you could chat easily with your FunOrb friends and vice versa.

Unfortunately, as many of you have pointed out, the text used in the interface was difficult to read for some, leading us to make changes to its colour scheme. This was only a short-term solution, however, and the FunOrb and RuneScape Game Engine teams are collaborating to make something that will be appreciated by 'Scapers and 'Orbsters alike.

Item Lending:

The item lending feature has progressed past the proposal stage. Unfortunately, the Game Engine developers in charge of the project have had to delay it while they work on issues with serverload that came to light during the Audio Week release. These problems meant that worlds went out of action for a period of time and the developers have been tackling this issue so it does not happen again.

We're aiming to have this resolved in the next couple of weeks, so that item lending can be made a priority again. For the moment, we can tell you that the item lending feature will be session-based, allowing you to transfer objects to another player for the period that you are both logged in.

New PvP Minigame:

Our next PvP minigame is entering the last stages of QA. Many of you have asked on the Forums about some aspects of this minigame - in particular, how it differs from the Duel Arena.

Well, firstly, we can promise that the game is nothing like the Duel Arena or even Bounty Hunter. This game calls for strategy, requiring far more than just combat. It demands mastery of both offensive and defensive tactics while offering fantastic rewards that you can receive nowhere else.

We plan for this minigame to be available to both members and F2P, which means that everyone can expect some enhanced equipment with great set effects. We will continue improving both free-to-play and members' PvP content in the future. Expect more news in upcoming State of Plays!

Clan Wars Changes:

We've had a good look at the suggestions players have been sending in for Clan Wars. In particular, we'd like to add a 'run-in' option, where players will be permitted to re-join the battle after they've died. The first team to achieve a pre-agreed number of kills may be declared victorious. Along with this, we're looking to provide a choice of arenas, each with different scenery and obstacles. We've got plenty more Clan Wars features planned - including some 'dangerous' ones - so keep your eyes peeled for information.

Random events:

We had planned some work on the random events of RuneScape quite some time ago. We were looking to see if we could remove most of them, because a decent number were not particularly good at stopping modern-day bots. Since the threat of bots and macros has been largely removed, we feel that this is a perfect opportunity to address the problem again. For the moment, we are concentrating on our PvP minigames to compensate for the Wilderness changes, but the random event proposal has been approved and is in the pipeline.

NOTE - We are certainly not removing every single random event. This proposal gives us the chance to reassess them, see if they are doing their job properly and then take action: removing those that do not work, adding to those that do and improving the rewards of all that remain!

Grand Exchange:

Issues with item images have meant that the Grand Exchange Database has been delayed until mid-April. We apologise for this continued delay; we intend to release the database when we are certain that it delivers on its aim - to give you a strong visual idea of market price trends over a long period of time.

Our Grand Exchange price changes are still ongoing. The godswords and flatpack furniture are examples of items that have had their value changed thanks to your feedback.

Summoning Rebalancing:

You can break Summoning 2 into two halves. The first is a rebalancing of the skill using your feedback. We have chosen to do this because we wanted Summoning to be one of the most well-loved and appreciated skills, so your help was needed to get it back on track.

What did we find out from the Forums? You told us that familiars did not stick around for long enough before they disappeared, and that renewing them was often a pain. With this update, each familiar stays out for a set period of time, regardless of the summoner's skill level, so there is no need to renew your familiar. The period that each familiar stays summoned has, in general, been increased - the spirit dagannoth, for example, stays out for a whopping 57 minutes!

Secondly, you told us that summoning familiars just wasn't rewarding enough. With the rebalancing, we have given each familiar a stand-out ability that makes them well worth summoning - a feature that budding Pikkupstixes have been eager for. You will now find that Summoning a creature is far more preferable to either selling the pouch or high-alching it.

Many of you felt that combat familiars should give combat XP. We definitely agree, so each combat familiar now gives XP when they cause damage. The amount is equal to how much you would have received, had you done the damage yourself. The experience will be in one of the combat skills, which depends on your choice of familiar - the spirit jelly, for example, gives XP in the Strength stat.

Taking your combat familiar into battle will reveal our next improvement: each creature is significantly tougher. They can soak up damage like never before and many will hit harder, making them more than useful for challenges like the God Wars. We can only encourage you to try them out and see just how improved their combat abilities are.

Acquiring charms has been made easier this week, with charm drops added to nearly 20 of our Slayer creatures. For those who prefer sleight of hand over the crossing of swords, we have also added charms to the Dorgesh-Kaan chests, so thieves can access them, too.

Recharging Summoning points has been made easier, with miniature obelisks scattered across the world to keep you topped up; you can now summon familiars almost anywhere and take them with you without worrying too much about having to dismiss them; buttons have been added to help you 'dump' items from your familiar to your inventory and your familiar to your bank; headgear and headdresses can hold more scrolls per item; many existing helmets can be enchanted to hold scrolls; and some of the familiars' inventories have been expanded to a jaw-dropping 30 slots, so your pak yak can now hold more than you can. Phew!

For more details of what has changed with the Summoning rebalancing, visit the Knowledge Base page.

Extra Summoning creatures:

The second half of Summoning 2 is what we originally planned when Summoning was first released: an injection of high-level, dauntingly huge beasts. So, this week, the big guns arrive, largely in the form of the titans. These humanoid creatures don't only have a killer punch; significantly increase your chance of success when Mining and Firemaking, boil adventurers in their own armour or even recharge amulets of glory! You can expect them to range all the way up to level 99, too.

A few inches shorter, but no less daunting, are the big cats from the Hunter skill. As an example of just how many things each familiar can offer you, the graahk, kyatt and larupia are capable of teleporting you to Hunter areas, boosting your chances of trapping a creature, and lending a powerful paw when you need them in battle.

We can guarantee that the other familiars do more than make up the numbers. Fans of Pest Control will know the void pests, with their ability to teleport you to the landers, while other recognisable familiars include the talon beast, spirit mosquito, pyrelord and the fearsome giant chinchompa. These familiars are spread over the Summoning skill levels, inviting you to train it that little bit higher. So, go grab your charms and get stuck in!

In a quiet field east of Draynor Manor, two enterprising gnomes have founded Gnomecopter Tours, featuring the latest development in gnomic flight technology. They're open for business now, offering free-players (and curious members) the chance to take a look at distant lands, including the beautiful elf village of Lletya, the frantic battlefield of Pest Control and the Trollweiss and Rellekka Hunter area.



In other news...

Abyssal bracelets have been changed to 'Forinthry bracelets'. These still protect you, as before, but will now allow you to escape when teleblocked by the Wilderness revenant ghosts. The bracelet's charges essentially counter a Teleblock spell that has been cast on you.

K a new Update thread has been released, any talk of updates should be handled there.

April 2008 Update Thread