Learn How To Get Better At Runescape And Make A Ton Of Money At The Same Time!!!
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It's that time again! Postie Pete has put together another showcase of your artistic talents in the Players' Gallery. This month's is a particularly colourful selection, with a fantastic range of styles, from pens and paint to computers and clay.
Head on over to the Players' Gallery now to check them out!
Those familiar with the ways of the Moonclan will find this week's quest of most valuable interest. With massive and dangerous (not to mention bizarre) beasts to defeat and new spells to learn, there should be plenty to appeal to you.
Waiting for your help on Lunar Isle is a tormented, weak and dying man. Attacked by the native Suqah, he lies in the rune essence mine on the north-east tip of the island. Would you help a fellow adventurer down on his luck?
Choosing to help, you'll find a tough adventure to revisit the dream lands. Be prepared for real danger this time as you'll be battling the monstrous incarnations of a twisted mind. You'll no doubt meet up with familiar faces and get to grips with a selection of new spells for the Lunar Spellbook! The new spells will let you see your foes' strengths and weaknesses, make your own planks, speak to even more NPCs and much more.
Are you a perfect teacher or a guide to slumbering hallucinations? You can decide when you're a Dream Mentor.
Summary| Requirements to begin Dream Mentor | |
| Lunar Diplomacy Eadgar's Ruse Seal of Passage Combat Level 85 | |
In other news...
We've re-sorted the quest list to make it a bit easier to find the quests you're looking for. Previously, the quest list was sorted alphabetically, so all the quests with titles beginning with "A", "An" or "The" were being clumped together.
The problem was that people couldn't always remember the exact title of every quest. Is it "The Hand in the Sand" or "A Hand in the Sand"? Or is it just "Hand in the Sand"? From now on, you'll find "The Hand in the Sand" sorted under H, "A Soul's Bane" sorted under S, and so on. This is how they used to be arranged before the interface update earlier this year, and people seemed happy with it at the time.
Mod Ash accidentally deleted some of the level-up messages for Construction a few months ago. We've now finally noticed, so these have been put back. He says he's sorry.
The Runecrafting skill guide has been updated to display the levels at which you receive multiple runes from each essence. Also, players can now see the level requirements for using the various pouches which you get from the Abyss.
The Home Teleport Spell is now available in all spellbooks! You can now return to Lumbridge, Edgeville or Lunar Isle depending on which spell book you have open.
Finally, we've managed to fix a bug with player-owned houses. Players trying to build a garden above their dungeon stairs would sometimes lose building materials.
In a follow up to last week's news post, we thought we'd let you know exactly what we've been doing in order to remove those who cheat from the game.
Firstly, we've been upgrading our detection software to ban the bots from the game. We've also been particularly focusing on cleaning up the members' version of the game. Bots on the members game are banned significantly more quickly. Of course, the free version has seen a fair share of bans, too.
The Investigations in the Community Unit (ICU) have worked hard, double checked all the facts to make sure we're only getting the cheats, and then have banned 19075 accounts for breaking Rule 7.
We've made significant progress over the last week, but there's still lots more for us to do yet.
Secondly, and equally importantly, as we warned last week we are now banning people who are BUYING RuneScape gold for real-world money - those people who are funding the whole problem in the first place. In the last week we have banned 2300 accounts for breaking Rule 12 by buying RuneScape gold.
Clearly a lot of people buying gold thought they would get away with it, so were quite surprised when they actually got permanently banned. This goes to show that we really do mean it when we say that buying gold for real-world money = permanent ban. We have reliable ways to trace this now. (These are NOT people lending items to their friends, we really are sure they were genuinely buying gold for real world money.)
Note: These weren't bots, these were players who built up their account, sometimes over years, but then threw it all away by cheating and buying gold for real-world money. This means that all the time and money they spent on their account was wasted – and all because they wanted to get ahead of others by using unfair means and tactics.
Have a look at the following examples of accounts banned for real-world trading activities in the past week and decide whether you think it would be worth risking your account. You won't get a warning - you'll just find your account banned, and that will be that.
These are just 2 examples out of the 2300 total.
Player X Total Level: Over 1600 Total time in-game: 140 days, 8 hours Status: Permanently banned for real-world trading
Player Y Total Level: Over 1550 Total time in-game: 89 days, 14 hours Status: Permanently banned for real-world trading
A pretty silly thing for them to go and do, I'm sure you'll agree. Don't make the same mistake.
They're creepy, they're crawly, and now they look even scarier! Our eight, six and four legged friends have been getting a visit from the Makeover Mage, and it wasn't a pleasant visit! Between trying to convince the Kalphite Queen that black really wasn't her colour and the fine detail work on the small spider, the mage is beginning to wonder if he/she is in the right line of work.
As a small surprise, the Mage also managed to hammer the metal dragons into shape, which is no easy feat. But all the hard work paid off as small spiders, kalphites, scorpions and metal dragons have shiny new looks and animations.
In other news...
Players entering the Abyss become 'skulled' - marked as player-killers by the skull emblem above their heads. Anyone entering the Abyss while already skulled has their timer reset, so they have to wait at least another 10 minutes for the skull to disappear. The abyssal bracelet, released in last week's Crafting update, has now been upgraded to prevent the timer being reset in this way, so if you've been skulled and then put on the bracelet, the skull's duration won't be extended when you re-enter the Abyss. This doesn't use up any charges on the bracelet.
The jacket and cap from An Enlightened Journey may now be stored in your houses' costume rooms.
Players visiting the Fountain of Heroes or Legends' Guild to recharge their amulets, necklaces and bracelets will be glad to hear that the fountain now recharges all the amulets of glory in your inventory (including any that you're wearing) without the need for repeated clicking, and the totem pole in the Legends' Guild does the same for the bracelet of combat and necklace of skills.
Finally, you'll find that the minimap icon for general stores has been changed. It used to represent a pot of flour. It's been pointed out to us that general stores don't usually stock pots of flour, so the icon now resembles an empty pot. Please try to contain your excitement.
This week we bring you an entirely new kind of content: the Achievement Diary, which is sure to fire up your desire to head to Karamja. By completing sets of tasks you'll earn rewards to make Karamja an even more appealing place to visit and to train in.
The Achievement Diary entries will each relate to an area in the game (in this first case, Karamja), and each will have a set of easy, medium and hard tasks to complete. The easy tasks could be as simple as picking a few bananas, while the hard tasks include defeating a mighty Ket-Zek (level 360) in the TzHaar Fight Cave! There are rewards for completing each set, so if you can't beat all-comers in the Fight Pits yet, don't worry.
The rewards range from improved Agility experience in the Brimhaven Agility Arena to an entirely new mine that can only be used by people who have done all of the hard tasks. On top of that, you'll increase your knowledge of Karamja, and might even discover more interesting and enjoyable ways to do things.
There are plenty of reasons to start filling in your Achievement Diary, and we'll be adding more areas to the diary in the future.
It’s true... RuneScape has surpassed the Million Member milestone!!!
It has been amazing to witness the growth of such a diverse and varied community of people. To have over a million individuals enjoying the members’ game for all kinds of different reasons is both hugely humbling and gratifying. It tells us our efforts are appreciated and we have you, the players, to thank for your support.
We are excited by the challenge to continue to develop the game so it simply becomes better and better. Five years on and we are more passionate about RuneScape than ever. We’ve come a really long way and whether you’ve been with us from the very start, or if you’re fairly new, the incredible impact you have all had has helped shape the game into what you see today.
As the world of RuneScape has grown, so has our desire to make it an even bigger, better and more entertaining experience. We are always looking to bring fresh new ideas to the game, and RuneScape’s development continues at full swing. We already have some very exciting development plans for 2007 and beyond!
Thanks again for your support. Here’s to the future and the many adventures still to come!
Andrew, Paul, Constant and the whole team
Ever wondered what to do next? With the growing number of things to do in RuneScape, it’s no wonder that most of us spend a fair amount of time just imagining all the things we want to achieve. We've been thinking that it would be great to have a list of all the things you could do, and give some reward for doing them all. Naturally, this would be a huge project to release in one go, so starting the proceedings this month we will be bringing you… the Achievement Diary – Karamja Jungle Tasks.
Found in the quest interface, the diary button will display a list (similar to the music and quest list) of all the various tasks you can do in and around Brimhaven and the Karamja jungle. These tasks will be categorised as easy, medium or hard tasks, and completing each set will give you access to new rewards such as teleports, better shop prices and increased Agility rewards in the Brimhaven Agility Arena. Easy tasks could be as simple as using the rope swing to get to the moss giant island, a medium task involves more skill (like trapping a horned graahk) while hard tasks include becoming the champion of the TzHaar Fight Pits!
Look out for more parts of the achievement diary to be released in the future!
Our quest in May will bring us back to Lunar Isle, and will offer new spells to add to your lunar spell book. A young adventurer called Cyrisus will find himself trapped and frozen by fear and depression, and it will be up to you to bring him out of his misery. Someone who can’t even make it to the Moon Clan town is unlikely to be able to survive long in the dream world, so you’ll also be asked to guide him and become his Dream Mentor. What horrors await you inside his addled mind?
Our next batch of NPC improvements is also due for launch this month, and is going to be fantastic. The graphics team have been working extra hard to produce what will be arguably the best looking graphics in the game, and boy is the Kalphite Queen pleased they chose her to put all these efforts into. In fact, all of her brood will be given the makeover treatment, as well as the scorpions and tiny spiders in the game. I’m sure that the bravest among you will want to risk the journey across the Kharidian Desert and take a look for yourselves - but beware! She is still one of the nastiest beasts to inhabit RuneScape... she'll just look great doing it.
Not wanting to be outdone, the King of Varrock heard about this proposed makeover and, well, he got a bit upset by it all. How could a funny little insect get all this attention when his own kingdom was feeling a little neglected? Queen Ellamaria wouldn’t stand for this much longer; left with little choice, he decided to get the builders in. In our last update of the month, we will be introducing the new look Varrock, complete with a totally new and redesigned Varrock Museum. You’ll be able to experiment with rock samples carted over from the Dig Site, help out in the natural history section and even complete new exhibits by telling the curators about the adventures you've had during your quests and travels. Naturally, you’ll be rewarded for assisting with these things, mainly with good old fashioned chunks of experience. Don’t forget, you’ll also have the new look city to explore, so we're hoping you’ll find something to amuse you!
Reldo had a slight mishap with the Library last month and a few of his prized tomes went missing briefly (apparently one of the restoration spells used to tidy up old books put the wrong covers on them). As a result, last month's Lores and Histories update didn't happen. Rest assured, though, it'll take a natural disaster of epic proportions to deter Reldo from bringing them to you this month (although rats chewing through the binding will probably upset him enough).
Also look out for some great new player art and letters, as well as some rather handy Knowledge Base additions.
Have fun!
Over the last couple of weeks we've had a sudden increase in reports of people apparently using 'bots' to play the game automatically (which is in breach of Rule 7). Firstly, we want to let all our honest players (and that's the vast majority of you) know that we are aware of this problem, and that we are taking immediate steps to tackle it. We currently ban about 8000 accounts every week for trying this sort of cheating, and for a long time that kept things under control. Things have clearly moved on, however, and that is no longer enough, so we are in the process of upgrading our detection and prevention systems. We also have logs of historical activity, so we'll be able to make sure that dishonesty doesn't pay. Please bear with us while we sort it out! There are also ways you can help us, so please read on.
What's happening is more complex than it first seems. What's actually going on is that the VAST majority of the level-3 characters you see playing the game repetitively and not talking to anyone, are actually people from countries such as China and Korea, who are trying to collect RuneScape gold to sell for real world money (obviously against the rules). Some of them aren't even using bots, they are just playing the game very repetitively with a single-minded purpose to collect gold. These people have no interest in playing the game properly, and therefore don't care if they get banned. The final effect is the same, though – it spoils the game for everyone else.
We can (and do) ban them - including using IP bans - but they still find ways to make accounts. We seized 6 billion in RuneScape gold by banning real-world traders last week! Unfortunately, these people are obliged to work such long hours and are paid such low wages that if even a tiny fraction of gold makes it to the market, those running the sweatshops will be encouraged to continue. This is why we are now further increasing our efforts.
So how to stop it? The answer is clearly to tackle the black market. As long as there is the potential to make money, they won't stop trying, even though it damages the game for everyone else. Of course, if nobody spent real world money on RuneScape gold these unwelcome groups would just switch to a different game.
Therefore, we are going to be cracking down HARD on people who breach Rule 12 (no real world trading). We can catch people who break this rule, because we have a sophisticated trade monitoring system and we can trace suspicious activity all the way back to the original bot accounts.
If you break Rule 12 and buy RuneScape gold you are directly funding this problem. You are funding underground gangs who run Chinese sweatshops, and creating the black market which causes this botting problem. Therefore, this rule will now be enforced as a priority, with no second chances. If you break Rule 12 and we catch you, then you will not only lose the money you spent, but also your entire account. Obviously, we will always be careful to make sure nobody is banned in error.
Finally, we have noticed some 3rd party sites, which call themselves 'fansites', but then advertise black market trading sites. This will no longer be tolerated. By running such advertising these sites are directly supporting these gangs, and are thus causing the botting problems they then complain about! We don't consider sites that encourage our players to break the rules and endanger their own users to be 'fansites'. (i.e. They're advertising things to their users, which, if the advertising works, will serve to get their users banned!) We consider them cheat sites, and they will be treated accordingly. True fans of the game don’t encourage cheating!
This brings us to the last point. HOW YOU CAN HELP! You can help us by:
The number of honest players still far, far outweighs the tiny minority causing trouble. Now we’re on the case you can be sure we’ll have this sorted out asap.
Postie Pete's back from his travels once again, bringing you replies from some very odd and some very clever NPCs. Evil Bob explains what ScapeRune is really like, the H.A.M. leader defends his fashion choice and Melzar rambles in a suitably mad way. On top of this, the Wise Old Folk have gone a bit creative, and have a selection of short haiku (poems) for you.
The artwork that Reldo has uncovered showing one of the ancient foes of Varrock is also available for download as a wallpaper. It's a bit creepy and very dark; but what else can you expect from one of RuneScape's ancient villains?
Among the things that we regularly see on the forums are possible uses for some of the jewellery that can't be enchanted yet. So this week's update is to give all those neglected necklaces a purpose. There were so many good suggestions, though, that we had to create an entirely new type of jewellery in order to use even a fraction of the great ideas! So that we could use more of these ideas, we've made bracelets with new magical effects which we hope will keep you enchanted.
We've added jewellery that lets you mine soft clay, some that have new teleport destinations, some that will help you in your Runecrafting, and, of course, some that will help you in combat, to mention just a few. The TzHaar have even got a necklace that will make their obsidian weapons more powerful! For more details have a look in the Knowledge Base.
Summary| Requirements for new jewellery | |
| There are 7 new bracelets, 6 of which are enchantable, and 3 newly enchantable necklaces. | |
| Crafting levels from 7 to 84 Magic levels from 7 to 87 Note: The bracelet of innoculation requires the completion of Zogre Flesh Eaters to wear | |
In other news...
Castle Wars fans may be glad to hear that we've fixed the bug whereby players could pass through barricades if the dragon spear's special attack was used on them.
The gauntlets of goldsmithing now give you their usual Smithing Xp bonus when you use the Blast Furnace to smelt your gold ore.
After the dust rune's graphic was mysteriously shrunk last week, we've had it reinflated.
The splitbark greaves (available from the Draynor Wizards' Tower) have been renamed because they aren't greaves. They're now called splitbark boots.
Finally, after last week's update to goblins, we've seen a few of them sliding across the floor during combat. The makeover mage has been recalled to fix their legs (fortunately they're still under warranty) so there should be no more problems with skiddy goblins.