updates from 4/24/08 to 1/5/08

24 April 2008 - Postbag from the Hedge

This week's Postbag is a mix of the surreal and the serious. On the surreal side we have exploding trifles and talking tripwires. On the serious side we have the history of Charos and some worrying conspiracy theories...

If you are intrigued or bemused, we can only point you in the direction of this week's Postbag from the Hedge.

Postie Pete also wants images for a future Players' Gallery. In particular, everyone's favourite severed head would like landscapes of RuneScape's beautiful geography.

28 April 2008 - Summoning Guaranteed Content Poll

Do you want to help decide on a new Summoning familiar? In this week's poll you can do exactly that! Choose from such varied creatures as killerwatts, giant kebbits and kangaroos...

Each of the creature options in this poll were chosen from a thread in the Suggestions Forum. Thank you to everyone who offered ideas for familiars.

Click 'Vote in this poll' on the left-hand side of the RuneScape front page to vote.

The Summoning familiar with the most votes will be developed once the poll finishes on 6th May, 2008. The winner will be announced on the 7th May.

1 May 2008 - New Forum - Reporting Academy

Hi everyone,

We have released a new Forum in the 'Support' section of the RuneScape Forums. This is called the 'Reporting Academy', and it contains information that will help you when sending abuse reports about other players.

Every day, we receive lots of inaccurate abuse reports, which take up a lot of our time. By creating this Forum, we hope everyone will have a better idea of what to report, so we can spend more time moderating in-game or on the Forums. Let's work together to make that happen!

Here are a couple of quick pointers to get you started:

Noob:

Being called a noob can be annoying. You may have a bad game of Castle Wars, for example, and find that a player follows you around afterwards, calling you a 'noob'. As irritating as this may be to you, please do not report it unless there is something more serious that you'd like us to take a look at! If the player is really bothering you, add them to your Ignore List - that way, you'll have no more trouble from them!

Filtered language **** ****:

It may be that you have wandered RuneScape and seen someone activate the in-game chat filter. The filter removes inappropriate words, so you do not need to send us a report. If a person is annoying you by continuously using the filter, we would advise you to use your Ignore List. To sum up: don't report for starred-out language only, as the filter has done its job. Of course, if there is something other than just starred-out language that you are concerned about, please send us a report about that player.

For more great reporting tips please visit our new Forum 'The Reporting Academy'.

Thanks for listening,

RuneScape Community Management


1 May 2008 - Behind the Scenes - May

It's not unusual for dwarves to be involved in a spot of industry. In this month's first quest, however, they may take it a bit too far. Nurmof, the pickaxe sales-dwarf in the Dwarven Mines, will have need of an energy source to power his patented pickaxe machine. Unfortunately for RuneScape, it looks like his choice will have severe consequences. Will you be able to clean up Nurmof's act in this month's low-level quest, Perils of Ice Mountain?

Whatever happens in RuneScape, the cats seem to find their feet, and, this month, those feet - and the rest of their bodies - will get graphically improved to become even more adorable. We may be getting a wee bit enthusiastic by sprucing up the Gertrude's Cat quest, but we're sure you'll appreciate what's new (pussycat).

You may know that the law talisman is a reward for the hard-to-beat Troll Stronghold quest. We feel that, not only is this a reward that everyone should be able to get their hands on, but it's strangely low-level for a high-level quest. This month, we will be making the law talisman available to all members, so that anyone can craft law runes, or use the Assist System to help others make them. The Troll Stronghold reward will be replaced by two 10,000xp lamps and, if you have completed the quest already, Dunstan will be ready to hand you them.

You wouldn't find Party Pete fighting trolls in Troll Stronghold - that would mess up his marvellous new 'fro! That's right, Party Pete has an appointment with the Makeover Mage, all thanks to your votes in the Guaranteed Content Poll. Expect a startling new 'do, threads and moves. You might even go "Woah! Dude..." when he throws some pretty spectacular shapes.

Burning down the house will be the graphically reworked TzHaar. Like Party Pete, the TzHaar were voted, by you, to have their looks and animations reworked. There's also the small matter of an improved Jad; this month, you will find the look of old is gone. What replaces it will be a whole lot more threatening...

Which leads us neatly to a RuneScape first: a TzHaar quest! It seems that the TzHaar will have need of a JalYt - a human - to help kill a fearsome beast that has been tunneling through their structures. Normally, this kind of problem would be dealt with in-house, but the only access to the creature will be through a very small, human-sized hole. Will you be successful where the TzHaar have failed, in TokTz-Ket-Dill?

Later this month, we introduce the Quick Chat system - an optional alternative to our normal chat system. Using Quick Chat, you will be able to use shortcut keys or your mouse to choose from a library of questions, answers, sentences and greetings. We expect this to be particularly helpful in minigames like Castle Wars and Pest Control, where faster communication is invaluable.

Muted players will have Quick Chat available to them. We believe that this will be a more suitable action to take against those who abused the chat system. Additionally, we have developed Quick Chat so it will be possible to talk to players on German worlds (and vice versa) since the system will translate whichever chat option you choose.

NOTE - The Quick Chat system will be completely optional, and normal chat will remain unchanged.

Level-up messages will be made more informative and less intrusive this month, with a raft of changes that we think you'll appreciate. First, you'll find that there's much more information about what you can do at your hard-fought new level, from quests to skill milestones. Fireworks will fizz into the air as you rise up the levels, and steps will be taken so that your level up messages cannot be interrupted by combat or other events.

Random statistic signs will be seen on the streets of RuneScape. These will offer some interesting facts about the more popular activities of RuneScape. Would you like to know how many Varrock Palace guards are killed in a day? The stat signs will tell you exactly how many...

There will be a few smaller updates to round the month off. The first - Grind-X - will allow you to conveniently grind items with your pestle and mortar. We will also be introducing signposts to areas of RuneScape, making the world easier to navigate. Finally, in the land of website updates, you can expect to help yourself to a Perils of Ice Mountain wallpaper, Players' Gallery and a Postbag from the Hedge.