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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Penguin Locations: week 30 September 2009

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Distractions and Diversions: Penguin Hide and Seek

The penguin locations below are where I last found them. Please go to a penguin cc, namely: w60_penguins, world60pengs, w60_PengieS or w60pengS and ask for an update on locations.

  1. Elf Land - south of Elf Camp - Toadstool – 2 points
  2. Elf Land - before limestone mine - just across the bridge where you take the agility shortcut to get to the other penguin - Rock – 2 points
  3. Burthorpe - outside the castle wall near the soldiers - Rock -1 point
  4. Rellekka - in cow pen - Rock – 1 point
  5. Castle Wars - yanille north wall - Rock – 2 points
  6. Feldip Hills - yanille south wall - Rock – 1 point
  7. Piscatoris - apple orchid outside gnome stronghold - Crate – 2 points
  8. Draynor - in jail east of Draynor bank - Bush – 1 point
  9. Southern Desert - runs between Uzer and Nardah - Cactus – 1 point
  10. Southern Desert - at shanty pass - Cactus – 2 points
  11. Polar bear -Rellekka - 1 point


Have fun hunting the penguins this week.



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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

RS Updates: Woodcutting Rebalance

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Willows, maples and magic trees all have their uses, but what of the lesser known vegetation such as the hollow trees of Mort Myre or the arctic pines of the Fremennik isles? With this week’s update, we’ve taken a closer look at the Woodcutting skill, rebalancing experience for the less popular trees and cultivating some new forms of training, but it’s not just XP rates that we’ve been analysing...

Teak and mahogany trees now also have a special log or two up their sleeves, which are worth much more than their weight in gold to the right buyer! Choking ivy creepers have been seen clambering up the stone walls of RuneScape’s major cities and is much tougher to deal with than it looks. We’ve also tweaked arctic pine-splitting and put up some Prayer-refreshing hollow bark torches in the Haunted Woods, so get your hatchets out and your arms chopping!

Finally, the workers at the Lumber Yard are inviting high-level woodcutters to participate in 'Sawmill Training', where you can grab, slice and saw your way to greater experience. For more information on all of these changes, head over to the Woodcutting section of the Game Guide.

Mod Trick
RuneScape Content Developer



In other news...

Hobgoblins were starting to feel a bit left behind in the looks stakes compared to their Bandosian brothers, so we've given them a graphical rework.

We've removed the doors to Edgeville's furnace to make it easier to use, but moved the furnace two squares further from the bank to maintain the balance. You will still need to have completed the necessary Varrock Achievement Diary tasks in order to use the furnace.

You might notice a small new feature has been added to the Friends List (the ability to move the line separating players’ names and online status). This feature is associated with the Display Names update, which we’re hoping to release later this year.


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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Penguin Locations: week 23 September 2009

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Distractions and Diversions: Penguin Hide and Seek

The penguin locations below are where I last found them. Please go to a penguin cc, namely: w60_penguins, world60pengs, w60_PengieS or w60pengS and ask for an update on locations.

  1. McGrubor's Woods - Bush - 1 pt
  2. Miscellania/Eceteria – at the king's castle - Bush – 2 pts
  3. Lighthouse – Rock - 1 pt
  4. Wilderness - at Stealing Creation - Rock – 2 pts
  5. Wilderness - near clan wars - lvl 33 wildy - Rock – 2 pts
  6. Mudskipper Point – at Fally farmhouse pig pen - Bush - 1 pt
  7. Jatizso - in anvil house - Bush – 2 pts
  8. Mos Le Harmless - on the dock as you get off the ship -Barrel – 2 pts
  9. Al-Kharid – running around outside Duel Arena teleport - Cactus- 1 pt
  10. Karamja - near nature alter - Bush - 1 pt
  11. Polar bear – At the Banana Plantation bar - Musa Point - 1 point

Have fun hunting the penguins this week.


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Thursday, September 17, 2009

RS Updates: Living Rock Caverns

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Flowing meltwater from Ice Mountain, coupled with some rather over-enthusiastic dwarven mining, has opened up an entrance to what the dwarves have named the Living Rock Caverns. This previously sealed-off area offers a rich source of ore for the dedicated miner, plus two new species of fish for the keen angler.

The caverns are home to more than fish, however! The living rock guardians of the caverns take umbrage with adventurers plundering their home, so be on your guard, and beware of the rock of the caverns themselves! Particularly lucky (or should that be unlucky?) adventurers may even encounter a living rock patriarch, which are rumoured to wander the caverns in search of careless individuals to smite with its mighty fists.

Mod Rathe
RuneScape Content Developer


Summary:

Where to access the Living Rock Caverns:
Enter the caverns at the northern end of the Dwarven Mine.

Requirements:

  • 85 Fishing (to bait cavefish)
  • 90 Fishing (to bait rocktail)
  • 73 Mining (to mine living rock remains)
  • 77 Mining (to mine concentrated coal deposits)
  • 80 Mining (to mine concentrated gold deposits)
  • 88 Cooking (to cook cavefish)
  • 93 Cooking (to cook rocktail)
  • The ability to defeat level 120+ foes would be a distinct advantage

In other news...

We've added a caret (aka text cursor) to the chat box to allow you to move within any text you type to correct typos or insert extra words. To move the caret through your text either hold down 'Shift' and use the arrow keys, or simply click where you'd like the caret to be. This should save considerable time when correcting typos!

As promised in the RuneScape Content Live Q&A, we've increased the POH room limit from 30 up to 32. These two extra rooms become available at Construction levels 38 and 44 respectively.

The dragon pickaxe has been added to the list of items you can CoinShare via the LootShare system.

We've removed more delays (e.g. when drinking potions and running).

We've increased the shop stock of bone bolts.

Bounty Hunter worlds have been changed slightly to allow players to access the Grand Exchange area of the map for all your combat needs.


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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Penguin Locations: week 16 September 2009

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Distractions and Diversions: Penguin Hide and Seek

The penguin locations below are where I last found them. Please go to a penguin cc, namely: w60_penguins, world60pengs, w60_PengieS or w60pengS and ask for an update on locations.

  1. Varrock - Sawmill/Lumberyard – Crate – 1 pt
  2. Brimhaven - near south pub - Bush - 1 pt
  3. Digsite – near rag and bones guy - Rock- 1 pt
  4. Castle Wars – running about outside- Bush - 1 pt
  5. Mort Myre – swamp - near bridge - Bush – 2 pts
  6. Ice Mountain - at Varrock east wall – Rock- 1 pt
  7. Port Phasmatys – Ghost Town - Barrel – 2 pts
  8. Sophanem - by the alter - Cactus – 2 pts
  9. Lunar Isle – near oobelisk and running near the boat as you come off it from Fremmy - Rock – 2 pts
  10. Wilderness - lvl 14 Black Knights Fortress Rock – 2 pts
  11. Polar bear - North Ardougne well - 1 point. At the farm north of Ardougne. Near the potato field and the flour mill.

Circus - It can be found in Al Kharid this week.

Have fun hunting the penguins this week.



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Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Quest Guide: Forgiveness of a Chaos Dwarf

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This is a members quest.

Start point: Keldagrim
To Start: Talk to Veldaban
Quest Length: Medium

Minimum Requirements:
  • Level 61 Hunter
  • Level 61 Firemaking
  • Level 69 Strength
  • Forgettable Tale of a Drunken Dwarf
  • Between a Rock...
  • Must be able to defeat a level 100 combatant
Introduction:
Missing person reports have been flooding in from Keldagrim East, but the Black Guard seem reluctant to do anything about it. Resources are stretched thin, but Keldagrim West is undoubtedly a greater priority for the Black Guard Supreme Commander. Veldaban refuses to subscribe to this opinion, but his hands are tied; can you help him to reveal the abductors' identities?

  1. Talk to Commander Veldaban in west Keldagrim
  2. You will be shown a cut-scene.
  3. He will tell you to go on top of the tower to kill a dwarf.
  4. The dwarf drops a note one you kill him. Go and show the note to Veldaban.
  5. He will tell you to take the to the GE clerk.
  6. The GE clerk will hand you a package (you can open the package now or later).
  7. Go back to Commander Veldaban - you can use the mine cart system at the GE trapdoor to access Keldagrim more quickly.
  8. Velaban can be found in the pub in east Keldagrim.
  9. After talking to Velaban for a bit... he tells you to get him a drink from the barmaid.
  10. After doing that, talk to him some more. After a while he will ask you to take him back to the HQ.
  11. You are then shown another cutscene - He argues with the supreme commander then leaves to go and sleep.
  12. Go back to the tower where you killed the level 100 dwarf.
  13. Open the package and use the boot on the footprints to reveal a longer foot print trail leading to the area behind the Dwarven multicannon used for Between a Rock and a Hard place.
  14. You will see a fire pit. Use the metal bowl on the fire (the fire on the west side of the bridge) to put it out, and remove the bowl. On closer examination it will be revealed that a socket is at the bottom of the pit.
  15. Take out the rod and use it on the pit, and turn it.
  16. The secret wall will open and you can pass through. Go through the wall and cross the cavern to the next doorway, and go through it.
  17. Place any colored stone (yellow or green) in the control panel next to the cart behind the cave.
  18. Jump in the cart and it will take you for a little ride. It will say something like: "I should get Veldaban to help." Try and leave the cave. There will be two options. Select "Return to Keldagrim" and you will appear right next to Veldaban in West Keldagrim at the HQ.
  19. Talk to Veldaban and he will ask you to take him with you back to the cart. He will follow you.
  20. When you get back to the mining cart, talk to him and give him the stones. He will use the control and you will ride in the cart.
  21. Get in the cart, and when the options come up pick the follwing:
    1. Yellow
    2. Green
    3. Yellow
    4. Green
    5. Green
    6. Yellow
    7. Yellow
    8. Yellow
    9. Yellow
  22. You will end up on the other side of the platform (behind the bridge), operate the control box to lower the bridge.
  23. Go to the cage and free the captives.
  24. Go further south and turn the switch to open the doorway, and go through.
  25. Watch the cutscene of them transforming the dwarf into a Chaos dwarf, and in the middle of it Veldaban will cry out, attracting grimmson's attention.
  26. Run into the room behind you and watch out for the dwarf, who will attack you (with a hand cannon) and can hit very high (you can use prayer for protection), open your package and take out the metal plate.
  27. Use the metal plate on the sorting machine to stop it, and then use the screw driver on it.
  28. Squeeze through the hole and ride the mine cart. A cut-scene will follow.
  29. Congratulations! Quest complete!

Quest Rewards
  • 2 Quest Points
  • 30,000 Hunter xp
  • 30,000 Firemaking xp
  • 30,000 Strength xp
  • Access to the Chaos Dwarf Battlefield and the North Keldagrim mining area




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Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Penguin Locations: week 09 September 2009

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Distractions and Diversions: Penguin Hide and Seek

The penguin locations below are where I last found them. Please go to a penguin cc, namely: w60_penguins, world60pengs, w60_PengieS or w60pengS and ask for an update on locations.

  1. Eagle's Peak - running about near falconary, fairy ring (AKQ) and west by the water - Bush - 1 point
  2. Feldip Hills - in Yanille south wall - Bush - 2 points
  3. Dragontooth Island - on south island - Crate - 2 points
  4. Tyras Catapult - Toadstool - 2 points
  5. Lumbridge - on bridge to Wizard's Tower - Toadstool - 1 point
  6. Brimhaven- running around near the south pub - Crate - 1 point
  7. Goblin Village - in south part of maze - Bush - 1 point
  8. Mort Myre - at graveyard in the swamp - near broken bridge - Rock - 2 points
  9. Southern Desert - running around near the Ancient Pyramid (south area) - Cactus - 2 points
  10. Polar bear - Falador - West of the south entrance at the chain mail shop - 1 point

Have fun hunting the penguins this week.
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Wednesday, September 09, 2009

RS Updates: Forgiveness of a Chaos Dwarf

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Those of you who have completed Forgettable Tale of a Drunken Dwarf may remember discovering a dire threat to the Dwarven city of Keldagrim. Then again, given the nature of that quest, you may have discovered it and not remember.

In today's new quest the people of Keldagrim are under threat once again. Dwarves have been going missing, and Commander Veldaban does not have the guards he needs to properly investigate. Volunteer to help him and you'll unravel a mystery with grave consequences for both the city and for Veldaban himself. This time, can you escape with your memory intact?

This quest unlocks access to a new mining area in Keldagrim and a combat area with unique drops.

We've also released a new story in the Lores and Histories section of the website. The Coat Thief deals with an incident in Commander Veldaban's life that begins the chain of events leading up to the start of the new quest.

Mod John A
RuneScape Content Developer



In other news...

The delays/click lag and other slightly slower actions caused by last week’s engine upgrade should now have disappeared and all behaviour should be back to normal.

We've created a new item - the spirit shard pack - that contains 5,000 spirit shards for your purchasing pleasure. Also, pet shop owners now accept large quantities of spirit shards via a right-click sell option.

The following items have increased in stock in their respective shops: harpoons, jugs of water, death runes, empty buckets, cooking apples and butterfly jars.

The Keldagrim Consortium has decided to make Keldagrim easier for humans to reach. Mine cart travel to and from Keldagrim is now free of charge, and there is an additional mine cart route between Keldagrim and the Grand Exchange in Varrock.

The dwarf traders in the Keldagrim trade floor can now be pick-pocketed with level 90 Thieving.



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Wednesday, September 02, 2009

RS Updates: Various updates for 02 September 2009

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Personalised Shops
As of today, shops in RuneScape are now personalised for every player. The amount of stock you see in each shop is now unique to your account and, therefore, no longer affected by the actions of other players.

This has a number of advantages:
  1. Most importantly, it allows us to relax the price limits on the Grand Exchange. For somewhat complicated reasons, it means it is safe for us to drop the minimum price for many items, and raise the maximum price for some items. This means many items will no longer have their price set against an artificial limit, allowing prices to move more freely and better match player supply and demand. Similarly, many items that are popular for high-alching have had their lower limits relaxed to make the Grand Exchange work more smoothly.
  2. It means shops no longer have to offer unlimited stock to meet everyone's needs. Because each player sees their own stock, we can put in more realistic stock behaviour, where the stock (and price) goes up and down as you buy and sell, without worrying about one player buying out all the stock and depriving everyone else. Unlimited stock has weird effects on the economy of the game, and getting rid of it is vital for being able to relax the Grand Exchange price limits. Don’t worry, the stock is still very generous and should be plenty to supply ordinary play – particularly for items that you might need in greater numbers (e.g. arrows, runes and other consumables will be available in higher quantities than items like armour, tools and weapons).
  3. Shops may now be more worth selling your items to. A general store will never be full of other players’ unwanted items and specialist stores may offer better prices when they are low on stock. This means they are more useful for converting ‘junk’ items into cash, because each player has their own separate allowance for how much they can sell into the shop before the price drops.
With this personalising of shop stocks, we realised that it would negate some of the rewards earned from the Varrock and Karamja Achievement Diaries, so we’ve substituted them for other rewards.

The majority of Karamja diary’s easy reward is that you get better prices from Karamja’s shops. We couldn’t take this reward away without replacing it, so we have added Dell Monti, a pirate with a passion for pineapples, who will freely share his fruity bounty with you on a daily basis (if you are wearing your Karamja gloves).

Varrock diary’s smaller reward regarding shop prices is replaced with a greater possibility of obtaining skull sceptre parts from creatures in the Stronghold of Security, as well as doubling the charges it has if you make it while wearing your Varrock armour. Please note that the reward for buying battlestaves from Zaff while wearing Varrock armour has not been affected by this update in any way.

Mod Fetzki
Head of RuneScape




Changes to Autocasting Spells
We have redesigned the way autocasting combat spells works so that it no longer requires a magic staff. Now, you can set a spell to autocast via the redesigned Magic Spellbook interface. This change is designed to make autocasting spells easier and more intuitive.

A summary of the changes is as follows:
  1. Autocasting no longer requires a magic staff.
  2. Autocasting is now controlled via your spellbook. To set a spell to autocast, simply select the “Autocast” option from the spell icon in your spellbook.
  3. You can still single-cast spells by selecting the “Cast” option from the spell icon in the spellbook.
  4. In the standard spellbook, “Autocast” is now the default option (left-click) for combat spells, with “Cast” as the alternate option (right-click).
  5. In the Ancient Magicks spellbook, “Cast” remains the default option (left-click), with “Autocast” as the alternate option (right-click).
  6. As with before, there are no spells in the Lunar spellbook that can be set to autocast.
  7. You can still choose whether to receive Defence XP or not when autocasting spells via the new toggle button in the bottom-left corner of your spellbook.
  8. You can now also receive Defence XP for single-casting spells that deal damage, if you have this option toggled on.
  9. Four buttons have been added to the bottom of the Magic Spellbook interface that allow you to filter what spell icons are visible. Click on these buttons to toggle the visibility of combat, teleport, skill-based and miscellaneous spells.
  10. As staves are no longer required for autocasting, we have granted some of the more special ones the ability to cause 10% more magic damage. The following staves receive this bonus:
    • Ahrim’s staff
    • Master wand
    • Void Knight mace
    • Zuriel’s staff
    • Corrupt Zuriel’s staff
    • Ancient staff
  11. Finally, it is also now possible to autocast these spells:
    • Saradomin Strike
    • Flames of Zamorak
    • Iban Blast

Mod Rathe
RuneScape Content Developer




RuneTek 5 Game Engine
This week sees the release of a massive upgrade to several elements of the RuneScape game engine. These include the RuneTek 5 graphics upgrade described in last week’s developer blog as well as key parts of the game server and RuneScript systems.

The graphics engine update brings with it a complete revamp of the Standard Detail option, bringing resizable window (for everyone) and fullscreen (members only) modes, as well as optional new features that include:
  • Distance fogging and sky colour.
  • Ground blending and path smoothing.
  • Underwater visibility.
We've also improved High Detail mode with shadowing across all world levels (if your computer can support it) and an improved minimap in both versions. You'll also be pleased to know this upgrade has allowed us to fix several long-standing bugs, including:
  • Mis-clicking in heavy load areas (such as the Grand Exchange) causing unwanted actions.
  • Progress bars on Grand Exchange interfaces not working on several graphics cards.
Less visibly, we've also taken the time to heavily update parts of the server action and scripting systems. This follows on from work we did earlier in the year which Andrew described in this blog. The aim behind this batch of changes was to try to make the timing of actions more consistent across the game, which will help to make future content bugs less likely. We have done weeks of additional testing on these server updates, however, they are quite extensive and incredibly wide-ranging, so if any bugs have managed to slip through the net, we encourage you to submit a bug report.

All told, we have written or re-written around 50,000 lines of the game engine over the last few months to really improve these key areas and allow us to create a whole new set of exciting upgrades over the coming months and years.

This update to the game engine has allowed us to pull both the SD and HD versions of the game into the same applet. As such, we have updated the home page of the website so there is now only one ‘Click here to play’ button. If you wish to switch between using free or member worlds, this can be done using the ‘World Select’ feature, which can be found on the game applet's main menu.

Whether you see an advert above the login screen or not is dependent on whether the last world that you logged in was a free or a members’ world.

Mod Chris E
Game Engine




In other news...

One thing the new engine has allowed us to do is create context-sensitive cursors. If you choose to turn this option on in the Game Options menu, your mouse cursor will display a small icon of the default interaction with any object, location or NPC – e.g. “Open Door” will change your mouse cursor to an icon of a door opening. These cursors have not been added for every default interaction just yet, but we will be looking to expand upon them in future.

The Special Attack bar in the combat interface now also displays the amount of special attack energy you have remaining as a percentage.

We’ve made some changes to the World Select page. Firstly, you’ll notice we’ve removed some of the information to clean it up a bit. The Quick Chat and PvP columns have moved into the more general ‘Activity/Location’ column. This column will now only specify a flag and country if the world doesn’t have a theme, and we’ve created a RuneScape flag to go with the latter. On the right-hand side you’ll notice a ‘Ping’ column. This displays the response time between you and the servers – lower is better, so this should help you find a lag-free word near you. Note that some of your preferences may have changed if you were previously sorting by some of the removed columns. Simply select your new preferred choice(s) and it will store those for next time.

Mobilising Armies themed worlds now come in two varieties: worlds where games require four players for a game to start, and worlds where games require 20 players to start. Visit the Themed Worlds page to see how many players are required to start a game on each world.



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Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Penguin Locations: week 02 September 2009

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Distractions and Diversions: Penguin Hide and Seek

The penguin locations below are where I last found them. Please go to a penguin cc, namely: w60_penguins or penguins_w60 and ask for updated locations.

  1. Polar bear - Rellekka - 1 point
  2. Jatizso - in house NW of bank - Rock - 2 points
  3. Neitiznot - across first bridge - Bush - 2 points
  4. Gnome Stronghold - just north of grand tree - runs about a lot - Bush - 1 point
  5. Draynor - inside Wizard Tower - Bush - 1 point
  6. White Wolf Mountain - on top of the mountain - Rock - 1 point
  7. Ape Atoll - near dungeon outside the city - Barrel - 2 points
  8. Desert - near pub and southern carpet ride in Pollinvich - Cactus - 1 point
  9. Desert - At ancient pyramid (south part) - Cactus - 2 points
  10. Port Khazard - at general store - Barrel - 1 point
  11. Wilderness - north of Clan Wars - Rock - 2 points

Have fun hunting the penguins this week.
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