RuneScape
RuneScape is an MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role-playing game) implemented in
Java, with over two million active players[1]. RuneScape was launched by Jagex Ltd. on January 4, 2001 and offers both pay to play ("P2P") and free to play ("F2P") membership options to players.
Being implemented in Java, RuneScape requires no installation and can easily be accessed from the official site.
| RuneScape | |
|---|---|
| File:Rslogo.gif | |
| Developer(s) | Jagex |
| Publisher(s) | Jagex |
| Designer(s) | Jagex |
| Engine | Java |
| Platform(s) | OS Independent (Web Based Java Applet) |
| Release | RuneScape 1 (Classic) - January 4th, 2001 RuneScape 2 (Modern) - March 29, 2004 |
| Genre(s) | MMORPG |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Overview
RuneScape is set in a medieval fantasy world, similar to "Guild Wars" or "EverQuest", where players control character representations of themselves. As with most MMORPGs, there is no overall objective or end to the game. Players can explore, form alliances, earn gold coins, perform optional tasks, and complete quests for rewards and to build their character's skills.
During peak hours, it is common to see around 180,000 players online across the 115 international servers located in five different countries, with a peak in excess of 185,000 simultaneous logged-in players reached in early February 2006[2]. Up to 2,000 players may be on one server at once, allowing a maximum of 230,000 online players at any one time. These servers are called "worlds" in RuneScape. Servers are located in the United States (79), the United Kingdom (18), Canada (6), the Netherlands (6) and Australia (6)[3], making it the most popular online Java based game in the world. RuneScape is usually updated once a week, with the addition of new skills, quests, or items, as well as many other types of updates.
History and development
Version 1: The first version started out as a one man project. The developer (Andrew Gower), started working on the original game in 1998. This version was very different to the RuneScape of today. It had isometric graphics, and was originally titled 'DeviousMUD'. This version was never released to the public, and only a few people ever saw it.
Version 2: The developer scrapped version 1, and started work on a complete rewrite in 1999. Despite being a complete rewrite, this version was very similar to version 1, with the same graphics and name. This version was released as a public beta for about 1 week, and then withdrawn.
Version 3: The developer started yet again with a 3rd attempt in October 1999. This time, Andrew had some help from his brothers Paul and Ian. The isometric view was replaced in favor of 3D graphics and 2D sprites. The game was renamed RuneScape and released to the public on January 4, 2001. This version is still online today but only for limited RuneScape Members. It is currently called RuneScape Classic. On January 12, 2006, 5,000 RuneScape Classic accounts were banned. Additionally, play was restricted to members who had logged in at least once since August 5, 2005. No more accounts for this version can ever be created.[4]
Jagex Ltd formed: In December of 2001 Jagex Limited was founded as a commercial operation to take over the running of RuneScape. Jagex acquired RuneScape and all related technologies, and continued to develop the game further. Andrew Gower joined Jagex as its lead developer.
Members launch: On February 27, 2002, Jagex launched a new optional "members service", allowing players to pay $5 USD a month to obtain access to constant updates on a mostly weekly basis. Paying members had a far greater choice of things to do, but it was still possible to play the game for free, and the amount of free content was also increased. While not a new version as such (the game still ran on the same version 3D engine), this update did significantly change the focus of the game.
Version 4: Jagex went for yet another complete rewrite. Version 4 changed the graphics to full 3D and made many other significant improvements. While in development, this version was called RuneScape 2, but when launched was just called RuneScape (version 3 would later be renamed RuneScape Classic). An incomplete beta of this version was available to members on December 1, 2003. The finished version was launched on March 29, 2004. This is the current version of the game being promoted by Jagex, and is the version most people think of when one says RuneScape.
On January 19, 2006, 15,000 accounts in the 4th version were banned for macroing (using software to play the game automatically in order to gain an unfair advantage).[5]
Combat
Combat is an important aspect of the game, as killing monsters is one of most direct ways of gaining wealth in terms of both cash and items. Combat is also needed to complete many of the quests in RuneScape, and can be used to fight other players.
Combat levels are calculated using seven skills: attack, strength, defence, hitpoints, magic, prayer and ranged. The maximum combat level in RuneScape Classic is 123, and the maximum in RuneScape is 126. Other skills, while beneficial, will not increase one's combat level.
Combat is subdivided into three primary categories:
- Melee (fighting with swords, scimitars, maces, etc.)
- Magic (fighting with all kinds of spells)
- Ranged (fighting with bows, throwing knives, etc.)
Player vs player combat
Players cannot normally fight with each other in most areas of the map. There are, however, 4 different areas where player vs player combat is allowed in RuneScape - each with different rules and properties. Here, more than anywhere else, the RuneScape combat triangle becomes an important factor in determining who emerges the victor:
- Warriors are strong against Rangers, but weak against Mages
- Mages are strong against Warriors, but weak against Rangers
- Rangers are strong against Mages, but weak against Warriors
Although it is important to know that in f2p pking also known as "free to play" the combat triangle is not always accurate. Usually rangers against mages and warriors against rangers hold true to the combat triangle but mages against warriors usually ends in an even match due to the amount of damage the mage will receive unless he has a high defense level and the amount of damage the mage inflicts on the warrior. But a lot of the combat triangle has a lot to do with the level in that skill. For example a mage with 80 magic and a ranger with 40 range will most likely result in the mage winning.
History of PvP combat
Originally, after the release of Version 3, players could select whether or not to play as "player-killer" characters or not. The player could switch from player-killer mode to non-player-killer mode (in which the character could not attack or be attacked by other players) three times, after which they remained at their chosen setting forever. Player combat could take place at any point in the RuneScape world, with some exceptions noted below. The rules of combat were the same as in the modern Wilderness; however, the village of Lumbridge was designated as a neutral area in which players could not attack each other, to prevent "spawn camping" in which recently killed players were immediately killed after they respawned in Lumbridge. In addition to this restriction, NPC Guards and White Knights patrolled the cities of Varrock and Falador, and broke up player fights by attacking the aggressor. These guard units were limited in number, however, and if all the units in a city were already in combat, player combat could go on freely. This system was scrapped on August 13th, 2001 due to unpopularity among players who were unable to leave Lumbridge without being attacked by packs of hostile player-killers, and were unable to switch back to "non-player-killer" mode as they had already switched three times. It was replaced by the Wilderness.
The Wilderness
For a long time the only way to fight other players was to visit the Wilderness. The Wilderness, frequently referred to as "the wildy" or "the wild", is a large area of map located in northern RuneScape. Most commonly used areas and cities are located safely outside of it. Exceptions to this include the Mage Arena and the Abyss, which are both common spots for players to camp and attack. The Wilderness has great rewards, but also great risks. Players who attack first are punished with a skull fixed above their head. If a player is killed without a skull over their head, they will lose all but their 3 most valuable items unless the "Protect Item" prayer is used to save a 4th item. If the player dies with the skull above their head, they will lose all of their items, unless the "Protect Item" prayer is active, in which case they will keep their most valuable item. The skull goes away after 20 minutes of peace, or after the player dies. Killing another player in this area is referred to as "pking" (player killing). Some areas of the Wilderness only allow 1-on-1 battles, whilst other areas (known as multi-combat areas) allow combat between multiple players and potentially huge team wars. Multi-combat areas can be identified by two crossed swords in the bottom right area.
The level of the Wilderness tells players what level players they can engage in combat above and below their own combat level. For example, if a player is in a level 50 Wilderness, they can fight people 50 levels below or 50 levels above their current combat level.
There are also many attackable non-playable characters (NPCs) in the Wilderness. Unlike most aggressive NPCs, NPCs in the Wilderness (with the exception of Rogues) are all aggressive and ignore the player's combat level. Many of the most powerful creatures in RuneScape reside in the Wilderness, such as the King Black Dragon and the Chaos Elemental.
Duel Arena
The Duel Arena is only available to members. Located in the Al Kharid desert, it allows a more formal fight where players can agree the exact terms of their fight. Players can choose either to duel for fun (in which case no items change hands), or to wager items which the winner will receive. Players may choose from a list of options ranging from restricting the style of combat used (for example: no range, magic, melee or prayer), to which particular parts of the body cannot be used (for example: helmet, body, arms or quiver).
Traveling to the Duel Arena is made easier with the Rings of Dueling. When activated, this ring teleports the player to Duel Arena, as well as other places, and lasts for 8 uses before being destroyed.
Castle Wars
Castle Wars is a mini-game involving two teams (Zamorak vs. Saradomin) in a capture the flag type game. If players do not particularly favour a certain RuneScape god, they can enter the Guthix portal, which teleports them to the team with the least amount of players in it. The aim of the game for players is to get the enemy's standard (flag) from their castle and take it back to the standard in their own castle to gain points. Players must prevent the opposing team from taking their flag by blocking them from their castle, or by killing them. Slain players will respawn inside a protected room in their castle, so both sides are constantly fighting in most games. Each game lasts for 20 minutes, and the team with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.
Every player on the winning team of a match will receive two tickets at the end of the game, and in the event of a tie, each player will receive one ticket. In member worlds with fewer players logged in, high level players (usually 90+) usually dominate most matches, switching the team they fight for after every victory.
TzHaar Fight Pit
The TzHaar Fight Pit is a massive, free-for-all arena in which players can attack each other with no time limit. Some players use tactics in order to survive longer in the pits but, ultimately, only one player can survive. The game is based on "last man standing" rules, so there are no limitations regarding a player's attacks. If the fight continues for too long however, monsters from the "audience" may appear in the arena. These monsters start out at combat level 22, and appear in increasing waves, combat level rising from 22 to 45 to 90[6], after which the players start to receive constant damage due to extreme heat. As with the Castle Wars mini-game, dying in the Fight Pit allows a player to retain their items with no penalty. Instead, the player is sent to the waiting area, ready for the next battle. If a player manages to defeat all opponents in the Fight Pit, they receive a number of Tokkul, which can be used to purchase new items in the TzHaar City.
Pures
Players who train a select few, or even just one of the combat stats that affect their combat level are known as a "pure". Virtually the only reason for the existence of pures is killing other players in the Wilderness and that is what most of them spend their time doing. Often a player will have a strong "main" character that spreads out over all of the available skills and have a pure as a side character for specialized training.
Pures will set high goals in Attack and Strength but will maintain a comparatively low Defence. A pure has the illusion of having a low combat level and therefore is portrayed as being weak. Despite this smokescreen, pures will use their specialised skills to hit with comparatively high damage. This makes pures very efficient player killers, ending fights quickly to make up for their lack of defence. Pures come in many varieties and are often hybrid between the three combat styles.
A pure aiming to stay in non-member worlds will often keep their attack and defence at 40 thus just being able to wield a rune weapon and receiving the large strength bonus this gives without gaining extra combat levels. While aiming for high attack, would help with killing players with high defence and good armour, the general opinion is that getting higher strength is much more important in making a successful pure.
In the members world of RuneScape, the optimum attack level for a pure is 60, which just allows pures to wield dragon weapons. Due to the big attack bonuses dragon weapons give and the potions available in members, this does not need to be raised at all as high and consistent damage can be inflicted on Rune armour.
A common variety of pures seen on member servers are a combination of magic and melee. They often have some kind of binding spell (preferably ice barrage from the Ancient Magicks) to keep opponents from running and then finish them off with melee.
Another, less common variety is the skill pure. These players concentrate on non-combat skills, often in order to make money. Often hardworking players, they are frequently confused with autoers, who use programs (macros) to exploit the game and gain skills, and tend not to raise their combat.
Skills
Skills are abilities that enable players to perform activities in the game. Some skills are available only to members, such as fletching, and some can only be utilised by completing a specific quest. Many of the high-level abilities in most skills are reserved for members only. Players gain experience in a skill when they perform activities that utilise that skill, for instance mining a rock would raise the mining skill. New skills are added to the game by Jagex periodically, the most recent of which was farming.
As in a number of games, some players chose to focus on improving a small number of skills. These players are called "pures" (eg: a player specialised in mining is called a mining pure).
In RuneScape there is no general level for player as such. Player must train each skill individually. In RuneScape, there are 21 Skills including:
- Primary/extraction (such as mining and woodcutting)
- Secondary/processing skills (such as smithing and cooking)
- Combat skills (such as strength and range)
- Others (such as agility)
The total level of a player partly symbolises the player's status in the game, the maximum total level being 2079.
Quests
Quests in RuneScape are one-time adventures which serve a variety of purposes. The novice quests act as tutorials to acquaint new users with the various skills and abilities. All quests include some kind of reward such as money, rare/valuable items, or an increase in skill experience. Some quests are part of an overlapping storyline, the most famous of which is the Plague City story line, which has been in RuneScape for approximately 2 to 3 years. This story line investigates the misfortune of the citizens of West Ardougne, who live in less than favorable conditions. Presently, this storyline contains 7 quests.
Each quest also awards a certain number of "quest points". Thirty-two quest points will grant access to the Champions' Guild. The members-only Hero's (55 quest points required to start) and Legend's (107 quest points required) quests grant access to their respective guilds upon completion, although both the Hero's and Legend's guilds require the player to complete their own quests, appropriately called the Hero's Quest and Legend's Quest, before entrance is allowed.
Quests can be found all over the map, in the game's three kingdoms of Misthalin, Asgarnia and Kandarin, as well as some even more distant lands.
On March 15th, Jagex made their hundredth quest, a Recipe for Disaster. This quest requires many skills, but can be done in eight miniquests.
Mini-games
RuneScape has a number of mini-games. Mini-games are fun activities, within the game of RuneScape, that take place in a certain area, and normally revolve a certain skill, such as fishing, agility or combat.
Currently, the most popular mini-game is Castle Wars which is mentioned above. Another very popular minigame is the Barrows (which was added on May 9, 2005) where players must kill the ghosts of six legendary brothers in return for their extremely powerful armour.
The Mage Training Arena was released in January 2006. It challenges players to complete tasks such as turning bones into bananas, enchanting, alchemy and telekinetic grabbing to solve puzzles. The reward for these activities is Pizzaz points. Players must have a certain number of Pizzaz points to get the reward items.
Community
Players of RuneScape represent a wide range of nationalities, and ages. However, the user base is predominantly English speaking, because the game itself is currently only available in English. However, there are also many servers which are mainly Spanish speaking, so people who prefer to speak Spanish can interact with other Spanish speaking players on those servers. Recently there was an increase of Dutch speaking players which in some servers, seem to overwhelm the amount of English speaking players (this mostly happens on Dutch servers).
Language filter
A word filter is used both in the RuneScape game and in the RuneScape forums. The filter is used to block out words and phrases defined by Jagex as "offensive language". Over the history of this word filter, more and more combinations of letters are being censored ("starred out"). Players cannot say the internet slang word pwn, as the "pw" in the word is a common abbreviation for password. Since advertising websites is in violation of RuneScape rules, all URLs are automatically censored as well, with the exception of .it (i.e: Tip.It). Many words in Russian or German are also censored as the game does not allow most symbols or foreign characters, or the name of the infamous dictator Hitler. The filter instantly capitalises the first word of a sentence and nothing else. Players started resorting to a method of speech they refer to as leetspeak to bypass the filters, and purposeful misspellings. However, the filters are updated periodically to include player euphemisms, so this technique is constantly evolving. Also, in an attempt to stop selling accounts (which is illegal in Runescape) the language filter blocks the word Password, and its abbreviation, pw.
This constant evolving can cause many normal phrases to be censored. For example, If someone wants to say "Selling prayer potions 1k ea come buy now!" it could come out as "Selling prayer pot************ome buy now!" This is a constant annoyance in the game and hinders the use of the online forums also.
Permitted characters: Lower case alphabet, though players are able to take advantage of the sentence start rule by adding a full stop before the letter they want to be capitalised (though long chains of these are often filtered). Backslash, dash, exclamation mark, question mark, at sign, colon, semi colon, comma, apostrophe, quotation marks, addition sign, equals sign, percentage sign, dollar sign, parenthesis, numbers and the full stop.
Characters filtered: The pound sign, Caret, Underscore, { and }, w or v more then once (so players can not advertise websites), tilde, ¬, > and <.
Scams
Like most MMORPG's, Runescape suffers from scams. Scams in Runescape are used to steal a player's in-game items or their password. Both types of scams are against the games rules, and players that are reported for doing it can be banned. An example of a scam is when a player gives something to a scammer (using the in-game trade interaction) so the scammer can modify the item (such as "trimming" armour, which is not possible, not even for members). After the trade, the scammer actually steals the item and the player is scammed. Trimmed armour (black, addy, and rune) are all real types of armour in Runescape; it can only be obtained however, from members-only treasure trails.
In-game slang and terminology
RuneScape players have their own "language" which can be incomprehensible to outsiders and difficult for newcomers to learn. This consists mostly of the proliferation of in-game terminology and the abbreviation of commonly used words. Players will also frequently use common Internet slang when allowed by the language filter. The use of slang and abbreviations allows for easier communication between established players despite the small space available in the in-game messaging system.
Spam
As people advertise their products in RuneScape, they tend to use the same text repeatedly (for example, "300 Mackerals 10gp each! 555 to buy!!!"). To make it harder for people to repeat long phrases over and over again, Windows keyboard shortcuts for copying and pasting are disabled within RuneScape. However, some players bypass this by using third party "autotyping" programs which can automatically repeat or format messages, which is against RuneScape rules.
Lag
Many RuneScape players still have trouble with lag. Since RuneScape is such an easy game to download and play, with no 3D graphics cards required and no video enhancers needed, many people play it, though they have outdated computers with low connection and processor speeds. Lag still occurs in RuneScape for many of those people. However, Jagex is constantly updating to try and fix this problem. As a general rule the more people who are on a server or "world" the more lag it gets. Also the game tends to lag more if a player is on a server that is based on a country that they are not in. Jagex is addressing this problem by adding more worlds in more locations.
Fashion
A lot of emphasis goes on fashion in the world of RuneScape as members and non-members are willing to pay large sums of money for items such as trimmed or gold trimmed and the newest type, heraldic armour. These special armours are commonly indicated by a (t) for trimmed and a (g) for gold trimmed "gilded" and (h) for heraldic trimmed, especially in when players are trading in marketplaces. Trimmed and gold trimmed items can only be obtained by members but can be worn by non-members as well. The trimming of armour bears no combat effect on the armour, as only the appearance of the armour is modified. Trimmed armour is also worth the same as regular armour if alchemy is cast upon it. There are only 3 kinds of armour that can be obtained in trimmed variations: Black, Adamant and Rune. Rune armour also comes styled to the 3 Runescape gods, Zamorak, Guthix, and Saradomin. One can also obtain trimmed and gold trimmed ranging armour, as well as trimmed and gold trimmed mage armour. Along with these forms of fashion, other headgear, such as Boater Hats and Cavalier Hats are frequently worn.
Additionally, Santa hats, Halloween masks and various coloured party hats are among the most expensive items in the game. These items get more expensive as time passes because some of the items were past holiday drops and thus could only be obtained on that day. There has been a recent upsurge in general feeling against these items as many players feel that their prices have reached epic proportions, for example, many of the party hats recently reached a value of over 100 million gold pieces (Party Hats and Christmas Crackers), almost the same price as the 'legendary' dragon chainmail yet of relatively little use in comparison.
- See also RuneScape armour
Graphics
RuneScape currently has fully 3D graphics.
Character appearance
A lot of emphasis has been placed on allowing players to customise their character. Players are given a wide choice in creating character models, from hairstyle to facial features and gender. Appearance can be further optimised by wearing or wielding different items, with each different weapon having a unique image.
In addition to these small equipment changes, players may also change their appearance radically with special equipment, or during certain events. All morphs are temporary, and players may not attack while morphed. Some major morphs include:
- Free World morphs
- Mushroom - Malignius Mortifer may turn you into a mushroom if you follow a specific chat path.
- Frog - If you do not talk to the frog prince/princess, you will be teleported to the frog homeland, and turned into a frog.
- Members only morphs
- Stone - Wear a ring of stone.
- Imp, Sheep, or Rabbit - if you enter a castle wars portal wearing certain God items you may be morphed into one of these.
- Various - Players visiting Zanaris (Lost City) may be temporarily morphed into various creatures.
- Various Primates - During or following the Monkey Madness quest, players may morph into various primates by wielding special greegrees.
Character animations
There are also many different animations in the game for the variety of things players can do from combat, to the various quests. RuneScape can be run on high or low detail level. While high detail gives different things more texture or design (and has sound), low detail gives everything a cleaner cut look (without sound), and reduces in-game latency. Some monsters appear less detailed than others in the low detail version of the game.
Area appearance
Since February 2005, Jagex has put a massive effort forward to update the RuneScape free world cities, beginning with Lumbridge and Draynor Village. In September 2005 they announced that Thurgo's Peninsula (Port Sarim and Rimmington areas) had been graphically updated. On the 20th of February, 2006, Falador and the Barbarian Village were graphically updated. The Lost City of Zanaris was updated as well. Jagex plans to ultimately improve the graphics of the whole free world without causing more lag for people using dial-up internet connections. However, as RuneScape is Java-based, its graphics engine will always be limited in capability compared to a lot of modern games.
Random events
A variety of both positive and negative random events can take place in RuneScape. Random events are used to prevent the use of "macros" (automated scripts which play RuneScape with little or no human interaction). Random events can also add variety to some of the more repetitive activities in the game.
Players must respond to most of these in the correct manner or they will receive a negative effect such as being teleported across the map, having their inventory emptied onto the ground, or even death. For example, if a random event requires a player to talk to the Mysterious Old Man, that player should respond, or they may receive a negative effect. Another example of a random event is a mime, where a player is teleported to a stage and must mimic the actions of a non-playable character. After completing the challenge the player then receives a reward which can vary from clothing resembling that of a mime, to emotes that resemble mime movements.
Weapons
Weapon types
See also: Melee-related weaponry
The main weapons available in RuneScape are given below, listed in alphabetical order
- Axes (Hatchets, smithable)
- Battle Axes (smithable)
- Claws (two handed, members only, smithable)
- Daggers (can be poisoned using weapon poison, smithable)
- Halberds (two handed, members only)
- Long Swords (smithable)
- Maces (smithable)
- Pickaxes
- Scimitars (smithable)
- Short Swords (smithable)
- Spears (two handed, members only, can be poisoned using weapon poison)
- Two Handed Swords (two handed, smithable)
- Warhammers (smithable)
Ranged Weapons
See also: Ranger-related weaponry
- Bow (uses arrows, except for the crystal bow)
- Crossbow (one-handed and uses bolts)
- Throwing knife (one-handed)
- Dart (one-handed)
- Javelin (one-handed)
- Throwing Axe (one-handed)
Staffs and Wands
See also: Magic-Related Weapons
- Magic Staff
- Elemental Staffs
- Battle Staffs (lava, mud, elemental) (members only)
- Mystic staffs (lava, mud, elemental)(members only)
- God Staffs (Saradomin, Zamorak, and Guthix)(members only)
- Ancient Staff (members only)
- Wands (Beginner, Apprentice, Teacher, Master) (members only)
To change a battle staff to mystic (melee attack improved), the player must complete the scorpion catcher quest, and pay Thormac 40 000 gp. Lava and mud staffs offer no additional bonus than elemental, but are able to have two unlimited uses of runes at once.
God staffs can be obtained from the Mage Arena minigame at 60 magic.
The Ancient staff is a reward for the Desert Treasure quest. You may obtain the first one by purchasing it from an NPC involved in the quest for 80,000 coins. If lost, it can be obtained again by killing Mummies.
Wands can be obtained from the Mage Training Arena.
Materials
The following materials are commonly used to make weapons and armour, although some cannot be used by players to make weapons and armour. Listed from weakest to strongest:
- Bronze (Armour all new players start out with)
- Iron (Also wieldable by new players, but must be purchased from others)
- Steel (need Defence of 5 to use)
- Black (Unsmithable – must be bought, need Defence of 10 to use)
- Initiate (Members only, reward from recruitment drive quest)
- White (Members only, achieved by gaining ranks in the white knight ranks after doing "Wanted!")
- Mithril (need Defence of 20 to use)
- Adamantite (need Defence of 30 to use)
- Runite (Best free world armour, need Defence of 40 to use)
- Dragon (Members only – armour can only be obtained from drops, but most weapons can be purchased. Dragon is the best regular weapon type available, need Attack of 60 to use)
Special materials
Examples of unique or rarer materials include:
- Wood (Comes in a shield for new players in Tutorial Island or can be bought in the shield shop in Falador)
- Anti-Dragon (Only available in form of a shield; obtainable after starting the "Dragon Slayer" quest or from a player who is willing to sell one)
- Barrows (Members only, decays after 15 hours of solid combat, is repairable)
- Crystal (Members only, decays after 2500 shots/hits, is repairable)
- Elemental (Members only, only available in form of a Shield; obtainable after completing the "Elemental workshop quest")
- Granite (Members only, available as a shield, legs, and maul)
- Obsidian (Members only, only obtainable in Tzhaar, available as multiple weapons, a shield and a cape)
Weapon specials
Many weapons in RuneScape have bonus special attacks which are known as "specials". Originally only Dragon weapons, Magic bows, and Rune throwing axes offered a special attack. But more and more weapons gained special attacks as time went on. An example of this is Rune Claws. Weapons that have special attacks are:
- Dragon weapons
- Battle Axes (20% more Strength to wielder, but Attack, Defence, Magic, and Range are all lowered by around 10-12%)
- Daggers (poisoned, extra-strongly poisoned and super poisoned, 2 attacks per special)
- Halberds (2 attacks on monsters larger than a single square, strengthened attack on single square monsters and other players)
- Hatchets (lowers enemy's Defence and Magic by 5%)
- LongSwords (55% more damage to enemy)
- Maces (100% more damage to enemy, but lower accuracy)
- Scimitars (blocks enemy's Protection Prayer for 5 seconds)
- Spears (poisoned, extra-strongly poisoned, super poisoned and Karambwan poisoned, stuns enemy while knocking them back one square)
- Two handed Swords (produces an area attack, dealing damage to nearby enemies)
- Barrow Set Effects
- Dharok: Wretched Strength (As your hitpoints decrease, your strength greatly increases.)
- Verac: Defiler (Attacks may hit through armour; greatly increased accuracy)
- Guthan: Infestation (Attacks may restore health equal to the damage dealt)
- Torag: Corruption (Attacks may drain the enemy's energy)
- Ahrim: Blighted Aura (Damaging spells may reduce the enemy's strength)
- Karil: Tainted Shot (Attacks may reduce agility)
- Abyssal Whip (Transfer 10% of opponent's energy to wielder)
- Darklight (reduces opponents Attack, Strength and Defence by 5-10% and increases damage to Demons)
- Excalibur (adds 11.8% to Defense)
- Granite Maul (instant attack in a form of a triple hit)
- Magic Shortbow (two powerful shots that are less accurate)
- Magic Longbow – (highly accurate shot)
- Rune Throwing Axes (in a multiway combat area this attack bounces the projectile between several targets, dealing damage to each of them)
- Seercull (reduces opponent's Magic level by the amount of damage inflicted)
Poison
Weapon poison can also be applied to certain weapons, like daggers, spears and arrows. Weapon poison is only available to paying members. There is a normal poison (p), extra strong poison (+), a super strong poison (s) and karambwan paste (kp). These different types are suffixed onto the weapon name as single letters, for example: Dragon spear (p), Dragon spear (+), Dragon spear (s) and dragon spear (kp).
When a player or monster is hit with a poisoned weapon, there is a chance they will become poisoned, meaning they will lose additional health to the basic hits (indicated by a green splash number on the character). The poison effect can be cured with antipoison or super-antipoison. Regular poison does 4 damage every few seconds, extra strong poison and karambwan poison do 6 damage, super strong poison does 6 damage at a faster rate.
Monsters
Monsters in RuneScape are Non-playable characters (NPCs) that can be attacked. Typically, they can be attacked and will attack players less than twice their level. The few exceptions to this rule are random event monsters (which will attack the player that triggered them and cannot be attacked by anyone else), civil monsters (like town guards, who will not attack unless provoked), and the wilderness (where all monsters will attack, regardless of the player's level).
Most monsters have a set area in which they roam around, and in which they will re-spawn shortly after being killed. Sometimes, their territory is strategic, encouraging players to work on their combat levels, such as the giant scorpions that roam some mining areas. More commonly, however, the monsters merely add character to the region.
There are many monsters throughout RuneScape, with major groups including human, goblin, gnome, elf, dwarf, giant, troll, ogre, undead, dragon, mammal, arachnid, beetle, and demon. Not all NPCs are monsters, though, as many are special characters that cannot be attacked, especially among the humanoid NPCs.
As Non-playable characters, monsters have a set of items that might appear when they are killed. These items vary by type and level, more valuable items tending to be obtained from higher level monsters. Most have certain items that will always appear, such as bones from vertebrates and ash from demons.
Moderators
There are three types of moderators in RuneScape, each given different abilities.
Jagex Moderator (J-Mod)
Jagex Moderators are employees of Jagex. There's one for every staff member, which consist of coders, script writers, graphic designers, and customer service members. In RuneScape, they are identified by a gold crown beside their name, visible during public chat (J-mods lack a friends list, and ultimately, a private chat). On RuneScape's official forums, their posts appear highlighted green (as with Forum Moderators) with the addition of the words "Jagex Mod" beneath their name. This applies to all staff members with the exceptions of the founders, Andrew, Paul, and Ian Gower. Jagex Moderators also have a number of additional abilities for playtesting purposes. It is confirmed that J-mods may change their stats as they like and generate items within their inventory. They are also known to possess a special "J-mod teleportation ability" which enables them to appear anywhere on RuneScape. They may not engage in combat nor trade, however, and their accounts do not appear in the high score tables.
Player Moderator (P-Mod)
Player Moderators are a team consisting of regular players who are handpicked by Jagex. They are run by a different department than the J-mods and serve to help maintain RuneScape, keeping it safe and free from rule-breaking. They are given the ability to mute players for a short amount of time, and to send priority abuse reports. P-Mods are not employees of Jagex and they receive no tangible benefits and are not expected to spend anymore time playing RuneScape than a normal player would nor even expected to make use of their special abilities. P-Mods are identified by a silver crown beside their name in both public and private in-game chat systems, but are not identified on RuneScape's official forums. The silver crown of a Player Moderator cannot be removed for as long as the player is still entitled to moderator abilities.
Forum Moderator (F-Mod)
Forum Moderators are also a volunteer team consisting of regular players that work to carry out the tasks of managing RuneScape's official forums. Like Player Moderators, Forum Moderators are handpicked by Jagex staff, and are not employees of Jagex, so they receive no tangible benefits. Forum moderators are given the ability to move and lock threads, hide posts or entire threads, edit titles, and temporarily ban players from posting for 24 hours. Their posts appear in green with the addition of the words "Forum Mod" beneath their name. Forum moderators are not identified by a crown beside their name in RuneScape.
Economy and money
The RuneScape economy is similar in many ways to real-world economies, as supply and demand play an important role in determining the price of items. The currency used in RuneScape is Gold Pieces, mostly referred to as "GP" or "Coins". Other in-game currencies include: Trading sticks, Tokkul, Pizazz points and various types of tickets, obtained through a number of mini-games and activities such as Castle Wars and the Agility Arena in Brimhaven.
The Smithing skill in RuneScape has played a pivotal role in RuneScape economic history. Within the first year of RuneScape's launch, players had not yet reached high levels in Smithing. Therefore, when players first reached high levels in Smithing, a cartel consisting of all players who had reached those levels set up a monopoly. They sustained high prices by keeping a large proportion of the total supply of weapons and armour in the game, allowing them to determine prices. The smithing monopoly was broken once more players began flooding the RuneScape market with armour and weapons only smithable by players with high Smithing. Cartels for other rare and expensive items often form, although they do not hold the same weight as original cartels did because of the increased number of active players.
Criticism
RuneScape is criticised for a number of reasons:
- The game's graphics are limited by the fact that RuneScape is designed to be downloaded quickly and run in a web browser.
- RuneScape has a mandatory chat filter, which often blocks things with no relevancy to swearing or bad language.
- Like many other MMORPGs, some players of RuneScape attempt to cheat using automated scripts or bots to perform actions such as mining, without human interaction. Despite Jagex banning 15,000 accounts, players still find ways to cheat.
- Some players are also dissatisfied with Jagex's Customer Support. Jagex claims to be making efforts to increase the size of their Customer Support team but the effect of these efforts is yet to be seen.
- Jagex is often criticised for their handle on RuneScape's official forums. Some players argue that changes to improve the forums are often said to be planned, but such plans are ignored completely or take enormous amounts of time to be acknowledged. Many also believe that Jagex lacks the ability to select their forum moderators appropriately.
- Some tasks in RuneScape are very repetitive. Certain skills can be leveled by repeatedly clicking in the same pattern. Jagex has responded by designing recent skills such as farming with this criticism in mind.
- Efforts to make skills less repetitive have been criticised for making the process of leveling, especially in the farming skill, too complicated.
- Announcing trade in-game between players is usually done by going to a major city in the game and repeating offers to buy or sell in the chat window. The number of people choosing this method of trade leads to highly congested chat channels and difficulty selecting trade offers.
- Some players criticise the game for not having enough free content. However, this can be understood as Jagex's ultimate goal is to make a profit - this is harder to achieve in the free game due to the relatively small revenue brought in by the advertisements.
- Many players criticise RuneScape for stopping the rare item holiday drops from being tradeable.
- RuneScape can get too slow and freezes from time to time.
Pricing information
RuneScape is a Java browser-based game, so no software purchase is required and gameplay is free (excluding any fees incurred by an Internet Service Provider to access the internet).
Additional game content can be unlocked by upgrading to a members account. The subscription base price is currently:
- GBP£3.20 a month in the UK
- US$5 a month in the US
- CAD$7.30 a month in Canada ($10.99 to pay by phone)
- AU$8.20 in Australia[7]
If not paying by credit/debit card an additional 'convenience fee' is also charged to cover the extra cost of processing the payment. Paying by credit card works out as the cheapest method, whereas paying by phone/sms works out the most expensive.
Members benefits
Players who pay to play RuneScape are given special status on their account. This "member's status" gains them many advantages both in and out of the game, such as:
- Less populated servers exclusively for members
- Over three times as much of the map to explore
- Over 4 times as many quests
- Hundreds of new items, such as the Dragon and Barrows weapons and armour
- 200 bankspaces (More then double the bankspace allowed to free players)
- Six new skills (herblore, fletching, thieving, agility, slayer, farming)
- Huge amounts of additions to the original skills (e.g.: Dragonhide in crafting, Baked Potatoes in cooking, Sharks in fishing)
- Mostly weekly updates
- Access to posting on the official forums
- Better customer support
- Access to voting in polls
- More in-game music (high-detail only)
- Several mini-games
- More Random Events
- More player vs. player features (e.g. Duel Arena, Games Room, Castle Wars)
- More team-based interactions (e.g. Dagannoth Kings, Kalphite Queen, Blast Furnace)
References
- ^ RuneScape new concurrent and active player records - (article is dated 22 December, 2004) accessed March 5, 2006.
- ^ "4 new worlds now online" - RuneScape Technical News, access March 4, 2006.
- ^ "6 new Australian servers online!" - RuneScape Technical News, accessed March 4, 2006.
- ^ "Nearly 5000 RS-classic accounts banned" - RuneScape Customer Support News, accessed March 4, 2006.
- ^ "Over 15000 RuneScape accounts banned for cheating" - RuneScape Customer Support News, accessed March 4, 2006
- ^ Rune Tips Bestiary - search for "TzHaar Fight Pit", accessed March 5, 2006.
- ^ [1] - Official pricing information page, accessed March 5, 2006.
External links
- Jagex site – The official Jagex site.
- RuneScape – The official RuneScape website.
Official affiliates
Fansites
Warning! Fansite users have been cracked before. All fansites should be regarded as dangerous. Make sure you have anti-virus and firewall software installed before accessing any RuneScape fansites, as not all are trustworthy.