RuneScape
RuneScape is an MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role-playing game) implemented in Java, with over 4 million active players. 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.
RuneScape allows players to develop many different non-combat skills ranging from runecrafting and mining to cooking and crafting. The large range of non-combat skills means that RuneScape has an expansive, dynamic player economy.
Being implemented in Java, RuneScape requires no installation and can 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 massive multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPG), there is no overall objective or end to the game. Players explore, form alliances, earn gold coins, perform optional tasks, and complete quests for rewards and to build character's skills.
During peak hours, it is common to see around 170,000 players online across the 115 international servers in 5 countries, with a peak in excess of 185,000 simultaneous logged-in players reached in early February 2006. 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. These servers are located in the United States (79), the United Kingdom (18), Canada (6), the Netherlands (6) and Australia (6), making it the most popular online Java based game in the world. RuneScape is updated with roughly 4 main updates a month - creating updates on a weekly basis, with the addition of new skills, quests, areas of the map, items, or other details added to the imaginary world.
History and development
Version 1: The first version started out as a one man project. The developer (Andrew Gower), and his brother (Paul 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 developers 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 only about 1 week, and then withdrawn again.
Version 3: The developers started yet again with a 3rd attempt on October, 1999. This time the isometric view was replaced, in favor of 3D graphics and 2D sprites. The game was renamed to RuneScape and released to the public on January 4, 2001. This version is still online today but only for limited RuneScape Members. It's currently called RuneScape Classic. On January 12, 2006, 5,000 RuneScape Classic accounts were banned. Additionally, play on RuneScape classic 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.
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'. This allows players to pay $5 USD a month to obtain access to new quests, an expanded world map, mini-games, skills, and more. 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. This is the version most people think of when one says RuneScape.
The free version of RuneScape Classic was removed on August 3, 2005, due to the massive amount of rule breakers and an inability to punish them. Since then, only a subset of subscribers that pay on a monthly basis can play RuneScape Classic. On January 12 2006, only member players who had logged in to RuneScape Classic at least once in the period between August 3, 2005 and January 12, 2006 have permission to login to the RuneScape Classic game. Additionally, at least 5,000 rule breaking players were banned on this date and Mod Mark organized moderation protection for the game.
On September 26, 2005, the RuneScape website was redeveloped and now uses a more logical format. The new format was mainly designed to improve navigation and to help make particular sections of the website more secure. However, the new "world select" pages were unpopular and were soon replaced with a real-time world capacity page.
On January 19, 2006, 15,000 accounts were banned for macroing (using software to play the game automatically in order to gain an unfair advantage).
Combat
Combat is an important aspect of the game, as killing monsters is one of most direct ways of gaining wealth. Almost every skill affects combat in one way or another. Combat is also needed to complete many of the quests, and can be used to fight other players.
Players are ranked in strength based upon their combat level. Combat levels are based upon a math formula which considers 7 skill areas: a player's attack, defence, strength, hit points, prayer, magic and ranged skill. Other skills, while beneficial will not increase one's combat level.
Combat is subdivided into three primary categories:
- Melee (swords, axes, and scimitars)
- Magic (all kinds of spells)
- Ranged (archery, 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. Rangers will have an advantage against mages, mages will have an advantage against warriors, and warriors have an advantage against rangers.
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, but 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. The Wilderness is one of the most hostile of the player vs. player types available. The player who attacks first is 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 character dies. Killing another player in this area is referred to as "pking" (player killing). As players venture deeper into the Wilderness, they can fight with other players further and further away from their combat level, which makes it more dangerous (or easier if they are attacking a weaker player). 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.
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 different forms of pking in the Wilderness. RPKing (random player killing) is a term used to describe someone who kills any person they see in the Wilderness, whether that person is hostile or not. Some people follow AntiRPKing, meaning that the only people they strike are other PKers, not players that are non-hostile.
There are also many attackable non-playable characters (NPCs) in the Wilderness. Unlike most aggressive NPCs, NPCs in the Wilderness are all aggressive and ignore the player's combat level. Many of the most powerful creatures in RuneScape reside in the Wilderness.
Pures
Some players who train a select few, or even just one of the combat stats that affect their combat level are known as "pure". By specializing, "pure" players are able to defeat non-pure players who are at combat levels comparable to their own.
Pures will generally try to minimize their combat level and defence while maximizing hitpoints and stats. Pures will set high goals in attack, strength, magic, and range. 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 specialized 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. Many pures known as "hybrids" combine 2 specializations, or in some cases all three. Lower level pures focus on Range and Magic, while higher level pures will go for Strength and Magic. Eventually, they are very strong proportional to their actual combat level.
The original point of the combat level was to demonstrate a character's overall aptitude in combat. Pure characters represent a flaw in this system. Because of this, Jagex has made changes to the game to reduce the effectiveness of pures. For this and other reasons, many pures end up training defence and becoming "broken pures".
Duel Arena
The Duel Arena is only available to members. Located in the Al-Kharid desert it allows a more formal fight where the players can pre-agree the exact terms of combat, and what items will be gambled. It is possible to change a large number of settings to restrict exactly which items and combat styles are required, and players can choose either to duel for fun (in which case no items change hands), or to wager items which the winner will receive. Because of the option to limit the risk to a level of a player's choosing, this way of testing a player's combat prowess against another's is popular with many players. Players may choose from a list of options ranging from restricting the style of combat used (eg. no range, no magic, or no melee), to which particular parts of the body can't be used (eg. helmet, body, arms or quiver), to whether usage of food or potions is allowed.
Castle Wars
Castle Wars is a mini-game involving two teams (Zamorak vs. Saradomin, which are two RuneScape gods) in a capture the flag type game. If players do not particularly favor 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 (place barricades, lock doors or collapse tunnels underground), or by killing them. Slain players will respawn inside a protected room in their castle (of which the player has 2 minutes to leave), 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.
The object of the game is to play for tickets, which can be used to buy exclusive armor and clothes. 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. There are 3 different sets of Castle Wars armour, costing different amounts of tickets, the highest being so costly that there are currently only a handful of players in the game with it.
TzHaar Fight Pit
The TzHaar Fight Pit is a massive, free-for-all arena in which players can attack each other with no limits to time. Some players use tactics in order to survive longer in the pits, but in the end only one player can survive. The game is based on the last man standing ruleset, so there are no limitations regarding one'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, after which the players start to receive constant damage due to extreme heat. This is designed to prevent people from agreeing not to attack each other, thus preventing a new game from starting. As with the Castle Wars minigame, 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. A unique, untradeable item, the Fire Cape, is awarded when the player defeats all monsters in the Fight Cave, another update released shortly after the TzHaar city. They can also choose to stay in the Fight Pit in order to potentially increase their prize; however this poses a significant risk as it is highly likely that the food supplies of the victor will be depleted, and as such he may not survive another round. The number of tokkul received for winning varies; it is based on the combat levels of the players that have been defeated added together.
History of PvP combat
During the period 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 unimpeded. 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.
Skills
Skills are abilities that enable players to perform activities in the game. Some skills are available only to members (like fletching and agility) and some skills are only present in newer versions of the game while yet some can only be utilized 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 utilize that skill, for instance mining a rock would raise the mining skill. A player's level of experience determines the level of that skill. New abilities are given to the player when he reaches certain levels. Higher-level abilities in turn give more experience to compensate for the roughly quadratic increase in experience points needed to reach each new level. 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 themselves in a small number of skills. These players are called "pures" (eg: a player specialized 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 this game, there are 21 Skills including Extraction ones (such as: mining, woodcutting, thieving and fishing), secondary (processing) skills (such as smithing, cooking and fletching), combat skills (such as strength, magic and range) and others (such as agility). Unlike most other MMORPGs, every skill can be trained to maximum level (level 99) without extra barriers. However only the combat level is immediately visible to other players. A player's combat level starts at 3 when that player creates a new account, and is able to go up to 126 when that player has reached their maximum in Defense, Prayer, Hit points, and their choice of either Attack Strength, Magic, or Ranging. The total level of a player partly symbolizes the player's status in the game, the maximum total level being 2079.
However, there are two restrictions to training non-combat levels. The first one is "player status", which restricts what stats players can train based on whether they are paying members or not. For example, only paying members are allowed to train "herblore", "thieving", "agility", "farming", "slayer" and "fletching". The other restriction is quests. There are a few skills such as "herblore" and "runecrafting" that are locked when a player first starts the game, and are the reward for completing the appropriate quest where the player learns how to use them.
For a full list of skills and a description of each one, see RuneScape skills.
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 abilities. Some quests are part of an overlapping storyline, the most famous of which is the Plague City story line, which has been around 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 and is coming to an end, with the newest quests (Mourning's End Part I and Mourning's End Part II) already released. 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. The Champion's Guild, while having its own quest as well, is accessible without the quest's completion. 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.
Mini-games
There are a few mini-games that can be played within RuneScape. These are available to paying members only. These may or may not provide a benefit to players, however they are fun and unique things to do within the game. 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. Each brother's armour gives players a unique special effect if they are wearing all four armour pieces at once. The Barrows adds a new twist on the combat triangle, but it largely supports melee fighting since four out of the six brothers use melee weapons.
A new mini-game, called 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.
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 that Jagex define as "offensive language". Over the history of this word filter, more and more combinations of letters are being censored ("starred out"). The filter is very strict, blocking out any words that contain a foul word, such as assassin (containing ass). 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. Many words in Russian or German are also censored as the game does not allow most symbols or foreign characters (including Hitler & Stalin). 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. Huge discussions about the necessity of the filters are taking place on Jagex' forums, with one of the common suggestions being to allow players to select whether they would like to enable or disable the filter. If a player sees someone bypass the filter to the point that they deem it offensive, they have the ability to report that player to Jagex staff members.
Spam
As people advertise their products in RuneScape, they tend to use the same text repeatedly (eg. "300 MACKEREL NOTES 10G 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.
Item scamming
Like many other economies, RuneScape suffers from scams. There are many types of scams. One example of scamming involves quickly changing bid amounts for items, so a hasty seller does not notice the switch and ends up selling items for lower than their market value. A second trade screen has been added for this reason, but many players haven't noticed the change. When cash is being exchanged, the amount of cash is displayed in different colours (quantities of 1,000 are displayed as "1k" in cyan text, and 1 million is displayed as "1 million" in green text.
Another example of scamming requires two or more players to participate. A party will attempt to entice a player into making a trade, in order to take advantage of arbitrage through exploiting an apparently naive member of that party. After the lone player makes the initial (unfair) trade, the other players will quickly leave, such that the player is left having paid more for an item than its market value.
RuneScape has an in-game reporting system which will alert Jagex to the last minute of activity of a particular player. Sometimes, scams such as the latter can proceed unnoticed because the scam takes longer than a minute to execute. One such example of a scam involves convincing a naive player that dropping an item and pressing Ctrl+W will enchance the item in some way. Because Ctrl+W causes most browsers to close, and RuneScape login can take longer than a minute, the victim does not have the opportunity to report the scammer.
Drop parties
Occasionally, players host drop parties. A drop party is where a player or group of players drop items they would otherwise keep, thus allowing nearby players to pick up their dropped belongings. Parties are sometimes advertised on forums so that more people attend. However, sometimes other players will host fake drop parties where the activity is not mutually beneficial. To remedy this, Jagex installed a party room in which all items are in plain sight beforehand. This party room, run by the NPC "Party Pete" is located in the town known as "Seer's Village", which is sometimes referred to as "Camelot" due to how close Camelot Castle is. This party room is also only accessible to paying members. A player must then pay 1000 gold pieces (GP) to start the party. Balloons are then dropped around the room, and players can "pop" the balloons and hope that a good item is inside. Players also have the option of bringing out the "Dancing Knights" for a fee of 500 GP, who will dance on the tables in the middle of the room for approximately 2 minutes. The "Dancing Knights" are mostley for entertainment because the beneficial effects consist of food and other such items. they will appear ramdomly around the party room.
Clans
Clans are groups of players that are commonly formed because the group shares similar interests or combat levels. Many clans venture into the largest player versus player (PvP) area in RuneScape, known as "The Wilderness". These clans hope to find and eliminate other clans or players in support of the clan by taking the dead players' leftover items. The size of clans varies, as clans can be very large and powerful, or just a small group of friends. Clans are also found participating in events such as monster killing, drop parties, mini-games, and multi-quests.
Clans can also be broken into two different types. The most prevalent clan type is those that use their own, private forums. The other type is those who use the forums provided by RuneScape itself. For organizational reasons, larger clans tend to use private forums, whereas the smaller, newer clans often stick to the RuneScape forums.
Jagex is continually been criticised for not putting enough emphasis on clans within RuneScape. In games like World of Warcraft, clans are an integral part of the game, with separate clan chat, capes, and other features that are official parts of gameplay. This results in many RuneScape clans being unorganized, as there aren't enough features for clans. Many players call for Jagex to make clans an official part of the game, by adding clan-related features like the ones seen in World of Warcraft and Guild Wars. Instead, just two forum boards and special Wilderness capes are some of the very few aspects added to the game to support player clans.
There are approximately 60 different styles of Wilderness Capes, each costing 50 GP each. They are only available from different roving NPCs located around the Wilderness. Although these may allow individual players to identify people on their own team (their mini-map icon turns blue), it is still possible to hit these people with multi-hitting spells, such as Barrage spells available in Ancient Magicks.
Clan wars
Much like in any type of online game, clan wars are fairly common. The most common type of clan war is the "all out" war, in which both sides accumulate as many players as possible, and fight against each other in the Wilderness. However, Mini Wars (often referred to as "Minis") have become quite popular. A Mini War is simply a clan war that is either set up on short notice, or has some type of number and/or level cap.
Runescape wars can often fill entire servers (generally "world wars"), while the largest turn out to a clan war has reached 400 participants, with almost 100 spectators.
Graphics
The latest version of RuneScape is rendered in complete 3D.
A lot of emphasis has been placed on allowing players to customize their character. Players are given a wide choice in creating character models, from hairstyle to facial features and gender. Additionally, appearance can be further optimized by wearing/holding different items, with each different weapon having a unique image. Once the game has started, players can change their character's appearance in total at a variety of places in the land of RuneScape.
There are also many different animations in the game for the variety of things one can do from combat, to magic, to the various quests. The game 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.
From February 2005 onward, Jagex has put a massive effort forward to update the RuneScape free world cities. They began with Lumbridge and Draynor Village, and on September 2005 they announced that Thurgo's Peninsula (Port Sarim and Rimmington areas) have been graphically updated. They plan to eventually improve the graphics of the whole free world (and maybe members areas too) 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.
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 rare berets or armour such as trimmed or gold trimmed (indicated by a (t) for trimmed and a (g) for gold trimmed) which can only be obtained by members in treasure trail (mini quests) but can be worn by non-members as well (The trimming of the armor bears no effect on the armour other than it changes its appearance slightly). Also, as mentioned elsewhere in this article 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 holiday drops and thus could only be obtained on that day.
Random events
A variety of random events can take place in the game, positive and negative, which are said by Jagex to prevent the use of "macros" (automated scripts which play RuneScape with very little 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 e-motes that resemble mime movements.
Weapons
Weapon types
The main weapons available in RuneScape are given in this list. Weapon types near the top of the list tend to be faster than those below.
- Abyssal Whip (members only)
- Claws (2 handed, members only)
- Bone Weapons (members only)
- Daggers
- Short Swords
- Scimitars
- Maces
- Long Swords
- Axes (Hatchets)
- Pickaxes
- Spears (2 handed, members only)
- Battle Axes
- Warhammers
- Two Handed Swords (2 handed)
- Halberds (2 handed, members only)
- Barrows Weapons (2 handed, members only)
- Obsidian Weapons (members only)
- Granite Maul (2 handed, members only)
The melee weapon which deals the most damage is the Dharok's Great Axe (Barrows). The Abyssal Whip is the best weapon in the game in terms of damage done per unit time, as it gives its wielder a substantial bonus on Attack and Strength.
Materials
These are all the available materials, in order from weakest to strongest:
- Khazard (Members only, needed for the "Fight Arena" quest)
- Bronze (Armour all new players start out with)
- Iron (Also wieldable by new players, but must be purchased from others)
- 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)
- 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)
- Elemental (Members only, only available in form of a Shield; obtainable after completing the "Elemetal workshop quest")
- Granite (Members only - Available as a shield, legs, and maul, need Defence of 50 to use)
- Obsidian (Members only, only obtainable in Tzhaar, available as multiple weapons, but more commonly as a shield since an Obsidian shield is the only shield to give a Strength bonus, need Defence of 60 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 Defence of 60 to use)
- Barrows (Members only, decays after 15 hours of solid combat, is repairable, need Defence of 70 to use)
- Crystal (Members only, decays after 2500 shots/hits, is repairable - available only in bow or shield form, need defence of 70 to use)
Certain ranged weapons such as throwing knives and darts are also available in Bronze, Iron, Steel, Black, Mithril, Adamantite, and Rune.
There are also many other weapons that do not go into the basic weapons such as Silverlight from the "Demon Slayer" quest, Darklight from the "Shadow of the Storm" quest, Excalibur from the "Merlin's Crystal" quest, Mjolnirs from the "Making History" quest, Blurite Sword from the "Knight's Sword" Quest, and the Abyssal Whip, the third most valuable weapon (after the Dragon Hatchet and Guthan's WarSpear). The Abyssal Whip is considered to be the most effective weapon available in RuneScape, dealing more damage per unit time (though not necessarily the highest damage per hit) than any other weapon available.
Note that although Obsidian is a very strong material in RuneScape, the substance known by that name in the real world only measures about 5.5 on the Mohs scale of hardness, making it as hard as window glass or a kitchen knife. In reality, smashing it on an object would likely cause it to shatter.
Weapon specials
Many weapons have bonus special effects which are known as "specials". Originally only Dragon weapons, Magic bows, and Rune throwing axes offered a special attack, but later more specials were added to other weapons. The weapons that have Dragon versions are:
(Modifiers in "( )" specify the special attack.)
- Daggers - poisoned, extra-strongly poisoned and super poisoned (2 attacks per special)
- Hatchets - (lowers enemy's Defence and Magic by 5%)
- Scimitars - (blocks enemy's Protection Prayer for 5 seconds)
- LongSwords - (55% more damage to enemy)
- Battle Axes - (20% more Strength to wielder, but Attack, Defense, Magic, and Range are all lowered by around 10-12%)
- Halberds - (2 attacks on monsters larger than a single square, strengthened attack on single square monsters and players)
- Spears - poisoned, extra-strongly poisoned, super poisoned and karambwan poisoned (stuns enemy and knocks them back one square)
- Maces - (100% more damage to enemy)
The hatchet's power is comparable to the dagger, yet it is much slower and its special attack gives warriors a rare advantage over mages. The Seercull bow is the only range weapon that also reduces magic, but since it is a Ranger weapon, the bow simply allows for a more brutal defeat of mages, since rangers are generally effective at defeating mages.
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 (+) and a super strong poison (s). These different types are suffixed onto the weapon name as single letters (e.g. Dragon dagger (p), Dragon spear (s) and Dragon dagger (+)). 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 will be reduce and wear off in time, or can be cured with antipoison or superantipoison manually. Regular poison does 4 damage every few seconds, extra strong poison does 5 damage, and super strong poison does 6. Most weapons that are poisoned are only available in regular or super strong poison forms.
Monsters
There are many monsters in the RuneScape world. Below is a list of the 8 highest leveled monsters from highest to lowest. In brackets are their combat levels.
- TzTok-Jad (702)
- Ket-Zek (360)
- Kalphite Queen (333)
- Dagannoth King Prime (303)
- Dagannoth King Rex (303)
- Dagannoth King Supreme (303)
- King Black Dragon (276)
- Steel Dragons (246)
Some of the more famous and well known monsters in RuneScape include:
Ket-Zek
The Ket-Zek, at level 360, is the second highest leveled monster in RuneScape. It is fought in the TzHaar Fight Cave minigame. It has a maximum melee hit damage of 45 and can do around 46 damage using its magic attack. Few players can withstand even 2 hits from it. Reaching this monster requires many prayer potions, food and time.
Kalphite Queen
The Kalphite Queen is revered as one of the most difficult enemies to defeat. This giant insect empress lies in a deep lair in the Kharidian Desert. To get there, players need to bring a total of 2 ropes and exit the Shantay Pass just south of Al Kharid. After going west, the first rope must be used with the lair entrance in order to enter. The Queen (Level 333) is at the very end of the cavern where you'll need the second rope, past the Kalphite Workers, Kalphite Soldiers and Kalphite Guardians. Because the Soldiers are poisonous, players usually bring antipoison potions along with them. It is very difficult to defeat Kalphite Queen alone, although it has been done by the use of Verac's Barrows armor.
The Kalphite queen was one of the earlier very high-leveled monsters introduced into the game. Five other monsters around or higher than its level, the three Dagannoth Kings, TzTok Jad, and Ket-Zek were introduced into Runescape much later. The addition of many very high leveled monsters has been criticized due to a belief that they overshadow the Kalphite Queen and King Black Dragon, the original very high leveled monsters.
King Black Dragon
The King Black Dragon, also known as the KBD, is the seventh strongest monster in RuneScape. He has combat level 276 and 257 hit points, as well as very high attack and defense levels. Thus a player should have at least level 70 Attack or he or she will not hit the KBD very often.
The King Black Dragon lair is a multiway combat zone, allowing a group of players to attack. It is in a level 40+ Wilderness (near the Lava Maze) dungeon. The dungeon entrance is in a fenced area containing four Lesser Demons. When players go down the ladder they will see Poison Spiders and a lever which will teleport them to the KBD Lair when activated. The King Black Dragon's lair itself isn't in the Wilderness (players will be in the Wilderness until they pull the lever).
The King Black Dragon uses many attacks, including regular melee attacks, a fire wave magic spell, and 4 types of dragonfire, all of which may cause high damage. He can use regular dragonfire, an Ice breath attack that can freeze players to the ground, Poison breath that will deal 4 poison damage, and a water like breath attack.
Dagannoths
Dagannoths are sea monsters. According to the Fremenniks, a tribe of barbarians, they are known as Dagger-mouths (because their teeth resemble small daggers). There are many types of Dagannoths, with the most powerful being the 3 Dagannoth kings: Prime, Rex, and Supreme. Rex uses melee, Prime uses ranged, and Supreme uses magic. They can all hit up to 40 damage so be careful when you encounter one. These monsters are the only ones that drop the Dragon Axe, Seercull Bow, Mud Battlestaff, Berserker ring, Archer ring, Warrior ring, and Seer Ring.
TzTok-Jad
TzTok-Jad (sometimes referred to as the 702 because of its level, and because the name has no known correct pronunciation) is the final monster encountered in the Tzhaar Fight Caves Minigame. It is the most powerful monster in the game as it may deal up to 95 damage in a single blow, which is even more damaging than fighting the KBD without an Anti Dragon Breath Shield.
If one is successful in defeating TzTok-Jad, they receive 8032 TokKul and the much-coveted Fire Cape. This cape has a "lava" pattern that is animated when viewed on RuneScape's high-detail mode. The animation shows lava flowing downwards continually. This is the best cape in the game with a great attack, defense, strength, and prayer bonus. Most players take their clan with them, so if one player dies, the others can keep fighting. Clans also offer strength in numbers, and the oppertunity to ambush any players they might encounter in the wilderness.
Black Demons
Black Demons are some of the most powerful demons in RuneScape, besides special demons faced in quests such as "Legends' Quest", or "Monkey Madness". They are level 172, can deal up to 16 damage and are very hard to hit for a player with a low combat level. Black Demons can be found in the Taverly Dungeon, the Edgeville wilderness dungeon, and the Brimhaven Dungeon (located on Karamja).
Greater Demons
Greater Demons are very similar to Black Demons except that they are slightly weaker, slightly smaller, can inflict a maximum damage of 9 and have a combat level of around 92. They are the highest leveled monster free players may fight, with the exception of RuneScape special event creatures like rock golems and trolls that can reach a combat level of 159. The weapon, "Silverlight", when used in combat against any demon is augmented to similar statistics as a rune long sword. A common misconception credits that "Silverlight" to be more effective against Greater Demons than it actually is.
Fire Giants
Fire Giants are like Greater Demons, except they're slightly bigger and can do a maximum damage of 11. Fire Giants are very popular to rangers and halberd-users, especially in the Waterfall Dungeon. They can drop better items than the Greater Demon (most famously for dropping the Dragon Med Helm).
Moderators
There are three types of moderators, each given different abilities.
Jagex Moderator (J-Mod)
Jagex Moderators are employees of Jagex. They consist of coders, script writers, graphic designers, and customer service staff. One must apply as an employee of Jagex in order to become a Jagex Moderator. In RuneScape, they are identified by a gold crown beside their name, visible during public chat. J-Mods do not have the ability to disable their crown. On RuneScape's official forums, posts of theirs appear in green with the addition of the words "Jagex Mod" beneath their name. All Jagex Moderators are identified with the word "Mod" as the first part of their username with the exceptions of Andrew, Paul, and Ian. Including P-Mod and F-Mod abilities (see below), Jagex Moderators have a number of additional abilities for playtesting purposes. J-Mod accounts are only used for testing, moderating RuneScape and their official forums. J-Mod accounts do not appear in the high score tables, and do not have a private chat function.
Player Moderator (P-Mod)
Player Moderators are a volunteer team consisting of regular players that are hand-picked by Jagex staff to allow them the opportunity to help maintain RuneScape to keep it safe and free from rule-breaking. They are given the ability to mute players for a short amount of time, and given the ability to send priority abuse reports. P-Mods are not employees of Jagex and they receive no tangible benefits. P-Mods are not expected to spend anymore time playing RuneScape than they normally would. P-Mods are not even expected to make use of their special abilities, but most are happy to report problems they see during the normal course of play. P-Mods are identified by a silver crown beside their name in RuneScape, but are not identified on RuneScape's official forums. The silver crown of a Player Moderator cannot be disabled and is always visible during both public chat and private chat.
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 in order to keep them safe and free from rule-breaking. Like Player Moderators, Forum Moderators are hand-picked by Jagex staff. They are not employees of Jagex, and 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. Posts of theirs 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.
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. The use of slang and abbreviations allows for easier communication between established players despite the small space available in the in-game messaging system.
A few examples of in-game slang and terminology are given in this list (which is in no way exhaustive):
- Abby pker: Someone who kills other players around the Zamorak mage that teleports players to the abyss. Players in that area are usually unarmoured, skulled, and carry an amulet of glory. Abby Player Killers are said to be the most dishonorable of player killers.
- Abbies/Abby: Abyssal Demons, which drop Abyssal Whips for players who have level 85 Slayer.
- Ady/Addy/Adam/Adamant: Adamantite, another ore of RuneScape, better than Mith.
- Ammy(s): Amulet of Magic, Strength, Defense, Accuracy, Glory etc.
- Alch: Either Low or High Alchemy. This abbreviation is usually prefixed with "low" or "high" to indicate which of "Low Alchemy" or "High Alchemy" is being referred to. Turns items into coins/gp.
- Ancienter/Freezer: A player that uses Ancient Magicks (from the Desert Treasure quest), especially ice burst/blitz/barrage. This slang is most often used in Castle Wars to alert others to attack an ancient mage since if left unchecked (especially a mage using Ice barrage), such a mage can easily take out scores of people.
- Ardy: Ardougne, a town in Runescape.
- Att/Attk/Atk: Attack.
- B axe/baxe/b-axe/btl axe: Battle Axe.
- Baiting: The act of provoking someone into attacking a player eg. wearing a valuable item and entering the Wilderness.
- Barrows: Refers to armor obtained from the "Barrows" mini-Game. Generally powerful armour.
- Blk: Black, a type of armour and weapons material in RuneScape.
- Cammy: Camelot.
- Cav: Cavalier (hats obtained from treasure trails), comes in Tanned, Dark, and Black (Members only).
- Chain: Chainmail Body.
- Choob: A high leveled player who acts in a manner that is childish and newbie. (A combination of the words choose and noob). It literally means "to choose to be a noob."
- Crashing: In the wild, attacking 2 clans who are fighting a war. Generally considered to be unethical or dishonorable.
- Cw/Cwarz(s): Castle wars.
- D/Drag/Drg: Dragon. Could refer to actual Dragons or Dragon items, armour or weapons.
- Dd+: Extra-poisoned dragon dagger.
- Ddp: Poisoned dragon dagger.
- Dds: Super poisoned dragon dagger.
- Def: Defence.
- Dh: Usually refers to Dharok(s), one of the Barrow brothers
- DM: Death match. A death match usually involves 2 players fighting to the death in the Wilderness where the winner takes all. Usually there is a set of agreed upon rules, but some players choose to break these.
- Duel: The equivalent of a DM, in the Duel Arena.
- Ea: each. Usually used when buying or selling items in RuneScape.
- Ess/Es: Rune Essence, the item used to make runes.
- Exp: Experience.
- Fally: Falador, one of the towns in RuneScape.
- Fremmy: Fremennik.
- Full: A complete set of armour (eg. "full rune" refers to a complete set of Rune armour). Can also refer to a full helm.
- Guth/Gux: Guthix, One of the gods in RuneScape. It could refer to any Guthix items, armour or weapons. It could also refer to Guthan, one of the Barrow brothers.
- Gp: The currency of Runescape. While it is coins which are used, players refer to them as 'gp' which means 'gold pieces'.
- Hally: Short for halberd, a spear-like weapon with a large blade at its end.
- Ham/Hammy: Humans Against Monsters, an NPC clan.
- Hamm(s): Short for hammer or hammers. Usually refers to warhammers, most commonly used to shorten "Torags Twin Hammers".
- Hybrid: The term used for a pure using 2 styles to PK.
- K: "K" can either refer to "OK" or 1,000 GP. As an example, "100k" could mean "100,000 GP".
- Large: Usually refers to a "rune full or LARGE helm"
- Legs: Platelegs.
- Lobs/Lobbies/Lobbys: Lobsters, one of the most used foods in the game.
- Logging/Log: The action of logging out your character in the wild to escape from Player Killers. A person who does this is known as a logger.
- Long: Long Sword / Long Bow.
- Loob: A particularly "lunatic" noob who asks the most obvious and stupid questions such as "where's lumbridge," while they are actually in Lumbridge.
- Lumby/Lummy: Lumbridge, the starting town in RuneScape. Also the respawn point where players are resurrected.
- Lure: Baiting or luring someone, or a team, into a multi-combat area zone of the Wilderness.
- Lvl/Lv: Level.
- Mage: A player that uses magic (ie. wizard/witch). Also refers to the skill "Magic".
- Main: The character an individual plays on the most. Usually the highest level character a person has.
- Med: A type of helmet, medium sized. It is second best, only to the full-helmet (currently there is only a dragon medium helmet; no dragon full helm).
- Mill/mil/M: A million GP.
- Mith/Myth: Mithril, a type of metal in RuneScape.
- Msb: Magic Short Bow, the third best bow in the game (the two best bows are the Crystal Bow, and Karils Crossbow).
- Nats: Nature runes.
- NPC: Non-playing character.
- Obby/Obs: Obsidian.
- Phat/P-hat: Party Hat, a holiday drop for Christmas a few years after RuneScape began. These are no longer made so there are very few in circulation, which makes them extremely valuable. They were obtained by using a christmas cracker with another player. There are green, blue, red, yellow, white and purple Party Hats. They are made of paper, and do not modify player statistics.
- Pk: Player Kill, The act of killing a player, usually in the Wilderness.
- Pker: Player Killer, someone who kills players in the Wilderness.
- Pjing: Player-jumping, the action of using friends to kill an unsuspecting player in a 1 versus 1 deathmatch. Usually thought of as dishonourable.
- Pking: PlayerKilling, the action of killing another player.
- Pl8: Platemail Body, one of the two types of melee torso armour (eg. a platemail body could be referred to as "pl8body"), the other being the Chainmail Body ("Chain").
- Pots: Potions, used to boost/restore skills.
- Pure: Player who only trains in certain skills to keep their combat level low.
- R2h: Rune Two Handed Sword. Currently rarely used, since it is now fairly unpopular due to its slow attack speed.
- Rc: Runecraft.
- RSC/RS1: RuneScape Classic.
- RS/RS2: RuneScape (RuneScape 2).
- Rune: Depending on context, either a rare and valuable ore better than Mithril and Adamantite, useful for smithing weapons, shields and armor, or a material component used for magical spells. Magical runes are themed - there are, for example, runes for Body, Air, Mind, and Fire.
- Santa: Santa Hat, a holiday drop for christmas a few years after RuneScape was begun. These are no longer made so they are extremely valuable.
- Sara: Saradomin, one of the gods in RuneScape. Can be used to describe various items associated with Saradomin.
- Scimmy/Skimmy/skimm/scim: Scimitar, a sword with a semi large blade that is viciously curved.
- Short: Short Sword / ShortBow.
- Skirt: Plateskirt.
- Spd: Super poisoned dagger (usually a dragon dagger).
- Str: Strength.
- Super set: A Super attack, Super Defence and Super Strength potion as a set.
- Swordies/Swords: Swordfish.
- T/Torg: Usually refers to Torag(s), one of the Barrow brothers.
- Tally: Talisman.
- Unids: Unidentified Herbs.
- V: Usually refers to Verac(s), one of the Barrow brothers
- Wc: WoodCutting, one of the many skills in RuneScape.
- Wildy/Wild: The Wilderness.
- Whip/Abby Whip: Abyssal Whip, which is dropped by Abyssal Demons.
- Wj: World Jumping. Going from world to world, usually looking for a specific object such as a tree, rock, etc.
- Wp: Wrong person.
- Xbow: Crossbow.
- Xp: Experience.
- Zammy: Zamorak, one of the gods in RuneScape. This slang is also used to describe various items associated with Zamorak.
- Zammy Mage: NPC who teleports players to the Abyss where they can access all Runecrafting altars easily.
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 RuneScape Gold Pieces, also referred to "GP" or "Coins". GP is used for trading throughout the game in preference to bartering. Other ingame currencies include: Trading sticks, Tokkul, Pizazz points and various tickets, obtained through various mini-games.
The Smithing skill in RuneScape played a pivotal role in RuneScape economic history. Since RuneScape is a persistent world, it does have a beginning. Within the first year of RuneScape's launch, players hadn't reached maximum skill levels of 99. Therefore, when players first reached level 99 in Smithing, a cartel consisting of all players who had reached level 99 Smithing set up a monopoly. They sustained high prices by keeping the supply of weapons and armour which only they could make low, and thus made prices for those items extremely high. The smithing monopoly was broken once more players began flooding the RuneScape market with armour and weapons only smithable by players with level 99 Smithing.
Some unconvential yet lucrative sources of income is by exploiting price differentiations. For example, the jeweller in Port Sarim sells gold chains at approximately 120GP a piece. Runescape general stores and players buy the necklaces at 400 to 1000GP each. One can also go to the wilderness to kill other players. the items dropped by them as they die can be sold for 100% profit. This can often add up to a great income, with Adamantite and Rune items selling at high prices.
Criticism
Like many other MMORPGs, some players of RuneScape choose to cheat or "macro". "Macroing" involves using an automated script to perform actions such as mining, without human interaction.
Some players are also dissatisfied with Jagex's Customer Support. Many paying members find it unacceptable that Jagex is unable to provide satisfactory customer support for their queries, instead issuing automated responses. Jagex has recently been making efforts to increase the size of their Customer Support team.
RuneScape is also criticized by players of other MMORPGs for reasons such as:
- A poorly made graphics engine.
- Mandatory chat filter.
- The repetition of tasks: skills are built by hours of clicking in the same pattern. Fletching 3000 logs takes approximately 10,000 clicks.
- Poor trade dynamics: announcing trade in-game between players is usually done by repeating offers to buy or sell in the chat window, since there is no world chat or trade chat in RuneScape. Players tend to congregate in the central squares of cities such as Falador. The number of people choosing this method of trade leads to highly congested chat channels. The trade system in RuneScape is said to be less efficient than the dedicated trade systems present in other MMORPGs. To address this, Jagex plans to add shops where players can set up trades with other players.
- Simple combat: Combat training is excessively simple as one click is all it takes for a player to initiate combat with an NPC. This can easily be repeated by using a simple colour-matching macro.
Pricing information
RuneScape is a Java Browser-Based game; 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 which is safe now that they use SSL. Paying through mail and single month subscriptions cost US$7.95 per month, while full year subscriptions are available at US$5.50 per month (total cost US$65.95; charged in advance). Using a Credit Card, subscriptions are US$5.00 per month. Players are automatically charged that amount every month for as long as they keep their membership.
In the UK credit card payment costs £3.20 per month, phone payments £4.50 per month and SMS costs £5 per month.
Canadian players have the option of using PayByPhone service provided by SurfPin for CAD$10.99.
Members benefits
Players who pay to play are given special status on their account. This "member's status" gains them many advantages both in and out of the game. Paying members can play on less populated worlds exclusively for members. These worlds have substantially more area to explore than the free servers. Member's status also allows players to do all member's quests, and have the ability to own and use all types of member's items. This includes the expensive Dragon and Barrows weapons and armour. Being a member also entitles players to the ability to add another 100 friends to their list, gain all the songs in RuneScape, have a lot more bankspace, encounter new random events, use new combat styles, and train new skills. Most of the newer updates are only accessible to members.
Being a member also has its advantages outside of the game. On the RuneScape website, members are able to access and post on the official forums. They also receive better customer support, as messages they send to Jagex will be responded to more quickly than if they weren't a member. Another feature of the website exclusive to members is the poll section where members can give their feedback to Jagex.
External links
- Jagex site - The official Jagex site.
- RuneScape - The official RuneScape website.
- June 2001 Review - A review of RuneScape in its relative infancy, from June 2001.
Official affiliates
Game Archive and Review sites
Fansites
Warning! Fansite users have been hijacked 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.