Membership

I am finally a member! I didn’t write a journal entry yesterday because I was very excited. I am completing the member quests, but they are hard. Soon, I will work on writing quest guides.

~Nalyd Renrut

Journal #3 12/24/07

When I woke up, I though I should get Christmas presents for all of my friends! The Grand Exchange, however, takes forever to give me what I am trying to buy!

~Nalyd Renrut

Journal #2 12/23/07

I woke up in my hometown, Varrok. Ekaj and I were going to meet up and train our Archery. I followed him until we found some opponents. I met another player named Desiree123ab, who was also Level 10 archery. I found my way into Barbarian Village, and Ekaj was nowhere to be found. My boss, Max 33333333, told me to stop cutting Oak Logs, and get him 100 cowhides! At least I get to train Magic more. When I finished the Cowhides, I continued cutting logs. My boss finally paid me for the logs and Cowhides! Unfortunately, I was unpaid. I went to my “friends in higher places” to start deciding which quests to do first, as a member. I guess I will start with Gertrude’s Cat, Fishing Contest, and Elemental Workshop I. For Fishing Contest, I should train fishing!

~Nalyd Renrut

Me, Ekaj Renrut

I’m the new admin. I’m level 36 combat. I’m going to be posting more. I won’t be doing journal like Nalyd but, I will be doing news more.

Last week’s News:

12/20/07
Development Diary: Summoning – Part 3
While Summoning isn’t just combat-related, its effect on combat will be significant. As such, a large part of this Development Diary’s focus is on balancing combat, and the effect it will have on the Combat level. The Diary also covers where to pitch the skill in terms of difficulty, cost and training speed.
12/20/07
Postbag from the Hedge
For many on RuneScape, Christmas is an opportunity to let go and party. In Party Pete’s case, that is a very scary proposition indeed! Find out how he has prepared for Christmas in this month’s
Postie Pete has also been out on the streets of RuneScape, canvassing opinion about this year’s updates. The Wise Old Man, Bob the Cat, Ping and Pong all give their two coins’ worth about quests, updates and even their own New Year’s resolutions.
12/17/07
Future Changes to Recent Updates
As promised in last week’s post, here are some of the initial ideas they have to further improve the player interaction in the game.

1. Expect the first new single-way player-vs-player combat area to hit the game in the first half of next year, along with a number of other PvP updates in the future.

2. As many people have suggested, we’re planning to raise the 3,000gp staking/trading limit for certain players. This will be proportional to the number of Quest Points you have, with the top-end being ten-times what it is now! This should still offer protection from cheats, while also giving you more flexibility in your staking and trading activities.

3. They’re looking at a way of giving LootSharers the ability to receive their drops as coins straight away, so that large items can be split between the party immediately. To avoid unbalancing the economy they’re investigating ways that this could be tied in with the Grand Exchange (i.e, with the item in question being sold on the Exchange and the resulting proceeds being split between the team).

4. They are planning on adding an ‘item lending’ feature to the game. To prevent indefinite loans, you will be able to lend an item for the duration of your session (once either the lender or receiver logs out, the item will go back again). Obviously, they need to design this VERY carefully to cover all eventualities, but they reckon we can work something out.

These are just a taster of the many ideas they have gathered from you or from the developers. They should really improve your enjoyment of RuneScape, without opening the door for real-world traders. This doesn’t even mention the Grand Exchange, which they can go into more detail about…

The Grand Exchange

They have to hold their hands up and admit that a handful of starting prices were a little off. It was a huge task to get 15,000+ items valued correctly and some slipped through the net. They’re on the case, though, as they have already formed a team to manage the Grand Exchange!

As well as getting the starting price right, this team will regularly check prices on an ongoing basis, making sure that they naturally and accurately represent the current state of the player economy. Of course, they won’t be alone, as YOU will be there to help them! A new sticky thread, centred on the Grand Exchange, will be available to highlight any concerns you have about prices and marketplace matters, while a new web page is already in the works which will allow you to track item prices over a long period of time.

Some smaller changes to the Grand Exchange:

* Purchased items of a large quantity will be automatically noted
* There will be less unnecessary clicks when buying or selling items
* A ‘1,000’ quantity button will be introduced
* Access to single-click increases to your item quantity
12/13/07
A Word About Their Updates
Even though this week has been one of the toughest ever for everyone involved with RuneScape, it has been tough for so much longer than one week. Bots, gold sellers, scammers: these are all problems that both and you – the players – have had to put up with together in recent months.

These occurrences were becoming so frequent that they seriously threatened RuneScape. A solution was needed as soon as possible, so they had to come up with the one thing that would successfully stop real-world traders – stopping unbalanced trade. It will be tough for law-abiding players, but it will also be tough for them, as they will certainly not be gaining money or members with this update. Instead, they are doing this for the good of the game, which is as dear to their hearts as it is to you.

Soon, the hard part will be over and done with. The unbalanced trade changes will be made in January and they certainly don’t plan any more hard changes in the foreseeable future. Together, they will deliver an enormous blow to real-world trading, and the game has already seen a dramatic reduction in their numbers.

They have always planned to release the real-world trading updates and then improve them further by listening to your feedback. They were also aware that the updates may not have been perfect the first time around, or that they may not have functioned as an ideal replacement for what they have changed or taken away. This is not a reason to roll them back or remove them, but it IS a reason to keep improving them until they DO work as a full replacement.

The hard choices they have made are the best ones for the game, and they must not do anything that allow bots, gold sellers or scammers back into the game. What they need to do is build on these first, large steps and use your feedback to make improvements, so that they better fit your needs and activities.

They would really like you to make your feelings known, not in a negative manner that offers no potential solutions, but with constructive criticism and suggestions that they can draw ideas from. For example, if something is broken, don’t just demand that they put it back to what it was – instead, tell them your ideas to make the new system work. In summary: they would like you to think about how they can make life in RuneScape more enjoyable for you, while ALSO keeping out real-world traders and bots.

It’s going to take a lot of patience and effort from all of them. Saying that, they have not been sitting around hoping for you all to come up with ideas. They have been putting together a plan. This is a schedule of ideas for improvements that will build on a number of their changes: the Grand Exchange, new player-killing games (including other dangerous ones), LootShare, Assist System, trades and so many other things that they have introduced to combat real-world trading. They aim to have the most important improvements ready in time for the unbalanced trade removal in January, and to continue adding more throughout the start of next year.

They are currently assembling the best ideas from the Forums and our own staff. They will release another newspost early next week, listing the improvements they plan to make to address your concerns.
(Right off of the runescape site)

Journal #1 12/22/07

Today I woke up near Port Sarim. I had been battling goblins, hoping one would eventually give me an Air Talisman. None of them did, so I went to the near by wizards, and got fire runes from the Fire Wizard. Eventually my brother, Ekaj Renrut, and I met up and he gave me the Air Talisman I gave him. I went to the Air Talisman’s temple and sold rune essence. After I traded a lot with player like Mr Rofl and Dragonfarid, I bought one Law Rune at the Bank. I withdrew the Fire Runes from earlier, and the Air Runes I was training with. I finally used Varrok Teleport! When I did use it, I came back to Varrok Square. It felt good to be in my home town. I went to the Grand Exchange and bought more Law Runes. I got some Archery equipment, then took a break and talk to my friends. When I was done resting, I decided I would need to get some coins for Archery equipment. So I went to the Air Talisman’s temple and sold runes. When I had a decent profit, I went to the bank to get some Runes. I got Runes to teleport back to Varrok to buy more equipment. I then trained off weak monsters, because I am only level 4 Archery. As I fought, I thought to myself, “How do archers stay awake? This takes forever!” But then I advanced to level 5 and went to buy a new bow. I will keep training with my New Oak Longbow and Steel Arrows!I went to the cow field near Al Kahrid so I could get cowhides for leather armor. When I got cowhides, I started crafting my armor. I always hated the cowl, but for now it would do. Wow! I got the Frog Random event! I got the Frog Mask to complete the set. I went South to train off weak monsters, then went East to battle Barbarians. After finishing training I went back to Varrok, and set up camp for the night.

~Nalyd Renrut

New Format

I know I have not really done anything yet, but i will! I will ask Jagex if I can take pictures, and I will turn those pictures into a journal of sorts. I will post about news, as soon as I learn about it, and I will put some news into my journal!

~Nalyd Renrut