RuneScape Classic

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RuneScape Classic World Map

For more information about RuneScape Classic, see our sister site, the RuneScape Classic Wiki.

A player in combat with a goblin
The RuneScape Classic login screen

RuneScape Classic (abbreviated RSC, RS1 or RS Classic), publicly released on 4 January 2001, is the second version of RuneScape (DeviousMUD is truly the first version). It is commonly called RuneScape 1 or RS1 by players who've played RuneScape Classic before RuneScape 2 was released. It was replaced on 29 March 2004, with what was then known as RuneScape 2, which is now commonly referred to as RuneScape.

History

DeviousMUD (the original name of Runescape), the precursor to RuneScape Classic, and the forefather of RuneTek, was created and developed by Andrew Gower some time in 1998. He created the platform solely based upon Java-dependent computing and 2D graphics.

Later, several months after the initial development of DeviousMUD, an open beta was announced for those who wished to play the Java-based game straight from their computer. After much success, RuneScape Classic was open to everyone after the Gower brothers decided to maintain and build upon their already existent business. See here for more information.

RuneScape Classic is still available for those who can access it, however the game receives little attention. The same account is used for both games, but items, progress and skills on each are separate.

On 4 August 2005, Jagex discontinued the free version of RuneScape Classic for good, where it still remains inaccessible to this day for free players. On 15 January 2006, only players who had logged in between 4 August 2005 and 15 January 2006 could play RuneScape Classic, meaning that members could not access RSC unless they had logged in within that time frame. This was due to a number of problems, one being that Jagex simply decided that RuneScape Classic's uptake imposed a heavy cost on hosting the servers, since it is no longer updated. On 20 November, 2007, Jagex closed the RSC forums to non-RSC players, but has since been reopened.

Jagex has since then reopened RuneScape Classic to members with an update on November 11 2009. After this renewal of interest, Jagex has since decided to re-open RuneScape Classic to members, old and new, every six months, however they have not stuck to that schedule.<ref>http://services.runescape.com/m=news/newsitem.ws?id=2453</ref> Once Jagex reopened RSC, a few members who had lost connection to RSC were able to log back in and play with their old characters.

Logging into RuneScape Classic 5 years after it was closed.

Before they closed the RSC forums, Jagex had a thread running for a few months on the RSC General forum asking players to sign if they wanted to keep on using the forums. Many players missed this thread and therefore they were denied access. However, after many players suggested it, Mod Stevew, a Jagex Moderator, added a new sticky thread to the Forum Feedback forum allowing players to sign if they wish to have access, provided that their account is a RSC account.

A picture of a player on tutorial island in RSC.

Skills

Woodcutting

There were originally only regular trees and when members came out, Oak trees. However, Jagex later updated the game and introduced many more trees once they created the Fletching skill. Free-to-play could still only chop regular trees, though. Unlike RS2, in RSC, chopping trees takes more time, as you can 'slip and fall' and fail to cut the tree, and have to try to cut it again. However, you could continue to cut logs with a full inventory. Excess logs would be automatically dropped on the ground. In very early days, player had to use the axe on a tree to cut it, requiring a lot of clicks.

Firemaking

Only the logs of normal trees can be burnt, and you can burn logs anywhere, even banks. You have to drop the logs before you could burn them. Experience allocated per log depends on the Firemaking level itself. It is the only skill to work this way, meaning experience is gained more quickly as levels are gained. Before fletching was added, woodcutting worked the same way. After the update, some players (especially free users) complained that regular logs didn't give as much experience as they used to.

Mining

Before the introduction of pickaxes of different materials, there was only one type of pickaxe. Pickaxes couldn't be used as weapons. In mining originally, rocks wouldn't change colour when there was ore present. Thus players had to prospect each rock which led to repetitive clicking. It wasn't until the introduction of Fatigue that rocks began to show when they had ore in them. Furthermore, you didn't automatically hit the rock, you had to click every individual hit. Before even that, player had to use pickaxe on a rock instead of just clicking on a rock. New pickaxes of all kinds came out that could hit multiple times per click.

Smithing

This section is a stub. Please help expand it.

Prayer

For a long time, bones and big bones were the only forms of experience for Prayer. This made it very hard to train. It wasn't until someone suggested making dragon bones that there was anything better, and those were the only three bones available until RS2, besides bat bones but they were very rarely used. There were two types of protection prayers that time: "Paralyze monsters" which would work the same way as "Protect from melee", but wouldn't work against players and "Protect from missiles" which would completely protect the player from magic and ranged used by other players. Enemy monsters did not have an ability to use magic or ranged. In the very early days of RuneScape Classic, prayer was divided into 2 parts: Prayer Good and Prayer Evil.

Magic

Magic, like Prayer, was divided into 2 parts: GoodMagic and EvilMagic in the earlier days. The evil magic spells were Confuse, Thick Skin, Shock Bolt, Elemental Bolt and Fear, and the good magic spells were Chill Bolt, Burst of Strength, Camouflage, Rock Skin and Wind bolt. All magic spells, including non-combat magic, could be "failed" - the player would keep their runes but be unable to cast spells for 20 seconds. It was less likely for the player to fail spells at a higher level. Autocasting did not exist back then. Because runes were less common on RuneScape Classic , they gave far more experience.

The magic skill within RuneScape Classic determines what spells you can cast; to see all your spells click on the spell book icon and the magic menu will be brought up. From there you can select spells to cast. The colour of the spell name tells you if you can cast it or not. If the spell appears black then your magic level is not high enough to use it. If the spell name appears in white, this means you are proficient enough to use this but have not got the required runes to cast it. If a spell name appears in yellow then you have everything you need to cast that spell. When you want to cast a spell just click on the spell name, and then click onto a target.

Prior to the introduction of RuneScape 2, in the 2-D game, spells were universally represented by a simple, flying blue star, which proved difficult to distinguish from arrows, which were green stars. Also, in the original RuneScape, players were capable of casting magic spells while wearing full rune armour, leading to a massive imbalance in favour of high-level mages.

In RuneScape Classic, each spell gives the fixed experience using the formula 2 * spell level + 20. Jagex explains that the reduction of Magic experience in RuneScape 2 was due to the fact that runes were easier to obtain on the new version.

Ranged

In Runescape Classic, players could not use ranged weapons when engaged in melee combat. The arrow projectile was represented as a green splotch.

Before fletching skill was introduced, there was only one type of arrow and only a few types of ranged weapons.

Spell-casting Table Experience

Influence

Influence was the predecessor to Quest Points. The only way to gain Influence was to complete quests. E.g, a player with a high Influence level could sell silk to the silk trader for more coins than usual. Influence has since been removed from RuneScape Classic, in favour of the traditional Quest Points.

Armour

Armour had many differences in RuneScape Classic, one of the main being that male and female armour differed. Female tops had more curved shape and lower neckline with plates on the shoulders and gauntlets (part of the top). The skirt went all the way to the ground. In the case of male armour, it went for a more muscled approach, though the entire upper body was covered right down to the hands. The legs had a rather baggy look, sometimes being referred to as "snow pants." Some players were slightly annoyed by the fact that male characters were blocked from wearing female plate, even though female characters could wear male or female plates as they wished.

When RuneScape Classic first began, it only had Bronze, Iron, Steel, and Mithril. Later in the game, Adamantite, Black and Rune were added.

There was an NPC named Thrander just south of the east bank in Varrock that could switch male platebodies and platelegs to female platebodies and platelegs for free, but he disappeared during the transition to RS2, as players discovered an easy way to obtain money from purchasing cheaper Female counterparts and converting them for more expensive Male counterparts. There was no longer any need for him seeing as the new RS2 plates change when worn by a character and skirts and legs are separate items with different prices.

Another key difference was that plate could not be worn at the same time as gloves, and legs couldn't be worn at the same time as boots. However, if a character wore chainmail, they could wear gloves. Some PKers preferred wearing chain in order to wear gloves and get the slight Attack boost gained at the expense of some defence.

In very early RuneScape Classic, there was an equipment stat called "Hiding". It was to be used to make aggressive monsters not notice players and thus not attack them. Hiding was later removed.

Another difference in early RSC was players did not need attack/defense requirements for weapons/armour. This allowed for pure pkers to have 1 attack and defense with full rune.

Dialogue

In Runescape Classic, there weren't any dialogue boxes with NPCs. All the dialogue was yellow text overhead the player and NPC. A non-player character could talk to only one player at a time. That meant that the competition over who got to talk to NPC when a new shop or quest was released, was very high and it often took several minutes to finally get to talk to an NPC. That would also allow griefing for intentionally delaying the dialogue. There also weren't right-click options for shopkeepers, bankers etc. to quickly open the shop or bank screen.

Bank

Accessing the RuneScape Classic Bank
The interior of a bank in RuneScape Classic.

The bank in RuneScape Classic was much more difficult to use. For example, players could only withdraw or deposit limited amounts of items at a time, so trading large amounts of items was very time-consuming, however, Jagex updated RS Classic and added a deposit/withdraw "X" option. Also, since only one player could talk to an NPC at any given time, using the bank in crowded trading areas was very tricky and was very time consuming.

Talking to an NPC in RuneScape Classic

Fatigue

Fatigue was introduced to combat autoers. Using skills would increase fatigue until it reached 100%, at which point players could not receive any more experience, making it impossible to train for certain periods of time. Players were taught about fatigue by the Fatigue expert. At first players could only reduce it by sleeping in beds located in nearby houses or buildings, but then after a while sleeping bags were introduced. They did not reduce fatigue as quickly as beds. Either way, it was necessary to type in a random word to wake back up again. It was introduced shortly before RuneScape 2.

The concept was greatly disliked despite the fact that the time it took to actually train skills was balanced by taking less attempts to successfully mine rocks and catch fish. It went through a few revamps before being dropped entirely in the transition from RuneScape Classic to RuneScape 2. It was believed to have been dropped because most if not all autoers had programs called "autosleepers" that would type the random word in. Currently RuneScape Classic has a program where if players stand in one spot for too long, they will be logged out. The removal of fatigue in RuneScape 2 also came about due to the addition of Random Events, which were designed to prevent large-scale macroing/autoing.

Certificates

Before RS2, trading large numbers of items was much more of a hassle. At first, the only way to create stackable items out of those that couldn't be stacked normally was to turn them into certificates, or "certs" as they were referred to. Lobsters, sharks, coal, and certain logs could be traded for certs - 5 items for 1 cert. This was done by Niles, Giles, and Miles, who were located in what is now the Draynor Village market. Nowadays, in RS2, these certs are replaced by notes, which can be withdrawn from a bank in the form of a piece of paper with a picture of the item and a number on it, and many items can be withdrawn as such. With the creation of new random events, Niles, Giles, and Miles can be seen making cameos as a Random Event. The "certs" remain the only way to transfer large amounts of items in Classic.

Holiday drops

The holiday drops, which produced rare items, began in RuneScape Classic. In order of appearance, they were: pumpkins, Christmas crackers (containing partyhats or other items), Easter eggs, Halloween masks, Santa hats, Bunny Ears, and Scythe.

Newer holiday items are still being released in the main version of RuneScape, but it is common to have to complete a series of tasks in order to achieve the holiday item(s), starting with the yo-yo.

Player vs. Player

Player Killing

PKing in RuneScape Classic.

All weapons had the same speed, so the Rune 2h sword was used by almost all free-to-play pkers. Members used Dragon weapons or Mage Arena staves. Once attacked, a player could not run away for three rounds of combat so pures worked to get high enough strength to kill their opponents in three hits. There was no running in RuneScape Classic, so "catching" was a vital skill. Generally, the good PKers needed to keep their opponents in battle; in order to stop them from running away. They timed their attacks with the opponent's attempt at running away. This way, as soon as the opponent would try to escape, they would immediately be trapped in the fight for another three rounds. Plus, you could only eat out of combat, so it made things hectic as a player waited to get a chance to run and eat, then try to eat as much as possible before combat started again. There was also a great number of "wine pures" who were pures that decreased their attack level below 8 using the wine trick in order to gain pure attack experience from hitting dummies in Varrock. A slight advantage can be gained in the sense that their hp levels would be lower than traditional pures, while their strength would be higher. If they hit first in combat, they would be able to hit 1 to 2 damage more, and thus have a greater chance of 3-hitting somebody. With the RS2 update, the functionality of dummies was removed as it looks at your maximum attack level rather than your current. Also, player-killing was not limited to the wilderness at first. The only place where players weren't subject to attack from other characters was in Lumbridge, or if they designated themselves as NPK's (non-player killers). The second option could only be changed twice, and it was eventually taken out of the game.

Duelling

Duelling used to be possible at any location at any time provided that both duellers were in a members world. All the player had to do was right click on a player, and "Duel" would be an option along with "Walk here", "Follow", and "Trade". It was often used as a cheap and easy way to return to Lumbridge, since dying in a duel would send the player back there, but if nothing was staked, nothing would be lost. This made Lumbridge a hotspot for duels.

Many players have complained about the removal of this feature, which was removed because with the introduction of running in RS2, players could now run during any point of battle without ending the battle. Players would be able to fight all around the world, or bank the staked items if it was not moved to the duel arena.

One more thing players liked about the ability to duel anywhere in the world was that if someone came to take over your spot, you could challenge them to a duel for who gets to stay there for the spot instead of switching worlds to find a less crowded area to train.

Quests

RuneScape Classic has 50 quests. There are 17 free quests and 33 members quests. No new free quests were released in RuneScape Classic after membership was started on 28 February 2002 and since then there have been only 3 new free-to-play quests released in RuneScape. The quest journal lists the free quests in alphabetical order, but the members quests in chronological order. Legends Quest is quest number 50. See listing of quests.

New quests in RuneScape Classic were very difficult to complete shortly after release because only one player can talk to an NPC at a time. This resulted in large crowds in the quest area. Jagex tried to negate this by adding duplicates of key NPCs in the quest. Busy banks were similarly difficult to use for the same reason, as only one player could talk to a banker at a time.

Problems

A major complaint of those who remain loyal to RuneScape Classic over RuneScape is that there are too many players who use macros to make playing it worthwhile. These players regularly complain to Jagex to do something about the problem, but as Jagex considers RuneScape Classic to be, more or less, an abandoned project, they are reluctant to allocate resources to combat the problem. Jagex, however, has posted on the RuneScape website that macroing will not be tolerated on RuneScape Classic. Another complaint was that the segregation of RS1 to only allow member-made players who chose to stay F2P in classic was unfair now that they have to buy membership in order to keep their items and account. RuneScape Classic currently features no hiscores or Knowledge Base (now called Game Guide). However, Jagex has stated before in a Behind The Scenes article for January 2004 that they were planning to add them in 2005, although this has yet to happen.

Classes

Originally, there were classes from which players could choose. This feature was removed in early July 2002. Tutorial Island was released in the following September.

Depending on the class chosen, new players would start with a higher level in the appropriate skill at a compensation of lower skill levels in other areas. For example - a miner would start with level 5 mining, but they would also start with 9 Hitpoints.

They were:

After the class system was removed, all new players started out with a bronze axe, cooked meat, and tinderbox.

Re-release

On 11 November 2009, RuneScape Classic was temporarily reopened for a two week period for subscribing RuneScape members. [1] If players accessed Classic during the two-week period (providing their username and password), they would be "classic enabled", meaning they would have the privilege to continue playing Classic after the period was over. Even if a player's membership lapses, they would be permanently "classic enabled" and could access it during their membership periods. This also happened on 1 June 2010. (You needed to be 13+ to be able to play RuneScape Classic even if you are a member during this period.)

There are 3 members' worlds, one of which is only accessible to those veteran Classic players who have been playing since the beginning. After this, a glitch occurred where many of players in Classic became invisible to themselves after logging in. Players could remedy the issue by equipping any weapon.

On 25 November 2009, no new players who had not logged in the 2 weeks before were accepted and the game went from 9 servers and one veteran server to 1 server and one server for players who have already registered, making a total of 2 servers. It was also announced that Jagex would be having these "2 week openings" every six months. The servers were recently open again to public on 1 June 2010 and returned to its original state on 15 June 2010. The classic servers were due to open their doors January 2011, but didn't.

Classic was once again reopened on 14 September 2011. It was revealed a few weeks prior that this would be the last ever chance to access the classic game. This made it the final ever opportunity to obtain the Classic cape and the Classic hood.

Mod Dowd talking about another open period (click to enlarge)

Future

Mark Gerhard (Mod MMG) has stated that a new server of RSC may be brought back for all players to enjoy. [2] The new server will be essentially the same as normal RSC, only players can set their levels, spawn items and add cheats into the game. This is done to make bots and gold selling unnecessary, also to allow players to be able to get items they can't obtain during the regular RuneScape game. It will be completely independent of the current RSC game and as such, normal RSC worlds will not be affected. However, on the 25th of November, it has been mentioned that for the player-owned servers idea, "we have decided not to proceed with it in Classic at this point: the game is working fine as it is, with new people playing it, and there’s no reason to continue with such a big project with the numbers of players in Classic as they currently are." With the final re-opening of RuneScape Classic over with, it is likely that new server idea has been scrapped.

Trivia

  • Before RuneScape Classic was re-opened on 1 June 2010, there were duplicates of some characters in a single world. Most players suppose this is because players can't talk to a character who's already being spoken to. (ex. King Shareen on the ground floor of the Grand Tree).
  • In the very early version of RuneScape Classic, when someone said something offensive, it would be filtered to say "Cabbage" to replace that specific word. When this feature was first implemented, a humorous glitch endured for an entire day in which anything said by any player came out as "Cabbage."
  • Several months after Christmas crackers were released into the game, a player discovered how to duplicate (essentially, it was item creation, not duplication, as an item wasn't required in the process) purple partyhats (the now-defunct pink partyhats), and soon afterwards, the price of the purple partyhat plummeted to an all-time low, where it still stays, to this day, as the cheapest partyhat, when it once was in fact the most expensive.
  • Since most rares such as Partyhats were transferred to RuneScape 2 and a lot of accounts were wiped from inactivity, rares are close to non-existent in Runescape Classic.
  • Partyhats weren't the only items to be created, as that player could also duplicate numerous other valuable items, such as ores. Jagex originally couldn't figure out how to stop this item creation since they didn't know the methodology behind it<ref name="itemdupe-unknownmethod">Gower, Andrew (2003). Duplicated items in game. Retrieved on October 10, 2012.</ref>, so the economy was vastly compromised the weeks following. The effects are still present today in many of RuneScape's items. Eventually Jagex offered a reward to whoever could tell them how the bug worked<ref name="itemdupe-unknownmethod" />, with multiple players coming forward and explaining it to them, who were then banned<ref name="itemdupe-ban">Necromagus (2009). Tip.It Times: Party Hat Duplication Day. Retrieved on October 10, 2012.</ref>. This allowed for Jagex to disable the glitch.
  • Before Fishing was added in June 2001, the experience for cooking meat depended on the player's Cooking level, namely, 25 + 1.75 * level.
  • In the early days, an FPS meter could be found at the bottom right corner of the screen. This is now possible using the Developer console.
  • Before pies were added in March 2001, the amount of healing provided by bread and meat (the only food available at the time) depended on the player's Cooking level; the higher the Cooking level, the more Hitpoints the food would heal.
  • In early history, only regular trees could be cut. The experience given was based on the player's woodcutting level, or 28.25 + level * 1.75. After Fletching was added during RuneScape 2, it was briefly reduced to 12.5 experience, and then raised to 25 experience. While Jagex compensated for this by adding one-click woodcutting, many players (especially free users because F2P has limited ways/items to train skills such as woodcutting with) were upset that reaching a high-level woodcutting would take an unfortunately longer period of time.
  • RSC contained no random events, it only featured the sleeping bags and fatigue as a precursor.
  • In early 2001, Smithing had many different requirements for many of the items that were able to be smithed upon. For example, players needed level 96 Smithing to make steel plates rather than 48 Smithing.
  • In the beginning of RSC, sometime during January of 2001, it was mentioned by the developers of RuneScape that the following were needed to "create" the game:
    • Over 120000 map tiles make up the huge world
    • Over 800 frames of animation for the monsters and players
    • Over 200 different objects to find and trade (200 Items)
    • Over 2900 items of scenery with over 100 different designs
    • Over 250 characters all walking around the map, with over 75 different designs .

The amulet of accuracy was considered by many RuneScape Classic players to be a rare/semi-rare item due to the fact that it was only obtainable once per account, and players were unable to create new accounts after 15 January 2006. Since the new update on 11 November 2009 which allows players to create new accounts, the item has become next to worthless.

  • When the free version existed, players whose membership expired would be teleported to Lumbridge. Since the free version no longer exists, this feature was removed some time in 2008 as with all free players' accounts, which were subsequently erased and wiped from the game's database.
  • After RS2 was released, players who have not logged into RuneScape Classic for a period of six months would have their account wiped. This no longer appears to be true.
  • In RS2, when pointing at someone's name in Friends list who have changed their display name, it says Last known as: (display name). In RSC it says: Formerly: (display name)

References

<references />


Mechanics

Graphics • Java • RuneScript • RuneTek

Graphics

Bloom lighting • Draw order • Graphical updates • Particles • The Underworld • Tweening • Z-buffering • Skyboxes

Other

Jagex • RuneScape • DeviousMUD • RuneScape Classic • RuneScape High Detail • RuneScape 3

de:RuneScape Classic no:RuneScape Classic nl:RuneScape Classic fi:RuneScape Classic

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