Update:Behind the Scenes - March (2008)
This update was added on 3 March 2008.
Over the past few months, lots of you have offered us ideas for how to get the best out of the Grand Exchange and LootShare system. Well, by Guthix, our first update of the month will see the introduction of the best of these!
First will be CoinShare, which will convert high-level drops into cash and then share it equally between you and your battling clan compatriots. This entirely optional addition to LootShare will save clans from having only one player who benefits from a high-level drop, instead offering everyone a big bag of cash when a monster drops something awesome. This fabulous new system will put the item on the Grand Exchange at the market value without you having to do anything, and will give the CoinSharers cash immediately, based on the lowest boundary that the item can sell for. Now that's service!
Talking of the Grand Exchange, Brugsen Bursen has been working on the Grand Exchange interfaces. He will be streamlining them to require fewer clicks and less time when selling or purchasing wares. The Grand Exchange Database has taken Brugsen longer than he anticipated, however; he expects this Grand Exchange aid to be ready towards the end of the month. With it, players will have a visual way to search for items, check their value and even view price fluctuations over a period of time.
All of these Varrock distractions seem to have given Surok an opportunity for escape! March will bring an addition to the Surok storyline, following the fleeing wizard north out of Varrock and into the Chaos Tunnels. The rewards are plentiful for this mini-quest, but as is customary with Surok, expect some lies, deceit, chaos and a wee bit of brutal combat.
Lies and deceit will certainly be on the menu with this month's quest, Kenniths's Concerns, and it is a dish best served cold...while covered in slug goo. That's right, the sea slugs are coming back, and they'll be up to their usual hijinks, feeding on brainwaves and attempting world domination - the little scamps. Poor Kennith, the boy you saved from certain subservience on the Fishing Platform, is being hassled by the slugs once again and he will have a few tasks for you. Needless to say, they will test your abilities to the max.
A test of a different variety awaits you in the Stronghold of Player Safety. This twin to the Stronghold of Security will be open to both free players and members, allowing those who prove their intellectual mettle in the Player Safety quiz to swipe rewards, splat cockroaches and taunt gublinch in the depths of the jailhouse below.
Also available to free players and members is our next holiday event, Easter 2008, which will bring yet another wily scheme from the Easter Bunny. What will it be this time? Well, the Easter Bunny has been noting the powers of the Summoning familiars in RuneScape - in particular, the petrifying gaze of the cockatrice. Using a complicated process that involves an incubator and a vat of finest chocolate, the Easter Bunny has hatched a chocatrice. Will the Easter Bunny's weapon of mass production work? You can bet your last gp that it won't...
In our third update this month for both free players and members, we will introduce the bizarre gnomecopters. These unwieldy vehicles have been invented by pioneering gnomes to take players high over a series of members' areas, like Castle Wars, Pest Control and Isafdar, giving them a gander at what they have to offer. The only problem is, they might look silly while they're doing it.
Certainly silly-looking (but you wouldn't say it to their faces) are the hordes of familiars and pets that make up Summoning Batch 2. These creatures look about as mean, big and unusual as TzTok-Jad after a bubble bath, so prepare for some high-level and demanding familiars. Although we had to delay the release of Summoning Batch 2, we can guarantee that this extra time has been spent well to give the creatures a little bit more of a 'kick', with rewards for persistent summoners and awesome abilities that'll knock their headdresses off.
We don't want to give away too much about these familiars in the Behind the Scenes, but you can expect a Summoning wallpaper to give you a graphical taster of what's in store. As you would expect from the end of a Behind the Scenes, there are also a number of other website-based additions to get giddy about, including a new Players' Gallery, Postbag from the Hedge and an entry in the Lores and Histories.
We told you there was a lot this month! Gadzooks!