Update:Personalised Shops
This update was added on 2 September 2009.
As of today, shops in RuneScape are now personalised for every player. The amount of stock you see in each shop is now unique to your account and, therefore, no longer affected by the actions of other players.
This has a number of advantages:
- Most importantly, it allows us to relax the price limits on the Grand Exchange. For somewhat complicated reasons, it means it is safe for us to drop the minimum price for many items, and raise the maximum price for some items. This means many items will no longer have their price set against an artificial limit, allowing prices to move more freely and better match player supply and demand. Similarly, many items that are popular for high-alching have had their lower limits relaxed to make the Grand Exchange work more smoothly.
- It means shops no longer have to offer unlimited stock to meet everyone's needs. Because each player sees their own stock, we can put in more realistic stock behaviour, where the stock (and price) goes up and down as you buy and sell, without worrying about one player buying out all the stock and depriving everyone else. Unlimited stock has weird effects on the economy of the game, and getting rid of it is vital for being able to relax the Grand Exchange price limits. Don’t worry, the stock is still very generous and should be plenty to supply ordinary play – particularly for items that you might need in greater numbers (e.g. arrows, runes and other consumables will be available in higher quantities than items like armour, tools and weapons).
- Shops may now be more worth selling your items to. A general store will never be full of other players’ unwanted items and specialist stores may offer better prices when they are low on stock. This means they are more useful for converting ‘junk’ items into cash, because each player has their own separate allowance for how much they can sell into the shop before the price drops.
With this personalising of shop stocks, we realised that it would negate some of the rewards earned from the Varrock and Karamja Achievement Diaries, so we’ve substituted them for other rewards.
The majority of Karamja diary’s easy reward is that you get better prices from Karamja's shops. We couldn’t take this reward away without replacing it, so we have added Dell Monti, a pirate with a passion for pineapples, who will freely share his fruity bounty with you on a daily basis (if you are wearing your Karamja gloves).
Varrock diary's smaller reward regarding shop prices is replaced with a greater possibility of obtaining skull sceptre parts from creatures in the Stronghold of Security, as well as doubling the charges it has if you make it while wearing your Varrock armour. Please note that the reward for buying battlestaves from Zaff while wearing Varrock armour has not been affected by this update in any way.
Mod Fetzki
Head of RuneScape
nl:Update:Personalised Shops