Update:Behind the Scenes - October (2012)
This update was added on 1 October 2012.
Festival of the Dead - Members:
This dark and twisted month begins in high spirits, as we introduce a new temporary holiday event to Gielinor: the Festival of the Dead. A Saradomin priest is hosting the event, and he’ll need your help to bring celebration to the graveyards of RuneScape. Paint skulls, let off fireworks and party in memory of RuneScape’s most recognisable dead characters!
There are five old friends to commune with, should you have their quest requirements. Successfully celebrate a fallen comrade, and you’ll unlock a skeleton mask and double-XP multipliers when Prayer training, up to a maximum of 251,000 additional XP!
King Black Dragon - Members:
The caves leading to the King Black Dragon have been quiet of late, and the old dragon has been waiting for adventurers to fill his belly. We wouldn’t dare to deny him a snack, so we’ve updated the three-headed lug, his lair and his rewards.
Go head-to-head-to-head with him and you might be the proud owner of some gloves and boots (with the highest Prayer bonus for their respective equipment type), ornament kits for the dragon kiteshield, a more generous drop table, and revealing lore about the fabled ‘dragon riders’. We’ll even toss in a teleport to the KBD from Edgeville, and a 10% damage multiplier if you’re brave enough to reach the King via the Wilderness.
Dungeon Updates - Members:
Why update one dungeon when you can update several? This month, we’ll be graphically overhauling four of the most intimidating dungeons that RuneScape has to offer:
- Taverley Dungeon
- Fremennik Slayer Dungeon
- The Chaos Tunnels
- Brimhaven Dungeon
We hope you don’t get lost in the reworked dungeons. That would be a horrifying shame...
Goblin Mobs and Goblin Update – Free and Members:
You thought it was safe to loiter around the mining sites of RuneScape? You were wrong! Goblin Mobs will be springing up, and the green pests will be claiming the sites as their own. Go face-to-face with the grotty blighters, spy their new graphical rework, and kill them before they do something particularly nasty. If that doesn’t sate your bloodlust, travel to the reworked Goblin Village and take down some boss goblins!
While the content is aimed at less-experienced players, there will still be rewards to tickle your fancy: combat XP, a suit of goblin armour, an axe, and two goblin shields - one of which will offer combat XP multipliers. So, you'll need to hunt those warty scallywags before they claim the free game as their own.
What’s Mine is Yours – Free and Members:
Among the ghosts, dragons, skeletons and spirits this month, one update stands out as being on the lighter side. You could even call it happy.
Available to free players and members, What’s Mine is Yours will replace Doric’s Quest, retaining its themes but expanding the plot into something grand. Become Doric the dwarf’s business partner, investigating a cruel conspiracy that threatens to thrust him into bankruptcy. Get his business back on track and see it flourish, with Doric’s smith upgrading and growing to reflect your hard work.
While the quest has low-level requirements, there’ll be post-quest orders for high-level smiths to complete, gaining you a lump sum of 13,000 Mining XP and 48,000 Smithing XP. You’ll also be the proud owner of a Gofannon amulet that awards double XP when Mining or Smithing, up to a total of 144,000 additional XP.
Halloween Event: Haunted Houses – Free and Members
This year’s Halloween event asks an important question: are you righteous or heinous? Pick a side and take part in a world-wide ghost hunt, cooperating with likeminded players to explore the houses of RuneScape, searching for escaped ghosts from the afterlife. Bust that ghost, feel good, gather its ectoplasm and score a vital point for your team so you can gloat over your opponents.
Gain small amounts of Prayer XP and ectoplasm, which can be used to purchase reversible robes, displaying your team of choice (Go Team Heinous!), or the mighty ectoplasmator, a bonecrusher-style item that hands you Prayer XP whenever you kill a ghost, including Barrows Brothers and revenants. All you have to do is keep the ectoplasmator in your inventory.
Duel Arena Tweaks – Free and Members:
At the devil’s tail of this month, we’ll be making some tweaks to the Duel Arena. This is a spit-and-polish on the interfaces, including a couple of new features: a rematch button, making it easier to organise a revenge bout; and a function that saves your favourite settings with one click.
Solomon Store Exclusives
The hairstyle and facial hair systems are getting a makeover this week, as Solomon expands his repertoire to offer a range of amazing new avatar customisations. This includes 18 new hairstyles (10 female, 8 male) and 2 facial hair options, all supporting two tone colouring. The method of changing hairstyles & facial is also being overhauled, allowing you to change your style on the fly within the Customisation Interface.
Later on in the month, the dwarven warsuit pack will make you the toast of Keldagrim, as it includes some bulky mechanised armour, a shield, sword, metal crossbow, two emotes, two teleport anims and a title.
We will also be offering a 'Choose Your Own Outfit' consumable. This item can be used on any of your favourite items to make them a cosmetic over-ride, in the same manner as the other Solomon Store items. Enter battle with a party hat or Halloween mask, when you are really wearing (and risking) a dragon full-helm, for example.
You won’t be able to move for updates this month, and we’re confident that they will all send a chill down your spine.
Have fun!
Mod Mark RuneScape Lead Designer
Discuss this here.
What is a 'Behind the Scenes' article?
Behind the Scenes is a sneak peek at the planned game updates that we hope to launch in the coming month.
This, however, is only a plan; not a promise that a particular update will be released in a particular way or at a particular time. To get you the highest quality updates as quickly as possible, we usually keep on tweaking and testing right up until the moment before release, so sometimes things change or take a bit longer than expected. We aren’t afraid to change our plan if necessary, as we will never launch an update before it is ready.