Update:Newsletter 2

RuneScape Newsletter - Issue #2

Welcome to the second RuneScape newsletter. Lots has happened since the last newsletter, and we've had a lot of good suggestions for the future. Read on to find out what's planned

What's new in Runescape
Most of you are probably aware that the player killing in RuneScape has been changed to make the game fairer. Now when you die, if you haven't attacked any other players within the last 20 minutes, then you get to keep your best 3 items.

The bank we promised in the last newsletter has been added to the city, and is a safe place to store your money. Following a large amount of attacks just outside the bank, the city has paid to put multiple armed guards around the bank area to protect people who have just withdrawn money. The number of guards was further increased last Monday.

The magic system has also been modified, such that the magic spells no longer depend on your ranged combat skill. So you no longer need to be a high level ranger to use them effectively. The spells were made stronger, but they were still too weak, so they were made TWICE as effective against monsters last Monday!

New Quest: Vampire Slayer - The vampire sleeping in the coffin under Draynor Manor has been terrorising the inhabitants of the small village to the south and must be stopped! If you think you are up to the task of slaying a vampire, go and talk to the people in the village to find out how you can destroy this evil monster!

The most recent addition is a new area in the sewer. This contains 2 new monster types, deadly-red-spiders, and the exceedingly strong 'moss-giant'. If you can survive then the red spider eggs can be used to make a 4-dose strength potion!

What's planned
We've received a lot of good suggestions, a lot of which we are planning to add to the game. In particular the following changes are planned next:


 * Modify the trade window to display the names of items to prevent unfair trading.
 * A lot more spells are still due to be added to the magic system.
 * Proper support for clans, with a full system to allow people to join and create clans.
 * A 'duel' feature. Challenge your rivals to a duel, with the risks and rewards set as you like.
 * More skills such as fishing, and fletching.
 * A friends list to indicate which of your friends are online, and allow easy communication.
 * And of course more quests, more monsters, and more areas of map.

Runescape hiscores
Below are the top scores as they were at 12pm GMT on Wednesday-7th. Only the top 25 players are shown, but I'm working on a new page for the website which will allow you to search for the ranking of any player and see how you compare with everyone else.

Top 25 players - score is total of all skills

1: lightning - 682

2: Sunjon - 593

3: Ashley - 583

4: Sir - 570

5: Gugge - 564

6: ZAPTONE_Z - 537

7: DarkPrince - 531

8: stud690 - 530

9: Lord_Soth - 519

10: TheReturnOfX - 517

11: Rab - 515

12: Flat - 508

13: Silus - 508

14: MysticsMagic - 506

15: Rodrigo - 501

16: Morfnak - 501

17: hurkules - 485

18: Devil_Hunter - 485

19: kancer - 481

20: Flex_10 - 478

21: RattSabre - 469

22: constant - 468

23: Robin_Hood2 - 449

24: terminator - 446

25: Prophecy3 - 438

Top 25 fighters - score is total combat skill

1: lightning - 230

2: Robin_Hood2 - 217

3: Gugge - 214

4: Ashley - 213

5: stud690 - 210

6: sandytrain - 195

7: Rab - 194

8: Morfnak - 194

9: ZAPTONE_Z - 193

10: Genocide1 - 192

11: Day_Dream - 190

12: constant - 190

13: Sunjon - 190

14: Sir - 188

15: Nightmare888 - 188

16: Rodrigo - 187

17: terminator - 186

18: hurkules - 185

19: Flex_10 - 184

20: Silus - 182

21: Prophecy3 - 181

22: joe1002 - 180

23: Lord_Soth - 180

24: x_execute_x - 179

25: Ice_Sabre - 178

Top 25 player killers - score is number of kills

1: Wolf - 132

2: Hells_Archer - 117

3: Phadera - 117

4: Lord_Sam - 113

5: DemonWarrior - 105

6: EndBringer - 104

7: Drew_Royal - 103

8: Black_Waltz3 - 101

9: DaRk_RoCk - 100

10: urgonnadie5 - 100

11: Lord_Stan - 99

12: SilencerLD - 95

13: robsimons - 94

14: shawn6 - 89

15: Mortis - 88

16: Ghost - 85

17: snorch - 85

18: matt_smith1 - 84

19: john246 - 84

20: Robin_Hood2 - 83

21: LovinHacking - 82

22: adam2000 - 82

23: God - 81

24: ace2you - 80

25: RCCBrasil - 80

Top 25 smiths - score is mining + smithing

1: dmonik - 110

2: STarlude - 98

3: natslayer - 97

4: Lord_Soth - 97

5: Viikate - 97

6: lightning - 96

7: The_Unknown - 92

8: beef - 91

9: hurkules - 90

10: Deckchair - 90

11: Kpac - 90

12: Snowdog - 89

13: S_H_A_R_K - 89

14: Rodrigo - 88

15: JB - 88

16: DOC_IRON_9 - 87

17: Vit - 86

18: BlueRose13x - 86

19: MysticsMagic - 85

20: AvalonX - 85

21: TheReturnOfX - 84

22: Dizier - 84

23: RoaDDoGG - 83

24: Sir_Beachy - 83

25: KaGi - 83

Thanks for reading this newsletter, have fun playing the game!

Andrew Gower (RuneScape creator) and Paul Gower (Map and Quest designer)