9th March 2004 - RS2 Beta update

Today we have uploaded the following features to the Runescape Beta.

The legends guild quest is online
We have temporarily added a character for the duration of the beta called Erasmus who is northeast of Lumbridge castle. Speak to him and he will allow you to restart the Legends quest as well as the dragon slayer and Shilo village quests, so that you can test them.
We have made it so you can combine your half drunk potions into 1 vial.
We have greatly improved the timing of the sound effects.
We have greatly improved the following option, so your friend who is following doesn't get stuck behind fences and also doesn't tend to spend so much time walking sideways.
Route finding to npcs has also been futher improved.
Lighting different kinds of logs gives different amounts of firemaking xp.
We have also made the following bug fixes:


Fixed: Some connection lost issues people were suffering in the jungle.
Fixed: The weaken spell was telling players their foes already had weakened attack rather than strength.
Fixed: The curse spell was telling players their foes already had weakened strength rather than attack.
Fixed: Making opal bolt tips gave the wrong message.
Fixed: The combat icons for the pickaxe were wrong.
Fixed: Gaining a level restored your stats.
Fixed: A problem with players sometimes being drawn with the wrong appearance after a load/lost-connection.
Fixed: Fishing spots sometimes got stuck on each other out at sea.
Fixed: Players could get stuck in Melzars maze if they had coloured keys in their banks.
Fixed: Talking to Npcs next to a diagonal wall didn't work.
Fixed: The strike spells weren't working properly against Salarin the Twisted.
Fixed: You could skip the part of the observatory quest where you received the quest reward.
Fixed: Players could ask to join the Monastery even though they had already joined.
Fixed: You could not get through the West Ardougne doors after completing Biohazard.


Taken from Runescape.com

Scapeboard.com having a few problems again.
Hopefully they be running smoothly again soon.
Sorry for the problems but is not in my hands to sort this out. DK3 are working on getting it sorted.

Hmm.. it wasn't posted on the official news, so Im not really sure when it was added, but earlier I scrolled down the Main Runescape page and noticed a new poll section there, with a new poll.

Note, this is for Runescape members ONLY.

3rd March 2004 - RS2 Changes and fixes

In addition to the major changes made today, which are detailed in the "RS2 beta item test" news story, we have made the following changes.
We have improved the autocast mode on the staffs, so you if you are attacked while in the correct combat mode you will automatically retaliate with magic.

You can now fletch Opal Bolt tips and attach them to crossbow bolts.

You can now buy Barb Bolt tips from the ranging guild using tickets and attach them to crossbow bolts.

Many banks and shops now have a faster use right-click option, speeding up the process of buying and selling items considerably.


Fixed: You could be trapped in the rat area of the clock tower by other people pulling the levers.
Fixed: Catherby and Lumbridge general stores were sharing their stock.
Fixed: The gallows from the Shilo village had disapeared.
Fixed: All gloves were the same colour when worn by female characters.
Fixed: The parts of the dragon slayer quest after the boat journey had stopped working.
Fixed: If you died before getting steel gauntlets turned into magic/ cooking / gold gaunts you couldn't get a replacement.
Finally, as we are trying to get the game closer to its finished state, the Lumbridge teleport is no longer free to cast.


Taken from Runescape.com
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Woooo.. sounds like RS2 could be coming shortly!

Take it easy,
Swift

3rd March 2004 - RS2 Beta Item test

We have deleted all the RuneScape-2 beta accounts, and replaced them with a fresh copy of your RS1 account. This time the copy comes with all your items and quest status.
We would like to make it clear that this is just a test, this is NOT the full launch!

The new RS2 beta accounts that have been created are still temporary, using them still won't affect your real rs1 account in any way, and they will still be deleted at the end of the beta.

We have done this to test our full save game converter works properly, and give people a chance to play the beta with all their items and armour. If you notice any of your quests or items do not appear to have converted correctly then please report it on our rs2 bugs forum.

Remember: Even though you have all your latest items and stats, everything you do in the beta will still be forgotten when the beta ends.


Taken from Runescape.com

25th February 2004 - More RS2 Beta Updates

As the new combat system gives different advantages to using different sorts of weapons, we have added a dragon dagger to the lost city market and a dragon mace to the heros guild shop.
We have also added a map object to the lumbridge general store, so that you can see where your character is located when in Asgarnia or Misthalin.


Fixed: Talking to one of the ogre guards allowed you to restart the watchtower quest
Fixed: Clicking outside of a message box caused players to not get their objects from the casket
Fixed: Players could destroy other peoples cannons by setting up their own cannon in the same place
Fixed: Players who lost their scroll from the watchtower quest before using it couldn't get a replacement
Fixed: Some players couldn't get a Daconia rock in the grand tree quest
Fixed: Some ogres dropped small bones
Fixed: The dig option was removed from the spade making pirates treasure uncompletable
Fixed: The pickaxes didn't have level requirements to wield
Fixed: You could could continually drop copies Anna in a barrel to get a whole crowd of Annas
Fixed: The stats on the dragon battle axe were lower than intended, making it a worse weapon than the dragon long sword

18th February 2004 - RS1 and RS2 friendlists linked

Today, we have successfully linked the rs1 & rs2 friend lists together.
This means whilst playing rs1 you can now talk to your friends playing rs2, and vice-versa!

Also please note that from now on (as of yesterday in fact) any friends you add or remove from your friends-list in either game will instantly affect the other game too. This is because both games are now running from the same list.


Taken from Runescape.com

17th February 2004 - RS2 Beta updated again

Today we have added the following updates to Runescape 2.
Player routefinding has been greatly improved.
If you click to attack a monster your player will get to it much more easily instead of walking into fences and furniture.
A little flag will apear on the minimap when you click to go somewhere so that you can tell your character is moving to where you clicked.

Most of the npcs in the game no longer block movement.

We have added the shilo village quest.

We have made some changes and improvements to the trawler game.
Working as team now works better on the Runescape trawler game, fixing the nets, bailing and plugging leaks all now help everyone on the trawler.

We have changed around which areas in the wilderness are now multicombat - multicombat now mostly affects areas in the east of the wilderness rather than the west.

The pickaxes are now wieldable and can be used as weapons.

You can now use a tinderbox on logs in your inventory and you will automatically drop them and light a fire.

Spears have now been improved to be a good all around melee weapon which is useful for those wishing to train using the controlled combat style.

Maces now have a small prayer bonus, making them more useful for people who want to specialize as a cleric.

We have also fixed the following bugs;

Fixed: The temple of Ikov quest wouldn't work if you bought Winelda limpwurt roots before she had asked for them
Fixed: You couldn't enter the chaos, cosmic and nature rune temples
Fixed: Experience rewards were wrong on various quests
Fixed: Players could get stuck in the sewers when using the hazeel cult raft
Fixed: If you were typing a message to a friend and the friend logged out before you finished, the message would be sent to the next person on your list
Fixed: Salarin the twisted only had 20 hitpoints
Fixed: It was impossible for 1 in 16 players to be able to find a Daconia rock in the grand tree quest
Fixed: The gnome agility course and wilderness agility courses were not giving the correct bonuses
Fixed: You could sell runes to the magic guild shop for more than you bought them
Fixed: The Flames of Zamorak couldn't be cast outside the arena unless Claws of Guthix was learned first
Fixed: You could not get to Sir Galahads house round the north side of McGrubors wood
Fixed: Willow and Oak woodcutting both gave the same xp
Fixed: The 'poison chalice' drink did nothing
Fixed: Tower guards didn't fight back
Fixed: If you lost the distilator in the biohazard quest you couldn't get a new one
Fixed: There were lava eel fishing spots in the wilderness
Fixed: The dwarf cannon blocked players movements


Taken from Runescape.com

16th February 2004 - Targeting Customer Support

Today we have made some important changes to the support service we are offering our free playing members.
We have always maintained that our commitment is to give a priority level of full support to RuneScape members, but at the same time maintain a good level of essential support for our free playing members.

RuneScape has grown at a very fast rate over the last 2 years and we have now over 660,000 active players. Due to the very fast growth of our player base we have decided to change some of the support categories for free players.

Basically this means that our team which provides customer support to the free users, will be focussing more on important categories like password-support and stopping scamming, and less on trying to reply to every single suggestion and comment we receive!

Don't worry, we won't be spending any less time on 'free user' support than we do now. We just obviously want to make sure our support team's efforts are focussed on the most important types of help first.

This change only effects free players but should benefit all players by allowing our customer support team to concentrate on the really important cases and deal with those quicker.

RuneScape Members will of course still receive all types of support, and priority customer support over our non members. These changes are part of our ongoing efforts to constantly improve our service.


News Runescape.com

16th February 2004 - Official Forums Launched!

Today we are officially launching the RuneScape Forums, that have been running in beta mode for a few months.
The forums are very lively and there are regular contributions by several members of Jagex staff, even Andrew himself!

This launch will affect players in two ways:

Firstly existing forum users will notice that a number of the forums have been moved, others renamed, and some combined.

Secondly, the forums are now viewable by free players. For free users the forums are read-only. We value our players input, and forum feedback about our RS2 beta has been very useful to us. However, we have decided not to allow free players to make posts on the forums for the time being.

We have made this decision for two main reasons:

-The sheer scale of the RuneScape community (there are over 660,000 active accounts!) would make it very hard to ensure the quality of posts, and to keep the forums well moderated.

-Since free accounts are readily available, we don't want the anonymity that they provide to be an excuse for inappropriate forum posting.

There are currently about 40 active player moderators on the forums whose efforts to maintain a fun and safe community are very much appreciated.

We hope that everyone will enjoy using our forums and feel more a part of the RuneScape community.



News taken from Runescape.com