Also new is our Champion's Challenge guide! Thanks to warjaek and everyone who helped!

At long last, we have completed the Temple Trekking Mini-Game guide! A big thanks to carduel and everyone who helped!

~Oblivion590

The Catherby Map, Edgeville Map, East Ardougne Dungeon Map, Piscatoris Fishing Colony Mine Map, Mining Guild Map, and the North Keldagrim Mine Map have been uploaded! A huge thanks goes out to to Alk12 for the last three, watsermetjou for the third one, Fivestar24 for the second one, and TheChosen1 for the first one!

~Magicblade28 and ~ [Im4eversmart] ~

The South Keldagrim Mine Map has been uploaded! Thank you Alk12 for this great map!

~Magicblade28

We now have a new and updated Lost City Map!! Everyone thank halk5 and all the others who helped in the making of this map.

--samwilliamh--

Quotations taken directly from Runescape.com

17 May 2006 - Do not use your RuneScape password on other sites!

We would like to remind ALL our players to use a unique password for RuneScape. It is very dangerous to use the same password that you use on other websites.

It has just been brought to our attention that a large unofficial fansite (NOT our site) has had their password database stolen. And in fact has been leaking usernames+passwords for some time.

Remember that RuneScape fansites are not operated by Jagex and don't necessarily have the same level of security that we do here, and yet thousands! of player have needlessly risked their accounts by using the same password in both places!

So if you've used the same password on RuneScape and an external fansite then change your RuneScape password now. Otherwise you might just login and find all your items gone.

It's so important I'll say it again. DO NOT USE YOUR RUNESCAPE PASSWORD FOR ANY OTHER WEBSITE. Particularly not for unofficial RuneScape fansites. This incident shows why!

Finally I'd like to reassure users that our own security has in no way been compromised. As long as your RuneScape password is unique there is no risk from this.

Note: Please rest assured that RuneHQ is not the fansite from this update! However, everyone should still ensure that they use secure, UNIQUE passwords for both Runescape and RuneHQ!


~Oblivion590

Quotations taken directly from Runescape.com

16 May 2006 - Changes to Pest Control

Although the main focus of this week's update was the huge change to the game engine, we have also made some minor adjustments to the popular minigame, Pest Control.

In response to feedback from players, we have slightly weakened some of the attacking monsters. Furthermore, successful players will find that they can now accumulate up to 250 Void Knight Commendation Points rather than being stopped when they reach 15. This is to give you the opportunity to save up points to buy exciting new rewards that will be released soon.

Down in the Kharidian desert, Slayers will also find that the desert lizards have had a slight change too. The smaller varieties of desert lizard now have the same Slayer level requirement as the adult desert lizards did, and they can now only be killed with the aid of icy water, available from your local Slayer Master.

16 May 2006 - Laaaaaaaag :-)

Our servers are all a bit busy at the moment sending the new game engine to everybody, so are running a bit slower than normal.
If you find the game a bit slow then please just try using a world at a different location.

The game is still working fine, it just might be a bit slow today. Should hopefully be mostly back to normal tomorrow once everyone has finshed downloading this rather big update!

16 May 2006 - Game engine upgraded!

Today finally sees the launch of our latest game engine upgrade.

This is the biggest upgrade to the underlying engine which runs the game since we launched the new 3D engine two years ago, and I've been working on it for literally months. However this time the changes are more under the hood, which means (if everything goes to plan) you shouldn't actually notice a huge amount of difference!

The game engine upgrades this time are focused on allowing us to make the game bigger and on providing support for all sorts of features we want to do in future updates. These are the sort of changes that you won't see immediately, but do allow us to do all sorts of things in the future which we've been dying to do, but couldn't previously.

However there will still be quite a few improvements that you will see immediately, such as:

• 
  The first time you load the new engine it will take slightly longer than normal to load as it imports all the data from the old engine. However it only ever has to do that once, and from then on you can look forward to much faster loading times and much faster update times.
  



• 
  Greatly reduced memory use.
  



• 
  Vastly improved sound compatibility, including sound support in Firefox.
  



• 
  Better sound engine which can play more sounds at once.
  



• 
  Improved chat filter. Again this is a whole new technology and we might need to tweak it a bit so please be patient with it, but it should in the long run give less false positives whilst still protecting the chat.
  



• 
  Far better anti-macro technology.
  



• 
  Better compatibility with dual CPU computers.
  



• 
  Better compatibility with firewalls.
  



• 
  Better language support, with support for accented characters in chat, etc.
  



• 
  But of course it mainly consists of underlying changes to let us do more exciting stuff in upcoming updates...
  

~Oblivion590 and Brenden

Quotations taken directly from Runescape.com

15 May 2006 - Some website services unavailable

Due to a systems failure some of website services are unavailable. The game is unaffected by this issue. We are working hard to restore the affected services and thank you for your patience.

~ [Im4eversmart] ~

RuneHQ May Event!

Evil Mothers Unite!

Are you sick of flowers and chocolate cake?

Are you tired of giving over your precious sharks and law runes to demanding children?

Meet other like-minded Mothers and take revenge on your children, celebrate Evil Mother's Day with slaughter!

Come join this fun-filled Event with great rewards as you journey into the Wilderness to defeat your Evil Mother! Grab your swords and your food and get ready for the hunt...

Additional P2P event is also included!

More details here:

http://www.runehq.net/RHQInn/index.php?showtopic=379138

~ RuneHQ Events Team

Quotations taken directly from Runescape.com.

10 May 2006 - The New QuestHelp System

Introducing the QuestHelp system!
We know it can be very frustrating to get partway through a quest only to hit a puzzle you just can't solve. However, we also know that simply resorting to looking up the entire solution can take all the fun out of the quest and often results in you seeing more solution than you wanted to see. This can leave you with the feeling that you didn't really solve bits you could have done.

Therefore we're proud to announce the launch of our new QuestHelp system! The system looks at your current progress in the game to identify your exact position within a quest and then offers hints on how to get past the point you are currently stuck at.

Even better, the hint system is able to give 'cryptic' hints, which are just enough to get you thinking in the right direction, but still allow you to enjoy solving the puzzle for yourself. If that's not enough it can then give a more detailed hint to help you get past the sticking point. Additionally, some hints contain maps and images that provide excellent visual clues to aid you during your quest.

The system will give you up to 4 hints a day. Of course you don't have to use all 4 and for maximum enjoyment of the quests we would recommend only using the QuestHelp system when you find yourself otherwise stumped.

For the moment the QuestHelp system is a beta and provides help for all of our free quests. We will be looking to add the members quests next, just as soon as we can get all those hints written! So you can look forward to those being released in batches in the future.

There are a couple of reasons we started with just free player quests. Firstly, the majority of our game related queries are from free players. This will hopefully free up a significant part of our Customer Relations team, who can then be re-shifted to focus on processing game abuse and cheating reports even quicker, improving the game environment for all of our players! During the beta version, we also hope to get your ideas and suggestions via our forums to make the QuestHelp system as helpful as possible, which we can then look to take into account as we update with help for all of our members quests.

You can log-in to the QuestHelp system from the main front page and also from the Knowledge Base.

For more information about the QuestHelp system, view the QuestHelp Knowledge Base article.

~ [Im4eversmart] ~

Quotations taken directly from Runescape.com

3 May 2006 - RuneScape - Better than ever!

In the Customer Relations team we have over two thirds of our Moderators dedicated to processing your abuse reports as quickly as possible, as well as dealing with macro users and real world traders. Jagex Moderators are also assigned to tracking where the profits of cheating have gone, resulting in the banning not only of scam accounts but also of the main accounts of those who persist in scamming. In addition to this, we are constantly recruiting honest player moderators to help us to identify and remove disruptive elements from the game.

Beyond the Customer Relations team our Content team is constantly looking into ways to alter the game itself to reduce the ability for people to cheat, for example the recent creation of the Bank PINs and the essence mine changes.

The main source of information on rule breakers comes from you; our players. Every abuse report we receive is actioned accordingly and will be recorded on the offending player's permanent record. Processing the abuse reports cannot be done instantly, and action taken happens behind the scenes, so we cannot guarantee that you will always see the offending player being removed from the game; however the good news is that we are now more successful than ever at processing abuse reports quickly and seeking to educate players. Those who are not willing to be educated are removed.

So if you are a honest player, you can do your bit to help all this by sending in Abuse Reports whenever you see someone breaking the rules. You can also help yourself by keeping both your account and your PC safe; advice on how to do this being found in the Knowledge Base.

And if you're a dishonest player you can do your bit by stopping breaking the rules now.

We will find you and we will ban you if you don't play by our rules.

RuneScape Customer Relations Team

~Brenden

The Swan Song Quest Guide has been uploaded! Thank you SaxRox, Zevenberge, Budmash, and everyone else who helped!

~ [Im4eversmart] ~

Quotations taken directly from Runescape.com.

2 May 2006 - Return of the Wise Old Man!

A long time ago, the Wise Old Man of Draynor Village won instant wealth and notoriety by robbing his local bank. Since then he's lived fairly peacefully in his little house, under constant surveillance from the bank staff and his nosy (and hideous) neighbour. But the world has not forgotten this elderly hero, and the time has come for him to embark on one final quest to bring his adventurous career to a fitting conclusion...

Jump on the little boat moored in the river west of the Gnome Stronghold and travel northwards to the coast where you'll find a struggling fishing colony under attack from vicious sea trolls. Herman Caranos, the director, needs a highly qualified adventurer to help save his colony from ruin. If you meet his exacting standards, you could earn yourself a large reward (including prayer xp) and gain access to a new area with a bank where you can catch an entirely new kind of fish!

swan song: A person's final deed or performance before their retirement or death. This is based on the traditional folk-tale that a swan sings a beautiful song just before it dies.

In other news...

• 
  Following feedback from players about the Wilderness changes in last week's update, we've flattened the area near the Greater Demon ruins.
  



• 
  Lava in the Wilderness should no longer block you from ranging across it.
  



• 
  The new volcano at the north-eastern end of the Wilderness is now a multiway combat area.
  



• 
  The "Crumbling tome" you find during the In Aid of the Myreque quest has been renamed to "Battered tome" because it was being confused with the crumbling tome found near the Barrows.
  

2 May 2006 - Behind the Scenes - May

This month sees the launch of our next big game engine upgrade, which Andrew has been working on for the last 6 months. This will be the biggest upgrade to the underlying engine which runs the game since we launched the new 3D engine two years ago. This time the changes are more under the hood, which means (if everything goes to plan) you shouldn't actually notice a huge amount of difference!

The game engine upgrades this time are focused on allowing us to make the game bigger, and on providing support for all sorts of features we want to do in future updates. These are the sort of changes that you won't see immediately, but do allow us to do all sorts of things in the future which we've been dying to do, but couldn't previously.

However there will still be quite a few improvements that you will see immediately, such as:

• 
  Much faster loading times.
  



• 
  Faster, cleaner updates. When we update the game it should download more quickly.
  



• 
  Greatly reduced memory use, resulting in a smoother game.
  



• 
  Vastly improved sound compatibility. Sound should work on far more machines, and work on firefox, and sound will even work in low detail mode with no performance loss.
  



• 
  Better sound engine, with the ability to play more simultaneous sounds at a higher quality, which we will be using to introduce ambient background sound effects at a later date.
  



• 
  Improved chat filter.
  



• 
  Far better anti-macro technology. Those cheats are in for one huge shock! :-)
  



• 
  Better compatibility with dual CPU computers.
  



• 
  Better compatibility with firewalls.
  



• 
  Better language support, with support for accented characters in chat, etc.
  



• 
  And of course lots of underlying changes to let us do more exciting stuff in the future...
  

So... to the quests. The first of this month's quests asks the player to persuade the Wise Old Man to come out of retirement for just one last battle. Many years ago, he was possibly one of the greatest legends in the world; the most powerful adventurer in the land. Fame and fortune can cost dearly, though, so he hung up his mystic boots and followed a more careful life, offering help to new visitors to Draynor Village and causing the odd, erm, panic in the local bank. The time has come for him to dust off his armour and once again stand in front of the crusading hordes; but this time with you at his side! Great rewards, humour and some fantastic cutscenes have made this a firm favourite in the office during the past few months; we hope you enjoy it.

The second quest brings new life to the struggle between Miscellania and Etceteria, with the player investigating odd sounds and sightings coming from beneath the Miscellanian soil. Perhaps some great evil has risen from the deep, or perhaps it's those pesky Etceterians up to no good. Those players who have helped out King Vargas before will be invited to do so again, this time potentially adding the Etceterians to their pool of resources. This in turn means that the island will have new resources available for the locals to collect; including flax, seeds and even bird nests! We will also be rebalancing the normal Miscellania rewards to be more generous and less demanding, so you might be surprised what they can offer you.

Other updates this month include some new random events which ask the player to Grab the Evil Twin. Players operate a winch and crane with a large claw attached to the bottom; similar to the games you can see at fairgrounds. We also see the player being whisked off to a large troll area having to prod the correct pillars, just like a giant pinball machine!

We are also adding some other smaller features to the game later this month, such as clockwork toys for your cats, teleportation tablets, making your own cups of tea and even chairs you can sit down in.

Have fun!

~Brenden

The long awaited Al Kharid City Map and the And the much needed Port Sarim have been loaded! Also the Waterfall Dungeon Map has been updated. Thanks to alk12 and all of those that helped.

The Dungeon Of Tolna Map Map and the Experiments Dungeon Map have been loaded! Thanks to Shinraz and all

-= DRAVAN=-

The Canoe guide has been uploaded! Everyone thank Pesl and the others who created it!

--samwilliamh--

It's that time of month again - the RuneHQ Newspaper has been released! Packed full of great stories, interviews, fakes and much more, why waste any more time reading this? Go and check it out now!

Happy Reading,

~The RuneHQ Newspaper Staff~

In order to provide our users for the recent Pest Control update, we bring you the Pest Control Experience Calculator! Please note that like any of RuneHQ's experience calculators, you must have Flash Player 6 or newer to use it.

~Oblivion590~

The Canifis Slayer Mansion Map has been uploaded! Thanks to Fivestar24 and all of those that helped in this.

The Void Knight Outpost has been uploaded! Thanks to halk 5 and alk12.

-= DRAVAN=-

I have just completed work on Version 2.0 of The RuneHQ Browser Bar! All coding has been redone entirely by hand, unlike Version 1. All links to the site have also been updated. Currently this is only for Firefox, but hopefully one for Internet Explorer will be created soon too. If you currently have the old version installed, please uninstall it and upgrade to the new one. You can download this in the Downloads section of the site.

~ [Im4eversmart] ~

The Evil Chicken Lair Map has been uploaded! Thanks goes out to halk 5, fivestar24,watsermetjou, Fireball0236, alk12 for this map.

The Dwarven Underground Pass Map has been updated! Thanks to Watsermetjou, TheChoosen1, alk12 and Fireball0236for this map.

-= DRAVAN=-

Quotations taken directly from Runescape.com

24 April 2006 - Readers' Letters - April

April's edition of the Postbag from the Hedge is now out! Those of you lucky enough might actually see Postie Pete in game, so if you see an odd-looking character with a postbag, don't be surprised!

This month, the letters page tackles the burning issues that are the mysterious lands that lie beyond Port Phasmatys, the old "black hole", beards that talk, and even a chat with the mime - well, sort of... and more!

Check out the new readers' letters today!

Wilderness graphical update

Wilderness Update

We are continuing to improve the graphical look of our older areas of map to bring them up to the same standards as the new areas we've been developing. This week we've updated the graphics throughout the Wilderness, so if you're feeling particularly brave, check out the new lava areas, castles and an extremely fiery volcano.

To help you get around all of this, we've also introduced some new teleportation portals. The portals act as a new way of travelling around the Wilderness, but be careful: Once they're activated, there will be a short pause after which everyone in the immediate area will be transported to another portal, so don't rely on them to get you out of trouble. You may find that trouble follows you through... and you might end up in a higher level of Wilderness!

Battle Tortoises

The ingenious gnomes are continuing to come up with new ways to battle the Khazard troops. Now they've started breeding battle tortoises at the Stronghold. These armoured tanks, mounted by gnomic magi and rangers, are sure to be quite a challenge for General Khazard and his troops. They've already trundled some of them out onto the battlefield south-west of Ardougne.

Adjustments to Pest Control

We've made some adjustments to the Pest Control minigame we released last week.

Firstly, the game has been encountering issues where people turned up at the island with no intentions of helping to win, but just to stand around and get the rewards due to the efforts of their teammates. This is clearly not in the spirit of the game, therefore you now need to have dealt at least 50 points of damage over the course of a game to get a reward.

Secondly, we've put in a level 40 combat requirement to board the lander and play the game. Each player in a game of Pest Control increases the number of monsters in the game. As a lot of the monsters are pretty tough, this meant that it was extremely hard for lower level players to contribute enough to the team effort to make up for the added difficulty their presence had created.

We've also made it so that if more than 25 people board the lander, the people left behind will be given priority in being transported to the island on the next game.

We are planning some more changes, most significantly the ability to spend your Void Knight Commendation points on a greater variety of things than just combat xp. Taking a cue from the popularity of decorative armour from Castlewars, we are planning to make it so that you can earn that cool looking equipment you may have seen the Void Knights wearing.

If you're wondering about the Wilderness Tag minigame we mentioned in the monthly Behind the Scenes announcement, we've put that on hold for the moment. We felt that it could do with adjustments to make it enjoyable enough to meet your high standards.

Pure Essence now craftable on free servers

Non-members whose rune essence was converted to pure essence in last Thursday's update should find that they can now trade it and use it for runecrafting.

If you haven't already read it, then please see the previous news post entitled Rune Essence adjustment for more details on the Rune Essence changes.

°Shinraz° and ~ [Im4eversmart] ~

We now have a brand new Flash world map! Be sure to check it out here! Please keep in mind that some parts of the map are not fully updated yet, but will be as soon as possible.

~ [Im4eversmart] ~