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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W-0OaLngB4
Behind the Scenes - March 2015

Dimension of Disaster – Members only Quest

On main update this month is our highly anticipated 200th Quest, and with it comes a huge amount of new content for you to enjoy.

Ever imagined what it would be like if the hero never existed? Bosses have won, cities have been taken over because you just weren't there to stop them. In an alternative version of our history, Zemouregal rules “New Varrock”, an ominous city filled with the living corpses of all your previous allies, friendly shopkeepers and the poor old Varrock guard.

In total there are 5 parts to this ridiculous and comical adventure, each a humorous take on one of our existing Varrock quests, with increasingly difficult requirements to access. You’ll also need to make some cash since you won’t be able to access your bank in this new world, dealing in Zemomarks to earn the gear you need to succeed… aww, it’s just like being a noob again.

To help you with this there’s a task set to complete with a few special assignments to, once again, rescue poor old Gertrude’s cat! The content is full of that nostalgic buzz you’ve told us you want, with familiar music, hidden rewards and celebrations of all things RuneScapey. The content is jam packed full of rewards for completing each part of the quest, the task set, and from Gypsy Aris’s special shop.

Boss Practice Mode – Members Only

Are you one of those players that looks at a boss monster in the news and thinks 'That’s cool, but I’d just get owned'? Perhaps you’re an experienced boss fighter but would love a way to try out different tactics without the threat of death? Well, we have the perfect solution for you – and it’s called boss practice mode.

When you enter a boss lair you'll see a practice option, which will mean you can die safely, but not earn XP or loot from the possible kill.

We’ve also added rewards for players who take new boss killing players into their groups. If you earn a kill with players who’ve killed the boss less than 10 times, you’ll earn kill points to spend on some awesome cosmetic gear to show off your helpfulness.

In other news

There’s lots of other great stuff going on this month, like changes to the instancing system for bosses, making it easier for you to re-join rentals after restocking, and a result from months of discussions on the forums we’re finally ready to release our new look skillcapes, so keep an eye out for those.

The outfit on Solomons Store this month is something really special, A Dark Lord Pack featuring crazy animations and a fearsome looking costume, plus we’ve got a few new potions to give your character some unique skin tones.

The BETA servers are getting some new content to try out and feedback on too, like the rework to the death system, a crazy mash up of legacy interfaces and EOC action bars and a new “Drop pickup” system that allows you to grab multiple piles of loot in one easy click. The BETA servers are there for you to try things out, so do let us know your feedback after you do. Have fun!

Plus, keep bunny ears open for news on our eggciting Easter content.

In our latest podcast, the RS-DOS (Dukes of Scrumbridge) team reviews the release of the new quest Dishonour among Thieves! Our very own Mod Osborne quizzes Mod Tim, Mod Ollie and Mod Chaose on many aspects of the design, development and release - as well as have a Quest Name Dropping competition.

W00ters out.

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Beta: EoC/Legacy Mash-up

Beta is Back!

The beta is back and available to play right now for all members! We have a number of projects and changes in the pipeline that we would like your feedback on before they go into the live game. Today is the first of several planned releases, so look out for more in the future.

The first time you log in, a version of your main account will be imported and you will be transported to Lumbridge. Anything you do in the beta will not affect your account in the main game.

Play the beta now!

Beta Changes

EoC/Legacy Mashup

Interfaces have been decoupled combat from combat modes, so now you can play with Legacy interfaces and EoC combat, or with the new customisable interfaces and Legacy combat. Choose your preference from the game settings menu.

Melee 2H Improvements

Quake now deals 219% damage to the main target.
Hurricane will now hit twice on the main target.
Meteor Strike will now deal AoE damage to nearby opponents.
Meteor Strike no longer requires the opponent to have less than 50% life points.
Barge will now apply a 1.2 second bind on an opponent.
Barge no longer shares a cooldown with surge.
Barge with no target will no longer perform surge. This will be change to use the targeting cursor in a future update.
Legacy Soul Split Healing

In an effort to bring into line 2-handed Soul Split healing, the healing cap has been removed in Legacy combat mode.

PvP Focused Changes

Disabling prayers has been removed from Snipe, Dragonbreath and Havoc.
Basic stuns now last for 1.2 seconds.
Basic and threshold stuns no longer share a cooldown.
Eating food during PvP in non-Legacy combat mode will drain adrenaline instead of invoking a global cooldown.
Giving Feedback

As the projects in beta are still a work in progress, they are unlikely to be perfect. Therefore it is important you let us know what you think of them and inform us if you find any bugs.

For any feedback that you may have, please post this in the beta feedback subforum, and for any bugs, please use the in-game bug reporter (while on a beta server).

In certain circumstances we may honour players with 'the Gamebreaker' title to use in the main game. This is for those who we have determined to have gone above and beyond to help test the beta, have provided great feedback and reported major bugs.

Thank you and we look forward to your feedback.

In Other News

The Ninja Team have made a number of improvements to the WildyWyrm and lava strykewyrms including providing wild arrows to go with your strykebows.
You may notice many of the skeleton models have been reworked, and some of the animations you see in desert areas have also been updated. These graphical improvements are courtesy of the Ninjas.

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Today, there's more choice than ever in how you play RuneScape, with the EoC/Legacy Mash Up – a set of interface and gameplay options fresh out of the beta.

Previously, you had the choice of playing RuneScape with the Evolution of Combat system and complex, customisable interfaces, or in Legacy Mode, with old-style, low-intensity combat and traditional, fixed interfaces.

Now, you can pick and choose your favourites in any of four combinations, straight from the Combat Settings interface:

Evolution of Combat and New Interface System
Evolution of Combat and Legacy interfaces
Legacy combat and New Interface System
Legacy combat and interfaces
Enjoy! This is just the first of a number of updates coming your way from the current round of beta testing. If you haven't already, get involved! It's the best way to have your say in some of RuneScape's most crucial updates.

The RuneScape Ninja Team & Mod Roy (Honorary Ninja)

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Legendary Pet Improvements

To accompany the release of the two drakes, we've revamped the way that legendary pets work.

Legendary pets can now have up to three abilities active at one time. These are equipped in slots, which are unlocked as your pet reaches new growth stages.

Six new abilities are available for you to equip on your legendary pets:

Slayer finisher: your pet will automatically finish off slayer monsters that usually require an item, saving you an inventory slot.
Item repair: once per hour, you can use a repairable degrading item on your pet to repair it immediately. This works – and costs – the same as using the POH armour stand.
Beast of Burden: use a beast of burden familiar pouch on your pet to grant it the according level of BoB capacity. You must have the necessary Summoning level to use the pouch, and you can use more pouches to stack or renew the duration up to 2 hours.
High Alchemy: once per 10 minutes, use an item on your pet to convert it to coins, as per the High Alchemy spell. This requires no runes, and gives no Magic XP. Requires 55 Magic.
Fertiliser: every hour, your pet will answer the call of nature. The results – only viewable to you – can be picked up for six buckets of super compost.
Life Saver: your pet will save you from death, as per a ring of life. Note that this does not work in PvP areas and has a two-hour cooldown (logged-in time).
Note that life saver, slayer finisher, repair item and fertiliser aren't available for Ironman accounts.

Also, the existing abilities have been improved:

Forage has an improved drop table, and foraged coins are now added straight to your money pouch.
Scavenging now begins as soon as the ability activates, has an improved interface, and your pet will more reliably deliver items it picks up.

Pina Coladas posted:

I thought you go there in that newish Zamorak quest?

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D&D Improvements

Distractions and Diversions are short, fun activities designed to give you a break from skill training, while offering some unique rewards.

The Ninjas have made a ton of tweaks and fixes to D&Ds this week, so take a good look over the list below:

Bork
Added to the D&D tracker.
Drop improvements – previously unlocked with Varrock armour 4 - have been moved to Varrock armour 3.
Varrock armour 4 now offers a daily teleport to Bork.

Champion's Challenge
XP and stats have been buffed.
The fights can be repeated weekly for an XP reward.
Losing a fight no longer locks the player out from the fight - so there's no need to get a new scroll.
Added to the D&D tracker.
Can be now be completed in EoC or Legacy.
There's a new title - 'Champion of Champions' - for defeating all 15 champions.
The deposit box is now a bank chest.
Scrolls can now be fed to a baby troll.
The lesser demon fight has been tweaked.

Court Cases
Now always rewards a mystery box.
Mystery box rewards have been made more worthwhile.
The XP reward has been changed to a combat XP lamp - Prayer and Summoning included.
A new title is available for those who have completed all cases: 'The Detective'.
It's no longer necessary to complete the tutorial to start receiving cases.

Evil Tree
XP rates have been increased for the top three trees.
Turns into a bonfire post-event, on which kindling can be burned, granting Firemaking XP determined by your level.
Roots go down faster when all four are active.
Roots respawn more slowly when three are active.
Rewards now scale based on Farming/Woodcutting level.
Spirit trees and the D&D Tracker are more specific on where the tree will appear.
The leprechaun's log-banking magic now works instantly, instead of just when the inventory is full.
It's now quicker to check the approximate health of the tree by examining it.

Familiarisation
Now occurs exactly every 2 hours.
The triple charm reward is now given by a consumable ticket, allowing you to choose when to use it. You can only carry one of these at a time.

Fish Flingers
The Barbarian Assault fisherman is now found near Otto's lake, close to the leaping fish spots.
New rewards have been added. Each of these costs 100 tokens:
Tacklebox fish teleport limit reset.
Fish Flingers entry ticket. Note that the cap of 15 is unchanged.
Extra fish caught with each success for 20 minutes. Note that this stacks with benefits from Agility and the shark outfits.

Goblin Flash Mobs
The D&D is now free to play.
Non-degradeable free-to-play level 55 combat gear has been added as rewards:
Gud raider axe.
Gud raider chainbody (power-type).
Gud raider shield.
Resource rewards have been improved.

Phoenix Lair
A new Level 84 familiar has been added:
Has a chance to burn 2 logs at once when using bonfires.
Requires 2 phoenix quills.
Uses the same scroll as the original phoenix.
Invisible +12 Firemaking boost.
Same quest restriction as the original Phoenix familiar.
Reborn mages no longer block movement.
Surge, Barge and Escape are now allowed.
10 quills can be paid to skip to the fight.
The branch harvesting animation no longer causes a delay.
Using unfletched twigs fletches them.
The cave exit's 'Look at' option has been replaced with a 'confirm' box.

Skeletal Horror
The XP reward now scales according to Slayer and Prayer levels.
Reset now occurs at the standard Wednesday weekly reset time.
The skeleton champion scroll and triskelion fragment have been added to drop table.
Always drops an elite clue scroll (as long as you don't already have one).
Added to the D&D tracker.
There's also a new title – the Distracted – for anyone who tries out all D&Ds featured in the D&D Tracker. You can find out which you still need to try via the preview in the Title interface.

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Death Rework

With your help in the beta, we've reworked RuneScape's Death system. There's now more freedom in how you reclaim your items and more leeway when things go wrong, while retaining the risk in your most dangerous adventures.

When you die – as long as you're not in the Wilderness or in a safe area – the following applies:

Items are now stored by Death when you die. He will look after them for 24 hours of in-game time. This persists across log-outs, so disconnects are no longer a danger. You will respawn in his office.
You will be able to claim back your items in exchange for coins, by sacrificing items eligible to be lost for their coin value, or a combination of the two, using a new interface.
Items that would have degraded on death, won't do so if reclaimed from Death's storage, as the penalty is now reflected in the buy-back mechanic.
If you choose not to reclaim items from Death immediately, your gravestone will spawn when you leave his office. Gravestone timers have been reduced, but this will allow you to reclaim items using the degrade-on-death mechanics you're used to.
If you choose to try and get back to your gravestone and don't make it, Death will still be holding your items.
You can return to Death within 24 hour in-game hours if you wish to claim some of your items back later. Be aware, though, that dying again will wipe the stored items – only the items and equipment you were carrying during your most recent death are stored.
Note that existing mechanics for items kept on death still apply. This includes extra items kept with prayers, divination items, and similar effects, including reductions for being skulled or being in a dangerous area.
Items you were holding when you died can no longer be picked up by other players.
In the Wilderness, or in safe areas, none of the above applies. Death mechanics in PvP situations are the same as they've always been, with the exception that a stack of items is now treated as a single item for purposes of item protection.

Other, smaller tweaks are:

You can now choose any gravestone appearance that you have unlocked. You will always get the benefits of the best one available to you, regardless of the chosen look.
Graves are now allowed in the Corporeal Beast's lair.

Themata posted:

This Is What Runescape Clickbait Would Look Like. When I Saw...

Magres posted:

Foreskin Problems posted:

It's tailor-made for bankstanders.

I made a video!