August - Tuskan Raiders

Around the Forum

Current Events, or Events that were Current when it was a Month Ago, or Something

The month of June saw discussion of super serious matterful matters and whatnot around the forums, including American currency issues, the American Supreme Court's recent decision legalizing same-sex marriage, and the upcoming American presidential election. In the world of not-America, there has also been a topic regarding the recent terror attacks in multiple countries.

And what about the world of not-Earth! This past month saw some scandalous new insights into Pluto, humanity's regretfully disowned child. High-res photos taken by Nasa's New Horizons probe, which was launched when the dwarf planet was still considered a planet planet, have had scientists flabbergasted for hours on end. There appear to be some potential features that distinguish it from some of our other, more boring neighbors (I'm looking at you, Neptune), such as volcanic activity and ice mountains. See this randomly Google'd article that seems legit enough for more a more comprehensive summary of this story.

im gona mill burray ur mom

Our former oblivious president took his dignified name to the forums a while ago in order to express things that make him feel sad. Truly a step in the right direction for our great nation!

Praise Gaben

The famed Steam Summer Sale spanned the 11th to the 21th of June, inevitably inciting much discussion in the PC Gaming Club, a topic for heathens who think that RuneScape isn't enough for them.

Why We Cancelled the July Newsletter

Sobend sprained his, uh, solar plexus during an intense session of, uh, saving starving orphans, putting him into critical condition, then a coma, then death, thus rendering him unable to type for a short time. With him only recently having recovered, we were forced to postpone the previous newsletter until now.

Around RuneScape

Adamant and Rune Dragons

With this month came the release of something we all have been waiting for - adamant and rune dragons! The idea was selected from a RuneLabs suggestion and led to the actual game update.

Adamant Dragons are located in Brimhaven Dungeon and (after the Hero's Welcome quest) the Ancient Cavern below Baxtorian Falls. They have a 100% drop of two adamant bars and one adamant dragon bone. Adamant dragon bones are twice as good as regular dragon bones, giving 144 prayer experience per bone buried. Besides that, adamant dragons have fairly usual drops: ore, armour, weapons, etc. They also have a rare chance of dropping dragon plate legs and skirts.

Rune dragons are located on Kethsi. They can be accessed after completing Ritual of the Mahjarrat and Fate of the Gods. To get to the location, you must dial the world gate to Kethsi. From there, you will find yourself on Mount Firewake, location of the rune dragons. Rune dragons are different from adamant dragons in that they have three phases. The first phase is the armoured phase. To get past this phase, you must chip off the armour of the rune dragon with dragonbane bolts/arrows. Following this phase, the dragon will fly and burn red-hot dragonfire capable of partially burning through maximum dragonfire protection. The final phase is the enraged phase. The dragon will land and gain strength for the rest of the fight. The rune dragon has no strength limit, so it was possible to get one hit by aggressive rogue Rune Dragons that were abandoned in the enraged phase before a quick fix. Rune Dragons have a 100% drop of a rune bar, rune dragon bones (190 prayer experience per bone, 10 more than frost dragon bones) and upgrades to the Glacor boots, giving tier 90 boots.

Tuska

This month, RuneScape was visited by a massive beast-like god that intended to devour the world as we know it. Tuska, the name of the god, traveled through the RuneScape universe to reach Gielinor (the world RuneScape mostly takes place on). This led to efforts to repel Tuska, set up by various factions. In this world event, players would hop around Tuska's large body to obtain life energy, which at the end was speared into Tuska. At the end of the day, damage done by each faction was tallied and compared to Tuska's health for that day. If the combined factions did not deal enough damage, Tuska won. If they did, whatever faction did the most damage won. Toward the end of the month, the Godless (represented by Vorago, seen below) won the event over Tuska. No other faction won a day.

This event was criticized for gameplay and Jagex's role. The gameplay was relatively mundane. The event usually involved fairly boring skilling with minimal combat involved. This is in stark contrast to World Event 2, which relied heavily on Player versus Monster combat and Player versus Player combat. Jagex also tampered with Tuska's health each day, leading many to believe that Jagex was going to decide the victor of the event and that the players had no say in who wins or loses.

Raids

In by far the biggest update this July, a portal opened up on Tuska's back to the world Mazcab, home of the Goebies. The Goebies have long been enslaved by the followers of Tuska and now need your help to get out of their rut.

Along with minigames and miniquests, there is a new Player versus Monster activity called Raids, which involves 10 players killing waves of monsters/bosses. This involves the killing of two bosses. The first boss is Beastmaster Durzag. He is a level 2000 huge Airut with 1.5 million life points and powerful attacks. The second boss is Yakamaru. He is a corrupt spiritual guardian in the shape of an aquatic snake. He hops around from pond to pond and has 5.6 million life points. Both bosses drop level 90 tank gear and three new tradeable abilities. Yakamaru is possibly the toughest boss in RuneScape. Each boss can only be looted once every 48 hours.

The first Beastmaster Durzag kill was accomplished shortly after the update's release. The first Yakamaru kill was accomplished later in the day, but it was unfortunately done by exploiting a glitch. Reaction to this update has been positive, but it is restricted to only those up to the challenge. Be warned.

Exodus

In the past few months, Jagex moderators have been the leaving the company in flocks. This includes several long-time employees, who were favorites of the players. For example, Mod Chris L, the developer behind Ritual of the Mahjarrat, Vorago, and the newly released Raids, left this month. Where are all of these moderators going? It appears almost all of them are beginning to work on ex-CEO Mod Gerhard's new gaming development company PlayFusion.

Should players be worried about RuneScape? Probably not. Although it is tough to see top developers go, the gaming industry is notable for having a high turnover rate. It's also a competitive industry to get jobs in and there are plenty of talented developers looking for jobs out there. It does make us question the workplace environment of Jagex though.

Checkmate, Godless

With the third World Event, we can see that the Godless are by far the most popular faction. Every day of the event, the Godless faction was the most represented. On some days, the godless faction would be twice as powerful as all other factions combined. If you actually know the story and godless faction, this may be surprising. The Godless faction is not organized well, but the most vocal members of the Godless faction are calling for genocide against all gods. Others do not seem to openly admit this, but usually appear radical anyway. There must be some reason why players are getting behind a radical, possibly genocidal faction. Why is this?

One answer that is constantly getting put up is RuneScape's allegedly high percentage of atheist players. The idea is that these people don't believe in any god(s), and hence choose the Godless faction. This is a ridiculous assertion. For one, the gods in RuneScape are nothing like the god(s) of major modern day religions. RuneScape gods are more similar to powerful world leaders than actual religious deities. The idea that no belief in god(s) leads to a distrust of fictional deities on a computer game is a stretch. Besides, there is no factual evidence showing that RuneScape has a larger percentage of atheists when compared to the rest of the population.

Another idea is because the other gods have visible character flaws. Notably, Jagex has overcompensated on Saradomin's character flaws, making him feel like an aggressive bigot instead of the god of good he was described as before the Sixth Age. Armadyl hasn't been fully explored, but many still seem him as having a hypocritical world view. Finally Zamorak is still seen by many in a bad light. Not many people can get behind anarchy and chaos. It's also worth noting that popular gods such as Zaros and Seren were not options to pick during the World Event.

Finally, the reason that I believe played the biggest role, is that the godless was seen by many as a "I don't care" faction. Many players don't care much about the RuneScape gods and see the Godless as a way to participate without getting involved in the politics. Although not intended, I believe this is something that is inevitable simply because of the faction's name. How can this be fixed? Set up an actual "I don't care" faction that will not play a role in determining the outcome of the World Event.

Whatever reason it is, it should be addressed. There has not been a close World Event so far. This makes the World Events rather boring. It's similar to watching a blowout football game. How can we get a competitive World Event?

Contributors

Writers: Sobend, Guitarguy