First off, all combat familiars will now follow you into a fight much more promptly. We’ve also updated the Summoning status globe (the button near the minimap) so that you can configure what happens when you left-click on it. One of the many options will allow you to send your familiar into action against an NPC (or another player on a PvP World) with just one quick click.

If you want a place to keep your pets, you can now do this with a new room for Construction - the menagerie. It’s a pet-owned house to complement your player-owned one, if you will, in which you can store a number of fully grown pets of any kind. You could create a haven for all three god birds, for instance, or build your very own little dragons’ den.

While we’re on the subject of houses, your butler has learned when it’s time to talk and when it’s time to get on with it. So, when you are training and need the same materials you just used, you won’t need to explain what you’re after. If they come back from the bank with logs, you can send them straight to the sawmill. And if the butler’s payment is due and you don’t have any money on you, they can fetch it from your bank the next time you send them there. They also follow you around unless told otherwise. Other features include a ‘Make-x’ option for flatpack furniture and teleport tablets, and some options for the Teleport to House spell. You can set the spell to deposit you outside your house’s portal or into your house (with building mode switched on or off). More details for these updates can be found on the Knowledge Base.

Mod Fetzki
Head of RuneScape


In other news...

All longswords, as well as the rune and dragon scimitars, have received a slight graphical adjustment, as well as having their inventory icons modified to match.

In a similiar fashion to Soul Wars and the Fishing Trawler minigames, we've added an activity bar to the Great Orb Project. As expected, your activity is maintained when contributing, but if the bar drops too low you'll be removed from the game.

Ever since we launched the world map there have been suggestions that dungeons should be incorporated into it. As Mod Ash pointed out in his world map update Development Diary, this was not as easy as it sounds, but we think it was worth the effort, and will make navigation underground easier. Also, you can now toggle the You Are Here button on and off, in case it obscures information on the world map you want to read, and the search feature on the world map has been improved so you can find the places you search for more easily.

Our next update is a spam filter, which will relieve your chat window from repeated messages such as “you swing your pick at the rock”. We trawled through the principal skill-training activities and flagged over 2,700 messages that will now be filtered out as spam. To activate this function, just right-click on the game tab under the chat window and select “filter game”. Don’t worry about missing out on important feedback from the game; messages like “you are horribly burnt by the dragon’s fire” (in case you are fighting dragons without the proper equipment) will still get through.

We have made graphical improvements to the leprechauns, hitsplats, and the Hitpoint bar - just a few of the graphical improvements that we continue to do alongside updates to the game. You might also notice that the Hitpoint bars of monsters with more than 200 Hitpoints have been extended, but don’t worry - they haven’t been given any more Hitpoints! This is just to help you see more clearly how many Hitpoints a monster you’re fighting has. The leprechauns have also been moved closer to their Farming patches.

Last but not least we have made a change to the free world by removing most of the options that lead to members-only content, such as pickpocketing, agility shortcuts, members’ quests and more, in order to make the free game what it should be: a great game in its own right, and not a demo for the members’ game. None of these features will be removed from the members’ game, however.

Enjoy, whether as a free player or a member.

Mod Fetzki
Head of RuneScape

The deserted pub in East Ardougne needed your suggestions to bring it to life. Several weeks ago, many of you submitted your ideas for a name for the pub, the NPCs who will populate it, and the food and drink the pub will serve. The best ideas were whittled down and organised into five themes. Then, two weeks ago, we launched the Guaranteed Content: Name a Pub poll. More than 70,000 of you voted for the ideas you wanted us to add to the game, and we were very pleased with the response from the RuneScape community.

The poll is now closed, and we can announce that the winning option is ‘The Poison Arrow’. Further details can be found below:

* Suggested name: The Poison Arrow
* Suggested NPCs:
o Marion the barmaid used to lead a group of merry bandits, but now she is content to stand behind the bar and polish her numerous archery trophies, in between serving drinks to thirsty travellers.
o Geoff sits by the dartboard fletching arrows, which he tests by flinging them at the board. He once tried to join the Ranging Guild, but failed his entry test after accidentally shooting a squirrel out of a tree, injuring it.
o Sparky the squirrel’s injured leg hasn’t been the same since, but Geoff promised to look after him, and gave him one of his arrows to use as a crutch.
* Suggested beverage: ranger’s ade – golden in colour and flavoured with local honey for a sweeter taste, it really hits the target.
* Suggested snack: skewered kebab – grilled meat and vegetables skewered on an arrow.

Expect to see The Poison Arrow winging its way into the game during the next few months!

We really enjoyed getting you involved with the game, so we will be running another Guaranteed-Content Poll two weeks from now. The aim of the poll will be to name a new Slayer creature, so the first thing we need to do is get your ideas. Head to the “Suggestions – Monster and NPC” forum to find out more. The “Name a Slayer Creature” thread (Quick find code 79-80-957-58851629) contains more information about the creature, and even some concept art to inspire you. We hope to see lots of imaginative ideas soon!

Mod Kat
Web Content

There are many secrets hidden in the depths of the desert. Forgotten tombs of forgotten rulers from a forgotten time, when the world was a very different place...or at least they were forgotten. The spread of human civilisation, however, means that many of the hidden corners of the world are being uncovered, often by treasure-hunters with little regard for preserving the sanctity of these ancient places.

Recently, one such tomb, near Uzer, was discovered by treasure-hunters. Leela of Al Kharid does care about the sanctity of this particular place, and she wants your help to recover information that is of great importance to her.

Mod Newmatic
RuneScape Content Developer

Warning – Mild Spoilers

Please note that we haven’t forgotten about your request to not start too many new quest series until we have continued with, and finished, a few of the existing ones. While it might not seem like it initially, this quest is actually part of the same quest series as Tale of the Muspah; this one just approaches things from a very different direction, so it’s probably not entirely clear how things fit together yet.

We’ve been calling this quest series Mysteries of the Mahjarrat here in the Jagex office. It is going to be tying together a few loose ends from various quests, and hopefully bringing more cohesion to parts of the Runescape mythology and storyline. While we’re starting the quest series with low-level requirements, later quests will have progressively higher requirements as we draw in the different existing storylines. Additionally, Missing My Mummy also ties into some of the ongoing desert storylines.

Paul

Summary:
Requirements to start Missing my Mummy:
35 Cooking
35 Construction
35 Crafting
35 Magic
35 Prayer
Must have completed Prince Ali Rescue
Must have completed The Golem
Must have completed Icthlarin’s Little Helper

Requirements for total completion:
25 Thieving
45 Crafting
45 Prayer
50 Magic
Must have completed Garden of Tranquillity

In other news...

We have improved Low and High Alchemy so that if you don't time your clicks correctly, it'll still return you to the spellbook after your inventory. Hopefully you'll find this useful when you’re going about your daily alching! You can also queue up one to cast while the current spell is being performed.

We have added an activity bar to the Soul Wars minigame. If you've been taking part in the game the bar should remain green, but if you don't take part the bar will slowly turn orange, and eventually run out, at which point you'll be removed from the game.

You'll find that after killing someone in a Bounty or PvP world you'll have a bit of time to pick up drops before potentially being whisked away for a random event.