Clan Citadels – Cool!

Well hey there, it has been a while fellow bloggers! I don’t commonly write posts anymore, but I figured something this large would need some sort of coverage – especially since I’m an active member of the clan community.

Quite recently I saw a thread on Surreal’s forums covering a news post JaGeX made at some point last week stating they are developing a new concept called Clan Citadels. We’ve been treated recently to the clan system update which introduced customisable clan capes, mottos, forums, high scores and much more.

The clan update that JaGeX released was in my opinion something that truly changed the face of the game forever. It’s reached out to new and current clans and to this day gives clans more variety and makes them much more approachable and maybe even successful.

concept art

Clan Citadel concept art

Based off this clan system, having a castle in the sky with your clan symbol everywhere, being able to build your own skilling hotspots, a partyroom, a senate and even battlefield that only your clan can see and share is something that is truly groundbreaking for a game like Runescape.

The July Behind the Scenes article stated the following about the upcoming update:

Our graphics department have been busy adding over 4,000 new models and over 20,000 new animation frames to the game for Clan Citadels, making an environment that we are particularly proud of.

Clearly this is going to be a huge update to the clan structure in Runescape and I can only hope that all of this effort is actually appreciated and used for months and possibly years to come. This sounds like something that would really make or break itself in terms of functionality.

JaGeX have stated that any experience gained in the “maximum of seven” skilling hotspots which you can build with your clan inside your citadel will be less than what you get from the ground – which makes sense, but is a let down at the same time. Oh well, you can’t have everything you want, right?

My only concern about this update is that it may decrease prices of resources even more – though prices at the moment are horrible, they could get worse by allowing clans to have their own custom space for various resource collecting skills (assuming that is the case with the hotspots)

Either way, this update will make its mark and I will look forward to covering the rest of the story as it unfolds. I personally cannot wait for the Development Blog which will definitely tout much more information and a better look at what we should expect from it.

JaGeX and Clans

As you may already know, JaGex, the owners of Runescape have released a new update which concentrates on the clan community within the game. This was an update that was widely looked forward to and it most certainly did not disappoint… much.

Though JaGeX did make a massive step forward taking the risk in providing free tools to assist users to make Runescape clans, they made a few mistakes that are costing the clan community more than they are giving.

I was not amused that this update changed the face of what a clan is in Runescape. Many people see it as either a ‘free cape ride’, or a ‘group of randoms that pk together’. Though this is all well and good, most of these ‘clans’ serve the same purpose as a Clan Chat always did… a chat.

My gripe with this change is that players who are new to the clan world are directly exposed to a mess of free capes and wannabes. I thought being in a clan was about honour, experience and leadership – now that is all changing.

The quality of clans needs to step up, and JaGeX was probably better off making it more difficult to run a clan because overall, you get better quality and a stronger community. Now we must deal with the consequences of making a Runescape clan a 5-minute job.

Guthix help us.

JaGeX bringing Free Trade and Old Wilderness back?

JaGeX has unexpectedly brought to light an issue that has been burning within the land of Runescape for quite some time; what is going to be done about the removal of free trade and the old wilderness? As you may or may not know, the old wilderness and free trade along with staking were removed due to foreign establishments forging membership and participating in real world trading activities, ultimately promoting a very unfair game.

These removals were made to protect Runescape as a whole, and back in 2007 when this decision was made, JaGeX assured as that it was in the community’s best interest for this to happen, so it did. Three years later we are now presented with a burning question – will these removed elements to gameplay return? Could it really be true? Continue reading

A New Equipment Slot for Runescape Coming? Belts? Masks?

A thought dawned on me as I was going through Runescape’s twitter, and it was almost hinting at the idea that a new equipment slot is coming. A tweet from AJD read as follows:

@WazJoe if you could add a new wearable item slot for RuneScape what would it be and what would it do / what’s the game effect of it [Ajd]

Now clearly Jagex wouldn’t be saying it if they weren’t thinking it. Sure this could be just a random question with no extra meaning – but then comes the ‘what if’ factor; something Jagex has plagued us with for so long. Let us not forget that the Construction skill came along after a BTS stated that we would get “chairs you can sit on”. Continue reading

The OFFICIAL Runescape Gamebar!

If you’ve read and enjoyed the post I made earlier about Runescape’s Official Game Client being improved, then you probably will have a fair amount of interest in this post. I discovered recently that on the Runescape Forums under Recent Updates there is a thread that details the BETA release of Runescape’s Official Gamebar, available for Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer (Excluding BETA versions)

The toolbar - in all its glory!

THE toolbar - *heavenly music* (click for full-size image)

I’ve been playing around with this bar in Internet Explorer due to the fact that it doesn’t work with Firefox 4 yet, and I must say it’s been a pleasure to use! Here is a brief rundown on the features this bar has:

  • Ability to play Runescape instantly at the click of a button
  • Live news updates feed – stay updated on all of Runescape’s news
  • Grand Exchange status – check the status of your Grand Exchange offers without logging into the game
  • In-game reminders – this bar will remind you when you need to do your distractions & diversions such as Tears of Guthix
  • Seeing who is online via the toolbar without logging in
Getting distractions & diversions reminders at your fingertips!

Getting distractions & diversions reminders at your fingertips!

As you can see, these features are quite simply… awesome! I think Jagex have really hit the nail on its head with this update because it actually gives functionality instead of taking it away! I think that the tools for Grand Exchange offers will be very highly regarded by the Runescape community, as with the in-game reminders for distractions and diversions.

Toolbar authorisation

User authorisation must be performed on the Runescape website before you can use some of these nice features!

I’ll be sure to post a video on this soon, but I just thought I’d let you all know seeing as Jagex loves to do incognito-style updates lately… *cough* double-xp weekend *cough*

Download from Runescape.com