wilderness

Yes, I do indeed plan to do as the title suggests. It is a rather challenging goal as last year’s article was 5,931 words which in itself is less than half of the previous year’s article which had 13,432 words. Why the reduction? Well that many words is considered ‘Too long’ in today’s society and most will say ‘Didn’t read.’ In fact, even this article may be ‘TL;DR.’

But where am I? I’m wasting words! There’s so little to write about and so many words!

…

Scratch that, reverse it.

January

January 4th saw the release of The King of the Dwarves. In this quest the player helps Veldaban and Meike figure out who the true heir to the dwarven throne is. Overall it is a good quest, not too challenging, not too easy, but gives decent rewards.

On the 10th Jagex released Nex and the Ancient Prison. This is, as most probably have guessed by the name, the Zaros themed part of the God Wars Dungeon. The rewards for killing Nex were the Zaryte bow and the Torva, Virtus, and Pernix armours.

February

Perhaps the most controversial update of the year happened on the 1st when Jagex returned Free Trade and the Wilderness. Everyone could now trade freely between each other, though trades still showed the wealth change. The Wilderness was returned to its original, dastardly dangerousness and the revenants were moved to the Forinthry Dungeon, a very dangerous PVP dungeon in the wilderness.

The 9th saw the addition of another quest, Prisoner of Glouphrie. After solving a few challenging puzzles the player frees a captive gnome and learns more about Arposandra.

The gnomes were also graphically updated on the 9th as well as an on/off toggle for the profanity filter being added.

March

The 4th Elemental Workshop quest was added on the 1st. It taught players how to make elemental gloves and boots as well as how to create Cosmic and Chaos type items.

On the 8th the Artisan’s Workshop was released. This is a fun alternative to normal smithing however since there is no monetary gain from it, you actually lose money; quite a bit since we’re talking smithing.

The first Bonus Experience Weekend of 2011 was held on the weekend of the 11th.

Two weeks later on the 28th we saw the release of the quest A Clockwork Syringe. The usual pirating around is required and those who survive all the head bumps will be rewarded with a decent amount of experience in a variety of skills.

April

The Livid Farm was released on the 4th. Pauline Polaris, a Lunarmage, needs all the help she can get to grow and tend Jade Vine sprouts on Lunar island. Helpers are rewarded with Produce Points which can be spent for other rewards.

On the 12th the Clan Camp was added. This is when Jagex officially recognized clans. Clans could now register their name with Jagex so long as they had at least 5 members. Clan members received a Vexillum and a Clan Cape in the colours of their clan.

The 2011 Easter event ‘Holly and Hawthorn’ was released on the 19th. It’s not really an Easter event, it’s really more of a spring event. In it the player has to help the Queen of Sunrise and the Queen of Snow get the True New Year. The are rewarded with Spring and and Ice Hats.

May

On the 3rd Jagex gave us Capes of Distinction. These capes come in 5 types.
The Veteran Cape is for players with accounts 5 years old or more.
The Classic Cape is for players who have logged into Runescape classic sometime during the years. Note: This cape can no longer be earned because Jagex stated they have permanently closed entrance to RSC. It may, however, still be acquired by those who have already earned it.
The Max Cape is for players with 99 in every skill (including Dungeonering,120 is not required).
Milestone Capes are for players who have a achieved at least X level in all of there skills.
The Completionist Cape is for those so addicted to Runescape that they have done everything there is do to. This includes acquiring almost every mini-game reward, doing every sub-quest and quest-like activity, and maxing music, tasks, and everything else there is to max. The requirements for this cape change whenever Jagex adds content.

The Lava Flow Mine was added on the 16th. An alternative way of training mining, players receive gems and experience but no ores, thus removing the necessity to bank. This can greatly speed up training. Players which do lots of mining may find the favor of a Liquid Gold Nymph which will give players a piece of the golden mining suit or gild a pickaxe.

June

The first update we got in June was the Fremennik Sagas. These are little mini-quests which are completed in a Dungeoneering atmosphere, ahey give a little bit of experience.

On the 7th was another quest, Deadliest Catch. It’s not a particularly hard quest, but it has a somewhat interesting storyline and gives decent experience.

The 28th saw a completely new feature added, the Loyalty Rewards Program and Auras. With this system players are awarded Loyalty points each month they are consecutively a member. These points can be used to buy titles to prefix your name, emotes, cosmetic clothes, or auras. Auras are a new type of item which give a small boost for a short time. Unfortunately most auras are better in concept than in use. The entire program looks and acts much like an in-game micro-transaction store.

July

Directly following Independence Day was the release of Salt in the Wound. This is the last in the Sea Slug quest series. The quest itself is completed in a Role Playing style where the player actually takes control of themself and two NPCs. The experience reward is pretty nice but the best part is the +100 bound ammo in Daemonheim, a hefty bonus to dungeoneers.

A week later on the 12th we got the Jadinko Lair and Whip Vine. The lair is home to mutated Jadinkos as well as the Jadinko Queen, who seems to be part of the Red Jade Vine. The Whip vine was an interesting addition. Players thought it would severely increase the power of the whip and thus raise its price, this was not the case. High pre-release demand in hopes of quick post-release profit caused the price to rise and then plummet after release. No one needed to buy a new whip because everyone already had one. The Whip vine itself didn’t add the much to the Abyssal whip, only +4 slash attack and +2 strength.

Finally this month we saw the much anticipated Clan Citadels on the 26th. These large COHs(clan owned houses) are much like clan and guild fortresses in other games in that they can be customized. The difference though is most other games require a hefty upfront payment, whereas these citadels require constant work to upgrade and keep from degrading down a level, or three. Most citadels are deemed more trouble than they’re worth. Some think Jagex added them as a time-sink.

August

A pretty calm month, August’s first update was the Temple Trekking Revamp on the 17th. This was nearly a complete overhaul of Temple Trekking/Burgh De Rott Ramble. Now your escort companions will actually level up the more times they travel, sometimes making many level in one trip. This can vastly increase their lifespan. Additionally, they now fight better and will heal before they die.

Finishing off the month was the release of Branches of Darkmeyer on the 31st. This is the 5th Myreque quest and requires the player to go into Darkmeyer to find the Blisterwood tree, a bane of the vampires. This quest has some decent requirements and yields sizeable experience as well as some other nice treats.
September
A quiet month that started with the second Bonus Experience Weekend of 2011 on the 9th.

The following Wednesday, the 14th, saw the release of one of the most anticipated and challenging quests in Runescape history, Ritual of the Mahjarrat. This exceedingly long quest wraps up the Mysteries of the Mahjarrat, Rise of Lucien and Arrav quest series. After a few intense battles and the fall of a Mahjarrat, you’re rewarded with a large chunk of Agility experience as well as three lamps of 80k experience each.

On the 21st Jagex added more rewards to the Loyalty Rewards program. Unfortunately, like before, most of these were pretty worthless.

October

The 4th saw changes to the Chat and Camera. The Camera can now be controlled with the middle mouse like most games. Players can now change which chat they’re typing in by prefixing their message with /f, /c, or the like.

There was a hole on the 12th with the addition of The Pit. This event, which is essentially random in occurrence, can only happen while training agility on an agility course. The funny thing is, once in the event most of the tasks are neither agility based nor logic based. All but one of the possible tasks are completely random. Regardless of which task you complete, if any, you’ll receive a small amount of experience. Successful completion yields a cosmetic gorilla mask.

On the 17th the Halloween 2011 event was released. Designed to draw attention to clan citadels, the event really wasn’t very good and it was easy to tell it was primarily made (like most of Jagex’s recent holiday events) to take a lot of time for a (in this case, completely) useless item. The good thing is on this same day they released Wicked Hoods. These nice little red hoods are essentially omni-tiaras with a teleport and free essence feature after you feed it one of each talisman.

The 25th was the activation of Jagex’s Bot Nuke. It was a function of anti-botting which was supposedly 98% effective. Whether it did as intended or not is still under debate but it did reduce the active Runescape population by roughly 50%.

November

First things 1st this month, the Dominion Tower was added. This giant tower rising out of the sands of the Kharidian desert is a place where the worlds greatest heroes can test their metal against previously vanquished foes but under new circumstances. Instead of fighting for a specific purpose, gladiators in this ring have but one goal, how much can they endure with how little supplies. If you’re capable of killing creatures such as Nomad again you’ll be given some pretty nice rewards.

On the 7th Jagex graced us with yet another quest. One Piercing Note is the first fully voiced quest. I haven’t done it yet but I doubt how good it is unless Jagex has gotten much better than their previous attempt.

Two weeks later Runescape’s website got a new design on the 22nd. The new website has a distinctly MMORPG feel to it, like many other games in the industry. The difference though is those games are aimed at a different crowd than Runescape. Perhaps Jagex is changing their aim?

On that same day was released the Thanksgiving 2011 event where friends of Varrock and poultry alike had to help the two compromise, or just eat some turkey.

Finally this month closed with the release of the Polypore Dungeon on the 28th. This magic-bases slayer dungeon is home to some interesting creatures. If you’re capable of killing a few you may find yourself the new owner of some interesting new equipment.

December

The 6th saw a few things, these being:
Loyalty Rewards Batch 3, again, mostly not useful things though there are one or two interesting ones.
The Toolbelt, a useful feature capable of storing 35 of the most common tools in Runescape. Unfortunately though it only stores basic axes and picks.
The Money Pouch, an odd feature, this keeps all your coins in one place, and that’s out of your inventory but on your person!
Finally, members received 30 more bank spaces, huzzah!

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And…Hurrah! I highlighted the main news of 2011 in just less than 2,011 words!