1st December 2008 - Behind the Scenes – December

Achievement diary antics, elegant accents, delving into dungeons, and dashing hairdos are due during December. But what’s all that mean?

In our first update of the month, you’ll be asked to return to Falador, where the fourth Achievement Diary will be waiting for you. With Falador being such a familiar area, you can be sure that some tasks will be straightforward, but there are challenges, too. Are you capable of slaying a skeletal wyvern? Have you encountered the vast mole beneath Wyson’s flowers? Rewards will include brand new white lily seeds and a shiny new emote.

Once you’ve done that little lot, your next step will be a watery one, as you cross the Fremennik Province and the islands beyond. No doubt Baba Yaga and her Lunar friends will have several tasks for the higher levels, but pet rocks, seaweed and Slayer caves await those slightly less familiar with the Fremennik ways. Rewards will include enhanced resource collection for your Etceterian workers, improved lyres, and a potential 20k experience reward lamp.

As we mentioned in the news post towards the end of last month, we will be making further changes to the reward items associated with Stealing Creation. We will make the rewards far more appealing and easier to use; actually doubling the experience you earn from any of the activities you use your reward objects for, including the combat ones! If you need more information about the changes to Stealing Creation, please read this news post.

Since our graphical update earlier in the year, we’ve been playing around with a variety of new haircuts for the game. We’ve now gathered around 20 new styles and will be releasing them during December to the free and members’ games. These new hairdos include some rather interesting styles inspired by Ak–Haranu, a visitor from the unexplored eastern realms. Perhaps next year will unearth more fashions from these interesting folk? Only time will tell...

You might stumble across some new words if you’re planning to try out any of the French Servers, planned for launch in December. Completely translated into French, we hope that many of you will be finding a new home here, or even just popping in to see what everything’s like en français.

Finally this month, we will be opening the gates to festive cheer and wintry celebrations with this year’s Christmas update. Much like this year’s Hallowe’en, we’ve decided to release a quest at the same time as our Christmas event, which means that the free game will have access to that quest over the Christmas period.

During the event, you’ll be asked to track down Jack Frost, the misunderstood son of the Queen of Snow. Apparently, he loves icing things up and has been known to freeze even the warmest of Christmases. Of course, many of you will know all about what we have planned after voting in the Guaranteed Content Christmas poll we ran earlier this year, so expect Santa suits and even a chilly new necklace to show off with.

For the quest, Explorer Jack will have a tale – a tale of fearsome creatures and bountiful riches. Sadly, the best of his adventuring days are behind him, so he’ll need one of those adventuring sorts to stride out bravely into the icy wastelands. I wonder if he’ll be able to find one? In this quest, it won’t be your equipment that helps you trek through the caves, but a keen eye to work out the fiendishly cavernous puzzles. Higher levelled players will find extra rewards hidden within those puzzles, so be prepared.

Updates after December

Mobilising Armies
We’ve reported before that we planned to release Mobilising Armies, our new strategy minigame, in December. We’ve found that although we could release it, we really want to take our time to make this the best update we can, so we made the difficult choice to hold onto it until next year. We’ve never ever tried to release a game like this before, and we want to make sure we get it right. So, you’ll have to wait a little longer for your gnomic glider bombers, pigeon messengers, dragons’ hoards and catapult attacks.

Have fun!

Mod Mark
Lead Designer – RuneScape

Oha nd Santa's are going to skyrocket

I am excited for teh santa suite and the mobilizing armied.

Oha nd Santa's are going to skyrocket

It's not going to include a santa hat, jagex are not that stupid

I'm really excited about the French servers. The achievement diaries sound fun too (as far as fun in Runescape goes) - might have to go do Dream Mentor now though..