One obelisk in particular has been causing trouble for Taverley’s most well-known summoner, Pikkupstix, as a giant wolpertinger has used it to break free from the spirit plane. This pesky rabbit, wolf, reindeer…thing is now munching on Pikkupstix’s bedclothes, and the druid needs your help to do a spot of banishing…

So begins this week’s Wolf Whistle quest, which you will need to complete if you wish to start training the Summoning skill, in much the same way as Druidic Ritual opens up the Herblore skill.

To get more information on how to start Summoning, visit the Summoning - The Basics page in our Knowledge Base.

Once you have completed the Wolf Whistle quest, you can begin raising your stats on your way to the Summoning skillcape! Some of the familiars you summon can help in combat, healing you or attacking with claws, paws, missiles or magic. This is reflected in an increase to the maximum Combat level, taking it to 138. This increased Combat level is not visible on free worlds.

Other familiars aid you outside of combat, including the ability to store items for you - like the pack yak, which acts as a temporary bank for 10 of your items. Some have slightly…stranger effects. Might ‘Fish Rain’ interest you?

New creatures - barker toad and bunyip - share room with those that are more ‘familiar’, like the smoke devil (the relative of the dust devil) and the spirit dagannoth. Those with a high enough Summoning level will even be able to talk to them - but beware, they aren’t used to talking to humans…

You will recognise many familiars from previous newsposts, wallpapers, Development Diaries and Postbags from the Hedge, while others will be a complete surprise! There is such a wealth of familiars - 53 in fact - that it’ll take months for even the most persistent to master their abilities, special moves and Summoning requirements.

In addition, high-level Summoners will unlock an array of 22 new pets. New dogs are at the lowest level, while the hardest pet to tame is…drum-roll…a dragon!

Phew! There is barely a moment to remind you of the extra batch of Summoning familiars and pets coming next month. If you think some of the creatures in this update are big, wait till you see what February brings…

So, what can you do with snow? For a start you can make snowballs and, unlike last Christmas’s snowballs, you can throw them at other players. If you ever get tired of pelting each other with snowballs, you can use the same snow to build snowmen. The snow imps will even provide a selection of hats to add a finishing touch. The hats are infused with Christmas magic, so they might do more to the snowmen than just make them look good.

Once you’ve built a snowman, the snow imps will give you a chance to visit the Land of Snow itself and contribute to the great Snow Tournament. The Queen of Snow herself presides over the tournament and, this being Christmas, she might even have a present for you.

The Christmas event is open for two weeks and can be accessed by both free-to-play and members.

Summary

Where to start the 2007 Christmas Event Talk to the snow imps in Draynor, Falador, Ardougne, Burthorpe or Rellekka.
Note: The snowman hats and accessories will disappear once the Christmas event ends.
Access to A snowman area the size of Draynor Village Snowballs that can be thrown at other players A total of eight different snowmen that can be built New item and emote!

Players using LootShare in the God Wars Dungeon will now be able to increase their killcount. If a LootSharing group gets a kill, the player with the lowest killcount receives an increase to their relevant tally.

Dwarf cannon sets and light and dark mystic sets have been added to the Grand Exchange. We’ve also changed the descriptions on existing sets to be a little more helpful.

The minimum score required to get onto the Hiscores has been reduced from 500 to 250 for Bounty Hunter and Bounty Hunter Rogues. As usual, you will need to login before you appear on the Hiscore tables.

1. Expect the first new single-way player-vs-player combat area to hit the game in the first half of next year, along with a number of other PvP updates in the future.

2. As many people have suggested, we’re planning to raise the 3,000gp staking/trading limit for certain players. This will be proportional to the number of Quest Points you have, with the top-end being ten-times what it is now! This should still offer protection from cheats, while also giving you more flexibility in your staking and trading activities.

3. We’re looking at a way of giving LootSharers the ability to receive their drops as coins straight away, so that large items can be split between the party immediately. To avoid unbalancing the economy, we’re investigating ways that this could be tied in with the Grand Exchange (i.e, with the item in question being sold on the Exchange and the resulting proceeds being split between the team).

4. We are planning on adding an ‘item lending’ feature to the game. To prevent indefinite loans, you will be able to lend an item for the duration of your session (once either the lender or receiver logs out, the item will go back again). Obviously, we need to design this VERY carefully to cover all eventualities, but we reckon we can work something out.

These are just a taster of the many ideas we have gathered from you or from our developers. They should really improve your enjoyment of RuneScape, without opening the door for real-world traders. This doesn’t even mention the Grand Exchange, which we can go into more detail about…

The Grand Exchange

We have to hold our hands up and admit that a handful of starting prices were a little off. It was a huge task to get 15,000+ items valued correctly and some slipped through the net. We’re on the case, though, as we have already formed a team to manage the Grand Exchange!

As well as getting the starting price right, this team will regularly check prices on an ongoing basis, making sure that they naturally and accurately represent the current state of the player economy. Of course, they won’t be alone, as YOU will be there to help them! A new sticky thread, centred on the Grand Exchange, will be available to highlight any concerns you have about prices and marketplace matters, while a new web page is already in the works which will allow you to track item prices over a long period of time.

Some smaller changes to the Grand Exchange:

• Purchased items of a large quantity will be automatically noted
• There will be less unnecessary clicks when buying or selling items
• A ‘1,000’ quantity button will be introduced
• Access to single-click increases to your item quantity

These occurrences were becoming so frequent that they seriously threatened RuneScape. A solution was needed as soon as possible, so we had to come up with the one thing that would successfully stop real-world traders – stopping unbalanced trade. It will be tough for law-abiding players, but it will also be tough for us, as we will certainly not be gaining money or members with this update. Instead, we are doing this for the good of the game, which is as dear to our hearts as it is to you.

Soon, the hard part will be over and done with. The unbalanced trade changes will be made in January and we certainly don’t plan any more hard changes in the foreseeable future. Together, we will deliver an enormous blow to real-world trading, and the game has already seen a dramatic reduction in their numbers.

We have always planned to release the real-world trading updates and then improve them further by listening to your feedback. We were also aware that the updates may not have been perfect the first time around, or that they may not have functioned as an ideal replacement for what we have changed or taken away. This is not a reason to roll them back or remove them, but it IS a reason to keep improving them until they DO work as a full replacement.

The hard choices we have made are the best ones for the game, and we must not do anything that allow bots, gold sellers or scammers back into the game. What we need to do is build on these first, large steps and use your feedback to make improvements, so that they better fit your needs and activities.

We would really like you to make your feelings known, not in a negative manner that offers no potential solutions, but with constructive criticism and suggestions that we can draw ideas from. For example, if something is broken, don’t just demand that we put it back to what it was - instead, tell us your ideas to make the new system work. In summary: we would like you to think about how we can make life in RuneScape more enjoyable for you, while ALSO keeping out real-world traders and bots.

It’s going to take a lot of patience and effort from all of us. Saying that, we have not been sitting around hoping for you all to come up with ideas. We have been putting together a plan. This is a schedule of ideas for improvements that will build on a number of our changes: the Grand Exchange, new player-killing games (including other dangerous ones), LootShare, Assist System, trades and so many other things that we have introduced to combat real-world trading. We aim to have the most important improvements ready in time for the unbalanced trade removal in January, and to continue adding more throughout the start of next year.

We are currently assembling the best ideas from the Forums and our own staff. We will release another newspost early next week, listing the improvements we plan to make to address your concerns.

We strongly advise you to read this week’s Development Diary before this newspost, so that you can fully understand why we have made these vitally important changes.

Unbalanced Trade:

To remove real-world trading from RuneScape, we must stop the gold sellers’ ability to function. We believe that the best and only way to do this will be to stop unbalanced trade.

We consider an unbalanced trade to be one that is not equivalent, with a trader receiving items that are much more valuable than those they are giving away. For example, a party hat traded for a bucket is quite obviously an unbalanced trade.

For a trade to be ‘balanced’, the total value of the items being given must be within 3,000gp of the items being received. For example you WOULD be allowed to trade an item worth 15,000gp for an item worth 17,000gp (because the DIFFERENCE is less than 3,000gp). You will be limited to a 3,000gp gain or loss every 15 minutes.

We are aware that many of you will want to prepare for this change. So, initially, we are just going to make the trade system WARN about unbalanced trades, but it will still allow the trade to go through. This seriously reduces any opportunities for scamming, but still gives you a chance to get used to how it works, organise your items, hand back borrowed stuff, and give Christmas presents. Then, in the first week of January, we will change it to simply not allow unbalanced trades outside of the 3,000gp limit. We will be reminding you when the January date approaches, so that you can be best prepared.

For certain categories of account (mostly new accounts) we are actually implementing the trade restriction immediately. This allows us to stop a large chunk of the cheating immediately, since most of the real-world traders are using new accounts due to their previous ones being banned. For the vast majority of players, the trade restriction will come into effect in the first week of January.

We’d like to reassure you that we plan to keep a thriving player-trading economy. We are certainly NOT planning to remove trading from the game! It’s only very unbalanced trades which will be affected. You won’t be forced to use the Grand Exchange to trade either, although that will remain a superb means of buying or selling any of your items.

The 3,000gp rule means that you can still help each other out by offering cheaper items for free. We are certainly not going to stop you giving a Fishing rod or an antipoison potion to those who need it or, indeed, offering inflated amounts for items you want in a hurry, within the 3,000gp limit.

This shouldn’t overly affect legitimate players, as the aim is to make sure there is no reason to NEED to do an unbalanced trade (more on how we have tried to ensure this below). It stops the real-world traders dead, as there is no way they can make delivery of purchased gold/items any more. Our aim is to make gold-selling so difficult that gold sellers and farmers are forced to leave RuneScape forever.

For more information on unbalanced trade, please read the Knowledge Base article.

Covert Trades:

Any real-world trader will respond to the removal of unbalanced trade by investigating ways round it. They will be looking for alternative ways to transfer gold other than trading. We are one step ahead, however, and have already researched every possible means for them to do so and amended them over the past few months.

We have previously adjusted the Duel Arena, Party Room, shops, etc. to prevent them being used to covertly transfer purchased gold.

One way of covertly transferring gold has not been mentioned yet, and we have addressed it this month. By dropping an item - through death or just discarding it - a real-world trader was able to make an unbalanced trade.

For the removal of unbalanced trade to be successful we must, therefore, change the way that player-dropped items work.

Discarded Item Changes

One way to fix it would be to make all discarded items invisible to other players. After all, a real-world trader would find it difficult to offer another player a stack of gold if their customer could not see it, let alone pick it up!

We’ve not gone quite that far. Instead, we have decided to just limit the visible amount. When you discard items by dropping them on the floor, they will only become visible to other players if their market value is less than 3,000 coins. Items with a market value less than this will become visible to other players after a delay (like before) - unless you’ve already reached your limit of 3,000 coins worth of items on the floor in a 15 minute period. This doesn’t prevent you from discarding unwanted items or picking them up again; the change only restricts the ability of other players to see your discarded stuff.

There are no restrictions to how many items you can drop and how many of them are visible to you - this is only a change to the way your discarded items appear to other players.

Items Dropped on Death Changes

For the same reasons as mentioned above, we have made changes to how items are dropped on death.

When you die, (unless in the Bounty Hunter area - more on this later), you will leave a temporary gravestone behind. While the gravestone remains, your dropped items will not despawn, giving you a bit of time to run back and collect them. Other players will not be able to see or take items from your gravestone.

Your friends can make your gravestone remain for longer, either by repairing it when it starts to crumble or by expending Prayer points to bless it. Your stone can be maintained this way for up to a maximum of an hour. This will give you more time to return and pick up from where you left off.

Please read the Knowledge Base article to find out more about gravestones and how to purchase a variety of gravestone types.

Previous Updates:

As mentioned before, we have already released several updates that have paved the way for this change. We’ve tried really, really hard to make sure that for everything affected by this week’s changes, we have provided a replacement means of doing the same thing, which is at least as good.

On the left-hand side of the table below, you can see those activities that have been affected by this week’s updates. On the right, we show those recent updates that allow you to continue performing that activity.

If there’s anything you think that we’ve missed then please let us know on the Suggestions forum. We are confident we can stop the cheaters AND still create all of the types of gameplay you enjoy. It just requires a bit of creative thinking!

We have opened the doors of the Duel Arena to free players, so that they can get a taste of intense one-on-one duelling. Staked and friendly duels will be available, with a number of options to choose from.

The stake restrictions that apply to members’ duels also apply to free-to-play duels. The Duel Tournament area is still members’ only, however.

The F2P Duel Arena is available on all worlds. Visit the Knowledge Base page for more information.

Additional bank space:

We have decided to increase the number of bank spaces that everyone has! Members will now find that they have 32 extra slots to fill with items bought from the Grand Exchange, future Summoning trinkets or any other use that can be found for them.

Free players have not been left out, either. Eight more slots have been made available, so enjoy filling your newly-expanded bank!

The level 85 ‘Teleblock’ spell has been replaced with the new ‘Bounty Locate’ spell as there is no longer a use for the old spell within Bounty Hunter. The new spell ‘Bounty Locate’ will teleport you close to your allocated target within the new Bounty Hunter area.

A bank pin has been added to the Grand Exchange to protect any expensive items you have for sale, or items you’ve successfully bought but not yet collected.

Free players can now purchase Wilderness capes, for all their Clan Wars needs. Visit the Knowledge Base for more information about how.

So, where is the danger in that, we hear you ask? Well, there will be others in the Bounty Hunter area who also have a simple task: to kill you! Will you have what it takes to reach your target and gain their loot before your nemeses find you?

The danger will not end there: far from it, in fact! Some players may choose to lurk in the shadows and attack other players, regardless of their target. These players will be ‘rogue’ bounty hunters, and will make your attempts to be the best hunter even more difficult.

Hand-in-hand with this update, we will be releasing two new Hiscores tables. Will you have the guts and glory to rise to the top of the Bounty Hunters table? Or will you ambush and backstab your way to the summit of our Bounty Hunter Rogues leaderboard?

Not far from the Bounty Hunter volcano will lie our other new minigame. Prepare for Clan Wars!

Here, a clan will be able to war with another clan in a large arena, without the worry of interruptions. Organise matches through your Clan Chat system and prepare to face-off in huge all-out battles that only end when one team has wiped out the other! View the battle from your opponents’ prison if you die, and hope that your clan can win the battle without you…

With no limits to the number of clan wars running simultaneously, there will always be an opportunity for a scrap in this exciting multiplayer minigame.

On the tails of these two updates will come an addition to the Wilderness. The spirits of creatures slain during the God Wars are returning to haunt the living, attacking anyone bold enough to stray near. Will you be able to hold back a spectral dark beast? Wander into the Wilderness later this month to find out.

If you die while holding any items, you will reveal the fourth of our updates this month. A gravestone will temporarily appear on the spot where you perished, which can be read and admired by passers-by. It will even be possible to purchase increasingly impressive gravestones, all the way up to the ominous ‘Angel of Death’.

On a more serious note, many of you will be aware of our efforts to stop real-world trading and how some of our recent updates have been part of that. You may have questions about it: What does it mean? How does it affect the game? How big a problem is it? What are the ways of dealing with it? To answer these questions and more, we’ll be releasing a very important Development Diary on the subject.

What would December be without Christmas? This year’s event will see a more traditional approach, with the building and making of snowballs and snowmen! Don’t worry, it will still be a very RuneScape Christmas, as there are surprises hidden up the snowmen’s snowsleeves…

The website will, of course, have its annual festive feel, in keeping with the Christmas event, as well as some Christmas cards coming out the week before. As a gift to you, we will also be presenting you with another Summoning wallpaper and two more Summoning Development Diaries, alongside the customary Players’ Gallery and Postbag from the Hedge.

All that is left to say, from us here at Jagex HQ, is have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. It’s been a fantastic 2007, and with Summoning just weeks away, it is going to be an even more awesome 2008.

You see, Party Pete is on a life-long mission to bring the ‘party’ to everyone on RuneScape, so he has developed an unlikely partnership with the Bank of RuneScape. Through this alliance, he believes that the ‘party’ will spread like wildfire.

Now, when the Party Room lever has been pulled, different things will happen according to the market value of the items in the party chest:

• A value of up to 50k: there is a 10 second delay before the balloons drop.
• 50k - 150k: there is a 1 minute delay before the balloons drop. The Falador bankers and Party Room barmaids will announce that a party is happening.
• 150k - 1 million: there is a 5 minute delay before the balloons drop. The Falador men and women, bankers and Party Room barmaids will announce that a party is happening.
• 1 million+ : there is a 10 minute delay before the balloons drop. The Falador men and women, bankers and Party Room barmaids will announce that a party is happening. Nearly all the bankers across RuneScape will also announce that a party is happening, and will offer free teleports to the Party Room.

The bankers have entered into this agreement as they believe it will stop the Party Room being used as a means of transferring wealth covertly.

The first change is to how wins are determined. If neither player has died at the end of the three minute period, the player who has done the most damage in a duel will proceed to the next round, unless both players have dealt equal damage. In this case, the winner will be chosen by the Duel Tournament judge.

We have also reduced the number of players needed for a registrar to initiate a duel tournament. This will make it easier for you to enter tournaments of various levels.

If the answer is “yes” to any of those questions, then Brugsen would like to direct you to his marvellous new Grand Exchange! This huge establishment is home to a RuneScape first - an item marketplace - where members and free players can buy or sell a huge range of items.

Using the Exchange couldn’t be any easier:

1. Bring items you wish to sell or money to buy stuff with.
2. Speak to one of the Grand Exchange clerks to either put items up for sale or to make a bid on any items.
3. The clerks will take your items or money and look for a matching bid/sale to match you up with.
4. You may have to wait for your bid to be accepted or for the clerks to find a purchaser - then again, it could happen in moments!
5. You will receive a message when the trade has been completed and you can go to the Grand Exchange or any bank to pick up your purchases or money.

Members are able to make six offers for sale or purchase at any one time, while free-to-play adventurers can have two. To make best use of these, Brugsen has advised his clerks to accept stacked and noted items; for example, 1,000 cut diamonds would only take up one slot, allowing you to make five other trades at any time!

The clerks also have the ability to convert armour into ’sets’, which will only take up one slot. To find a list of the armour types that can be made into ’sets’, visit the Knowledge Base article.

Market Prices in the Grand Exchange:

There is a limit to the amount you can buy or sell items for in the Grand Exchange, which is generally set at 5% above and below the ‘market price’, and it is impossible to buy outside of these boundaries. This will create a stable economy that cannot be abused by players who seek to manipulate prices to the disadvantage of others.

The market price is affected by any trade that occurs in the Exchange. If an item frequently sells for more than the market price then it will rise in value, but if it consistently sells for less than the market price then it will go down.

Initial market prices for items were decided after extensive research by Brugsen and his market experts, so should be very close to the item costs you are used to.

This market price will not only be used in the Grand Exchange. You will find that the value of staked items in the Duel Arena will also change, as will the player stock in the shops of RuneScape.

Keep an eye on item values to make sure you are buying or selling at the correct time. Reading the market and anticipating when it will go up or go down is an art in itself! However, the alchemy value of items is NOT affected. So, whatever you do, DON’T go high-alching your party hat! You’ll still only get 1 gp, and you wouldn’t like that…