Wilderness capes

To help you identify friend and foe, there are now several enterprising merchants spread throughout the wilderness, each selling different Team Capes.

When worn, these capes will make anyone else wearing the same cape appear Green on the minimap, and everyone else will appear White.

Also, those players with the same cape will have their Attack option moved onto the right-click menu, while everyone else's Attack option will be left-click. This won't stop you from being able to hurt people, but it should help prevent those accidents that can happen in the heat of combat.

New graphics in the Lumbridge area

You may have noticed our graphics team have been getting better, and some of our new members' areas are looking really impressive; therefore they have decided to spend a bit of time improving the graphics of the area around Lumbridge and Draynor Village to give a better first impression to new players.

Crystal bow changes

There is now a third roving elf in the forests of Isafdar. She will create a new crystal bow or shield from a seed when your existing equipment runs out of charges.

The first time that you take the seed to the elf, she will charge the standard price for either the crystal bow or shield. However, every time you go back to her she will reduce the price, but she will not go below 180k for the bow or 150k for the shield.

Crystal equipment now also has 2500 charges before it reverts to its seed.

HAM!

A growing feeling of resentment has boiled over because the King of Varrock isn't seen to be taking a strong enough stance about the increasing monster population.

A new militant group has emerged calling themselves Humans Against Monsters, (aka HAM) and they've taken up residence in one of the ruined buildings near Lumbridge. Any would-be thieves might find perfect pickings amongst a rabble like this - but beware, you may find you've got more to deal with than a clip round the ear for your misdemeanor.

Changes to the Magic Shortbow

When we first launched RuneScape 2, one of our main concerns was to make the game less melée oriented, and to give our players the choice of ranging or maging rather than feeling forced to take the warrior's route. This meant we had to increase the effectiveness of certain elements of the game, some of which we now realise were slightly overcompensated for.

After months of careful consideration and discussion, we have decided to reduce the effectiveness of the magic shortbow's special attack. Each double shot will now use 55% of the special attack bar, rather than the previous 35%.

It is clear to us that our initial attempts to balance the PK triangle were biased towards the ranger (specifically the amount of damage that could be done over a very short amount of time), so we have decided that reducing the rate in which the shortbow specials were used is the best solution. Obviously we're not expecting all of you to embrace this change overnight, but it was necessary.

Over the next few months we will be releasing several improvements and additions to the PK triangle with mages, rangers and fighters all receiving new equipment to play with.

Obviously, it is very important to address the current issues in the balance of the game before releasing any new equipment. We will continue to do this to make sure the 3 classes remain equally powerful.