We would like to remind you about the removal of unbalanced trade, which will happen on the 2nd of January, 2008. Please prepare yourself for this change as you will not be able to make unbalanced trades once the date has passed.

We will be introducing a change on the same day, which will allow you more flexibility when trading. As you may have read in our Future Changes to Recent Updates newspost, this is an increase to the 3,000gp staking/trading limit, based on the number of Quest Points you have.

More details will be given in the Behind the Scenes newspost, and on the day of release.

To read more about unbalanced trades, please visit the Knowledge Base page.

In our latest Summoning Development Diary, we are going over what it takes to test and balance a skill so that it can fit in with the rest of the game.

While Summoning isn’t just combat-related, its effect on combat will be significant. As such, a large part of this Development Diary’s focus is on balancing combat, and the effect it will have on the Combat level. The Diary also covers where to pitch the skill in terms of difficulty, cost and training speed.

Head to the Development Diary: Summoning – Part 3 to read more.

For many on RuneScape, Christmas is an opportunity to let go and party. In Party Pete’s case, that is a very scary proposition indeed! Find out how he has prepared for Christmas in this month’s Postbag from the Hedge.

Postie Pete has also been out on the streets of RuneScape, canvassing opinion about this year’s updates. The Wise Old Man, Bob the Cat, Ping and Pong all give their two coins’ worth about quests, updates and even their own New Year’s resolutions.

A white Christmas has come to RuneScape this year! It is a gift from the Queen of Snow, who has enlisted her cheeky snow imps for a festive task: to bring snow to some of RuneScape’s major settlements. As far as the imps are concerned, you can do what you like with it: there’s plenty more where it came from!

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

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In other news…

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.

As promised in last week’s newspost, here are some of the initial ideas we have to further improve the player interaction in the game.

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