9 September 2008 - Clan Wars Update

The popular Wilderness minigame, Clan Wars, has received a colossal update this week.

When you next challenge a player to a clan war, you'll notice a
range of new options that better suits your battling tastes; for
example, you can choose whether players are able to return to the fray
after dying, how long the battle may last, how many kills are required
for a victory, and even what combat styles are permitted during the
fight.

You might wish to force an end to a battle if either team is reduced
to five survivors. This avoids chasing down over-energetic die-hards
who just won't stand still. Oh, and if you prefer real penalties for
failure, you can choose to make players lose all of their items on
death.

Beyond that, there's a selection of arenas featuring a variety of
different landscapes, so you'll have more choice about where you'd like
to fight. Do you prefer obstacles that block Magic/Ranged attacks or
obstacles that don't? Do you like empty spaces without any obstacles at
all? The original Clan Wars arena will naturally remain available, although some areas of it have become single-way combat zones.

For the more adventurous fighter, Clan Wars offers a pair of vast,
free-for-all arenas. Just wander in, alone or with friends, and prepare
to fight against anyone you meet. There are no combat restrictions in
those arenas, so you'll have free rein to make your own entertainment!

Calladin, the Clan Wars custodian, has something new to offer as
well. He'll let you set a friend (or enemy!) as your caller. When
you're in a Clan Wars arena, any chat you receive from that player will
be copied to your head-up display, so it'll be easier to spot their
messages in the chaos of a battle.

So, set your favourite options and prepare to fight, warrior!

In Other News:

Herblorists may be pleased to hear that Bob Barter, the expert on herb prices who stands by the Grand Exchange,
is now offering a new service.
If you ask him nicely, he'll look through your inventory and try to
combine your 3-dose, 2-dose and 1-dose potions into vials containing 4
doses. He even knows how to handle barbarian potions and calquat kegs.

If you use a chisel on a large block of granite, you'll now be able
to cut it into smaller blocks for use as Summoning ingredients.

A convenient right-click option has been added to the ghost
disciples around the Ectofuntus, to help players collect their tokens
even when they don't have the Amulet of Ghostspeak.

One of the skeletal wyverns was appearing as level 158 rather than
level 140, even though it was really no tougher than the other level
140 wyverns. It's had its level adjusted to match the rest; this will
not affect its difficulty in combat.

Eniola, the banker at the Ourania Altar, will henceforth expect payment from players wishing to use his services to collect purchased items from the Grand Exchange.

Our Graphics team has been busily fixing yet more bugs, including the following:

• The battle hood, obtained as a reward from Fist of Guthix, was appearing as green rather than purple in players' inventories. Its proper colour has now been restored.
  
• Following this year's graphical update, players were finding that
  their computers had trouble rendering certain map areas, resulting in
  low frame-rates. We've made some cosmetic changes to various bits of
  scenery to reduce this problem.
  
• When a female character wore Verac's helm, their head was appearing out of proportion to the rest of their body.
  
• The bug lantern, used for killing harpie bug swarms, tended to render badly alongside certain leggings.
  
• When combined with a highwayman mask, the cavalier hat was often appearing too high above the head of its wearer.
  
• Players wearing the new ringmaster hat were finding their chat bouncing strangely above their heads.
  
• The helmet obtained from the Drill Demon random event was causing players to lose their hair when they took it off.
  
• Crab shell gauntlets were causing players' wrists to change colour!
  
• If a player chose to wield an undead chicken during the Animal Magnetism
  quest - and who wouldn't wield such an item? - they'd sometimes find
  that the chicken appeared some distance from their actual hand.
  
• The Zamorak banner, made in the workshops of players' houses, was stretching into people's heads.
  
• The Bandos tassets were hanging down too much at the front, leading to graphical glitches.
  
• The Amulet of Catspeak was incorrectly positioned on female characters.
  
• Snakeskin vambraces were causing players' arms to move in unexpected ways.
  
• The Saradomin, Zamorak and Guthix coifs, obtained as Treasure Trail
  rewards, were suffering from a problem that frequently caused players'
  heads to become transparent.