History and Future of the RuneScape World Map

[Michaael]

I wish we would get a large piece of new land. It seems like they keep adding underground places that lead to instanced places for quests (like the Curse of Arrav).

 

 

 

The underground stuff is getting really old :?

 

Just wait 'till you get to see the Eastern Lands.

 

 

 

Between that and Priffindas (sp?), I can't wait :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[lazlazor]

I don't think we can expect enormous amounts of land expansion and here's why:

 

 

 

Developers also need to be urban designers - just another hat they must wear. They need to balance city populations against lag. Keep in mind that we're playing a game and it needs to be fun. Part of that fun is seeing a lot of people doing a lot of interesting things as we pass through cities.

 

 

 

So keeping a relatively high population in a town is a good thing for a MMORPG. Games like Dark and Light and Star Wars Galaxies had enormous amounts of gorgeous land to run around in. End result? That land felt empty because people were too spread out.

 

 

 

For right now, we have a hard cap of 2000 people on a server. Until that changes, the devs need to consider what a good balance is between giving us new terrain to explore and thinning the population in the cities and current hotspots.

 

 

 

So I believe that some limited terrain expansion can occur with a positive effect but they'll have to be cautious about creating new continents as long as we have a 2000 connection cap on the servers.

[warren211]

I don't think making the world round would be a good idea, it would add a big limit to the size of new areas to be added since they must fit into the globe rather than the world map simply expanding to incorporate it. All new locations would either have to be small to fit into empty areas, small islands rather than giant landmasses, or underground. For a while it might be cool to have the world as truly round, but in the long run when Jagex has added more and more updates, it might end up being crammed.

[HunterDexter]

I don't think making the world round would be a good idea, it would add a big limit to the size of new areas to be added since they must fit into the globe rather than the world map simply expanding to incorporate it. All new locations would either have to be small to fit into empty areas, small islands rather than giant landmasses, or underground. For a while it might be cool to have the world as truly round, but in the long run when Jagex has added more and more updates, it might end up being crammed.

 

 

 

We do have alternate planes and places that could be filled (look at how Witchaven appeared, out of nothing, just next to Ardougne), but yeah, totally new areas are much more fun and give us the thrill: oh look: a black area, what on earth will be placed there?

[Esper_Jones]

I do like how much more of the Unknown has been revealed this year. Some I don't consider "true" reveals, such as Soul Wars or the Raktuber island, but some are definitely interesting, such as the North and the area west of Oo'glog.

[The Runar]

[hide=][/hide]

 

 

 

This is the first official map ever made. From January 2001.

[Emmentail]

I can see my house! I think the first ever RS map I saw was when Ardounge still wasn't there. A lovely crisp edge.

[magma2050]

Awesome. I'm adding that one to my collection :)

 

 

 

A friend of mine was telling me that back in the day, there was only Varrock and Lumbridge, and anywhere other than those two locations was full-on PVP. I take it this map is from that sort of era?

[therock]

How large is our current continent relative to the planet?

 

In principle, you can answer this question by finding the in-game location coordinates (treasure trail coordinates) of the northernmost, southernmost, easternmost and westernmost points on the map. A quick look at the locator learns that the present continent spans from 30° North through 20° south. That means the continent takes 50/180 of the planet on the north-south axis.

 

On the east-west axis, the present map spans approximately 55°, thus 55/180 of the planet.

 

Multiplying, we see the present world map takes 8% of the entire runescape planet.

 

 

 

Will Jagex ever "finish" the planet, and actually make it seem round in-game (this can be difficult to code)?

 

I don't think so. They may make it so that you end up in the east when you go far enough to the west and vice versa, but since you can't cover a spere with square tiles, I don't think they'll make an actual sphere.

[Kirbytimes]

I don't think we can expect enormous amounts of land expansion and here's why:

 

 

 

Developers also need to be urban designers - just another hat they must wear. They need to balance city populations against lag. Keep in mind that we're playing a game and it needs to be fun. Part of that fun is seeing a lot of people doing a lot of interesting things as we pass through cities.

 

 

 

So keeping a relatively high population in a town is a good thing for a MMORPG. Games like Dark and Light and Star Wars Galaxies had enormous amounts of gorgeous land to run around in. End result? That land felt empty because people were too spread out.

 

 

 

For right now, we have a hard cap of 2000 people on a server. Until that changes, the devs need to consider what a good balance is between giving us new terrain to explore and thinning the population in the cities and current hotspots.

 

 

 

So I believe that some limited terrain expansion can occur with a positive effect but they'll have to be cautious about creating new continents as long as we have a 2000 connection cap on the servers.

 

 

 

 

 

But they've been releasing underground locations, which obviously have people going in and out of them. What's the difference between a new huge underground place, and just another addition to the world map? Either one is going to reduce the density of players (at Varrock or wherever). Jagex fails to finish projects. Period. The only thing Mobilising Armies is good for is a teleport to Oo'glog.

[Seraphi]

I think you're forgetting about the "Eastern Lands" that are supposed to be across the ocean.

 

I think that would give Jagex a reason to create a full globe.

 

 

 

Also, we currently have globes in player owned houses, and they dominate much of the study.

 

I don't think Jagex would just leave them useless, and I really hope they do have far more expansion planned.

 

I have no idea is they intended for the globe to be purely decorative, but I think they have probably thought about using it that way.

[Jard_Y_Dooku]

I just happened across this post while trawling the internet for archives of old world maps. I have been keeping an archive myself since September 2004, but missed everything before then. The two earlier ones linked at the beginning of this forum post filled in the gap quite nicely.

 

 

 

I've added them to the beginning of my personal archive with estimated dates based on the presence or absence of quest-specific map locations and quest symbols.

 

 

 

My archive currently comprises 56 maps starting from the last one available for RSC right up to the most recent downloadable map as of 21 July 2009, and is viewable at this location (Total size of all maps currently over 80Mb)

 

 

 

http://s625.photobucket.com/albums/tt33 ... ld%20maps/

 

 

 

VERY nice, this will help a lot. And welcome to Tip.It!

[FrostyYeti]

Ok The Area west Of frozen Plateau Is one of the most important point In the runescape story(Well It will be soon)

 

 

 

Its The Mahjarrat Ritual site, This has been confirmed in tale of muspah, It will be released in a upcoming mahjarrat quest.

[armybuilder]

Now this is is an intresting topic. i will be re reading this when i get back from my holiday +)

[Everyonedies]

why does everyone keep talking about the eastern lands?? Please correct me but i thought the only mention of "eastern lands" was back when they released new hair styles that came from an eastern land. That has nothing to do with new game content though, did i miss an announcement?

[HunterDexter]

The eastern lands were claimed to exist by people in Port Phasmatys and I think other NPC's too.

[Hippodo]

why does everyone keep talking about the eastern lands?? Please correct me but i thought the only mention of "eastern lands" was back when they released new hair styles that came from an eastern land. That has nothing to do with new game content though, did i miss an announcement?

 

The Eastern Lands have been mentioned multiple times by several npc's in RuneScape, and even by Reldo in the Postbag. Ak-Haranu on the docks of Port Phasmatys talks about it as his home, and the cyclopes from the Warrior's Guild are said to have been brought from that area by Harrallak Menarous. San Fan too, found at the Trouble Brewing minigame, comes from the lands to the East, according to her examine. Furthermore, the Mysterious Old Man acquired his mysterious box there, as the people of the Eastern Lands are known as master toymakers and craftsmen.

[Zepheras]

There is only two possibilities, given Jagex's current pace and purpose of their update to the server and stuff.

 

 

 

:thumbup: Another giant continent is coming, it would be one of the largest update after RuneScape 2 and HD graphics, codenamed RuneScape: Episode III.

 

 

 

With all the hype about Eastern Lands, from NPCs originating from it, to hairstyles, and how Jagex likes to surprise us with a well-hidden enormous updates that aren't your usual new quest or monster, it would be safe to say that there's bound to be a new continent soon. Of course, before working on the new continent, major things have to be completed first, such as questlines that spanned over several years, as well as the obvious things like soul altars, unfinished borders around the edge of Gielinor.

 

 

 

It would be pretty exciting to have a brand new continent, with average monsters at KBD-class capabilities roaming the land, katanas and ninja related equipment, new quests and giant empires for players to explore. If combined with advertisement, Jagex is bound to attract a new wave of players by the truckload. Of course, before this major update, they would want to reformat the old coding, upgrade the servers, fix little technical bugs, and make the game grahphically more uniform.

 

 

 

:thumbdown: Jagex has no intention of adding any more continents, aside from finishing the borders of the Gielinor, the questlines within the land such as the Majharrats, Myreque, Desert and Elven series.

 

 

 

Recent trends shows that aside from finishing the bordering regions Gielinor, most new areas have been added to the game in the form of either dungeons or planes in another dimension. With background knowledge of how the Gods of RuneScape created and shaped Gielinor, it would be weird that another continent exists somewhere else that either has their own gods and races, or has similar history and lores of Guthix, Saradomin and Zamorak yet having zero interaction with Gielinor.

 

 

 

Not to forget, the God Wars took place in the north, what we know as the wilderness. The LARGEST war in the history of the game took place in that darken piece of land that would take you at most 15 minutes to run around its border. We have almost 100% of our game content surrounding the gods and god wars. Would it be possible for the inhabitants of another continent to be totally ignorant of the war, or to have an entirely new history of their own? It would look like Jagex intended RuneScape to be revolve around the gods and god wars, beefing up the continent of Gielinor with storylines and dungeons.

 

 

 

Moreover, certain skills are primarily located within Gielinor itself. Runecrafting and its altars form the basis of what we know as magics. With all the sources of runes within this continent, we can safely assume that any new continent would have no magical related content. Even travelling would be an issue, since we use mainly teleports, fairy rings and boats. Unless Jagex adds the new continent in a very abrupt manner (like suddenly mentioning how Gielinor have trade links with a new continent), then yes, they may be using runes and magic as well, there is a possibility of unknown fairy rings, more spirit trees, and new teleporting spots.

 

 

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

Of course I'm just stating the obvious, either yes there is a new continent or not. But I'm personally more inclined towards the latter, since there's more points to support this hypothesis. Jagex probably have some technical limitation as to how big the world can be, since even stackables in bank have a limit of a little over two billion.

[magma2050]

I wasn't aware that Photobucket resampled images over certain resolutions. The maps I uploaded there are blurred and useless.

 

 

 

I've reuploaded them all to Imageshack which don't have such restrictions.

 

 

 

They are at the following locations:

 

 

 

RSC Circa 2001 RSC Circa 2004

 

 

 

16/4/2004 10/8/2004 22/9/2004 17/11/2004 15/12/2004 7/2/2005 26/4/2005 8/7/2005 5/1/2006 21/3/2006 28/7/2006 4/9/2006 27/9/2006 21/11/2006 10/1/2007 29/1/2007 5/2/2007 19/2/2007 27/3/2007 10/4/2007 18/4/2007 8/5/2007 4/6/2007 18/6/2007 17/7/2007 24/7/2007 28/8/2007 10/9/2007 9/10/2007 22/10/2007 26/11/2007 10/12/2007 22/1/2008 29/1/2008 12/2/2008 18/3/2008 31/3/2008 8/4/2008 22/4/2008 7/5/2008 4/6/2008 1/7/2008 14/7/2008 29/7/2008 26/8/2008 27/10/2008 11/11/2008 16/12/2008 6/1/2009 19/1/2009 10/2/2009 7/4/2009 21/4/2009

[derekwinston]

There is only two possibilities, given Jagex's current pace and purpose of their update to the server and stuff.

 

 

 

:thumbup: Another giant continent is coming, it would be one of the largest update after RuneScape 2 and HD graphics, codenamed RuneScape: Episode III.

 

 

 

With all the hype about Eastern Lands, from NPCs originating from it, to hairstyles, and how Jagex likes to surprise us with a well-hidden enormous updates that aren't your usual new quest or monster, it would be safe to say that there's bound to be a new continent soon. Of course, before working on the new continent, major things have to be completed first, such as questlines that spanned over several years, as well as the obvious things like soul altars, unfinished borders around the edge of Gielinor.

 

 

 

It would be pretty exciting to have a brand new continent, with average monsters at KBD-class capabilities roaming the land, katanas and ninja related equipment, new quests and giant empires for players to explore. If combined with advertisement, Jagex is bound to attract a new wave of players by the truckload. Of course, before this major update, they would want to reformat the old coding, upgrade the servers, fix little technical bugs, and make the game grahphically more uniform.

 

 

 

:thumbdown: Jagex has no intention of adding any more continents, aside from finishing the borders of the Gielinor, the questlines within the land such as the Majharrats, Myreque, Desert and Elven series.

 

 

 

Recent trends shows that aside from finishing the bordering regions Gielinor, most new areas have been added to the game in the form of either dungeons or planes in another dimension. With background knowledge of how the Gods of RuneScape created and shaped Gielinor, it would be weird that another continent exists somewhere else that either has their own gods and races, or has similar history and lores of Guthix, Saradomin and Zamorak yet having zero interaction with Gielinor.

 

 

 

Not to forget, the God Wars took place in the north, what we know as the wilderness. The LARGEST war in the history of the game took place in that darken piece of land that would take you at most 15 minutes to run around its border. We have almost 100% of our game content surrounding the gods and god wars. Would it be possible for the inhabitants of another continent to be totally ignorant of the war, or to have an entirely new history of their own? It would look like Jagex intended RuneScape to be revolve around the gods and god wars, beefing up the continent of Gielinor with storylines and dungeons.

 

 

 

Moreover, certain skills are primarily located within Gielinor itself. Runecrafting and its altars form the basis of what we know as magics. With all the sources of runes within this continent, we can safely assume that any new continent would have no magical related content. Even travelling would be an issue, since we use mainly teleports, fairy rings and boats. Unless Jagex adds the new continent in a very abrupt manner (like suddenly mentioning how Gielinor have trade links with a new continent), then yes, they may be using runes and magic as well, there is a possibility of unknown fairy rings, more spirit trees, and new teleporting spots.

 

 

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

Of course I'm just stating the obvious, either yes there is a new continent or not. But I'm personally more inclined towards the latter, since there's more points to support this hypothesis. Jagex probably have some technical limitation as to how big the world can be, since even stackables in bank have a limit of a little over two billion.

 

Actually, it has been confirmed (don't remember the plaace)

 

1. The whole of Gleinor is made of rune escence, guuthix said this apparently.

 

2. Gleinor has trade in the eastern lands, but due to events that icant remember, trade is now very low.

 

 

 

Also, i believe they could do one of 2 things.

 

-use an entirely new spellbook, new trees, basic items, summoning creatures, herbs/potions.

 

-have a completely new game for this continent, utilising new skills, etc. u would however use the same login. I imagine ninja like magicks with tomes or kanji instead of runes etc..

[HunterDexter]

Only the places where the Stone of Jas resided contain pure/rune essence.

[LegsOSkill]

Good read. ;)

[nerdboyxxx]

How large is our current continent relative to the planet?

 

In principle, you can answer this question by finding the in-game location coordinates (treasure trail coordinates) of the northernmost, southernmost, easternmost and westernmost points on the map. A quick look at the locator learns that the present continent spans from 30° North through 20° south. That means the continent takes 50/180 of the planet on the north-south axis.

 

On the east-west axis, the present map spans approximately 55°, thus 55/180 of the planet.

 

Multiplying, we see the present world map takes 8% of the entire runescape planet.

 

 

 

Will Jagex ever "finish" the planet, and actually make it seem round in-game (this can be difficult to code)?

 

I don't think so. They may make it so that you end up in the east when you go far enough to the west and vice versa, but since you can't cover a spere with square tiles, I don't think they'll make an actual sphere.

 

 

 

Nice work there ;) I never was good at geography and all that :? If the continent currently only takes up 8% of the planet (assuming it's round), then we have a lot we can build on :)

[derekwinston]

Only the places where the Stone of Jas resided contain pure/rune essence.

 

Yes, but according to Guthix in the god letters, the world had been primarily made of rune escence, which would give jagex the perfect way to create a new rune mine. :shame:

[Hippodo]

Only the places where the Stone of Jas resided contain pure/rune essence.

 

Yes, but according to Guthix in the god letters, the world had been primarily made of rune escence, which would give jagex the perfect way to create a new rune mine. :shame:

 

Where does it say this?