History and Future of the RuneScape World Map

[Jard_Y_Dooku]

For my 1250th post, I think it warrants something special. Hopefully this long topic will be less controversial than my last one. ;) Now, let's start the topic...

 

 

 

For a long time I've loved maps... especially the RuneScape map. I have always been fascinated by the world map, and loved to wonder about what was behind the darkness that plagues the edges of our world. This topic is mainly for discussion of the Unknown, its history and its future. First of all, I think most of us can agree that Gielinor is round, due to hints in the game and images by Jagex.

 

 

 

How large is our current continent relative to the planet?

 

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

 

Will we ever move to another planet?

 

 

 

One thing I feel is interesting is that Jagex is moving rather slowly with game content. Obviously games are difficult to develop, and although Jagex had said RuneScape will be their focus for the next 5 years, all good things have their end. Eventually RuneScape will die, and eventually Jagex will cease to exist as a company. However due to current trends I feel these are unlikely to come soon, especially the latter. But really... when RuneScape DOES die, how 'finished' will it be? What will they do with all the code? For reference, The Realm Online is 13 years old (I read it was the longest running MMORPG), but there are only 180 accounts. RuneScape will be nearing that age soon, but it does seem to be growing and I don't see the end near. How is this relevant to the map, you ask?

 

 

 

Well, in just over 8 years, we've gone from this:

 

 

 

http://runevillage.com/world.php

 

 

 

...to this...

 

 

 

http://www.runeuniverse.us/worldmap.jpg

 

 

 

In my opinion, there hasn't been much expansion in 8 years. Yes, of course... there was a lot of content that had to be focused on, but I really think that the world should be expanded. Other MMORPGs have huge maps compared to RuneScape, and I wonder if Jagex will start moving towards this direction.

 

 

 

Think of all the land that has been left unopen for years. Menaphos hasn't been opened since 2005 - 4 years. And I can't even REMEMBER how old Prifddinas is... 2004? Also, the amount of unknown seems to have decreased dramatically. From RuneScape Wikia, more Unknown was revealed 14 times in 2005, 12 in 2006, 5 in 2007 and 2 in 2008... and so far, 2 in 2009. Why are they releasing LESS land? The current map won't be able to contain new content for long, I think a lot of players would like more areas to explore. Maybe they really have been working on it behind the scenes, and we just don't know that the Eastern Lands have been in development for 5 years and they'll release a continent and 20 quests all at once? I doubt it, but it sounds nice.

 

 

 

It seems to me that Jagex likes to start things, then keep doing other things and not finish them. Take Runecrafting for example. 6 years and it's not finished. I suspect it would be QUITE EASY to just pop the soul altar into a random spot and finished it off, don't you? Of course I'd rather they follow the pattern and release a nice hard quest with it, but still... 6 years? Finish what's been started, Jagex! There's also many quest storylines. You might argue that we need to have something new to look forward to, but what's stopping them from making new storylines? Release the next quest in a storyline every few months, and start a new one when it's finished. That's all. We can still have concurrent ongoing storylines, but I think the amount we have is a bit ridiculous. Think of the quest possibilities with a whole new continent (Eastern Lands). In the real world, Asia is the largest continent and it seems like the Eastern Lands will be similar to this. Well... if we've had 149 quests on our current continent (which isn't finished, mind you), think of the possibilities on a larger continent like the EL.

 

 

 

Here's the main questions:

 

1. Why has the amount of land being released each year, decreased since 2005 (or 2004)?

 

2. Do the Eastern Lands play a role in the above, and if so or if not, does quest 150 have anything to do with it?

 

3. What does the future hold for the current unknown areas (this is opinion-based, so just post your imagined ideas, but try to use logic!)?

 

4. Introduce some of your own! I love to talk about maps, so I'd really like to hear your thoughts and ideas about how the RS map will progress in the coming years.

 

 

 

NOTE: The charter ship map shows the "complete" RuneScape map, and I think following the coastlines shown there is fairly logical and thus should be considered in any ideas you have. Here's an image, from the RuneScape Wikia:

 

 

 

 

 

 

South of Uzer / North of Ullek:

 

 

 

I don't think this area has much potential. It can't logically expand east and the charter map seems to agree, so just possibly a small new city and quest. It seems to me that areas are left blank for a reason... if it were blank desert I think they'd have just finished it right away, so there must be something special there. If not a city, possibly a minigame or a new resource. For it to expand south would be geographically odd, and again the charter map wouldn't agree. I think the new area will also be a sort of tropical area, due to the fact that near the end of the map near Uzer, there is a tree, and some grassy area. Quite odd...

 

 

 

Menaphos and the Western Desert:

 

 

 

As for Menaphos and Sophanem, there isn't really much to say about what's south of them, I believe the coast is pretty much where the blackness is... maybe we'll see a nice port and a few ships in Menaphos, with a new charter location. I think each of the cities will nearly double in size, around 1.5x their current to be more specific. West of Menaphos... well, according to the charter map there's not much area and I don't have any guesses asides from something completely off-topic that Jagex will put there.

 

 

 

Morytania:

 

 

 

As the charter map shows, only a small bit of Morytania is yet to be revealed. I think the Vampyre cities will expand slightly further east, and possibly the rest of the continent will be rich forests that haven't yet been corrupted by the kingdom's evils...

 

 

 

West of the Frozen Waste Plateau:

 

 

 

This has been Unknown for so long I can't even remember. Nearly since RSC. I think it was mainly to stop players exiting the Wilderness, and it's just gone forgotten for many years. I think it also may have been the site of since canceled projects such as Wilderness Tag. There's really nowhere for this place to go, and Jagex should probably just fill in the icy tundra unless they can think of something better. Not even I can.

 

 

 

North of Prifddinas:

 

 

 

Another extremely long-unrevealed area. I think we'll see more elven related map area for a bit north of Prifddinas, with mountains sealing it off from Piscatoris. This area could be revealed in the next elf quest, and I'm almost certain it will be revealed when Prifddinas is opened. Also, the northwest corner of Prifddinas has been missing for a long, long time. Why, this makes no sense. Has it simply been lost in the schedules, or was it originally left that way with the intention of hiding something...?

 

 

 

Poison Waste:

 

 

 

Truly, I don't know why this isn't ended yet. It seems to me like there's NOTHING there. Unless Arposandra is actually SOUTH of the waste and not underground as I suspected earlier. The charter map wouldn't agree, but this area especially, albeit it being very dead ended, actually makes me doubt its accuracy. After all, the waste has been creeping further north every year, hasn't it? I'd think that, with the sewer pipe being EAST of the waste, it'd tend to spill south into the ocean. However, if there's something there (Arposandra) with even more sewer pipes pumping in sludge, that explains the northward movement.

 

 

 

Feldip Hills:

 

 

 

I've seen other people suggest that this will "wrap around" to the poison waste, making the water south of Castle Wars into a pond of sorts. I disagree because unless the Feldip Hills and poison waste expanded a HUGE area - like, almost the entire southwest Unknown on the world map, it would be geographically odd. And due to the current shape of Feldip Hills, it seems like it would be geographically odd either way. So I say that Feldip Hills should be pretty much cut off where they are.

 

 

 

PS - On the RuneScape Wikia, I'm trying to pinpoint the dates each bits of land were released. http://runescape.wikia.com/wiki/Unknown It was previously noted that Unknown was revealed 14 times in 2005, 12 in 2006, 5 in 2007 and 2 in 2008, and I'm going to need some help filling in the blanks in the table I made. If you have any RuneScape world maps, and know at least roughly what date they're from, please post them (as links, not images) so I can try and finish those lists. RSC and RuneScape maps will do.

 

 

 

PPS - Don't worry, no code words in this topic. ;)

 

 

 

--- Map list ---

 

 

 

Here's a small archive of old world maps I've found on Google or that have been submitted by users on this topic. I'll try to put them in order later. LM means "Last Modified"... I check the response headers of these websites when I download the maps, to give me at least some idea of when they are from. Assuming the servers' time settings are correct, each map must have existed on or before the LM date.

 

 

 

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/7735/map.jpg [Thanks, Systemless, LM date is today so it's irrelevant]

 

http://dragon.slayers.tripod.com/sitebu ... ld_map.png [LM Sun, 16 Jul 2006] <-- might want to contact the site I found this on about copyright violation...

 

http://www.freewebs.com/runicblades/Runescape%20map.JPG [LM Tue, 12 Jun 2007]

 

http://www.runescape-tip.com/dynamic/ma ... _hires.jpg [LM Sun, 29 Jul 2007]

 

http://anime-magic.nl/map/world.jpg [LM Sun, 15 Aug 2004]

 

http://www.geocities.com/twigman428@sbc ... rldmap.jpg [LM Tue, 14 Nov 2006, VERY OLD]

 

http://www.rshaven.com/images/runesacpe ... p-2007.jpg [LM Fri, 13 Jul 2007]

 

http://monk3y2.tripod.com/sitebuilderco ... es/map.jpg [LM Tue, 14 Feb 2006]

 

http://runescaperocks.t83.net/communiti ... 792941.swf [LM Sat, 29 Jul 2006]

 

http://www.freewebs.com/runescapevetera ... 20map2.jpg [LM Fri, 22 Jun 2007]

 

http://www.freewebs.com/xatman911/Runescape%20map.jpg [LM Wed, 20 Jun 2007]

 

 

 

EDIT: The first and third links are tripod, with a .com after that. The second link is runescape tip with a dash between the two words.

[Krampell]

Sorry to say but your 2nd map link 404'd.

 

Otherwise it was a good read. =D>

[das]

I think Jagex can easily make the world round and add another map to the otherside - Let's pretend the map we have is just 1/2 of a globe.

 

 

 

Now as for content - I think the most likely options is dungeons and caves. The dorga goblins showed up under lumbridge of all places, who knows what could randomly show up under say Al Karid or Yanile.

 

 

 

Obviously we have a nice chunk of black space above GWD. I don't foresee this being much as you take damage for bad weather around much of it.

 

 

 

as for your areas

 

 

 

South of Uzer / North of Ullek:

 

If anything I see some sort of temple city being here, I dont think you can apply charter map logic as I mean how could white wolf mountain or falador go undiscovered before they were added. Land reveals often make little sense in how they could not be unknown. I mean look at Port P to Mos Le Harmless - logically You would have to sail by lots of the black area below - so that makes little sense as to why it's not documented.

 

 

 

I mean it's logically odd for places like the phoenix lair to just show up and cities like Oo'glog, Piscatoris Fishing Colony.

 

 

 

It's illogical how Islands just show up with locals with no contact from the mainland and no one npc wiseseems to be overly bothered by it.

 

 

 

Dorga Kahn is a prime example. It's an underground city under lumbridge that connects al karid. I would love to see a world map with the underground parts overlayed on top - It seems feasable that the underground caverns/dungeons would overlap

[Systemless]

The underground dungeons do overlap already in many places

 

 

 

- Kalphite lair overlaps with Guthix Tears Area.

 

- TzHaar city overlaps with Brimhaven dungeon, Agility arena and Kramja Volcano dungeon.

 

- Dorgeshuun Mines overlap with the Fire Altar

 

- Chaos Dungeon overlaps Edgville dungeon

 

 

 

of course this could be solved by assuming that there are several dungeon levels (which has to be assumed anyway for areas like Security dungeon).

 

 

 

But the problem is that Jagex has been a bit sloppy when it comes to placing dunegons. The lava maze for example has the entrances exchanged. When you go down the ladder west of the lava labyrinth you end up in the east of the dungeon, while when you go down the ladder more in the east you end up in the west. The distance between the entrances do fit very well, but they are connect wrongly.

 

 

 

Another ugly place is the Ogre city chamber, which is just too large when compared to the dinstance between entrances and exits above ground.

 

 

 

The dungeon of Tolna can be seen from the varrock sewers ingame. So we know where Jagex placed it technically. But then again the ladder does not fit with the entrance.

 

 

 

as far as I know there is no way to build a 100% consistent map of the underground world of runescape, because it is inconsistent in itself.

 

 

 

An applet with my current attempt at mapping runescape in three levels (normal map, dungeon map, and an special map for locations that can not be located or do not fit onto the dungeon map) can be found here

 

 

 

http://rscommunity.de/rune/map/mapplet.php

 

 

 

I would love to see the mess in the dungeon maps cleaned up.

 

 

 

.: Systemless :.

[Randox]

I can't convey how happy I would be if I had a new contenant to explore. Even if it was the size of the f2p world I woudl be ecstatic. If we keep adding content as dungeouns, which seems to be the trend since we ran out of geneal map a few years ago, RuneScape is just going to be all dungeouns. Make the map bigger people. The ammount of story lines left open is ludicrus. If it weren't for fan sites, we would all forget the storylines between quests. I have only gone as far as MEP1, and I don't have a sweet clue what the first quest in the series is or what its about (something about a farmer and going over the wall and rotten tomatoes I think). Is that wat Jagex wants? For us all to forget all the lonre when the next quest in the series comes out...3 years later? Then we get the summer 2 part series, with a story line that is very simple, that was completed in what...2 months?

 

 

 

MORE MAP and FINISH SOME [bleep]ING QUEST STORY LINES ALREADY. Well, maybe they keep them all open for a reason. Atleast advance teh storys please.

[Poopingman]

Wow, its always something else seeing that vintage world map. I remember back then when Al Kharid was so tiny..no Wilderness. Feels like a totally different game.

[Hippodo]

I agree with Das that you can't really rely on the Charter Map, because it just 'smoothes' existing continents off. It could be that the Kharidian Desert really extends far to the south of Menaphos and Sophanem, and that Castle Drakan and Meiyerditch lie miles away from the eastcoast (which probably isn't really the case, as a book stated the castle stood in the middle of the continent, which it does already). And I bet the Oo'glog area wasn't on the charter map before it was implemented ;).

 

 

 

By the way, I'm keeping my eye on this topic, as I share your love for maps :).

[Jard_Y_Dooku]

I was Googling RuneScape maps, and I noticed one where the Kharidian Desert coastline ENDED (i.e. the east half of the desert did not exist). I remember this map from a loooooong time ago. :)

 

 

 

http://www.freewebs.com/xatman911/Runescape%20map.jpg

 

 

 

Also, the Heroes' guild used to have water north of it, but now it's all mountains. And north of White Wolf Mountain was grassy with a fence. Why in the world was that area so different before it was changed? I know the maps used to have that fancy curvy shadowing, as opposed to the new plain square shadowing which aligns to internal boundaries, but I don't think anything was there. Still, the big change in terrain seems odd to me. Also on this map you can see the desert ends in CLIFFS on the east. Oh wow... I just remembered that from in-game. Good times. :)

 

 

 

http://www.geocities.com/twigman428@sbc ... rldmap.jpg

 

 

 

PS - Know any website that has old cached versions of the RuneScape website (so I can find maps)? archive.org says runescape.com is blocked. >.<

[Hippodo]

 

Also, the Heroes' guild used to have water north of it, but now it's all mountains. And north of White Wolf Mountain was grassy with a fence. Why in the world was that area so different before it was changed? I know the maps used to have that fancy curvy shadowing, as opposed to the new plain square shadowing which aligns to internal boundaries, but I don't think anything was there. Still, the big change in terrain seems odd to me. Also on this map you can see the desert ends in CLIFFS on the east. Oh wow... I just remembered that from in-game. Good times. :)

 

 

 

http://www.geocities.com/twigman428@sbc ... rldmap.jpg

 

 

 

PS - Know any website that has old cached versions of the RuneScape website (so I can find maps)? archive.org says runescape.com is blocked. >.<

 

Undergound Pass, yeah :P Why is there a spelling error in a Jagex map?

 

 

 

Anyway, I never knew the eastern desert was just glued onto the west side. Kinda funny, the sea just became the river Elid. And man, the desert really grew since this map, wow :shock: Btw, I have a question, maybe you know this Dooku: The Underground Pass Quest was already created in RSC right? But the Elven Lands didn't exist back then... So how did the Quest end? And the tunnel system?

[Systemless]

Here is another old map (maybe about 1/2 to one year after release of runescape 2?). After all it seems not modified. Finding a good guess for the date should be possible by looking at the official runescape news archive.

 

 

 

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/7735/map.jpg

 

 

 

.: Systemless :.

[Me_Hate_Libs]

um, yeah, that place where you do the Iban thing now, you'd enter it after you killed Iban and it was just a room with the well in it. No path through the mountains.

[Jard_Y_Dooku]

 

Also, the Heroes' guild used to have water north of it, but now it's all mountains. And north of White Wolf Mountain was grassy with a fence. Why in the world was that area so different before it was changed? I know the maps used to have that fancy curvy shadowing, as opposed to the new plain square shadowing which aligns to internal boundaries, but I don't think anything was there. Still, the big change in terrain seems odd to me. Also on this map you can see the desert ends in CLIFFS on the east. Oh wow... I just remembered that from in-game. Good times. :)

 

 

 

http://www.geocities.com/twigman428@sbc ... rldmap.jpg

 

 

 

PS - Know any website that has old cached versions of the RuneScape website (so I can find maps)? archive.org says runescape.com is blocked. >.<

 

Undergound Pass, yeah :P Why is there a spelling error in a Jagex map?

 

 

 

Anyway, I never knew the eastern desert was just glued onto the west side. Kinda funny, the sea just became the river Elid. And man, the desert really grew since this map, wow :shock: Btw, I have a question, maybe you know this Dooku: The Underground Pass Quest was already created in RSC right? But the Elven Lands didn't exist back then... So how did the Quest end? And the tunnel system?

 

 

 

Simple, the Underground Pass never ended with the Elven Lands... they didn't even exist until the mages opened the Well of Voyage when Regicide came out, which was an RS2 quest (released Monday, 20-September-2004). It strains my mind to think that far back... I wonder if anyone has the VERY FIRST world map that had the elven lands on it? I can't remember if Prifddinas started out with the northwest corner missing, or the entire top half.

 

 

 

Here is another old map (maybe about 1/2 to one year after release of runescape 2?). After all it seems not modified. Finding a good guess for the date should be possible by looking at the official runescape news archive.

 

 

 

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/7735/map.jpg

 

 

 

.: Systemless :.

 

 

 

Thanks for the map, Systemless. I'm going to list all the maps I've found, along with yours, at the bottom of my post.

[Zaaps1]

Sorry, but where does it say that RuneScape is round? I've never caught anything which implied that.

 

 

 

As for RuneScape expanding to other planets, I find this very possible. Remember RuneScape is a planet orbiting its sun (proof in the News Release for Distractions). The Planet recently past, and still is passing through an "Astroid Belt" of some sort. These Astroids fall onto RuneScape as shooting stars, implying that the Star Sprites are citizens of extraterrestrial objects. Directly interpreted, each of these Astroids may simply be home to a single member of that race. But what if they had contact with each other? The Star Sprites seem very knowledgeable when you speak to them; it is doubtful they figured out so much by themselves--they must be able to contact other Sprites.

 

 

 

This leads me to believe that Star Sprites originate from a larger planet. A huge object crashed into the planet, totally shattering it into pieces, or at least part of the planet. These shards are naturally unequal in nature (leading to variations in Shooting Star sizes) and were pulled into the Sun's gravitational pull and therefore drawn into orbit. This formed the Astroid belt that Gielinor is now passing through. Thousands or millions of shattered rock don't just "appear". They must have origins.

 

 

 

Problem then would be: there must be remnants of the planet. The object would have had to destroy part of the planet. The size it needs to be in order to completely demolish it would make it a planet in its own right. Either way, this would prove that a planet, or the remaining fragments of one, exist today. This planet would be perfect exploration ground.

[Jard_Y_Dooku]

Your character suggests in one quest (Path of Glouphire, I think) that the Earth is round, but is told that he/she is silly. Also, Jagex has released a couple images showing RuneScape to be spherical. Also...

 

 

 

Remember RuneScape is a planet

 

 

 

You answered your own question. ;)

[Aneron]

it's soo cool to look at all those maps and think of way back when that's what this game was

 

 

 

hopefully we'll also get some new land soon, although "upgrade year" doesn't sound terribly promising

 

 

 

I agree with you largely, and support the idea that jagex probably just drew the charter map to fit what they'd revealed to us so far

 

 

 

I agree with most of your projections, although I imagine the area east of meiyerditch to be more of a hellish vampire dominated deathscape (it is labelled the sanguinesti region, which is supposedly the worst part of morytania, assuming that it extends beyond meiyerditch. there is also the gate in eastern meiyerditch, suggesting that they are linked and the vampires have some power there) than an uncorrupted forest

[Zaaps1]

Your character suggests in one quest (Path of Glouphire, I think) that the Earth is round, but is told that he/she is silly. Also, Jagex has released a couple images showing RuneScape to be spherical. Also...

 

 

 

Remember RuneScape is a planet

 

 

 

You answered your own question. ;)

 

 

 

I stated that RuneScape is a planet, yes. But remember the time period that RuneScape is set in. To them, just because RuneScape is a planet does not mean that it is flat. Although it's probably the case (that it is round), I was just curious as to where you drew the conclusion.

 

 

 

As far as I remember, the images Jagex released showed RuneScape on a spheroid map, but that doesn't prove that it's round.

[Jard_Y_Dooku]

Your character suggests in one quest (Path of Glouphire, I think) that the Earth is round, but is told that he/she is silly. Also, Jagex has released a couple images showing RuneScape to be spherical. Also...

 

 

 

Remember RuneScape is a planet

 

 

 

You answered your own question. ;)

 

 

 

I stated that RuneScape is a planet, yes. But remember the time period that RuneScape is set in. To them, just because RuneScape is a planet does not mean that it is flat. Although it's probably the case (that it is round), I was just curious as to where you drew the conclusion.

 

 

 

As far as I remember, the images Jagex released showed RuneScape on a spheroid map, but that doesn't prove that it's round.

 

 

 

I drew the conclusion from the fact that all planets are roughly spherical... it's safe to assume it's not any different in the RuneScape universe.

[Zaaps1]

Your character suggests in one quest (Path of Glouphire, I think) that the Earth is round, but is told that he/she is silly. Also, Jagex has released a couple images showing RuneScape to be spherical. Also...

 

 

 

Remember RuneScape is a planet

 

 

 

You answered your own question. ;)

 

 

 

I stated that RuneScape is a planet, yes. But remember the time period that RuneScape is set in. To them, just because RuneScape is a planet does not mean that it is flat. Although it's probably the case (that it is round), I was just curious as to where you drew the conclusion.

 

 

 

As far as I remember, the images Jagex released showed RuneScape on a spheroid map, but that doesn't prove that it's round.

 

 

 

I drew the conclusion from the fact that all planets are roughly spherical... it's safe to assume it's not any different in the RuneScape universe.

 

 

 

I agree.

 

 

 

Although it's interesting, all the evidence that is used to prove that Earth is round doesn't exactly exist in Runescape. All the horizon's are flat, etc.

[Enipeus]

cool 1250'th post :mrgreen:

 

brings back memories i think

[Shelby_Polo]

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=780793

 

 

 

I beat you to it; by about a month or something

 

They have there differences though.

 

Anyway, go ahead and use anything you want form my thread.

[Hippodo]

You know what stands in the Wise Old Man's house? A 'Globe of Gielenor' :)

 

 

 

And for the Star Sprites theory; it may be right, but in a Jagex text it's stated that Star Sprites want to fly around in pieces of rock, it's their nature. After you free them, they go searching for stone and go back into space. So it may just be that their planet isn't destroyed, they just live in space.

[duncdar2]

There in fact is a hand drawn map of RuneScaoe drawn by Andrew Gower. I appear to have forgotten it's link...

[magma2050]

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/

[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 :?

[Misterknowitall]

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.