Glyphscape/World

The world
Glyphscape features a far vaster world than Runescape does. Tiles are twice as large as in Runescape in both dimensions (think four tiles). Generally, dimensions are all increased by a factor of 10, so that the entire world is roughly 100 times larger. Each server-world also supports 50x as many players as each Runescape server did. Since getting anywhere takes about ten times as long now (sometimes as long as an hour), most settlements (ie. towns) offer a far more enhanced variety of features which make it more or less unnecessary to travel as often. Players often settle down at such settlements.

In general, areas of the world are going to be similar to Runescape's assortment of different types of regions. However, certain region types will be expanded more relative to others:


 * Farmland: greatly expanded (and will have lots more NPCs with quests and tasks)
 * Grassland: expanded
 * Forest: expanded
 * Natural cave: expanded (lots more added)
 * Savannah: neutral
 * Desert: neutral
 * Coastline: neutral
 * Dungeons: shrunk
 * Taiga/tundra: shrunk
 * Badland/wasteland: shrunk a lot (that Runescape wilderness is way too big)
 * Settlements: shrunk, while expanding available functions

Players may now mine and lumber throughout the world, and fish at any body of water, (though certain places have a better chance of having more valuable raw materials). The locations of any raw materials are periodically randomly assigned and differs from server to server. Trees may start growing where there once weren't any; iron deposits might move next door tomorrow. Schools of fish may drift downstream.

Water and swimming
Where land and water meet there are often river banks or beaches that smoothly merge with the water. Players may now walk into shallow water (often up to 30 tiles from dry land) and, if not carrying too much weight, swim even further out (until no land is in sight, after which you won't notice whether you're even moving if you're trying to go even further out, but will readily be able to backtrack to land). This allows you to bridge bodies of water and not have to take a roundabout path.

Wilderness
There is no longer a strictly wilderness section. The entire world is PvP, EXCEPT that the level is "-1" (ie. you can't fight anyone) in the civilized areas and along the paved roads. The further away you get from any roads and settlements, the higher the level is, starting from 0 and going up to 100. So players who want to feel safe generally take the roads (some of which have tolls), but those who want the feeling of adrenaline and want to take shortcuts between areas will want to cut through the uncivilized areas, passing through areas with high PvP levels.

Storage boxes
You can't hold on to a lot of stuff at a time, and you'll have to deposit things in a bank's storage box to keep them. You'll have to rent out a storage box at a bank to deposit stuff. Rent is paid and charged based on game time, and the rent is pretty low so you will barely feel it. Storage boxes can only store so much stuff (measured by weight and slots) so you'll eventually have to rent out more storage boxes as you accumulate stuff. This discourages accumulating too much stuff that you aren't going to use.

Player owned houses
Since there is now so much open space, player owned houses are placed directly on the map, where all can see, and so the tiles of the world are thereby used up as residential districts. Player owned houses are now often significantly larger than they were previously, and also came with an easement. The value of real estate continually rises as more and more people arrive in the world and desire their own homes. Gradually, additional residential tiles are made available for development. While villages may have only a few dozen slots available, the sprawling cities often have hundreds. There are a variety of house zones; generally the larger and better located, the more expensive. Other than that, since player houses are of course customizable, each house is effectively unique. Players may buy or rent an infinite number of houses. However, house costs are prohibitively high, just like in real life, and you'll have to pay hefty property taxes per real month for each house you own.

There are many benefits to owning a house. It's pretty, it's showy, and it's some truly private space where you can party with friends. You can buy furniture, such as altars, beds, furnaces, and anvils, which you can then use to get things done faster than if you were to go around knocking on doors to get permission to use them. If your character gets killed, you have the additional option of respawning at your house instead of at the public respawn point. Still, only you can enter your home, making it a safe place to stash all your surplus stuff. Having a home is necessary if you are the type that holds on to all your stuff.