Construction is a trainable skill in the MMORPG RuneScape. It is available only to those players who pay a monthly fee to play (P2P). The construction skill is used to upgrade player owned houses (POHs) or to make items to sell to other players.
History
The construction skill was introduced by Jagex on May 31, 2006. Introduction of the skill was hinted at in the Behind The Scenes for May, but many players were surprised by its release. The large number of players trying to train the skill caused many players to experience lag. Within days, Jagex installed eleven additional servers (worlds) to help alleviate the problem.
On June 6, 2006, the first player to reach level 99 construction threw a large party at his mansion. When the house owner decided to expel all his guests, some players who were fighting in a combat ring in the house exploited a bug that gave them the ability to attack other players outside the wilderness. This type of bug had not been seen since the RuneScape Classic days. Some players were killed and items were lost before the situation was rectified by Jagex personnel. Jagex investigated the situation, and the players who exploited the bug have been banned from the game.
Starting Out
Players who wish to train the construction skill must buy a starter house for 1000 gp by visiting one of the estate agents. These agents, located in Varrock, Falador, Ardougne, and Seers Village, explain that, after much research and hard work, wizards have developed a way to create pockets in space, allowing room for each individual player to own his or her own private realm. The estate agents also sell guide books with information about the construction skill.
After purchasing their houses, players can teleport to them by entering the community portal in Rimmington, which has become a marketplace for the buying and selling of construction related items. Community portals are located in each of the areas that contain houses and can also be used to visit the houses of other players.
When purchased, each house contains an empty parlor and a garden empty except for the portal, This portal, a smaller version of the community portal, is used by players and their friends to enter and exit the house. They can be locked to keep other players from entering the house. Players with high enough magic levels and the appropriate runes can teleport into their houses from anywhere within RuneScape(exept for past level 20 wild). At low levels, players can add only crude furniture, torn curtains, and ragged rugs to their homes.
Upgrading
Garden
Players can add trees and plants to their garden. Adding plants to the garden also trains the farming skill. Players can also build additional garden areas with ponds, statues, sculptures, and the dungeon entrance. A variation, the formal garden, looks fancier and allows for the creation of different ornaments, as well as hedges, fences, and new plants.
Parlour
Players can add chairs, curtains, rugs, a working fireplace, and bookcases to their parlours. These items can continue to be upgraded with better materials as construction levels are increased.
Kitchen
The kitchen consists of a table, shelves, a water supply, a cooking site, a larder, a beverage barrel, and a sleeping area for cats, whether the player's or a guest's. A kitchen is required before a servant can prepare and serve food. The shelves, larder, and barrel supply unlimited items, such as cooking implements and ingredients, depending on their level.
Dining room
The dining room consists of a dining table, two long benches each seating five players, a working fireplace, and a bell-pull, which can be used to summon the servant if the owner has hired one. Servants serve food and drinks to guests here.
Workroom
The workroom has a workbench where flatpack versions of furniture can be built to sell or trade to other players. This room also contains a repair bench where items can be repaired, tools shelves that supply unlimited tools depending on levels, heralding equipment where armours can be decorated in the player's assigned heraldic colours, and a crafting table where toys and other items can be crafted.
Bedroom
Players must have at least two bedrooms, complete with beds, in order to employ servants. Players can add a shaving table, which allows players to change the colour and style of their hair and beard, a wardrobe, which allows players to change their basic clothing style and colour, a working fireplace, rugs, curtains, and a clock to the bedrooms.
Game Room
In the game room, players can place various games to play with their friends, including hoop and stick. They can also build a chest containing a reward for the winner of the game however the reward depends on what people put into it.
Study
The study can be built to allow players to craft spell tablets using a lectern. These spells are encapsulated in a piece of clay, which is broken to activate the spell when needed. Players can also change the elemental nature of staffs, for example, a water staff can become an air staff, by the use of crystal balls. The higher the level of the crystal ball, the higher the level of the staffs that can be changed.
Chapel
In the chapel, players can add an altar where prayer points can be recharged, change the lighting to increase experience gained when bones are offered, and build rugs, statues, special window decorations, a musical item, and a symbol their chosen god.
Throne room
Players can add a throne room to their houses and put benches in it for addressing large audiences, such as a clan or party. Inside the throne room, a trapdoor can be built, allowing players to pull a lever to activate the trap. Depending on the trap, the victim may be trapped in place, dumped into an oubliette, or kicked out of the house.
Dungeon
A dungeon can be added to the house to challenge visitors. Inside a dungeon, players can place decorations such as fake blood, monsters, traps, and a treasure room. If players die in the dungeon, they will respawn outside of the house with all of their items.
Portal chamber
The portal chamber can contain up to three portals that can be focused to take players to various locations around RuneScape. Although the teleport portals can be used an unlimited number of times without consuming runes, players must use one hundred times the number of runes needed to cast the teleport spell on the portal to build it. For example, teleporting to Camelot requires 5 air runes and 1 law rune. To focus a portal to teleport players to Camelot, 500 air runes and 100 law runes must be deposited into the portal. Portals never need recharging or repairs. The centrepieces in the portal chamber are used to focus the portals; at the highest level, the Scrying Pool can also be used to view the teleport location in real time.
Uses for clans
There are many ways that houses could be used for clans.
- Leaders can address their clan in a throne room.
- Leaders can build a training, initiation, or testing course with the dungeon feature.
- Clan members can use portals in a portal chamber to transport to an area quickly.
- After an attack, clan members can return to the house to recharge prayer and regain hitpoints lost in battle.
Effect on the economy
Player owned houses (POHs) seem to have been designed to take large amounts of money out of circulation in order to fight inflation. This is particularly evident in the exhorbitant price of materials used in high level furniture, such as gold leaf and marble blocks. For example, a demonic throne costs almost 25 million gp in materials. Even at lower levels, it is difficult to train construction without using a lot of money. This has resulted in players having less money available for other purchases, which has resulted in the deflation of the prices of everyday equipment as well as in the prices of rare items.
Supply and demand
In the past, most notably with the release of the farming skill, Jagex has released the items needed to train a skill in advance of releasing the skill itself. For example, rakes and many seeds were available for several weeks before farming came on line. With construction, this was not announced, though most materials needed were available, which caused many players to be surprised by the release of the skill. Even with the surprise, some savvy players were able to foresee the use of items such as nails and various logs, especially mahogany and teak. They stocked up on the items and sold them the first day after release for huge profits. Many players with cash on hand spent exhorbitant amounts to train the skill quickly rather than taking the time to harvest the materials for themselves. Supply and demand have stabilised, bringing the prices down to a more reasonable level, but many players would still rather spend their cash than their time to train this skill.