Player-owned port



Player-owned ports is a high-leveled members minigame that was released on 11th December 2012, as announced in the December 2012 Behind the Scenes (BTS) post. Borrowing elements from Miscellania and player-owned houses, the minigames involve players building their own ports in order to manage a fleet of ships, staffed by recruited crewmembers. These ships explore the Eastern Lands on the player's behalf and return with exotic items and supplies that are otherwise unavailable.

Access to player-owned ports requires level 90+ in at least one of the following skills: Fishing, Slayer, Runecrafting, Herblore, Prayer, or Thieving. The more of these requirements a player meets, the more content is available. Players have to visit Port Sarim and enter the portal to make their ports.

Among the range of rewards available from player-owned ports are degradable level 85 armours: Tetsu armour, which is melee class, Death Lotus armour, which is ranged class, and Seasinger's robes, which are magic class. These items can be created by players with 90 Smithing, Crafting, and Runecrafting respectively. Mod Edam confirmed the requirements to make the armour are non-assitable and the ingredients cannot be traded. Mod Mike confirmed that the whole set requires 90 smithing. A post on the RuneScape forums by Mod Edam indicates that players can create two versions of this armour: tradeable versions with slightly lower stats that crumble to dust when fully degraded, and untradeable versions with slightly higher stats that can be repaired either with coins or port resources. Other available rewards include the high level food rocktail soup and scrimshaws, a new item for the pocket slot. According to the BTS post, other rewards have not yet been disclosed.

Mod Mark confirmed that high level Smithing would be expanded with player-owned ports.

Tutorial
Upon entering the port for the first time you will see a cutscene followed by a brief tutorial to play through to teach you all the mechanics of hiring crew, equiping your ships, sending them out on voyages, collecting your rewards, and upgrading your port.

Buildings
The buildings offer bonuses to different areas of the port's operations.

Bar
This is home to Surula. Upgrading it is part of the tutorial. It attracts captains and adventurers.

Icon hotspots
The three icon hotspots attract different adventurers depending on what is built on them.

Lodgings
Better lodgings unlock better crew members.

Office
Duncan and John Strum can be found in here, after the tutorial. Upgrading here is part of the tutorial. Better offices unlock more ship slots.

Portal hotspot
Portal upgrades are cosmetic only and have no effect on the performance of the port.

Shipwright
The shipwright improves the performance of your ships.

Totem hotspots
The four totem hotspots have different effects depending on what totems are built.

Warehouse
The warehouse holds your goods. Better warehouses give greater bonuses to voyage rewards.

Workshop
This is unlockable by exploring more of the Eastern Lands.

Meg the Adventurer
You can help Meg choose how to adventure and upon her return after one week she will share some of her loot with you.

Ninja Assassins
After a sucessful voyage upon completing the tutorial you may get to play a minigame that has you search for ninjas in 5 barrels around the dock then search out their targets through a series of clues. If you guess wrong you get another clue, finding all 5 targets will gain you a few small rewards.

Shop
You can purchase extra items that will change each day from the smugglers shop in the corner, left of the bar. This uses your normal gp and not the new port currency though.

Recruiting Captains
The bar will contain the captains for the special voyages. Only one is available upon completion of the tutorial but more may be unlocked by doing discovery voyages.

Voyages
Voyages provide resources for upgrading and recruiting inside the port, in addition to unlocking new features from zones to crew members. The chance of succeeding in a voyage depends on the points in certain skills that can be increased by choosing your captain, crew roster, and ship parts. Twelve standard and 3 special voyages are available each day.

Trivia

 * Before the release players received an in-game message saying "Avast mateys, the next Runescape game update will be in approximately 30 minutes"
 * One of the options while talking to Meg is "Shut up Meg". This is a reference to the show Family Guy.