SwiftKit

SwiftKit (abbreviated SK, formerly SwiftSwitch) is a program released by Jason Fah. The program has many extra features, including access to quick guides including quest, area, and treasure trails guides, a built-in IRC client, instant hiscore lookup table, and other tools including timers and counters.

As Swiftkit is built upon Visual Basic 6, it will only run on Windows. The creator has stated that there are no current plans to support other platforms.

About


The main features include a skill lookup and calculators, an integrated IRC client, custom timers, built in mini-notepad, lightweight browser, atlas and instant access to zybez databases.

Swiftkit also includes features that are used simply to make playing RuneScape more personalized. These features include an mp3 player, clocks, a customisable link window and a way to take, crop and save screenshots with one click.

Legality
There has been much controversy about whether or not SwiftKit was a legal program to use with RuneScape. Before, SwiftSwitch hid the ads for free users, as well as made automated server requests for player numbers and bypassed both the front page and world select page. In SwiftKit, the new version of SwiftSwitch, ads cannot be hidden for free players, the front page and world select pages cannot be bypassed and the program no longer checks for the number of players in each world. The most recent version of SwiftKit complies with all rules set by Jagex, and is therefore legal to use for all players.

Before Jagex added the official world switching feature, it was not easy for players to switch to a full world. There were many conflicting answers as to whether SwiftSwitch was allowed. In fact, some Jagex staff members stated that it violated Rule 7 while others said it didn't. Users also frequently debated on whether the ability to switch to a full world was unfair or not.

SwiftSwitch was controversial even before Rule 15 was added. In early 2006, Andrew Gower made a post on the forum of fan site Zybez (where SwiftSwitch could be downloaded) complaining about the ad blocking feature and even went as far as accusing Zybez of "backstabbing" Jagex for providing the free game. Gower also stated that the bandwidth usage due to SwiftSwitch was about half of the total bandwidth of the RuneScape website due to the hiscore feature. In response, the ad-blocking feature was removed in the next version of SwiftSwitch, but as compensation, Jagex later added an HTML-free hiscore feature that was designed specifically for such programs and would not affect Jagex's bandwidth significantly.

Impact
Many SwiftSwitch features that were called unfair have since been incorporated into the game. For example, a more simple world switching feature has been added to the main game, and the tabs at the top of the screen have made it easier to work with the high scores. Although there is no IRC client, these have been partially made redundant by the addition of the clan chat system.