The RUNE Downloads page has a new official map for download for Human Head's Viking action game. DM-DeepUnder is the name of this map, created by Dave Halsted, which offers two forms of play, one with traditional weapon spawns, and the other (intended) method where you obtain bigger and better weapons by killing enemy creatures. Meanwhile, a massive RUNE update from Human Head's Tim Gerritsen addresses several issues, including the amount of support they are providing, both currently and in the future, discussing reasons why this may have unfolded more slowly than planned. The update goes on to further discuss support issues, promises some "REALLY big news for Rune that we hope to announce very soon," gives word on a planned RUNE patch, and announces their intention to deliver a RUNE add-on:

To those fans who have remained patient, we thank you. In the next month, we will be releasing a new patch (either 1.03 or 1.04 depending on testing), as well as the aforementioned flat polygon mesh layouts so that people can create their own skins and incorporate them into the game. The new bug fix should address problems connecting between differing versions of the game on multi-player servers, as well as other small problems reported on various systems.

The really big news however, is that we have finally gotten approval from Gathering of Developers on a Rune Add-On pack,. I can't release a lot of details at the moment, but the Add-On pack will be multiplayer focused only, and will include some new modes and maps for the Rune community that we have created ourselves, as well as a couple of new multiplayer characters (including, finally, a really good female character or two). The pack will be out in spring of 2001,, and we hope to release details soon. It will be a commercial add-on, but at a reasonable price available in all outlets.