Makoto_the_Phoenix

I'm going to agree with Tripsis here and say that a receiving a drop from a monster isn't a player-made item. A player-made item is something that came into the game through the direct result of one or more resources combining together to make a final end-product, much like ore, bars, ruined Dragon, and so forth. Combat skills can't really be seen as extraction skills, since it's been discussed many times before that this game is too random for this. Consider that the algorithm that Jagex uses to generate their random drops is similar to Java's Math.random() function. This will generate a number in the interval of [0, 1). This means that the numbers used here are infinitely tiny, meaning that there is a possibility of hitting the drop always, once, more than once, or never. That is what Combat is -- it's possible to get an Abyssal Whip drop once, twice, or never, depending on how many times you do it. My feeling is that Jagex uses a different method to produce "random" drops, which slightly increases the chance of getting a really good drop from any one monster with every lousy drop. Now, consider extraction skills. That algorithm is probably on a similar interval, but skills greatly boost the chances, all but guaranteeing that you will get what you're gathering, whereas with Combat, your luck is left pretty much up to however many ticks from midnight it is. Oh, and if you're interested, I wrote a quickie Java program that did 1,000 flips of a coin ten times. Here's the result. Edit: @Uber_Leetness: Read this.

It's only offensive if you take it as offensive. And you've got to be really reaching to find that offensive. Geez, I didn't know that people were so sensitive.

Uh - The achievement cape (which is the level-99 milestone) is Members-Only, so I think you were having a bit of lag there.

Any specific reason that it has to be a quad-core processor? There are some dual-cores that run for half that. There's also another graphics card that is a decent contender, for half the price, here.

The only way to do that to properly satisfy/maintain the anti-RWT ideal would be to add a tally to Achievement Diaries, and allow the trade limits to be increased from there. Quest Points already allow for 60K+ right now...

I don't think that we'll have a new skill to look forward to (I sure hope not). It looks like the outcry of "I wish they'd just update the current skills instead of adding new skills" is being heard. Looks like a good year to begin with. :D

Entrana has its use. It's a great place to train Ranged, if you have a decent amount of Fletching levels, and can make at least full Green d'hide. Tutorial Island's use was a one-time deal to get new players acquainted with the game, so any use beyond that is absolutely pointless. Meiyerditch? What the heck is in Meiyerditch that even stands a remote chance of being used? There is the lone furnace somewhere in the northern parts of the city, but with no ore nearby, that serves no point whatsoever. The places that might get the facelift or the improvement would be Port Khazard (there's some ore nearby), McGrubor Woods (most of the wood there you can find anywhere else; doesn't make sense to keep a fence there unless there's something nice around), Mort'ton (minigame, 'nuff said), Haunted Mine, and various other obscure places on the map that don't make much sense to visit unless required in a quest.

@acenator: I stand by my statement of lowering the prices -- simply to make them tradable on the GE again. Consider that if the price is too high or too low, it won't be traded on the GE (will be used for junk). Find the equilibrium instead of raising it to a level of absolute insanity. I don't care if it's the best armor in the game - I'm not paying 150M for a set to chance it. Full Dragon comes in at less than a third of that.

So you'd never report them if they broke every single rule in the book? Pft. Some kind of friend you are. I don't think that someone would value your friendship very much in the end. Problem is, GTA's community isn't even close to what RuneScape's is. I'll admit, most everyone has cheated at console games, if only to see what the light at the end of the tunnel was like, but with RuneScape, it becomes way different. If you don't know how serious rulebreakers' influence was on the community, look in the news archives over a year ago.

What friend worth his salt would let another get away with doing something illegal or dangerous? I think you did alright in reporting him, and if he can't value your friendship beyond the game, then that's his problem.

Hey - when Sloter's right, he's right. This, I feel, is indeed way out of your league. Submerging computer parts into some heat-dispersing medium has been around since '01. The trick is to make sure that the moving parts don't get gummed up with the coolant.

The one thing that I don't like about 3rd Age is its rarity. Armor is typically meant to be used in combat, not to be left in someone's bank, rotting away. But, other than that, I think that this is the only time I'll say that Jagex should do something. Lower the prices on 3A in the GE now, so that trading can at least carry on.

New system, hands down. It promotes more of a "kill or be killed" atmosphere that the original PvP one held, but failed to truly hit home. I also like that I can get a Dragonfire shield from someone at random instead of their rune. :D

Let's see what we've got here. A) You were not paying attention in a dangerous part of the game (GWD is dangerous, regardless of what you think) B) You were wearing an item that is difficult to acquire, as help from others is mandatory C) You are upset that you lost the item due to your inability to pay attention. D) The torso never appeared in the grave <- Probably justifiable If you don't know if you're going to get the item back, don't use it in a dangerous spot, or at least, pay attention. What can be said? Report the bug (if you think it's a bug), and learn your lesson.

It could be one of three things. 1) They're not a native speaker of the language. 2) They're dyslexic. 3) They're used to having spell check do all the hard work for them. Cut them some slack. If you really don't like it, you'd have beat the tar out of them with the unabridged Oxford dictionary. [i've had to do that to some people on occasion.]

It's interesting to see people talk about levels here when they really don't apply. Become a member when you're bored enough with Freeplay -- doesn't matter if you're level 6, 60, or 99. It's not like the content or locations available to freeplayers isn't available to members anyway.

News Post It was silently canceled, I believe some mod made a post about it.

Follow the pattern -- whatever it will be will be level 95, and it will have a drop that benefits Magicians. Consider that the Abyssal Demon and Dark Beast drop the Abyssal Whip (Melee) and Dark Bow (Range); it only makes sense that Magicians wouldn't be left out of the loop (for much longer now).

To begin with: Hard Rocks?! I thought we were freaking done with fatigue. I thought we buried it alive. Second, only a handful of Random Events might be removed. Macroing isn't totally gone; all of last December's updates did were eliminate the market for macro-farmed gold. One can't tell if a high level player is macroing, so something's got to stick around. I don't know if Pure essence will be gone, perhaps it'll server a more practical purpose rather than being something that Members can gather, and can only make high level runes. Third, I'm not sure if you got the memo, but Wilderness Tag was a canceled update. It was told that it wasn't going to deliver the same level of enjoyment as other minigames (and I think the rewards weren't up to snuff to equal the then-present danger). I don't think we'll ever see Wilderness Tag, and I don't think we'll need to.

Gotta say I can't care. If the man decided to leave, that's up to him. We don't need to pry into his business or reasons; they are his own.

Nope. Think for about a minute or two before you hit "Post". Allowing users to remove their own posts is like giving them an excuse to act immature; if I posted something absolutely stupid, and deleted it, only a handful of people would be the wiser, instead of an entire community. Oh, and to the Grammar Nazis: There's always at least one spelling error when correcting another post, so chill out -- it isn't like you couldn't read the post enough to make a Grammar Nazi comment about it. :P

Feel like giving PulseAudio a try? To activate it: System -> Preferences -> Sound, then select "Autodetect". It should pick up on PulseAudio, if it's installed, and it should work.

To begin with, HD DVD is dead, and it's not coming back. The format wars are over, and Blu-Ray won out. Second, I wouldn't buy a BD drive for another few years. They're still rather expensive, and still rather slow, and no consumer-end application really requires 25-50GB of storage just yet. That is, unless, you're not recording several hours of shows on your TiVO... :P

I think it's the concrete. You can move the wireless router closer to the Wii, or the Wii closer to the wireless router.

@Acenator and compfreak: Consider a player that doesn't enjoy Mining at all that uses this tool. It might only be a paltry 7.1K bonus experience, but consider two things: 1) To get that much experience in the skill, it would take about 110 gold ore, and 2) Most everyone that I've talked to with the proto-pickaxe said that they enjoyed the minigame enough to play it for more tools. I personally loathe Mining, but I'd happily go through with it if I had this tool to do it with. 7.1K experience in this really slow skill goes a longer way than you think.