Troacctid

Would you quit this line-by-line [cabbage], guys? You're giving me a headache trying to read this stuff. Seriously. Anyway: This is from this RSOF post. Hey, if you need any more clarification, why don't you ask in the next Q&A? The one specifically dedicated to Moderator Recruitment is happening at 8pm forum time (4pm Eastern) on November 5. I assume you trust Jagex to give a direct, honest answer to a direct question?

My avatar's creepy smile is hidden by the handlebar mustache! :thumbsup: Try mud splattered on your face courtesy of an Oo'glog spa facial. I haven't seen one of those yet.

Well you know my stand point on supposed 'grinding' by now. I understand your previous point about direct interface improvements, that have no relation to skill development and don't have a problem with that. I still have a problem with the fact that because some players don't like certain aspects of the game, instead of avoiding that skill, they still want to '99' it! And want the tedium removed, irrespective of others who enjoy it the way it is. See above. One of my key arguments is for variety, the example of "smoking kills", gave variety to slayer and that was a good thing. I have given examples before...and its not about negative impact, its about how far does it go? How easy to people want the game to be? My examples of unnecessary and unbalanced updates would be: Noted crops, auto refill for ectofunctus, Pyramid Plunder, rest stops (I worked hard for my agility so I didn't take so long to recover, and admittedly loved every minute of it :thumbup: ), godswords, bandos. Look. I like farming. Farming is one of my favorite skills. But there are things about it that bother me. For example, I don't like it when I visit my plant and find that it's diseased, but I have to teleport back to the bank to get coins so that I can buy a plant cure. I think we should be able to store plant cures with Tool Leprechauns to remove that frustrating aspect of the activity. Right there we have a certain aspect of farming that I don't like, but I'm sure as hell not going to stop farming because of it. Farming is still a great skill. And just because I'm willing to keep farming in spite of it doesn't mean I wouldn't like it better if it was fixed. I enjoy it the way it is, but I still want the little niggles worked out as much as possible. Again, I would challenge you to give a specific example of this kind of small, "bits & pieces" update that made the game less fun for you. You gave examples, but Pyramid Plunder and the God Wars Dungeon are completely different types of game updates and not what i was referring to at all. (Also, it's debatable whether Godswords & Bandos made the game easier; by my definition--which we're still using since you haven't provided another--they don't necessarily decrease the advantage a skilled player has over a less-skilled player, so they don't necessarily make the game easier.)

Runescape has a TD. [hide][/hide] Anyway, why would Jagex make another Tower Defense game when Orb Defence, a perfectly awesome one, already exists on Funorb? It would just be a waste of time that could be spent on new quests, high-level content, and other things that people actually want.

Actually, the santa suit was announced in a guaranteed content poll, so it wasn't just a rumor--it was a known future update. Just like "There will be a new f2p skill" is a known future update, for example.

This is totally off-topic, but I just noticed that any given blog comment on Tip.It right now has a 10% chance of being on this blog.

Ardougne Achievement Diary: My Runescape character went to Kandarin and all I got was this lousy cape The new achievement diary is out, and there's only one question on everybody's minds: how the bloody hell are we supposed to pronounce "Ardougne"? (Rhymes with "Des Moines." You're welcome.) By and large, what we have here is standard Achievement Diary fare. Most of the tasks are straightforward. There's some that are fairly simple, such as teleporting to the essence mine with Wizard Cromperty, and there are some that are rather obscure, such as getting a civilian to throw a tomato at an army recruiter. As with the Falador diary, the tasks span a hefty portion of the continent rather than just the titular city. Be prepared to run all around the southern half of Kandarin as you check items off the list. Rewards This section contains reward spoilers, obviously. I'm going to list the rewards and comment on their relevancy. [hide=Easy task rewards] Teleports to the Ardougne Monastery. Seems useless at first glance because there's very little in the area that's exciting; however, this is the closest teleport to an altar in the game. There are also 6 iron rocks just outside the Monastery, making it a fine location for banking iron ore with a Ring of Duelling. It's the best way to get to Larry/Chuck to cash in penguin points. It's right near the bush patch. It provides quick access to the Tower of Life for Creature Creation, which has been vastly improved with the other diary rewards. And it surpasses Edgeville as the closest fairy ring to a teleport without a slayer ring. So...not bad! :thumbsup: Improves Thieving success rates in Ardougne. Although Ardougne is known for its Thieving resources, it's actually not a great place for training Thieving, so this is not a particularly impressive reward; however, for the lower-level players (because there are plenty who do thieve here), it may be an attractive reward. Twice as many death runes when trading in a cat. Anyone who raises cats can earn a very modest profit in death runes once the cat is fully-grown. Increasing the reward is nice for those who raise cats on the side while they train other skills, but largely irrelevant to players with decent summoning levels, who will pretty much always prefer a familiar. Still, again, it's well-suited to lower-level players. Some Creature Creation drops become noted. Before this update, Creature Creation was a lousy minigame with no notable rewards. But now that the unicorn horn drops come noted, it can actually turn a decent profit. I'm still not likely to play the minigame, but I approve. :thumbup: Free prayer boost in Castle Wars. Not much to say here--useful if you play Castle Wars, useless if you don't. I like that you don't need the cape to get the bonus--it's just automatic. 1k xp lamp. A cherry on top.[/hide] [hide=Medium task rewards] One teleport to the Ardougne farm daily. This is now the fastest way to reach the Ardougne herb/allotment patch, surpassing the Fishing Guild teleport. I can't think what else it would be used for, though, with it being pretty much right next to Skills Necklace and Combat Bracelet spots already. Still, it speeds up farming runs, which is good, even if you do more than one a day. :thumbup: Improved pickpocketing success rate in Ardougne. It's okay. I hear thieving from Paladins is decent cash, and I know some people like to pickpocket guards and stuff for training, but blackjacking is still going to be more efficient. Craft extra runes at the Ourania Altar. Although only a marginal boost, this can add up, so all Ourania runecrafters ought to get these medium tasks done. :thumbup: More noted drops from Creature Creation. Yup, fastest unicorn horns in the game, not half-bad for profit, and breathes some life into a dead minigame. Cool, cool. 100 free pure essence a day from Wizard Cromperty. Pure essence has been hovering around 200 gp lately, so that's a good 20k or so. Not bad, I suppose. This is the sort of thing hardcore DIY players enjoy because it lets them obtain resources at a low opportunity cost without compromising their principles. For the rest of us, it can be filed away as another of those daily things. Toggle Ring of Life teleport to Ardougne. Pretty much useless. :thumbdown: Extended immunity from attacks in PVP worlds after pulling the Ardougne Wilderness teleport lever. Also pretty much useless. 7.5k xp lamp. Everyone loves cherries![/hide] [hide=Hard task rewards] Improved thieving and pickpocketing everywhere in Runescape. A solid reward. This one actually comes in handy even for blackjacking, I think. Magical traps will teleport you to the Ardougne north bank instead of some other place. I don't know which traps the reward is referring to here, but this is probably useless. :thumbdown: Even more noted Creature Creation drops. See above. 150 pure essence from Wizard Cromperty daily. I gotta say, this is loads better than the Seers' Diary reward. Not only is pure essence worth more than twice as much as flax, you get more of it, and it's closer to a teleport. Very solid. :thumbup: Ability to change the Watchtower Teleport to drop you off inside Yanille's walls. Yes! This makes it so much more convenient! It also pretty much makes it totally unnecessary to have a house in Yanille. This was one of those little things that mildly frustrate you, and now it's fixed! :thumbup: 28k xp lamp. A nice big cherry on top of the hard task rewards. :thumbup: [/hide] [hide=Elite task rewards] Unlimited teleports to the Ardougne farm. Very nice for those of use who do multiple herb runs in a day. (Many of us do.) Also, as a side note, with the teleports being unlimited, this is the fastest way in the game to cut magic logs--not that you're likely to want to cut magic logs if you've got the stats to earn this reward. Experience lamps. The chunk of xp you get from these lamps is massive, and it had better be with requirements like 93 summoning. Apparently it's a total of 200k xp in stats that are 85+. I think it should even be higher. The Elite rewards aren't especially exciting--lots of players don't need unlimited teleports to the Ardougne farm, and while 200k xp is great, it's nothing particularly special when it's in a stat that's level 85 already. This is good--it wouldn't be fair to have them give a significant advantage when so few people can realistically obtain them.[/hide] How this update affects you With the Ardougne Cloak 1, you can use the Monastery teleport to speed up bush runs. With the Ardougne Cloak 2, you can use the farm teleport to speed up herb runs. This is a good update for farmers. Every 70+ farmer should be doing poison ivy runs to at least the Champions' Guild and the Monastery now, because they're both super-close to a teleport (Ardougne Claok/Combat Bracelet) and it's a good ~1k experience per seed with a nice profit. Thieves will probably enjoy the thieving boost from the Ardougne Cloak 3, and perhaps from the others as well. The pure essence gives us a new daily event which is fairly profitable and pretty quick. It may be worth grabbing an Ardougne teleport to go talk to Cromperty once in a while, maybe snatching a gem from the stall on the way and making a quick detour for the Jade Vine afterwards. Anyone who visits Yanille will benefit from the faster teleport, whether you collect your sand from Bert every day faithfully or simply drop by every now and then to visit the Magic Guild or whatever. Bottom line This has everything I expect from an Achievement Diary: small but useful rewards for players of all levels. While there isn't much about this update that's earth-shatteringly awesome, it's still solid. Thumbs-up! :thumbsup: In other news: Upgrade Watch! Players often forget about the minor changes Jagex makes that add up to improve the overall experience of the game. I'm dedicating this section to documenting some of those upgrades that we take for granted. [hide=Bits and Pieces this week]Arhein in Catherby now sells noted pineapples and seaweed. About time! Buying out his stock daily is about five times as fast now. A plus! Tiny elf crystals can now teleport you to the Temple of Light. Great news for slayers, who can now kill Dark beasts much more efficiently. It also makes it possible to actually craft deaths through the Temple of Light, although I'm not sure if it's any better than the Abyss. Probably not. Mithril dragons can no longer interrupt you in a single-combat zone--an annoyance that was apparently a bug this whole time. Duel tournaments have been tweaked and rebalanced in various ways. The system should function better now. Your progress will now be saved if you disconnect during the Fight Caves minigame. Woohoo! The chat window is resizable now, so you should be able to better follow long conversations. Personally, I like it small, but to each his own. Charges on teleport jewelry can now be combined. The infamous "redbarring" graphical glitch, in which a monster's HP bar appears completely empty even when it still has a few points of HP remaining, has now been fixed! Man, that was a hassle--glad it's over with at last. Finally, I feel that some of the new Ardougne Diary rewards fall into this category of Bits & Pieces Upgrades, namely all three of the new teleports and the noted drops from Creature Creation.[/hide] ~troacctid

I haven't gotten the chance to do the diary yet. Where exactly do the new teleports drop you off? Like which part of the farm, which part of the monastery, etc. The teleports are: Monastery teleport (Just outside, by the door, I'm guessing?) Farm teleport (Is it right next to the patch?) Ring of life teleport (Same spot as Ardougne Teleport, or different?) Watchtower teleport (By the gates?) Thanks. Also, how often are the Creature Creation drops noted? Is it 100% with the hard diary? How many unicorn horns can be obtained per hour now with unicows?

Yews should be faster, but not by a huge margin. Then I'll cut oaks, because the difference isn't huge, I'm too impatient and oaks are very close to a bank. (Draynor Bank) I believe the Varrock west bank is faster.

People don't even use regular potions in PVP. I don't see the big deal about extreme pots. Even if they were too strong in BH, why do they need to be banned from Castle Wars? That's dumb.

There's really no justification for firemaking to be a skill in the first place. "Oh, look, I leveled up! Now I can burn more expensive logs to make an identical fire! Yeehaw!" I sincerely hope a firemaking upgrade is in the works. Seriously, we need some flaming weapons. Flaming arrows. There's obvious potential for fire in combat. And there's more uses for cooking too--maybe a piece of jewelry that can be operated to make a cooking fire without logs or tinderbox. A bonus to cooking food based on your skill with the cooking fire. As is, the skill just doesn't do anything meaningful.

For woodcutting and firemaking, if you're training on willows already, you might consider burning them instead of dropping them. It's more efficient, and you still get to avoid the crowded Draynor willows.

The ones you get from a quest are Dwarven Stout (m), not Greenman's Ale. The Stuff is really easy to get after the shop update. At only 5 pieces of eight, you can literally get three week's worth of Stuff in one game of Trouble Brewing, no sweat. And it really helps a lot.

Entrana has vials as well--fairly quick to run there with balloons.

You can carry cakes with you and double-click the Cornucopia to fill/eat them as if they were a one-bite food. Think of it as a converter. Their uses are somewhat limited in members' play, but they're very useful in F2P.

How about absolutely nothing? People who already aren't using super sets and piety are not likely to start using even new temporary boosts that are even more expensive. Rocktails are available to everybody and are much better than sharks, but I don't see them tearing up the PVP scenes.

Yews should be faster, but not by a huge margin.

Bull. There were only two days. Hardly any PKers had the levels to make extreme potions, let alone overloads. This herblore dominance was purely hypothetical. And how many players were already using super sets to begin with? This stuff costs hella money. You know what else can be the deciding factor in PVP combat? Food. You brought lobsters? Guess what, I brought rocktails. Good fight. Ban rocktails from PVP! Yeah, yeah, herblore requires a level. Big flippin' deal. My point is people don't even fully abuse the advantages they don't need levels for. And it would be cheaper to PK with rocktails than to get the herblore level.

There's a waiting period. You can only change your name about once a month. After a month, you can change it back the same way you changed it the first time. (Your old name will be held for you.)

Within the Light: Elf-employed This week's update saw the long-awaited continuation of the Plague City storyline, the oldest, most complicated, and arguably most frustrating quest line in all of Runescape. So how does Within the Light compare? Does it do the story justice? Does it learn from the mistakes of previous installments? I won't let slip major plot details from the new quest without hide tags, so no need to worry about spoilers if you're a storyline buff like me. I'll put the rewards in hide tags as well. But you're at my mercy with minor details and stuff, so if you want to go 100% spoiler-free, do the quest and come back later. I'll wait. [hide=First spoiler]There's more traps and more puzzles![/hide] Previous quests Okay. Now, before I talk about Within the Light, I want to talk about the rest of the Plague City series. This quest line has a history of frustrating, luck-based obstacles--poor quest design--and lists of random objects to fetch and take to some faraway corner of the map--more poor quest design. In fact, Underground Pass, Regicide, and Mourning's End Part 1 & 2 are the worst offenders out of all quests. Forgot your rope? Whoops, guess you have to spend five minutes running to the bank and back. Run out of food? Ha, tough luck, pal, guess you gotta do the whole Underground Pass over again. MEP1 and Regicide have that awful coal tar bit, and there's the sheep-painting: "Hey kid, go out to the opposite corner of the planet and get some inflated toads to fill with paint. Oh, and stop by the other corner of the planet while you're at it so that you can pick up some paint. See ya later." And all these quests involve stupid, stupid traps all over the place. However, MEP2 is infamous for its massive light puzzle, a complex array of mirrors and colors and crystals that must be arranged in a certain way to unlock a door at the end. I consider the light puzzle idea to be the high point of the series. In addition, although the traps themselves were unnecessarily frustrating, they did a good job of creating an atmosphere of danger and mystery that suited the trailblazing explorer feel. What I'm looking for in a new elf quest is to replicate the feeling of traversing a trap-infested area with less blind luck and more clever detection, to provide more puzzles like the one in the Temple of Light, and to advance the storyline, preferably by getting us into Prifddinas to investigate more closely. All right. Within the Light. Requirements The requirements seem like a good place to start. They're very high, higher than any other quest has asked in those skills. This is indicative of a trend. As Jagex releases new quests towards the end of the long storylines, the requirements get pretty damn high. And we're not at the end yet. The message for quest capers like myself should be clear: if you want to keep your cape, don't rest on your laurels--train your low skills in advance! If any of your skills are at the minimum required level to complete every quest, expect to have to train them up when new quests are released. The trend here is a result of the quest team's focus on finishing off existing storylines rather than starting new ones. I imagine they feel obligated to increase the skill requirements as the story moves on. Personally, I don't agree with that sentiment, and I think it's misplaced in this quest especially, where right from the beginning Arianwyn tells you that the problem is not as serious as it was in the previous quest. Why do you need to be higher-level, then? It seems as though you just need to have already infiltrated the mourners and explored the temple to be qualified. I can't complain about the requirements, however, because I already had them. So I'll move on. Gameplay One of the first things I look for in evaluating a quest is how far out of your way you need to go to get all the items you need when you need them. Within the Light scores far better in this area than previous quests. Almost every required item is available as you need it. You need a knife and a hatchet for part of the quest--loot them from a nearby corpse. You need a death talisman--Arianwyn has a spare for you. You need combat gear to deal with shadows attacking you--well, no you don't, because Arianwyn brought his crystal bow, and he'll kill them all in one hit. Everyone hates leaving the action because they forgot their tinderbox, and this quest wisely avoids that dilemma. The only exception is the mourner gear, which you can pick up while you're arranging the distraction and charging the teleport crystal. Thumbs-up here. Then we have a section with a time limit, where you need to charge yourself with energy in one place and run to another place to discharge the energy and activate a spell. This is something I don't think has been done in a quest before, and I like it. It's interesting. You try it the first time and realize that the energy wears off, so you need to try again. The key thing here is that unlike with Regicide or Underground Pass, you're failing or succeeding not because of blind luck but because of your own ability to navigate the Temple of Light. That's good. Then there's a new light puzzle. There's an array of crystal trees that reflect light in certain directions and several light emitters and receivers of different colors, and the goal is to use the crystals to reflect the proper color of light onto the correct receiver, combining colors as necessary. I think it's a brilliant puzzle, even better than the first light puzzle. The focus in Mourning's End Part 2's puzzle was more on dealing with the mazelike temple full of aggressive monsters; Within the Light has distilled the puzzle down to its essence, which is manipulating light beams to shine certain colors at specific targets. It helps a lot that the mirrors are much closer together, which is a big improvement. The puzzle is challenging without being frustrating. I found it to be just the right difficulty to make me think without forcing me to consult a guide. My only complaint is that it was too difficult to tell by looking which direction the crystals were facing unless the camera was placed at a very low, uncomfortable angle. One more thing about the light puzzle: it's randomised, which means you can't just peek at the solution in a quest guide. You have to actually figure it out! :twisted: ...Well, or use the official Questhelp, I suppose. Still. :twisted: Finally, we had a section with a maze of traps. However, unlike the trap-filled Underground Pass or Isafdar Forest, this is condensed into a small chamber of spiked platforms. The spikes move up and down and pop up in different places in such a way that, although you take 10 damage if they hit you, success or failure is based solely on timing. You traverse the platforms to reach the other side of the room, dashing across the spikes when they retract, and fire a ballista at a moving target to open another passageway in the previous room. Then you need to run back around the same platforms again to get back. I was very happy with this quest's design. The NPCs give you enough information for you to be able to reasonably complete it without resorting to a guide. The puzzle is great and I never found myself dissatisfied with the quest. :thumbup: Rewards and story The rewards for this quest were boring. 95k experience spread over four skills. Relative to the levels needed for the quest, that's not much, and not nearly as impressive as the Death Altar or even the Dragon Halberd. Could have been worse, but still a miss for me. However, usually if the story is good enough, I'm willing to forgive mediocre rewards. In this case, well, we learned a little more, but we still don't have any closure. We didn't get into Prifddinas, although we got closer. We did learn why we can't get into Prifddinas. [hide=Why we can't get into Prifddinas]The whole city was reverted back into the crystal seeds from which it originally grew.[/hide] But aside from that, not much happened. So what we have is a quest that's well-designed and fun, but with very few incentives to actually do it. Oops. On the other hand, with its restrictive prerequisites including one of the hardest quests in the game and some of the highest level requirements of any quest, perhaps it would be a bit unfair to make the reward incredibly awesome but have so few players able to attain it. I guess that's what the designers were thinking, but honestly, I'd rather get a crystal halberd. Bottom line I think it's "crystal"-clear that what we have here is a de-"light"-ful adventure that manages to avoid the "pitfalls" of its predecessors. The rewards are kinda lame, but the fun makes up for it. I'm a sucker for quests, and I especially love quests that are fun, so I approve of this update! :thumbsup:

. So you contradict yourself by saying I'm wrong and then telling me good players aren't detected because they are not report hunters. Do you see your flawed logic in this? Isn't this what you and others have been denying from the start about it not being about reporting? This is so priceless. Thanks Troacctid :grin: . I guess you either missed the point in this completely or you wanted to hand me this on a silver platter. You'll notice a few points I've put in bold. I'll elaborate: Jagex would never say 'our mods are crap'. Suicidal, so they're diplomatic. I would be too unless I wanted to lose the business of my customers. I don't think anyone would be that stupid unless they wanted their business to fold. 'Were more focussed on reports' What a brilliant line!. Is that not evidence enough for you about the way the pmods were selected? Local_guy says he was chosen on merit but you've handed me the evidence that proves he and others weren't :^o . Of course, I'm sure you and local_guy will tell me 'they didnt really mean that' Rofl! By the way, you seemed to miss tackling that point. They've changed it because they are moving towards players who aren't reporters. Does that not tell you enough already? You're missing the point that there are plenty of people who bang in reports, but Jagex have realised that they don't want this type of player any more and pmods weren't what they should have been. The types of players they've been getting have ruined the pmod system for themselves. Giving a chance to those who never had opportunities to become pmods meaning they're focussed on those who never reported much. You wouldn't do that if your system was working in the first place. They want players who weren't going around snitching but instead played the game fair. Things that are not broken don't get fixed. If the pmod system was fantastic it could have continued on the way it was. You'd be very naive to think that the system was good and then completely revise it. I'd say it was pretty conclusive evidence and thanks for that. I presumed they hadn't answered my post when I read the first round of questions. Again thank you! :D edit - Btw did you notice I didn't even mention reporting in my question to Jagex, yet Mod Catalina specifically states they were concentrating on reporting. :P They said three times, directly, how happy and satisfied they've been with mods selected through reports. You asked them directly, "Were you getting the kind of mods you wanted?" and they answered, directly, "Yes." I have absolutely no idea what more you could possibly want from them. Obviously your thinking is that if she says she's not a witch, it's stone-cold evidence of witchcraft. And again, you asked them directly why they expanded the selection process, and they answered directly, "to give a chance to players that aren't getting the opportunity to be P Mods." How could that possibly imply anything negative about the P Mod system before the change other than that there weren't enough P Mods?

Is it possible for your topic title to be any less descriptive? Honestly. Do Legends Quest.

What's the set of black armor for? Welfare PKing gear? Use addy instead. You have 33m, I think you can afford 9k extra. At least use mithril--it's even less expensive than black with better bonuses. I would add plain pizza, cooked anchovies, and anchovy pizza. Right now plain pizza is impossible to buy because of the price cap, but it's probable that the cap will go up, and when it does pizza-making will be a good moneymaker for you. Get rune gloves. They're the best melee gloves in f2p. Add gold and addy ore as well as some bars for smithing. Add runecrafting tiaras.

Yes. I completed the quest. I also have used that passage before. I'm in the middle of the Within the Light quest. I teleported out of the area after finding the Elf Messenger's body and getting the Report. I had to go back via the abyss. A few other people have commented that they also don't see the passage any longer. Can anyone see it? Is it inaccessible during the quest only? EDIT: I CAN walk through the passage from the Temple of Light, but then you can't walk back to the Temple from the Underground pass. Has it been made one-way? I walked through it and then walked back when I did the quest. Is it a big deal? The abyss is faster anyway.

How much does 99 farming cost? Well, how much do you want it to cost? Really. Name your price. You want to spend 100m? You can spend 100m. You want to earn 100m? You can earn 100m. It is totally up to you how much you want to lose or gain. The more you pay, the faster you go. The less you pay, the slower you go. You can plant nothing but magic trees, palm trees, and calquats. Or, you could plant nothing but ranarrs and marigolds. Or you can do anything in between. Farming has literally the widest spectrum of any skill in the game in this regard, so it's 100% your decision how much it costs.