Jonanananas

I want to see Mod Nancy too...but seems like I'm in the minority here. Still, Chris L/ash and either of the gowers would be great please not mod mark I can't stand him....he will answer the more peculiar question so awfully and disgraceful I'll rage throughout the interview because he's such a [wagon]. :@

yeah because they'll release Rotm and Myreque 5 in one month :P Honestly I'm a bit stumped on this teaser, the only thing I could think of is really that they're just going to put the signature heroes in game but with no real use so far. I can neither make a connection to the graphical/audio update, to Myreque 5 or temple trecking. This is kinda strange...

Re: Botting, I recently read a post by a Jmod(unfortunately I didn't think of saving it and I think the thread was eaten by chewy...) who was asked about the new policy as well, and he said that the system is actually better than the no-tolerance one because most people who are caught by a rollback don't bot again. On the other hand, people who get permbanned often start a new account and do hardcore botting to get back where they were. Now, I don't know if this is true, and I don't even know if I remember it 100% correctly, but it COULD be true. What I want to say is that some moves might look like they're going soft on cheaters, but it might have different reasons. That said, I'm not really sure myself if I should believe it, there is other stuff like the BAR that I really can't see the reason off despite wanting to make money, and I think it's also quite clear that Jagex doesn't mind the bots enough to spend more money on combatting them.

well...haven't tried it out personally yet(not in a clan, but probably going to be soon) but it looks like the restriction placed on the citadel tier according to the number of clan members is kind of stupid, they gotta ease up on that. I mean, it makes sense that maybe a 5-man clan doesn't get access to everything and a citadel the size of varrock...but smaller clans should still not suffer that much. I mean, how many clans are there anyway with 50+ constant paying members? Not that many I bet... Maybe it works with just being a guest visiting the citadel? Requiring to be in a clan to get the comp cape is kind of stupid imo, but you can't put it past Jagex...

I play to help with Team Penguin. I can relate to the article as well, there was nothing in the recent months which even mildly sparked my interest. Without the fun that this activity is to me, I definitely wouldn't have bought another month of membership. They're still as incompetent regarding customer support and communication as they were all the years before and even quests, my favourite activity after penguin herding, are lacklustre. Imo, Runescape would be in need of a new management who breathes in fresh air, tries to fix the mistakes in the past and actually care about the game. No chance for that with Jagex being all but ruled by American investors. The second article has some good points but the overall point of it is somewhat old. Yes, players often want to have shortcuts and that's why they bot. for runescape it could be solved by cheat servers as suggested in an old article of ts_stormrage. There would still be the load of RWT bots left. Before Jagex shows real initiative(e.g. take the time to code a new random, something like that) to stop bots, all of this discussion is basically useless. Yes I too have argued fervently against bots but right now I'm just sick of it. Jagex needs to get off their asses and actually do something and that's all that is to be said. Third article: I think it's very good that Jagex wants to encourage teamplay(and this is best done by updates like this, not by useless community events(and yes I know these are seperate teams)) and clan citadels look really awesome tbh. I'm not in a clan atm but maybe I'll have a lookout ;)

That's your opinion. Mine is that random events are a fun diversion from the monotony of skilling - if you just read through this thread, you'll see plenty of people who agree with this -, so the idea that all legitimate players are annoyed by them is a lot of rubbish. Someone having a different opinion and someone trolling is a distinction that you, and some others, need to learn to make. xp waste. He's still not trolling and I like random events too, btw. The maze too, although I'm not really fond of the combat ones :P They were more of a nuisance to me than enjoyment. Anywho, I don't really agree with reintroducing combat randoms but I do think some diversion while skilling would be great. Problem again is that not everybody wants this obviously. I'd be more in favour of D&Ds that are really D&Ds and not something that's not good enough to be called a minigame. An option to do something else, but that doesn't have to be taken so people who don't like it can just continue skilling.

[sarcasm]No, definitely not...they're both completely unrelated[/sarcasm] I mentioned this some time back in an article about Jagex appearing to be moneygrabbing...and I really have to say it didn't get better. The Katana, the MLP...while at the same time most of the recent quest and updates were dismal. Of course there are always different opinions on updates, but nobody I know is really happy with this year. ACS and Do no Evil were probably the only really good quests this year, there wasn't a single interesting and worthwhile skilling area released, and the only other updates people enjoyed were the clan ones and Nex. Apart from that, rushed, unfinished content, often unbalanced and seemingly without the wish to improve the game, just to heap more stuff on it. On top of that the return of the wild and free trade with masses of uncontrolled bots. If you only speak of people enjoying the game, this move was stupid as hell. Most players had more or less adjusted to it by now, and if they hadn't heard anything they wouldn't have minded that much. But no, they have to reintroduce it and put the game into some serious problems. There have been unpopular moves of Jagex in the past, but all this bullcrap really just started right after the board of directors was changed. It definitely is no coincidence, and it makes sense. After all, Jagex/the gowers were relying on Runescape for money. They have to make sure that an update doesn't hurt the essence of the game. The investors don't have to do that. They can just milk the cash out of it, and if it does hurt the game and Runescape loses out on players, big deal, they just invest somewhere else. It's the worst thing that could have happened to Runescape.

Oh....now that explains a lot :P I didn't even know that ;)

Quite nice articles this week ;) I'm happy to see I fulfilled every requirement of Hamtaro :P I fully agree with Crocefisso. It's just such a cheap trick, especially that consecutive months give more points. Unsubscribing for one month HURTS in this aspect, and I'm pretty sure it's an efficient way to squeeze one or two months out of those who are normally a member and only sometimes let their membership elapse. There is only one part where I think he's not right, and unfortunately it's the positive aspect: "At the end of the day, I do not believe for one second that many people will fall for this". I am pretty sure that the MLP works out as intended. Heck, for a second I've been thinking about resubscribing too, at least partly for that reason. I'm also disappointed that so many people freak out over not getting points for membership in the past. It drowns out the other opinions on the MLP which show the problems with this kind of stuff...which would be way more important imo. Also looking forward to the interview with S U O M I(Is it that hard to type?). It's kind of interesting how there's just a completely normal guy behind this account, who doesn not sacrifice everything for efficiency and honestly says he does what's fun for him and not *just* strive to get there first. Sounds like quite a nice guy :)

Deadliest Catch definitely isn't master level. I don't understand why someone put such high requirements on it, it doesn't fit the quest. I guess they just wanted to give away huge xp rewards to make up for the lack of a good quest, shame that's not how satisfying questers work. On the issue of security, I still don't believe there are actual Runescape account "hackers" out there. Just because someone says he did everything to stay secure doesn't mean he did. If you have a strong password you change every few months, recovery questions where the answers are just passwords and not actual answers, and no keyloggers or didn't fall for phishing attempts then your account should really be secure. No one puts the amount of effort needed for a real hack into some random Runescape account. Runescape's profile is too low to be worthwhile to attack(unless someone should manage to get the information of a large number of accounts). Btw: Chessy got hacked because someone got personal information of her on another site she was on. Her own fault. The only issue I can really agree with is that linking with Facebook DID make Runescape accounts a lot less secure. Melee-Bias: I generally like your article, but you don't put enough effort into actually making your examples comparable. Yes, a mage's armour is crap, that's why there are neat spells like snare or ancient ice spells. Mages are supposed to be farcasters. Same for rangers, they can't freeze their opponents but they can still attack from a distance. More pieces of equipment don't necessarily make a combat style better, etc. etc. You compare those different aspects but you don't exactly check how it affects the specific fighter. If Ranged had the max hits of melee, it would be overpowered. If Mage armour would protect against melee as good as melee armour protects against ranged, it would be overpowered. Regarding how Magic damage and accuracy is calculated: Magic damage is just dependent on the type of spell you use, including any staff effects and a 3% damage boost per *boosted* level. Accuracy is dependent on your level and your magic attack. I think that's about it. I can't give your exact numbers for everything of course, but you don't really need them, do you?

If I have already written guest articles in the past, could I use one of those for applying? I just noticed this thread today and I won't manage to write an article in time. (And I'm still having doubts whether to apply or not :P)

I personally think Jagex has done really well in terms of balancing the comp cape. Think about this: 1.It's the cape with the hardest requirement by far. Of course it's mostly for showing achievement, but not being the best cape in-game would be ridiculous, and a lot of players would be outraged about it. 2.It's a cape that's incredibly hard to reach and takes ages. No one should be forced into slaving away to get this cape. I think it has fulfilled both goals pretty well. It really is an awesome cape, but it's effects aren't so much better that anyone(or at least a very tiny minority) will feel forced into getting it. I honestly don't see the problems that some people have with it. Ok 5K cw games may be a bit much but that's what it takes to get the last armour set. It is after all, the completionist cape and only the trimmed version. What I find a bit more distasteful is that a lot(relatively speaking)of people would have the requirements, but the game doesn't recognize it due to an old bug introduced with the CW rework. They may even have their (profound?) armour set standing in their poh, the game won't recognize that they have played 5000 games.

To add on to that, until now I've liked the articles you have written. The rate at which you put them out is quite amazing in itself, and they all have been quite interesting reads. Now, I don't know what exactly was different in writing this one, but I'm positive you'll write more articles that are clearly worth reading. I've had my fair share of criticizing this article, and if I have been insulting or flaming at some point, I apologize for that. Now, I can't say that I suddenly agree with you, and I'm still of the opinion that you overly presented your opinion as fact and that parts are indeed incorrect, but I sincerely hope that you don't take it as a slight but constructive criticism for something you might have to watch out in the future. I'll be looking forward to reading another of your articles :)

Tbh it makes you look like you can't counter the arguments. Yes, there are posts who went over the top(mostly at the end of the thread) but I think there are enough who adress your arguments without being insulting. But you mostly haven't answered any of those either. Of course it's your decision, but a discussion about an article is usually more productive if the author participates too.

What if Jagex spontaneously cancelled their membership - which was on a credit card and just renewed itself every month -, but charged them for another two months on the back of that until they made a complaint? That's why I'm F2P and, as a player of over five years, I feel I still deserve a Veteran and Classic Cape. I'm sorry, what? First off, why would Jagex do that? And what does that have to do with the discussion at hand? Care to elaborate? I really don't get what you want to say. Jagex did it accidentally due to some sort of error or something (that was the official statement). As for what it has to do with the discussion: read the posts again. If you still don't get it, read them again. And you believe that it was on purpose? As you show yourself, they don't gain from it, they lose out. Even if they were 100% only after money, they wouldn't do it. If it happened more often and became public, it would be EXTREMELY bad reputation. Also, it wouldn't matter if you've been a member right until the day when the capes were released. It's not what you deserve for playing for five years, it's an additional reward members can use to show off that their account is over five years old. If you aren't a member, you don't have access to member's benefits(excepting already worn objects for looks)

I'm sorry but I can't see any evidence of "rampant flaming" here. No one attacked the author personally, no one insulted him because of his opinion or his arguments. People are pointing out the numerous flaws in this article and since this is a discussion forum I don't see why they shouldn't say that the validation of his arguments are, in all honestly, partly ridiculous. It always looks more like bashing if several people attack his article because it looks like they're uniting against him. I've read through the entire thread and I've only seen one or two sentences that may be interpreted as mild flaming. This forum has seen far worse and it's honestly not nearly bad enough that you'd have to quote the rules again... edit: to make it clear: Show me anywhere in this thread where crocefisso has been flamed for liking construction more than dungeoneering. edit 2: I've scanned through the thread again, and yes there are some parts that are harsh and can be considered insulting I guess. Still, none of them attack the author's opinion and the worst attack on him that I've seen is "are you high?". Tbh, I wouldn't even bother thinking about something like that - it's not a big deal and a post that doesn't offer anything else but that is made to be ignored. I do think you are too over-sensitive here.

lol Give me one example of a player who is excluded from dungeoneering?

Also... What if Jagex spontaneously cancelled their membership - which was on a credit card and just renewed itself every month -, but charged them for another two months on the back of that until they made a complaint? That's why I'm F2P and, as a player of over five years, I feel I still deserve a Veteran and Classic Cape. I'm sorry, what? First off, why would Jagex do that? And what does that have to do with the discussion at hand? Care to elaborate? I really don't get what you want to say.

I'll have to say that I disagree with both articles this week, something that I can't remember having happened before :P Capes of Distinction: I honestly don't see how not releasing these capes for F2P is a lack of respect. You could apply your argument to any update that's members only - Make this quest f2p, they deserve some respect. Make this skilling activity f2p, they deserve some respect. Getting to play such a huge and diverse game for free is already a lot, and they do get updates every once in a while. I don't see why this particular update should be F2P. There was never a F2P cape with significant stats nor the option of an emote. On top of that they just got Clan cloaks which look really decent. Why would they need another cape now? Your point that they can be veterans is not really valid either. Of course they are veterans if they have played such a long time. That doesn't mean they should get a veteran's cape. After all, getting 99 in a skill does not qualifiy for getting a skillcape either. It's an additional reward for members so they can actively show off being a veteran. If you want to have it, you'll have to pay. Regarding milestone capes, I think leaving all of them statless is the easiest option and while you definitely could argue that someone with every skill 90 or 80 deserves some stats, it would just make it more cluttered up with very few gain. I mostly agree with the rest of the article, not quite with the 5000 cw requirement for the completionist cape as there was a bug with the cw rework which left a lot of people at far less games than they have actually played. It's REALLY unfair if you could get this cape but had to play another 4000 or so games due to a bug. The recent skills: To be honest, I have rarely disagreed more with an article on the times. Okay, construction really was an awesome skill, which brought a lot of positives and innovated gameplay. I cannot agree with a steady decline of the quality of skills, however. Sure, if there's real depth in a skill, that's great, but it's very hard to come up with new possibilites to do so. And breadth is certainly not as bad as you make it out to be. First off, hunter. I am quite surprised you put this as the top one of these three - Honestly, if anything it adds the least depth of those three. It's extremely repetitive and while you may like it for yourself, I doubt that the majority of Runescape would put it as one of their favourite skills. Then you mention summoning. It may not be as game-changing as construction but it still has affected PvP and Monsterhunting a lot. And it's actually quite fast to train, as gathering charms is not really training summoning but normally done through slayer or other types of MHing. Then dungeoneering. True, there was a lot of discussion about it, minigame/skill etc. but calling it featureless is nonsense. Obviously you don't like it, but I don't see how you come to the conclusion that it's "lost between the puzzle-like elements of quests and combat". Some of your other points of critique aren't really valid either. There are definitely no players who are excluded because of their skills, Jagex made the creating system versatile enough for that. Saying that people the highscores show that people lack interest is downright ridiculous. It's been only a year, so it's not surprising that there haven't been over 2 million players getting over level 30 dungeoneering. I know quite a number of players for whom dungeoneering is their favourite skill by far. The level of reality in the skill that you bring up is also kind of ridiculous. First off, the statement in your article is wrong as neither magic nor prayer nor runecrafting have more basis in real life than dungeoneering. Apart from that, it's really completely indifferent. Firemaking isn't better because it can be done in reality too >.> To finish it off, you are bringing up the archeology skill, which surely can be implemented in a very interesting way if, and if onely, done correctly. It could just as well be a failed, shallow skill, and I can't see how it adds more depth than your three skills which apparently are so failed. That's it for now :P

I have never really considered botting, and I won't RWT while I'm playing as well. It will probably never occur to me because I don't play Rs in a way to make a lot of cash, but if I was quitting and had a huge cash pile sitting in my bank, I'm not sure I could resist. I mean, if I had a billion and was quitting...It's worth over 500$, that's quite a lot of money. I don't think I could resist that.

You are, however, under the assumption that products produced by bots get alched in the end. That is definitely not always the case. Also, of course the RWT money will come into the economy eventually, but until then it is stored away, which slows the rate of inflation, or increases the rate of deflation, depending on where you start. As for your last comment, that's kind of a no-brainer. Currently most item prices are decreasing, at least on average. Therefore there is deflation in this game. Only because there was a huge inflation before that doesn't mean that deflation doesn't happen.

Well, how about one? I think it should be easy enough to work out, I have an old excel file for it, it wouldnt be complicated and pretty useful imo. Tip.it has almost all the data needed(only thing needed would be rough distribution for the bonus items such as the different gems, but that shouldn't prove too much of a problem)

Interesting Articles this week, I'd definitely be interested in a follow-up article. It explained nicely how inflation and deflation occur and what they're symptoms of, but in that manner of speaking, it didn't really tell us what the disease does. I think a large factor of that is that the balance between skilling and Monsterhunting(or anything that uses these cheap resources) is shifted. I'm one of those who would hope that it would shift back a bit again ;) The second article was even more interesting for me, it's really the question if it's just nostalgia or if it really was better. Regarding tutorial island, I would definitely choose that one, preferably with the advisor system removed. I've played both, and the unstable foundations in itself is imo, next to useless. The old tutorial explained a few skills, basic fighting and then threw you out in the world. The new one explains basically nothing but then has the advisor system which cuddles you up like a little baby. I do think I would definitely prefer the old way and it's not just nostalgia. A reopening of tutorial island would be great, even if just for the memories. I think it would make for a great quest tbh - One of the funny, self-ironic ones. Regarding gnome copters, it's an interesting idea and I would personally be in favour of it. However, one thing your article fails to address is the real reason why they were removed. You do name it, but then you continue talking about how great it would be to get F2P into members, when that is exactly the problem with it. MMG wants to avoid a deprecation of the F2P game, which is a honourable goal. What you should have done here is showing how gnomecopters advertise members content without deprecating F2P gameplay. I think they're great because they are optional and you decide yourself if you want to take a tour, so if you don't want to see it, you don't have to. They advertise members without forcing it on F2P, unlike some of the other things that were removed(such as non-working pickpocket options or non-working options to open gates to member's areas). Nevertheless, an interesting and good article.

I'm not sure, but couldn't using a touchpad give you an advantage over mouse users if you're experienced with using it? It just occured to me, no idea what's Jagex's stance on this.

It would be interesting to know which part of the share the raine group got....before that, andrew and paul had 51.35% together, ian had 0.65%, constant 13% and insight 35%. Assuming that raine didn't get some of the insight share...that'd mean that the gowers no longer hold more than 505 of the share. I couldn't find any recent information on this however :/