Atonisk

The dragon plate is garbage. If you can't afford a bcp, you should be using a fighter torso or something else. And if you're slaying, you should either be using pros half the time anyway to piety/turmoil through tasks. Honestly, the dragon plate was dead on arrival. I don't know what Jagex was thinking waiting to release it for so long, since it never even got a brief period of glory like the early dragon gear.

I know, I wouldn't mind hitting over 9,000 =p

Why, so you can ignore it like you just did? I already explained that an update like this forestalls actual change. 1. There's really no guarantee it was a bug. It could've been a conscious decision at the time. It really only affected the highest end of the scale, which people have previously complained about being nerfed and too easy to gain exp. 2. The point wasn't just the error, it's the fact that even after the fix the exp hadn't changed. 3. Your "mathematical proof" doesn't account for any other changes made to the back-end system. And if there was an actual incremental increase, players averaging over 100k melee exp an hour would notice it. HP replenishes at 10 times the normal rate. 1. That's a complete logical fallacy. The heads of the American banking industry and the trading firms also "knew best", yet look where we are now. Presidents have always had some of the brightest men in the world on their payroll, yet look at all of the blunders. The CIA has been lead by brilliant men, yet their plans often backfire spectacularly. 2. Many Jagex staffers are new and haven't been working with the company as long as Jagex. If you're going to play the experience card, then wouldn't the players who have had far more experience with the game----and firsthand experience, no less---know better? 3. Because you don't understand the business world, I'll let you know that product design doesn't exist within a bubble. The majority of product flaws aren't detected by the creators, they're either spotted by testers or end-users. Jagex has frequently gone on the record to state that most of the flaws with their content are discovered in the live game by normal players. And if Jagex is always right as you claim, then why listen to players who wanted a fix in the first place? Jagex always knows better than the guys actually using their service, right? First off, that's a completely subjective assessment. Second, is hitting 1 or 2 any more exciting when your opponent has over 50 health? And third, an actual combat system fix would've been a better solution entirely. No, the update WAS clearly directed at solving some of the damage determination flaws at the low end of the scale. And if something like that was fixed on the back-end, they wouldn't have felt the need to buff up the front end. Obviously I meant 2 hours of combat, not 2 hours of general play... Oh? You're arguing complete hypotheticals without any understanding of the back-end system changes that happened with this update. On the other hand, I'm arguing visible front-end results. Front-end results ARE the ultimate end-goal of any change made to the actual back-end of the system.

That only works for the first time they change their name. Some of my friends have already undergone five or six name changes >_> Well, for one thing, the friends list maxes out at 200. Plus I run into a LOT of people and it's nice to actually know who they are.

Construction, summoning, or slaying. Construction because very few people are 99 in it, summoning because it's recent, and slaying because it causes a lot of combat exp gain. For some reason, a lot of people do untrimmed HP. It's not too tough, between mini-games or just breaking up your exp.

Magic is fairly fast and easy these days. Bursts/barrages give a decent exp per hour, which is also an advantageous way to collect charms when used on rock lobs.

The name change system is really one of those things where you have to wonder if it's more trouble than it's worth. Sure, when we first heard about it, most people clamored after it; and, I mean, who wouldn't? There are a lot of people who either picked a name they've outgrown/tired of or wanted another name that was taken at the time. However, at the same time, it gets incredibly confusing. The most immediate problem was when the feature was first implemented it only really seemed to work for "new" names. Until relatively recently, Jagex hadn't even implemented the proposed name-stripping of inactive players (many of whom had highly desired names yet quit after barely playing) so the system was really annoying me. One thing that Jagex has really done right about the process is not making removed names available to new players; at the moment only members who use the name change process can get them. This helps prevent "name-hoarding" by a few individuals. The real problem I have with this, and I'm sure a lot of others do, too, is that there's really no history or tie-back with these names. If a player changes their name twice, the original moniker vanishes from the name change reminder icon so in a lot of instances I'll have players on my friends list who I have no clue as their identity (because if you know a guy for 5 years as one thing, it's tough getting used to a new name especially when you have dozens of friends online at any given moment). Then after I delete them, like a few days after somebody else will pm me and ask if I'm arguing with so & so (and I'll be like, "Who?") because I removed that other guy >_> Then there also a lot of people that you just see around or talk with while doing certain skills/etc but never added to your friends list for some reason or another; they'll randomly come up and say hi, expecting you to remember who they are or were (and I had a hard enough time remembering people BEFORE the name change =x Partly because I'm always meeting people and partly because I've played for a whopping nine years now). Plus every now and again you'll get people who change their names just so you won't know it's them Believe it or not, I actually really like the fact that epic names that players either weren't able to get or didn't think of years ago are now available. I just wish that there was some way to really keep track of these things, like if Jagex would add an optional notes section for each player like you have on normal instant messengers. Do you feel that the benefits outweigh all of the random negatives? And how could Jagex have implemented this system in a more meaningful way?

Surprisingly, I haven't been at the top of my level bracket half the time despite having more overall exp than many maxed players. Just goes to show that there's always a bigger fish, I guess. When/if I ever get around to maxing, though, I'll automatically jump to top 200 or so.

It's useless, it's ugly, it throws off the aesthetics of that entire menu, and, worst of all, it blocks a permanent solution by applying a band-aid. The core combat system and damage determination has been in serious need of a revamp for years and instead of getting an actual fix we have a tweak to help new players for the first 2 hours or so that they play the game. In that sense, the update HURTS the game as a whole. The problem with that is: 1. It doesn't speed up training, other than the earliest levels. In fact, the day of the update many top players were getting LESS hourly exp. A friend who routinely sets exp records was averaging 8~10k less exp an hour, whereas I was only doing 5k less. After they patched it the next day, we both noticed our exp rates return to normal. 2. There's no way to tell whether or not it actually makes play more exciting for new players, as the rate at which you kill monsters really isn't drastically improved since their health increased and they heal "faster." 3. In the current system LP doesn't show max. They'd need another patch. Plus if they're going to tweak HP, why didn't they do everything else at the same time? Prayer, summoning, energy?

How many times does RS die every year? >_> I guess this was probably the most drastic change in recent history, as it was a skill name change, an oddly implemented HP update, and a new lobby system but, after all the nausea passed, it was just back to business as usual. Do I like the updates? No, not really. But Jagex has done so many more drastic things in the past that if you've weathered that then this really isn't a big deal. After all, I've been playing over nine years at this point...

Police presence really does more harm than good in these cases >_> People forget the effect just having a cop around has.

There are so many nearly worthless items in the game, most of which would benefit by giving them also to f2p. Although I agree that Jagex doesn't "owe" f2p anything, allowing f2pers more items would ultimately benefit members. Items like the dmed, for example, are crap drops (thanks to all the much better gear) but if we let f2p have them then the value would increase and we'd have some place to sell them. At the same time, the extra content teasers might help entice f2pers to go p2p. Letting skill capes go f2p would benefit both f2pers and visiting p2pers who, although able to wear/use their cape emote, can't switch capes to show off their other 99s (and honestly, skill capes are more hype than substance...). Plus the benefits from said capes are relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, so it's not like they're really being given a lot. The only major change would needing some central NPC that sells the things which, again, would benefit members from having the same convenience.

Not worth it, even if it eventually added upto 20m+...

Well, it used to serve a point back before Jagex added things like banks... how did it work without banks...? Because you had to make do with what you had on hand. If you needed something to eat, you had better have a tinderbox and some wood or an axe. Pfffffff, why stop at 100m firemaking? Just do 200m. If the colour red encountered blue in PvP, who would win? Hope you get the essence of that question... I guess you're right, there's really no point in 200ming a skill where you wouldn't even be top21. Frankly, 200ming and not even being top15 is also kind of a kick in the groin, but at the time Drum wasn't trying for it plus I was already pretty far past the starting gate anyway.

No 99s/10 And less overall exp than something something.

Not exactly what I meant, but still something to look forward to eventually.

It's really no different than respecting actors, athletes, musicians, artists, etc >_< None of their contributions are even as tangible as politicians and politicians are a drain compared to scientists. Plus to become proficient at anything requires an absurd amount of time and if it doesn't take time/dedication, it's just innate skill you were born with and why should that be respected? I've been playing 9 years now and I can tell you, with a fair degree of certainty, that RS has ALWAYS been a place where people show off or try to make themselves seem important. Skill capes didn't do crap. Before skill capes, you still had lots of talk about 99s and lots of older talk about people being able to 1/2/3 hit people. And, quite frankly, skill capes do nothing to help show off because all it does is show that a player has one or more 99s and then one particular skill he's 99 in. It does nothing to show that players have had particular 99s for years, how many they have, or the amount of exp/rank. Again, it just looks like that to new players and people who really don't have 99s. However, if you've been around, you'll know that things have and will always be like this. Only low levels obsess about skill capes, the higher ups have always focused on the high scores table (especially because if you were 120+ under the old system it was assumed you had several 99s). Not to mention that a lack visible rewards, aka added incentive, don't stop people from challenging themselves. Prior to the champ challenge update, I had already killed 5 or 6 champions. And what was the reward before the update? A banner on the wall in an area only your player could enter/see.

Most official forums are garbage. The exp requirements on the RSOF are actually a kinda interesting thing (even they only exist to stop people from making an account just to post after being banned on another one); someday I'd like to see official forums with a 100m or 200m overall exp req.

Pfffffff, why stop at 100m firemaking? Just do 200m.

Well, it used to serve a point back before Jagex added things like banks...

I don't view integration as being essential, since many times it's just a smoke-screen for a cop-out. Plus you can't argue attack isn't integral, as it plays heavily into strength, defense, and, to a lesser extent, HP. All the combat skills tie into each other fairly well because styles can be shifted during combat, but all non-combats kinda stick out like a sore thumb (although herblore does assist combat now, albeit in kind of a very limited and BS way). Basically the entire reason I hate slaying. They patched the existing modes of combat by adding crappy "instances/quests" to it, which basically equate to suboptimal methods of training the other skills for the benefit of training an additional largely unnecessary skill.

Technically, even the dragon plate was a useless item by the time it came out... There really isn't much place for the old ways of thinking, back when people solely looked at defense specs. I wouldn't even call the DFS spectacular. Sure, it's got a cool spec and doubles as DF protection, but the str bonus is only 2 higher than a rune defender and it lacks attack bonuses. If somebody is training melee (or slaying), a rune defender makes much more sense. If somebody is fighting bosses, half the time they're using either a gs or trying to crash with claws (neither of which takes a shield). It's still a good item among rangers and mages who want a little extra defense, but the melee aspect.... meh.

The crown is necessary in case somebody tries to impersonate a pmod, making the form inseparable from the function. Otherwise, it's beneficial to Jagex to have additional eyes and ears who adhere to higher standards of reporting to streamline the process and allow Jagex to react to situations faster. The majority of complaints against pmods occur because a player either has had bad experiences with a pmod (or individual associated with Jagex), dislikes authority figures, or is jealous because they weren't selected. More often than not, it's the latter. Obviously the selection process isn't perfect and sometimes an idiot ends up getting crowned, but on the whole the system works reasonably well and the bad seeds are removed. And if there are any complaints about a pmod not doing enough, it's solely because Jagex chooses not to give them more power. And, as mentioned, it's really not much of a status item because pmods get bugged with additional stupid questions, harassed by random players with an axe to grind, have to tone down all of their interactions, etc; but hey, if pmods weren't okay with the absurd number of disadvantages they have to endure they could just opt out of the program.

I certainly wouldn't call godswords the most powerful weapons in the game... But yeah, skills like slaying seriously need some unique gear bonuses. Slaying, as it is right now, is basically useless.

Most skills are useless, in the sense that they don't provide practical benefits. Anything players can create using skills (& sell) can generally be bought for cheaper from players than made yourself, most resource gathering skills are less profitable than other activities, etc. However, the most worthless skill of all is probably slaying. It's not creative, offers relatively few tangible benefits, and takes quite a while to train.