daigotsu

... unless of course they are opening up an entirely new part of the world at the same time. I mean, let's face it, Ak-Haranu has been sitting in Port Phasmatys for a very long time, and we haven't had the opportunity to explore Asian-themed lands. D

It would certainly be much easier than the slow attrition death of rares due to randoms and planned "glitches"/bannings. D

As I said upthread, I expect gold farmers to reap massive coin from this. Sure, the autotalkers will be gone, but what stops a herd of, say, flax pickers from flooding the market with product? All that is really necessary is for them to continue to generate resources while undercutting the bulk of the exchange market -- which has the net effect of driving prices down. If everyone is selling flax at 70, then all the gold farmer has to do is sell at 65. If players go to 60, they go to 55. Eventually players decide the activity isn't worth their time and effort, and the autoer/gold farmer wins. Now, Jagex has been pretty decent about banning resource autoers recently, so this may not be an issue. Most of the autoers I see these days are seed automerchanters. D

Some speculation on (market) speculation: Here is a line I haven't seen discussed (emphasis mine): "...the ability to offer items to buy and sell..." What this suggests to me is a marketplace that will work very much like a stock market: people enter "buy orders," such as yew logs at 280, and "sell orders," such as yew logs at 300 -- depending on how it is implemented, sales will depend on finding a common ground between those sets of offered prices. In such an environment, those with insane amounts of cash can attempt to manipulate the price of some resources; however, this will run afoul of two problems: (1) Some resources replenish themselves too quickly to be monopolized, and (2) Market manipulation leads to diminishing returns. As certain items are bought out and the market moves towards monopoly, the merchants who wish to monopolize may find themselves completely undercut by holdout sellers, so that the theoretical example of dragon platelegs suddenly rising to 5M each gets undercut by the people who see a chance to cash in at 4.8M, 4.6M, etc. Skills that require consumable resources, such as Crafting, Herblore, Fletching, will have their median prices set by skillers with cash. Those on the road to 99 will be the trendsetters for the price of logs, herbs, hides, etc. Since there are dozens, if not hundreds of skillers competing for levels simultaneously, prices for resources may rise as demand outstrips new supply. If merchants attempt market manipulation in skill-resource markets, expect a rewriting of the demand curve as players decide they have better things to do than pay an idiot three times what an item usually goes for. Skills that generate resources have the potential to become more popular, since it will be easier to find the market for those resources. Expect a new crop of dedicated Miners, Fishers, Woodcutters. If market manipulation is attempted here, expect merchanters to bankrupt themselves as they chase rising prices of resources in an attempt to monopolize. "Finished goods" are likely to plummet or even out, particularly among the marginally useful items. Saradomin Brews are glutted on the market already due to the XP value of making them and the lack of general demand. Similarly, dragonhide sets are useful for a narrow range of levels and tend to even out at a price just above the cost of the hides. Prayer potions, super sets, cooked sharks, antifire potions are all useful items, but tend to be in high supply due to skiller training, so the prices are likely to even out. Should a particular type of finished good drop in supply, some price correction may occur, or skiller/moneymakers may increase their creation of the good to fill the gap. "Scarce goods," such as Barrows, dragon items, and so forth will likely be more subject to manipulation -- but this will encourage more people to seek out the items via killing the appropriate monsters. Yes, short-term demand may skyrocket, as will prices, but people will chase these items themselves if the opportunity cost is too high. Rares are already a vanishing good. With no additional items coming into market, the price is subject to whatever depredations the merchants can muster. Expect these prices to be subject to the general cash supply, as they are now. Some attempted monopolization may occur, but will either turn the rare market into a "members only" club, or be thwarted by other merchants acting in "reverse manipulation." Monopolies don't really matter when no one can play, or if someone with more money than you decides your game isn't worth playing anymore. The worst potential point of market manipulation is what I term "scarce goods" -- and the consequence of this is likely to be more players deciding to make do with "lesser items" until they get lucky themselves. I expect the initial implementation of this to have the same odd shakedown as the "infinite items" shops. Certain points of manipulation will crop up (team scamming on unusual items seems like it might still have room to work), but I expect Jagex either is already accounting for some of it, or will need to introduce safeguards as quick updates after the fact. In all honesty, I expect the biggest unexpected winners from this marketplace to be resource autoers and the apocryphal "Chinese gold farmers" -- they can successfully undercut every possible seller, still make cash, and then go on to sell the virtual cash for the real thing.

That would be the 75% of the players who didn't vote on it because they can never be bothered to pull their heads out of their behinds long enough to read the RS home page? Jagex posted a poll early in 2007 for "Guaranteed Content" -- this Halloween update was selected by a majority of voting players from four distinct choices. Don't blame Jagex if you don't like it. D

I had the quest cape when it came out, but I wanted a trimmed achievement cape for one reason and one reason alone: prayer bonus. Cooking was the easy path to my first 99, and besides, I had 10k raw sharks in my bank I wanted to cook without burning. My second was Farming, because it's a favorite skill. It didn't take as long as I thought it would, and because I purchased frugally, it didn't break my bank either. Attack was technically a third "goal," mostly because I was already close to the 99 anyway. Now it's Herblore, my 2nd favorite skill and an excellent complement to Farming. I have 4 levels to go, but I am still taking time out to examine the new updates -- I did the Varrock Achievement Diary when that hit, and the new Jade Vine quest. Fortunately, the levels are going relatively quickly. While I didn't "need" the last 2, one was just a consequence of doing Slayer missions in Attack mode, and the other is a personal conceit. Of course, I also look forward to the days when Jagex releases ultra-high level content for either Farming or Herblore, and I will be ready to take advantage of it -- they already released items beyond my Fletching level (which was at 90 for Magic Longbows), so I expect eventually we will see level 90/95 Farming and Herblore content.

The map is pretty good, though I think I stumbled across an "Enter Vine" option that skipped a lot of the maze -- it took me directly to the 3 Ant Soldier room without having to go to the top mesh level. And in response to qeltar, the nature rune drops from the ant soldiers are pretty good. Not sure it's worth getting hit as hard as you do occasionally, but I accumulated 117 natures in a very short time from them. D

I know there was a group of investors who tried to do something like this with party hats back in the days before RS2, when prices were not nearly as insane as they are now. Or at least they theorized doing it; I forget if they were pre- or post-dupe so either they were discouraged by the new proliferation, or they lacked the commitment to their project. The truly, truly insane way to do it would be to buy all that you could get your hands on (over time), and alch them all at once in a single extravaganza of wealth destruction. (Videoing it for posterity, of course.) Or, if you're even more sadistic, find the remotest spot you can possibly think of (the mahogany tree island above the cave horror dungeon on Mos'le Harmless, just as a f'r instance), drop each cracker on the ground, and stand amongst them for two minutes -- give a speech, stay silent, do whatever you like -- until they all just... disappear. That video would drive most mere mortals insane, like gazing upon the unspeakable horrors of H. P. Lovecraft. D

It's either far too obvious, or I'll regret asking when I find out the answer, but... what in the heck is that? D

Leaving aside the one slot for carrying, I respectfully disagree. The costs and times are very similar. 8 bank trips per dueling ring = cost of between 3k and 5k per ring 8 bank trips @ 40 fires/trip (using your own essay's value of 10/fire, which I consider a bit of an overvalue considering the massive overstock of fire runes in RS) = 3.2k in the same amount of time Using "Operate" on a ring and clicking the Castle Wars link, running to the bank chest, and remembering to withdraw a ring to wear every 8 trips seems a bit slower than clicking through two rune screens twice (the time cost overhead of the ZMI bank). In other words, the difference is very likely minimal; it comes down to perceptions of shaved time and just how much you value one resource (fire runes) over another (dueling rings). D

Someone yesterday was trying to recruit runners with cash + noted ess for 13 pure ess at a time. This makes the most sense, as it lets the crafter continue to stack an inventory full of various runes, and it lets the runner bring 2-3 trades' worth of ess per trip. D

Very nice guide. My personal "optimal" method for use is to bring a stack of "expendable" runes (Fire, or perhaps Body), teleport to Ourania, run the short path to the altar, craft runes, tele to Ourania, bank with the 20-rune banker, and repeat. Every few trips I dig out a super energy potion. Should I take more than my share of hits I'll grab a couple of ears of corn on my first bank, eat while I fill my pouches, and bank again to fill my inventory with pure ess. I do not carry any astral or law runes with me, as in 98% of my runs, I receive at least 2 astral runes and 1 law rune for the Ourania teleport. For the odd 2%, I run back along the short path to bank again. I also wear no armor for lightness and flexibility. Other World 70 crafters have recommended Ghostly Robes for the zero-weight magic defense. A cost of 40 fire runes per run may seem extravagant, but frankly with over 125K fire runes from slayer assignments, I have more than I'll use otherwise. Body runes are likewise expendable; there are not enough general uses to keep more than 1000 or so on hand at once. I'm at 69 RC, just shy of my short-term goal of all skills >= 70. When I hit 75 RC, I expect my strategy will change somewhat, as it will take three bankings to fill 4 pouches and inventory. D

:lol: It's the highbrow equivalent of "all u ppl r noobs!" Of course, correct spelling, punctuation, etc. are good hallmarks of more intelligent (if not necessarily more mature) conversation. D

It does mess up the 140-ore scheme for RoF, but at the same time, it gets you some extra use out of your RoF -- I ended up smelting around 155-160 irons ores before the ring melted. I also find it helpful to "Operate" the ring when running back to Edge bank, and I keep the rings in the bank right next to the ores. If my "ores remaining" is low, I grab 1 ring and 27 ores, then when I stop smelting when the ring melts I just put on the new one and start up. D

After I logged in again (see above post), boot drops at kill #824, #836, and #897 appear to put the lie to your statement. D

Be fair, not all of them are macroers. Some are goldfish farmers. D

I'm currently sitting at 5 pairs out of 800 mage kills; still have a couple prayer pots to use up, so I should get out of there around 900-950 kills. Hoping for one more boots. :D 1:100 was a pretty lucky early ratio, I think it averaged out to about 1:150-200 over time, and I don't believe the drop rate has been nerfed yet. Of course if this is the long-term drop rate, then (1) I stand corrected and (2) I have found a much better place for "money" training than TzHaar. D

It's funny to watch desperate justifications for jerkish behavior simply because it is possible to be a jerk. Let's be honest, a moron is a moron regardless of how justified they feel in being a moron. Spiritual mages is the most recent example; 90% of the time someone comes along and either they switch worlds (not always necessary) or we end up splitting the four in our corner 2-and-2 (since chances are no one is killing their 2nd before the first one respawns). The other 10% of the time is someone who either doesn't realize you can split and takes the middle two, or doesn't care and just tries to throw their weight around to force out the person who was already there. D

Rudest -- I've seen them all; my particular pet peeves are door closers (I deal with them by saying "oh look, a monkey knows how to close a door" which gets others to laugh at them, making them mad) and people who are rude about honest advice. If you ask me to take you somewhere, and I apologize for being busy but offer to help you find it with the world map, there is no reason to be a jerk about it. Yet some people still are. Crudest -- People who follow me for any reason without being invited to do so annoy the heck out of me. For a while on F2P, when I hung around in Varrock a lot, I used a technique I called "scraping", where I would walk south from the town center and directly through Stonehenge. My level was high enough to ignore the dark wizards; theirs was not (if they were a higher level, I would shake them off some other way). After a couple of 8 hits, they either ran or died; regardless, I was rid of an annoying follower. D

I'am sure you would rather hit 72 on another player, rather than 86 on the undead. : But, that is nice (excluding dh). Actually, ripping through slayer assignments in 2-3 hits each sounds like fun too. :thumbsup:

I would actually be willing to bet that there was once an idea in the Jagex planning room to make a skill called "Brutal", which would be Hardk0r survivalist-style stuff, like fishing with your bare hands, smithing spears, lighting fires with bows, eating raw metal ore and spitting out nails, etc. Doing each of these tasks would get you experience and levels in being "well hard," and the further along you got, the crazier stuff you'd be able to do. Then they looked at it and said, "oh heck, there's not nearly enough for a whole skill here, plus it's kind of lame and not a moneymaker so everyone will complain about it," and turned it into Barbarian Training instead. So the graphics aren't there to foretell the coming of a new skill, but rather they were created for a skill that never was. D

51 (!) strawberries from the patch on Harmony. Took me 3 trips, I was astounded. 16 herbs (Kwuarms). Magic secateurs and supercompost, always.

Once upon a time, I used to do the following: Beggar: free stuff plz!!!! Beggar: free plz!!!!!1!!!!one! Me: Here, I will give you everything you need to succeed at this game. Beggar: omg thanks [withdraw from bank, trade beggar] [put up: bronze axe, bronze pickaxe, small net, hammer; click Accept] Beggar: [declines] noooooo free stuff!!! Me: Oh, I'm sorry, I was mistaking you for an honest and hard worker. Beggar: omg wdf noob ***** [and many other phrases designed to get around the censor] Me: [reports beggar, laughs to self] D

When they first announced Dream Mentor, I was hoping for more generally useful spells... some ideas I was kicking around: (1) I would gladly pay a few runes for a Combine Potion spell that took an inventory of pots and made as many of them as possible into 4-doses. Even if it consumed the empty vials. (2) Tan Hides spell anyone? Please? (3) Identify Herbs. Like the last one though, and the failing of the Plank Make spell, they would need to work on the entire inventory. This one's not as useful, since with high enough herblore it takes no time at all to click through an entire inventory. (4) ... and a pipe dream, I'm sure, but I would pay really good runes for a Send To Bank spell that worked on "all of one item in your inventory." Talk about a single spell to support skilling the best -- for mining, woodcutting, collecting dragon hides, collecting potion ingredients, etc. it would be a godsend. Even if it cost 10 astrals and 10 souls, I think the time saved by not running around would be worth it. Just some thoughts on making Lunar truly useful. D

This is the part of the story that makes me the most suspicious of your new "friend." How did he get a list of 3000 accounts and passwords to an MMO? Chances are -- he did it by scamming. Even without that fun little warning sign, and the 50 or so times he begged you to break RS rules by accepting out-of-game stuff for your rares, he was the selfish one and you were most assuredly not. With those HUGE FLASHING RED LIGHTS, however, consider it a public service that you kept your rares out of the hands of a freaking parasite like that. D (They'll get my rares when they pry them from my cold dead fingers... unless I alch them first. :twisted: )