daigotsu

I hadn't really looked into it heavily, but I am disappointed that you can't flatpack magical items -- portals, tele focuses, lecterns. That would certainly help make POHs more attractive to players who can't afford to level or don't want to. As for the benefits of POH, as the old real estate canard goes, it's all about location, location, location. Consider a POH with nothing but a base portal as your two-step to several possible useful destinations: - Rimmington for proximity to Crafting Guild, snape grass/hobgoblins, ice warriors/ice giants - Taverley for Crystal Key chest, herblore shop (eyes of newt), heroes' guild, and Taverley Dungeon (blue dragons, chaos druids, black knights) - Pollnivneach for blackjack-based thieving, dust devils - Relleka for Dagannoth lighthouse, longboat to Miscellania, travel to Waterbirth Island, Keldagrim and slayer dungeon - Brimhaven for metal dragons, gold mining, pineapple picking, agility arena, etc. - Yanille for closest house portal to bank, mage guild, ogre lands The rest of it depends on how far you want to go... - Level 42: Crafting Table 4 gives you, in addition to ability to make clockwork items, the ability to craft a watch and sextant so that if you lose your Treasure Trail gear all you need is the chart from the Observartory. Also a Crystal Ball in your study means you never need run out of Air Staffs again, since you can change any elemental staff for free. - Level 44: Tool Store 4 is everything you need for common household items (I don't count Tool Store 5 since you can store farming supplies with any Leprechaun) - Level 47: can mount a permanent Glory Amulet in your Skill Hall. - Level 48: barrel of Chef's Delight, for a handy boost to your Cooking skill. - Level 50: lowest level for a simple Portal Chamber -- higher levels don't get you any better portals, just better looking ones. - Level 55: can repair Barrows Armour for cheaper with an armour stand. - Level 56: Teak Shelves 1 in your kitchen gets you any item you might need to make a variety of food; combine with your larder. - Level 67: Mahogany Eagle Lectern, simply the best for making tele tablets. - Level 75: Gilded Altar. The pinnacle of prayer training. I pretty much stopped training at level 73, since with +3 Tea I was able to mount a stuffed shark and build my mega-altar. Yeah, it's expensive, but even the small benefits are worth it. It takes to the lower-middle levels to start seeing the real benefits; a mounted Glory Ammy forgives a LOT of sins. Portal Chambers are cheap and easy to make -- even 100 law runes only costs 30-40k. Don't forget those bookshelves that hold quest and minigame books, things you'll never need to keep in your bank again. The rest of the stuff? It's for bragging rights or for fun, just like rares. I don't intend to live in a fully marble mansion with a demonic throne -- in fact, I probably won't even bother building a dungeon -- but I might do some landscaping to make the place look nice. But those who have the patience and the cash to get their way to 99? More power to them. :D I fully expect Jagex to have a quest involving construction, and possibly to have a reward that is of the form "+5 rooms to house maximum." I don't know if they'll do it or not, but it's definitely a possibility. All things considered, Construction is a moderately successful skill. It's dull enough to train that most people won't do it beyond a certain point, and expensive enough to ensure that those who DO train it will be draining money out of the total RS economy for a while. (This strikes me as Jagex's underlying purpose for the skill, and why I don't think planking will be made any less expensive any time soon.) The benefits are subtle but tangible, and things like portals and tele tablets will have a long-term effect on the game. It's a bit sad that for a fully-realized skill (items available to build from level 1 to 99) that it turned out to be so dull. Makes me wish it was easier to get suggestions to Jagex's attention; I have some ideas on ways to spice it up a bit. D

I excerpted those, since there's a pattern to a few of the benefits. * The Mort Myre fairy ring was pointed out as a good way to collect Fungi. * The Kalphite lair fairy ring puts you a relatively short distance from Potato Cactus. * The Relleka slayer cave has monsters with good drops for potions (limpwurts by the score, and herbs as well). * Ability to make unlimited Magic Essence potions after the quest, not the best xp due to needing to kill Goraks, but still relatively cheap. So for mid-high herblorists, I can see this being a popular update. It's usually the herblorists who have the patience to get the requisite Farming levels, too. :mrgreen: There's another pattern emerging: * Again, Relleka slayer cave location... * Karamja near Harpie Bugs location * Extra Abyss pocket dimension with Abyssal Demons * Mudskipper Point * Desert Lizard location So for those esoteric Slayer Monster tasks, the fairy rings are MUCH easier ways of getting there. D

I had a Big Shark turn up after about 80 sharks, fishing by myself down in Burgh de Rott. Still need about 10 levels in Construction to make something of it... D

Kinda my point (as well as others). PHats are already pretty scarce (what are the official numbers, a couple of hundred each tops?) -- once they get down into the "useless" numbers, where trading them is effectively impossible, then masks become the high-end "common currency," then Santa hats. Of course getting them out of the game via attrition will take forever and a day, but in the meantime, some players get to dream about owning rares, others get to merchant those rares, and the rest of us spend our money on useful items and skills. :D D

I'm actually rather enjoying Jagex's laissez-faire approach to removing rares from the game... release an update, with some carefully-placed "bugs." Let the bugs be found and inevitably exploited by others for gain (staking bugs, the Falador Massacre, etc.). Allow the bug abusers to accumulate a small percentage of existing rares, and then... ban the bug abusers without mercy. Kill the accounts dead, additionally banning any "friends" who benefited from the spoils as accessories after the fact. Claim that restoring lost items would be far more trouble than it is worth. Voila! The game now has a few less rares than it used to. Aside from a pre-RS2 duping incident, there will never be additional copies of these rares, so any which are removed from the game entirely will never be a part of the economy again. Eventually, the supply will wear down to a precious few items traded only among those with the hefty coinage to pay for them. The real "problem," such as it is, with the RS economy is not the existence of these rares -- they are merely the high-water mark, the leading economic indicator. It is with the existence of a constant stream of cash and raw material supply. The creation of a money sink -- Construction -- which doubles as a different sort of status symbol will serve to drain some of the economy, at least for a while... but the machine plods on. Fish are fished, logs are chopped, monsters are killed, and items are sold and alched... and the money supply will just grow again. Jagex has the right idea in finding new ways for the mega-rich to reduce their coffers. Miscellania/Etceteria is now actually a desirable commodity source. Construction has the ability to enhance gameplay in literally dozens of different ways for those committed to it. I personally am interested to see what they will come up with next. D

If you're out of limpwurt seeds (or watermelons/strawberries, for that matter), growing sweetcorn (and planting a scarecrow) isn't a bad way to go. The cooking xp is pretty good, and they can be used for the tuna and corn baked potatoes if you feel like making them. Strawberries are also a good alternative/backup to watermelons, as baskets of strawberries are 5 * 6 = 30 hp of food per slot, excellent for Fight Caves or long stretches of thieving/agility. Not very good for pking. :P I don't farm for xp anymore, of course, since I reached 85. If and when Jagex adds a level 90-95 layer to Farming the same way they have for other skills, I'll change my mind, but in the meanwhile I'm content to find other efficiencies for farming. Killing the Giant Mole for claws and skins, and exchanging for nests, is a decent way to get more higher-level allotment seeds and limpwurt seeds if you don't want to be bothered paying for them. D

RSN: Gongoro As a 3-year RS veteran it's always good to see other long-timers, even those who've grown tired of the game and are moving on to other things. Real life can be a major pain sometimes, but it definitely takes precedence over any game. I don't have a tale of woe of being scammed or hacked, as in three years on the game I've learned how to avoid those things. I've spent my time building a good set of skills, helping strangers with advice rather than handouts, and building a small group of friends I have fun talking to when I'm online. I've got a bank that resembles your own in several ways, so I don't need to accumulate lots of free gear. I just appreciate that you, like myself, spent a decent chunk of time playing this game, and hope that you enjoyed most of your time playing. All of us go through the ebb and flow of interest/disinterest in the game; some come back, some don't. If you change your mind and come back, chances are I'll still be here; add me and say "howdy." If you don't, well, you'll have gone out memorably, even if your passing is marked by only a small gathering of souls. And it would be an honor to have been one of them. D

And apparently you can get unlimited garlic from the chest in the Burgh Inn basement after you finish the quest. D Edit: Maybe not unlimited, I did 3 in a row and then it was empty. Perhaps it restocks later.

Nice, I haven't seen any 13 yields, but have seen an increase in my 9 to 11 herb yields. D

Oh noes 100k lost! vs. several million gained if even one d2h comes out of it. It's actually a pretty good gaining strategy, either for money or for the weapon itself. Besides, I don't think he said "stay and go toe-to-toe with pkers." D

I lucked out, had snapdragon (keep in bank for potionmaking), proboscis (keep in bank for possible future use), and nature talisman (fairly easily obtained, since all I have these days are nature tiaras). Some of those ingredients are kerrrrrrazy. D

You don't really need that many bowls, as adding the topping to the potato empties them again. Hudo is definitely the quick route to get extra milk and cream, both of which can be churned into butter. In fact, you can carry 28 cream without losing anything (like buckets) when you churn. If ever there was a task screaming for an "-X", it's churning. More so than cooking ever was. D

The Cult of Kah Bah Gee is safe -- Jagex obviously means for potatoes to be eaten, while Kah Bah Gee can still be worshipped. Of course, watch out for the sauerkraut and corned beef with cabbage updates... D