helring

If the stakers aren't cheating then I've got nothing against them. They stay in their own area, they risk quite a bit and are just as likely to lose it all than gain. A percentile that goes to the duel arena would be even better. Merchants however can mess with supply and demand deliberately, very rarely risk as much as they stand to gain, and can have a negative impact on other players. I feel they should be discouraged, a g.e. tax of 5% could help there. PvM, I just feel it makes way more that it actually tends to risk since gravestones came out. I think thats more of a skilling re-balance and drop mechanic rework needed to fix that though. Skills just aren't that useful. I wouldn't have an issue with in-game casinos because money would leave the game and again the gamblers are risking quite a bit if the odds are set correctly. Also, an in-game casino would still keep out the annoying spammers. A lot of the skilling methods that do make decent money are effected by time restraints. PoP being one of the major ones where skillers can make some cash but it takes a while. Rune won't make you much per hour compared to other methods. Herbs will make you a bit, but they are time restricted already due to the time it takes to grow them. If price manipulation is going to happen, then Jagex should either discourage it through better g.e. mechanics, or use it to their advantage and discourage it through a g.e. tax. As far as bonds for straight cash works, I personally wouldn't mind it. I think though Jagex has for legal reasons been trying to avoid saying "gp is worth this much" in real money. Right now its a very thin line, but they only sell bonds and whatever the players do with them is fine with Jagex. However, if Jagex starts buying them back that might be enough to tie a real world value to gp in court and cause some issues.

Absolutely, anyone multi-logging to get those benefits should get skill and gp rollbacks.

If you don't mind, what does BIS mean? Anyway, if they are going to make the top 4 magic weapons in the game combine into a T90 2h weapon, they really need to do something about the drop rate of the t90 1h. For zarytes and virtus wand, it is common enough a drop AND able to be duoed. The only thing thats needed to make it on par is to give Nex an instance. Say, 1m an hour. Or even not money. Why does KK have an instance for free, but vorago doesn't? And nex doesn't even have one? For drygores.. Nothing really needed to change. KK works and is able to be duoed with a free instance. Vorago, on the other hand, NEEDS to scale down more. The 5 people with max gear to even get in the door is far too much, considering if they aren't pro they won't get the kill.Vorago needs to either scale down to be more manageable with 5 people, or it needs to have the door hit removed. Saying ":5 people minimum to enter, 6-7 minimum to get the kill" is just insulting. and now elite barrows is going to require 4 people flat, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The lower number needed is good and on par with KK and nex. If it is super hard or not doesn't matter, because it was designed for 4, and requires 4.. While vorago was obviously designed for, and requires much more than 5 people I think BIS is best in slot. Basically how you need the really high level stuff to even try this boss.

What if I like something and would like to collect a large quantity of that item. Precisely why do we need these restrictions? For it not to be hoarded, so prices drops and thus more accessible to the people who it's meant for? If the price drops, that also makes the activity which gives the item less rewarding. The paltry sum you can make from skilling would become even more pathetic, the gp/hr from bossing would approach the skilling tier. Not to mention that if someone has the desire and means to hoard an item and drive the price up artificially... let them. The in-game economy is not, and neither it should be, something which is fettered with restrictions and regulations. The price of an item should be based on the average demand of the entire population, not restricted to a certain range - which is the real terms effect of restricting access to items - in order to satisfy a certain entitled subset who feels they should be able to obtain the same things in game as someone who is willing to invest more into the game. "in order to satisfy a certain entitled subset who feels they should be able to obtain the same things in game as someone who is willing to invest more into the game." I'm sorry, but thats complete bs. The purpose of the g.e. restrictions is to limit the gain of those who aren't willing to invest as much time and energy. Merchants don't need to spend much time while flipping, they're not "investing more into the game" than the skillers grinding away on something or even the bossers. While I think some suggestions like the max item limit would do more harm than good, I don't think merchants add anything positive to the game, they're at best neutral and in many cases outright harmful.

If the gp/hour from bossing approaches the skilling tier then good. I understand that bossing should get more due to risk, but the amount more has really gotten ridiculous. Back when it was only barrows, things seemed pretty well balanced. GWD was really the first instance of bossing making obscene amounts more than skilling. Since then its just gotten worse and worse. I have no issue with bossers making more. I do have an issue with bossers making such obscene amounts more. No item from a regular drop should be worth max cash. Skilling makes nearly nothing and yet instead of trying to fix that issue, Jagex keeps pumping out new bosses. There's no reason to come out with new bosses after vorago when vorago is still able to pump out so much cash. I'm glad they're considering skiller bosses, more ports stuff, and skilling rebalances but they need to bench Chris L for a while. Focus on the skilling aspects of the game that have been left so far behind. As far as merchanting goes, I'm not sure what to do there. I agree that its not cool that people who aren't really playing the game can make such large amounts of money. However, I'm not sure that I'd agree with limits to the amount of items you can own. I wouldn't object to harsher g.e. limits though for how many you can buy and sell in a time limit though.

I'm wondering if the hunter will provide pets.

armadyl and bandos for world event 2 is confirmed.

Skill 2 is the inventor skill. Taking current technology and wrapping it up with divine energy. Could be useful in fighting the gods.

Those reworks sounded like some cool ideas. Agility rework idea needs a bit more but the really hoping the other 3 make it into the game. Note: There was a massive warning that these are liable to change, and are really only their ideas at the moment with what they want to do or are considering. Summary: Construction: about 20 plots in the real world, you can own 5 or 6. When you walk past your plots you would see your houses, when you walk past ones you don't own you would see your friends plot or if none own that spot then random players. You could buy a plot and then a character could actually request a house designed with certain features then you could sell them the plot afterwards so the skill becomes an actual house-making skill instead of the current furniture making "build bench, rip out bench, build bench, etc" Summoning: gain summon exp while working with your summoning creatures so it isn't as focused on the pouch-making aspect. Level up your summons as you use them. More diverse abilities so you have a reason to use them all, so you don't level out of using a familiar. Mining and Smithing rework: First squash rune and such down to the appropriate levels so rune would be 50's. Dragon-like armour would be 60's. It wouldn't be dragon because dragon was made ages ago but could work with the basic metals and raw materials. Similarly 70's would be barrows-like, with basically so many people dying during 3rd age and no one cleaning up the battlefields they were just kind of left and covered up over time. The metals have been infused over time and so you could use them to make barrows-like level 70 armour. When you create an item it would be basic. Combine 2 or several normal of the same item to boost its stats like a rune sword +1, 2 rune swords +1 to create a rune sword +2, 2 rune swords+2 for a +3 etc up until +5 which would be called a masterwork. With items like barrows they'd still want those drops to be useful so several masterworks could be combined with the barrows items to create even better items called Artifacts. Agility: A bit less developed and thought about than the others. The idea is they don't like run energy because if you don't have it its annoying but if you do you don't really think about it. They looked at what run energy does overall and it generally used to speed up other activities. From this they thought maybe better travel and teleports, maybe some stuff you could do out in the world like seeing a gold bag in a tree to climb and grab it or at 99 climb on top the grand exchange to show off, or possibly to have agility speed up your skilling by doing multiple actions at once or just making actions quicker.

Where do you all find these pictures? The Empty Lord has blessed me with some of his spying abilities. A.K.A. Chris L tweeted it.

Yea, thats the original concept art. They scrapped it because he looked too dominant, knightly and Saradominist. I really don't think that look fits a god of justice too well anyway, it looks like he wants to lord over you, could see someone in that armour having more of Zilyana's personality than Armadyl's.

Moltare just tweeted "Welp. All set for #runefest3. All set for VO recording of WE2 and moar next week. Just need to pack the fez and roll on out." So looks like World Event 2 is coming along.

It really depends, they'd really have to track it. Sometimes people do giveaways on different sites and often has never met the winner(s). This might appear at a quick glance to be RWT even though no one paid for anything. I also have a purple that was given to me by a friend on irc, but he's muted in-game. I have one of his alts on my fl but not the actual account that he gave me the hat with because that's useless when he's muted. I kind of wondered if I showed up in their "rwt" stats even though I didn't buy the p hat, cause their system would have to notice an unequal trade of that size, but I'm hoping they had a way of filtering out something like that.

Fair enough, thats the direction I figured you were going when mentioning it. The other thing I was thinking of is perhaps it would be possible to bring him back but weaker than before by gathering enough of his energy and memories. I don't really like how they set up his end, him missing his daughter and all but having no way to ever see her again. I wouldn't mind having the option to resurrect him in a lesser form during a quest and then having him make some noble sacrifice, actually going to the afterlife.

What do you think could bring him back? According to the lore book after mpd a God loses their ability to have an afterlife and their energy gets scattered. Also, Jagex seems pretty sure "He dead"

Its a $100k cap for gp donations which works out to 1 trillion gp. I don't think there is a cap for bonds though since they're just passing along the money from bonds instead of spending their own money.

Really, Jagex needs to start cracking down on those still buying from gold sellers. remove the gold bought, a bit of their stats and maybe a week or two ban every time. Don't need to perm ban them, just need enough to show that they'll consistently get nothing for that $80. While the goldfarmer gp may be cheaper, if Jagex could actually show that there's no way to benefit from it then I could see bonds being successful. Otherwise I understand your point that it is a major difference, however I don't think bonds ever could compete with gold farmers prices, so the only thing really to do that won't wreck the game even worse is to hammer in on the account safety part of it.

One of the advantages of it being done in house is that I can now get some of the solomon's stuff that I really couldn't afford previously. Anyone who wasn't willing to break the ToS before was completely unable to benefit. This isn't a moral argument, I just feel more parties benefit from this system than from the previous goldselling. Another benefit of course is that its still against the ToS. You can spend $80 and get it through Jagex free and clear, or you can spend $32 and risk your account. Before there was only one real way to get that 100m when buying it. I'd also prefer that the people making the money are the ones making the game instead of some random 3rd party, but thats more of a preference than anything else. I don't think that many people buying gold before really wanted to risk their accounts, but they had no other options. I could see people willing to pay more for a way to obtain it without risking a banning. Also, while you're right that most of these companies probably wouldn't risk their "reputation" there are probably also some shadier sites out there.

I believe you can donate bonds bought from other players. However, some players may not like the hassle of that. Gotta go buy the bonds, remember only can put in offers for 6 maximum in g.e. at once (1 per slot). Gotta wait for someone to sell them. Thats if you have the gp at hand to donate. If you have items you need to sell those first then buy. With well you can just throw the items or cash in and be done. Also, of course gp is a worse deal than bonds. Jagex is using their own money when you use gp or items, with bonds they're donating the money of the person who bought the bonds.

...Because people who have to spend a few months minimum to get a high level reward expect that reward to be worth the investment? It's honestly as simple as that. Out of curiosity, can someone point me to a developer that's worse at balance than Jagex? Bethesda Bethesda isn't too bad at balance, its bugs that are more their issue.

The Well of Goodwill Hi everyone, Today, we are delighted to announce that we are launching a important update to RuneScape: the Well of Goodwill. The Well of Goodwill update is a way of enabling the RuneScape community to use their in-game wealth to donate to real-world charitable causes. Located just south of the Grand Exchange, players can donate their surplus items, gold and even Bonds into the well towards great charitable causes. For every 10 million GP value donated by players, Jagex will donate $1 of real money. For every Bond donated, we’ll pass all revenue received directly on to the charities. Over the years we’ve privately supported a number of good causes and we thought this time round not only should we try include the community but also focus our efforts towards supporting a number of charities who efficiently and directly support disadvantaged, terminally ill or at-risk young people. While no doubt our list of charities will grow over time, we would like start with a few close to our own heart: About Willow Willow supports seriously ill 16 to 40 year olds by providing Special Days. During uncertain times, each unique Special Day is a positive focus away from treatment or marks recovery from illness. The planning, anticipation and excitement of the day boosts confidence, provides inspiration to make every moment count and creates lasting memories. Recent research highlighted results from Special Days as ‘astounding’ and this year Willow will provide its 10,000th Special Day. About SpecialEffect SpecialEffect is an award-winning charity that helps people with disabilities benefit from the fun, rehabilitation and therapy of video games. They support people of all ages through assessments, equipment loans and equipment modifications. About Action For Kids Action For Kids has been helping transform the lives of young people with physical and learning disabilities across the country since 1991, through the provision of mobility equipment, learning, training and support. For more information please visit www.actionforkids.org. About GamesAid GamesAid is a games-industry charity which acts as an umbrella, supporting a number of smaller charities who help disadvantaged and disabled children and young people. It is a non-trading body, administered by trustees who operate on a fixed-term basis, and is run by a chairman who is also appointed on a fixed term. As the only fully democratic charity in the games space, members of the games industry propose and vote for the charities of their choice annually. The charities who get the top number of votes then get an equal share of all the funds raised that year, proving that games and gamers can do great things for others. About the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) The Internet Watch Foundation is the internet hotline for anyone to report online child sexual abuse content hosted anywhere in the world, non-photographic child sexual abuse images and criminally obscene adult content hosted in the UK. Why are you doing this? Generosity nourishes the soul. People who have given to good causes and seen the positive impact and good will that it creates will tell you it feels truly great to give! At Jagex, we have always been passionate about our charity work. Jagex - as a company – regularly raises funds and donates thousands of pounds to various charities each year - and that's not including the money that our talent raise alongside us, which we always match pound for pound! We've played a part in Children in Need, Red Nose Day, Movember and a myriad of other charitable events throughout the years. However, this year we wanted to find a way to extend the act of giving to our players, providing them the freedom to support charities - if they wish - through their in-game efforts, without it necessarily impacting their pockets. A second benefit of adding the Well of Goodwill is that it will also act as a massive gold sink for the game: something we promised with the launch of Bonds that's still needed, which will have a huge impact on improving the game's economy. How else can I get involved? Our Community Team will be holding a number of events throughout November, where you can show your support in-game. plus we will also be running a temporary hiscore for the biggest donators of RSGP and Bonds for you competitive types. ☺ For more information on the Well of Goodwill, please check out the Well of Goodwill page where you can keep track with how much GP has been donated so far. Alternatively, discuss on our forums or read our FAQ. We thank you in advance for your wonderful support and for truly making a difference. Thank you for your generosity and support. Cheers, Mark Gerhard

Bonds seem to be hovering around 7m (so you are getting roughly 1.4m/dollar), so assuming my math is right that's .73 cents per mil. But, you're still correct in that it's less than half the cost :s Now, before you read my suggestions, I am aware that I am advocating RWT. My logic is that half-assed RWT accomplishes nothing-- if they are going to bother, they need to go all-in. For Bonds to truly be competitive, they need to increase the benefits that you get from them so that it increases the demand. For example, many micro-based games sell items in their "game stores" that provide temporary convenience-based effects. Create NPCs that will trade you items that give a large amount (at least a few hundred thousand) bonus exp in exchange for Bonds. Another thing that could be traded for Bonds is temporary buffs; some of these might include +20 mining or fishing for an hour, or a buff that protects all of your items upon death for an hour (if you have high div, the time on this buff would be greatly extended). Also, increase the amount of spins/runecoins you receive from bonds to 10 and 200, respectively, so that they are equivalent to the $4.99 package on the website. Obviously, these are just basic ideas-- you get the point though. Increasing the demand of the bonds is the best way to make them more competitive to farmers. I'd rather keep the gold farming then, tbh. I understand where you're coming from there, but right now what we've got is a legit way to do what was already being done, a bit more of an equalizer than anything else. Adding those bonuses would be going even further and selling stuff that was never really an issue with gold farming. I don't mind Jagex fighting gold farming as long as what they're doing benefits me a bit and isn't sticking out as much like those bonuses would be. Selling a few aspects...fine I'll cope....but don't sell everything and make everything nearly worthless. If Jagex thinks they've gotten rid of 81% of goldfarming, cool. I haven't seen too many spam bots recently, not getting too many pm's, bots are mostly eliminated or kept down in numbers at training areas. Whatever goldfarming is left doesn't affect me anymore, so I'd rather leave it be than burn down the game to eradicate it all. No Pyrrhic victories please =)

Yep. Why should they? Jagex is charging close to double their prices for "legit gold" so there is really no competition. Sure, there are people will buy the bonds because they are afraid of dealing with a third party (either risk of ban/CC fraud/malware, etc) but the people who were buying gold from farmers before Bonds won't stop after bonds. Again, why should they? Buying from farmers is a much better deal, as long as you have the confidence they aren't going to scam you IRL. I'm not so sure that the buyers from before Bonds won't switch over to Bonds. Yes, they were willing to risk their accounts when the option was buy gold illegally or don't buy gold. They may however be willing to pay more for the added security when they have that option however, so its not quite as black and white as they risked their account before so they'll keep risking it.

I'm not sure why that would necessarily matter. They've still been beating the bond price for gold since the day that bonds came out right? So anyone who didn't care about it being against the rules and any risk of ban would already be buying from them. The incentive to buy from them is already there, I don't see any reason for them to drop their prices. The only reason people would buy bonds over the goldsellers gp right now is due to something they cannot provide, no risk of being banned for it. Lowering their prices doesn't fix that so why would they bother?

I think tank armours overall should be more useful, not necessarily just PoP armours. Right now tank is more useful than hybrid but they're both kind of weak. I just don't see the point in differentiating 3 different types of armours if one type is almost/completely worthless, the next is slightly better but not much, and the last is an advantage is 90+% of situations. With the requirements to actually make the PoP armour being pretty high, and it being one of the few times Jagex has thrown skillers a bone with high-ish level gear, I can understand why some would be upset that in most situations its worse to use than the level 80 gear. I think they didn't really make the advantages of tank armour and hybrid armour worth the loss of the damage boost and that's an issue. They should differentiate the armours enough that each type is useful in its own way and not so that you're worse off using tank/hybrid. Hybrid weapons could help make hybrid armour useful if they started giving monsters dual-weaknesses like fire spells and bolts, and then released a weapon that lets you combine those. Tank would be more useful if it actually did let you tank higher damage instead of just a mild lp boost and a small bit of extra def that's pretty much worthless. So basically, for me at least, its more annoying that they split up armour into different types and made one type obviously superior than about PoP in general. Also, it annoys me that most of the upper level gear comes from bossing, and the one things skillers did get is worse than the t80 gear from bossing. I wouldn't mind ports not being the be-all end-all, but skillers need more end-game content too.