sligo

Hmm. 6/10. Nice texture, that's about it. - Sligo

Yellow paint. How do you paint paint?

Er, my stats are a lot better than yours, and I've never won a fight in the wilderness. But then, I'm not a pker either. To be successful in the wilderness takes a lot more than just good stats. The right combination of weapons, certain guile and knowing how to pick your victims. Stuff I don't have! - Sligo

When I saw the song title, I thought you were gonna sing Pat Benatar's "Hit me with your best shot" Ah... Since you didn't, I'm thinking... You know, I was also looking at the lyrics to AC/DC's Shoot to Thrill today... Shoot to thrill Way to kill I got my bow and I'm ready gonna fire at will... We'll see what happens. You never know what these warped minds of ours can do. - Sligo

Yes, brevity is an art form. One that I myself am not particularly blessed with. *Sigh* Freedom of speech is a great thing. Freedom to ignore is even greater. :wink:

I think that would make an intereresting poll here on tipit... At what point would you say the game is too expensive and quit? Range it from $10 to $100 per month and see where the numbers fall. I'd probably quit playing if it was higher than $10.00 per month. - Sligo

Maybe the answer should be this: If the victim's level is lower than yours, you suffer a penalty to prayer when you kill them. If the victim's level is higher, then you can bury his bones for 4.5 per level difference. Let's see, what penalty? Maybe not just prayer, but all skills - say 100 exp per skill per level difference? (Skills can't go negative, of course). So, in level 40 wilderness, would you kill a level 40 and (and you're level 80), and lose a total of 80k exp? I know. Ain't gonna happen. Nor is a change in the value of human bones. - Sligo

Ok, this is from the December 22, 2003 news article on the Jagex site. In other words, you're wasting valuable disk space complaining about an issue that isn't going to get changed. I recommend that a mod lock this thread. - Sligo

You make a good point here. Awesome. I see a lot of advertising on TV for game design training. I hope this industry doesn't suffer the same fate as the "dot-coms" of the late 90's. I suffered similarly when I left school in the early 80's to try my hand in the job market as a programmer. I was at that age when everyone said "That's the business to be in! You'll make lots of money!" Well, by the time I hit the job market, there wasn't a job to be found as a programmer. I ended up getting stuck in a job for 9 years that was a total dead end. Actually, I didn't quite get that impression. However, the presense of immature players (regardless of age) does bring down the community atmosphere for everyone. It's not that I think you don't enjoy the game, but the mere existence of your post indicates that you have some issues. From the standpoint of the game mechanics, the game is pretty cool. The people on your friends list are cool people and you enjoy good conversation with them. However, it's the people on your ignore list with which you have a problem. Truthfully, me too. More than once I had to move someone from my friends list to my ignore list as well. Didn't like doing it. Felt bad about it, but I think it was the right decision nevertheless. Is there a solution to the problems you've described? That's a tough one. I don't think there is without changing the nature of the game. Let's explore some ideas: 1. Raise the cost of membership. Part of the appeal of this game is its reasonable cost. For each incremental increase in cost we would lose a percentage of players as they have to weigh the entertainment value of playing versus the cost. I think we'd lose a lot of the ne'er-do-wells pretty quickly (at least in P2P) because these people won't be able to justify their behavior with the cost. Conversely, there is a limit to this because RS has to stay competitive in its marketplace. When the price gets up to where other games are, we'd lose players to those other games from simple economics. 2. Tighten the game rules to ban things like begging, following, name-calling, and other annoyances. This can be tricky. Do this and people will get banned incorrectly. This becomes a customer support nightmare. Not only that, people will just become more creative in finding ways around the rules. 3. Make the rares available again. Oh boy, this is a can of worms! Imagine what would happen if you could buy a p-hat from a general store for 5 coins. I can hear it now "The economy would be ruined!". Sure thing. But what would this do for all those cheaters and beggars? Interesting, right. Not the answer, obviously, but something to think about. 4. Regionalize the servers. Basically, this means that you'd only be able to log in to a small group of servers. I.E I would only log in to the Chicago servers and I wouldn't be able to log in to Amsterdam if I wanted to. This would destroy the international flavor of the game, make forum trading useless, as well as community events (like those sponsored by Tipit). On the other hand, it would enforce the sense of community in the smaller groups because people would get know each other in those regions. This way, reputations would be meaningful. Ok, these suggestions are extreme. But how do you balance the growing player base and maintain a sense of community? I submit that you can't. I can't be on a first-name basis with a million people. I can't do it with a thousand. So I'm back to my original point - play the game because you enjoy playing. If you don't then don't. Can't be more basic than that. - Sligo

I remember that thread, I suggested it. But WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY YOUR IDEA BACK THERE?!?!?!? Your version of the "Stealth Prayer" is way better than the other ppls. I think I just abandoned my idea of a "Stealth skill" and agree with you. It's an awesome idea, because it satisfies both sides of the argument. we should really approach jagex on this, because your idea is sounding better than mine. Gee thanks! ;-) I rarely have my own ideas (well, that's not totally true). But I often help people refine their ideas and make it into something that is do-able (from a programming sense) and doesn't unbalance the game too terribly much. Also, since so many ideas have been suggested over the years, and so many variations, I can't really say if there is such a thing as an original idea anymore. - Sligo

Lol that would be kinda funny. But remember, he would have to accept the other player teleporting (or so 133t_necroh said). It would be the best idea. Still though, it would be hilarious to see zezima get swarmed by ppl. The penalty of being #1, I guess. I'm playing a live rpg where one of the characters has teleport ability. 26 million miles is his range. The only requirement is that he has to be familiar with the target location. Since the game is set in present day, we just pull up google maps and whoosh! Like I said before, the best way to prevent abuse of this is to limit the teleportation to ground level targets only. Except in the wilderness, there are no particularly dangerous, aggressive monsters on ground level. The level 20 restriction on wilderness teleporting limits those aggressive monsters to level 79 green dragons. So, ammend my previous post to say that if the target is in the wilderness (levels 1-20), you get a message when you cast the spell that simply says, "Target location is in the wilderness, you sure you want to go there? Yes/No" Don't say it can't be done - note the message you get when you trade in the wilderness. - Sligo

Hmm. How about the exp you get is the difference between your combat level and their combat level? I've seen it suggested that player bones actually are identified to the player they belonged to. Make these tradeable, then you can sell a set of some famous player's bones for millions of gold. Nah. Human bones are 4.5 exp each. Leave it at that. - Sligo

Follow me north... Actually, I rarely have that problem, and if I'm following someone at random, I say "I hope you don't mind, but I'm being lazy." Mostly they say "Ok, no problem." So if someone is following you and annoying you? Annoy them back by walking in circles or going places that are meaningless. Even better, teleport to where you are going. It's faster anyway, right? I don't think this change needs to be made, because I think you make it a bigger problem than it really is. If someone is following you, the are not hurting you, they are not slowing you down, and you can easily ignore them if they are bugging you verbally. - Sligo

I almost can't not respond to this! Ok, so yeah, I read the whole thing, and I'm not on RS right now, so I can concentrate on my answer (don't expect 2k words though, I don't have that kind of time)... You are right that the suggestion forums on Jagex are lame at best. For a while about a year ago, I tried staying active there (mostly in the suggestion forum, actually), and 90% of the suggestions where repetitive, lame, stupid, and often violated the posted rules. I don't feel that Jagex ever paid a lot of attention to this area because pretty much none of the suggestions made ever made it into the game. I think, in retrospect, that they provide it as a place to make us noobs feel like we're really contributing. Maybe they do read it. Who knows, right? So what about it? Well, read on, because the "answer" applies to most of your complaints. On to the next issue you raise. You bring up the aspect of a friendly community, and that you felt the community was much better when it was small. Well, I wasn't playing then - I started playing in the summer of 2004. But let me make a comparison. Recently I decided to find some other games to play. I found this really cool game called "Alliance." I downloaded the interface and went through the tutorial. Cool game, actually got my joystick out of the closet to play it. At any given time, less than 100 players. Small group! So I join a game and play for a while. Game ends when a team loses, and so the players (about 10 of them) are discussing the rules for the next game. Before long, they are arguing like crazy and calling each other names. I tried a couple times to calm them down and make peace but was ignored. Finally I logged out and I haven't played since. What does this have to do with your point? I think it has nothing to do with the number of players specifically - you are always going to have a percentage of people who are jerks. Let's move on to the next issue... (Same paragraph) - Cheating, scamming and hacking: From the jist of your discussion, I get the impression that you are saying that people are cheating because of the rules, not in spite of them. Hmm. Your next topic - name calling. Well, I covered this in my tipit times article last October. I don't care to repeat myself. Next up: Blaming lack of community on developers. Yikes! This hits home (and is probably the reason why I'm responding in the first place!) Why? I'm a developer! Software I've written and support has been installed in companies all across the U.S. and in Canada. The dream of a developer is to write something cool that a lot of people want to use. If it's a game, then you want lot's of people playing it. Don't fault Mr. Gower for living his dream! In just a few years, some kid turned an idea into a multi-million dollar (pound?) business. Now he's living the nightmare of supporting it. Well, his staff is, anyway. Is it too easy to raise skills? Probably, if you don't mind repeating the same action over a few hundred thousand times. The developers have at least reduced the number of clicks required, thus cutting down on orthopeadic doctor visits. But is this the reason people cheat? I don't think so. As for intelligent conversations, it isn't hard to find someone willing to talk. In fact, I think it is probably easier now than it ever was. Sure, there's lots of kids playing, but I think a lot of them are playing because they want to have fun, which is the same reason I play. Go figure. Ok, now to summarize, and make my final points. The game is growing in leaps and bounds. As the game grows, the more experienced players want new and different stuff to do in order to stay interested (new quests, new skills, new areas to explore, new challenges, etc). Without this, they'd quit. Right? The drawback to this game expansion is that newer players have more to choose from when they start out. Maybe that's why f2p doesn't get the updates? (Hmm, never thought of it that way, have you?) Anyway, when more players join, you are going to get the same percentage of jerks, cheaters, and fools. But like any group, the trouble makers get the attention. One in a hundred? One in a thousand? Whichever, but you get the point. The higher population also means more younger players. Most of those young players are great - they are intelligent, well spoken, and just want to have fun. Others, however, think that having fun involves makes the lives of others miserable. This is something rules can't fix. The point I'm getting to is the same point I made back in October. Evaluate the reason you are playing Runescape. If you aren't playing the game to have fun, and if the game isn't fun for you, then don't play. Do something else. Simple as that. Enough soap box for now... Maybe more later. - Sligo

I'm just wondering about your premise that because there are hundreds of players on each world at these respawns is evidence of macro-ing. To me, this is evidence that the game is growing. - Sligo

Hmm.. Just thinking about this - in order to be able to use a second weapon, you would need to have both agility and defense levels high enough necessary. The level requirement would be the same as the attack level requirement for that weapon. In addition, the attack skill necessary would be 50% higher. So, in order to use dual dragon weapons, you'd need 90 attack, 60 agility, and 60 defense. Make sense? - Sligo

One other comment - I choose to stay away from any of these kinds of things simply because they may be a scam to try and get my account information. - Sligo

The argument that certain zones are attuned through the abyssal plane is an interesting theory, but it really doesn't hold much weight. The entire land is magical. Random event NPC's can teleport anywhere (as stated by someone else), for example. I suggest you re-read my restriction list in my previous post in this thread. Yeah, there are restrictions, but I believe these restrictions are reasonable and manageable. I've proposed before (a long time ago, in the RS suggestion forums), the capability to do coordinate teleporting. The same restrictions as described before apply to this idea as well. - Sligo

'u luv me 99' is profane? Interesting. If we can't agree on what is profane and what isn't, then how can we have a discussion about what should be banned and what shouldn't? In a lot of cases, profanity and obscenity is subjective. - Sligo

I find that with nearly every suggestion, someone always pops up and says this. We're dealing with a virtual game economy that in a sense is a free-market economy. However, with the artificial bench marks provided by high-alching, and the fact that because of high-alching, money can be "created" out of basically nothing, we're dealing with an economy that simply can't be ruined. Sure, prices on rares and commodities will fluctuate, but that's the nature of the game. Back to point. By adding a new commodity, such as "power ess" as this thread suggests, will certainly affect the value of normal essence. However, with the limitations (mining level, etc) that are proposed, I don't believe that the value of normal ess would be affected that much. If anything, its value wil go down and the market price of power ess will go up. Does this constitute ruination of economy? I highly doubt it. It might ruin your economy if you'd spent that last 6 months doing nothing but mining ess and you have a couple million of them in the bank that you intend to sell. If you want to ruin the economy, the way to do it is to eliminate the alchemy spells and make it so stores won't buy stuff that we all know will never resell (why in the world would a general store buy 18,000 unstrung willows, anyway?). - Sligo

The key here is their mini-map dot is gone. That's the main "alert" for pk-ers. This spell will help, but it's no guarantee because they may still be able to see you. As for the speed of the drain, well, that's debatable. Just as long it's not so slow that a player with 65 prayer and a couple prayer pots can walk from one corner of the wilderness to the other with the spell on the entire time. - Sligo

That's good to hear. I've hear a number of stories where players have "incited" others to cheat, or "entrapped" them in some way. I've also heard a lot of complaints by players who are intent on working a skill and while doing so, ignore other players (either by not talking at all or by spending their time in private chat). These other players try to get said player to talk and when said player doesn't respond in a reasonable amount of time, said player reports him. In other words, don't report people unless you are absolutely sure they are cheating. If you're not sure, don't report. Why? They probably aren't cheating - they are just ignorning you or very intent on their task. - Sligo

Just read another thread in this area asking about a "stealth" skill. Though I don't think a new skill on this would be useful, but adding a "stealth" spell to prayer would be cool. And it would provide a true incentive to get your prayer skill up. Here's how it would work: (Level 65 spell): You activate the spell and your image and dot becomes invisible to other players. But wait! This spell costs you 1 prayer per 2 seconds of activation. But wait! If another player's current prayer level is higher than your prayer level, they can SEE you! One caveat: This spell can't be used if you are in castle wars and are carrying a flag. Another caveat: This spell has no affect on NPC's and monsters. One more caveat: If you say anything (in open chat), it immediately de-activates the spell. Application: Treasure trail hunting in the wilderness... Need I say more? - Sligo

You know, I do like the "protect other" idea. Think of what this would do when hunting tough monsters like steel dragons. You go in with a friend who stocks up on prayer pots while you stock up on anti-fire pots. He keeps you protected from melee while you maintain your protection from fire. My guess here is that you'd be able to triple or even quadruple the number of dragons you can kill before having to go and bank. - Sligo

I'm not a big fan of this idea. If such an idea were implemented, however, the second weapon would suffer a severe stat penalty and not provide a significant bonus to defense. Yes, you get the two attacks per round, but the second attack would be no better than 1/2 what you'd normally get with that weapon. Also, certain weapons simply cannot be paired. Two-handed weapons (obviously) and any non-fixed weapon such as flails and whips. The left-hand weapon cannot be a better weapon than the right hand weapon (i.e. if you have a short sword in your right hand, you can't use a long sword in your right). Also, while using dual weapons, special attacks are rendered unusable. The goal with these restrictions is to maintain balance in the game. Using dual weapons will gain you an additional attack, with the potential of doing more damage. However, you have to balance it with a severe penalty to defense. - Sligo