sligo

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Nothing. What did the person before me post?

They are pulled through a time warp. In a sense, they don't even exist until they wake up again. This, of course, is caused by the Omega-13 device. Why am I wasting my time posting in this thread?

787... A new jet model by Boeing?

I take it you mean quit RS. Probably not, but based on the overall numbers, I doubt many people would notice. There would be an awful lot of new posts in the rants section both here and on the official forums, though. Lol - Sligo P.S. That suggestion I mentioned previously has been posted in the Suggestions forum. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Artistry is a new skill for Runescape designed specifically to provide an new opportunity for higher level P2P players to explore the world of the arts. I went in to a lot of detail and when I was finished, I was amazed at how long the "document" ended up being. I use a lot of tables, but there is no way to translate them into BBCode. It was suggested that I create them as images, but after spending a half-day trying to get that to work, I gave up on it. So, the solution is what we have here: A special web page just for this skill. Artistry Skill by Sligo I'm open to your comments and ideas on how we can make this idea even better. I'm sure there will be people who don't like this idea, but with any and all skills in Runescape, there are some that are liked and some that are not. I know I can't please everyone, so it's not even worth trying. Take your time, enjoy the read, and I look forward to learning your thoughts. - Sligo --- Edit: Special thanks to the tip.it crew for helping me get the link to work!

I come at this with a perspective most of you aren't aware of. It has nothing to do with the fact that I wasn't around when the rares were originally dropped. Nor does it have anything to do with the fact that I have no desire to possess any of the existing rares in the game. Not only is the price tag more than I'm willing to pay, but since these items bear no intrinsic game value. I don't dispute that they are an investment, sort of a hedge against inflation, and that they are a status symbol to some. In Runescape, especially for merchanters, the game is the people who play it. I provided a reason why I think the rares should be rendered untradeable (not removed), and you responded with: Yet your statement totally misinterprets what I said: No, you're not going to stop scammers. This scourge will continue as long as the game exists. If you remember my tip.it times article a few weeks ago, I explored some possible reasons why people scam. For example: The point is, you take away the stuff they want, you take away one of the motivations to scam. Rares only constitutes a small portion of the things they want, but because rares are comparitively so expensive, the damage and hurt caused by such a scam is greater. If I lose 10k or 100k to scam, I can go on because I know I can replace it in a matter of hours. However, if I lose 500m to a scam, I might get a little emotional about it because I've probably worked my tail off for a couple months to get that much. So... I use this quote as a seque into a "project" I have been working on. It's a new skill idea that introduces the ability to create tradeble "Player-made unique items" Unique in that they are "signed" by the player who made them. I'll have this up and posted in the suggestions forum later today. (Unfortunately, due to the length and detail of the suggestion, I actually had to set up a special web page and post it there!) I look forward to your comments about this idea. - Sligo

I'll say this. I'm not telling anyone how to enjoy the game. I'm not telling anyone that they must do things my way. I understand that there is diversity in the game. I'll pull a "Glen Beck" on you (If you've seen him, you'll know where I'm going, if you haven't maybe you should watch his show a couple times) Here's what I know today: 1. People like to play games in different ways. They have different goals and different desires. I know for a fact that I don't understand all of them. I understand what I like to do and how I like to spend my time, and that's all I can claim. 2. Jagex has said more than once that doing the drops that are now these so-called "Rares" has not turned out as they had intended. So much so that they have assured us often that such a thing will never occur again. Ever. 3. Duke Freedom is right in that if a significant change was made affecting the economy, the economy would not crash, rather it would adjust. That's what economies do. With the exception of the rares, EVERYTHING that is tradeable in the game is renewable in some way. We will never run out of coal. We will never run out of lobsters. Therefore, the marketability of these items is based upon your willingness to gather these resources yourself versus your willingness to pay the seller's price for them. And, here's what I don't know: 1. I don't know what Jagex plans to do about rares. I doubt they will render them untradeable. However, I know that their "supply" is slowly dwindling because the owners of these items gradually quit or get banned (or, God forbid, drop the items in a remote location and they just vanish into cyberspace!) 2. I also don't know what new skills, quests, items, etc., will be introduced in the future. Each time something is added to the game, the economy fluctuates and adjusts to compensate. The point of this is I'm not telling people how to play the game or what their goals should be. I know what mine are, and I play to those goals. If your goal is to do whatever it takes to accumulate a half a billion coins just so you can possess a certain item, then more power to you - as long as you accumulate that wealth legally. Accept the fact that this is not my goal, so it doesn't matter to me one whit what Jagex ultimately does on this issue. The discussion is acedemic because I seriously doubt Jagex would listen to any of us anyway. I stated my opinion previously that if Jagex does decide to render rares untradeable, then they should provide a reasonable span of time so that those players who bought them for their investment value can cash in on them, and those players who want them because they think the represent some status symbol or just think they are cool have an opportunity to get them before the cutoff. Once that time has come and gone, surely there will people who want to make them tradeable again, just as there are people who want new rare-tradeable drops. In the mean time, those of us who want to continue playing Runescape will continue to do so, and those that don't want to play Runescape anymore will quit. It's too bad that people get emotional about this. Last I checked, this is just a game, right? - Sligo

I will have to admit that I don't understand the desire of people to own rares. Perhaps some explanation of this would help. If it is to impress others, then rares is a pretty lame way to do it. I'm more impressed by someone who helps another player because they want to be help, not because they were asked. But that's me. Perhaps its because these rares look cool. With a couple of them, I can agree. Who wouldn't want to wear a Santa hat at Christmas time? However, the general consensus is the party hats look pretty lame. (I'm not impressed, anyway). But there are enough other options for "looking cool" or even unique in the game (so far, I've met no one who wears the same floppy purple hat I wear, yet there's nothing special about it) But then, I'm the same guy who doesn't see much value in collecting un-postmarked stamps, because all you're doing there is paying the Post Office for services you never actually receive. I guess I'm not much of a collecter, so the mentality excapes me. Here's what I see good about removing the tradeability of rares from the game: You significantly reduce the motivation for scamming and auto-ing. Of course, it doesn't eliminate it completely, but if there is no "prize" for collecting 100 million coins to spend on something, then there's no motivation to find cheats in order to get there. I'm not saying that people who have or want these items are cheaters, but how many stories have we heard about people getting banned for this type of activity, and being banned while owning complete sets of rares? When I say a rare is worthless, from the standpoint of how it affects your stats, it is worthless. At least my purple hat gives me a +4 ranging bonus. What does a party hat give? It doesn't boost skills or enhance your magic or anything. And, my purple hat high-alchs for more than the party hats (though by not much, I'm sure!) As for my opinion, I thought this forum was the place to share opinions. Just because me or someone else's opinion may seem stupid to you, it doesn't mean we aren't entitled to them, just as you are entitled to yours. - Sligo

I agree with pretty much everything you said, except this statement. Since rares are traded player to player, the money is not removed from the game, rather it is redistributed to other players. Right now, there are only 3 significant methods in place that remove money from the game: 1. Banned players 2. Construction 3. Miscellania We've already seen that these three methods do not stem the inflation tide. - Sligo

Ok, if there are 5,000 active (people who still play) rares left, i'd say the average price would be 100m? This would mean that there would then be 500,000,000,000gp worth of items effectively erased from the game. How can you possibly think that this would have no effect on the economy? And as stated, what happens to those people who only have riches in rares? They've saved up everything they've had, just to buy 1 item, to then have it turn untradable, there would be no way they could ever get this money back. Of course it would have negative effects. That doesn't mean the economy would crash. The RS economy CANNOT crash because of High and Low Alch, and the fact that stores will buy stuff without regard to marketability and profitability. There is an endless supply of money in the economy and frankly, not enough methods to reduce the amount. As long as a player, in a matter of an hour or so, can generate anywhere from 50k to 500k coins simply by collecting materials, crafting (or whatever), then high-alching, the economy will never crash and there will always be inflation. The only thing that could cause the economy to crash is for the High and Low alch spells be removed, and stores be re-designed so that they won't buy items that will never sell. I agree, the people who spent zillions on something that is inherently worthless (from the standpoint of game benefit) will certainly be upset, but they were able to raise the money once, there's no reason they couldn't do it again. I think this is actually a good lesson for real life - if you spend all your effort to buy something that's only purpose is to impress others, then you will quickly realize that the item possesses you because once you have that item, the other people don't really care. I once heard the definition of "Status" as "Buying things you don't want, with money you don't have, to impress people you don't like." What's the reward in that? Some people think that buying these items is an investment. I ask, an investment in what? I see it as an investment in inflation. An investment in an economy that can only become more and more inflated as time goes on. If the inflation rate is the same (or about the same) as the increasing value of these rares, then you really aren't earning money on the investment. Rather, you are tying up funds into an item that you could be using to help with your skill development. Furthermore, since there's no insurance policy, you are investing in something that if you lost it, it can't be replaced. As I said previously, I think that Jagex should render the rares untradeable, but only do it after an appropriate period of warning. This way those people who bought these items as an investment have the opportunity to unload them rather than get stuck with them. Only the people who want these items because they want these items will end up them. - Sligo

All your predictions are dire, indeed. Let me think about some of them: 1. Economy would crash: This is laughable. Yeah, if you can't trade those rares anymore, that portion of the economy would be gone. Other items? Well, some might see some fluctuation, but I really don't think many items would be affected. Certaily, the economy wouldn't crash. Why? If there are <5000 of these rares, but close to 200k players, that's about 2% of the population being affected. The impact is relatively small. 2. People would quit: There's a lot more to playing Runescape than trying to get enough money to buy one of those rares. If that's all a particular player cares about, then them quitting doesn't bother me. Perhaps players will focus more on skill development and having fun playing the game rather than scheming, scamming, and cheating to try to get the funds to buy one of these coveted items. I, for one, think that these items should be made untradeable because the benefits of this move would far outweigh the negative consequences. However, if they were to do this, I think it should be announced at least a couple months before they actually did (i.e. announce now that this will happen on January 1st.) - Sligo

Your edits are funny.. Lol Anyway, my opinion is that the tradeable rares should be made untradeable, however, provde a few month's warning before actually doing it. Yeah, prices will skyrocket, but that would put an end to the problem once and for all. I agree that the merchanters would hate it. I agree that I'll probably get flamed for this opinion, but I'm used to that.. (lol) Personally, I do not own any of these rares, nor do I have any desire to own any of them. I do not need rares to prove to anyone my wealth (that's a rather noobish thing to do), nor do I need a rare to show how long I've been playing (I started playing 4 months after the last of these drops occurred). To me, there are much better things to spend my money on, and if I had that kind of wealth, I certainly wouldn't use it for something like a rare that has no intrinsic game value. - Sligo

Not a bad idea. I've often wondered the same thing myself - burning should give some exp too! Conversely, with this system, I think the exp you do get when successful should probably be a bit less than what it is now. - Sligo

I find the very concept of this thread to be quite distressing. Any person with an ounce of integrity would never purposely steal from or scam another person. One cannot measure the "cost" of this in terms of game money or real money. My integrity and character do not have a price - I can't be bought by this kind of temptation. However, on the same token, I make no special effort to trust any other player in the game. If I give something to someone, I do it knowing that I can afford to lose it. Even if the player is trustworthy, there is still the possibility that their account may get hacked or he gets scammed in some way. Even though I may trust the person, I have no guarantee that they adhere to the security guidelines. - Sligo

Forging ring counts are based on the player, not the ring. It doesn't matter how many forging rings you have or which ones you use, if you are wearing it, you get 140 uses then the one you happen to be wearing breaks. - Sligo

It's always hard to say, in retrospect. Because if you specifically work to train a specific skill excluding others, it seems hard at the time, but the reward is usually satisfying. I recently made level 79 smithing after being parked at 78 for a long time. Same was true for 78 crafting. So, as I look ahead, the next level will be that much tougher because I need more exp to achieve it than the last. - Sligo

Good idea. You know, there are like 6 arenas in the dueling arena, but I've only ever seen 2 get used. If two more are set up as multi-combat areas that require a certain number of players to participate, it would be cool. Understandably, Castle Wars gives you the ability to do what you are suggesting, too, but if you're able to set up a wildy-like environment (team vs team), but in the safety of the arena, I think this idea would fly. - Sligo

What! what timing! I haven't even read the article yet... I'll edit this post after I do... --- Woo hoo! Nice article. Can't say there's a lot of meat in this one, but hey, it was a good read and I appreciate the fact that we're able to look at ourselves with an objective, critical eye. I'm looking forward to another year of excellent articles, where I might even put my pen back on the page and see my name on the byline again, too. - Sligo

I would probably send an email to Jagex customer support asking them exactly what the evidence was they used to determine your ban. Don't take it from the approach that you are appealing your ban, just that you want to understand exactly what you did wrong. If it is because you were reported because you said something like "Sharing with my bf," you might ask them to clarify how sharing items in game is a violation. At any rate, enjoy your day off. Spending time here on the forum really can be a lot of fun. - Sligo

I have my peasants in Miscellania happily doing all kinds of stuff for me, and I'm not even logged in to RS right now! The only problem with having a servant, though, is when then servant does stuff for you, he gets the experience for doing it, not you. Frankly, I'd rather have the experience for myself. On the other hand, some players make a living out of helping other players do stuff. Last week, I mined 1k gold for another player who paid me well for it. Well enough that I shared the job with another friend and we all benefited. - Sligo

With just the numbers 1-99 added together, picked randomly (and the computer can figure the answer easily enough), there are almost 200 different answers. Another 200 answers for multiplication. Expand the digits to 3, and we increase the possibilities exponentially. Sure, a macro program might be able to answer all these questions, but there comes a point of dimishing returns. If the effort to build the macro or bot becomes too difficult, eventually they will give up. Along with this, a new random event should be added every week. At some point, some random events will no longer be used, then brought back a few months later - sort of a master rotation of randoms. Another idea is put a time limit on patterns. If a player follows the same pattern for an extended period of time, say 2 hours, then a signal is sent to the server to send an arsenal of randoms to that account. Pattern recognition would be tough to program, and would have to be done client-side, not server-side, but it is an option. - Sligo

There are halberds, but this really isn't a bad idea. Another type of sword is the cutlass, which is a long, slender curved blade. It would have better slashing stats but lower stabbing stats than the longsword. - Sligo

The only problem I see with this is that reward you normally get. Do you still get the reward? I'm more interested in the random teleporting idea, but even that can be foiled. Unfortunately, no matter what Jagex does to defeat the bots, those people who make the bots will always find ways to get around them. The key is to have different things happen that require user interaction in different ways. One might be the mysterious box. Another might be a simple question (not necessarily a Runescape question, but maybe a math problem to solve). Another possibility is to shift the bank tellers. Every ten or fifteen minutes, have the bank tellers close and reopen different windows. Every once in a while, the bank teller should ask a question - a simple question, but one that requires a quick response (every time if the account doesn't have a pin number set). - Sligo

This is true, in a way. The purpose of the pentagram is to protect the world from the demon that is being conjured or summoned, the act of which is generally accepted to be evil. The use of such symbology in a game scenario does not mean that the game designers are evil or trying to pull a fast one. In terms of RS, there is strong mixture of the imagined mythology of the designers (Saradomin, Guthix, and Zamorak) and "real" mythology (Camelot comes to mind). I have not personally noticed anything overtly evil or occultist within the RS environment. Generally speaking, most of the symbology is consistent with the RS mythology, with only a few references to real-world symbology (notably the occasional use of the pentagram). If it appeared to me that RS was overtly wiccan, new-age, occultist, etc, I, for one, would not play it. On the same token, if it overtly promoted the symbology of any major religions, it wouldn't be as popular as it is. - Sligo