NukeMarine

Originally post in RSOF: Skilling Based Slayer Monsters Summary: A group of slayer monsters that are "attacked" and "damaged" using what are normally considered non-combat skills (mining, fishing, woodcutting). Maybe even other skills (farming, firemaking, hunting) can find a monster to slay. Story: With the opening of Daemonheim, players have found the ability to enter other entrances hidden about Gilienor. Some of these have more of the same, but some have a new twist to the Slayer skill. In an entrance inside the dwarven mine is a level 3 Dwarven slayer master (???) that offers in addition to normal slayer tasks new assignments where the monsters must be defeated in a more unique fashion that's a meshing of combat and skills. Players can also speed slayer points to have these assignments added to other slayer masters (though the monsters assigned will be more powerful). Justification: If you think of trees and ore rocks in relation to combat, they're already like a slayer monster. You need a minimum skill level. You need a special weapon to "attack" them. However, these monsters don't move (well, fish spots do). These monsters have a high defense, no attack and 1 hit point. So, once you successfully "attack" the coal rock, you get the monster's unique drop which is coal. This suggestion is taking that line of thinking into the more extreme. Mechanics: Varying types of skilling based monsters Ents (woodcutting), Golems (mining), Sharks (fishing), Tanglefoots each that can only be "attacked" using an appropriate skill. There have different levels and located all over the map, though all can be in dungeoneering entrances for now. To attack: must have appropriate weapon in your inventory (axe, pick-axe, combat ready fishing spear) though you can also wield it if you have the attack level. You must then "mine", "fish", "cut", etc. the monster with your harvesting skill. It has 'life points' that go down as you do this. To defend: you also defend with your harvesting skill, though certain skill items (lighting helmet, wet suit, lumberjack outfit, etc) can aid in your defense or even offense. The monster damages reduces your skill points (looks like a diseased orange splat) so having restore potions is recommended. Getting zero'd in a skill by these monsters count as dying so be careful. Unfortunately, prayer does not work against these UNLESS Jagex implements the skill prayer book (other suggestion). With such prayers, your skill level is boosted thereby boosting your ability to attack and defend against this moster. Experience: Damage done to monsters gives damage x4 experience to appropriate skill. Killing it gets the skill related drop in addition to slayer experience. Skilling Monsters: Ent - yes, from the random event. These creatures don't move but have a great defense and harsh hit. The Dwarven slayer assigns only oaks and willow ents. However, use slayer points to let other masters assign from trees on up to the mythical Spirit Tree Ent. Like there normal counterparts, an ent may require a higher level axe to even try to cut it down. Pray versus melee can help. Drops might include normal logs, log bundles (x5 to x25 for rapid fm experience) in addition to drops of adventures that were stupid enough to climb up a tree ent for a nap. Golems - yes, from the random event. These can hit from afar so don't think you can just run away for a breather. The Dwarven slayer might assign iron and coal Golemns, but use slayer points to let other masters assign these type of beasts. Again, better pick-axes are needed for higher level golems. Drops include regular ore in addition to much more pure types of rare ore used to help make high level weaponry (see combo-skill suggestion). Of course, many an adventurer has been ground up by these so normal drops can be found too. Sharks - well, maybe monks, sharks, swordfish, tuna, etc. Here, you don your wet suit and attack schools of fish in an underground area with your spear fisher modified for combat ie it can be wielded. This combat spear is one handed and levels appropriately (bronze up to obsidian for now). Obviously, under water the fish will fight back so be careful. The dwarf slayer may only assign tuna, but unlock other fish using slayer points. Drops are plentiful. Every one knows sharks swallow anything, maybe the same goes for other fish you hunt. More Skilling Monsters (these might be a bit silly). Dessicated Mummies - These mummies are wrapped in a cloth based the pulped fibers of the trees of Gilienor. As such, they're impervious to all but attacks by fire. Load cloth and oil into you metal torch (wieldable, bronze through obsidian) to take these creatures on with firemaking. They attack with a foul breath that not only reduces your firemaking, but sometimes blows out your torch. Dare you take on the mummy wrapped in spirit tree papyrus? Rewards - something witty and creative I'm sure. Note - I think it's reasonable to use logs that are mashed into a fuel source to use in your metal torch. Maybe each log pulped can be used for 15 attacks. Mutated Tanglefoots - Remember these in Zanaris? Now you really have a reason to fight them with your secateurs, however I think it's fair to have a metal based secateur (bronze to obsidian) in keeping with the other skilling slayer beasts. I think Tanglefoots should be levels of the various farming bushes. Hmm, a whiteberry tanglefoot sounds nasty to fight/farm. Due to the nature of farming, wouldn't it be cool that you have to grow these from your bush seeds in a special patch at Zanaris? A seed creates XX number of tangle foots to fight. If so, these may only be slayer assignments only to fight (unless a balance is made in time to grow them). In fact, maybe the Slayer Master gives you the seed to grow when you accept the assignment. Rewards - I'm sure some cool seeds and other drops can be expected. Combo-skill slayer monster theory: Say mining, well that takes 85 to mine runite. So how would a slayer fight a Granite Golem or Obsidian Golem or even the Crystal Golem with a mining skill that takes on just the Runite Golem? COMBO-SKILLS BABY!!!! A slayer wanting to take on a Granite Golem needs both his Dragon Pick-axe and a special chisel made of obsidian. He'll need 85 mining, YY crafting and YY level slayer. Likewise, the Obsidian Golem needs a Obsidian torch, Obsidian chisel, Dragon Pick-axe in addition to 85 Mining, ZZ Firemaking, ZZ Crafting and ZZ level slayer. This simple concept of requiring supporting skills by the player allows for higher level skilling slayer monsters that replicate what a player would need to fight high level monsters (multiple high level combat skills). Obviously, such monsters make unlocking them an exercise in caution as you'll need high level in multiple skills if a master like Chaelder or above assigns them. Balancing issues: First, this is going to tick off players that got level 3 slayer cape the hard way. I apologize, but RS updates all the time. 1. This slayer master can be a low level slayer master (hence the reason he's a level 3 combat slayer master), so he only assigns low level skill slayer assignments only. This encourages players to unlock the higher level skilling slayer monsters on the other Slayer Masters. 2. I think these monsters can only be attacked/harvested at first only if they are assigned. This is important for higher level monsters like Tortoise, Sharks, Spirit Ent, Magic Ent, Rune Golem and Obsidian Golem. However, if a hefty dose of slayer points are spent, then the ability to always be able to attack these monsters (each monster must be purchased individually) can be offered. 3. I'd like the need for actual combat levels to not be necessary for these monsters. Obviously, unlocking the higher monsters will require a higher combat level just by virtue of the slayer master, but the monsters themselves need high level skills only. Hope you like the idea. It seems original and fresh, and I like the idea of this meshing of combat and skilling.

Buying 99 is not a tax as that's a player to player exchange. In addition, while paying to recharge degrading items (barrows, crystal, d'ng items) is a money sink it's a very slow money sink. However, you're understanding on supply and demand is completely wrong. There more cash there is out, the more people are willing to pay higher to compete to get a limited item. The more items are out there, the less cash people are willing to pay to compete for that item. Yes, treat cash like any other commodity especially in Runescape. Here's what happened the last time a real money sink came into the game - Construction. People NEEDED gp, and a lot of it. No, not d. bones or santas or phats that people claimed were worth a lot of gp but actually gp that the game would let you buy other construction items. People that hoarded rares needed to sell them to people that had CASH and a lot of it. Guess what? Rares were going for a lower price to get the cash for the mad dash to 99 Constr. That cash left the game, and the prices of rares stayed low for a bit till more cash came back into the game thanks to players backing off construction (well, that and the enormous bot use appearing everywhere). Ok, that's an example of a great money sink. It was something players wanted to spend cash on to play. A GE tax actually is a tax on something that people WANT to use, the GE. If you don't like to use the GE for a 2% charge, then do it person to person and save your money. However, it's not something players will want to do since they're used to not paying a tax. Now, a PvP Gravestone option would really take out cash. I can't imagine a player that would not choose to do the payout option to get their stuff back. It'll be something players want to do, because they're used to losing all their stuff and having to resupply. Same would go with normal Gravestones having a pay out option especially in areas you're likely not going to get back to in time. Yes, people are pointing out with supporting evidence that the economy is currently stable. So maybe messing with it in extreme measures might be a bad idea. I'm glad this info is out there so Jagex, should they actually read threads like this can make a decision formed in part by the opinion of their players. Doubtful, but you never know.

There won't be a mad rush to 99 smithing because the game itself offers much better weaponry and armor as rewards or monster drops at earlier skill levels. It isn't starting on a fresh RSC server, it's starting on a Runescape server with 100+ quests, 25 skills, dozens of areas and dungeons, dozens of activities. Trust me, level 70 Barrow weapons and armor will be obtained in the game before the first player made R2H makes an appearance. Heck, I think Godswords and Sigils will show up prior to the first 99 smither. It's that variability that I think would make such a group of servers very attractive to a competitive minded player. Think about it, you have guys that play for a year competing with legacy accounts that are 8 years old or more. That's like trying to run a marathon against a guy with a 40 minute head start. And yet the guys starting a year ago are the super efficient type that advance fast so overtake the top. These are the type of mindsets that'll love a new server on top of fresh players that won't be 1 among millions. So long as both worlds are updated equally (though with a two week lag), then I don't think there'll be a problem getting players on them.

Ok, let's say inflation is not occurring now. The economy stabilized thanks to some Jagex updates a few months back that balanced influx of Players (free and members), Items and GP. Are there any here that disagree with the idea that in the last two years of the game there was hyper inflation occurring? Because otherwise, that means that we have a stable economy, but two years worth of inflation skewed prices. As players mentioned above, this inflation that occurred means the reality is not that no one cares about gp drops from monsters. The amount of gp it takes to purchase effort has increased. The amount of gp expected to be earned for an hour's activity has risen. So, even with a currently stable economy, would anti-inflation measures still be a bad thing to increase the value of gp with respect to trades in RS?

Consider that MANY major sports list the dexterity of a person for a reason. A left handed boxer or left handed hitter in baseball changes the game plan. With that, the thread is not silly as some would quickly say. However, in RS, the hand you hold a weapon is not important because the combat mechanics in the program don't care. Now, it'd be cool if one's strong side were accounted in the program and had a factor in combat but that's a bit more complicated and on the unnecessary side. Still: RS players are ambidextrous, they swing both ways :D

Not really related to this thread, but I'm really hating the term merchanting applied to these guys. They're speculators plain and simple. Merchanters bought low amounts for low prices from a large group of people looking for a quick sale and sold large amounts for a higher price to a small group of people also wanting a quick sale. It took time and effort and benefitted a large number of players. Such a player has not been needed since the GE opened. Well, I guess I can relate it to the thread. Jagex can lay down the hammer and say: "All trades over of value over 1 mill gp must go through the GE." Just like they made exceptions with trade limits and friends lists, Jagex can also offer larger trading exception to people that are on each other's friends lists for longer periods of time (on the idea you're not likely to keep a guy added that's out to rip you off with trades). I can see such balanced trades going up to 50 mill gp or 100 mill gp as it is between friends. Of course, if Jagex forces trades into the GE in such a manner, it needs to change how the GE moves it's prices. It's gotta get away from using only completed sales. I think the best is to let player's decide the price they want to sell and buy an item from. HOWEVER, a sale does not go through unless that sell price is in the 5% window. What that means is Jagex's computation now has an idea of where outside that 5% window people want to buy and sell to slowly move in that direction should sales not be happening inside the 5% window. In other words, I can put a santa out there for 85 mill gp and someone can offer to buy it for 25 mill gp. But neither offer goes through while the Santa sits at 50mill gp and keeps trading at that value. If someone offers 85 million to buy a santa, he'll likely get a quick purchase at current 50 mill window. (numbers pulled out of my lower orifice so don't correct me on them). Anyway, force trading into the GE, then tax trading on the GE, all of a sudden speculating has a cost involved and the ability to sell in a pump and dump scam becomes very difficult. I'm assuming that pump and dump rebound buys happen off the GE?

Hmm, let's say that inflation has stopped and now we have equilibrium in a majority of items (it'll be impossible with all items just due to the dynamic nature of the game). Anti-inflationary measures also have the added benefit of giving more purchasing power to the gp. That in itself could be considered good as a means to encourage methods to produce gp. Not get gp (ie merchanting), but things that actually make it (PvP, alchemy, monster drops). Still, if inflation stabilized over the last 6 months at least gives proof that from the GE opening (and closing of PvP) on up to PvP worlds followed by PvP statuettes seriously unbalanced the economy. That is until the release of auto-skull and +1 worlds likely being the stabilizing effect.

Just to be a jerk, what if slayer had monsters you could only kill using non-combat skills? Would you still like it? Skill Based Slayer Monsters

Can you please explain to me why it matters if a shrimp costs 5 gp or 6 gp? Well, I guess looking at the 180 day graph of the top traded items, you see quite a few items with stable prices (deaths, yews), a few that go up (mithril, DRAGON BONES!), and a few that drop (Bloods?). Granted, we are looking at a dynamic situation of not only GP but Items entering the game. Items constantly entering and leaving the game can help for a stable economy. Ok, what about items that don't enter so fast? I think rares and boss drops might qualify. Of course the rares are constantly going up, in addition to most of the 3rd age items. All the other high priced items seem to experience a drop over the last 180 days on average. Then it slowly shows stabilization near the bottom of the list. Mike_Ike seems to have a good point. There's rares and certain items that drastically rise in price. One due to be a closed market while the others may just be reaction to a game update and market forces. Granted, that's only from a cursory look at the graphs so those that look at it all the time may have a better say on the average prices of items. About the shrimp: I personally think for low priced items, the GE should allow for decimal bids ie I want to by 10k fire runes at 5.55 gp each (550k). Instead I must bid either 5 gp or 6 gp (either 500k or 600k). That's a big difference for items bought and sold in bulk.

Actually, if you re-read the first post I make a comment about banned accounts removing gp from the economy. Not using your gp has a similar impact as having it banned, though the option of that money coming into play later is on the table so I didn't mention it being for or against inflation. The EXP weekend was supply and demand at work. People knew that fast XP skill items would be in demand so they raised their prices on it, likely using junk trades as the GE itself would have been slow to respond. That wasn't about inflation, that was the free market at work. Introducing items only counters inflation on that item. That's not a solution, that's just supply and demand. The same can be said with introducing more players to create more gp sponges (granted, they also make gp). Ok, so maybe it's better to think of this all as a balance between player activity, items in the game and gp in the game. The situation is very dynamic so one solution will not work for all cases.

I reread your article, and while it was well written I don't agree with it in whole (mainly about CoinShare adding to inflation when it took from it in reality). If I recall, that article may have gotten me to think of some of the things above. Anyway, first things first: I honestly think High Alchemy brings in more gp into the economy than PvP. Now, Jagex can be the only ones to answer this with certainty, so let's not argue too much on this. However, if it is alchemy, then a GE tax does help that situation. In addition, creating NPC runners at rune altars could also help as at least 600 gp (at double current nature price) per essence crafted leaves the economy. Obviously only level 92 runecrafters would use such runners so it's not an overflow. Then there's the Jagex being very mean option and changing alchemy so it only works on non-stackable items. That would add a lot more time to process (in reality, only encourage more players to bot). Now, let's say PvP is the other big culprit (very likely with ease of EP farming). Again, the idea of buying back equipment that would disappear on death makes for a useful solution but doesn't stop EP farming. It does sort of in that more players would PvP making the worlds a bit more dangerous. Now, I did post a discussion and suggestion about that How to stop 76k'rs last year but only thing I saw was Jagex putting a penalty on teleporting and finally implementing an autoskull (something I suggested for PvP everywhere way back in Dec. 06 PK Anywhere, point 4). The idea is get more players on to PvP that are willing to kill each other while having something to lose. The main reason I think Jagex should concentrate on PvP as a useful money sink is that players want to kill each other and are not as reluctant to die there. Instead of forcing compliance, there you can encourage it by tweaking it. The GE is another as players can still trade with each other but it's way to easy to trade on the GE, hence a low tax would not stop them. It was the ham handed way they set price limits that opened the door to junk trading. I think idea 1 and 2 are the carrot approach even if it sounds like a stick and would show immediate benefits to the game, but also to the enjoyment of PvP servers. PS: I'm not sure of the impact Dungeoneering has on inflation. Are the ones playing that non-stop the ones likely to be generating large amounts of GP in the game? Again, it's one of those things we can only guess while Jagex has the harder data.

So perhaps a tax on bulk trades only (such as 10k+ ores/logs or 100+ units of armour/weapons at a time) would work? Now that's an idea. Such a thing is true in real life with the US income tax. You have a certain amount below which you're not taxed at all. Ok, so let's say instead of a solid number of items, we go with the actual price of the trade? Any trades under 100k gp (just to say a number) are not taxed. So trades over that amount are likely bulk trades or higher level items. If Jagex were really mean, they could also make a rule that trades in value OVER 5 mill gp MUST be done in the GE. Not fair given the bad way it moves the value of items, but very mean.

Ok, thanks for the lengthier reply. These I can respect. Ok, let's try this out: 1. I don't think it'll kill the economy for nothing else in that the GE is very convenient compared to Window trades. Remember before the GE when we had real merchants, the type that gathered items into bulk and sold for a mark-up? We bought from those guys to save the hassle of buying the same stuff cheaper from dozens of different players. Likewise, the average player will still use the GE even with a 1% to 5% mark-up because it's still the most convenient way to buy and sell. 3. Yes, it reduces the danger of Pk'ing. I had to note that can be seen as a problem, as one will risk 500k gp faster than one would risk 20 mill gp. On the other hand, people overall may be willing to then PvP more and remove more gp from the game. Consider, you're billionaire of sorts but even you don't want to risk 80 million of combat gear on a PvP server (what it is now). You're more likely but not as much if it cost you 3/5th of the GE value. However, you're really likely to give PvP a go if you're risking just the high alchemy value +76k gp (assuming you don't lag out and lose all your items that way, heh heh). It brings more players over to PvP and therefore increases the amount of money out of the game, even though the one time risks are lower (risk is lower, but attempts at risk are raised balancing it all out). 4. Yes, I posted such a thing would not be popular. There is a variant where the AoD is there as sort of a "let me pay you for my items instead of running back for them" lazy way out ie optional 5. NPC runners is replicating what already existed with Player runners. If you notice, I said the price to pay these guys are tied to the GE prices of the items you make, so you get no profit using these. In fact, as you're using essence (if runecrafting) that means you're losing money since you have zero profit from reselling the runes. Again, thanks for you more lengthy response. I had to think about the replies which I like to do.

Work with me here. What is it you don't like about what I listed? About your ideas, are we talking a 1000 gp to enter a dungeon that nets 10k gp at the minimum inside? What do you mean by transportation costs? Look at the tip.it page on transportation, it's huge covering all manner and mode of transportation including dying. I honestly don't think a reasonable increase in cost of either that'll draw out the billions that enter the game on a monthly basis.

I'll probably stop posting as much when I move back to Japan, but until then.... I posted this discussion on the RSOF (QF: 188-189-920-61079274), but it's difficult to get a great discussion going there at the best of times. So here's a modified post concerning inflation. ************************************* Summary: Rational ideas and discussion about inflation in the Runescape economy, and possible ideas that could help remove large amounts of coins from the game to counter that inflation. -------------------- Let's ensure everyone understands a money sink's purpose (from my point of view): Gold coins come into the game either with alchemy, selling items to the stores, drops, PvP statuettes, etc. Coins leave the game in a variety of ways: buying from stores, construction (and summoning), loss from death, players quitting, bans, etc. Coins DO NOT enter or leave the game through player trades, it just changes who has it. As more GP enter the game, it loses value in relation to other items so over time it takes more and more GP to compensate (prices rise). Yep, gp is affected by supply and demand just like any other item. A money sink are the things that remove GP in the game to help keep the value of GP higher in relation to the items you use to buy items. Some are fast, some are slow, some are one time things. To be effective in a MMORPG the sink must be varied and useful. --------------------- What follows are not only my ideas, but the ideas of others as to what can be USEFUL and EFFECTIVE money sinks in the game of Runescape. Please debate and discuss the merits of these ideas, in addition add your own. 1. Grand Exchange Consignment Fee - A consignment fee in real life is charged by a store that sells your items for you. Mentioned in other players, this can be a 1% to 5% fee on all PURCHASES through the GE. Has minimal impact on the casual trader, though it will have negative impact on merchanter profits though some see this as a positive. For example, in the last 30 days (as of this post) a 2% tax on just the top 7 traded items (Maple, Feather, Willow, Fire, Air, Nature and Pure essence) would have removed 12.7 billion gp from the economy. There are some variants on this. Due to lack of decimals in prices, it might be wise to only apply a consignment fee on purchases of 1k gp or more. 2. Regal Clothing - a merging of Construction, Crafting and Smithing concepts. Players use expensive construction items in addition to create "Regal Clothes". Similar to the GP Banner, it's a way to let players wear wealth and show it off. Ex: Regal armor taking 5 magic stones to make would cost almost 5 mill gp. Deity helm taking 10 gold leaves and 30 magic stones would cost, well, over 30 mill gp. These will high alchemy at 3/5th the cost to make to limit the low end of their value. There can be variants such as tradeable and untradeable items. Downside is it's a toin coss if these would even work with players' egos. 3. Tombstones in PvP - This could be a big money sink in my opinion. When a player dies on PvP worlds, near his respawn is the Angel of Death that will sell the player back all the items he would have lost normally. The cost is the high alchemy value of his items (in addition to 3/5 of all the gp carried) + 76k gp to account for the EP cost. Players will not get back items that their killer was able to obtain as a drop (is that BH worlds only?). The downside to this idea that commonly lost PvP items are re-obtained. From my understanding, such an idea would mean much more expensive items will be used in PvP battles, as they won't be lost to the ether on death. That 30 million gp Godsword can be retrieved from the AoD for a few 100k gp instead. If that's bad a variant is possible where the player pays 3/5th of the GE value of the potentially lost items. Yeah, that 30 million gp GS now cost 18 million gp to retrieve so one is not as likely to risk it in PvP. 4. Tombstones in Wilderness (non PvP) - Plays on the idea above for normal servers to add a stronger danger/risk to wilderness and select boss areas. When player dies in these areas, they cannot re-obtain the items from the tombstone (though it still saves them). Player must instead pay the Angel of Death at his respawn spot the high alchemy value of his loss to get his items back. Downside is this WILL NOT be a very popular update. Variant: Angel is there for all players, though in non-Boss/Wild areas they only have to pay low alchemy values or they can go back to their tombstone and get it on their own. Ie this is a lazy persons pay out to save a trip. 5. NPC Runners - replicates the runner experience before trade caps (are runners still used with junk trades?). For example w/ Runecrafting, NPC's are placed at Rune altars that charge the multi-craft profit of the rune at the altar to unnote essence. This changes daily based on current GE value. Ex: At the nature altar, the NPC charge 490 gp to unnote each essence, while at the law altar, the NPC would charge only 296 gp. This is because some players can make 2 natures but no one can make 2 laws. The downside is that fast skilling can return like the time of runners before trade limits. May need to be added to key areas where player runners were actually used. Will have a major impact on prices. Variant: Put skill level limits on NPC's. Could be attached to the servant function of Construction. ***Other Poster's Comments**** 1. Ring World (pg 1, post 6) - Suggests that great dungeon entrance fees and transportation costs would be a good money sink. 2. IIOxII (pg 1, post 12) - Suggest a GE tax on bulk trades only would be better. 3. TS_Stormrage (pg2, post 24) - Suggests a GE Tax is bad, and that limiting influx of gp is better. Ex given is dungeoneering that is a non-gp producing activity. 4. Neohero1972 (pg 2, post 28) - Suggests that Jagex offer its own items on the GE as a money sink (this is repeated by others in the thread). 5. Nukemarine (pg 3, post 49 - Compares 6 month prices of high trade and high value items, which meshes with see_all1 and Bladewing suggestion that the economy has stabalized. 6. Mungunge (pg 3, post 61) - Suggests dynamic moneysinks, such as paying for power/speed bonus for combat and non-combat areas of training. 7. Lep1423 (pg 5, post 89) - Suggests a lottery with a .5 payout. Led to me suggesting a gambling hall at the game room 8. Nukemarine (pg 5, post 96) - Suggests a gambling hall at the game room. Would include wheel, dice, cards, and other various RS centric games of chance. Limited amount of credits to play can be bought per day.

Careful with those numbers. First, you haven't lived to 75 yet so be wary of making claims to a future possibility. It's called an average because at least half don't make it to that number after all. Second, you're not counting the time you sleep which takes away a 1/3 of all your days on top of other essentials of life. Lastly, ask yourself: What else could I have done with those 4000 hours that would benefit me the other 500,000 hours there may be left in my life? Hey, it's a pleasure. What's the point of working hard if you're not experiencing pleasure to balance it out? Just be aware that 4000 hours is still a steep investment. I became fluent and literate in Japanese investing less than half that time thanks to the magic of the spaced repetition system. Then again, with those invested hours I'm having even more hours of pleasure in Japanese, so I consider it a fair trade. Now if only they'd release Runescape in Japanese and I might consider playing again .... for reinforcing my studying of course, yeah, that's it.

When I moved to Japan three years I pretty much stopped altogether aside from occasional holiday quest and trying out new skills. It was only chance that dungeoneering came out during the three months of moving from Africa and waiting to go back to Japan. Heck, I even re-upped membership to give it a go. Still, after next month I probably won't play at all. Why "did" I play Runescape? I think I played Runescape as it was an interesting game to figure out, however I just didn't like the grinding aspect. It was a puzzle to find the best way to do something. Truth be told, I enjoyed talking and discussing the game and theories behind the game with other people more than playing the game itself. I sort of have the same problem with Japanese as I tend to discuss about learning it more than I spend actually learning it. Exact same quirk when it comes to physical fitness. Yeah, that's why I played Runescape: I got an intellectual thrill from figuring out the mechanics and a social enjoyment from interacting with other people. The exact reason I find pleasure in other areas of life.

A few pgs back... Anyone do the Prayer cape emote while wearing the Halo yet? Probably be a good combo there.

thats actually a good idea, we could have a scaling amount of weight in kg worth of items that you can bind. Guess I should have been specific. The main penalty is based on the twice the tier level. So a Tier 10 chestplate would be a 20% xp penalty. The size was not "weight" but how much it is equivalent to chestplate to make. Legs and 1h weapons (and bows and staffs) are 3/5th of chest so binding Tier 10 rapier would be 3/5 of 20% or 12% xp penalty. Helms are 2/5th and Gloves/Boots are 1/5th. Easiest way to think about is look at the number of ore or leather it took to make the item. Actually, Qeltar's idea still seems better, but use the above idea about relative size of the item when calculating penalties. So, 4 items is a 16% penalty, but reduced a bit if it's smaller items getting bound. Kind of complicated, but fair in it's application.

Actually a pretty darn good idea. It plays on prestige system and helps with the illusion that the player is fighting his way through a large 60 floor dungeon (well, only 35 floors for now). Given that, I'd add in to your suggestion that if a player repeats a floor (for whatever reason) these temporarily bound items cannot be used during that floor. What I don't like is binding a glove is the same as binding a chestplate. That's sort of the reason I prefer a binding rule that let's you bind anything you want, you're just penalized by it's tier level and "size". The main point is boss monsters are dropping really cool items that no one is going to bind. Unless the system is changed to fairly resolve in a balanced way, then Jagex just created a bunch of useless items.

Work-in-progress ring interface Sounds good. Yeah, most will pick warrior, but it's nice they're responding to how organized teams are approaching the dungeon. Groupstone portal Great idea! This combined with regular gatestones allows teams to split up yet meet back up real fast to tackle a room together if need be. Going to be really popular and speed up the larger dungeons. A surface dungeon entrance I believe Mr. Qeltar among others suggested such things before. An obvious idea but one that'll be appreciated. Heck, I'd like for there to be some "skill spots" (roots of trees you can cut, rocks that can be used as anvils, lava spots you can smelt at, etc) that you only notice when you're at a high enough dungeoneering. Whats in a name? Not exactly sure most care about the titles awarded at the end of the dungeon. Anybody? Here I go again on my own Here's hoping. I'm with Qeltar that they need to fix the binding issue. Seriously, they have all these Primal armor pieces but no one is going to bind boots or gloves ever. Plus the rune/arrow issue can be fixed. Some good suggestions popped up in the Dungeoneering thread that seem easy enough to implement.

Yes, because the average RS player can't multiply by 2 to get a rough estimate of games played via the number of games won. I think most rational players can determine playing time of a character based on many aspects of freely available information. Anyway, what's the moan about? That Jagex is recognizing players that *gasp* play the game?

That's the Catch-22. Many, many problems with updating the game stem from balancing issues that came about from how the game was played over 8 years. Problem is, to fix that fairly, you'd have to have everyone start fresh. Well, do that and you destroy a large paying user base. On the other hand, imagine these new servers gaining such popularity that Jagex dedicates more servers to it than to Runescape Proper. That feeds to your idea that Jagex can create a RS3 type server that has a complete overhaul, be the one that's updated and create a user base before slowly phasing out Runescape Proper and Runescape Reboot without losing customers. What I REALLY hope is that Jagex doesn't look at the low player participation on "RSC" and think that removes justification of trying something like this. There's a difference between a game that hasn't been updated in 6 years and one that can be updated along side Runescape Proper.

It was addressed, in that each server can have multiple "theme worlds" attached to it instead of just one. Useful in the beginning when the player activity count is lower. If there is one change I would like see done, it's the way our "level" is displayed. Instead of a combat level (which reflects just 7 or 8 skills) have it show 1/10th of our total skill level. That in turn reflects more fairly how much experience that character has in the game. It's an old suggestion, but more viable on a group of servers that'll be more PvE than PvP in earlier days.

Did you see the requirements for this HORRIBLE quest? Next one will be like 40. <_< Unless they use some other rune like Cosmic, Nature or Laws then the next in the series is Soul (Mind, Body, Soul). Being such a high level rune, it would make sense that it would have such a high level reward (and likely be a really difficult quest with more annoying puzzles and higher requirements). Of course, it took how many years for this sequel to come out? Doubt the next one will be out even next year. Although, they could likely be going for a quick finish to the quest series this summer.