dogfever

Self sufficiency is a nice idea but it rapidly becomes a hinderance towards mid-level playing. For example most people reach lv40 defence long before they reach lv99 smithing (rune plate). I personally buy my ess (big RC lv up campaign starting soon) because the expense is covered in the return on the runes but I tend to cut my yews and spin my own bowstrings to get maximum profit from my yew longs.

I haven't experienced this. I've killed quite a few zombies and the quality of drops doesn't depend on speed of kill. My best drop (3 drag bones) came on a kill which took about 2 mins (ranging from safe spot with lv32 range against a lv120 zombie).

Whether or not there is a second wheel is immaterial in probabalistic terms. If it is assumed that the probability of getting a rare drop on the first wheel is p(rare) and the probability of getting a certain rare drop, e.g. d left half, on the second wheel is given as p(2ndWheel) then the overall probability of getting a d left half on any kill is a fixed value of: p(d left half) = p(rare)*p(2ndWheel) This probability can then be used in the binomial probability mass function to calculate the probability of achieving one drop in n kills. The observation that one d left is dropped per x kills is not unreasonable, the binomial distribution itself shows that the overall probability of a drop occurring in x kills increases as x increases, however the individual results will be independent. THat is to say the fact that the guy next to you got a d left does not in any way affect the likliehood of you getting one on your present or future kills. Thats just my opinion but there aren't that many ways of doing these things...

A truth universally acknowledged is that programmers love sticking random cultural references and other easter eggs into their programs. This is not limited to game programs either, I work with a particularly boring piece of command line based software handling matrices and statistics which produces random sentences if the word 'why' is inserted into the command line (not as funny as it might be but a couple of hours tinkering in the code produces much more satisfying results). I guess after hours of implementing java swing or whatever code you prefer you have to let off steam somehow. I have seen a few references even in my brief experience of RS2 although what they were escapes me.

Loads of guides on General boards

As they wield a club I have always assumed it to be a crush attack.

This is a great idea. I've seen loads of questions along these lines on the forums. I thought about writing one but it seemed like a lot of effort! I think people need to realise that nothing like this is ever going to be 100% accurate without prior knowledge of the underlying probability distributions (max hit, arrow breakage etc.) and even then a reasonable prediction can only be made for a large number of shots.

Nice guide. I like the tips for what to do when becoming a member although I think you ought to say that the skill requirements are only if you want to get the most out of member items immediately upon joining because many of those skills are much easier to lv up in members such as combat (Experiments and Rock Crabs). It is also much easier to make money, e.g. fletching/alching, better drops, access to forums. I joined about a month ago. 70 fletching already, never even had 1 mil in the bank. Good guide though. Should help people.

That depends on whether you produce any of the three elements (yew logs, strings or nats) yourself. I personally cut my own yews and craft my own strings atm and am planning on crafting my own nats (some levelling will be required). Regardless of the overall profitability my point regarding the relative value of bow strings still stands. But I do agree, if you buy everything you make no profit. Although if you buy everything but don't string your bows before alching you actually lose money therefore the relative value of the strings is actually the same. I'll do the calc to prove it if anyone really needs to see it

The high price of flax (and bowstrings) is due to two main factors: 1. High alch values for yew bows 2. Convenience A strung yew long will high alch for 768gp whereas unstrung this value is 384gp so by buying a 150 gp bowstring (or buying the flax and spinning it yourself) a player makes an additional 380gp per bow (or an additional profit of 380 - 150 = 230 gp per bow). As for convenience: fletchers alching for high profit will tend to alch 100s if not 1000s of yew longs. It is much more time efficient to spend the 150 per bow than to try and pick and spin several 1000 flax. The fact that flax sells for approximately the same price as bowstrings is a peculiarity of RS whereby the XP gain (in this case crafting) is automatically factored into the price of raw goods. This effect is more pronounced for ores such as coal where the price of raw materials often exceeds the value of the finished product (with the exception of cannonballs, rune items and a few other things I believe)

I'm 25 and probably play a bit too much (a qualification for understatement of the year right there). How you folks manage to fit RS around kids as well is beyond me! I can barely fit it around my job and girlfriend. Its always nice to see a bit more maturity on the forums and in the game. I have generally found older players to be less selfish and more charitable in the game. I think most older people feel a bit out of place in the game to some extent. I generally try to keep a low profile although I won't lie about my age (that just seems a bit creepy) and phrases like 'as old as my tongue and slightly older than my teeth' tend to give the game away. This is a good thread though, kind of reassuring. Anyone is free to add me (rsn: Iratebadger) although my chat is sometimes private, if you pm me on tip.it I'll add you.