Sir_Squab

Just a random thought I had... with the big combat beta on Tuesday, there will be a lot of discussion about it. In the past, I've seen mods delete multiple threads about the same topic because they feel it's unnecessary. With how big the combat beta is tho, I could easily see several threads discussing it. I mean, the thread speculating about the beta is already 22 pages long. I'm wondering if a temporary combat-beta subforum would be a good idea with all the discussion that's probably going to happen around it, if making a new forum isn't too much work :P

Please don't start like 2 pages of comparing RS to D3 that a mod will have to come in and stop. Please stay on-topic. On topic, I'm really looking forward to dual wielding magic. Question: do you think dual wielding magic will allow two different spells, or just basically fast casting of one spell?

I really feel that the biggest flaw of LoK is that they squeezed it all into 12 episodes. More episodes explaining why the euqalists feel they way they feel, more episodes building up to revealing who Amon is, rather then just revealing it in the final, and more character development for us to get attached to the characters. Some more episodes dealing with Republic city gangs too. I feel that although a bunch of A:TLA episodes were filler, some of them really helped. Like, you could have taken out a lot of episodes of A:TLA and still had a good, coherent plot, but those episodes added to it. The episode where Sokka+Zuko do stuff, the episode where Aang+Zuko do stuff, could be taken out without harming the overall plot but were really helpful, for example. Or Zuko alone. Imo, the show would have been better if they split the first arc over two seasons. (Considering two of their seasons is like 24 episodes long, lol.) Or one full season. I'm guessing dealing with executives has to do with how short it is. The writers may have wanted to finish the first story arc in season one because they were concerned about the show being cancelled after 12 episodes, if the show did poorly. They probably have a contract for 12 episodes in season 1, 14 in season 2, but with the executives having the option to cancel season 2 if season 1 doesn't do well. I know the executives were worried about the show being focused around a female, since conventional TV wisdom is that boys won't watch shows with a girl lead. (It's wrong imo, but that's still what conventional TV wisdom says.)

Wow. Just... wow.

Renaming might not make sense, but if element types suddenly matter, I don't blame them for it. Really, earth=shadow is the only one I have a problem with. Ice = water. Even more obvious. Ice is frozen water. Smoke is obviously air. In fact, smoke coming from burning stuff (branches) was used to explain how air was present in stuff. Or at least trees. Blood = fire - well, it's not bad. Water kinda makes sense too but water is taken. Blood = fire = energy. Kinda works. Plus, bloodfire sounds cool. Shadow = earth... not working for me. Sure they cause shadows. Almost everything causes shadows. Granted, earth is the best fit. It's the only element left, plus water is opaque, air is generally see through, and fire CREATES light. I'm more curious about how earth lowers attacks. Stunning is an obvious example, but then regular earth attacks should stun, and fire attack should burn for that matter. I dunno, I think I'm just of the opinion that this is one of those cases where game mechanics > lore. It's more complicated needing to remember what ancient attack type a monster is weak to, on top of what regular element, rather then just aligning each ancient spell to an element. Also, you know how the magic ult turns you into an elemental of some sort? I'm guessing that the elemental form boosts the power of that element ONLY. Which means the graphic team would need to make 4 extra elementals JUST for ancients. Tbh, the only thing that bugs me is that they feel the need to rename smoke. Imo, smoke and ice are very obvious what element they are. As for dual wielding... As cool as it is, I'm really hoping that dual wielding doesn't give you enough accuracy or something for high level monsters. The one thing that worries me about dual wielding is it seems to be in the same spot as 2h (high DPS, less def), and traditionally fast, weaker, less accurate weapons > slow, strong, accurate weapons. One thing I'm curious about - hearing Jagex talk about how dual wielding gives you less def.... what they said COULD be interpreted as dual wielding giving you an armour penalty on TOP of the lack of def from having a shield. As in, dual wielding has less def then 2h. Lastly, I wonder how being able to train how you want with any weapon will affect Barbarian Assault and the Fighter's Guild (in that one minigame thing where you have to match an attack and training style when hitting a dummy.)

Hate to break your bubble, but dual wielding requires a specific off-hand weapon to be equipped for dual wielding. You can't equip a regular weapon in your off-hand slot. Also, I want the beta to come out so I can dual cast magic =D

Ice and smoke were the only obvious ones imo. Hell, if it wasn't for the Ice Spells, I'd expect blood to be water. If it wasn't for smoke I'd put shadow under air. And honestly, if Jagex is actually going to make the elements matter, I fully understand and support why they're changing ancient magik, which previously seemed kinda separate from the four classical elements, to giving them elements. Random mostly unrelated thought: when the beta comes out, we should start a new thread rather then keep using this one. (Or some other one.)

Googled pf6. Nothing game-related came up D= My next plan on RS is to beat the diaries and get 80+ all stats. And mess around in the beta. Really looking forward to the beta =D Also, the beta is probably the only thing stopping me from quitting :P

I'm happy if the cool looking items are only cosmetic. Also, I kinda want to buy that flaming skull.

I GOT 95 PRAYER [harpies] YEAHHHHHHH

Well, it's understandable that certain parts of this update are P2P only. A lot of it needs to be available in F2P tho. I hope F2P will get ultimates - less ultimates, weaker versions of P2P ults, sure, but still get ults. I figure F2P will (should) have at least one ult per class. Melee, mage, range 2H ult, shield ult .I don't think the shield/tank ults will be class specific - look at the healing hand one. That one doesn't care which combat style you use (this statement is based on my theory of F2P getting an ult per class being correct. I'd be mildly surprised if P2P didn't get some combat specific shield ults.)

Remember how vaccines work. They give you a weak, usually dead version of the virus so your immune system can build up a defense against it. Occasionally the virus is "alive" enough to make you sick, but even then it's generally weaker then if you contracted the real virus.

If only those combat mini-games were played often outside their themed worlds. I'm actually imagining myself getting into PvP minigames or monster hunting again for this update, but the fact I've seen CWars near-dead on every world that isn't themed for it is annoying. They really need to finish rolling out instanced worlds for mini-games like that, it'd be so much busier if every single world threw everyone together. The problem is sometimes people don't want it that busy. I, for one, would like the games to be small enough that I can actually feel like I'm making an impact.

Staffs are two handed, so no dual poly pore or SOA. Not sure how dual chaotics will compare to chaotic maul tho. Jagex has said that they plan to make 2H weapons worth it tho. I'm expecting/hoping 2h weapons will end up like the prom 2h in DG - rapier (one handed fast melee weapon) gives faster DPS (afaik), but certain monsters simply have much too high def for rapier. Also, if I can get the money, I'm buying BGS before the beta. But I have 200k left from buying bones for 95 prayer. So. Part of the reason faster weapons are good is because strength bonus increases and accuracy increases not based on the weapon you are holding have a higher impact on damage per second. That isn't as true in dungeoneering because you have less access to bonus increases (gaunts, boots, but these are not worth making and seldom found as drops) Eh, my comment still stands. Also, with the 150% damage boost from 2h, strength bonus would have a bigger impact on the max hit of two handed weapons.

Staffs are two handed, so no dual poly pore or SOA. Not sure how dual chaotics will compare to chaotic maul tho. Jagex has said that they plan to make 2H weapons worth it tho. I'm expecting/hoping 2h weapons will end up like the prom 2h in DG - rapier (one handed fast melee weapon) gives faster DPS (afaik), but certain monsters simply have much too high def for rapier. Also, if I can get the money, I'm buying BGS before the beta. But I have 200k left from buying bones for 95 prayer. So.

Oh god yes. This might make up for the armour switching penalties. Also, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE TWO HANDED WEAPONS

Because dragons and giants are realistic, right? Dual crossbows isn't due to lack of realism like dragons and giants, but simply being impossible to wind a crossbow while holding another unless you use your mouth or something, or grow a third hand lol Again, what about a one-handed crossbow while your other hand holds a gigantic shield. Lol.

I fail to see how holding a crossbow in each hand and firing them is worse then holding a crossbow in one hand and firing it while your other hand is holding a gigantic shield. All I can say is I hope they don't make dual wielding overpowered. I'm thinking tho, they might re-work the absorb mechanic and put the highest absorb into shield. Like pretty much everything else mentioned in this combat update, it all depends on implementation. Btw, they mentioned that they'll be re-doing excalibur stats.

Keep in mind, one kid blowing a hundred bucks on spins is worth over a years membership. How these things tend to work isn't that a lot of people waste money on them, it's that a small minority of people waste a LOT of money on them. Very rough math here. Assume 10% of RS spends $100 on spins in a month. I know that RS at one point had 1m members, so let's say there's at least 700k members. So, 70k people spend $100 in a month. That comes out to 7m. Now, assuming membership is $7 a month, they make 5m in a month off membership dues and 7m off of SoF. Now, keep in mind these are just ass pulls. It's late at night and I can't be bothered to look up numbers. But if you want to get an idea, figure out, say, what percentage of Farmville players actually PAY for farmville. And how much they spend. Apply those kind of numbers to RS, assume RS players wouldn't spend as much (because I'd imagine significantly more of farmville players would be adults with full time jobs then RS), but assume roughly the same percentage paying. Should give a rough idea of how successful the SoF is. Also, keep in mind the major metric Jagex (or rather, the investors behind Jagex) will be looking at is profit. I'd be surprised if their profit didn't jump significantly with the release of the SoF. One person spends $100 on spins in a month, that's more then 10 non-spin buying members would pay Jagex in a month. I have to agree tho, that this 200m reward will likely be too low to significantly effect the economy, especially with how prevalent alching is.

I actually wrote about that in a TIF times article a while ago. There is already legal standing for a virtual item to be considered property due to its worth. Deson't apply towards untradeables, including the SoF divine and such. Also, I was initially under the impression that the money from the SoF was only useable in shops and such. Plus, 200m is worth significantly more then 10m.

Go! Nunchuckmander! I choose youuu!

Yeah, if Jagex makes the 200m reward rare enough it shouldn't have a huge effect on the economy. Still think it's bogus and should be removed. But hey, it turns the SoF into more of a lottery. If you want to be optimistic, think about the real world value of 200m. If that money can be traded, in can be RWT. If it can be RWT, that means that the SoF is gambling, because of the potential but not guaranteed cash pay out. Which would hopefully cause the SoF to be nerfed or removed. That being said, I'm not quite so optimistic that will happen. I'm hoping for it kinda in the same way I'm hoping I win that 200m. (I've never bought spins, but I've decided not to boycott it entirely. Especially since I don't think the SoF was a problem until a week or so after released when they started selling spins.)

I keep the sound on if I'm actually paying attention to the game. Sometimes tho, the easiest way to get through skilling is to watch a show of some sort. In which case the sound gets in the way.

I still don't think the wilderness should be that dangerous. To be fair, I've never been a fan of RS PVP, so I'm probably not the best person to judge what is and isn't fun in PVP. That being said, my comment about interacting still applies. I think the thing about rushing and killing in one hit depends on how often you can pull it off - and a certain amount of luck needs to be required to pull it off. The current PVP system does require luck to pull off those one-hit k0s tho.

Rushing is the most sensible way of combat, from a lore perspective >.>. Ever watched a fencing match? They do 5-10 seconds of fighting before one scores a hit. When you score a hit, it's over. That's how it works - one dragon claw to the gut and you're a goner. Remember that dragon is probably several factors stronger than steel or even mithril, probably enchanted and claws are actually body parts of tormented demons. When I'm taking a walk in a forest of charred trees, and you jump from behind a tree brandishing bright red foot-long claws wrenched from the body of a demon that was previously thought to be impossible to actually bind to this plane, and you put them in eight vital organs over the course of three seconds, I think I deserve to be dead or dying, thank you very much. Except your armor comes from killing Nex, something so scary all the remaining gods in the time of the godwars put aside their differences bound her (couldn't even kill her.) And this is with her patron God gone or whatnot. Chances are your armor will come from some place that's fairly epic as well. Plus, in any visual story telling medium, the epic fights are long because long fights are inherently cooler then short ones. This is especially true in fantasy settings. Another thought: PVP is, in a sense, a two player game. Each of you is trying to kill the other person. In any two player games, one of the most important things is that both players interact. If you're wandering about the wilde, or the Crucible, and out of nowhere you get attacked and die in two seconds, you've done very little interacting. This creates a very negative feeling for the loser and isn't good for the health of the game. Therefore, rushing as a PVP tactic is very bad to the overall health of the game. From a lore point of view, you can kill a couple of goblins in a day. Scale theory right there. Also, how are you going to practice your particular fighting style if you're at risk of being killed? From a lore point of view, we should be fighting in arenas with wooden swords 99% of the time. Also, the entire thing is backwards. It shouldn't be: > Is high level > Low level monsters provide better raw xp/hr > Penalty for training on low level = Train on high level It should instead be: > Is high level > Is capable of killing high level monsters > High level monsters drop more loot/unique items/have other advantages = Train on high level Any time you create a mechanic to prevent people from training on low levels, you've designed the game wrong. I'll grant you this one. Players should fight higher level monsters because they're better, not because the exp for low leveled monsters is nerfed. I don't think that getting less exp from a monster because you're such a higher level then it, but there should be mechanics that positively encourage you to fight higher level monsters. Having the only or primary reason to fight high level monsters for combat be because you don't get exp from really low level monsters is bad game design. Bloody hell, I didn't say everything I wanted. Also, splitting up replies like this is a pain. EDIT: Moar replies. Except that the reward is higher lp... right now, lp just goes up as you level combat. Defence and hp cover two totally different areas like attack and strength cover two different areas. That's being changed for no reason. The ratio of 15:1 means that hp will either become useless, or it will become a secondary requirement to all kinds of armour and therefore act like a second defence skill except that it's slow as hell to train. I'm not TOO worried about it being too slow to train since LP goes up naturally anyways. Also, maybe the LP boost could come from multiplying your LP instead of a straight up boost? You do have a point here however, from the looks of things is seems very likely the HP will becomes useless. Untrue. Armour switching is a natural consequence of the combat triangle. The only way a ranger can deal with a meleer is switching to magic. If you take that away, there is no more skill to combat - it's just mage bashes melee, good fight, see you again and if you come back in ranged gear, I took that into account and I'm now a meleer. E.g. rock-paper-scissors. A 'good' reason to penalize armour switching is that you want to make combat slower overall. But I don't see why you would want to do that, because it's already quite slow. What about rushing? Lol. Honestly, this point depends on implementation. PVP needs to not be purely rock-paper-scissors. If you're in The Crucible or the Wilderness and suddenly it turns out that you're in melee gear and your opponent is maging you, you still need to stand a pretty good chance of winning or it isn't fun. The mage can have the advantage, but yous till need decent odds of winning. Say, 40%-45% barring other factors. Whether or not armor switching should be easily done depends on how much of a difference the combat triangle truly makes.