Pure Essence! Did it really work?

[Bobbington]

I am sure that amongst our readers we have several who where not aware of the time when there was no such thing as "Pure Essence" so I shall start with this brief introduction.

 

 

 

At one time, there was only one type of essence it was simpaly called "Rune Eessence" and could be mined on both free and members accounts, this "rune Essence" worked in exactly the same was as "Pure Essence" does today, and could be used for making any rune!

 

 

 

Over a year ago in April 2006 Jagex made an update that caused major disruption in the runescape community with people taking both sides.... Jagex introduced "Pure essence" spliting the members from free players allowing F2P to only collect normal essance to use in the crafting of F2P runes.

 

 

 

below is the news post made by Jagex on the 20th of April two 2006.

 

 

 

Today we have made an adjustment to rune essence mining due to players breaking rule 7 and rule 12, using macros to mine the rune essence and then selling it.

 

 

 

As you are probably aware we have various systems in place to detect people breaking rule 7 and ban them. These systems work very effectively at detecting people breaking this rule, and make macroing a really bad way to try and train a high level character.

 

 

 

The problem we are now solving is not a problem with our macro detection systems which are still working well, but rather a problem with banning being an ineffective punishment against abusers who only use very low level accounts, and who have no intention of ever playing the game properly.

 

 

 

Over the last few weeks we have banned literally hundreds of accounts a day for macroing at the rune essence mine. However the bans were ineffective as the abusers could just create more low level accounts that they didn't care about to mine more. We also track trades so we can ban the recipiant of the illegally obtained items, but the abusers in this case were swapping the runes for gp, and then selling the gp for real world money on auction sites. Of course the person buying the gp for real world money gets banned, because we track the money they received in an unbalanced trade to a macro account, but the seller doesn't care that their customers get banned shortly after, as they have their real world money by then.

 

 

 

The fundamental problem is that rune essence was one of the few areas of the game which could be used to generate a reasonable amount of RuneScape money on a 'throwaway' low level free account. Normally to earn large amounts of money quickly you need to level up an account first, and then of course you care if it gets banned so our normal deterrant is effective.

 

 

 

We have therefore split rune essence to have 2 grades. Normal essence can only be used to make the six basic runes, whereas pure essence can be used to make any rune. You can mine both types of essence at the same place as before. The kind of essence you receive is automatically decided when you mine the rock. You will always get pure essence only if your mining is over 30 and you are on a members' world, otherwise you will get normal essence.

 

 

 

As a one-off event whilst we introduce this, existing essence in your bank and inventory will have been automatically converted to pure essence if you are a member or have other members-only items in your bank, provided you have level 30 mining or runecrafting.

 

 

 

Since free players can only craft the six basic runes anyway, the normal essence is just as good for its intended purpose of letting free players do low level rune crafting. However it is not so useful for selling to members who want to make law and nature runes (who we believe buy the vast majority of rune essence in Runescape) which should reduce its price significantly and make it a much less appealing proposition for real world traders.

 

 

 

The only people who should be significantly affected by this are players mining very large amounts of essence on free accounts purely to sell to members. There are better way of making money on high level free accounts anyway, so this change should only really affect players trying to making large amounts of money on a low level free account - which is of course the exact idea.

 

 

 

We would also like to yet again remind our players NOT to break rule 12 and be tempted to buy RuneScape gold for real world money. Nearly all the gold being offered for sale in this way was generated by cheating on 'throwaway' accounts. If you buy it not only are you encouraging further cheating, but you run the very real risk of being banned yourself as the money you receive is dirty money and will be tracked. Again we have banned countless players for breaking rule 12 and fuelling this problem, and will continue to do so.

 

 

 

We hope most players will agree we shouldn't let rule breakers spoil this game, and we are determined to not let them do so. As well as banning, where necessary we will also make minimal changes to the game to make rule breaking unviable.

 

 

 

If you wish to read this updates feedback at the time read Here, and the less important post update tweak here

 

 

 

At the time a quote from Paul stated it was his oppinion that gold farmers would not pay the money of membership to harvest the Pure Essence, and that may well stop the trade as members would not be intrested in normal essence.

 

 

 

Just before this update the then only "rune essance" cost between 25-40 gp each, and it is correct at that price the farmers would not have gone after it.

 

 

 

However withing moments of the update the price of the new "pure essence" raised amazingly to 100-120 gp each! alot of player became rich of the back of this update, I know sombody personally who had bought 300k rune essence the day before at 25 each.

 

 

 

It is now almost 1.5 years on, and I bring the question..... did this update help? make no difference? or make it worse?

 

 

 

In my view point at the time of the update, whilst I hated it...... I felt it was at the end of the day nessasary; as without this there would be no way to stop them. However now I belive it may have made the situation much worse.

 

 

 

When coming to our conclusions we have to take into account several factors that do indeed effect it.

 

 

 

1. The change in price. Did the raise from 25gp, to 100gp actually more than counsil out the cost of the membership (+risk of losing it)

 

 

 

2. Are there actually more autoers? now... when I say this I am talking with relative, there are obviousally more autoers now in the entire view of things, but has pure essence autoing actually become more or less popular to the farmers in contrast to other resourses.

 

 

 

3. from a non autoer prospective. when I was a free player mining essence for members was a great way of making money no matter what Jagex said, it was the same for many free players, this is how they earnt!

 

 

 

4. Getting hold of essence. For a member.... lets be honest most of us dont mine our own essence.... we have better things to do xp, time and intrest ways as a member than mining Essence. Members relied on free player to collect their essence, now it is mined by member, it is harded to get hold of.

 

 

 

5. Who do we buy essence off? there is no doubt about it.... the autoers came to members! and yet the majority of rune crafters dont mine their own ess..... so where is it coming from? are we actually buying it from autoers? on the old system it was more likely that it originaly came from a real person.

 

 

 

 

 

I hope this debate gets some good well though out discussion points, I feel that enough time has passed to make a fair judgment on how this has effected the game.

 

 

 

I am intrest to know how you felt at the time as well as how you feel now, like me you may have had an opinion shift.

 

 

 

Please note: I know that this will come... so I am going to pre-ask-it-to-stop (is there an actually word for that? :P). The comment "Jagex only did it so they can get more money from membership" is not welcome, if you know more indepth how much Jagex do to prevent rule breakers iin the game you will understand that that claim is totaly false, and probaly quite offenive to them.

 

 

 

Happy debaiting!

[Alg]

the macroers you used to see in f2p are now in members, the price change from 30-100 made it profitable for them to pay to mine. it removed any profit from free player essence miners, and made members essence miners incredibly wealthy. this update, in my mind, did nothing good for anyone except members businesses and macros.

 

 

 

my first rune weapon on f2p came from money i got from rune essence... that was back in '05, and essence-wise, people were happier

[aspokaspofkjsopfkapo]

I think it did much more harm, you used to be able to buy ess 30 ea to rc and there was a lot of it. Now ess it much more expensive.

[Mountdoom77]

No i really don't think it helped much because macroes are now members :|.

[Sly_Wizard]

I bet Jagex is happy, as they've gotten more membership

[klankaos]

I don't believe the Pure Essence update helped at all, because the macroers were making money from the essence, and could afford to pay for membership if it meant triple the profits. Also, the main problem with macroing is not membership - it's level. There was a discussion about this somewhere else, I can't remember where. The main point of the discussion was that Jagex should make a level (either combat or total) requirement to enter the essence mines. There were also a number of other suggestions. These included:

 

 

 

Idea: Agressive level 25 monsters filling the mines.

 

This strategy would prevent under level 51 from using the mines effectively, as they would be killed by the monsters. Even were they not, they would still not be able to mine effectively, as the monsters would interrupt their mining so often that it wouldn't be any good to mine essence below level 51.

 

 

 

Pros of this idea:

 

-Prevent level 3 macroers from entering mine

 

 

 

Other than this, ths idea doesn't really do much.

 

 

 

Cons of this idea:

 

-Macroers would not be stopped by this. They would program themselves to gan 48 combat levels before entering the mines, and not lose very mch time.

 

-Macroers would not be so easily killed by randoms and people luring them to muggers, due to the high combat level.

 

-This would make essence an even more valuable commodity. The price would rise according to the new difficulty of obtaining essence.

 

 

 

Overall rating for this idea: Low.

 

 

 

Idea: Create a total level requirement to enter the mines.

 

This idea has slightly more merit than the monsters idea, although that would of course depend on the height of the level requirement.

 

 

 

Pros of this idea:

 

-Prevents macroers from entering the mine without at least a little work.

 

 

 

This idea also, however, doesn't really have any merit. The macroers would still be able to enter the mine.

 

 

 

Cons of this idea:

 

-Macroers would still be able to obtain essence. This wouldn't stall them for long.

 

-This would also have the effect of driving up essence prices.

 

 

 

Idea: Have a random verification code every time you enter the mine.

 

This would produce a small two-dgit number mch akin to the bank PIN system. The number would be displayed prominently, but it would stop macroers. There would have to be a 3-try system, after which you must wait ten minutes before another attempt.

 

 

 

Pros of this idea:

 

-Would truly prevent macroers from entering the essence mine.

 

-Would have the value of driving up essence costs, but in this case it is a pro instead of a con because the macroers can no longer wholesale it, so it improves the value to true players.

 

 

 

Cons of this idea:

 

-If macroers could get through it, it would have a very inflationary effect on essence prices, and macroers would make more than ever,

 

 

 

I think this third solution is the best of the three offered, becase it can actually stop macroers.

 

 

 

 

 

Anyways, those are my views on a fiew possible solutions to the essence-macroers problem and the pure essence update.

[Bobbington]

The idea of combat/level restrictions would really not work.

 

 

 

Whilst yes it would slow them down, it would also make them harder to spot... and thus report.

 

 

 

Also think of it's effect on the economy, at that level how many less people would actually mine the essence, they price would sky rocket, the the number of people training RC would plumbet.

[Toxicologist]

Your idea of identification code has merit, except it would probably vastly slow down the speed of essence mining. But I think it is a good price to pay, if it means Pure Essence will be no more.

[Mico]

What about gold farmers? They are human, they think. How to trick them?

[Bobbington]

Is rune essence actually collected by farmers? or is it just bots?

[Mico]

Whell, no more bots, not many people to get it, its price rises, so gold farmers will start getting it.

[Bobbington]

Very true!

[Mico]

If anything, there should be a barrier that would only allow one to get 5k pure ess a day. I mean cmon, a normal player probably wouldn' t get 3k a day. That way not many autoers and goldfarmers since it' s only 500k a day for one acc, when normal goldfarmers can get upto 5mil a day. That way, normal players have a shot at it.

[Zaaps1]

I think it made it much worse. It didn't solve the problem, but made it worse. Regular Ess is back to the old price, but there's this "pure ess" which is effectively 3x the price.

[Bobbington]

do we have any logical people who can work out if autoers are now actually better off?

 

 

 

I would be intrested to know the factual side of it.

[Mico]

OK I' ll try. At normal ess, the sold it for 30 ea. If they got 10k a day, that is 300k a day. Meaning 1 mil in 3 days. With pure ess, the make 1 mill a day, meaning in one day they pay their membership and you can count the profit they now make. 3 times than before. If they only have one autoer, they still make $150 a month. Now imagine someone autoing with about 100 autoers.

[Bobbington]

There are a few factors that need to be included there though.... it's more complicated (which is why I have not done it my self).

 

 

 

The large risk of having you account with membership banned (each ban before breaking even = loss).

 

 

 

The time to get the mining level to collect pure essence, factoring in the ban risk.

 

 

 

The change in demand of the essence.

[klankaos]

If anything, there should be a barrier that would only allow one to get 5k pure ess a day. I mean cmon, a normal player probably wouldn' t get 3k a day. That way not many autoers and goldfarmers since it' s only 500k a day for one acc, when normal goldfarmers can get upto 5mil a day. That way, normal players have a shot at it.

 

 

 

I think all this would result in is an above-average number of player complaints. There are dedicated players out there who can mine over 5k essence per day, and their moneymaking should not be penalized due to autoers. Also, this wouldn't have any effect on the problem itself, as autoers/gold farmers would simply create more accounts that could then gather at a higher rate of speed as well.

 

 

 

As for the autoers making more money calculations, I believe they do. Pure essence is 85ea, and so you need 12k to get 1m, which mose autoers could easily get in a day. If you can sell 1m for $10, you are making a profit on your first day of a members account. Very few people are going to be banned in the first day of account life, so they are going to make a profit that membership fees will not put a dent in. Autoers are, therefore, better off than they were, because they can make the money in a third of the time required, minus a five dollar membership fee, which is paid off in under a day of work.

[nerdattack16]

Idea: Have a random verification code every time you enter the mine.

 

This would produce a small two-dgit number mch akin to the bank PIN system. The number would be displayed prominently, but it would stop macroers. There would have to be a 3-try system, after which you must wait ten minutes before another attempt.

 

 

 

Pros of this idea:

 

-Would truly prevent macroers from entering the essence mine.

 

-Would have the value of driving up essence costs, but in this case it is a pro instead of a con because the macroers can no longer wholesale it, so it improves the value to true players.

 

 

 

Cons of this idea:

 

-If macroers could get through it, it would have a very inflationary effect on essence prices, and macroers would make more than ever,

 

 

 

I think this third solution is the best of the three offered, becase it can actually stop macroers.

 

 

 

 

I noticed that Toxicologist thought that would drastically slow down essence mining. I'd think an easy solution to that drop in speed would be to make it like the bank PIN - only enter it once each session. You'd only lose five seconds, and it would still stop autoers.

[The Observer]

I don't think that it worked very well. Rune Essence has stayed at exactly the same price as it was before. (I used to mine it to make money before Pure Essence was introduced.)

 

 

 

As for Pure Essence mining, there are sitll numerous macroers there. So as you can see, it didn't have the effect that JAGeX would have hoped.

[klankaos]

Idea: Have a random verification code every time you enter the mine.

 

This would produce a small two-dgit number mch akin to the bank PIN system. The number would be displayed prominently, but it would stop macroers. There would have to be a 3-try system, after which you must wait ten minutes before another attempt.

 

 

 

Pros of this idea:

 

-Would truly prevent macroers from entering the essence mine.

 

-Would have the value of driving up essence costs, but in this case it is a pro instead of a con because the macroers can no longer wholesale it, so it improves the value to true players.

 

 

 

Cons of this idea:

 

-If macroers could get through it, it would have a very inflationary effect on essence prices, and macroers would make more than ever,

 

 

 

I think this third solution is the best of the three offered, becase it can actually stop macroers.

 

 

 

 

I noticed that Toxicologist thought that would drastically slow down essence mining. I'd think an easy solution to that drop in speed would be to make it like the bank PIN - only enter it once each session. You'd only lose five seconds, and it would still stop autoers.

 

 

 

This could be a good idea - however, autoers would also only need to enter it once per time. It would stop the "factory" autoers, but not for long. They would likely get someone to log in the accounts once, then mine non-stop for however long they could go for. I'm sure they do have workers to oversee the autoers, and so that wouldn't really work. However, a two-digit pin doesn't really slow down production all that much - you lose five seconds every time through. That might have a slight raise in price, but it would destroy the essence autoers. I don't believe what Toxic said - it wouldn't slow you down that drastically.

 

 

 

Now all Jagex need to do is find a way to take out the yew bots.

[Owned_Nex]

In my view it has not done anything, but force macroers to buy membership. jagax has, in some ways incouraged them to macro, as prices jumped, and macroers are making a even bigger profit.

[Bobbington]

Really the main thing that would stop pure essence autoers is..... wait for it....... more autoers!

 

 

 

 

 

There must be a certain pace per essecne that will make the essence undesirable to autoers, where there is no more profit left after membership (same as flax). One way the price would drop this much is if the market is flooeded by things from autoers.

 

 

 

Although this is only a temp fix, as when the autoers go price will rise and they will come back.

 

 

 

Long term fix!

 

 

 

Increase the mining xp for pure essence..... this will make essence collecting MUCH more desirable for real players, less people will buy essence, so less demand for autoed goods, and prices drop.... so less profit for autoers.

[klankaos]

Really the main thing that would stop pure essence autoers is..... wait for it....... more autoers!

 

 

 

 

 

There must be a certain pace per essecne that will make the essence undesirable to autoers, where there is no more profit left after membership (same as flax). One way the price would drop this much is if the market is flooeded by things from autoers.

 

 

 

Although this is only a temp fix, as when the autoers go price will rise and they will come back.

 

 

 

Long term fix!

 

 

 

Increase the mining xp for pure essence..... this will make essence collecting MUCH more desirable for real players, less people will buy essence, so less demand for autoed goods, and prices drop.... so less profit for autoers.

 

 

 

I don't think raising the XP per essence would do anything, as the essence would still be worth near to the same. There would still be lots of autoers, and all that would happen would be they get high mining levels faster. Really, I doubt that this situation is desirable, as it could lead to some of those macroers growing into rune autoers (the ore, not the magic supply). This would make life even worse for those high levels who took the time to get 85 mining, as they would feel slighted and as if their work wasn't worth as much, which it really wouldn't. Hence, Jagex would have to deal with even more complaints than the Pure Essence upgrade gave them. This theory's just that, though - a theory. It is simply a tentative gess at what could happen.

 

 

 

As for the other suggestion, that's simply ludicrous. I don't think it was really meant as a suggestion, because even you admit that it is only a short-term fix. I'm not going to bother addressing it here.

[hatebringer]

gave macros more profit, thats all it really did. when it was an easy 30gp a piece for ess that could craft nats, you could make so much more money, but thanks to jagex, macros now make more money, and rcers suffer