Skillcapes - Advantageous or Disadvantageous?

[K4ylan]

Price of raw food being cheaper than cooked had nothing to do with skill capes, people did that when they were more interested in getting xp than making money, so that depends on the person using them. Skill capes arent the only thing that can be blamed for this either. When jagex brings out something like a new non-cooking food(sara brews), supply of the fish wont change, but there will still be a new fod so demand would decrease lowering the price. Same thing if demand/supply for the fish alters in other ways( new monster comes out that drops the food, removal of pking, etc.)

 

This also applies to other skills in a similar way, to blame that price difference on one item is ridiculous.

 

I love wearing my skill capes, i cant get a fire cape due to lag, so a skill cape has the best bonuses for me, and with 99 slayer, i certainly havent bought it either.

 

Price of raw food had everything to do with skillcapes.

 

Before skillcapes, i used to make money by buying raw lobsters, cooking them, and reselling them. No one really cared about XP, so it was quite a reasonable way of making money.

 

Now everyone wants XP For skillcapes, and of course cooking can't really make any decent money now.

 

I think it has been said already, this is due to the Grand Exchange. Since i is so easy to buy in bulk quickly, they don't want people to level up insanely fast and making a great profit.

[Sir_Kurity]

Price of raw food being cheaper than cooked had nothing to do with skill capes, people did that when they were more interested in getting xp than making money, so that depends on the person using them. Skill capes arent the only thing that can be blamed for this either. When jagex brings out something like a new non-cooking food(sara brews), supply of the fish wont change, but there will still be a new fod so demand would decrease lowering the price. Same thing if demand/supply for the fish alters in other ways( new monster comes out that drops the food, removal of pking, etc.)

 

This also applies to other skills in a similar way, to blame that price difference on one item is ridiculous.

 

I love wearing my skill capes, i cant get a fire cape due to lag, so a skill cape has the best bonuses for me, and with 99 slayer, i certainly havent bought it either.

 

Price of raw food had everything to do with skillcapes.

 

Before skillcapes, i used to make money by buying raw lobsters, cooking them, and reselling them. No one really cared about XP, so it was quite a reasonable way of making money.

 

Now everyone wants XP For skillcapes, and of course cooking can't really make any decent money now.

 

I think it has been said already, this is due to the Grand Exchange. Since i is so easy to buy in bulk quickly, they don't want people to level up insanely fast and making a great profit.

 

I remember lobsters costing more raw than cooked before the grand exchange when skillcapes were out.

 

Of course its partially due to the grand exchange. But no one would really care about XP if you didn't get respect for it, so of course it wouldn't be half as expensive as it is now to train skills like smithing, cooking, etc.

[Ryhzuo]

Firstly...

 

 

6. IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE WHY FINISHED GOODS COST LESS, finshed goods do not deteoriate or crumble (excluding barrows etc) A Steel Plate Body costs alot more than five steel bars because

 

A. Steel Plates don't disapear, crumble, or go away when you die

 

B. Since Steel Plates don't need to be replaced; there is much less demand, resulting in toxic dumping and oversupply of arms and armor.

 

 

In no world other than Runescape would it make ANY sense that finished good would cost less than a raw material. It's not very difficult to understand the value of skill, time, processing and investments needed to process a good, plus the profit, and thus see that processing a good at a loss is quite simply stupidity.

 

An apple would cost more than the amount needed to grow it and rightly so.

 

Now skillcapes, personally I think they are 50/50, many things that did go wrong were forseeable and preventable, but there are also elements which skillcapes improved.

 

Skillcapes DID contribute to overvaluing EXP, anyone who doesn't see this hasn't been looking clearly. Herblore and Smithing especially, were once profitable before the introducing of skillcapes. The margin of raw and cooked fish has most noticably increased, and FARMING is another prime example. Watermelon seeds costing a extravagant 4.5k whereas the finished product is more or less entirely worthless. Sure, the "Must get more EXP" Mentality has always been there, and there had always been a demand for fast leveling in order to smith the next bar or fletch the next longbow. That in itself is acceptable, it is no differently than spending tuition fees in real life to get a bachelors, masters, docters...etc. A better skill leads to higher tier items which means more profit, which is completely fine. But to give value to exp and spend so much on it to attain something purely cosmetic, and in this day and age not even very impressive anymore, is what I find strange and unfathomable. 99 in many skills is completely useless.

 

There is of course, the 'Respect' issue of skillcapes. Perhapes it was Jagex's wishful thinking when they envisioned players giving other players awe and respect as they proudly displayed their skillcapes and emotes for the masses to enjoy. Far from it, skillcapes have been the subject of slander and controversey, and merely having one now days is hardly impressive.Rather than say "good for you", or "nice one" we say "lol n00b", or "mine is better", surely not what Jagex was hoping for. Perhapes on a different game, a skillcapes idea could have been enjoyed better, but while the "miniclip generation" is firmly rooted in Runescape culture, we are still eons, several grapical updates, engine changes, a maturity test in character creation, and a general "growing up", away from skillcapes being a success in the mentality department. I know of several other communities (Like Air Rivals, Or Tibia anyone?) which would have thought of such things as skillcapes as "impressive but not necessary", rather than "I must have it, but everyone else who has it is noob". The fault here is Runescape's community, not the skillcape in itself.

 

There are also good things that game with Skillcapes. For example, while the cost of raw fish as gone up while cooked has gone down, it has made many fishers happy. The same applies with miners (remember the days of 100 per coal?) and woodcutters. An increase in supply with a decrease in demand (due to more people skilling) has led to finished products easier to obtain and in excess, meaning that people who enjoy pking, monster hunting or slaying can do so with ease, with a nice pile of cheap food and potions.

 

It may also be my imagination, but the advent of skillcapes has also forced Jagex to look at skill balance, making the lesser ones more useful and easier to train. Gilded Altars for example, new prayers, and the fire adze, as well as the recent herblore update. (This is purely speculation of course) In my view, an overhaul of old skills would only happen if there were sufficient numbers who have already obtained a level where it has become obsolete, and skillcapes encouraged many reach that place. (for valid reasons or not purely irralevant)

 

If we take this point one step further, we can say that maybe Jagex has realised their mistake with the SC and are now coming up with what I believe they originally had intended, something along the achievement diary line. Unlike SCs they are fun to do, more easily attainable, have levels of attainability for everyone, have a reward that is actually useful, wearable reward in order to show others, and generally just... better.

 

I have many many more ideas but it's getting late. So in summary

-Skillcapes were a good idea that was poorly received due to inferior Runescape mentality towards the idea of respect (ironically everyone wants to receive but no one wants to give)

-Skillcapes had a large impact on the market by increasing the value of EXP, some were negative, but others were positive

-Skillcapes forced a balance in lesser skills making them easier to train/more useful (maybe)

-In my personal opinion, for something purely cosmetic and not even respected, Skillcapes are simply not worth the effort, patience and money. Reaching 99 for the bonuses is a different matter.

 

On a completely different matter, I love my Quest cape, and can't wait until they announce an Achievement Diary Cape (Trimmed QC anyone?)

[DemonicSushi]

To make is simple;

 

I would NOT play Runescape if there were not skillcapes...