Hypothetical Situations

[Leetman]

It struck me today. While I was going through some routine smithing on a choobie account I have, I looked at my Runecrafting stat. I compared my level to what it would take to make multiple air runes as in previous years multi-airs would make a profit (albeit small) after 3x. It isn't quite the same today, with air runes costing 1/7-8 of the essence needed to craft them. Because the experience of air rune crafting is independent of multiple runes per essence, there really isn't a reason to craft airs after level 14.

 

But what if multiple runes per essence would give you experience based on runes, not essence? How would that change rune prices, and how would it change the experience rate of the skill? Runecrafting would become easier by some order of magnitude. Further, what if Runecrafting was introduced with this difference? How would that change the course of it and other skills in Runescape history?

 

I didn't want to stop there; what about Woodcutting? What if logs were ridiculously hard to obtain? Or if their experience rates were drastically reduced at the same order of magnitude as the rune experience increase? What about if Mining was more like woodcutting and less of an exclusive resource? Basically it became a big theorygasm and I felt I would turn it over to the forums for their own postulation.

 

TL;DR: Pose a hypothetical situation in Runescape (like if the RWT changes never actually happened) and how it would affect the game.

[Sylpheed]

I've always thought that giving Runecrafting experience for doubles, triples etc has been the right way to go in making the skill actually bearable to train. If it weren't for all the people that would [bleep] about making the slowest and most boring skill in the game easier then I think Jagex would have done it already.

 

As for my own hypothetical, what would the game be like if armour and weapons were bound to your account as soon as you equipped them?

[BioIce]

You could apply the multiplier effect thing to ores or logs too - and get experience for each piece you get. It'd speed up training so much, make things more enjoyable.

 

I'm still waiting for armor and weapon customization involving the smithing and perhaps the crafting skill. Smith an ordinary bronze bodyplate, smith an ornamental gilt attachment - then combine it together. The finished product would be untradeable - a gilted bronze body - but the gilt itself would have random bonus stats to add onto the armor depending on your level.

 

Just a daydream.

[Pete Party]

What if Jagex actually had a bot detection system?

[Helm_Lardar]

What if herblore shops sold herb packs?

 

What if charms were tradeable? How much would they cost?

[Ambler]

What if the sigil glitch happened again? Coinshare removes gp from the economy. (sold at med, 5% taken off and split with players.) Would it cause an increase or decrease in prices?

[Micromal]

What if you were able to make one-click-to-equip equipment sets? What would this do to PvP?

[Big_Stingman]

What if you were able to make one-click-to-equip equipment sets? What would this do to PvP?

 

That would be awesome.

[Leetman]

What if herblore shops sold herb packs?

 

What if charms were tradeable? How much would they cost?

 

The first point stuck out to me. If Runescape were anything like Real Life, I would think there would be vendors selling herbs out there somewhere. No, all the herbs in RS are found in corpses or gardens, never growing wild or at a pharmacy or apothecary. If there were vendors, then prices would (most likely) drop by some degree. If they were readily available at stores, making potions might turn profitable as most of the economic pressure on herbs is the acquisition dimension. I think the skill would overall make a lot of sense, and wouldn't be just a scramble to a high level for reward outside of the economy (overloads). That scramble is partly why the grind up to 96 is one big hemorrhage.

 

I can't speculate on the second point - charms have enough rationality (to me) as is.

[Bows]

What if Jagex actually had a bot detection system?

I've been waiting for this. What if people didn't constantly [bleep] about it and just play the game?

 

OT: What if there were no multiple runes? One rune per essence no matter what; but experience gains were drastically increased?

[Triquos]

What if Jagex actually had a bot detection system?

 

+1

 

Their bot detection system is doing wonders at Sorceress' garden, tzhaar city, runecraft shop in varrock and MANY other places! There is literally no bots anywhere! /sarcasm

[WolfieMario]

What if Jagex made replicas of several heavily-botted locations, and anybody spending an extensive time there doing the same activity (even if they clearly aren't botting) would be sent to the replica? Common bank routes, of course, would also be replicated. However, the replica world could be left by going to a location that does not exist on the replica (e.g. basements and top floors of various buildings), or moving on to a significantly different task (e.g. going from woodcutting to fishing).

 

There would be no animation or transition for being sent to the replica, you just wind up there, and the only real indication is that suddenly the players around you have changed (and of course there would still be a "Loading... Please wait", but that's unavoidable). There would be no direct punishment for being in the replica, as it's bound to trap many real players, since Jagex's system obviously can't tell for crap who's real or not. However, a botting report would have higher priority against people in the replica, and moderators' bot sweeps would occur in the replica world. In addition, the replica world would have many player spoof NPCs which also engage in commonly botted activities - they would clearly be NPCs, but they could still kill steal or chop a tree down before you.

 

Obviously this wouldn't stop botting, and it could be a disadvantage to players who like camping. But even if its hindrance to botters would not be that great, it would greatly free up many other crowded locations. In addition, this could stop people from complaining about "I like cheap resources and don't want bots to go away," since it really only serves to put bots behind-the-scenes. Solving the problem? Far from it, but that's why this is only a hypothetical random idea I came up with. Comments?

 

---

Also in the vein of botters, what if Jagex made a minigame where you literally hunted bots, trapping them with items such as a "rubber chinchompa" to confuse hunter bots, or placing "damp logs" in the path of firemakers, or two players getting into a "green dragon costume" to throw off the dragon bots? Pretty much every heavily botted activity could have its own method of screwing with botters, and each method would have a variety of effects. For example, if your hunter trap catches a fake chinchompa, taking it may just put it in your inventory (wasting space), give you a message in your chatbox saying that it will release all held chinchompas if you click it again, stick to you (taking up an equip slot and making you unable to train hunter, and only being removable after clicking a confirmation message), or spawn a random. Each method of screwing with bots would change each month, though the items the players use would remain the same.

 

To reduce the amount of possible griefing, any player who is confronted with bot tests and does not fall for them will eventually be unaffected by them (for the duration of one day). In addition, ideally this minigame would occur in the "replica world" I mentioned above - this would also mean that the player-spoof NPCs could still allow people to play the minigame even if all the bots in the area have been patched to avoid falling for the tricks (which, as I mentioned, would change each month). Players wishing to play the minigame would choose where they want to hunt botters, be given the relevant items, and be sent to that area, with a button to return to the minigame's starting area.

The minigame would have rewards that range from decent to very generous, based on how many bots fall for the tricks. However, although you gain points for tricking bots, you could lose points for griefing players (if someone actually says something like "gtfo noob" in response to your actions, the game would make a note of things like that (no, the game wouldn't understand what the player said, but it would look for keywords. Eventually, once the bot makers figure this out, they may get the bots to automatically say lines like this, but if the line they say is overused and exactly the same as the line used by a thousand other "players", the system would pick up on that)).

 

Suspected bot accounts would also have a "score" based on how many bot tricks they fall for, or how many specific things they say exactly the same way as other players do in response to certain actions. Having a higher suspect score will make reports against them higher priority, and a high enough level would be automatic punishment.

 

---

Yeah, probably too detailed for a "what if?", and also never going to be implemented, and also not likely to succeed. But I was just interested in the concept :P

[Naraku893]

What if Jagex actually had a bot detection system?

[UltraMantis]

What if Jagex actually had a bot detection system?

I've been waiting for this. What if people didn't constantly [bleep] about it and just play the game?

 

What if we could enjoy the game more without bots?

[Slayer_Jesse]

what if jagex didnt cave to public pressure and kept the rwt measures in, and therefore, bots, down?

[Lap]

What if the wildy were never removed?

[Helm_Lardar]

What if Jagex actually had a bot detection system?

I've been waiting for this. What if people didn't constantly [bleep] about it and just play the game?

 

What if we could enjoy the game more without bots?

What if you could man up and go play WoW, a game with a far simpler economy, a far better bot detection system, and far less frequent updates?

[Slayer_Jesse]

[Leetman]

[hide=real important talk]

What if Jagex actually had a bot detection system?

I've been waiting for this. What if people didn't constantly [bleep] about it and just play the game?

 

What if we could enjoy the game more without bots?

What if you could man up and go play WoW, a game with a far simpler economy, a far better bot detection system, and far less frequent updates?

[/hide]

 

The Horse. He died. We killed him months ago.

 

What if the wildy were never removed?

 

There's a difference between removal and reinstatement, and neither at all. All the inflation suffered at the hands of making player-killing worthwhile, among other things, have affected the game even with the deflation.

[mixxxfar]

interesting