Tip.It Times - 27th May 2012

[tripsis]

Time for a new release of the: >>>Tip.It Times!<<<

 

 

 

WRITE FOR THE TIMES - SUBMIT A GUEST ARTICLE:

Remember, YOU can write an article for the Tip.It Times! You can apply to write full time, or just submit a "one-off" guest article any time you want! Our editors will work with you to ensure that your article is ready for publication. All guest articles can be submitted to @tripsis or any other Editorial Panel member. For more information, including details on how to apply full time, read this forum thread: http://forum.tip.it/topic/209138-how-to-write-for-the-tipit-times/

 

I'd like to remind people of the rules pertaining to Times threads:

 

[hide=Read these rules before posting in this thread]

Rampant flame wars have taken control of virtually every week's times discussion topics. The following guidelines must be followed when posting on this topic. Posts that ignore these guidelines will be removed.

 

1. You are invited and welcome to express like or dislike on articles and a particular author's writing style. It is not acceptable, however, to flame or personally insult an author. Posts that aren't anything but an attack will be removed from the topic.

 

2. Spelling and grammar errors can be reported to tripsis or Jaffy1 by PMing them and they will be fixed promptly. It is not necessary to post them on the discussion topic.

 

3. Off topic posts that do not discuss the content of that week's articles will be removed. This is not the place to discuss the direction of the times, how much you love or hate the times, etc. Off topic posts will be removed.

 

By keeping within these guidelines, Times discussion topics will mean more for the Panel and Administration than just a place for flame wars. Flame wars do not provide any useful feedback to the Times, which is mainly what we're aiming for with these topics: feedback.

 

This policy is effective as of now, November 17, 2010. Any posts prior to the creation of this policy may or may not be removed according to the new guidelines.

[/hide]

 

When replying please make sure to clarify the article you are replying to! Thanks!

 

If you spot any typos or mistakes in an article then please PM them to @tripsis. :)

 

Enjoy the articles!

[Cheat]

Again, the featured article seems to be the most poorly written :P. However, it wasn't too bad really. The second article was quite an interesting evaluation of the actual effect of something which people are very quick to talk about without doing the calculations. On to the third article; this was very interesting and I agreed with a lot of what the writer says.. Mind you, having said that, it tickles me that the author invites us to create this positive change, ends the article with a series of questions and in the end gives us no direction on what to do. I'd love to bring about positive changes in runescape but I'm not really sure how to do it - please the author of that article give me some ideas of what to do not just an earnest plea for me to do something!

[J a c]

I'll definitely check this out later when I have more time.

[Low Levelled]

Nothing too gripping this week.

[Alaz]

I enjoyed all of the articles, though I did think the last two articles were better than the first - but that's just me.

 

Signature Heroes: I do think they were overhyped, projects canceled early on, and then given a much more minor role. Taking a look at the BTS video, the signature heroes will be involved in the Clue Fest in some way, though they're only shown standing in line. I think Jagex should have followed through or not made as big a deal of them as they did.

 

RuneSpan: Nice look on the progression of the training methods. I do think that new methods of training devalue a skill cape, but likewise it is an unavoidable byproduct of updating the game and advancing it. If you make a slower method, no one is going to use it. I can accept that RuneSpan is more enjoyable and social of an activity, which in my mind can make up for any ill feelings from players that feel cheated by the easy training methods. At least others should be able to make money from regular rune crafting, if anyone so desires.

 

A Game Worth Fighting for: I actually really agreed with this article. I have never been a fan of rioting nor canceling membership. These are angry confrontational methods and to be honest they will retaliate desperately to find a solution. I am upset with the notion of them having an agenda that we cannot ultimately control. A rigged vote does not work well for your credibility, regardless of whether you make it look community-driven. I hope eventually Jagex can understand they have damaged their appearance very much so by using distasteful methods, and my opinion is that this will be the cause of any dooms day scenario than a lack of money or investors. Reputation is important.

[Troacctid]

@Arceus article: Jagex's stance hasn't changed. It's still against the rules to train AFK. If you put a rock on your keyboard to keep from autologging while you go out to class, you'll get banned for it now just like you would before.

[Aceethan]

Yes! Bring on the signature heroes! I love those guys!

 

Also, I enjoyed the third article a lot, nice to see someone openly talk about how Jagex generally should command more respect then the community.

 

Go Runescape!

[Upful]

I enjoyed reading the article by Arceus about Runecrafting. He really addresses a major point, which is that Jagex is constantly trying to revisit ways to train skills, often at the expense of devaluing the skill. While I'm no skiller (level 80 Runecrafting is my 4th highest non-combat skill), I only ever enjoyed skills that weren't easy or that were social. Runecrafting was always something that had to be worked at. I think its important for Jagex to keep different skills at different levels of ease, and by evening the ease of training for all skills they are ruining a major portion of the game, prestige.

[Sorator]

I feel like the first article was more of an accompanying article rather than a main feature... but I don't feel like any of the others were main-feature-quality either.

 

Signature Heroes: I agree, for the most part. I think there's some cool possibilities here, especially if the same crew who put together RotM gets in on it - they're already excellent at crafting stories and weaving seemingly-unrelated characters together, and I'd love to see them do the same with the signature heroes. It's too cool of an idea to not do, so I hope they get to it in the near future.

 

Runespan: I didn't understand the point of this article - I agree with Alaz that while it does devalue the relevant achievement capes, it's an unavoidable side effect of Runescape being a game that continually updates. However, everything doesn't just always get easier as time passes - new challenges are also added. There was a time before achievement capes, and it was also a while after the initial set that we were offered the max cape and comp capes, and these each become more valuable as new skills, minigames, and other challenges are added to the game. I think it's just the way Runescape is, and that's part of why I love it and keep coming back after eight years of membership.

 

A Game Worth Fighting For: Yeah, I'm in a similar boat as the author, and many others, I suspect, where I don't think Jagex is a complete failure (if I did I would've resigned my modship a long time ago) but I don't think they're doing perfectly either. I find that Tip.It's Forums offer a decent place to voice my opinions, actually, without getting flamed for being a Jagex defender. And I disagree with the author on one particular thing, that is a bit easy to miss:

So if we cannot voice our criticism, what can we do?

This is not a good question to ask. We can always voice our criticism; that's a magical thing in this day and age. Whether or not Jagex chooses to listen, we cannot control, but we can always express our opinions on what they have done, and we definitely should. So that if and when Jagex does want our opinion, it's there for them to peruse at their leisure. And I suspect they may do just that more often than we give them credit for.

[The Floating Pen]

Hello everyone!

 

@Cheat,

The truth is, I don't know the best possible course of action for us to take. Indeed, it's a interesting point of discussion - what exactly is the best way to influence Jagex to do a particular action?

 

Regarding the second article, there has to be a balance between appeasing long-term members and enticing new ones. In order to maintain this balance, I personally believe that a new method should not be released with both faster xp and easier training (more AFK-ability). RuneSpan included both, which truly did contribute to the devaluation of the RuneCrafting cape.

Nevertheless, I highly enjoy RuneSpan and I could not stand traditional RuneCrafting. How can I complain about the update?

[NukeMarine]

About replies to article two: I've never been convinced that having to do 1200 clicks an hour makes something more valuable and worthwhile than having to do 100 clicks an hour. The hour is still spent, you just have opportunities to type to other players or not focus fully on where your mouse is every second of the hour. Fishing and woodcutting were sort of like this from the start of RS2, and any change that added this aspect to other click fest skills were gladly welcomed.

 

On top of that, I'm all for the exponential increase in XP gains when you gain levels vice the old linear increase that just made RS a grind. The first time Pyramid Plunder was released, it became apparent this was the way for Jagex to help players train their skills. Simple changes in the Agility dungeon (new arrow pops up as soon as you get a ticket, diagonal 80+ agility paths) and the Beacon network (get bonus xp when relighting beacons that burnt out ie keep as many beacons burning all the time) could also allow this.

 

Yes, balance can be an issue. I'm more inclined to the passive XP with no items gained (runespan, ivy) versus active XP with profitable products (runecrafting, trees). What I'm waiting for is the runespan equivalent for prayer and herblore. That'll upset the economy is an amusingly chaotic way.

[Sorator]

What I'm waiting for is the runespan equivalent for prayer and herblore. That'll upset the economy is an amusingly chaotic way.

 

I kinda doubt that'll ever happen. There are the skills that primarily gather materials (woodcutting, fishing, etc.) where the biggest factor has always been time, and then there are the resource-using/refining skills (prayer, herblore, crafting, etc.) that still take time, but the more cash you're willing to spend the faster it goes. For this purpose, I'd put runecrafting in the first category, because the time it took to train was always a bigger factor than buying the essence required (though it is somewhere in the middle because that was also a big factor). We now have runespan and ivy, which train these skills faster and with less attention/apm, but which also yield very little other than just XP. I don't think they'll make such an option for the 'buyable' skills like Prayer and Herblore, though, because they function on the complete opposite end of the spectrum.

[Vezon Dash]

99 prayer is already achievable in 24 hours. No need to make it faster...

[Ts_Stormrage]

^Only if you already have the money...

 

So; not make it faster, but make it cheaper/less clicky?

[deskjethp]

Why should it be cheaper and less clicky? If you don't like to click.... don't train skills that require clicking? :|

 

[semi-related random side thought] What if there were modes to Runescape, like when you start other games: easy, normal, hard..? Hard having lower xp rates, fewer resources, more clicking, and separate highscores? Which worlds would be more populated? Probably the easy ones. But the front page of the hard highscores would be much more interesting I think. In theory they could do this with RSC, but since RSC is "on display" in a locked filing cabinet in the sub-basement of the website anyway, people wouldn't really notice. But if the highscores were say, 3 columns front and center of the main page: easy, normal, hard... More people might branch off into the "hard" game...

 

----------------------------

 

The signature heroes thing would only have been good if they had been implemented from the beginning. The characters with any real character are the ones with strong personalities that show up in interesting, long, quest story lines. If the original lore had something about these characters, they might fit in. The problem is that they just tried to shove them in randomly, rather than just integrating them in.

 

----------------------------

 

DYK: I am not sure if this is true or not, but I read that you can go over 10 spins if you use a double spin ticket. Is this true (or relevant?)

[Ulysses]

Nothing too gripping this week.

 

^

[Dire_Wolf]

The third article is nice, but i have actually tried to make a positive change to Runescape gameplay.

It failed.

 

And i have tried many other times. I don't know about everyone else but i am not up for giving ideas to Jagex (ideas i have PUT my mind into) only to see on RSOF that the thread is spammed out 2 days later.

 

Then again it's not Jagex who is the problem. The community is. Why do you not support a idea that will make you playing Runescape better.

 

I mean i am not saying what i say is a FACT, but if me, you and many others can come to agreement that "This idea or suggestion will be great for Runescape gameplay" - then why not be proactive about it and keep pushing it forward til Jagex listens? To see what Jagex says about the idea?

 

You play Runescape, as player you should care for negative and positive changes. And i hope many players in future support people who make good suggestions on RSOF or on TIF forum.

 

P.S my suggestions PLUS others who posted in thread i made on T IF, were very small "FIXES" and not huge ideas or suggestions like "Release this skill!!!".

Example of what kind of fixes it was: Similar to barrow fix that made monsters not intefere with you when you were checking a door puzzle.

[Platinum_Myr]

I wish Jagex would continue to do more small fixes. There are hundreds of things I could suggest that could be easily implemented, and would help fix the small irritations of the game.

[TzarZar]

Platinum_Myr

 

Can you tell us some of them?

 

Maybe, if a lot of us have same, then start a thread on fixing?

 

:unsure:

[Dire_Wolf]

Platinum_Myr

 

Can you tell us some of them?

 

Maybe, if a lot of us have same, then start a thread on fixing?

 

:unsure:

I gave up on trying to make Jagex see the list of small fixes me and others made.

Jagex have done some fixes on their own though. For example your able to repair a whole barrow set without doing one at a time :)

 

Here is the "fix" thread i made long time ago. It's outdated but i am sure some of the fixes may not have been fixed.

 

http://forum.tip.it/topic/292672-tipits-miscellaneous-patch-notes-for-july/

[Platinum_Myr]

Platinum_Myr

 

Can you tell us some of them?

 

Maybe, if a lot of us have same, then start a thread on fixing?

 

:unsure:

 

Sure. Hundreds was hyperbole but here are a few. If I spent more time I could probably remember more. I don't know how difficult any of these would actually be to implement but:

1) Reduce Jack of Trades recharge time to 23 hours so that the time doesn't move forward as long as a player does it within the hour.

2) Make Citadel resource caps automatic, calculated based on what is building, with the option to add an additional amount. (No reason for players to calculate this by hand..)

3) Make ore/charcoal goals automatically reduce as ore and charcoal is spent.

4) Allow the game server messages to show up even when the filter for "Game" is set (possibly with a setting in options to disable them)

5) Make the message for special attack power show up when the game is set to filter.

6) Make spec restore potions trigger the messages for 50%/100% restored.

7) Fix the amulet of fury on female characters so that it doesn't float away from the character like it does now.

8) Change D&D timers for Tears of Guthix, Manage Thy Kingdom, to be reset at GMT game time, (on penguins day if it is weekly) so that players aren't punished for not being able to play at a set time.

9) Make the morytania elite legs bonus for renewals either work a) anywhere, or b) when the legs aren't equipped.

10) Show highscore tracking data on the official runescape adventures log similar to how fansites manage this.

11) Return F2P to the shortened highscores table so that fansites can capture that data.

12) Allow players to select colors for outfits using the new clan cape color diagram. Allow them to select primary and secondary, or type in #HEX values so that they can ensure matches.

13) Update the houses so that the bedroom outfit change stations are the current equivalents instead of the outdated versions from six years ago.

14) Allow shops to sell items in notes, possibly for a surcharge. Currently several shops have daily stock of certain items but players have to buy them in sets of 28 and bank. Let the shop sell us notes.

15) Add sandstone and the troll minigame to the RS gamebar.

 

I have more somewhere, but its hard to remember them all.

[Arceus]

Assist is almost useless at this point, but there was still a push to run that on a 23 hour clock as well. As that fails, I don't see much success in a similar request on JoT. But personally I don't see any problem with sectioning it off daily and letting you get it any time of the day just like the SoF mechanic instead. Similarly, this could be applied to 8 on your list.

[Platinum_Myr]

Assist is almost useless at this point, but there was still a push to run that on a 23 hour clock as well. As that fails, I don't see much success in a similar request on JoT. But personally I don't see any problem with sectioning it off daily and letting you get it any time of the day just like the SoF mechanic instead. Similarly, this could be applied to 8 on your list.

 

Jack of Trades actually has an aura timer though so it makes "sense" for it to be on a 24hr cooldown due to how auras work. The others don't have to be that way and should all have been cleaned up ages and ages ago. Everything daily should reset the same way if possible, and weekly stuff should reset at the same times. Players cannot gauruntee that they'll be on during a particular time so it is annoying to have to "move" jack of trades time around simply because I couldn't be asked to play at exactly 8:10 pm.

 

SoF already resets at GMT. Kingdom, and Tears, and any other should also reset at GMT midnight.

[the doctor]

Nothing too gripping this week.

 

^

 

well of course you failed we all do