Tip.It Times Tip.It Times - 3rd March 2013

[tripsis]

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[Ammako]

Uh, I'm reading the first one, No Small Problem.

Just sayin', switching your weapon during combat doesn't reset your adrenaline, it resets the cooldown.

 

One side I would have liked to see covered is that the main reason most players in F2P used Fist of Guthix was for the free magic exp.

Now, we don't even get any exp at all from using magic within the minigame.

If they allowed players to get magic exp from FoG again, then surely more people would play (at least in F2P.)

 

Pretty annoying to try and get tokens to recharge whatever Fist of Guthix reward you bought off the G.E. when games can't even be started.

 

Another way would be to require less players to start a game (Say, 10) instead of the current number, which I believe is around 20.

[Miss Lioness]

Just wanted to say this:

 

I called it!!!! A Guthix Article regarding the new quest =d....

[Ts_Stormrage]

Lol, Dracae effectively TOLD you he submitted one for publishing about that...

[Miss Lioness]

Lol, Dracae effectively TOLD you he submitted one for publishing about that...

 

I know >.>

[Arceus]

If they allowed players to get magic exp from FoG again, then surely more people would play (at least in F2P.)

 

That may be a valid point, but there are a couple of counterpoints:

 

1. The cost of runes is far lower than what it was before. Between bots, the chance of double runes between levels, more generous xp, and general progression of runecrafting levels, the cost of runes was driven down. EoC finished it off by eliminating the need for catalytic runes and making magic training available for literally pennies. With a staff, a spell like fire bolt or fire blast can be cast for 20-30 coins, and Air Bolt/Blast for free! This is in comparison to hundreds of coins a cast before, which would be enough to break a lower level player's bank, so to speak.

 

2. With the new xp system due to EoC, how much xp would be awarded and how? Experience seems to be awarded from a kill, and it was always a fraction of the amount outside of FoG due exactly to the free runes. I guess they could add a few hundred xp a kill, but making it work like the old system would require some coding.

[The Marquis]

Ah, it's so sad and bad to see all these minigames become useless... especially with the EoC. The article was a good read though :)

 

I must also agree with Dracae. The Runescape 'gods' are really quite unimportant to the daily life of our adventurer. And there seems to be no finite end to the god wars. Of course, Jagex could make the player choose in the end... but that would probably be too much effort for them -.-

[Birdd]

[spoiler=Plot Spoilers]

If you've finished the new quest released today Dracae did a very good job of semi-predicting our ascension to something more than a humble adventurer, bravo!

 

 

All very good reads, I like the suggestions for FoG :D Maybe it will get a brush up, I know they said they want to look over Castle Wars maybe they will do all mini games.

[Dracae]

Arceus:

 

The point that many mini games need some fix is very true., on the other hand, I always liked to run.. when plaing FOG, so making that harder or impossible.. i.d.k. . Has been a long time since I played, but I liked the hide and seek, getting in peoples heads.

I did also use aincient magics for the offencive part, freezing people.

Eventhoughi did not play FOG after EOC one thing is clear to me: running and moving, wile using abilities is not easy for most, I even used momentum in some of the fights for the latest quest to be able to concentrate on moving out of the way of dammage.

 

I think The Floating Pen hit the nail on the head with the conclusion that Jagex got it's advertisement for members right here. My nephew of 9 playes RS also, when he can. He will not get membership for a long wile, if ever. He is soo entusiastic about this new update and I can see why. It will let the very casual free player have many new things to enjoy also. He need to learn english before even being able to enjoy RS fully, but at the same time RS is teaching him the language.

[Lazerus_Shade]

LOL dra's prediction about a god never loosing was a flopp very next day ........dead god wonder if i could get a prediation ill never win a million dollers and live a short life :D

[Dracae]

LOL dra's prediction about a god never loosing was a flopp very next day ........dead god wonder if i could get a prediation ill never win a million dollers and live a short life :D

 

I said: 'I predict that no RuneScape god will ever truly win or lose.'

Based upon JAgex not wanting to alienate their followers, well they found a neat solution.

To me the biggest looser, as in the dead one is the biggest winner. Look at what your adventurers log says.. we are all Guthix followers now.

The god who lost most in my mind is Zamorak, who got reduced to playing second fiddle with Bandos and Armadyl, providing canon fodder to us, wile Guthix and to an extent Zaros and Saradomin had center stage.

But.. all sides are still 'alive' and kicking, with, as it looks now 'The Adventurer' leading the Guthix side, maybe even until he returns?

Ever seen Dallas?

 

I will admit I never saw them killing a god coming, so in that way, yes.. my crystal ball failed.. cursed home-shopping channel..

[Trunkuza]

In Just a Taste, it is said "Will the servers crash when every free player builds a house?"

 

The Jagex news report actually addresses this: "it is now possible to train every members' skill (with the exception of Construction) up to level 5"... Just wanted to bring that to peoples' attention. Chances are, the servers will /probably/ not crash from free player building a house...

[Dracae]

That will seriously 'pee' my nephew of, lol... poor kid...

[Kaida23]

The Jagex news report actually addresses this: "it is now possible to train every members' skill (with the exception of Construction) up to level 5"

 

It is possible for free players to get Construction up to level 5 (I've done it), you just have to be creative. ;)

[Lazerus_Shade]

LOL dra's prediction about a god never loosing was a flopp very next day ........dead god wonder if i could get a prediation ill never win a million dollers and live a short life :D

 

I said: 'I predict that no RuneScape god will ever truly win or lose.'

Based upon JAgex not wanting to alienate their followers, well they found a neat solution.

To me the biggest looser, as in the dead one is the biggest winner. Look at what your adventurers log says.. we are all Guthix followers now.

The god who lost most in my mind is Zamorak, who got reduced to playing second fiddle with Bandos and Armadyl, providing canon fodder to us, wile Guthix and to an extent Zaros and Saradomin had center stage.

But.. all sides are still 'alive' and kicking, with, as it looks now 'The Adventurer' leading the Guthix side, maybe even until he returns?

Ever seen Dallas?

 

I will admit I never saw them killing a god coming, so in that way, yes.. my crystal ball failed.. cursed home-shopping channel..

 

All true i personally can't wait to see whats next in this story line. Big issue for me now is with my quest cape back I've got a whole lot of nothing to do in game again. (well dung, but *sigh* thats 60m exp to get still*) Honestly though you had a great article it was just a little weird reading it the day AFTER the quest if i had been asked the day before i would have agreed. It was so hard to imagine the death of a god till you actually went through the quest.

[Dracae]

This story line is indeed asking for more!

As a critical supporter of Jagex, who has been critical a lot lately, I got to say: I really like the way they are making it all fit together with lore and story lines, some good retconning also.

[Trunkuza]

It is possible for free players to get Construction up to level 5 (I've done it), you just have to be creative. ;)

 

*shrug* I was just quoting Jagex' news feed :razz: If it slipped by them as a bug or if they coded it as possible, and/or lied in their news feed, then that's different, lol...

 

But now, question is: Were you able to enter the house portal and actually *build*...?

 

It was so hard to imagine the death of a god till you actually went through the quest.

 

Zaros... ... ...

 

 

Just saying.

 

[spoiler=May spoil the quest. Click only if you've finished or literally don't care.]Chances are, Guthix isn't actually dead... I think It's just "banished metaphysically" from the plane, similar to how Zaros is. Remember: Zaros is only "returning" through the concentrated, deliberate efforts of his followers.

 

Guthix' last words were: "Forget me"... It's possible that It doesn't want to be brought back to the plane, because It admits that balance is skewed by Its very presence, and because It wants the player to work towards the very goal that It had.

 

Check it: Zaros was stabbed with the Staff of Armadyl. What was Sliske using to kill Guthix?

 

IMHO: Zaros' continued existence, despite having been "killed" by Zamorak says to me that Gods never truly "die"...

 

Speculation: Again, with the Zar/Zam comparison... Is Sliske now a step closer to being a God himself, having "killed" Guthix? Or is it the player who is closer, having been physically with Guthix at Its' end...?

 

There's no evidence, truly, that the killer gets the power, as the killer usually stayed within physical proximity, whereas Sliske teleported away immediately after, and /left/ Guthix to die... While we may not "know", as a character, that we have Its power, it seems to me like we have it. My opinion is based on the facts that we were with It the whole time as It died and Saradomin couldn't teleport us away with all his godly abilities.

 

Further speculation: If we indeed do have Its' powers, what does that say about the other Gods? Ever since Jagex released the information of Zamorak's ascension, the thought has troubled me: What if every god that we know of in-game was truly a mortal at one point or another. This new quest further solidifies that thought. Could Saradomin, Bandos, Armadyl, Zaros, etc. (and every other god that comes through with the Edicts gone) all have been mortal once, and killed their own god, or been closest physically to one as they died? ... Could the future of our characters involve an "unforeseen" ascension to Godhood somehow?

 

[Kaida23]

But now, question is: Were you able to enter the house portal and actually *build*...?

 

Unfortunately, no. Training Construction through its use is still locked.

[thejollyroger]

@Dracae "Gods and Humans": Sorry... this article felt like it stumbled and wandered a little bit. Compositionally speaking, I mean.

 

The concept isn't a bad one, though.

Maybe this is just me being weird and blurring the line between a game and real life to much. After all, it is just a game and who cares?

I think a philosophy student would care, since it's a metaphysical discussion of sorts. I've been a bit obsessed with Joseph Campbell lately: his whole idea of The Hero's Journey/Monomyth. I speak generally-- his broader notion that we still enjoy storytelling, and our mass multimedia draws still from the old stories-- even if scholars disagree if we all follow that monomyth cycle retelling those stories or not.

 

I'd say Jagex was drawing pretty heavily from Greco-Roman concepts of gods being petty and greedy, and a friend of mine (she's around here now and then) agreed. Another aspect is that the world is seen as harsh and unforgiving when controlled by more raw forces of nature (titans/elementals), but Jagex puts a twist on this: Gielinor is largely peaceful, but is slowly overrun by denizens of another world which has that harsh, chaotic existence.

 

In the old days it was simple to me, Saradomin was good, Zamorak was bad and Guthix kinda indifferent.

 

My friend suggested this was Andrew and Paul's influence. They've moved on to a certain extent, so newer Jagex employees fleshed ideas out in a different but interesting way. I still say Jagex has got too much Catholicism/Anglicism on the brain, because so much that's connected to Saradomin has those tired old stereotypes. They also echo Neil Gaiman's suggestion that justice is fled from the world (Justice was an absent personification in Gaiman's Sandman, Jagex has Armadyl get trounced). I digress and drift off-topic, though.

 

Is there anyone on RuneScape who does not use prayers because they hate Saradomin, or refuses to activate curses because they stem from Zaros? I dare to claim that even with so many players having a favorite god, their real allegiance is to themselves.

 

Well, that's what Ash was poking fun about in Love Story. The interactions between Dionysius "The Wise Old Man" and Ze... (not going to try to bother spelling that odd name) were a lot of satire and chariactures about player behavior. The real Kathy Corkat (yeah, the NPC was based on a player) told me that she figured Jagex was moving to new ideas of play... but that players hadn't really changed. To wit, one of those points was the average Runescape player wasn't much of a roleplayer-- they just liked whatever seemed "cool". Ms. Z claimed herself she had no loyalty to Zamorak (referencing when we still had the spell Flames of Zamorak before the god spells were streamlined to "Divine Storm"). Yep, she's a satire of PKers and combat monkeys, basically (we didn't have much bossing yet at the time).

 

I will grant that the way the quests lay out, the player as adventurer doesn't seem to have any real loyalty to any deity. I personally don't think that's very fun, and Jagex did seem to hint that we would have some in-game benefits to aligning to a particular god-- TWW quest apparently is the beginning. I started before that, myself-- when quests had dialogue options that didn't necessarily affect your rewards xp or stats wise, I chose options consistent with how I saw the game.

 

I realize that really doesn't matter to some. I started online gaming at the end of the pure text days, with Multiple User Dungeons (MUDs). My quick observation was when more graphics started coming along (Everquest and the like), players seemed to roleplay less. That's a discussion unto itself, though.

 

To cut more to the point-- I'm not sure if you're arguing that the story doesn't matter by the way players play in real life, or if the way Jagex is depicting the players in their story-- that god affliation doesn't matter much. Perhaps you might clarify?

 

@The Floating Pen "Just a Taste"

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you-- it is such a welcome break from a stream of "Jagex sucks" and general suggestions that Yelps is hellspawned and Squeal of Fortune is an evil Mr. Moneybags "Bleed them kids dry of cash" demonic scheme. Tip.It still will have to do a lot to get back into Jagex's good graces, though... if that's possible. *sigh* I'm stooping so low, but I looked around, and I mean, really... RuneHQ has got the Platinum "Supa Special" badge now. I'd like to think this community can do as well IF it was really wanted. This is a good start, but I'd say dozens more articles like this would be needed. (*grumble grumble*yes the tired old story about Andrew threatening to sue*grumble grumble*)

 

@Arceus and "No Small Problem":

 

Okay, I'm tipping my hand a bit when I say stormveritas is a friend and I can still remember the backlash on some of his articles speaking out against minigames. But the points he had brought up makes this article's premise very germane: a lot of the minigames NEED to be fixed. They had problems even before the EoC. Do I understand correctly the numbered points are Hawks' edit work? Either way, wonderful formatting, and I think they line up a nice list of how some minigames have been subverted to beat the grind. I'm talking about non-combat Stealing Creation, "suicide" grinding Siege at Mobilising Armies, 50/50 games at Great Orb Project, "horn fillers" grinding waves 1-5 at Barbarian Assault, and so on. I don't think Jagex is yet doing enough to rebalance mechanics to better suit their players' style and regular habits... of course there's no dearth of arguments here about how their fixes seem like swatting flies with sledgehammers.