The Ultimate Runescape Achievement Diary

Very educational topic at TruthScape. From the first glance almost all tasks listed there seem impossible (at least to me), but if you read further into the topic you'll see participants offering solutions to pretty much all of them. Crazy solutions in terms of effort required, if you ask me, but surprisingly realistic ones.

TruthScape is Shut Down...

Very bad news... Qeltar decided to shut down TruthScape. The forum remains open, but all the guides and Beastopedia are gone.

Surely, it is up to Qeltar what to do with the site, I'll just say that no matter how outdated the guides were, they were still useful. Aviancies, Ice Trolls, Giant Mole, General Guide to Skilling and Levelling... Or take Beastopedia, which was the ultimate place I personally was going to in order to get information on Slayer monsters.

I am a sad panda today...

It's the size that matters, isn't it?

Yes, I am back from a wonderful 1000 miles journey which included stone mountains, waterfalls, carillon, art museums, theaters, board games, Hindus temple, bronze mice huntings, orienteering, gold panning, laser show, tornado and hail size of a golf ball. I am sure I missed something... It was awesome!

Runescape wise, I missed many great articles and posts while I was away - but I promise, I'll talk about some of them in the next few days. Meanwhile, here is today's link. A sad one. Though, not entirely unexpected seeing what was happening between Qeltar and Jagex in the last month or so.

But I have yet another reason to be sad about this letter from Jagex because of this paragraph:

"We have now chosen a number of websites to continue working with, supporting them and building a greater relationship. These sites were selected for their size, the prevalence of high quality in-game events, the quality of their on-line guides and also because they take an active part interacting in a positive manner with the wider RuneScape community."

Obviously neither Runewise nor Runescape Reader's Digest fit the criteria and now the doors are closed. Mournful goodbye to my earlier hopes. Alas...

Jagex is reaching to Runescape fan sites

According to this topic at TruthScape, both Qeltar and Ren (ThuthScape and MechScape World site owners respectively) received unsolicited official emails from Jagex. And I am sure other big fan sites were contacted as well. A few days ago Mark Gerhard (new Jagex's CEO) proclaimed a policy of "openness" and now Jagex is reaching out to the established external Runescape community. It looks like that a long awaited change in relationship between Jagex and Runescape fan sites is finally coming!

P.S. Alas I personally did not receive such email, which I attribute to either relatively small size of Runewise and Runescape Reader's Digest or the possibility of Jagex not being aware of their existence. Either way it saddens me, but it also gives me a good opportunity to ask you, my dear readers, to spread word about Runescape Reader's Digest (and Runewise, if you use it, of course) among your friends and clan members. I would appreciate it a lot. Thank you!

January 2009 in Runescape

Review of January updates from TruthScape.

I feel a bit uneasy about the past month as well as overall Jagex's strategy for 2009. I mean, yes, fixing and polishing existing content is a good thing. But it does awfully look like Jagex has limited amount of effort they put into Runescape considerably. Maybe it's just me, but behind all these "clean and polish the game" statements I see resources re-allocation. Yeap, less people working on Runescape, more people trying to get MechScape out of the door. IMHO, of course, but a strong one, if you know what I mean.

Truthscape Beastopedia

I am still traveling, but has already left Siberia with its cold weather and shaky IT infrastructure. So I am finally enjoying internet connectivity and am able to post in this blog.

And the first site I'd like to point it to is TruthScape. Qeltar just released a new section of the site called TruthScape Beastopedia. Quite amazing. Undoubtedly the most detailed and complete set of articled about Runescape monsters. Enjoy!

Game Mechanics in Runescape

Loads of information about various game mechanics from the TruthScape forum. If you are interested in such things, take a look - this info is really hard to find in other places.

Runescape going under 13 and Parental Controls Dashboard

Thanks to a topic on the TruthScape forum I finally understood what the "Quick Chat Only" worlds are for! Apparently these are COPPA compliant and officially safe to play for children under 13. Makes perfect sense to me now.

The topic provides an extract from this article:

"Adam Tuckwell is the “Safety Minister” and Head of PR at Jagex. He was proud to talk to me about Runescape's effort to make the game a safe environment for under children under the age of 13. Previously, players had to to be 13+ to play the game. Runescape launched the under 13 game in June. This provides a Quick Chat interface, and children under 13 can only see Quick Chat text from other players of the under 13 game. This game is Coppa compliant, and have been awarded Best in Class by the IWF (Internet Watch Foundation). Since the launch of the under 13 game, Jagex has seen a 40% increase in Runescape registrations.

In the Quarter 2 or 3 of 2009, the Parental Controls dashboard will be launched. This provides parents with the means to set how often and how long their children can play Runescape, set various chat settings and have various controls over their children's Friends List – such as the ability to add friends with or without parental approval."

Apart from the "Quick Chat Only" worlds the article reveals plans to introduce the Parental Controls dashboard to the game. I support this move wholeheartedly. I know many parents who forbid their children to play Runescape because of its addictive nature. The Parental Controls dashboard should fix that. Well, I personally think that it is much more effective to provide your child with interesting alternatives instead of bluntly forbidding access, but I know it is not the case in many families, so better this way than having children play excessive hours.

RuneScape Book of Skills and Training.

Yes, if you are looking at the volume, it is a book. I am talking about the new guide from Qeltar called TruthScape Skill Secrets - A General Guide to RuneScape Skills and Training"

Read it all, or pick it apart, either way it is the most comprehensive analysis of Runescape skill mechanics, types and training techniques.

The only problem with this guide is its size... It took me almost two hours to read it all. For that reason alone, I will be featuring parts of it from time to time in this blog. And the first one (I guess I liked that one the most) is about Runescape Goals. Very, very nice and clear definition of Natural and Artificial leveling goals. I think it is important to understand this part in order avoid getting into a burnout trap which can be caused by some of the artificial goals.

Plausible theory on price changes for Rares

Well, of course, the biggest news today is the Stronghold of Player Safety, which is a great addition to the game. Definitely right step from Jagex. I can only applaud. The new Slugs quest was also quite good, I especially liked the "villagers luring" part and "creepy" puzzles.

But what I would like to feature today is an interesting an very plausible theory on price changes for Rares. Here it is in a nutshell (taken from ikraz55's post on the TruthScape forum):

Maybe Jagex hasn't purposefully frozen the price of party hats and sgs/ags/zgs. The prices decline based on number of offers, and it may simply take a very large number of sale offers to change the price. This is fine for cheap and easily obtained things like flatpacks and iron ores, but there aren't enough selling offers for some rares to change the price. This would be the same reason that chef's delight (m) goes down very rarely, even though I have been trying to sell 30 for a while. They prices change rarely, and by small amounts, but they DO change.

I was always wondering why would Jagex freeze party hats and godswords prices. Now this theory explains it. It also accounts for my overpriced kegs of chef's delight, which I now proudly place on the same level with phats and godswords.

Developing Runescape Fan Sites

Very interesting article from Global Runescape Herald (at least for me). A fellow Runescape fan site owner shares some of the development details and history behind his site. Quite fascinating, actually. I think, I should write something like that when Runewise reaches 1000 users per day or something along these lines. Now we are about 10 times smaller :-)

What frustrates me a bit is unwillingness of Runescape fan sites to cooperate with each other. Somehow, everyone feels like being a fierce competitor out there. Again and again I hit the wall when trying to establish connections with other sites, the sites I like, use, promote and will promote. And most of the time it is not a refusal, but total silence and unwillingness to communicate. That upsets me, I would prefer an honest 'no, we are too big to bother' instead. Oh, well. Looks like, I am ranting...

There are exceptions though. Runetower is our oldest friend, in fact, Joost offered a partnership to Runewise, when we had about 10 visitors a day (comparing to Runetower's 800 at the time)! How unselfish is that! TruthScape is a new partner and it looks like Qeltar really looked at the services Runewise provides rather than to our size. I am grateful for that.

Well, what is my point here? I don't know, I guess, I am really ranting. But if you have a fan site (no matter how small it is, assuming it is not a cheating one) and would like to partner, please, let me know. I'll link you from Runewise and I will also include you into my daily search of Runescape content for the Reader's Digest.

And, finally, my friends and readers, please, spread a word about Runewise and the Reader's Digest. Thank you!

Is Summoning Skill boring and expensive?

Right? No, completely wrong! The more I get familiar with this skill the more I like it. It cannot and SHOULD NOT be powerleveled, it's rich in both content and graphics and it is totally fun to explore. At least that's what I think.
And I am also glad to find similar thoughts and conclusions in an excellent new article from TruthScape. Don't miss this one!

Partnership with TruthScape

I am happy to announce that TruthScape and Runewise/Reader's Digest are officially affiliated now!

If you read this blog regularly, you probably already know about TruthScape, read analytics and used it's guides, but if you have just came by here is an official TruthScape's introduction:
Great source for essential, alternative information about RuneScape. If you're a player who wants to learn how to play safely, understand how to avoid common item scams, or prevent yourself from being account "hacked" or lured, TruthScape is the right place. If you're a parent who wants to understand the true nature of the RuneScape community and its risks to children, you'll also find that there. Finally, if you are an intelligent, experienced player looking for some excellent guides to high-level, advanced activities in the game, you'll find some of that too.

I can also add from myself that TruthScape is indeed an extremely useful Runescape resource. I use it a lot. Apart from great guides it is also one of the few places where constructive Runescape/Jagex criticism often takes place.

Runescape 2007 Review and Report Card

Year 2007 has passed and I am back :-)
What can I say? It was definitely the most interesting year in Runescape for me so far. And despite a lot of controversy about the autumn updates I liked it very much. I also like what become of Runescape after all these updates.

Today I'd like to point you to Qeltar's Year 2007 Review and Report Card. As usual, some of the descriptions are a bit harsh, but I agree with almost all grades posted there.

Grand Exchange and surviving the market crash

Very detailed analysis of the recent market crash at Runescape and Grand Exchange role in it from TruthScape. Good point there about Grand Exchange only revealing the otherwise hidden problem with accumulation of skilling end-products. The article also gives a few practical advices how to benefit in the current situation.
Many players blame Grand Exchange with the unprecedented prices drop, I agree with the article, the blame is un-justified. GE is an efficient marketplace (at least much more efficient that we used to have) and its efficiency simply accelerated the processes which already existed in the game.
I also agree, that Jagex could have done a better job of quieting the panic which worsen the situation.
Anyway, the sky did not fell over, the market is stabilizing, there are great opportunities to make money now, it's just a bit harsh for many players. C'est la vie.

Assist System Digested

Everything that there is about the new Assist System feature. As usual, comprehensive report from TruthScape. Definitely worth reading, every section.