Shop Update

The updates this week caused a bit of a whirlwind among players. (To be honest, I don't think I've ever seen an update that hasn't set off a mass panic). This one was a little different. I'm not going to touch on the graphics or the auto-cast of spells. I want to focus a little bit on the limited stock update for stores.

I actually really like this update. Hear me out. When I started Runescape, there was limited stock at stores. This was offset by the fact that the trade limit had yet to be imposed on the players. The prices of many items were much higher than they are in the game today.

There were rewards in skilling. Rune Platebodies need 99 Smithing in order to obtain them. This is a little ridiculous, being that there have been so many other, better, platebodies introduced since, but at the time, getting the best armor meant needing to have the best skills.

Needing runes meant you worked on Runecrafting, etc. I see this as a push to everyone who has gotten so used to buying everything they need, to train skills that they might never have. I put it on the level of the Achievement Diary. I hated getting my Farming and Smithing up at the moment, however, down the line I'm glad that I have those levels and that I worked on these skills.

Am I saying that every player should make everything for themselves? No, that's not what I'm getting at. I'm just stating that there needs to be a more drive for player-made items opposed to unlimited stock store items. Say you want a Rune Platebody, but are only 65 Smithing. Yes, its impossible to ask you to train to 99 to get what you want, but the point is, there are players out there who have trained to 99 Smithing. They are able to make one for you. Sure, it might be sold out of the GE, but there's entire forum threads dedicated to these things, as well as Worlds. If you need 1k vials and don't want to make them, that's fine as well. Someone out there is willing to do it and sell them to you. We had Runescape "jobs" for a while. I'd get the cowhides, the xp from attacking them and sell them to one high level everytime I got 1k. Same goes with coal. It gave the game a more personal feel to it as well as gave one more way to get to know your fellow players. It was walking into the mom & pop shop every weekend, saying hello, having a conversation, exchanging business, everyone wins. It feels to me that Runescape has taken on a very Wal-Mart feel lately.

This might drive the prices up on countless items, but I really feel as if skills have been hit hard over the years. Take Death Runes for example. You train your Runecrafting to 65, complete one of the more difficult quests in Mourning's End Part 2, all for what? You can create Death Runes now, but its more profitable to create Law Runes or even double Cosmics. That's really not much of a reward for those feats. Blood Runes have an insanely high level requirement considering the skill is so slow at giving xp, and the price really needs to reflect the work put into it.

Smithing as well. What started out as one of the most profitable skills on Runescape has really become a money sink over the years. Its to the point where rune armor and weapons are usually just alched when you get them as a drop. The value is negligible between selling it and its alch value, which really is kind of sad if you think about it.

I really hope this update sticks. A little legwork and "getting to know your local seller" as well as some price increases, I feel are a good thing. If I seem a little combatitive in this post its because its something I really feel pretty strong about. Merch clans, 75k, 26k schemes, etc, generating gigantic amounts of cash I feel has almost made players soft in a way. No need to train Herblore, just buy pots. No need to train Runecrafting, just buy runes, etc... Maybe it'll make someone second guess why they're spending all that cash on an item, which is now no longer selling and if it ever does it'd be for quadruple the price, say "why don't I just make that on my own?" Who knows, maybe they'll actually like it.

There was a time before the GE, before unlimited stocks where we all survived. I love the convenience of the GE, don't get me wrong. However, there was a time where that Rune Platebody we all take for granted now wasn't available in stores. To get it, you needed to know someone with 99 Smithing, if you weren't yourself. That really meant something.

As with everything, there are always exceptions. The main one for this is Shards. The limit on that is ridiculous and should be removed. Any items that are not able to be made by a player, shouldn't have a limit. As for the ones that are player made, the low limit makes me excited to use certain skills which have fallen by the weyside, again. I think its a good re-vamp by Jagex to brush the dust off of things like making vials, crafting in general, even RC. I'm excited that it looks like it will be profitable to be a skiller again.

In the year 2000...

Well, I got my 2000 levels late last week. The frantic push for levels gave me a little bit of time for me to distress after the big fireworks went off. It gave me some time to get around to some things I wanted to do.



Forever my house has been bothering. It was an incredibly poor layout which made the rooms I’d like to access quickly far away from the portal. It was disjointed and didn’t really make a lot of sense. About a month or so ago I used a few Stealing Creation hammers to pound out a few levels (bad pun, I know), however I still had a lot of lower level furniture I hadn’t upgraded. To get the levels it was build, destroy, rebuild of oak tables.

I really think Construction had been poorly designed in the beginning. You start with the lower level rooms and don’t really have options but to make a few of them. Thus, expanding your higher level rooms further out. When you’re a lower level, the price you paid for those rooms adds up. Its tough to have to tear them down. Also, I wish there were a way to remove a piece of furniture you had acquired in the past. I had a lot of gilded things thanks to treasure trails. It got to a point where buying gold leaves really put some damage in my funds.

It took me about a week to pull it together. I’d say about 5 days of playing with designs until I got something I liked, and was personalized a bit, and about 2 days of execution of actually building it. I wanted the altar, lecterns (one of each for tabs), portals, costume room, quest hall (glory tele) and workshop as close as possible. Expanding outward to the rooms I don’t use as often, the kitchen, dining room, skill hall. Finally in the outer regions the parlor (gotta keep books somewhere), throne room, with the games room and two combat rooms (combat ring and ranging pedestals) near each other for fun at gatherings. Also there’s a dungeon, hall, treasure room for good fun as well. The two bedrooms are on the second floor, with mine being slightly nicer than the butler’s. He’s got to get a good night’s rest as well, but should still know that I’m paying him.

I have some things in there lower level than I could, but for personal preference. I like the tentacle pool better than the flames. I’d rather have a poster of Morytania than Isifidar. I need to get some CWars armor and the head of something to complete it. I still have a lot to upgrade to, I am only 78 Con.

Moving the costume room was a killer, it took some seriously bankspace juggle to clear that place out. However with that back up and upgraded, the menagerie holding on to my raven, hellcat and broav, I’m actually down to 450 occupied bankspaces. I don’t think I’ve been south of 460 since they increased the size a couple years ago.

Its weird, I actually feel prouder of the house more than a lot of skills I have some higher levels in. I think its because its customized to what *you* like. It took a lot of money, it put me nearly out of range of even making a battlestave run for the day, but it was worth it and I made a lot of it back since.

Here’s the layout code for Runehq if anyone wants to see it: RIKRMLRQLRUORYNRfQSISSMRSQJSUMSYDSfNTIETOGTSFTUHTaPTdQ

Just replace “Formal Garden” with Menagerie, because that isn’t an option as of yet.