Gameplay and getting going

I am often asked what is the cheapest way to train a certain skill, this is not as straight forward as it sounds, for example you may think that big bones are cheaper to get 99 prayer because they are cheaper than dragon bones, willows are cheaper to train fire making than maples, yews or magic logs or cooking trout is cheaper than cooking lobsters or sharks, this may well be the truth but there is a lot to take into consideration before you decide the cheapest route.

You need to work out what the most expensive commodity in Runescape is, this is not as straight forward as it might seem, if you have low level stats then it is generally the best thing that you can make or collect, if you have medium to high level stats the the most expensive commodity is often time.

Let me explain, these examples are made up numbers used to demonstrate my reasoning but they are not far off being correct at current prices.
Willows cost 22gp and maples cost 40gp you need 130k willows to get to 99 and 90k maples to get 99 firemaking, now you may think it is cheaper to use willows because 130k Willows cost 2.86m to 99 FM, maples cost 3.6m to get to 99, so by burning willows you are saving almost 1m.
Look at it another way, you need to burn an extra 40k willows to get to 99 fm, how long will it take to burn 40k willows? its a long time, how many nats can you make in that time? how many yew logs can you chop in that time? how many monkfish can you catch in that time? its going to be a fair few, if you spend the time that you would be burning those extra willows doing a good money making skill you can easily make more than the 1m that you save by burning willows, the cheapest apparent method is not necessary the cheapest way to train, in this scenario its cheaper to burn the more expensive log because it gives you more time to train money making skills.

Its the same with bones for prayer, fish when cooking and many other skills, you need to way up the costs per xp and quantity of items that the different training methods need, there is also the enjoyment factor to count in, if you like burning logs then willows would be fine for you, you may lose more money but its a lot easier if you enjoy it.

Unfortunately I can not say what is good for who, every player is different and stats for other skills pay an important part in your training method, all I am saying is consider the time taken in your cost to train calculations.

Link: http://www.travian.co.uk/?uc=uk4_20307

I found Travian through an advert on Runescape.

The initial idea is quite fun, you build a village make troops and kill other villages with well co-ordinated attacks and many not so well co-ordinated attacks, you can build troops to defend your village attack troops on other villages and raid their supplies and bring them back for your own use.

My initial opinion was that Travian is a game of hate, it is not generally friendly like Runescape, the more ruthless players can build big armies and catapults and destroy other players villages, as the game progresses this is quite a common occurrence and many players quit because of it.

You do have the option to join alliances, these are groups of players who help each other out by sharing resources and troops, this is the friendly side of Travian but to be any good in the game you need to be in a good alliance or you will get flattened or farmed (Farmed is when an aggressive player regularly raids your resources).

I have played on the speed server, this game goes on for about 4 months and on the normal server that I have been informed goes on for a year.

Conclusion is that Travian is an unfriendly game, perhaps ideal for the pkers from Runescape when Pkin was abolished recently to make it a more friendly and better game to play.

Click here to check it out.

This is the first time I have seen this, can anyone confirm if it is official and if it is, is it any good.

Any reviews welcome.

The Fist of Guthix mini game has been released, this is my opinion of the game as it is, there will be no comparison to how the game can be played when the novelty wears off, I will try to add my anticipated playability at the end of this post.

I logged on and had a few Bloodvelds to finish off for slayer, just out of interest Bloodvelds are great for green charms, after finishing the task I went to the pyramid to change my magic book to ancients, forgot any teleport tabs or jewellery so home teleported to Edgeville and ran to the game entrance.

I had already read about the game on the Runescape knowledge base so had an idea what to do, but still needed to speak to the earwig and watch the cut scene tutorial to get in, the tutorial is very good and well worth watching so you know what to do once you get in there.

First of all I was amazed at the amount of spammers moaning by the entrance about the difficulty to get in, it was difficult but when your inside there are far to many players anyway.

I took my Ahrims, Torags and Karils, a whip and DFS, robin hood hat and ranger boots, as well as a rune crossbow and diamond bolts, I also had my fury, barrows gloves, dragon boots and berserker ring, I like to be ready for all eventualities.

If I was the hunted first I would put my karils on as many were using ancients, and I did the same as everyone else, grabbed my crystal wielded it and ran for the centre and just stood there in a 20 level pile of bodies hoping the pile was so deep to hide my arrow (on top my head), my points just shoot up as I was in the middle and the only hope of getting caught was if my hunter could see me in the list when right clicking.

There is a drawback to this method, when you are stood in the middle you can not often see how you are being attacked, this makes it more difficult to know what protection prayer to use and what armour to wear.

There was a help from a crystal that you can use once to teleport you to the Fist of Guthix in the centre of the arena, when I used this it teleported me to the login screen, I then needed to login and the game was lost because I had left, there was an update later that night which I hope would have removed that bug, but I didn't log back in.

A good tip is to take a terrorbird familiar as some people like to run for safety the bird will keep your run topped up as much as your agility level will allow, he also has a peck at your opponent.

As a hunter I would put on my Ahrims and ancient staff and select Ice Barrage to autocast, this will sometimes prevent your opponent from getting away, I found the Rune crossbow and Diamond bolts very good when they were unable to move better even than barrage no matter what armour, if I could spot them in the middle I would switch to whip and DFS.

For the less adventurous being hunted there are corners in the arena that can be missed when your hunter is just skirting the arena, hiding there can avoid you being seen but wont get you many points, I do not pretend to be any good at the game but it is fun.

God (Guthix) knows how it will be when the novelty wears off, I anticipate it will not be a game of stealth but just a case of who can eat their bandages and change clothes quickest when stood in the middle, it has the potential to be an OK game the rewards are good so may keep people coming back for more points, a have a feeling this will be like most of Jagex new updates, a beta versions and the final stable release announced at a later date, I do not know if Jagex are taking less care in the preparation and testing of their updates or they are being a bit more ambitious but I don't remember regular major changes to their updates early in my Runescape career.

Im not complaining I get a lot of entertainment out of the game and its still nice to get regular updates.

Link: http://blog.milsom.biz/screencleaner.swf

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