Wow it seems like there are more old Runescape Classic websites out there.
http://oocities.com/mowbuss/
It is a mirror of an old Geocities website. Perhaps the player's name was mowbuss? In any case it has loads of stuff like the names of Jagex stuff, pictures of famous players, skill guides, news updates, etc.
I particularly like the caption of one of his pictures:
"This one is of Waylan, taken from the church in Ardougne, just after I was pking with toolman (notice I don't have a skull, because people attack me then toolman kills them)."
Hahahaha! He and his friend Waylan were pking together and using a common strategy - the noob bait. That is when a higher level pker brings along a lower level guy that people will tend to attack. Then the higher level pker kills them once they have a skull. Great stuff, it brought back memories.
Showing posts with label pking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pking. Show all posts
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Runescape Classic Pking and Why It Was So Good (part 3: Unique and Fun)
Ok, now we can go straight to the good parts! RSC pking, why do we both love and hate you? Let me count the ways:
1.) 3 Hitting = <3>
This is the best! Pure ownage and the one true evidence of a pker's strength.
Nothing can equal the thrill of 3 hitting your opponent. Even to this day, ask any RSC pker and he is sure to recall his best 3 hit kill. Not just 3 hitting, there are also 1 hit and two hit kills though these are mostly for lower level kills.
Unlike today's RS combat system, in Runescape Classic you could not eat for 3 rounds of fighting. 3 hitting is when you are able to kill your opponent in exactly 3 rounds of fighting while he is still unable to eat.
3 hitting is very simple and looks effortless yet it is so rare. To those who have been 3 hit, this is the ultimate in humiliation and weakness as they are completely defenseless against it.
You can run... except when you get 3 hit.
2.) Catching = 1337 skillz!
What is catching? This is the pker's secret of how to catch a player who runs from a fight. With fast reflexes and timing, a player could stop the opponent from running away. See this guide to catching for more details.
Only the very best and most skilled of pkers mastered catching.
Any noob who trained their str high enough can 3 hit but it wasn't just anybody who could catch players to death. Those who could catch well were the most feared pkers in the wilderness because there would be no getting away from them.
Catching someone to death was the supreme proof of the pker's skill. These pkers were in their own class and were idolized by the other pkers.
3.) Luck = !!!???%$@#!#@!*^!
Some might be surprised but actually I would say luck played a very big and important factor in pking which added a fun factor to the game. You just never knew what would happen!
Two characters with the same stats can hit very differently from each other even if they used the same equipment, prayers, style and magic/range.
It wasn't cut and dried that the higher level always defeated the lower level. Possibly, a player could to totally dominate someone higher level or same level. Alternatively, a player could get completely owned by a lower leveled character.
With 99 str, you could hit 1s. Or you could hit 30s+. This all depended on luck.
Someone asked me once how to 3 hit more and I told him:
You just couldn't really control whether you would really hit 30 29 dead or 1 0 0 on your opponent.
A player has not experienced true e-rage until he has hit a large number of 0s on a player who is full red barred! A char with 2 hps left could even kill you, even if you had 70 hps remaining.
Wacky, yes, but this is the thing that enabled players to pk more. If it had been certain that a level 50 would always die to a level 70, then the level 50 would just run away and log at once. The luck factor meant that the level 50 could stay and try his luck, if he wanted to.
I've escaped countless times from higher level groups, purely on luck and many have also escaped from me the same way. Players need to know that they aren't necessarily dead at once in one hit if they go up against a group or a higher level person. Isn't it very satisfying to kill a member of a huge group that was trying to kill you and then escape with the loot? Luck made this possible.
Conclusion
These three things, in my humble opinion, were the most fun things about RSC pking. For me, it wasn't getting a 1 million gp worth of stuff in a neat pile under my feet but what about you?
Please post your opinions and comments. Thanks. :)
1.) 3 Hitting = <3>
This is the best! Pure ownage and the one true evidence of a pker's strength.
Nothing can equal the thrill of 3 hitting your opponent. Even to this day, ask any RSC pker and he is sure to recall his best 3 hit kill. Not just 3 hitting, there are also 1 hit and two hit kills though these are mostly for lower level kills.
Unlike today's RS combat system, in Runescape Classic you could not eat for 3 rounds of fighting. 3 hitting is when you are able to kill your opponent in exactly 3 rounds of fighting while he is still unable to eat.
3 hitting is very simple and looks effortless yet it is so rare. To those who have been 3 hit, this is the ultimate in humiliation and weakness as they are completely defenseless against it.
You can run... except when you get 3 hit.
2.) Catching = 1337 skillz!
What is catching? This is the pker's secret of how to catch a player who runs from a fight. With fast reflexes and timing, a player could stop the opponent from running away. See this guide to catching for more details.
Only the very best and most skilled of pkers mastered catching.
Any noob who trained their str high enough can 3 hit but it wasn't just anybody who could catch players to death. Those who could catch well were the most feared pkers in the wilderness because there would be no getting away from them.
Catching someone to death was the supreme proof of the pker's skill. These pkers were in their own class and were idolized by the other pkers.
3.) Luck = !!!???%$@#!#@!*^!
Some might be surprised but actually I would say luck played a very big and important factor in pking which added a fun factor to the game. You just never knew what would happen!
Two characters with the same stats can hit very differently from each other even if they used the same equipment, prayers, style and magic/range.
It wasn't cut and dried that the higher level always defeated the lower level. Possibly, a player could to totally dominate someone higher level or same level. Alternatively, a player could get completely owned by a lower leveled character.
With 99 str, you could hit 1s. Or you could hit 30s+. This all depended on luck.
Someone asked me once how to 3 hit more and I told him:
ruby ammy+gaunts (highest str bonus at that time), str mode, ultimate str prayer + pray irl to the god of pking that you hit!
You just couldn't really control whether you would really hit 30 29 dead or 1 0 0 on your opponent.
A player has not experienced true e-rage until he has hit a large number of 0s on a player who is full red barred! A char with 2 hps left could even kill you, even if you had 70 hps remaining.
Wacky, yes, but this is the thing that enabled players to pk more. If it had been certain that a level 50 would always die to a level 70, then the level 50 would just run away and log at once. The luck factor meant that the level 50 could stay and try his luck, if he wanted to.
I've escaped countless times from higher level groups, purely on luck and many have also escaped from me the same way. Players need to know that they aren't necessarily dead at once in one hit if they go up against a group or a higher level person. Isn't it very satisfying to kill a member of a huge group that was trying to kill you and then escape with the loot? Luck made this possible.
A nice picture showing how the luck factor can mess with you.
Conclusion
These three things, in my humble opinion, were the most fun things about RSC pking. For me, it wasn't getting a 1 million gp worth of stuff in a neat pile under my feet but what about you?
Please post your opinions and comments. Thanks. :)
Monday, July 27, 2009
Runescape Classic Pking and Why It Was So Good (part 2: Additional Notes)
Apart from the basics of the old RSC pk system, there are also some other things that are of note.
Server Hopping
At first Rs only had one server so even if a character logged out to avoid combat, they would eventually have to log back in at the exact same spot. This led to some pkers just waiting at that spot for the character to log back in.
When RS had more servers, players could now avoid combat simply by running away,logging out of that server and then logging onto another server.
Magic and Pures
It's hard to believe now, but back then magic was considered weak by many, especially in f2p. Players would therefore make "pure" characters. These were characters that had high strength, attack and hp for their combat level but low magic. Sometimes the pure chars would also have low defense for their combat level.
This also led to the creation of what are called "mains" and "pures" since people like to have magic (it's always been good for doing skills) on their main character, typically a high level char. Then they would make a pure which no magic but high melee stats and a lower combat level.
1-iteming and Prayer Beasts
Yes, 1-iteming was also a problem in RSC. There was even a special kind of character, called a Prayer Beast (PB). This is a pure pker type with 1 defense and 13 magic (so that he could protect item). With these stats, the PB could pk cheaply, without risking losing any valuable items and yet get a lot of kills.
Of course, with their 1 def, they would be hit a lot but since they had higher hp than other types of pkers, they had much higher str and att. This meant they could hit higher and more often than other pkers their own combat level. They could also survive being hit a lot since they had more hp than other chars.
Rune Player Smithed Items
During RSC, the armor was rune (and dragon in p2p). While dragon was a rare drop or a quest item, rune items had to be player smithed. Since they were not sold in shops, rune was very valuable.
Kills were very exciting then because of the value of the items players dropped when they died. It was very possible to get a kill worth 1m or more. If you died with very valuable stuff... well just imagine what it would be like to die with armor worth as much as everything in your bank.
Group Pking or Teams
The entire wilderness was multicombat for range and magic. Only one person at a time could attack with melee but if you had a group, all of you could attack the same player with range and magic at the same time, provided the wilderness level allowed it.
You might wonder if people would just pk with huge groups 24/7 then but this is actually not the case. The pk community valued soloing or solo kills rather than group kills. The most common would be solo pkers while there were many pairs and groups of 3. Groups of 4 or more were very rare.
Here you have a picture of a clan pk, specifically Brotherhood of Steel, an old Russian clan from Runescape Classic. The green capes were for identification. This was a rare event back then which is why the picture taker, Fook a Ji, kept this pic and showed it off.
Cheating, Bots, Autoers, etc.
Cheaters have always been around. No, it is not true that 90% of RSC players botted, this is absolutely false. It was only after Jagex stopped updating and moderating RSC that it was taken over by botters. When RSC was the main game, there were only a few botters and mostly lower leveled ones.
When RSC was the only version of Rs around, we never had 50+ botters woodcutting, this is a purely RS2 phenomenon. RSC definitely had cheaters but only in much smaller scale.
However, when RSC was the main game, Jagex would regularly update with anti-cheat detection systems. Jagex mods also did manual detection and investigations of botters.
Analysis
As you can no doubt see from the points listed above, actually the system was not perfect and there were ways to outsmart the system to your advantage. Prayer beasts, pures, teams, etc. were all specific styles of player killing made to improve the pker's chances of getting a kill.
Server Hopping
At first Rs only had one server so even if a character logged out to avoid combat, they would eventually have to log back in at the exact same spot. This led to some pkers just waiting at that spot for the character to log back in.
When RS had more servers, players could now avoid combat simply by running away,logging out of that server and then logging onto another server.
Magic and Pures
It's hard to believe now, but back then magic was considered weak by many, especially in f2p. Players would therefore make "pure" characters. These were characters that had high strength, attack and hp for their combat level but low magic. Sometimes the pure chars would also have low defense for their combat level.
This also led to the creation of what are called "mains" and "pures" since people like to have magic (it's always been good for doing skills) on their main character, typically a high level char. Then they would make a pure which no magic but high melee stats and a lower combat level.
1-iteming and Prayer Beasts
Yes, 1-iteming was also a problem in RSC. There was even a special kind of character, called a Prayer Beast (PB). This is a pure pker type with 1 defense and 13 magic (so that he could protect item). With these stats, the PB could pk cheaply, without risking losing any valuable items and yet get a lot of kills.
Of course, with their 1 def, they would be hit a lot but since they had higher hp than other types of pkers, they had much higher str and att. This meant they could hit higher and more often than other pkers their own combat level. They could also survive being hit a lot since they had more hp than other chars.
Rune Player Smithed Items
During RSC, the armor was rune (and dragon in p2p). While dragon was a rare drop or a quest item, rune items had to be player smithed. Since they were not sold in shops, rune was very valuable.
Kills were very exciting then because of the value of the items players dropped when they died. It was very possible to get a kill worth 1m or more. If you died with very valuable stuff... well just imagine what it would be like to die with armor worth as much as everything in your bank.
Group Pking or Teams
The entire wilderness was multicombat for range and magic. Only one person at a time could attack with melee but if you had a group, all of you could attack the same player with range and magic at the same time, provided the wilderness level allowed it.
You might wonder if people would just pk with huge groups 24/7 then but this is actually not the case. The pk community valued soloing or solo kills rather than group kills. The most common would be solo pkers while there were many pairs and groups of 3. Groups of 4 or more were very rare.
Very large groups like 20+ almost never pked, they would only be found during clan wars. Clans were also fairly small, a 30-member clan would already be considered large.
Here you have a picture of a clan pk, specifically Brotherhood of Steel, an old Russian clan from Runescape Classic. The green capes were for identification. This was a rare event back then which is why the picture taker, Fook a Ji, kept this pic and showed it off.
Cheating, Bots, Autoers, etc.
Cheaters have always been around. No, it is not true that 90% of RSC players botted, this is absolutely false. It was only after Jagex stopped updating and moderating RSC that it was taken over by botters. When RSC was the main game, there were only a few botters and mostly lower leveled ones.
When RSC was the only version of Rs around, we never had 50+ botters woodcutting, this is a purely RS2 phenomenon. RSC definitely had cheaters but only in much smaller scale.
However, when RSC was the main game, Jagex would regularly update with anti-cheat detection systems. Jagex mods also did manual detection and investigations of botters.
Analysis
As you can no doubt see from the points listed above, actually the system was not perfect and there were ways to outsmart the system to your advantage. Prayer beasts, pures, teams, etc. were all specific styles of player killing made to improve the pker's chances of getting a kill.
Jagex did not change the pk system to get rid of 1-itemers, pures, teams, lurers and other such strategies at that time. Players simply had to deal with whatever happened without Jagex's intervention. In other words, if pkers were 1-iteming, the other pkers just had to be stronger, smarter and more skilled than them.
In my opinion, there will never be a perfect pk system that is fair to all. Somehow, someone will always find a way to make a better/faster/cheaper/stronger/etc. type of pker so it is useless to keep on changing the system to eliminate styles of pking. It's enough to make it fun!
What is fun? Read on to the third part.
Do post your comments and opinions about these issues.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Runescape Classic Pking and Why It Was So Good (part 1: The Basics)
Runescape Classic Pking
Parts 1 and 2 deal with basic things for those who have never experienced Runescape Classic pking so those who already know about it can skip that and go straight to part 3 for my analysis and commentary.
In Rsc there were two eras of pking : Pk Everywhere and Wilderness Pking
PK Everywhere!
With the recents problems that Runescape has had over Player vs Player (PvP) content or what we used to call Player Killing (Pking), I thought I would look back and identify what we used to love about Runescape pking. Who knows, this might help players think of better pvp ideas.
Parts 1 and 2 deal with basic things for those who have never experienced Runescape Classic pking so those who already know about it can skip that and go straight to part 3 for my analysis and commentary.
In Rsc there were two eras of pking : Pk Everywhere and Wilderness Pking
PK Everywhere!
At first there were two types of players Player Killers (Pkers) and non-Player Killers. Pkers are those who can be attacked by other pkers who are within three (was it four? lol) levels of their own, except in certain safe areas such as inside towns.
In the picture (click on it to see a bigger picture), you can see a big war in the Barbarian Village with pkers and non-pk spectators. In the background is a forum post about the war.
If a player did not want to be attacked by others, he simply toggled off his pk option and no one would be able to attack him. However, you could only toggle this twice. So if you switched to pk then panicked and switched back to non-pk (normally while being attacked and dying to a pker), you would be stuck in non-pk forever.
This is probably the original reason why people made separate skiller and pker characters in Rs. Obviously, if you were doing skills like mining or crafting, you wouldn't like to be pked so it would be good to skill on a non-pk char while making another char that was a pker so as to enjoy competing with other players.
Since there were also level requirements regarding who you were able to attack, players made not just one pker but several of different levels.
Note that when players died in RSC, they drop their items and these are looted by the pkers.
Wilderness Pking
Not everyone was really happy with the Pk system so Jagex proposed a new and improved PK experience: the Wilderness. A player poll was made and the RS players voted to remove the old system and make the wilderness.
Simply put, now pking was limited to an area, not a type of character. Any player now could bring their character to the new place, called the wilderness and pk there. All non-wilderness areas were now impossible to pk in.
Level requirements were still in place but in a new way. The southernmost part of the wilderness was level 1 and you could only attack players who were within 1 combat level of your character. The farther north you went, the higher the wilderness level. Therefore in this system the player was less limited and could attack people plus or minus 1 to 45-50+ (depending on whether you were in f2p or p2p) combat levels of their own character.
This removed the need for the pk and non-pk character types.
Essentials of Runescape Classic Pking
Kill and loot. The system is very basic and easy to understand. You pk and if you are lucky enough to get a kill, you get whatever your kill drops. Those who do not have a skull will lose all but their 3 best items while those who are skulled lose everything. Protect items prayer allows the player to keep 1 additional item when he dies.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
New state of RS after Dec 2007
On December 2007 Jagex announced their anti-RWT (Real World trading) updates which have drastically changed the way RS is now played. Trade restrictions and the Grand Exchange have limited the exchange of items between players. The Wilderness as a player killing area was also removed. Stake duels are still possible but very limited.
Of course, like many other Runescapers, I was not happy about these updates. I will be leaving members for a while because of my dissatisfaction with recent changes.
During the time when the changes were announced, there was mass hysteria in the various fan forums and, predictably, the RS official forums. At the time I noticed various trends of the replies of players who supported the updates. Here are my observations of the various RSOF poster types:
Of course, like many other Runescapers, I was not happy about these updates. I will be leaving members for a while because of my dissatisfaction with recent changes.
During the time when the changes were announced, there was mass hysteria in the various fan forums and, predictably, the RS official forums. At the time I noticed various trends of the replies of players who supported the updates. Here are my observations of the various RSOF poster types:
We have all read the rants about people who complain excessively each time there is an update. What about other types of posters though? Let's categorize them.
Daddy Knows Best
He is firmly on the side of game developers and views them as the ultimate god-like authority on everything whose will must never be questioned. He feels emotionally attached to dev team and often comments on their "hard work" and how sorry he is that people flame devs. To him all players who complain are just crybabies or ungrateful kids who don't appreciate the effort being made for them by the game companies. He regards the game as the sole property of devs and players should be grateful that game makers allow them to play their game.
Give It Time
No matter what the complaint is, he always responds with "give it time." Even if people are dying in droves to unfair players, according to this poster all players have to do is to give it time and everything will be hunky-dorky. Due to the nature of MMORPGs, over the long run this poster is often proven right as most players will likely prove to be sufficiently addicted to the game to continue playing so eventually even the worst controversies will blow over in time.
"A Kenyan man once said to me, 'You can get used to anything.' He used to stick mice up his ass for twenty bucks a time."
Wannabe Mods
These posters may be similar to the Daddy Knows Best variety but their motives are much less pure. Whether it is the official forums or a fan forum, they stick up for authority figures and are always anxious that all the rules are always followed to the letter. A common refrain of theirs is "mods should," for example "mods should lock this" or "mods should move this to rants." Another hallmark of the Wannabe Mods is their constant quoting and reminders to others of the rules.
Ranters Who Rant About Ranting
A special breed of poster who posts only because he wants people to shut up. He hates rants yet he reads them a lot and can't stay away from them so his constant pet peeve is "people who rant" even though his own posts are are as incoherent as the rants he professes to hate. Whether they realize it or not, these posters start an endless cycle of ranting. First there are ranters, then ranters who rant about ranters, then ranters who rant about those who rant about ranters, then ranters ranting about ranters who rant about those who rant about ranters, and so on. The cycle is endless and ridiculous in the extreme. They often have no sense of humor and answer seriously even the most ridiculous posts about rants because their posting time is completely taken up with ranters.
Best Update Ever
Much like stores in real life that seem to have the "best sale" or "lowest prices" every time they have a sale, for every update there are posters who love it so much they declare it the "best update ever." Whether they have been playing the game for 1 week, 1 month or 1 year, they confidently proclaim the update to be the "best ever" and thank the game developers for their genius update. Sometimes they painstakingly list each and every positive point of an update, no matter how small it is, just to emphasize why this one is the "best update ever."
The Perennial Kisser of Behinds/Bootlicker
One of the most common of posters, this one just wants to suck up to mods and game developers so he can score brownie points. Privately he may have his doubts but publicly he always makes it a point to stand up and be counted as a supporter of each update and, by extension, game developers. He likes to refer to people by their first names or nicknames even if these people have never spoken to him personally. In his mind, he views complainers as fools because complainers never get anything. He regards himself as smart because he knows game developers have the only real power in the MMORPG so he is always on the winning side.
Bow Down to Him, for He is the Great One
If a pmod, mod or game developer should post, this poster goes into raptures over him. Ecstatically going along with whatever mods or devs say, this poster's goal is to make friends or have a connection with his idols. Squeeling "omg you posted, you posted, I love you so much and this game, thank you!" like a star-struck fan, this poster only wants to love and be loved in return.
Me, Myself and I
This poster feels it is important to post that since the update or controversy doesn't involve him, he doesn't care about it. 99% of players might be affected but he wants people to know that he isn't directly troubled by it therefore it's great to be him. He admits that it might suck for other players but as long as his own playing style is untouched he is happy.
Substitute Posters
Has your training area been completely ruined by an update? There are other places. Is your character now obsolete? There are other types of characters. Are your skills now unprofitable? There are other skills. This poster has the answer to everything because to him each aspect of the game can be easily replaced by another aspect. He is the type of player who enjoys doing everything so he simply cannot understand why people whine when their favorite things are taken away. After all, there is always something else to do.
Let's See YOU Make One
This poster thinks every complaint is invalid because they were not made by a game developer. His motto is "if you can't make a better game then shut up." He likes to ask other posters if they think they can do better than challenges them to develop their own game. He doesn't even care about what the other poster's complaint is, he just thinks all complaints by non-game devs are inherently invalid.
Marquis de Sade's Brother
To the sadistic poster, human suffering is sweeter than mother's milk. The more people complain and whine, the better he likes it. Common examples of posts are titled "LMFAO, Pkers owned by update" or "Don't you just love it when nerds cry?" These posters thrive on pain and chaos. He loved riots and posts on quitting posts by saying "goodbye and good riddance." Sarcasm is his favored tool and harsh posts by other people delight him. He is the the player hater of MMORPGs. He may hate merchants, skillers, duellers, pkers, boss teams, veterans, wealthy or any other type of player, but one thing is for sure, he hates them with a vitriolic vigor. Frequently he hates them because he has had bad experiences with these types of player before or perhaps he just envies them.
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