Gielinor Tribune: 14th Edition (Dec. 1st)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ December 1st, 2007 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Gielinor Tribune is the oldest Player-made Runescape Newspaper on Tip.it (Tip.it Times does not count). We've been working hard since May 2007 (the first opening) to make the best RS Newspaper out there and to always keep our reader's expectations. 1. Gielinor Tribune News by Book(GT Manager) 2. The Grand Exchange by Randox 3. The Critic's Choice: New Bank of Runescape by The Critic 4. Interview of Cripplebro99 by Old_Ducky 5. The Real Chosen Commander by Andufus 6. Comic by Dkw0101 7. Runescape and Java by Guest, Llamster 8. FREE PS3's!!!! by Firsttsurugi 9. Imponderables by Book (unorclan on tip.it) 10. The Drunken Dwarf's Tip.iter Pick! by Yours Truly 11. Gielinor Tribune Accepting Guest Articles 12. Gielinor Tribune Staff List ~ Part One: Gielinor Tribune News by Book Gielinor Tribune Released a Week Early Some of you may of noticed that this edition of the Gielinor Tribune is being released a week early than our normal schedule. We used to post new editions every Saturday in the beginning stages, but then with new Staff employments and our readers expectations for better and more material we had to move to an edition everyother Saturday. But now, with more active and harder working Staff along with a better Management team, ect. we have -*test*-('")ed the abilities of our Staff and, yes, we have succeeded! Plus, with the release of the Grand Exchange we really wanted to get an article out there for our readers to enjoy. Now...enjoy! - Book (unorclan) Gielinor Tribune Manager New Gielinor Tribune Support Sigs! ? [URL=http://z7.invisionfree.com/GielinorTribune/index.php?][IMG]http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n296/willowstorm641/GielinorTribune.png[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://z7.invisionfree.com/GielinorTribune/index.php][IMG]http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n296/willowstorm641/GielinorTribuneReadToday.png[/IMG][/url] [URL=http://z7.invisionfree.com/GielinorTribune/index.php?act=idx][IMG]http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/9788/1195945845qh0.gif[/IMG][/URL] ENJOY! - Book(Unorclan) Gielinor Tribune Manager P.S. Curious about how the CAP's coming along? It's going great! But as you might of read in the first article on the GT News, we only had 1 week to do this so getting it released was clearly not an option for the mass amount of time needed to complete it. ~ Part Two: The Grand Exchange by Randox This week’s article will focus entirely on the newly released Grand Exchange. I would like to start with my surprise (and displeasure) at the sheer number of complaints directed at the Grand Exchange. After only 4 hours there were posts on the official forums and multiple fan sites complaining about two things. The first was how the prices weren’t updating which just shows that they didn’t read or didn’t understand the news announcement which stated that the exchange will only update about once per day. The second complaint was about the funny prices of many items that were not really close to the player market at all. All I can say about the second point is that if you expected Jagex to get them all right on the first try, you have another thing coming your way. Now there was a third complaint, which normally came up in topics that were about the problems stated above. This was the +/- 5% limit. This was absolutely necessary for many reasons. The first was that Real World Item Trading could have greatly benefited by using extreme prices to transfer money. Next, since the exchange updates it prices based on trades, price manipulation would be very easy. The once a day update does mean that it will take longer for price corrections to occur. The reasoning behind this is likely something of fairness and accuracy. This means people in all time zones can enjoy the same price as everyone else in a 24 hour period. Also, the more data collected between updates, the more accurate the price changes will be. Jagex has taken great care with their safeguards. First the shop prices of items will shift as necessary so that the selling price is never lower than the maximum exchange price, and the by price will never be above the low limit of the exchange price. Price manipulation is difficult both because of the update speed, and possible safeguards in the system. Jagex has not specified what the safeguards are, but have assured the public they exist. Now there are a couple ways to calculate the new item price. The first is an average of the gold people paid for an item in that 24 hour period. However Jagex has also likely come up with a supply and demand formula as an addition. This allows items that are not being bought or sold to adjust their prices without any trades at all. A high number of buy requests (regardless of money offered) demonstrates more demand. The money offered is actually trivial in this calculation, because if no one can get the item, they will offer more anyways. Now if lots of people are trying to sell an item (regardless of price) then this tells the system high supply. Now if these 2 things are close to being balanced than minimal price change is needed, but if you get a high supply vs. demand the exchange will lower the price till the items start selling. Now if demand is high vs. supply then the exchange will raise the price until it is worth it for sellers to start selling the item. Now the entire exchange could work on that principal if it was balanced correctly, but I suspect that both systems work in tandem to generate the new price. Some people have expressed concern about Jagex manually manipulating prices. Assuming they keep their word they will only intervene to correct price manipulation, or a price that is not adapting they way it should. So enjoy the new feature, and remember that the Jagex people are human and so they make mistakes. Also, most Grand Exchange prices should correct themselves by Christmas. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Honest1 Productions Events Team are always recruiting. Please stop in and check us out, and be part of a commuity dedicated to fun. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ !NEW! Part Three: The Critic's Choice: New Bank of Runescape by The Critic Welcome to the very first article of the newest addition to the Gielinor Tribune, The Critic's Choice by no other than the one and only The Critic! Welcome! Hope everyone enjoys this article, and can take my opinion, good or bad, lightly and I, myself, will try not to get to serious about some things. Thanks! Today, as I browsed around the Tip.it forums looking for the very perfect thread that could be my first victim for The Critic's Choice, I decided to venture into popular Runescape Bugs and Suggestions forum. I scrolled up and down the first page looking for a thread I've either heard of before or what looked like a good, organized, and popular suggestion. More F2P Bankspace, nah, I'll take them on later, New Bank of Runescape....ah! Yes, I've seen the support sigs and skimmed over the thread suggestion before. It looked very interesting now, because it had the attractive "**UPDATED**" signs on each side of the thread name. I opened it up and develed into it carefully looking over the pictures and each idea considering it greatly. Before I get into the topic revealing the goods and the bads, let me help all those forumers that have been living under a rock since November 12th 2005.......Have no idea what this suggestion is and want to know more? Click here to be directly linked to the forum thread. Now, what you have all been wating for....this is what I have to say about the new bank suggestion: The Idea: The idea of having a cleaner, better organized, and easier to use bank is a very old one indeed. This suggestion strikes the heart of that idea, the essence of it all. With the option to organize your items in different sections by either skill, quest, holiday/random event items is a basic and obvious idea but clearly shown with great detail in this suggestion. Bank Slots: There are 14 bank "slots" as to organize your items as said before. There are slots for magic, armor, weapons, ranging, fishing, quest, herblore, construction, mining, holiday/radom event items, and woodcutting/fletching slot. Now, in order to cut down on the amount of time and memory put into this new bank, I think it would be much more reasonable to add the armor and weapons slot together along with the magic and range together. It would be more effective and you wouldn't have so many buttons to click on to find your things. The Bin: The Bin is an option for you to drag your items over and drop them on top of the "bin image" and those items then drop onto the floor. There is also the option of highlighting the bin image and then clicking whichever items in your bank and dropping them that way, too. The idea of this is great and would be very useful for quick-clearing your bank of unwanted junk. There is also the great addition of having a confirmation screen before you drop your first item in that particular "banking session". This would save a lot of people's items who might accidently drop something valuable without noticing. I might recommend that you have the option to close the bin if you want to so you don't drop something in there on accident even after the first confirmation screen. Other: The other small parts added in the suggestion are things like the "Space Left" image at the bottom, telling you how much room you have left in your bank. This would incredibly help merchants and skillers alike so that they have the firm knowledge of how much space they have left before they make a big buy or smelt a large amount of bars. Then theres the lock/unlock option. As said in the suggestion thread, I completely agree - this feature is very useful in keeping your bank sorted. The lock/unlock feature is the simple option of locking that certain item in it's spot so each time you access your bank and put items in that certain item stays in place and the rest of the items fill in around it. Pictures: The pictures of this bank have recently been updated in October supplying even a better and more organized view of the new banking idea. Since I'm not a graphic artist, there's not much I can say except they are great. There are a few empty parts that need to be dealt with and filled in with something, but other than that, they are wonderful! And this is the conclusion to the very first article of The Critic's Choice, thanks for reading. ~ Part Four: Interview of Cripplebro99 by Old_Ducky Hello Cripple, I'm with the Gielinor Tribune, and I would like to interview you! When did you begin playing Runescape? Cripple: I started playing Runescape sometime in January 2004, and have never stopped since. Are there any goals you're hoping to accomplish? Cripple: Well, I'm hoping to finish all the inventory achievements. By that I mean to complete all quests, the Achievement Diary, all prayers, music, ect. How long have you and that goal? Cripple: I've had this goal for about 4 months, and I'm just about 1/4 done. When did you find Tip.It's forums? Cripple: Although I'm not sure of the exact date, it was sometime in the summer of 2004. Did you find the Tip.it Skill Guides on the main page, or the forums? Cripple: If you mean that I used the main pages resources before using the forum resources, then yes. Do you play Runescape in-game more than you view Tip.It? If one, explain why. Cripple: Well, I'm pretty sure I've spent more hours in game, then on Tip.It, but, maybe in awhile, it'll probably be equal as I spend a little bit more time on Tip.It then Runescape nowadays. Do you enjoy being a TET Member? Cripple: Of coruse. We plan events for the whole Tip.It community, which is awesome in itself, and sometimes get up to 200 players at our events! Have you ever wished to not be one for any reasons of stress or no time? Cripple: Nope, ever since I've started, it’s been a ton of fun. The other TET members are some amazing people, and we have some great times. How did you choose your username? Cripple: Well, my brother started playing before me, when he broke his ankle, and he introduced the game to me. He also chose my username, so I had no choice! Hence the "Cripple" as in broken ankle, and "Bro" as in brother, and the "99" because I'm amazing like that. Is there anything you'd like to add? Cripple: Tip.It has a great community of players, some amazingly helpful guides, calculators, a whole lot of other stuff, and come to Tip.It Events Team Events! Well, thanks for letting me have the time to interview you! Cripple: No problem, thank you! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ forumer.com/> Come join the Land of Guthix, the NEW RuneScape Forum. This forum contains discussion topics, a market place, off-topic discussions, and even a place to put your own artwork! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ Part Five: The Real Chosen Commander by Andufus Note. This is not based during the current RuneScape. This is before Zanik’s time. So, yes, I already know Zanik is the commander. Chapter One: Goblin Caves. Outside, dusk was setting, but unaware of this; the goblins pranced around as if it were mid morning. Tonight was a night for celebration. A baby had been born to the high priest’s daughter. A fire crackled merrily in the centre of the great goblin caves. A high stack of gifts, varying from buttons to reels of thread was piled to the right of it. The mother sat on a log in front of the fire. Wrapped in a brown bundle of cloth, the sleeping goblin kin gurgled softly. He had an odd birthmark on his forehead, an odd symbol that none of the goblins recognized, a triangle, with three marks meeting in the centre and extending out of each of the ends. Although puzzled by it, the mother chose to ignore it, and thought of the warrior he would become. A large crashing noise echoed through the caves, and the female goblin looked up, eyes fierce, locating the source of the noise. It was DarkThumb, tripping over a pile of pots and pans. She fixed him with a glare that could make Jad whimper. He smiled apologetically, and then placed a large oak shield on top of the pile of presents. Into it was carved the symbol on the baby’s forehead. The glare disappeared, and she beckoned to DarkThumb. He walked over gingerly to her, and sat beside her on the rock. “Where did you find that shield?” “It was an artifact in some surface museum. I stole it for you, thought you might be interested.” “I am.” Suddenly, the baby gurgled, but the mother ignored it. The eye lids flickered open, and amber pupils flashed with anger. Suddenly, the flame in the room expanded, and the gift pile set a light. The cheers turned to screams, the dance turned to a frenzied run away from the growing fire. The mother held the baby tight, hugging its back and started to run, as soon as she looked into the babies eyes, the flames died instantly. Confused, she walked backwards to inspect the damage done. The ground was charred, and the gift pile burnt to cinders, apart from one of them, a small wooden shield with a peculiar sign on it. This made the female goblin shudder, and she picked it up. She walked slowly, with the new born in her hands and trying to balance the shield as well into the temple. Her father was sitting on the throne as usual, and smiled at her as she passed and entered the high priest’s chambers. Once in her dormitories, she lay the baby down on the bed. Examining the shield in more detail, she placed it next to the baby. She pulled out her old notes on symbols from the history lessons her father had secretly given her. For it was against Bandos’s commandments to learn more than one should know. She turned back to see the tiny goblin clinging to the edge of the shield. His fore head was glowing and so was the shield. Shocked, she dropped the notes and ran for the guards. By the time they arrived in the room, the notes were gone, and so was the shield. The baby was out of its cloth, and wearing tiny goblin mail. It was giggling as it blew tiny spit bubbles. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Do you like to play games other than Runescape but can't find a fun place to talk about them with follow players? Come over to My Game Boards and talk about those games with a great community of fellow players! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ Part Six: Comic by Dkw0101 ~ Part Seven: Runescape and Java, by Guest Llamster Sent in by Guest Llamster, Thanks Llamster! RuneScape is programmed in Java. RuneScape also has very substandard graphics, perhaps the worst 3D graphics you'll find in any video game, regardless of genre. Naturally, many people find a connection between these two facts. "RuneScape's graphics may suck, but they're great for Java" "Jagex is incredible. No one can create better graphics with Java than they do with RuneScape" "Give RuneScape a break. I mean, it's programmed in Java. Of course the graphics are going to suck..." etc. All of these comments share one thing: THEY'RE ALL WRONG. I'm not going to say that Java is as good or even better than C++ (the most commonly used language for games), because it isn't. Java was designed to be simple and user-friendly, while C++ was designed to be powerful and efficient, perfect for gaming. When Java was created back in the '90s, it was an inefficient language, great for writing simple programs, but not much else. Right now, however, in 2007, Java is in its sixth version. Its capabilities have vastly improved, according to a friend of mine who is a Java programmer. Obviously, Java is still much less capable of creating great graphics as The Holy Spectacularly Awesome C++, but it is certainly capable of creating graphics far superior to RuneScape's. Java can't do this... But it sure can do this. As a matter of fact, that screenshot is Java. It was taken from Wurm Online, an MMORPG programmed entirely in Java. So, where does this leave RuneScape? If Java can create half-decent graphics, then why does RuneScape still look like a bad claymation? There are a number of reasons, the most important one being that it is a browser-based game. There's a limit to the amount of information you can place on a browser compared to games that you have to download, so obviously Jagex can't have Wurm-style graphics on RS. The second reason would be the game engine (the software element that does all the calculations necessary to keep a video game running). RuneScape's current engine is based off the 2D engine that a Cambridge University undergraduate named Andrew Gower (you probably haven't heard of him :D ) designed. It has gone through two major overhauls , one with the release of RS2 that allowed for fully 3D graphics, the second in 2006 that allowed for the graphics updates we're currently receiving, as well as numerous smaller upgrades. Despite all the updates, the engine is not powerful at all, and I have a feeling that Jagex is far too stubborn too replace it with one of those industry-standard game engines that you can buy from software companies. So, the next time someone makes a remark about RuneScape's graphics, don't say "They're great for Java". Say "They're great for a browser game." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Anti-Knights Mining Co. strives to give our workers the pay they deserve. Offering 115gp ea pay for iron ore (just one of our great prices!) it's no wonder we're as successful as we are. Do you want to work for AKMC? Just click on the ad above ^^ and post an application today! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ Part Eight: FREE PS3's!!!!! by Firsttsurugi Now that i've got your attention.... Section 1: Words of Advice If you think the Duel Arena update was the worst update in the history of Runescape... just read section 3. 1. If you want to get an item but don't really want to go out of your way to stand there typing in the same thing over and over again, go to the Grand Exchange. You can do whatever you want after you've placed in your "order" and then go to a bank as soon as you see the message on your screen and pick up the item. 2. If you want to have some fun, change your character to that of the opposite gender and go to any place that you know is full of idiots. I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this. 3. Don't blame the Chinese for everything. I'm sure there are people in your country ruining the game, too! The Chinese just happen to be good at getting unwanted attention, apparently. 3. Don't give up. If at first you don't succeed at something in Runescape... get your stats up, THEN try, try again. 4. Come to the Gielinor Tribune forums to see a smiley of Goku holding a LOL! sign! Section 2: You Know You're a Noob If - You try to sell bronze for 1 bil. You wonder why you can't get that Ford Mustang GT that you downloaded off The Sims 2 website onto Runescape. I only recently figured out why I couldn't get it onto The Sims 2 (needed Nightlife). Those idiots said I only required the original game! You shout out "Party at my place" near a house portal, and then it turns out you haven't even built your first chair. That's not funny! Or at least not for the victims... You start labeling people who do things that you don't as noobs. That's why one of my past ones actually described something I did. :lol: You smash your keyboard into the computer monitor because someone else took your coal. Section 3: Duel Arena: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly The Ugly: This is the fact that Jagex made an update that effectively destroyed a means to effectively get gold pieces. This update made Jagex look its worst in ages (hence the reason it is the Ugly), and they thought they were brilliant! The Bad: This is the people who ranted about how the people working at Jagex Tower screwed up big time and that they extremely out-of-touch. I know this is probably where the major, and I mean MAJOR flaming will start, but you have to think, did Jagex really need to kill this means of money making? This question leads me to the next part. And The Good: This is, believe it or not, Jagex, themselves. Now, I admit, I registered on to Runescape long after the update introducing the original Duel Arena, but from what I gather, it was made as something entirely different from what it became before this new update. It was a means to show off your combat skills, weapons, and armor without the risk of losing it all. Sure, we could stake, but I'm sure Jagex made staking simply to add an optional risk. Everybody loves to take a little risk, and without staking, there would be no risk. What happened, instead, was that the risk escalated so that, while you were guaranteed the armor and weapons you were wearing, you could pretty much spend you're whole banks-worth of expensive or even moderately expensive "emergency" items. This, as well as being a more subtle means for Real-World Trading, has made Jagex worry about the Duel Arena. People left just because they couldn't make as much money, though they could still make money, just in smaller increments, but the old Duel Arena meant that you ran the risk of losing all the money that you were so sure you could gain, making you even more broke than before. Believe it or not, this was actually a very smart decision by Jagex (though I do think Real-World Trading was just a scapegoat). Ending Scene: Mistake takes physical form, ranters and Jagex both take on their own forms as one being, each of them equipped with a western-style revolver. They take their place on the circle of stones, the look at each other, wondering who they are going to shoot first. Then, all of a sudden, they draw! Jagex and the mistake both go for the ranters, while the ranters, strangely enough, go for Jagex. Jagex shoots them before they can take their shot, while the mistake realizes that its gun is empty. The ranters are still alive, and they try to take that shot, but Jagex shoots them again, and they roll into the empty grave. The Winner: Jagex! That concludes my blah....oh, yeah, about the PS3's....you seriously think I was being serious? ~ Part Nine: Imponderables by Book - How does aspirin find a headache? - Can starfish swim? - Do wasps sleep? - If an elephant layed on it's side, could it get back up? - Who was the first to "through in the towel"? - What determines if its "Spic and Span" or just clean? - What does the name "nick" have to do with time? - Why are covered bridges...covered? And some not? - Why do woman move in herds or packs when going to the bathroom? - Why don't we ever find cockroaches in a car full of food and wrappers? Some Older Ones: - When it rains, why don't sheep shrink? - If a trainstation is where a train stops, whats a workstation? - Why are there locks on the doors of a store that's open 24/7 365 days a year? - How do "stay off the grass" signs get there? - Who first claimed a rabbit foot is lucky and why? - Why is SCOTLAND Yard in London? That's all for this edition! PART TEN Congratulations PhaperPlane, The Drunken Dwarf has picked you as Tip.iter of the week! You have also recieved a pint of beer and kebab tray from the Drunken Dwarf as his personal gift! Cross your fingers, be nice to the Drunken Dwarf and check out the next editon to see if YOU'RE his next pick! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Isle of Crandor, a Runescape Discussion Board and archive of Runescape News. Please Do Not be discouraged by the low amount of posts, we need active members like You! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Gielinor Tribune is Now Accepting Guest Articles! Feel free to write anything you'd like and PM it to me and it just might be posted in our next edition! ~ Part: Say 'Ello to the Gielinor Tribune Staff! Welcome.... Junka666 (Owner), Book-unorclan- (Manager), Randox (Co-Manager & News Commentator), Packer15 (Editor), 25_leaf (Editor and Consultant), Andufus-andufusthebronze- (Creative Writer), Honest1 (Creative Writer), Firsttsurugi (Blah! Writer), Moneyman6369 (Blah! Writer), Dkw0101 (Comic Artist), Old Ducky (Interviewer), Evil_wisp (Graphic Artist & Marketplace Writer), Azure (Creative Writer), annnd Digitale (Graphics Artist)! Key: Red - Legendary, been on Staff for a long time Blue - Newbie, recently joined the staff. Purple - Admin and Lengendary Staff member Questions or Comments? Visit the Gielinor Tribune Forums today!