RuneScape Forum Archive

Miles Letum

Posts: 3,644 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

In a strange, exciting way, Mike liked the new update; it brought something to RuneScape that he hadn’t felt while playing it in a long time – uncertainty. Mike had really gotten the hang of the game around when he hit fifty combat; ever since then, he pretty much known where everything was on the map, and where you had to go to do what. This feeling had worsened by time he reached the one hundred combat milestone, at which point he could probably write a documentary on the game. However, once he reached his current combat level, one hundred and twenty eight, he was sure that there was nothing new and exciting for him to do, and probably wouldn’t be until a new skill was released.
“Ready?” popped up the message in his clan chat, from Joker.
Courtney typed: “Are you guys going on another raid?”
“Yeah… we’ve already looted a couple million worth of goods.” Mike replied.
Courtney responded with a sad face, and then said, “Leave the poor goblins alone!”
Joker typed in, “If you guys are sitting right next to each other, why are you communicating through RuneScape?”
Mike looked at Courtney, who had a piece of pizza in her mouth, and said, “You know, he’s got a good point!”
--
Slowly but surely, the RuneScape community had been truly adapting to the new updates; yeah, they were still disgusted that they couldn’t respawn after death or create a new account, but so far the rewards had been worth the risk… As Mike and Joker found out, a player could loot millions from a single raid on a goblin village; risk-seekers had even reported using the forums that raiding a dragon’s den could give you twelve-million flat, no questions asked. What they did*’t know was that they were looting the items (in cash form) of fallen players.

18-Aug-2009 15:02:59 - Last edited on 09-Jul-2010 16:58:53 by Miles Letum

Miles Letum

Posts: 3,644 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

--
“There’s still time to change the road you’re on!”
Mike slowly worked his way out of sleep and sat up in his bed.
“The piper’s calling you to join him!”
He looked over at his alarm clock that was blaring Stairway to Heaven and shut it off; he glanced at his nightstand to his left, and did*’t see a little note on a stick-pad. His parents were still away on a business trip.
So, he strolled over to his computer and went to RuneScape’s home site; without looking at what the new article was, he flipped a Pop-Tart into his toaster. Turning his attention back to his computer, he quickly glanced at the series of words that were written in bold font across the banner of the site.
“You’ve got to be fricking kidding me.” He mumbled.
--
Timbo mercilessly beat his forehead with his fist as he sat in his cubicle, next to Emilee.
“Tim, take it easy, babe. We’ll figure this out…” Emilee said, trying to comfort him.
Timbo slammed both his fists on his desk, and lifted his head up to the ceiling.
“I don’t know who created this thing; I don’* what this thing is; I don’t know what it wants; but I do know one thing, when I catch that little program’s ass, I’m going to kill it.”
--
Mark H took a long, deep breath, and exhaled softly.
“How are we going to beat this thing?” he asked Poppy, who was seated next to him.
“Just what exactly happened? I was in the restroom when it was uploaded, and since then everyone has just been in a panic!” Poppy whispered.
“This Zaros program, or at least we think it’s a program, altered some coding in the game; all the monsters of RuneScape are now programmed to team up and purge the land of all players at any cost. Our last team of J-Mods that logged in-game were wearing full Statius with an AGS. Mark sent them in as a last-gasp attempt at controlling the hoards of creatures pouring into cities.” Mark H explained.

18-Aug-2009 15:02:59 - Last edited on 07-Sep-2009 01:05:41 by Miles Letum

Miles Letum

Posts: 3,644 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“Well… what happened to them?”
“Two minutes, and thirty-six seconds.*
*What?” Poppy said, sweat beginning to form on her brow.
“They were all annihilated; they lasted two minutes and thirty-six seconds in total.” He said, looking down at the ground.
“What!? How many of them were there?” Poppy said, raising her voice.
“One Hundred, even.”
Poppy gasped. She stood up, walked around her small cubicle a bit, and then sat down.
“One Hundred J-Mods were killed with maxed combat stats wearing the best melee armor in the game, in under three minutes?*
*That is correct.”
--
“PLAYERS AWARE! MONSTERS IN-GAME WILL NOW TEAM UP ON YOU. FOR SOME REASON ALL AREAS ARE NOW MULTI-COMBAT. LOG IN AT YOUR OWN RISK. THIS IS NOT OUR (JAGEX) FAULT. THE CODE HAS ALTERED ITSELF AGAIN!” Mike read aloud to Courtney two hours later. That sentence was posted in large black print across RuneScape's banner.
“This is madness!” Courtney shouted.
“I’m going in-game, just to see what the hell this is all about…” Mike said as he logged in.
Immediately Mike was piled by several different Tormented Demons; he had been slaying them with Joker the day before. Quickly, he teleported to Camelot to avoid the onslaught that would have occurred if he had stayed.
However, Camelot did*’t provide any more comfort than the Tormented Demons had; looming in front of Mike, inside of Camelot Castle, was General Graardor.
“Jesus H. Christ!” Mike screamed as he understood the danger he was in.
He slapped on Protect from Melee as fast as he could, watching as more playing came swarming out of their hiding spaces to aid Mike in the fight. But, Graardor had come prepared; out of no where, there was suddenly a second adversary Mike had to hold off – the Kalphite Queen.

18-Aug-2009 15:03:00 - Last edited on 07-Sep-2009 01:06:41 by Miles Letum

Miles Letum

Posts: 3,644 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Courtney’s eyes grew wide as Mike barreled right through Graardor’s legs and into the Seers’ Village bank, where he grabbed enough runes to teleport to Lumbridge, which he did immediately.
Thankfully, Lumbridge was clear of enemies; but, it was not clear of players; Mike was standing in a crowd of players that must have exceeded a thousand people. Lumbridge appeared to be the only safe place left.
---

18-Aug-2009 15:03:01 - Last edited on 09-Jul-2010 17:01:01 by Miles Letum

Miles Letum

Posts: 3,644 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

The room had remained silent for what Timbo estimated to be at least three full minutes; He, Mark, Mark H, Andrew, Paul, Emilee, and Poppy were sitting around an oval conference table in one of the back rooms at Jagex Studios.
“All right, I’ll say it! We have no idea what the hell we’re going to do.” Timbo spurted out. No one replied for some time.
“We are low in numbers, inferior in technology, and completely unorganized as a community; as of now we stand no chance….” Timbo continued.
“What do you mean ‘inferior in technology’? The damn things run on the same program that the players do! How could they possibly be any stronger than our players? They have to use the same movements, spells, weapons, and armor that everyone else does!” Mark Gerhard retorted.
“That’s both correct and incorrect.” Poppy started, “Although the NPC’s and players run on the same coding, they can make decisions and react as fast as the coding allows them – which is at multiple megabytes per second. A Human simply cannot analyze a situation, make a decision, and execute as fast as they can.”
“Poppy, why are you even in here?” retaliated Mark.
“She’s in here because she’s the only main coder that has had a personal experience with both the in-game NPC’s and the Zaros Program.” Mark H explained.
“Hasn’t Andrew and Paul had the same experiences?” Gerhard continued.
The room remained silent.
“So now we’re just going to sit here and watch our game, players – hell our livelihood! – just go down the freaking drain? No. I don’t think so; someone in here has to have some sort of idea.” Mark said.
“Okay, first of all, how many active players have been confirmed to be still alive, as of now?* Emilee asked.
Andrew rustled through some notes, and then said, “We have an estimate of about one hundred thousand players that are still able to log on; that includes both members and free players.”

18-Aug-2009 15:06:54 - Last edited on 19-Sep-2009 20:07:21 by Miles Letum

Miles Letum

Posts: 3,644 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“God damn…” Mark H whispered to himself.
“Then I suggest this: shut down all worlds except for one, increase the capacity of the world to hold an unlimited amount of players, and allow members to use their exclusive items on free worlds. All of this will be temporary, of course.”
The group collectively nodded, followed by Paul saying, “Damn it, we may still have a chance.”
“Okay, so now we have ourselves an abled-bodied, focused group of players. But, they are unorganized and spread out. What do we do next?” Mark H proposed.
Paul bolted out, “Simple, we create a thread on the forums called ‘The Army of Gielinor’, where we will post battle plans and locations to stay. Increase the capacity of a Clan-Chat to hold infinite players, and have everyone join it when they log on.”
“Good, good, I like this.” Mark G said.
“I have a quick question.” Poppy said shyly.
“Go ahead.” Timbo told her.
“What ‘safe’ areas are there left? Obviously the NPC*s led by the Zaros Program must have conquered a good amount of land so far.”
Andrew went through his notes again, and said: “We have confirmed active hostile NPC activity all over the map.”
“Are there any areas where NPC’s are coded to not be able to go?” Poppy questioned.
“Yes, and it goes all the way back to the RuneScape Classic coding – Lumbridge.” Paul explained.
The room temporarily went quiet again.
“Looks like we’ve got a damn invasion to plan, guys.” Timbo said, breaking the silence.
--
“So basically, they’re telling us to wait inside Lumbridge Castle and do nothing until they can plan a battle strategy.” Mike said to Courtney, as he looked at the newly posted Jagex Battle-Strategy Thread.
“But… knowing Jagex… we’ll be waiting for weeks!”
Mike logged out of the forums, and sighed.
“I, personally, am going to give it a week. If they haven’t come up with something by then, I’m taking this into my own hands.”

18-Aug-2009 15:06:56 - Last edited on 19-Sep-2009 20:09:00 by Miles Letum

Miles Letum

Posts: 3,644 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“Mike, you’re one player… what could you accomplish by yourself?”
“Nothing; but every single active RuneScape player is being told to wait inside the castle or risk certain death. Do you think I’ll be the only player that wants to get something accomplished?” Mike replied.
“Okay, I guess that makes sense. But what are you going to do in the mean time? There’s not really anything to do inside Lumbridge Castle when your level isn’t below twenty…”
“I came up with a good idea last night; and I think it’ll give me the edge over those NPC’s.”
“Well, what is it?”
“I’m going to write a block of code allowing me to use a PS3 Controller while in-game.” Mike said, smiling.
Courtney laughed a bit, and then said, “What good will that do you?”
“Think about this: pressing a single button to eat, pressing another one to switch weapons, another to teleport, and one to attack. I’ll be able to move with more ease than using a mouse, and will be able to switch entire sets of armor in a single button-click.*
*Okay, now I see where you’re going with this; but how will you pick things up from the ground… or use items on each other… or talk, for that matter?”
“I never said this was a one-person job!” Mike laughed.
“So you want me to use the mouse and keyboard while you’re button-mashing with the Analog Controller?”
“Yeah, that’s pretty much the plan.” Mike said, bringing up the program he used to write coding.
--
It took Mike the whole week to complete the PS3 Controller coding, but in his opinion it was well worth it; he could now do more within a single click of a button than he could with multiple mouse clicks. And, during this same time period, the Jagex team hadn’t been able to agree on a single battle strategy; as far as the players were concerned, it was well possible for them to be stuck inside Lumbridge forever….
_____________________
*NOTE*:
For more information on Mike’s new PS3 controls, see the “Miscellaneous Info” Section of the thread!
_____________________

18-Aug-2009 15:06:58 - Last edited on 19-Sep-2009 20:09:56 by Miles Letum

Miles Letum

Posts: 3,644 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Mike solemnly pressed the “Add Post” button on his user interface, and hoped for the best; he had just completed his thread: “RuneScape’s True Army”. In the post, he had said there was going to be a serious informational meeting in one week’s time in the second level of Lumbridge’s Castle (which, even in the game’s current condition, was usually empty) at 7:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time. Truly, he could never have predicted the type of outcome he received…
About a whopping 100 Players (a great amount seeing as the amount of active players was dropping daily) showed up for the meeting, some in full battle armor, other in H.A.M. gear. Standing in front of the hoard of computerized humanity was Mike, Courtney, and Joker.
“All right, guys, lets get this meeting started…” Mike said to the crowd.
The patterns of yellow text slowly stopped appearing.
“As you know, we’re starting a new army, one that will actually be able to get some things done!” Mike started.
A few cheers erupted, but quickly died down.
“First, I’ll begin by saying this is not going to be just a wild mob of people killing things; if you use that strategy, you will never be able to give RuneScape the helps it needs.”
Someone in the crowd typed in bright red text, “What the hell?! All we need to do is go own some nub NPC’s!”
The remark was followed by a mass of cheering and excitement from other players.
“No. That is far from the truth… right now whatever is in charge of RuneScape, and it’s obviously not Jagex, seems to be able to spawn near unlimited amounts of monsters. Just going around on a killing spree will ultimately never get anything done.” Mike retaliated.

18-Aug-2009 15:07:00 - Last edited on 03-Oct-2009 15:59:35 by Miles Letum

Miles Letum

Posts: 3,644 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“Well, you’re a noob. I’m going to join a real army…” the person said, going back downstairs.
“Yeah, you’re just a high-level noob!” people from all over the crowd began to cry, leaving at an alarming rate.
“Go ahead and leave, damn it! We need unity, not a war-path! The goal is to take back RuneScape not destroy the damn thing!” Mike said to the crowd.
By now, there were only about thirty people left, whose levels ranged from 3 to 130.
“Ok, lets all get this straight. Right here, right now. We cannot win anything unless we have complete unity among our ranks. We can start small, I don’t give a care, but we need unity. Yes, we will do some warring, but this will be more of a rebuilding process than a campaign, I hope.”
The silence of the crowd was broken by a level 3 saying, “Why do you hope to do little fighting?”
“I hope to do little fighting because there is no way we can win, at least under the current conditions, any kind of war with this game engine. They have unlimited numbers of beasts ranging from weak to very very strong; until we get some form of help, which will not be the Jagex army, we cannot win a true war.”
The level 3 returned, “What kind of help are you asking for then, and why won’t the Army of Gielinor be able to help us?”
“I need Jagex to help, but not in the form of their army. We need them to shut down the unlimited production of NPC’s. The Army of Gielinor won’t help us because Jagex will run that like a dictator. There will be no compromise, and there will be no defeat, in their eyes. I guarantee you their idea of strategy is simply running masses of players down a field to meet the enemy in open combat. We simply CANNOT win a war with this game engine like that!”

18-Aug-2009 15:07:00 - Last edited on 03-Oct-2009 16:02:17 by Miles Letum

Miles Letum

Posts: 3,644 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Joker said: “Nicely put, mate.”
The level 3, named YouKnowIt, said: *Ok, now I’m behind you. I believe you do have a serious strategy. I may not look like much, but I have several 99s that could be helpful to you in the future. You said you want to rebuild RuneScape? I’ll be there to help.”
“Thanks man, it’s good to know you’re on board. Now, for the rest of you: we need to work together. Remember, we can use pieces of wood to make buildings, or stores, or walls, or whatever we want! If we can follow the strategies I have planned, we can start taking back RuneScape as soon as we take and fortify and major city!”
And, from that moment on, the crowd was with Mike 100%. The meeting went on for another half-hour, discussing the fate of the players, and setting up a time for the next meeting.
--
The next month progressed very slowly… Mike and his followers (who had grown in size to around 50 active players) met twice more, and the Army of Gielinor finally mustered up its forces for a training practice (pulling almost 1000 players). However, the main event that happened during this time frame was exactly what Mike was hoping for: Jagex found a way in the code to systematically stop NPC’s from spawning at all in the game. This meant that once a single NPC was dead, it was gone for good; the only issue was this: the Zaros Program had already successfully spawned thousands more monsters than were ever supposed to be in the game. Hundred of Graardors were roaming the landscape just waiting for a fight…
--
“Ok! Now to discuss the main topic at tonight’s meeting!” Mike boomed in big flashing letters to the crowd.
The group of people let out a cheer on the second floor of Lumbridge Castle, waiting to hear what Mike had to say.

18-Aug-2009 15:07:14 - Last edited on 03-Oct-2009 16:02:41 by Miles Letum

Forums

J A G E X !

Miles Letum

Miles Letum

Miles Letum

Miles Letum

Miles Letum

Miles Letum

Miles Letum

Miles Letum

Miles Letum

Miles Letum