RuneScape Forum Archive | Yak Track Completion

Oct

2013

Rikornak

Posts: 9,169 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Skill/Kill is not supposed to be the option to finish those tasks - it's just an alternative if the main task is either broken (I mean some literally are like that create ridiculous amounts of items via crafting or fletching, despite both tasks usually requring you to gain a set amount of xp, but I also see tasks, that require you to gain unreasonable amounts of experience as such - that luckily is fairly rare nowadays - just compare it with the broken mess the first few tracks were) or you just can't stand it - since the alternative before that was - buy skips.

Do you dislike every single other option ? I mean if done right, most tasks nowadays actually can be done fairly reasonable (and partailly even extremely fast, I do not think you're sitting for longer than an hour for most ones) (and if it's just planning a bit ahead, just like keeping your dream of iaia stocks filled or ports resources or proteans and skilling dummys available) - a couple of exceptions for, which sitting out S/K still is better than having to spend a bond, so you can go on. Improvements: Tooltip / (F2P) QoL v2
Quick Fixes: Invention

02-Oct-2022 07:05:10 - Last edited on 02-Oct-2022 08:14:20 by Rikornak

Mar

2018

Vengeance of

Posts: 2,372 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Rikornak said :
Skill/Kill is not supposed to be the option to finish those tasks

Pretty much this; my personal experience with this Track was that most of the tasks were balanced in a way that, if you specifically worked on the skill in question, you could complete the task in ~half of the time or less that it would take to reach the Skill/Kill equivalent (though that's not to say that there weren't a few that were balanced poorly). It got to the point where I was putting off my dailies until I got to a particularly expensive or poorly balanced task just so the Skill/Kill would fill up while doing them wherever possible.

It's clear to me that Skill/Kill is meant to be some sort of consolation option for tasks that you're just not interested in doing/able to do, trading efficiency for time and allowing people to progress through the tracks who would otherwise not bother.

02-Oct-2022 09:07:14 - Last edited on 02-Oct-2022 09:07:51 by Vengeance of

Azure Sora

Posts: 90 Iron Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Yeah but as you get further down the track skill and kill increases more and more, making it slower, and slower every time. It's like a punishment for deciding to do skill & kill instead of the skill task.

I've been pushing through the tasks, and for the longer/ worse ones I've done skill/kill, and I'm on track 44, so almost there.

What's worse is that I actually like the wilderness shoulder cape, and would like to earn it. But when I was frustrated with my current task and looked at the price of a bond for skips which was 58m. The Wilderness Shoulder cape right now is only 26m, so that was definitely not even worth it, and I just had to push through and grind more.

Also Proteans/ Dummies/ Exp boosts/ etc do NOT work with Skill & Kill/ tasks. The wording is earn BASE exp in skills. For some reason combat dummies do not count towards skilling & killing either.

Feels very punishing.

05-Oct-2022 21:47:53

Feb

2022

X-NJ-Remix-X

Posts: 27 Bronze Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Yes not to mention the ones responding are literally veteran players who have been active and persistent on the game through the years. They have max levels and lots of completion to access things like dream of Iaia stocks, I am still working on a bunch of quests just to get to the prior quests.

Even the experienced players were saying no more for an hour a task. Even a task (an hour) a day is too much for a lot of people. Event items shouldn't be unobtainable to players who can't make this game apart of their everyday schedule, especially while they're still attempting to with their time and energy.

It is just something that need to be adjusted for the lower level skilled players, mainly the experience earning tasks.

06-Oct-2022 18:34:21

Oct

2013

Rikornak

Posts: 9,169 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Azure Sora said :
Yeah but as you get further down the track skill and kill increases more and more, making it slower, and slower every time. It's like a punishment for deciding to do skill & kill instead of the skill task.

I've been pushing through the tasks, and for the longer/ worse ones I've done skill/kill, and I'm on track 44, so almost there.

What's worse is that I actually like the wilderness shoulder cape, and would like to earn it. But when I was frustrated with my current task and looked at the price of a bond for skips which was 58m. The Wilderness Shoulder cape right now is only 26m, so that was definitely not even worth it, and I just had to push through and grind more.

Also Proteans/ Dummies/ Exp boosts/ etc do NOT work with Skill & Kill/ tasks. The wording is earn BASE exp in skills. For some reason combat dummies do not count towards skilling & killing either.

Feels very punishing.

As said - you are not supposed to do the s/k option , it's literally an emergency solution to get the task done, before you're forced to spend the fraction of a bond on it. If you're actually forced into doing it due to poor balancing of a couple of tasks (not as often as it historically was - but a few tasks still are a bad joke for that matter) or the task is outright broken (I mean - like forcing you to burn 2k elder logs - or that crafting/fletching task mid track), that's an issue that needs to fixed separately.

If you consistently are doing the s/k option you just haven't understood how the track works - since for some reason you actually want to skill - just never what the track wants from you at the moment?

I mean - I certainly would get behind fixing some actions to actually count towards the s/k goal, since that's also on a bug-esque level. Also some activities like minigames, that usually are excluded from that stuff, so players can play the way they like (like it intends...) Improvements: Tooltip / (F2P) QoL v2
Quick Fixes: Invention

06-Oct-2022 19:49:28 - Last edited on 06-Oct-2022 20:01:00 by Rikornak

Oct

2013

Rikornak

Posts: 9,169 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

X-NJ-Remix-X said :
Yes not to mention the ones responding are literally veteran players who have been active and persistent on the game through the years. They have max levels and lots of completion to access things like dream of Iaia stocks, I am still working on a bunch of quests just to get to the prior quests.

Even the experienced players were saying no more for an hour a task. Even a task (an hour) a day is too much for a lot of people. Event items shouldn't be unobtainable to players who can't make this game apart of their everyday schedule, especially while they're still attempting to with their time and energy.

It is just something that need to be adjusted for the lower level skilled players, mainly the experience earning tasks.

If you're low levelled, you do not even need to find workarounds to get your tasks done quickly. Just do the stuff in order to progress - with the exception of herblore (at least at high levels), summoning and construction basically every skill can be used at most times to earn you some cash, while still gaining reasonable experience rates. Take a look at what you can create around your level, how much you need to input, how much you do get as an output.

You've got 8 weeks (that's 56 days) to do 50 tasks - take two or three afternoons for some of the more vile things - you'll get through that thing comfortably. I really do not get, why players start to panic when they're not done before half time. You do not even need to do one task every day - and then there are tasks you'll finish within a couple of minutes. Then you've got two skips available, you can spend if at some late point in the track you're obliged to do S/K. And if everything falls apart, there is the bond option for more skips. I mean if you literally just got half an hour per week, that's probably something entirely different... Improvements: Tooltip / (F2P) QoL v2
Quick Fixes: Invention

06-Oct-2022 19:59:41

Azure Sora

Posts: 90 Iron Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

I never said I was consistently doing Skill & Kill, but as you progress further down the track it increases from 35 to 100 for skill & kill. So now at 99 Summoning, track 46 I get a Summoning task to earn 750k summoning experience. While theoretically it is faster, if all materials and charms are had. I didn't have enough charms to earn that much exp because what I had was leftover from me JUST attaining 99. So I understand it is used in an emergency situation, but then when both options are so bad and take so long it's like what the hell is the point of this? For a cape worth 26m? 750k Summoning exp costs more than 26m to get in just materials alone.

I don't see the point in defending this broken system so much? It is very obviously flawed. You yourself have pointed out other instances where it has been entirely broken. It's okay to admit that while it is possible to complete the tasks, it's not very player friendly. It's not very player friendly because they're trying to force us to give in and buy bonds so they can make some money on the event.

07-Oct-2022 16:47:35

Oct

2013

Rikornak

Posts: 9,169 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Azure Sora said :
...

It's funny - you've mentioned one of the skills I see as problematic in general - herblore (at high levels, albeit that will fix itself, when you just can start using proteans, which should become available "the next weeks" via packs), summoning and construction (albeit that one also is a joke if you got proteans available - but truth to be told, you get them thrown after in such big numbers) - also archaeology if you're already maxed - sifting soil was a much more convenient task for that matter, when they had it fixed, so any soil could work. But then they've cut it down in favour of some ludicrous amount of xp task.

But do you know what I did with that summoning thing - I used one of my two free skips on that. While you can hoard them and pass them over to the next track, you do not need to. I mean I could have sitten out the time needed - but then... you get those things to spend them - just use them smartly - just like on some unfeasible 40+ task. But - that isn't an issue with the mechanic in general, that's poor balancing for that one - and imagine it - I literally said, that's something they need to tackle.

Other than that: https://runescape.wiki/w/Nightmare_muspah - requires a lot of preparation, but you basically earn 20k gp per pouch. But if you start buying energy now, you'll have the next track prepared. Nihil are even more profitable if you bother to farm their tertiaries. Improvements: Tooltip / (F2P) QoL v2
Quick Fixes: Invention

07-Oct-2022 18:03:58 - Last edited on 07-Oct-2022 18:24:43 by Rikornak

Azure Sora

Posts: 90 Iron Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

The easiest solution is of course to use the two free skips that were given...oh wait, I used them on stupid archaeology tasks because I only started playing again a few months ago after years of absence, and it was more than I had time for, learning a new skill, then trying to grind it all out.

So obviously you have all the answers for all of us to make the most of our time, and complete all of these relatively easily. Thank you for you input.

I still stand by the fact that this is not a player friendly event, and it is another attempt at forcing MTX. They are not impossible tasks, but they certainly are not player friendly at all.

I'm almost done with the track, but I didn't like a single second of it, and it really doesn't feel it was worth it for the amount of work involved. My heart goes out to newer players, and players who have less time to spend playing as I can see how it becomes an incredibly daunting grind to get to the end. And if you're not at least halfway through by now, it's not going to be easy to get to the end now if you only can play for a few hours a day.

07-Oct-2022 21:16:47

Oct

2013

Rikornak

Posts: 9,169 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

As I said - newer players do not have the issues having to find workarounds to do it as fast as possible or as economically as possible, while still having reasonable speed (I mean I did the latter, so it could have been faster, but on the other hand I earned quite a bit doing the track) - they just can see this as an encouragement to do something they eventually need to do anyway. As for the more casual players - you've got 8 weeks - you do not even need to do one task on any given day. There just needs to be some cut-off point somewhen - otherwise they just could place a chest, which you can freely loot for all things.

You see it from the monetary gain (as you said you do not feel it was worth it and complained about your costs vs. the monetary reward you'll get) - and there I am with you again. It was a big mistake to include something tradeable in the first place - especially those capes you'll only be able to get from the sacks. The track in its original concept was about getting cosmetic things (and experience, since they basically spill out experience for everything nowadays), not to make bank. If you do not like the things you're getting, it's yet another reason to just not forcing yourself through.

And yeah - it is MTX - and while I do not see an issue if they're looking for ways to monetize their game, they did something absolutely despicable - their yak track (i.e. battle pass or whatever they're called in other games) format once was intended to phase out TH (i.e. RNG based loot boxes). We know how it ended up - they just started to use both systems in tandem - and now they used their loot box mechanic even for the track and those yak sacks - without providing odds, which might even be illegal in some countries. But truth to be told - If they had gotten rid of TH, I see the track as the better system - when they fix the flaws it still has (which also is unacceptable in the 13th iteration of this thing). Improvements: Tooltip / (F2P) QoL v2
Quick Fixes: Invention

08-Oct-2022 07:15:38 - Last edited on 08-Oct-2022 07:18:22 by Rikornak

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Yak Track Completion