The Tip.It Times


Issue 18199gp

Still An Achievement?

Written by and edited by Hawks & Vezon Dash

Since October of 2006, skill capes have been a staple item for a great majority of every RuneScape player's life. Immediately after release, people had another significant reason to strive for that prestigious number, 99. Moreover, for quite some time, having a skillcape turned in to a rite of passage; RuneScapers strived to be considered high-leveled by their peers. Thusly, skillcapes were placed on a pedestal and became a very common goal for people to achieve, with the easiest skills turning in to the most devalued skillcapes and the slowest and most grinding skills turning in to awe-striking achievements.

This continued for a few years until, gradually, more and more players began to achieve their goals and continued to create more and harder skill goals. Furthermore, as the game evolved, faster and faster training methods were introduced, devaluing skillcapes once again; most notably, the update on June 15th, 2010, ancient effigies. This is, arguably, the sole update that devalued skillcapes, specifically, the dullest skill, Runecrafting. All of these reasons considered, skillcapes eventually began being stored in player owned houses as they became wastes of bank space. People no longer considered skillcapes a cape worth displaying to the public and therefore, slowly, stopped being displays of one's prestige within RuneScape.

With this in mind, JaGex decided to put forth a harder, more prestigious, and to some, unfathomable goal, reaching the new skill cap. This being the release of level 120, which came with release of Dungeoneering on April 12th, 2010. With this, players would have to achieve 104,273,167 experience, which is eight times the experience required to achieve the previous maximum level of 99. Again, a skillcape became prestigious and players who achieved 120 Dungeoneering were, again, placed on a pedestal for their achievement. However, with the potential experience rates professional Dungeoneering clans and players could achieve, 120 slowly, but gradually slipped off its pedestal and was brought down to the level of other skillcapes.

Faced with skillcapes, again, becoming just another cape people had gathering dust, on May 3rd, 2011; JaGex came out with the Max, Completionist, and the Completionist (t) capes. The Max cape, while a considerable amount of players could already buy this within day of release, was still considered a very prestigious cape and had the stats behind it to be worn by the best players. With slightly more difficult stats, including 120 Dungeoneering, the Completionist cape became very prestigious, and the trimmed version, unfathomable. For the longest time only one player in the game had the Completionist (t) and with the requirement of 5,000 played Castle Wars games, equivalent to 2084 hours of idle game play (including the 5 minute wait), or 87 straight days of playtime, it was difficult for players to power through the requirements for the hardest to achieve cape in game.

About a year after the release of the Max and Completionist capes, came the release of server wide announcements for when a player achieved a prestigious level in RuneScape. This allowed players to actually know when new potential owners of a skillcape came into the game and along with those new skillcape owners, the new Max and Completionist cape owners were also announced. With my recent return to RuneScape, specifically with the change of having my game announcements turned on, I have noticed the surprising amount of players achieving the Max and untrimmed Completionist capes per day. It was roughly 10 players a day on some days, and there did not pass a day where at least one Max or Completionist cape owner was not introduced in to the game. Is this an indication of the Max and Completionist capes becoming another skill cape? Especially with the release of higher and higher leveled capes in the game, will they become just another cape in someone's bank? If so, what new idea can JaGex introduce as a way to demonstrate one's prestige in the game?


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Tags: Endgame Historical

Will you use Menaphos to train your skills?



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