Behind The Scenes - May

So now Runecrafting & Firemaking are getting updated to become afk, firemaking was already fast to begin with, now increased Xp rates will make it even faster. Not really complaining, I just wonder how many click-intensive skills will be left after long.

It doesn't say that it will be the fastest in the game, and probably not. Unless of course Jagex is following the route they've taken of eliminating the 1 click = xp they've developed over the years.

Well yes, generally all click-intensive ways are still faster.
Arctic Pines are faster than Ivy, powermining LRC is faster than banking, barb fishing or c2 fishing is faster than rocktails (auras excluded) and so on. Following this chain of thought, I would assume the pyrelord POH method will be faster than bonfires, but I still believe bonfires will be faster than regular firemaking and the generally used method of scapers.

There's a fair bit of talk about "AFK" amongst us and I am concerned that you may be reported or "detected by Jagex".

Q&A:Customer Support's Answers

Mattonline asks: Afk training is becoming a massive problem, and after having a disucssion in game with some players, many think that it is ok, since you don't stop them from doing it. My questions is, will you try to put a stop to AFK training.

Mod Murray: AFK (away from keyboard) training is as much a breach of our rules as Macroing. Both methods of training allow a player to increase their levels in a way that they would not be able to do themselves and that provides them with an unfair advantage.

Mod Murray's answer creates confusion for me. How is watching TV, browsing another website, chatting to someone (outside of the runescape facility) constitute "increase their levels in a way that they would not be able to themselves"?

I could understand a response that suggests an AFK person is not contributing to the runescape community whilst playing, but not this ideal that watching TV is like someone else helping you. Maybe the someone else (the people in the TV show) is helping you by alleviating boredom. I don't know.

Have I got the notion of AFK wrong?

In any case AFK, whatever it means, is not tolerated.

There's a fair bit of talk about "AFK" amongst us and I am concerned that you may be reported or "detected by Jagex".

Q&A:Customer Support's Answers

Mattonline asks: Afk training is becoming a massive problem, and after having a disucssion in game with some players, many think that it is ok, since you don't stop them from doing it. My questions is, will you try to put a stop to AFK training.

Mod Murray: AFK (away from keyboard) training is as much a breach of our rules as Macroing. Both methods of training allow a player to increase their levels in a way that they would not be able to do themselves and that provides them with an unfair advantage.

Mod Murray's answer creates confusion for me. How is watching TV, browsing another website, chatting to someone (outside of the runescape facility) constitute "increase their levels in a way that they would not be able to themselves"?

I could understand a response that suggests an AFK person is not contributing to the runescape community whilst playing, but not this ideal that watching TV is like someone else helping you. Maybe the someone else (the people in the TV show) is helping you by alleviating boredom. I don't know.

Have I got the notion of AFK wrong?

In any case AFK, whatever it means, is not tolerated.

The thing is AFK as in away from keyboard where you train without controlling your character at all which means you didn't increase your yourself. What you described is NPA(not paying attention) training where you are still controlling your character yourself but at the same time you are looking at other stuff so not really focused on the game. I always NPA train since I play on my laptop so always sit in a spot where I can watch TV while I am on RS and I have multiple windows open on my laptop and look around when doing something that doesn't require my full attention. You gotta learn the difference between AFK and NPA. Jagex don't mind NPA since you are still at your computer and manually controlling your character. In fact if I remember right in the rules it actually states that NPA training is fine they just want to make sure you stay at the computer.

There's a fair bit of talk about "AFK" amongst us and I am concerned that you may be reported or "detected by Jagex".

Q&A:Customer Support's Answers

Mattonline asks: Afk training is becoming a massive problem, and after having a disucssion in game with some players, many think that it is ok, since you don't stop them from doing it. My questions is, will you try to put a stop to AFK training.

Mod Murray: AFK (away from keyboard) training is as much a breach of our rules as Macroing. Both methods of training allow a player to increase their levels in a way that they would not be able to do themselves and that provides them with an unfair advantage.

Mod Murray's answer creates confusion for me. How is watching TV, browsing another website, chatting to someone (outside of the runescape facility) constitute "increase their levels in a way that they would not be able to themselves"?

I could understand a response that suggests an AFK person is not contributing to the runescape community whilst playing, but not this ideal that watching TV is like someone else helping you. Maybe the someone else (the people in the TV show) is helping you by alleviating boredom. I don't know.

Have I got the notion of AFK wrong?

In any case AFK, whatever it means, is not tolerated.

In the literal sense, AFK means away from keyboard, but it's hard to say what he means by it because it's sort of been expanded at times to include stuff like watching tv and browsing the web.

I think what he's really saying is that they don't want you leaving the room for a minute while your character is fletching or whatever. But to suggest that they're breaking the rules if they don't comply is absurd.

If they don't like AFK training, they can reduce it by making it more worthwhile by making it more rewarding to pay attention to what you're doing. And I think they do a pretty good job of that already. There are a lot of tactics like flashing prayers and buying spins that give the active player an advantage over people who are just stitting there watching their guy go to work.

These skills might be considered "afk" in the sense that you aren't paying much attention(what I think the majority of people mean when they say they're afking) - but in all honesty you still have to pay somewhat attention for when said skill plots(ivy,gold\coal deposits,fishing spots, and wraiths\nodes) all disappear so it's not even really that bad.

considered "afk" in the sense that you aren't paying much attention(what I think the majority of people mean when they say they're afking)

Hence why I say I NPA train. Since I am always at my keyboard I never AFK train.

Looking forward to the updates this month! In particular the QBD, and the new quest seem most appealing.

Nothing I'm really interested in, cba reading all of it cuz I'm a busy guy lol

Sounds like a lot of member recruiting though hahah

and my own two cents... I hope they make every skill in a way that I can just sit here and watch tv instead of having to constantly watch my computer screen lol