Update:Blog - Bonus XP Weekend: Second Helping
This blog was written by Mod Knox and dates to 23 August 2010.
From Friday 3rd to Monday 6th September, we will be running our second Bonus XP Weekend for RuneScape members. We've put together this blog as more of an FAQ to answer any questions about the weekend and we will be around on the forums to answer any further questions that come up.
What exactly is a Bonus XP Weekend?
As the name implies, there will be the opportunity to gain extra XP for standard training activities over the course of the Bonus XP Weekend.
When will this be happening?
The event will begin at 12:00PM BST (noon) on Friday 3rd September and will run until the end of Monday 6th September. These times are a rough estimate, but we will put a newspost out as soon as the event starts.
I don't use BST (or GMT)! Tell me what time this will be in my country.
Please use the handy and helpful Time Conversion Thread to work out the time of the event in your region.
How does the bonus XP work?
When you log in over the course of the Bonus XP Weekend, you will receive a multiplier on any standard training activity you perform as you play. This multiplier will begin at 2.7x what you would usually earn for any "normal training" activities (see list below), and will decrease every thirty minutes of game time until it reaches 1.1x, at which it will remain for the rest of the Bonus XP Weekend.
Here is what the multiplier will be for each thirty minutes of in-game time:
- 0-30 minutes: 2.7x
- 30-60minutes: 2.55x
- 60-90 minutes: 2.4x
- 90-120 minutes: 2.25x
- 120-150 minutes: 2.1x
- 150-180 minutes: 2.0x
- 180-210 minutes: 1.9x
- 210-240 minutes: 1.8x
- 240-270 minutes: 1.7x
- 270-300 minutes: 1.6x
- 300-330 minutes: 1.5x
- 330-360 minutes: 1.45x
- 360-390 minutes: 1.4x
- 390-420 minutes: 1.35x
- 420-450 minutes: 1.3x
- 450-480 minutes: 1.25x
- 480-510 minutes: 1.2x
- 510-540 minutes: 1.175x
- 540-570 minutes: 1.15
- 570-600 minutes: 1.125x
Your bonus XP rate will NOT decrease when you are not logged into the game, so do not feel pressured to play continuously. The XP button next to the mini-map will change to an XP+ button for the duration of the weekend, so you be able to keep track of all the extra XP that you are earning.
What activities will earn me bonus XP?
Normal training activities will earn you the bonus XP. Every fight, log cut or hunter trap you lay will grant you a multiple of the XP it would normally give. Typical training activities for each skill (not an exhaustive list):
- Attack and Strength - melee combat
- Ranged - ranged combat, Circus
- Magic - magic combat and other spell casting (e.g. enchanting jewellery, alchemy, teleporting), Circus
- Defence and Hitpoints - from all forms of combat
- Agility - completing courses, using shortcuts, Circus
- Construction - building furniture in your POH
- Cooking - cooking food on range/fire/spit
- Crafting - crafting pots, armour, jewellery, battlestaves, blowing glass
- Dungeoneering - completing dungeons
- Farming - weeding, planting/harvesting crops, checking tree health (even on trees grown before Bonus XP Weekend)
- Firemaking - lighting fires, burning evil tree roots, lighting beacons, burning shades
- Fishing - catching fish
- Fletching - fletching bows/arrows/crossbows/bolts, etc
- Herblore - cleaning herbs, mixing potions (including finishing off unfinished potions)
- Hunter - setting/checking traps, butterfly/bird/impling catching, falconry
- Mining - mining ores/gems, mining shooting stars
- Prayer - burying bones, burning shades
- Runecrafting - crafting runes at any altar (including ZMI/Ourania Altar), combination runes, crafting tiaras
- Slayer - doing Slayer tasks
- Smithing - smelting ores, smithing metal bars
- Summoning - infusing pouches, summoning familiars*
- Thieving - pickpocketing, thieving from chests/stalls, Pyramid Plunder
- Woodcutting - cutting trees/evil trees
*Due to the nature of how the Summoning skill is trained, we have decided that it will receive only a flat multiplier of 1.1x for these activities over the course of this entire Bonus XP Weekend.
What activities will NOT earn me bonus XP?
- Quest XP rewards
- Items/locations that already give bonus XP (e.g. ancient effigies, genie lamps, tomes of experience, goldsmithing gloves, Ectofuntus, *POH altars, etc)
- XP rewards at the end of activities/distractions (e.g. Tears of Guthix, Soul Wars, Pest Control, jade vine, skeletal horror, giving sq'irk juice to Osman, etc)
- Anything which allows points to be exchanged for XP (e.g. Dungeoneering tokens, Penguin Points, Brimhaven Agility Arena tickets, *Slayer incentives, Mrs Winkin's World of Seeds shop from Vinesweeper, etc)
- Any XP earned through the Assist system
Can I use my clay items, Penance horn, brawling gloves, etc, to add to my bonus XP?
These items will not work during the weekend as the effects of the Bonus XP Weekend will override any other items or areas that enhance XP rates. The item will not degrade when used during the bonus XP weekend. This includes clay items, Penance horns, brawling gloves, flame gloves/ring of fire, Fishing/Runecrafting/dragon slayer gloves and POH altars.
I'm not around that weekend. Will I be able to use my quota another time?
No. The bonus XP effects will only be available over this weekend.
Why is this members-only?
Future bonus XP events may well be opened up to free players as well, but we're waiting to see how this one works before making that decision.
But what if I don't want to play for the whole weekend?
The ideal time for training with bonus XP is during your first few hours of in-game time over the weekend - the diminishing returns means that once you’ve played for more than 10 hours you will no longer be getting a significant advantage in your training. The exception to this is Summoning, which will receive only a flat multiplier of 1.1x over the course of this entire Bonus XP Weekend.
Don’t you think this cheapens training?/I already have 99 in all skills.
We think this is an update which appeals to a wide spectrum of players - from people who have just started out and will welcome a boost, to mid-level players striving for a goal, to high-level players training their last few skills, and even to those maxed-out players who are aiming for the 200 million mark in a skill. As everyone is being given the same opportunity, and that the significant benefit only lasts for ten hours, we do not feel it cheapens anything.
Isn’t this going to ruin the economy?
As was the case with the last Bonus XP Weekend, we found that ten hours of increased XP had no more or less influence on the economy than any other new way of training skills. We do expect prices for certain items to rise in the run-up to this weekend, but to then naturally level out afterward. This is one of the reasons we are giving plenty of advance warning.
What will you do to stop merchant clans, etc, taking advantage of this knowledge?
To effectively manipulate a price you need a unique item that doesn't usually have a lot of variation in value. We're expecting demand to go up for certain items in the run-up to this update, but this isn't something which can be set by a single agenda as the economy as a whole is going to be up.
Who developed this? Who will answer my questions?
Mod Fnord was the original technical developer for this project, and Mod Maylea and Mod Knox will be around to answer questions. Any further questions that we haven’t covered will be edited into this blog entry in time for the Bonus XP Weekend. We’ll be monitoring the forums in the run-up to this event, but please be aware we can’t always give personal answers to questions immediately.
To discuss this blog on the forums, please visit the Second Helping thread.