Issue Number 11 - Published Spring 2010

 

Tip.It War Rankings Quick Info

Free To Play:

• F2P #1: Legendz
• F2P #2: True Ownage
• F2P #3: Downfall

Latest Wars:

• Ak Latin defeats Lithuanian Forces Juniors
  Starting: Clan - 23 Clan - 23
  Ending: Clan - 14 Clan - 0
• Knights of Apocalypse defeats True 0wnage
  Starting: Clan - 34 Clan - 20
  Ending: Clan - 24 Clan - 0

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In the Clan Board

TWR Feedback/discussion

Predictions for the Summer?

Loyalty, Dedication, and Survival

Honour clans

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The Crash/Hacking War - the January Take

By: dfchester

(Editor note: This was written in January, but only just published now due to lack of articles earlier.)

A month ago, top clans such as Corruption, Divine Forces and Violent Resolution all became extreme and took part in something that became a hot topic for the Clan World. These three Clans had their Forums hacked or were responsible for hacking the other Forums mentioned above. These clans also hacked popular sites' passwords and mobile numbers. Additionally, I will also be discussing a long-term problem with many Clans: Crashing Wars. The past few years, many Clans have attempted to “crash” other Clans' Wars against an opposing Clan. If the “crash” is successful, the “crashers” would gain drops from the other Clans, thus causing the victims to hop worlds or even maybe team up and attempt to attack the crashing Clan to make them hop. If the crash is a failure, then the “crashers” could hop worlds or run back to the single area. To get some answers from these Clans, I'll be asking them similar questions to see if we can find similarities in the Clans' answers.

I'll be interviewing Basebas (PK Leader for Corruption), Dalejamesw (Council for Divine Forces) and Lukas1400 (Warlord for Violent Resolution).

1. How long do you think it will be until VR hits a slump, and how do you think it will affect them?

Basebas: This crashing war is affecting all the clans involved, this can be negative or positively. I personally think it will end with VR getting lower member count, so they aren't so far away from the member-count of other top clans. In about 3 months I think they will have dropped enough members to fight them again.

Dalejamesw: Couple of months, they've already lost quite a few FA's and their clan activity is descending more and more each day. It will hit them pretty hard seeing as how a lot of them are arrogant and don't think they are going to slump.

2. How long do you think it will be until “Anti-VR” hits a slump, and how do you think it will affect them?

Lukas1400: They're already slumping; DF have barely over 110 members, EOS have four FA's Cor, NI & PH are just a flat out joke. The only new applications for EOS has 5 rune sets, all the clans combined are struggling to pull 200+ people, we pulled 207 people on our last week prep.

3. VR can now nearly-solely fight the alliance, what do you have to say about this?

Basebas: VR doesn't come close to beating the alliance. Normally VR have other clans join with them, like DK or Brutality. Although they might pull as much as all the alliance clans together, splitting a clan up in different piles doesn't work. So they get outperformed in-game.

Dalejamesw: Well it would be pretty pathetic if they couldn't considering they have about 100 members on each of the clans.

Lukas1400: The last time we fought the alliance, we pulled 207 people, we controlled the fight with our 207 people for a while. We had a look at what the alliance were capable of on a week prep and called it a day after we realised that pretty soon after, we'd be able to not only beat them but literally make a mockery of them.

4. Which Clan started this "Hacking War" And why did you think they started it?

Basebas: The so called “Hacking War” started way before this crashing war started. It started with Clans that wanted to win in-game so bad, they took it out of the game. Currently I know VR hacks quite a lot of forums, and I heard rumours about DF doing it, but I'm not totally sure about that.

Dalejamesw: Only one clan has actually hacked another clan and that is VR, there have been forum accounts taken before, which is something every clan has done and this has happened for years. But this new level of hacking from phishing and using forum exploits has been started by VR.

Lukas1400: Not sure what you mean by hacking war, i know a few DF people got hacked but that was by a member they kicked.

5. What is your opinion on the "Anti-VR"?

Basebas: My opinion is that it was bound to happen. All the clans in the so called “Anti-VR” have had encounters with VR. VR crashed their fights, and now they are taking VR back. So I think they deserve it.

Dalejamesw: Not much more to say, I'm just looking forward to the day they come out on top of this leaving VR where they belong.

Lukas1400: There's an old saying that the strongest survive, it's a law of evolution and nature.

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Breeding a New Generation of Clans

By: lady ninane

Clans—they are simultaneously the best and the worst aspect of Runescape’s gigantic community. These institutions are as numerous as they are diverse. They exist in all shapes, sizes, and types. Community clans appeal to everyone with inviting atmospheres and fun in-game activities. Skilling clans focus more on leveling up and gaining exp fiendishly, occasionally dabbling in community related events. Combat clans, while not quite the majority yet certainly the most outspoken, are constantly clashing and bashing heads together on all fronts. All types of clans might one day aspire to grow and become bigger—whether by force of arms or members or quality of event. The drive to improve always exists.

The rowdiest one of this family, the Combat based clans, have sought improvement not only for themselves but from Jagex as well. The PvP element of RuneScape has always been somewhat of a ‘problem child’. Back in the day, when Jagex was none too receptive to feedback, clans sought other ways to improve their experience in the game. VoIP clients like Teamspeak and Ventrillo, IRC servers, and private forums were found to improve tactics, communication, and the overall community. It helped make battles fiercer, more entertaining.

Doubtless, this information is not new to anyone who has been a part of the community for any length of time. Complaining about Clan Wars Arena’s impact upon this upcoming generation is nothing new as well. The risk-free environment lulls people into complacency, resulting in no need to enter the wilderness. The fansite-based community had always said that Jagex was out of touch with us. We had always thought that they needed to please us, as such plentiful and dedicated customers. We were a known quantity that brought in a good chunk of money, or so we thought. We felt hope, though, after seeing updates like the Clan Chat system. Or the same hope we felt when we saw Mod Timbo and Mod Mat K as they hosted the successful Jagex Clan Cup; or when they added all the clan leaders of major clans to the board on the RuneScape Official Forums for private discussion with J-Mods. Yet after a while, the styles of communications and updates seemed to change.

Thinking back, it’s surprising that there isn’t a stronger sense of outrage. Outrage at how the actions, or rather the inactions of Jagex, are communicating to us that they do not care for fan-site based clans. That instead, they are breeding a new generation—one that can be firmly held under thumb, neatly separated from PK’ers and the like. If one were to look at, say, the Clan Celebration Month event they held in February, it would appear as though they were still trying. They did a fair time appealing to all types.

After all, when all of the clan community is bemoaning the fact that we are broken, horrible, and self-damaging, what community managers in their right mind would want that? When DDoS’ing runs rampant, unacceptably unavoidable, who would want that? When there is such deplorable behavior? The shining threads of intimacy, friendship, community, and integrity are sullied by the unsavory majority. It is understandable, then, why Jagex would want to build up the wall between fansite and ‘homegrown’ clans, in actions if not words.

To be fair, there are demands that we make that Jagex cannot budge on: we advertise our forums, but they cannot allow us to do so in-game because it could be a malicious attempt. We cannot advertise our VoIP servers, because these also could be malicious. We cannot advertise our IRC channel, because it is not moderated by Jagex. They attempted to try to offer us features to help replace these needs, such as the Clan Chat system. It was clear, though, that it could never match the functionality of even an IRC channel. With only one owner able to effectively ‘ban’ people and one ‘access list’ in the form of a friends list, people would be forced to account share in order to effectively use this system. A piece of irony exists there, because it only cropped up more rule-breaking—albeit one considered more ‘acceptable’. So it is easier for them to just do away with us altogether, a slow, bleeding death through lack of maintenance to legacy systems.

To be sure, there will be some who vehemently deny this. Clan Wars was undoubtedly a wonderful idea at the time when PvP was dead. But their safe aspects were never necessary. These inane concepts were born of a time when Jagex was frantically scrambling to plug bottom-line leakages due to fraudulent real world trading. But by eliminating the risk from battling, Jagex has lowered Combat-based clans to nothing more than a minigame. The option for risk is there, sure. To expect people to do so willingly, however, is like presenting a granola bar and a slice of pizza to a child and being shocked when the child chooses the pizza slice every time. As it stands, the actions of Jagex say what they are not: we are no different than the groups of people who get together and play Castlewars, or Fist of Guthix.

Now, this new generation stands poised to reap all the benefits of Jagex’s inaction. And we sit in fear that any further ‘improvements’ will only make a difficult situation worse. Who knows? Perhaps there are huge overhauls underway. If so, no word of it has trickled down to us red-headed stepchildren of Jagex’s clan community. We are imperfect, but we do not deserve to be shunned. We had our own difficulties, even before all of these drastically dastardly deeds. Perhaps a portion of the receptive Moderators, who have been doing so well in listening to players in other aspects of this game could come and give those who handle Clan-related games a hand.

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The Crash War Interviews - Up To Date

By: pheonix1099

Again we have ventured out of our community to dip our toes into a place which doesn’t really affect us as much as it does others in this article. The crash war is something which has been going on for over five months. It involves the infamous Violent Resolution, Divine Forces, and currently Reign Of Terror. To recap, among the top clans there has been an unsettling crash war. The crash war is basically anytime a clan is out, planned fight/pk trip/whatever, that clan is getting hit by the other and vice versa. You may want to know why this is? Today I talked with some of the leaders of the clans involved. D2master12 from Violent Resolution, Tacoman55 from Divine Forces and Mattbrazil_2 from Reign of Terror.

1. What is your position in Violent Resolution?

D2master12: Warlord.

2. What is your personal take on the crash war?

D2master12: Fun, we are in control of the wild and the entire clan world’s fate so we can do whatever we want at any time.

3. How did the crash war start?

D2master12: "Talk s*** get hit," basically. Clans run their mouths and we make them pay for it. In game flaming, out game flaming, rsc trolling, etc.

4. Does the crash war in anyway hurt your clan?

D2master12: No. No clans have been strong enough to fight us 1v1 since the summer of 09 so now we actually have multiple clans fighting us which makes it a bigger challenge to win.

5. Would you ever want the crash war to end?

D2master12: If clans are willing to fight 1v1 and actually put up a challenge then it would be considered.

6. What do you feel about DDoS'ing and does your clan do it?

D2master12: DDoS'ing takes in game rivalry outside of the game which shouldn’t happen. It all started with RoT and the p2p side like bs'ing ppl for bank loot and then RoT started using it in their actual fights. After dealing with forums/TS being DDoSed for as long as we have it really doesn’t affect us anymore and the clan has adapted to it.

7. Knowing that you don't have forums a lot of the time, how would you say you keep the community tight and together?

D2master12: VR has always had a good community and that’s what allows us to be as active as we are in the wild. We always have at least 40-50 people in TS just chilling when there aren't events, so even without forums we have still been able to keep our activity strong. Forums have never really been a big thing in VR and most of our pks aren’t even posted, we just expect the members to be online on their own and to attend events without them being posted.

8. What would you say VR has gained, and/or lost from the crash war?

D2master12: After VR's dominance was clear to the clan world people stopped giving us fights.The crash war has allowed us to maintain our activity and still get action even if it means 2v1s or 5v1s. Atm we don't get 1v1 fights, but to anyone who has fought against VR they know they wouldn't stand a chance so this just simply keeps all of us interested in the game.

9. Thanks a lot mate. Anything else you would like to say to the readers?

D2master12: Be careful how you respond to this topic or we'll be coming for your clan next.

From a war between VR & DF back in December 2009:

1. What is your position in Divine Forces?

Tacoman55: Warlord.

2. What is your personal take on the crash war?

Tacoman55: This crash war has gotten a bit ridiculous and has ruined fights for many different clans including the clans involved in the crashing War. But DF will stand beside whatever it is we need to do to succeed in this crashing war. If I had to chose what clan had the upper hand I would say ROT+DF based upon the facts of what I have read from numerous members of VR and from what I have witnessed.

3. How did the crash war start?

Tacoman55: The crash war started I think when a member of Divine Forces at the time wouldn't stay away from VR fights. Then some of their members retaliated into crashing our fights. Over time that led to Legolas86880 deciding to Full out crash VR. They retaliated as expected, but I wasn’t sure if it would go this far. I think this all happened almost a year ago, and we're still here.

4. Does the crash war in anyway hurt your clan?

Tacoman55: Honestly it has hurt our clan, but we now got the members we want here and the new members obviously know what to expect when they're joining. So honestly, I would say we're rebounding pretty well. Also, this tells you who will stick by your clan in the long run.

5. Would you ever want the crash war to end?

Tacoman55: Of course. I don't see that happening, but it would be great to go back to the way the fights used to be. Before all this was created.

6. What do you feel about DDoS'ing and does your clan do it?

Tacoman55: Well I honestly hate DDoS'ing and am not a fan of it myself. If this is the direction a clan wants to take for a cheap win or to make themselves happy then so be it. I am not sure if anyone in our clan DDoSes.

7. What would you say DF has gained, and/or lost from the crash war?

Tacoman55: We have gained the quality members and the loyal ones. We got to see who is gonna stick with us and who isn’t. We lost the unloyal ones.

8. Do you feel the term honour clans is still a valid term in the clan world?

Tacoman55: Nope. Well I think If any clan is honour out there, I'm gonna have to go with RSD.

What makes you say that?

Tacoman55: I think RSD keeps to themselves and does their best not to get involved in this messy situation.

9. Thanks a lot mate. Anything else you would like to say to the readers?

Tacoman55: Ok, I would like to say, we will do whatever it takes to succeed.

From the same war, where RoT AC'ed

1. What is your position in Reign of Terror?

Mattbrazil_2: Leader.

2. What is your personal take on the crash war?

Mattbrazil_2: Gives both RoT/VR action which we wouldn't have had without crashing since no clans really fight either of us 1v1. Now VR gets to fight the clans that crash them in F2P, and we do the same to those who crash us in P2P.

3. How did the crash war start and how did RoT get involved?

Mattbrazil_2: Well it began long before we got involved. Basically when EoS pulled out VR looked for a new opponent, a few began 1 iteming our fights. We originally didn't retaliate since it was only like 5 of them, however they wouldn't stop so one Saturday we just crashed them, and from there it's continued.

4. Does the crash war in anyway hurt your clan?

Mattbrazil_2: Not really, we've been crashing/getting crashed for a long time now.

5. Would you ever want the crash war to end?

Mattbrazil_2: Once I/RoT don’t enjoy the crash anymore it will probably end. For now it's still good fun, so no.

6. What do you feel about DDoS'ing and does your clan do it?

Mattbrazil_2: People tend to think I DDoS when I never have, well moreso my clan, but nobody has ever proved it. It's pretty stupid but it's something that you have to deal with if you're a top clan because where there is success there is jealously. We used to have a lot of problems with being DDoS'd but once we got the needed protection it's settled down. DDoS'ing in general has settled down for the most part though, which is a good thing.

7. What would you say RoT has gained and/or lost from the crash war?

Mattbrazil_2: We've remained at the same member/fa count, but we've gotten a lot of action that we wouldn't have had without being in it. But yeah we're pretty much the same. Same pulls, same member/fa's.

8. Do you feel the term honour clans is still a valid term in the clan world?

Mattbrazil_2: Well to an extent. But honor such as never crash, and show respect to their opponents; no. Honor now is sort of like clans who tend to not to retaliate to crashing, keep themselves out of major situations in the clan world (RSD/TT). Other than that, most clans nowadays crash, spy on each other, and don't really show any respect to their opponents. So in a way, it is, and it isn't.

9. Thanks a lot mate. Anything else you would like to say to the readers?

Mattbrazil_2: Stay in school.

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Display Names and Their Effects on the Clan World

By: Killerred005

When display names were released, many players rushed to have theirs changed. I remember when I first found out about the update, I changed mine as quickly as I could. Later on, when I tried looking myself up in the high scores, I found that that I couldn’t and that you have to look-up a person’s display name. Not only was that a problem for me, but also for many other clanners who did the same thing, resulting in mass confusion for the clan world and also creating more… unwanted effects.

Speaking of mass confusion...

For many, it’s just basic knowledge that if the other clan had someone warring for them that was not on their Runehead list, it meant that they were breaking the rules of the war. However with this update, many clan members weren’t on the memberlist. This meant that when wars came along, it was difficult to determine whom to pile and if the clan really did bring non-clan members to the war.

To solve this problem, clans created a rule where you are not allowed to change your name and requested any name changes that did happen. Unfortunately, on ending or “all ever lists”, this meant that many of the members that are listed are non-existent.

There were also those who created display names for the sake of flaming another clan/harassing them. I won’t go into detail, but most likely whoever made them is facing the brunt of frequent clan sniping/harassment.

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Tip.It Clan Tourney - The Basics

By: Laikrob

Sometimes initiatives from the forum members are too good to ignore... The Tip.It Clan Tournament 2010 started as an idea that the owner didn't want to let go, and after a while of Clan Staff and a few users planning the tournament, it was announced in mid January. Sign ups started just a few days later, and these were the categories:

20 vs 20 matched
30 vs 30 matched
50 vs 50 matched
2 vs 2 (20 people from each clan, 40v40 overall)

The first three categories were pretty straight forward, but the last one was met with some excitement – especially since the pairs would be randomly drawn by the tourney staff. There were some complaints about uneven pairings (and a redraw was done and then nulled), but the tourney went on and most agreed that the original pairings were fair enough. Everyone did agree, however, that clans shouldn't sign up for that category unless they could guarantee a 20 pull.

With more than 50 clans signing up for the different categories (some signed up in all!), this turned into one of the biggest clan tournaments in RS.

The draws for the different rounds were done live in #clans IRC channel, with up to 300 users online. It was done interactively, with users suggesting numbers, Clan Staff members organising the numbers and a final Clan Staff member corresponding them with the matching clan(s) on a list. Confusing in theory, but it all made sense and worked out in the end.

GENERAL RULES

• Any clan may enter the Tournament, providing they have at least 2 clan officials and/or 5 Clan members posting on these forums.
• A person may war for 1 clan and 1 team/CC ONLY. If they are clanless then they may war for 2 teams/CC's. We will be watching out for this. Any member caught breaking these rules will find themselves and their clan DQ'ed from the Tournament. You have been warned.
• If you lose in a category then unless the other clan forfeits then you are out of that category. There may be some wars set up to settle who is 3rd/4th however.
• If you do not pull the amount needed to war in the category then the opponent is under no obligation to drop, however they may do so at their own discretion.
• In the 2v2 Category,- If 1 clan unfortunately does not pull more than 15 people, the other clan is allowed a +2 to war for them. (i.e., if clan A pulls 15 or under people, clan B can have 22 people warring; this means the max will be 37.( If a clan pulls 16 or more, then no overdraft is allowed.)
• In the 2v2, If your team has been paired with your clan, you must fight for your clan ... even if dropped due to numbers from your clan you cannot fight for your team.
• If by some miracle, your clan allows multiclanning and you happen to get paired so you are a member of both clans in the 2v2, (a longshot but it might happen and Tip.It has to cover all eventualities), then you can only fight for the clan you joined first.

So far, there have been quite a few surprises.

CE + SE beat DF + The in the 2 vs 2 in the 3rd round of the tourney, the same round that TR + NBK sent Corr + DH home and Northern Gods beat Divine Forces in the 50 vs 50.

In the 4th round, Lithuanian Pking Team quite surprisingly sent Corruption home in the 30 vs 30.

There were also the semi-finals (all are not warred yet at the time of this article) in the 2 vs 2 and the 50 vs 50, which because of there being 3 clans or pairs in the semis were a bit special. Finals in these two categories will be in round 5, finals in the other two categories will be in round 6.

All three war each other, and then the best two war records get the final spots. (That way they will also have a "rematch" in the final, with something extra to play for - especially if the first war was close.)

War 1: Clan(s) A vs Clan(s) B
War 2: Clan(s) B vs Clan(s) C
War 3: Clan(s) C vs Clan(s) A

Clan Europe beat Wilderland:

ROUND 4 SO FAR

20 v 20

Wilderland vs Clan Europe Winners: Clan Europe
Envy vs Legends Never Die Winners: Envy
TKO Blitz vs Northern Gods Winners: TKO Blitz

30 v 30

The Titans vs Lithuanian Forces
Corruption vs Lithuanian Pking Team Winners: Lithuanian PKing team
Northern Gods vs Runescape Elites Winners: Northern Gods

50 vs 50 - Round 4 round robin semifinals (Best two clans go to the final)

TRWF vs Northern Gods Winners: Northern Gods
TRWF vs The Titans
Northern Gods vs The Titans Winners: Titans

2 vs 2 - Round 4 round robin semifinals (Best two clans go to the final)

CE + SE vs TT + BK
TT + BK vs TR + NBK
TR + NBK vs CE + SE Winners: Rising Killers (TR+NBK)

If you can't wait until the next Clan Chronicle issue to find out the results of this and the next rounds, you can always check the Tip.it Clan Tournament 2010 forum.

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Sneak Peek

Next issue's main focus will of course be the Tip.It Clan Tournament: The winners, losers, opinions and maybe some behind the scenes secrets will be revealed?

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Chronicle Credits

Laikrob - Editor and Clan Moderator
tripsis - Chronicle Editor
dfchester - Chronicle Author
lady ninane - Clan Moderator
pheonix1099 - Guest Author
Killerred005 - Guest Author

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