Wonderful news for those of you interested in the investment side of this website. The Grand Exchange Central has now surpassed the 1000 items mark. This exceeds how many items I thought the database would contain and is only half of what I expect to have entered into the database within the coming weeks. Each item is updated daily and we are now maintaining a 90 day history on all items (though because the GEC itself is not 90 days old it will take a little time to fill in the histories). I am kicking around keeping a year long history of weekly averages.

Another big news item is for those of you involved in Summoning. The GEC now contains a listing of all the summoning pouches and scrolls. But the best part about this is the “parts list” included on each item page. Now at a simple glance you can see exactly how much each pouch will cost to produce. This will let summoners out there see which pouches actually make a profit (sorry, most do not).

Even though the GEC is not as complete as I would like, to the best of my knowledge, I have all the headwear, bodywear, and handwear already entered. There is also a lot listed that is not included in those categories. I am diligently working on getting footwear, weapons, and legwear entered. And please remember that the GEC only lists tradeable items (it is an investment website after all).  Also, if you happen to spot something I may of forgotten please leave a comment here or on the GEC main page.

I’ve also started to add alchemey values to various items.  I will add these values to the rest of the database as time alows.  Right now I have to go back and add to a 1000+ items, so it may take a little time.  Newly added items will have the values added imediately.

I’ve been so bogged down in writing the Grand Exchange Central’s database scripts and page codes lately that I haven’t had much of a chance to really play the game. So this weekend I purposely sat down and told myself to play and enjoy the game for fun sake. That of course let me to see a few funny sights, finish a couple annoying quests (like Shield of Avvay and Heroes)  and come up with a suggestion for a Jagex April Fools prank.

I can’t have a stupid idea without sharing it, so here it is. I think that on April 1, 2009 the people at Jagex should toss in a Rickroll. Maybe right in the middle of Varrock square. Before I go on I probably should mention a couple of things for those few people who are oblivious to the greater workings of the Internet.

First, over the past fifteen years April Fools Day has become the most universally accepted holiday on the Internet. April Fools Day is a holiday that everyone can enjoy because there are no religious or political drawbacks. And it is not geocentric; every place on Earth has fools and pranksters. It is a safe holiday to observe on websites. And most major websites take part.

Second, a Rickroll is an Internet phenomenon that is closing in on its last days. But it still has a little life left. Basically anything can be a Rickroll as long as it involves the song, “Never gonna give you up” by Rick Astley appearing in a place where it would normally not appear.  Hearing the song on Lite-FM WSLP is not a Rickroll. Having the video pop up on a congressional website (which it did) is a Rickroll. Rickrolls originally started out as misleading links to the Astley YouTube video, but have expanded out to include pretty much anything that involves the song.

Now on to my idea. I think that on April 1^st for a few hours there should be a little Rick Astley like NPC wondering around Varrock square singing the lyrics to “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Or if there is a copyright concern then change the lyrics slightly. You can’t say that some little dude like the one to the above right wouldn’t be a hilarious April Fools prank. Plus, maybe as a side bonus he could give out tan tench coats as a nontradeable holiday item.

As a side note: The GEC is coming along nicely. It now contains over 500 items, has parts lists on many individual items, and has the ability to store up to 60 days worth of data for each item (the official GE website only displays a months worth). There are now several Runedexes that place items into categories and many more tools to come in the very near future. I have added all the headwear I can find and will be starting on footware this week (it takes a lot of time to initially enter in new items).

Just a quick update here.  I have now added a Rune Index, Metals Index, and Minerals Index to the Grand Exchange Central database.  Now all the runes, ores, bars, and minerals (such and coal and limestone)  can be reviewed in the database.  I have still to add gems.  I also added a database search which should make finding items easier as the database grows.

BTW:  Before anyone yells at me for lumping coal in with minerals even though coal in the real world is not a mineral, I have to plead creative liberty.  Generally speaking coal is not a metal and therefore didn’t seem to fit within the metals index even though coal is used in many processess involved with metals.  Additionally, coal is often dumped in with minerals in real world contracts concerning mining rights and taxibility.  In truth, coal is strictly speaking a rock and would maybe be best placed with Gems but other rocks are included in the minerals database and therefore I put coal there.  Maybe I’ll just change the name of the index to rocks.  In the future I may add coal to the metals index since it is so involved with metals, but for now I am going to stick with my minerals choice.

I made a couple of updates to the Grand Exchange Central beta site.  There is now a Grimy Herb Index.  Also, now many items have side by side comparisons.  For example the Grimy Ranarr is compared to Clean Ranarr and Raw Chicken is compared to Cooked Chicken.  These comparisons are located on the individual item pages. 

In the near future I plan on also including a parts list for certain items.  For example, a Potato with butter will also provide a summary of the prices for raw potatos, buckets of milk, baked potatos, and pats of butter because all four of those items can go into the process of making a Potato with Butter.  It is my hope that these parts lists will give readers a better idea of what items can be purchased on the GE without significant lost to profits while making individual items.

I am still working on a GEC database search engine!  Hopefully I will have something soon.  Right now we have over 60 individual items.  We should have that number up to a hundred by the end of the week.

Well, after confronting various technical issues, my Grand Exchange Central area of this site is progressing nicely. I am moving it out of alpha stages and now calling it a beta. For those of you who haven’t read my prior posts on The Grand Exchange Central, here is a description of it an some of its uses.

I view the Grand Exchange Central (GEC) as a resource to make informed investment decisions in the world of Runescape. The GEC is not all inclusive of all items Runescape. There are tens of thousands of purchasable items in the world of Runescape. Only a small percentage of that total is of any investment value or market effect. That small percentage is what the GEC will follow.

On the Runescape site item market history only goes back a month. On my Grand Exchange Central the data I have goes back to about 45 days. Obviously newly added items will have less available data. I plan on extending that period to 60 or even 90 days (more than double as much as available from the official GE site). With this added information trends can be more accurately seen.

I have broken up much of the economy into indexes (or indices) which represent various segments of the Runescape world. Currently the beta contains an Economy Index, A Wood Index, A Herb Index, and a WIWI Index. Very soon it will include Food, Seed, Potion, Rune, Weapons, Armour and other basic Indexes. And not too long from now other new Indexes will include oddball things like luxury and rare items. I am still trying to determine the best levels at which to calibrate these Indexes. I am leaning toward calibrating the higher value indexes to 10,000 points and the lower value indexes to 1000 points.

One of my priorities even before adding new indexes is to add a search feature. Right now the GEC only has about 50 items and can be looked through fairly easily. When I am finished I plan on having as many as 500 plus items and a search feature is going to be very important. Expect to see the search feature within the coming week.

After I am done including most of the items and indexes I may focus my attention incorporating smart projection routines into the GEC pages that will attempt to predict if certain items will continue declining or improving. Of course any prediction made by the GEC or anywhere else on the Runescape Thoughts Website are as is, caveat emptor, not guaranteed, past results not indicative of future returns, and so on.

If I really get my butt moving I may also include additional item information to the item pages. This information may include the amount of experience earned from making the item, the amount of healing from ingesting an item, and so forth. Don’t expect to see anything like that for months. I will also try to include Index RSS feeds so they can be added to google and yahoo homepages.

If you can think of any items that have investment value or have a direct impact on other parts of the Runescape economy please leave a comment and let me know. I will try, but not guarantee, to include all requested items in the Grand Exchange Central. The Runescape Thoughts is a small site on a free host and simply doesn’t have enough resources to track the whole of Runescape. But we will be happy to accommodate any reasonable requests within our means.